Slavs

The Slavic peoples are defined by their use of Slavic languages, a branch of the Balto-Slavic family of Indo-European languages. They are spread across Eurasia, with major populations in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, as well as Northern Asia. Significant Slavic minorities also live in the Baltic states and Central Asia, and large diasporas exist in the Americas, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.

Ethnonym

The earliest known mention of the Slavic ethnonym comes from the 6th century AD. Byzantine writers like Procopius and Jordanes used various Greek and Latin terms—such as Sklaboi or Sclaveni—to describe them. The oldest Slavic-language documents, from the 9th century, record the self-name Slověne. This is thought to derive from the Proto-Slavic word for "word" (slovo), originally meaning "people who speak the same language" or "people who understand one another." This contrasted with the Slavic term for Germans, which meant "mute" or "silent." The root is also linked to slava ("glory") and an Indo-European root meaning "to be spoken of."

Origins

In ancient Roman sources, early Slavs were referred to as Veneti, living east of the Germanic Suebi and west of the Iranian Sarmatians, between the upper Vistula and Dnieper rivers. By the early 6th century, Byzantine records name two Slavic groups—the Antes and the Sclaveni—emerging from the Carpathian region, the lower Danube, and the Black Sea to raid the Eastern Roman Empire. Jordanes, writing in 551, called the Veneti a populous nation and their ancestors of both the Antes and Sclaveni. Procopius described them as tall, robust, and ruddy, living in scattered settlements under a democratic system, worshipping a single god of lightning (Perun), and fighting mostly as foot soldiers with shields and spears.

Middle Ages

The early Slavs lived during the Migration Period and Early Middle Ages (roughly the 5th to 10th centuries). Between the 6th and 7th centuries, they came to control large parts of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe. Christianization began in the 7th century, and by the 12th century, Slavs formed the core populations of several medieval Christian states: East Slavs in Kievan Rus', South Slavs in the Bulgarian Empire, the Principality of Serbia, the Duchy of Croatia, and the Banate of Bosnia, and West Slavs in the Principality of Nitra, Great Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, and the Kingdom of Poland.

From the mid-19th century, a pan-Slavic movement emphasized the shared heritage of all Slavic peoples, especially influential in the Balkans. The Russian Empire’s stance toward this movement was complex and sometimes cautious, though many Pan-Slavists looked to Russia for support.

Today, Slavs are classified into three groups: West Slavs (including Czechs, Kashubians, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks, and Sorbs); East Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians); and South Slavs (Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Gorani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Pomaks, Serbs, Slovenes, and Torbeši). Most Slavs are Christians, but some groups—such as the Bosniaks—are predominantly Muslim. Modern Slavic nations are diverse genetically and culturally, and relations between them can range from ethnic solidarity to mutual hostility, even within the same subgroup.