Ancient Slavic religion has the same roots as all the religions of Indo-European peoples, such as the Indians, Celts, Germans, Persians, Greeks ... Old Slavic paganism was a polytheistic religion and various natural phenomena were personified through various gods/goddesses and creatures/beings. Despite their great respect for their gods, the Slavs treated them as equals. As is the case in polytheistic religions, they offered (non-human) sacrifices to please them. Many memories of Slavic gods and way of life have been preserved through customs. However, these customs were clothed in Christianity, although they were not originally associated with Christianity. Many Christian saints received the characteristics of Old Slavic gods, and the days dedicated to a god turned into days dedicated to a saint. This indicates that the faith of the Ancient Slavs was strong and/or that Christianity was quite flexible at that time.
There are a large number of Old Slavic gods and some of them are as follows:
- Perun (highest god of the pantheon and the god of sky, thunder, lightning, storms, rain, law, war, fertility and oak trees.)
- Svarog (god of fire and blacksmithing )
- Veles (god of earth, waters, livestock, and the underworld )
- Vesna (mythological female character associated with youth and springtime )
- Stribog, Lada, Morana, Stribog, Triglav, Radegast...
Ancient Slavs visually reproduced their beliefs through symbols, so that all their gods, mythological creatures, natural phenomena, etc. had their own symbols. Such symbols or signs were put on clothes, weapons, houses… Studying the history of Old Slavs, we came across some interesting books which contained several such symbols and signs. We have taken an interest in collecting them ever since. When it felt right, we started drawing them, and that is how this collection of ancient Slavic symbols came into being. In it, you can find 92 symbols including those of many Old Slavic gods, mythological creatures and phenomena such as: Perun, Triglav, Veles, Zhiva, Rarog, Svarog, Lada, Belobog, Rodovik, Stribog, Simargl, Yarovik, Dodola, Ladinec, Grozovik, Mokosh, Radegast, Svyatogor, Svetovit, Viy, Vesna, Tara, Kolovrat, Yarovrat...
Speaking of which, Slavs are the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe. They inhabit Central, Eastern & Southeastern Europe and Central & Northern Asia. Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Belarus... are just some of the Slavic countries.
There are a large number of world-famous Slavs and some of them are Nikola Tesla, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Dmitri Mendeleev, Yuri Gagarin, Frédéric Chopin, Marie Curie, Bedřich Smetana, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Igor Sikorsky, Mikhail Kalashnikov, Alphonse Mucha, Anna Pavlova, Ivo Andric, Sergey Korolev, Novak Djokovic, ...
Throughout history, a lot of members of the Slavic peoples have been responsible for many of the greatest global achievements:
Yuri Gagarin - a pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space
Dmitri Mendeleev - periodic table of elements
Soviet Union (was mostly Slavic country) - first successful launch of an orbiting satellite
Nikola Tesla - induction motor…
Rajko Tomović - first artificial hand with five fingers
Igor Sikorsky - first helicopter
Nikola Tesla - first radio
Vladimir K. Zworykin – First television
Sergey Lebedev - first commercially viable and mass-produced type of synthetic rubber
Mihailo Pupin - long-distance telephone communication
Valentina Tereshkova - first and youngest woman in space
...