Radimichs

The Radimichs (also Radimichi) (Радзiмiчы, Радимичи, Радимичі and Radymicze) were an East Slavic tribe of the last several centuries of the 1st millennium, which inhabited upper east parts of the Dnieper down the Sozh and its tributaries. The name probably derives from the name of the forefather of the tribe - Radim. According to Russian chronicle tradition, "... but there were Radimichs from the Lechites family, who came and settled here and paid tribute to Rus, and the wagon was carried to the present day" (a wagon is a type of tax for the right to have one's own prince). However, in the scientific literature, there is no consensus on the ethnicity of the Radimichs. Archaeological evidence indicates that this tribal association had a mixed Slavic-Baltic origin. The Radimichs lived in the interfluve of the upper Dnieper and Desna rivers along the Sozh and its tributaries (the south of Vitebsk, the east of the Mogilev and Gomel regions of modern Belarus, the west of the Bryansk and south-west of the Smolensk regions of modern Russia. Written evidence on Radimichi falls on the period from 885 to 1169. The lands of the Radimichs were conveniently connected with the central regions of the Kievan Rus by waterway. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Radimichs had a few known cities: Gomey (today's Homel) and Chechersk on the Sozh river, Vshchizh on the Desna River, Vorob'yin, Ropeisk and others. Seven-beam temporal jewelry made of bronze or silver represent a specific ethnic trait of the Radimichs of the 9th - 11th centuries. There is little information on the Radimichs. According to Nestor the Chronicler, the tribe of Radimichs "sprang from the Lyakhs" or after the conquest by Vladimir the Great became part of the race of Lyakhs (Lechites, see Lendians) and used to live in areas of Sozh river. According to tradition recorded by Nestor, their name derives from the name of the forefather of the tribe, Radim, who was one of the Lyakh brothers, other being Vyatko from whom emerged Vyatichi.