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Усходнія славяне (Belarusian) Восточные славяне (Russian) Выходнї славяне (Rusyn) Східні слов'яни (Ukrainian) | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Total population | |
| 210 million+[1] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| East Slavic languages: Belarusian,Russian,Rusyn,Ukrainian | |
| Religion | |
| Eastern Orthodoxy (majority amongBelarusians,Russians andUkrainians) Latin Catholicism (minority amongBelarusians,Russians andUkrainians) Eastern Catholicism (minority among bothUkrainians andBelarusians) |
TheEast Slavs are the most populous subgroup of theSlavs.[3] They speak theEast Slavic languages,[4] and formed the majority of the population of the medieval stateKievan Rus', which they consider their culturalancestor.[5][6]Belarusians,Russians andUkrainians are the existing East Slavic groups.Rusyns are sometimes considered a separate nation, though they are often considered a subgroup of Ukrainians.
Researchers know relatively little about the Eastern Slavs prior to approximately 859 AD when the first events recorded in thePrimary Chronicle occurred. The Eastern Slavs of these early times apparently lacked a written language. The few known facts come fromarchaeological digs, foreign travellers' accounts of the Rus' land, and linguistic comparative analyses ofSlavic languages.[4]
Very few native Rus' documents dating before the 11th century (none before the 10th century) have survived. The earliest major manuscript with information on Rus' history, thePrimary Chronicle, dates from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It lists twelve Slavictribal unions which, by the 10th century, had settled in the later territory of the Kievan Rus between theWestern Bug, theDniepr and theBlack Sea: thePolans,Drevlyans,Dregovichs,Radimichs,Vyatichs,Krivichs,Slovens,Dulebes (later known asVolhynians andBuzhans),White Croats,Severians,Ulichs, andTivertsi.[3]
There is no consensus among scholars as to theurheimat of theSlavs. In the first millennium AD, Slavic settlers are likely to have been in contact with other ethnic groups who moved across theEastern European Plain during theMigration Period. Between the first and ninth centuries, theSarmatians,Huns,Alans,Avars,Bulgars, andMagyars passed through thePontic steppe in their westward migrations. Although some of them could have subjugated the region's Slavs, these foreign tribes left little trace in the Slavic lands. TheEarly Middle Ages also saw Slavic expansion as an agriculturist andbeekeeper, hunter, fisher, herder, and trapper people. By the 8th century, the Slavs were the dominant ethnic group on the East European Plain.[citation needed]
By 600 AD, theSlavs had split linguistically intosouthern,western, and eastern branches. The East Slavs practiced "slash-and-burn" agricultural methods which took advantage of the extensive forests in which they settled. This method of agriculture involved clearing tracts of forest with fire, cultivating it and then moving on after a few years. Slash and burn agriculture requires frequent movement because soil cultivated in this manner only yields good harvests for a few years before exhausting itself, and the reliance on slash and burn agriculture by the East Slavs explains their rapid spread through eastern Europe.[7] The East Slavs flooded Eastern Europe in two streams. One group of tribes settled along theDnieper river in what is nowUkraine andBelarus to the North; they then spread northward to the northernVolga valley, east of modern-dayMoscow and westward to the basins of the northernDniester and theSouthern Buh rivers in present-dayUkraine and southern Ukraine.[citation needed]
Another group of East Slavs moved to the northeast, where they encountered theVarangians of theRus' Khaganate and established an important regional centre ofNovgorod for protection. The same Slavic population also settled the present-dayTver Oblast and the region ofBeloozero. Having reached the lands of theMerya nearRostov, they linked up with the Dnieper group of Slavic migrants.[citation needed]
According to archeology, the Prague,Korchak,Penkova,Kolochin, andKyiv cultures are classified as early Slavic. The earliest of which, Kyiv, from the 2nd–3rd centuries AD. e. was the northern neighbor of the more developed and multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture, associated with another early group of slavs(Veneti/Venedi/Venedae?). Rare, few and short-lived settlements of the Slavs were located "in unusual topographic conditions: in low places, often now flooded during floods".[8]
Eastern Slavs, who found themselves as a result of migrations of the 4th–5th centuries. in the basins of lakesChudskoye andIlmen, formed theculture of Pskov long barrows. This culture was strongly influenced by the autochthonous Finno-Ugric and Baltic peoples, from whom it adopted a specific burial rite and some features of ceramics, but in general, the way of life of the Eastern Slavs changed little. By the 5th century on the site of the Kyiv culture and in other regions to the north, east, west and south of it, a number of related cultures arise, such asKorchak,Kolochin, etc.[9] Among the East Slavs, fortified cities appeared in northern Ukraine and in southern Belarus and southwest Russia; the IlmenSlovenes and theKrivichs did not reachLake Ladoga and the northern reaches of theBaltic Sea until the 7th century AD. (based on archaeological data in the town on Mayat river). The first settlements near thePolans andSeverians arose in the region of Kyiv and Chernigov already by the 7th–8th centuries,[10] which indicates at least a partial rejection of the previous strategy of scattered and secretive living among the forests. This is also evidenced by the fact that in the VIII-IX centuries. in all other East Slavic lands there were no more than two dozen cities, while only on the Left Bank of the Dnieper there were about a hundred of them.The foundation of the main Slavic city of this region,Novgorod, is attributed by theletopis to 862.[11] In the same era, settlements appeared on the territories of other East Slavic tribes (seeOld Russian cities). So, the northerners who lived on the territory of modern Voronezh, Belgorod and Kursk regions, along with settlements in the 9th–10th centuries. built fortified settlements, mainly at the confluence of large rivers (see Romensko-Borshchiv culture).[12] In the 10th century, a fortress appeared not far from the city ofSmolensk that arose later (theGnezdovsky archaeological complex).[citation needed]
Somewhat apart are the early East Slavic settlements, the creation of which is attributed to the tribal unions ofDulebs andAntes. Archaeologically, they are represented by the Prague-Korchak and Penkov cultures, respectively. A number of such settlements of the Prague-Korchak (Zimino, Lezhnitsa, Khotomel, Babka, Khilchitsy,Tusheml) and Penkovo (Selishte, Pastyrskoe) cultures existed in the 6th–7th centuries. on a vast territory from the borders of modern Poland and Romania to the Dnieper. The Prague-Korchak settlements were a site surrounded by a wooden wall with one building, which was part of the common wall of the settlement. They did not have agricultural tools, and the settlements, apparently, were built to collect and accommodate a military detachment. Penkovsky settlements could have up to two dozen buildings inside the walls and were large trade, craft and administrative centers for their time. The center of the territory controlled by the dulebs (Zimino, Lezhnitsa) was in the basin of the Western Bug; the geographical center of the Penkovo culture falls on the Dnieper region, but the main fortress of theAntes (Selishte) was located in the western part of this area, near the borders ofByzantine Empire (in modern Moldova), on which they made military campaigns.[9] The early Slavic settlements were destroyed by the Avars in the 7th century, after which they were not built until the 10th century.[13]
The disintegration, or parcelling of the polity ofKievan Rus' in the 11th century resulted in considerable population shifts and a political, social, and economic regrouping. The resultant effect of these forces coalescing was the marked emergence of new peoples.[14] While these processes began long before the fall of Kiev, its fall expedited these gradual developments into a significant linguistic and ethnic differentiation among theRus' people intoUkrainians,Belarusians, andRussians.[14] All of this was emphasized by the subsequent polities these groups migrated into: southwestern and western Rus', where theRuthenian and later Ukrainian and Belarusian identities developed, was subject toLithuanian and laterPolish influence;[15] whereas the Russian ethnic identity developed in theMuscovite northeast and theNovgorodian north.[citation needed]
Modern East Slavic peoples and ethnic/subethnic groups include:[citation needed]
According toY chromosome,mDNA andautosomal marker CCR5de132, East Slavs and West Slavs are genetically very similar, which is consistent with the proximity of their languages, demonstrating significant differences from the neighboring Finno-Ugric, Turkic and North Caucasian peoples all the way from west to east; such genetic homogeneity is somewhat unusual for genetics given such a wide dispersal of Slavic populations, especially Russians.[16][17]
Together, they form the basis of the "East European"gene cluster, which also includesBalts, some Balkan peoples.[16][18] Genetic research has shown that the genomes of East Slavs are homogenous and contrary to popular belief, unaffected byTurkic orMongol influences.[19][20]
Only theNorthern Russians among the East and West Slavs belong to a different, "Northern European" genetic cluster, along with theBalts,Germanic andBaltic Finnic peoples (Northern Russian populations are very similar to the Balts).[21][22]
For all the salient differences between these three post-Soviet nations, they have much in common when it comes to their culture and history, which goes back to Kievan Rus', the medieval East Slavic state based in the capital of present-day Ukraine,
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. Russia: A Country Study.Federal Research Division.| East Slavs | .svg) | |
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