The Dregoviches, also called the Dregovichi, were an East Slavs tribal union.
Etymology
The name of the tribe most probably derives from the
Proto-Slavic word "*drъgъva" (found only in Southern Belarusian as "dregva" and Northern Ukrainian as "dragva, dryagva", which is a loanword from
Baltic languages "dreguva" meaning '
swamp'), because the Dregoviches used to live in the
.
Linguists consider that they are "undoubtedly" related to a South Slavic tribe with a similar name,
Drougoubitai.
[Трубачев О. Н. Ранние славянские этнонимы — свидетели миграции славян // Вопр. языкознания. 1974. № 6. С. 52-53]
History
The first known reference to the Dregoviches is in the
Primary Chronicle(c. 1113), where they are listed among the 12 tribes. However, there is a reference in the
De Administrando Imperio (written between 948 and 952) of
Constantine Porphyrogenitus to "δρουγουβίται", "Drougoubitai".
Since the reference appears in a passage describing the "Druguvitai" as one of the Slavic peoples who pay tribute to the princes of the Kievan Rus', and they are named alongside the
Severians and
Krivichians, it was suggested these are the same people as the Dregoviches. By the 12th century, they were assimilated into the main
East Slavs.
The do not tell historians much about the Dregoviches. We only know that they had their own rule in the city of Turov. In the 10th century, the lands of the Dregoviches became a part of Kievan Rus and later the Turov Principality. The northwestern part of the land of the Dregoviches became a part of the Polotsk Principality.
Notes
See also
-
List of early Slavic peoples
Sources
-
De Administrando Imperio of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, ed. R.J. Jenkins, Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies (1967)
