East Slavs

The East Slavs are a branch of the Slavic peoples who speak East Slavic languages. They live mainly in Eastern Europe, but also across northern Asia and as far as the Pacific Ocean. They made up most of the population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus', which they regard as their cultural origin. The main East Slavic groups today are Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians. Rusyns and Don Cossacks are sometimes considered distinct nations, though they are often treated as subgroups of Ukrainians and Russians.

Scholars know little about the East Slavs before about 859 AD, when the first events in the Primary Chronicle took place. Early East Slavs apparently had no written language. What is known comes from archaeology, foreign travelers’ accounts of the Rus' land, and comparisons of Slavic languages. Very few native Rus' documents from before the 11th century survive, and none from before the 10th. The earliest major source on Rus' history, the Primary Chronicle, dates from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It lists twelve Slavic tribal unions that by the 10th century had settled the later territory of Kievan Rus' between the Western Bug, the Dnieper, and the Black Sea: the Polans, Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Radimichs, Vyatichs, Krivichs, Slovens, Dulebes (later called Volhynians and Buzhans), White Croats, Severians, Ulichs, and Tivertsi.

There is no agreement among scholars about the original homeland of the Slavs. In the first millennium AD, Slavic settlers likely came into contact with other groups moving across the Eastern European Plain during the Migration Period. Between the first and ninth centuries, the Sarmatians, Huns, Alans, Avars, Bulgars, and Magyars passed through the Pontic steppe on their way west. Although some may have subjugated the region’s Slavs, these foreign tribes left little trace in Slavic lands. The Early Middle Ages also saw Slavic expansion as farmers, beekeepers, hunters, fishers, herders, and trappers. By the 8th century, Slavs were the dominant ethnic group on the East European Plain.

By 600 AD, the Slavs had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches. The East Slavs used slash-and-burn agriculture, taking advantage of the dense forests where they settled. This method involved clearing forest with fire, farming the land for a few years, and then moving on. Because the soil quickly became exhausted, this practice required frequent moves, which explains the East Slavs’ rapid spread across eastern Europe. They moved in two streams. One group settled along the Dnieper River in what is now Ukraine and Belarus to the north, then spread north to the northern Volga valley, east of modern Moscow, and west to the basins of the northern Dniester and Southern Buh rivers in present-day Ukraine. Another group moved northeast, where they met the Varangians of the Rus' Khaganate and established the important regional center of Novgorod for protection. These same Slavs also settled present-day Tver Oblast and the Beloozero region. After reaching the lands of the Merya near Rostov, they linked up with the Dnieper group.

Archaeology identifies the Prague, Korchak, Penkova, Kolochin, and Kyiv cultures as early Slavic. The earliest, the Kyiv culture, dates from the 2nd–3rd centuries AD and was the northern neighbor of the more developed, multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture, associated with another early Slavic group (the Veneti). Early Slavic settlements were rare, few, and short-lived, located in unusual places such as low areas often flooded. East Slavs who migrated into the basins of Lakes Chudskoye and Ilmen in the 4th–5th centuries formed the Pskov long barrow culture. This culture was strongly influenced by local Finno-Ugric and Baltic peoples, adopting their burial rites and some pottery styles, but the East Slavs’ way of life changed little. By the 5th century, the Kyiv culture and nearby regions gave rise to related cultures like Korchak and Kolochin. Fortified cities appeared in northern Ukraine, southern Belarus, and southwest Russia. The Ilmen Slovenes and Krivichs did not reach Lake Ladoga and the northern Baltic until the 7th century, based on archaeological finds at the town on the Mayat River. The first settlements of the Polans and Severians near Kyiv and Chernigov appeared by the 7th–8th centuries, showing a partial shift away from scattered, hidden forest living. In the 8th–9th centuries, all other East Slavic lands had no more than two dozen cities, while the Left Bank of the Dnieper alone had about a hundred. The foundation of Novgorod, the main Slavic city in the region, is dated by the chronicle to 862. Around the same time, settlements appeared in other East Slavic tribal areas. The Severians, living in modern Voronezh, Belgorod, and Kursk regions, built fortified settlements in the 9th–10th centuries, mainly at the confluence of large rivers, as part of the Romensko-Borshchiv culture.