[podcast's transcript] The wars of Slavs
Sława, everyone! Sława Bogom and welcome after a long break. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I know some of you were worried and got in touch to check on me – thank you so much for that. It meant and continues meaning a lot. Thank you so, so, so very much.
So… it’s been a while. I got tied up with work and personal commitment, and it took much longer than I expected to get on top of that, but it’s under control now – thankfully - and we are back with Searching for the Slavic Soul and I truly could not be happier to be here, recording the next episode for you.
Today, as the title of this episode indicates, I want to talk about wars and conflict between and among Slavs. This topic is inspired by opinions expressed by many outspoken commentators, who, while commenting on the Russian invasion on Ukraine, lamented the war between Slavs and called out to, you know, live peacefully like, you know, apparently or rather allegedly our ancestors lived. As you can imagine, reading such lamentations and appeals, I was scratching my head, wondering when did our Slavic ancestors live peacefully and trying to figure out how can anyone think that Putin’s invasion on Ukraine can be resolved by following examples given by our ancestors. Obviously, they didn’t and it cannot, but, you know - obviously to me, a person who knows history and Slavic culture, but, apparently many modern Rodnovers or Slavophiles don’t. Which is kind of sad, but, hey ho, this is what this podcast is for – to show Slavic culture and history as it is and not as people who don’t have a clue think it should be. So, here we are today, discussing Slavic wars. And there were many. So, if any of this sounds even remotely interesting – keep listening.
So, the wars of Slavs. As I mentioned I don’t know how many times, the original, pre-Christian and early medieval Slavs were tough people, hardy, stubborn and as The Byzantine Emperor Maurice wrote in his Strategikon, they absolutely refused to be enslaved or governed. And how do you refuse to be enslaved or governed? Well, you fight. So our early medieval ancestors fought. They fought so much and with so many enemies, that they kind of became legendary warriors in the Early Medieval times.
They were so legendary in fact, that defeating them in a battle or war was considered almost impossible and if one – for example – a king of Ostrogoths, who were, by the way, Germanic people, who lived in the time of Roman Empire – the proper, the original Roman Empire that existed in the Antiquity, not the Holy Roman Empire, which came to be much later, in the Early medieval times.
So, anyway, Ostrogoths were Germanic people living in the area of Balkans. They were one of the branches of Goths – the original Goths, not the modern, sad and depressed Goths. The original ancient Goths, which were Visigoths and Ostrogoths, there were absolutely not depressed or sad, quite the opposite – they seemed to have plenty of energy and and, you know, will to live and fight. So they lived in the area of the Balkans, but not only there. One of the kings of Ostrogoths, his name was Ermanaric, he build a whole empire, reaching as far as the land of modern Ukraine or perhaps even Poland. By the way, Ermanaric was such a legend, that he actually inspired a character in the Norse Poetic Eddas, and was mentioned, by name in the old English epic poem Beowulf – I hope I pronounce it properly, still, I hope you all know of which epic poem I am talking about…
And… I need to really get back to the Ostrogoths, don’t I. So Ostrogoths were Germanic people living in the time of the first Roman Empire. They had a king called Ermanaric, who, in turn had a grandson and this grandson was almost as legendary as his grandpa, but not quite, because he did not build an empire as Ermanaric. Still, you know, the grandson of the famous grandfather liked to fight and conquer too. So he though he will go fighting with the Slavs, who in these times, we are talking the end of the 4th century here. The 4th century of the common era obviously. So in the 4th century of the common era Slavs living in the area of lower Danube river were called Antes. In these times Slavic tribes of Antes were friendly with the Huns – the very same Huns who at some point were ruled by Atilla the Hun, who invaded Europe, triggered the great migration and contributed to the fall of the Roman Empire.
Well, truth to be told, the fact that Slavs were fiends with the Huns it’s completely irrelevant – to the story of the king of Ostrogoths, not, like in general, of course. Because, you know, this fact, as a historical fact is very important and relevant to history as a whole. But not to the one I’m telling now. Still I think it’s very cool fact, so I am mentioning it here. Because I can.
But, back to what I wanted to say originally, which is… which is… Which is that the grandson of Ermanaric was called Witimir and he had a nick name Winitar which means the slayer or the killer of Antes, so Slavs. So, what I wanted to say here – and after only a few digressions finally managed to say – is that Slavs were such legendary warriors that if someone actually managed to win a battle with them, which the Witimir Winitar did, it was considered such an amazing feat that it was used as a second name, a honourable title so to speak.
And such title – of the slayer of Slavs – was actually sought after and, you know, respect-inducing for hundreds of years. For example, there was this crazy guy who was called Ferdulf of Friuli, who, as Paul the Deacon wrote, desired the glory of a victory over the Slavs. In order to achieve that he figured he will hire some Slavs to invade his country and then, you know, he would chase them off. Which is the best proof of how crazy this guy was, because Slavs, of course, after they were paid, they happily obliged to invade Friuli, but they, kind of, didn’t really feel like loosing a battle. So when Ferdulf started attacking them they, literally, obliterated his whole army. The cavalry, the infantry, the commanders, it all was decimated. There was not one warrior standing after Slavs were finished with them.
So, our early medieval ancestors were fierce warriors, they really seemed to enjoy going out there to kill some people and, you know, lay carnage in their way. In Maurice’s Strategicon they were presented as fierce, but disorganized warriors, but this point of view is very biased. Because Byzantine empire liked order and hierarchy and their chain of command, I mean, it was like super organized and strict culture, while Slavs were more, you know, loose and relaxed and, well, I can’t really say chilled out, but you know, going with the flow so to speak. And it could easily look chaotic or disorganized from a perspective of a stiff, orderly and, you know, always proper Byzantine Emperor Maurice.
But, if you look at the actual wars or battles Slavs were fighting in, there is simply no way they were disorganized and chaotic. Firstly, there were very popular mercenaries throughout all the early medieval period really. Pretty much, if one wanted to go for a war in early medieval times in Europe, hiring some Slavs was like the standard operating procedure. I mean, Huns were doing it, Byzantium was doing it, Holy Roman Empire was doing it too. Flavius Belisarius himself - you know the one that has books and operas wrote about him and the one that inspired the character in Warhammer 40000 – Belisarius himself was hiring squads of Slavs.
Procopius of Cesarea recorded that a byzantine commanded called Tullianus straight out requested a squad of Antes – so Slavs, to defend a narrow passage to Lucania from the invasion of Ostrogoths. Tullianus requested Antes, because he was certain that only Slavic Antes were capable to fight in the difficult terrain of the passage to Lucania. And, you know, he was bang on. The 300 of Slavic warriors – who fought on foot, decimated the cavalry and infantry of the Ostrogoths and defended the passage.
On another occasion, or rather occasions as this shit was going down for months, perhaps even a whole year, the, as chronicles called it “hordes of barbaric Slavs” run havoc, pillages and plundered the Byzantine province of Thrace and Illyria. It’s worth noting that this provinces were not some sort of outliers of Byzantium. There were established parts of the Empire with garrisons manned with well trained, elite even imperial soldiers. But, as history teaches us, this superbly trained and well organized soldiers did not stand a chance against 3000 Slavs who one day in the spring of 549 were bored and decided to cross the Danube river and then have some fun. I mean, I am a bit colorizing here, because the 3000 Slavs were gathered by a price of East Germanic tribe of Gepids. This prince was called Hildigis and he gathered the Slavic army to reclaim the throne of Gepids. Ii am not going to get into the story too much, because I am really determined to stay on the topic, so I am just oing to mention here that Hildigis, the prince of Gepids ended up assassinated before he could actually use the army of Slavs. So, you know the Slavs – and here we are talking about Slavic tribes called Sclaveni – not Antes any more, but Sclaveni. So Sclaveni warriors were promised a fight and that didn’t happen, so they, you know, took initiative and off they went to pillage Thrace and Illyria.
And they run rampant over there. They destroyed every single “elite” garrison they came across. They pulverized the byzantine forces, left the whole province undefended and the few survivors of battles with Slavs, the, “elite” Byzantine soldiers run for their life, warning everyone on their way that, ou know, the end is near. The chronicles even mention that Slavic forces were outnumbered by the Byzantine troops, yet Slavs kept winning. In one place in Thrace, in a stronghold called Tdzurulon which, according to Procopius, had numerous and elite force of cavalry stationed there for long time, Slavs not only defeated the elite cavalry, not only captured the stronghold, but also literally wiped the place of the face of the planet. Like, literally. After Slavs were done with this place, there was no trace of it left, other than the mention in the chronicle of Procopius.
Oh, and by the way. The commander of the Tdzurulon garrison, his name was Asbadon, was skinned alive and then Slavs threw him into a burning campfire. Because, contrary to what you might have read on the internet, Slavs were not peaceful, loving or kind. They could and did not mind being cruel, if such need or fancy arose. During the raids I’ve just described, they not only killed the Byzantine military, but also murdered all the civilians too, regardless of their age or gender. They impaled people – you know, like Vlad Palovnik, aka count Dracula some 900 years later did in Transylvania, they tied people up and beat them to dead, they burn them alive. In Toperos Slavs murdered 25 thousand men and that was actually very kind of them, because they saved women and children and enslaved them. And that , the whole murdering and enslaving, all that happened, of course, after defeating well equipped, well trained Byzantine forces.
So, what I am saying here – in a very convoluted and full of side notes manner – is that there’s just no way. Slavs might have looked barbarian and rude and crude and, you know, chaotic and peasant- like, but they were organized enough to put together and keep it together for several months - a military force capable to take on and destroy a “superior” and, on top of it, outnumbering them Byzantine army. Seeing what Slavs achieved in early medieval times, it just makes no sense, all the statements that our ancestors were unruly to the point of not being able to become a part of an army and follow a battle plan.
And you see it in the in the chronicles. Slavs were standing to battles left right and centre, really. They were taking part in these battles, they were able to communicate with other warriors and commanders , regardless of these warrior and commanders language, ethnicity or culture. They were able to cooperate, follow a plan of a battle, come up with a plan of a battle, communicate over long distances, stay on top of logistics and, you know, execute big operations.
And you know where they figured out how to do all these things? When they were fighting each other. Because, contrary to what some silly movies or novels might tell you, you simply can’t learn how to fight overnight or over the summer holiday. It’s not possible. Fighting at a level that allows you to stand up to another skilled fighter and survive, is the type of skill that you can only acquire by practicing day in day out for years. And in order to do that you need to live among people who allow you to do that, who let you have time for practice, who are able to support you and care for you when you get an injury and who – last but not least – know how to fight so you have someone to learn from.
The funny thing nowadays is that our culture – the western culture – does not have a culture of fighting. And I don’t even talk here about a physical combat fighting. I mean here fighting against difficulties and fighting for who you are, what you think and what you believe in. We are told that in order to achieve something one has got to have talent – which is totally not truth. Like, I don’t know if you know, but my daughter likes to draw. A lot. She’s been drawing, pretty much daily, since she was 7 years old or so. She spent hours trying to get one line right, following tutorials on how to to draw this or that. Now she’s 17. She draws and then she puts her drawings on Instagram and people comment: oh, is so amazing, you’re so talented! And that’s it. In their mind it’s not the 10 years of practice, but it’s the talent that did it. No effort required. Same goes for anything else, really. If you fail or things don’t go as you want it, people tell you – and most probably you think it too: Oh, well, no biggie. It wasn’t meant to be. Like some fate or destiny does things, with zero input from yourself. But the truth is that talent, fate or good luck are not enough. Never. If you want to be someone or achieve something, you have got to bloody fight for it. You’ve got to struggle, get injured, find people to help you get better and when you recover – starts fighting all over again. And it never stops. Nor should it, really. It’s healthy to fight. It’s good for you to want something so much, that you want to get up from your ass and start fighting.
But in our western culture we cherish the, you know, the stoicism or the approach of the “East”. The philosophies and life attitudes, where goal is to stop wanting things. To accept and let go and withdraw from the world and cease existing. And I am not saying that Buddhism or stoicism are wrong or something. I mean it’s great to be a Buddhist monk or, I don’t know, Marcus Aurelius the Emperor of Rome and the founder of stoicism. It’s great to be this person that is looked after and cared and worshipped by others to the point when this person does not have to fight. It’s awesome. And it would be great if we all could be such people. But we are not. And our ancestors most certainly were not. If anything majority of our ancestors were the people who did the providing and looking after – maybe not for a Buddhist monk or the Emperor of Rome, but for someone else who consider himself or herself superior and expected to be provided for. And if you are exploited like that, if you are expected to provide for the, you know, enlightened, you can only do two things. You an give up, roll over and do as you told. Or you can fight. And for majority of Slavs’ history Slavs fought. They fought, they struggled, they practiced and they kept getting better at fighting.
Because this is who they were. The whole Slavic culture is the total opposite of the give up and let go trend of our modern western attitudes. Slavic culture is all about going out there and getting what you want. And fighting for it. It is all about active, practiced and honed skills of interactions – with humans, with the supernatural forces and the whole world. It’s all about being active, not passive. All about going out there and getting what you want. And who you get it from is kind of secondary. You might get it from Byzantium, from Huns, Avars, Germans, Holy Roman Empire or from your Slavic neighbour. And that’s fine. This is why the history of the Slavs is full of wars and fighting – also with each other. So, all the BS you might have read or hear from this pseudo-Slavic pagans, about, you know, that Slavs should not kill each other and spill brotherly blood – that’s all total nonsense, that is being said or written by people who don’t have a clue. The fact that Russia invaded Ukraine is nothing surprising or unusual in the context of Slavic history or culture. This shit has been going down for centuries. Antes fought with Sclaveni. Drewlanie fought with Polanie. Kievan Ruś fought will all their Slavic neighbour. All the tribes of Polabian were at war with each other at this time or another.
In the whole history of pre-Christian pagan Slavs only a handful of times Slavs successfully managed to unite above the level of a tribe, and build a state-like political organization. In the 7th century there was Carantania and Samo’s state, in the 9th century Great Moravia was founded, but it was pagan only for a very short period of time, it got Christianized very quickly. And there was Kievan Ruś, which for the first 100 years was pagan, but then, at the end of the 10th century got Christianized. And that’s it. No! Wait! There was also the Veleti Confederation, which existed in the 10 and 11th century. It was a lose confederation of a dozen or so of Polabian Slavic tribes. I am not sure Veleti Confederation qualifies as a state, because the tribes making up the confederation fought with eachoter most of the time and united only when really, really absolutely necessary. To give you an example, in 1056 united forces of the Veleti Confederation managed to stop the invading German army in the battle at Przecława, which was a great success of the Slavs, but, unfortunately, nothing really came out of it, as after the victorious battle the Slavic tribes of the confederation started to argue and fight again, and by the next year the Confederation effectively ceased to exist.
So, we, the Slavs, we were always fighting each other and spilling each other’s blood. And the fact the we are all members of one ethnolinguistic and cultural group is the very thing that makes us fight. It’s in our culture. It is in our blood. And the only person who could think otherwise is some sort of self-righteous half brain who thinks that having a keyboard and internet connection gives them right to tell others how to live. It’s our old friend colonialism all over again. You know, when the Europeans were traveling to “primitive” countries to help them to become civilized and cultured. And in their blindness these Europeans could not even tell apart the Piscataway and the Nacotchtank people, let alone understand the nuances of their culture. It was all the same for them. Like Slavs are all the same for these dumb Westerners, who think they so important they can tell the Slavs how to be Slavs. It’s just stupid. Stupid people.
But, anyway, back to spilling brotherly blood. Yes, our ancestors did it a lot. Most of the time they did it willingly, but sometimes they were made to do it. Such situation happened in August of 955 on Lechfeld plains. Those of you who are familiar with history know that this was one of the biggest and most important battles in the Early medieval Europe. You also know it was a battle between Hungarians and the forces of a German king Otto the 1st (who, by the way, later became the Holy Roman Emperor). What you might not know however is that Slavs were fighting in this battle too. On both sides. The Slavs on the Hungarian side were Slavic tribes, who centuries before settled in the Panonian Basin. The land of this Slavic tribes was conquered by Hungarians and in the IX and X century and the Panonian Slavs were incorporated into the Hungarian army standing up on the Lechfeld plains. These Slavs were made to fight by, literally, whipping them into submission. The chroniclers who documented the siege of Augsburg, which was the interlude to the actual battle on the Lechfeld plains, documented that Hungarian cavalry forced Slavic infantry to attack by hitting them with whips.
The Slavs on the German side were Polabian Slavs, specifically Sorbs, who were incorporated into the German war machine after the fall of the West Slavic state of Great Moravia. The incorporation happened by the way of introduction of feudalism and particularly the fief system, where the conquered land was given to a vassal or a liege lord in exchange for paying regular tributes to the overlord. Showing up with military forces when called upon was part of this tribute. So, basically, what Otto the 1st did before going up against the Hungarians, was to call on his liege lord to send over certain number of forces to be utilised in the war. So, basically, the Slavs that were fighting on the side of the Germans were presented with a choice – you either get you weapons and go on a war, or we will come on the land that you living on – which, by the way, is not yours, even though your tribe has been living there for centuries. This land that you live on is not yours, but it belongs to Otto the 1st, because Otto the 1st says so. So, if you don’t; go fighting for Otto we will come to the land that is not yours any more and we will get rid of you and all you family from this land. And that was actually legal back then. Well, that was legal until the 15th century, mostly because the in the 14th century black plague killed so many people, that by 15th century there wasn’t enough people in Europe for the liege lords to exploit. But that’s a different story, so let me just tell you this – nowadays we take some many things for granted it’s not even funny. I mean the protection of human rights and international rights and the whole doctrine of the legal state, known also as the rule of law – all of these gives us, the regular people, so many protections, so much safety, it would have been unimaginable in the times of our ancestors. There is a very good reason why the modern western culture is all about acceptance, withdrawal, and giving in or giving up. We are so well protected by the system created by previous generations, that we don’t even know what it means to have a hard life. No one comes to take our land, to kill us or enslave us. No one skins us alive or uses whips to drive us to battle. We’ve got no one to fear, no uncertain future to prepare for, so, it’s no wonder we don’t want to interact with the world – because it’s all boring. So we look for inspiration in some far land, like Japan or Tibet, and we tell ourselves that these cultures are so amazingly deep, that they for sure will cure us from our boredom, or at least help us to stop experiencing it. And in our lack of knowledge and understanding, we totally fail to see, that a lot of people – innocent and hard working people – had to be enslaved and put to work in ordered for samurais or Buddhist monks to exist. We also fail to see that what we have – the peace, the stability and safety – it was won and built for us by generation of people who truly suffer to build a better world for their children.
And this is when we get to the point where this social media calls for peace really start to look stupid and shallow. All these, you know, “Why can’t we just stop fighting?” tweets and “no more wars” slogans put on Facebook or Instagram in the context of Russian invasion on Ukraine. I mean, these questions and slogan completely miss the point. Because you know what’s going to happen when we stop fighting? Russia will come and take what it wants. Russia is what happens when we stop fighting. Because people are not nice an lovely by nature. People are greedy and power hungry and they want the nicest possible life with as little effort as it’s only possible. And the easiest way to get such life is to get other people to work for you. And in order to stop others exploiting you and enslaving you – you have got to fight. The good things. The truly valuable things like safety, security, freedom and stable future – these things are not easy to get. You don’t get them by meditating or praying. In order to get them you have go to get up and fight for it. There’s no other way.
And this is why Ukraine is fighting. And this is why it will not stop fighting. Because that’s the only way to survive. And this is why Poland is helping Ukraine so much. Because we understand. We’ve been in Ukraine position before. We were invaded countless of times. And we know – because children in Polish schools are still taught history – we know that the only way to survive is to make sure your children are safe and then – go fighting.
And, by the way, Russia will also not stop fighting either. It will not stop expanding and invading other countries, because the people who rule Russia – they simply don’t know and don’t want to know that there is another way. As far as the political system go, Russia has not moved very far since the Medieval times. I mean, there’s never been democracy in Russia. There might have been elections and there might be some parliamentary bodies, like Duma, resembling a democratic representation, but it's all make-believe. The only Russian head of state that has ever been democratically elected was Boris Yeltsin and there was some doubts as to how fair his election was. Other than that – it’s all made up democracy. People of Russia don’t get any say in how they want to live and who they want to be ruled by. They like this Slavs fighting on Lechfeld plains. They don’t have any choice, they have to fight for whatever the boss Putin will tell them to fight for. And this is heart breaking. This whole thing is heart breaking.
You know how this memes on social media, that the best things are free? Like, the pretty sunrise in the background, this person is holding a coffee mug and the caption says – the best things are for free. Well, that is such a BS it makes my teeth hurt. You know why this person is able to enjoy the sunset – because no one killed them. Because they were born and lived through their childhood because they were vaccinated and had access to high standard medical care. And you know why all of this could happen – because our grand and grand-gran parents fought for the peace we are enjoying now. I am sure all of you saw captions from the Ukrainian hospitals. This is how health care looks during war time. During war time there is so much smoke in the air you can’t see a sunrise. And even if you can see it – you can’t enjoy it with a mug of coffee because you’ve got to sit in a shelter, trying not to get killed.
The best things in your life have to be fought for. They are too valuable to be free. It might seem to you like they are for free – but rest assured. They are not. Someone had won these things for you. Someone had paid for it with their life. Have at least some respect and stop pretending it’s all the doing of your meditation classes.
And that’s all I’ve got to say for today. As always I managed to call a few people stupid and I’m not even sorry, to be honest. Let’s remember who we are and where we come from. And let’s remember who other people are and where they come from. And if you don’t know shit about other people, their culture and history, stop having an opinion about them, because you only going to say stupid things and nothing good comes out of it.
As always, if you have any comments, feedback or anything else to say about the above – get in touch, via Witia’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube channel, website or via e-mail. We always appreciate anything you’ve got to say to us.
I hope to see you again soon, and until then – take care of yourself, keep fighting and standing up for yourself and others, and
Slawa
Слава Україні!
Bibliography”
Maurice's Strategikon, translated by George T. Dennis
“Bitwy Słowian” Robert F. Barkowski
The Battle of Lechfeld on an illustration in Sigmund Meisterlin' codex about the history of Nuremberg.(public domain)