Slavic History

Slavic History

The Slavs are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group living in Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia, who speak the Indo-European Slavic languages, and share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. From the early 6th century they spread to inhabit most of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. In addition to their main population centre in Europe, some East Slavs (Russians) also settled later in Siberia and Central Asia. Part of all Slavic ethnicities emigrated to other parts of the world. Over half of Europe's territory is inhabited by Slavic-speaking communities. The worldwide population of people of Slavic descent is close to 400 million, making Slavs among the largest panethnicities in the world.

Modern nations and ethnic groups called by the ethnonym Slavs are considerably diverse both genetically and culturally, and relations between them – even within the individual ethnic groups themselves – are varied, ranging from a sense of connection to feelings of mutual hostility.

Present-day Slavic people are classified into East Slavic (chiefly Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians), West Slavic (chiefly Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Wends, or Sorbs), and South Slavic (chiefly Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenes, Macedonians, Montenegrins and Bulgarians). For a more comprehensive list, see the ethnocultural subdivisions.