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The Dregoviches or Dregovichi ( Belarusian: дрыгавічы, ''dryhavičy'', ; russian: дреговичи, dregovichi; ua, дреговичі, drehovychi) were one of the
tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...
unions of
Early East Slavs The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies who lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately the 5th to the 10th centuries AD) in Central and Eastern Europe and established the foundations for the Slav ...
, and inhabited the territories down the stream of the
Pripyat River The Pripyat or Prypiat ( , uk, Прип'ять, ; be, Прыпяць, translit=Prypiać}, ; pl, Prypeć, ; russian: Припять, ) is a river in Eastern Europe, approximately long. It flows east through Ukraine, Belarus, and Ukraine ag ...
and northern parts of the right bank of the
Dnieper river } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...
(more exact extents of the tribe's domain are still unknown). The name of the tribe probably derives from the
Old Ruthenian Ruthenian ( Belarusian: руская мова; Ukrainian: руська мова; Ruthenian: руска(ѧ) мова; also see other names) is an exonymic linguonym for a closely-related group of East Slavic linguistic varieties, particularly t ...
word дрегва or дрягва (''drehva'', or ''dryahva'', which means " swamp") because the Dregoviches used to live in the
marshland A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...
s. The first known reference to the Dregoviches is in the '' Primary Chronicle'', where they are listed among the twelve tribes. However, there is a reference in the '' De Administrando Imperio'' of ''
Constantine Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Ka ...
'' to the 'Drugovichians'. Since the reference appears in a passage describing the Drugovichians as one of the Slavic peoples who pay tribute to the Kievan Rus, and they are named alongside the Severians and Krivichians, it seems likely these are the same people. By the 12th century they were assimilated into the main
East Slavic peoples The East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor.John Channon & Robert Hud ...
. The chronicles do not tell historians much about the Dregoviches. We only know that they had their own
prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. T ...
ly rule in the city of Turov. In the 10th century, the lands of the Dregoviches became a part of
Kievan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Hist ...
and later—the
Turov Principality The Principality of Turov, also called Principality of Turov and Pinsk ( be, Турава-Пінскае княства, russian: Турово-Пинское княжество, uk, Турово-Пінське князівство) or Turovian Rus ...
. The northwestern part of the land of the Dregoviches became a part of the
Polotsk Principality The Principality of Polotsk ( be, По́лацкае кня́ства, ''Polackaje kniastva''; la, Polocensis Ducatus), also known as the Duchy of Polotsk or Polotskian Rus', was a medieval principality of the Early East Slavs. The origin and ...
.


See also

*
List of Medieval Slavic tribes This is a list of Slavic peoples and Slavic tribes reported in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, that is, before the year AD 1500. Ancestors *Proto-Indo-Europeans (Proto-Indo-European speakers) ** Proto-Balto-Slavs (common ancestors of Bal ...


Sources

* '' De Administrando Imperio of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (; 17 May 905 – 9 November 959) was the fourth Emperor of the Macedonian dynasty of the Byzantine Empire, reigning from 6 June 913 to 9 November 959. He was the son of Emperor Leo VI and his fourth wife, Zoe Ka ...
,'' ed. R.J. Jenkins,
Dumbarton Oaks Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and garden of wealthy U.S. diplomat Robert Woods Bliss and his wife, ...
Center for Byzantine Studies (1967)


References

{{Ukr-hist-stub East Slavic tribes Medieval Belarus 10th century in Kievan Rus'