Radimichians

Radimichians (radymychi; Belarusian: radzimichy). A Slavic tribe that lived in the watershed of the Dnipro River, the Sozh River, and the Desna River from the 9th to 12th centuries. Their principal towns were Homel, Chechersk, and Vshchizh. Until the mid-9th century the Radimichians paid tribute to the Khazars. Prince Oleh of Kyiv joined them to the Kyivan state in 885, and they took part in the Rus’ campaign against Byzantium in 911. They did not, however, become formally part of Kyivan Rus’ until 984, when they were conquered by Volodymyr the Great. After the death of Yaroslav the Wise the western Radimichian lands came under the rule of Smolensk principality, and those in the east became part of Chernihiv principality. The Radimichians are last mentioned in the Rus’ chronicles under the year 1169. Together with the Krivichians and Drehovichians they are the ancestors of the Belarusians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Rybakou, B. Radzimichy (Minsk 1922)
Tret’iakov, P. Vostochnoslavianskie plemena (Moscow 1953)

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]