Vyatichi

The Vyatichs or more properly Vyatichi or Viatichi (Russian: вя́тичи) were a tribe of Early East Slavs who inhabited regions around the Oka,[1] Moskva and Don rivers.

[4] The 12th-century Primary Chronicle recorded that the Vyatichi, Radimichs and Severians "had the same customs", all lived violent lifestyles, "burned their dead and preserved the ashes in urns set upon posts beside the highways", and they did not enter monogamous marriages but practiced polygamy, specifically polygyny, instead.

[5][6] The Primary Chronicle names a certain tribal leader Vyatko as the forefather of the tribe, who was a Lyakh brother of Radim from whom emerged the Radimichs.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, the tribe founded a number of cities due to developing handicrafts and increasing trade, including Moscow, Koltesk, Dedoslav, Nerinsk and others.

Saint Kuksha of the Kiev Caves was a missionary who converted many Vyatichi to Christianity (in 1115), being beheaded by their chiefs August 27 ca.