Radimichi

a tribal union of ancient Russia in the last centuries of the first millennium A.D. The Radimichi lived in the eastern part of the Upper Dnieper Region, along the Sozh River and its tributaries. They were linked by convenient riverways to the central areas of the Kievan state. Archaeological findings indicate that the Radimichi were at the same economic, social, and cultural level of development as their neighbors. Feudal cities of the Radimichi in the 11th and 12th centuries included Gomii (Gomel’) and Chichersk on the Sozh River, Vshchizh on the Desna River, Vorob’in, Ropeisk, and Starodub: The archaeological remains of the Radimichi have not been sufficiently studied. A characteristic artifact of the Radimichi tribal culture of the ninth, tenth, and 11th centuries was a seven-rayed temporal ornament made of bronze or silver.

Information concerning the Radimichi is scant. In the mid-ninth century they paid tribute to the Khazars. In 885 they were joined to the Kievan state by Prince Oleg and are listed among the prince’s troops who marched on Constantinople in 907. The Radimichi lost their political independence in 984, when their army was defeated on the Pishchana River by Volchii Khvost (Wolf Tail), a general of Prince Vladimir Sviatoslavich. The Radimichi territory was then incorporated into the Chernigov and Smolensk principalities. The Radimichi are last mentioned in the chronicles for 1169.