Drevlians
The Drevlians (Древляне in Russian, or Drevlyane), a tribe of Early East Slavs between the 6th and the 10th centuries, which inhabited the territories of Polesie, Right-bank Ukraine west of Polans, down the stream of the rivers Teterev, Uzh, Ubort, and Stviga. On the West, Drevlians? territories reached the Sluch River, where the Volynians (волыняне, or Volynyane, related to the territory of Volynia) and Buzhanians (бужане, or Buzhane, related to the name of Bug river) lived. On the North, Drevlians? neighbors were Dregovichs (дреговичи, or Dregovichi).
The name of the tribe derives from the Russian word древо or дерево (drevo, or derevo), which means "tree", due to the fact that the Drevlians used to live in thick woods.
The Drevlians left many archaeological traces, such as agricultural settlements with semi-dugouts (or earth-houses), moundless burial grounds and barrows, fortified towns like Vruchiy (today's Ovruch), Gorodsk, site of an ancient settlement near Malin (supposedly, a residence of the Drevlian prince Mal) and others. The principal city of the Drevlians was Iskorosten (today?s Korosten) on the Uzh River, where one can still see a group of compact ancient settlements. By the end of the first millennium, Drevlians had already had well-developed farming and handicrafts.
The Drevlians were fervently opposed to any attempts from the outside to include them in the Kievan Rus. According to a number of chronicles, in times of Kyi, Schek and Khoriv (supposedly, founders of Kiev) the Drevlians had their own princely rule and were frequently at war with the Polans. In 883, Prince Oleg made the Drevlians pay tribute to Kiev. In 907, the Drevlians took part in the Kievan military campaign against the Byzantine Empire. After Oleg?s death in 912, the Drevlians stopped paying tribute. Oleg?s successor, Prince Igor, made them change their mind, however, he would be killed by the Drevlians in 945 during the collection. Igor?s widow Olga avenged her husband?s death in an extremely harsh manner, killing drevlianian ambassadors and nobility, burning their capital of Iskorosten to the ground and leveling other towns. After having subjugated the Drevlians, Olga transformed their territories into a Kievan appanage with the center in Vruchiy.
The last mentioning of the Drevlians was in a chronicle of 1136, when their lands were given as a gift to the Desyatinnaya Church by Yaropolk Vladimirovich.
