Slavs#Genetics

{{main|Slavs (ethnonym)}}

The oldest mention of the Slavic ethnonym is from the 6th century AD, when Procopius, writing in Byzantine Greek, used various forms such as Sklaboi ({{lang|grc|Σκλάβοι}}), Sklabēnoi ({{lang|grc|Σκλαβηνοί}}), Sklauenoi ({{lang|grc|Σκλαυηνοί}}), Sthlabenoi ({{lang|grc|Σθλαβηνοί}}), or Sklabinoi ({{lang|grc|Σκλαβῖνοι}}),{{cite web |url=https://www.ancient.eu/Procopius/ |title=Procopius |publisher=Ancient History Encyclopedia |access-date=2025-05-23}} and his contemporary Jordanes refers to the {{lang|la|Sclaveni}} in Latin. The oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic, dating from the 9th century, attest the autonym as Slověne ({{lang|cu|Словѣне}}). Those forms point back to a Slavic autonym, which can be reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as {{wikt-lang|sla-pro|*slověninъ|*Slověninъ}}, plural Slověne.{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavs |title=Slavs |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |date=2020-01-17 |access-date=2025-05-23}}

The reconstructed autonym {{lang|sla|*Slověninъ}} is usually considered a derivation from {{lang|sla|slovo}} ("word"), originally denoting "people who speak (the same language)", meaning "people who understand one another", in contrast to the Slavic word denoting "German people", namely {{wikt-lang|sla-pro|*němьcь}}, meaning "silent, mute people" (from Slavic {{wikt-lang|sla-pro|*němъ}} "mute, mumbling"). The word slovo ("word") and the related slava ("glory, fame") and {{lang|mis|sluh}} ("hearing") originate from the Proto-Indo-European root {{wikt-lang|ine-pro|*ḱlew-}} ("be spoken of, glory"), cognate with Ancient Greek {{lang|grc|κλέος}} ({{grc-tr|κλέος}} "fame"), as in the name Pericles, Latin {{wikt-lang|la|clueō}} ("be called"), and English {{wikt-lang|en|loud}}.{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slavic-languages |title=Slavonic languages |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |date=2019-11-26 |access-date=2025-05-23}}{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/slav |title=Slav |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=2025-05-23}}{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/loud |title=Loud |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=2025-05-23}}

In medieval and early modern sources written in Latin, Slavs are most commonly referred to as Sclaveni or the shortened version Sclavi.{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=41–42, 50, 55, 60, 69, 75, 88}}

File:The origin and dispersion of Slavs in the 5-10th centuries.png within Polesia (modern-day southern Belarus, northern Ukraine, and eastern Poland)}} {{legend|#B3CB9A|Expansion of the Slavic migration in Europe}}]]

{{Main|Early Slavs}}

{{See also|Vistula Veneti|Spori|Antes (people){{!}}Antes|Sclaveni|Wends|Fatyanovo–Balanovo culture|Middle Dnieper culture|Milograd culture|Zarubintsy culture|Kyiv culture|Prague-Korchak culture|Penkovka culture|Kolochin culture|Ipotești–Cândești culture}}

File:Bolgari_sclavi_teracota_Vinitza_FYROM.jpg, North Macedonia, depicting a battle scene between the Bulgars and Slavs, with the Latin inscription BOLGAR and SCLAVIGI{{cite book |last1= Balabanov |first1= Kosta |title= Vinica Fortress: mythology, religion and history written with clay |date=2011 |publisher=Matica |location=Skopje |pages=273–309}}]]

Ancient Roman sources refer to the Early Slavic peoples as "Veneti", who dwelt in a region of central Europe east of the Germanic tribe of Suebi and west of the Iranian Sarmatians in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD,Coon, Carleton S. (1939) The Peoples of Europe. Chapter VI, Sec. 7 New York: Macmillan Publishers.Tacitus. Germania, page 46. between the upper Vistula and Dnieper rivers. Slavs - called Antes and Sclaveni - first appear in Byzantine records in the early 6th century AD. Byzantine historiographers of the era of the emperor Justinian I ({{reign | 527 | 565}}), such as Procopius of Caesarea, Jordanes and Theophylact Simocatta, describe tribes of these names emerging from the area of the Carpathian Mountains, the lower Danube and the Black Sea to invade the Danubian provinces of the Eastern Empire.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Jordanes, in his work Getica (written in 551 AD),Curta 2001: 38. Dzino 2010: 95. describes the Veneti as a "populous nation" whose dwellings begin at the sources of the Vistula and occupy "a great expanse of land". He also describes the Veneti as the ancestors of Antes and Slaveni, two early Slavic tribes, who appeared on the Byzantine frontier in the early-6th century.

Procopius wrote in 545 that "the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a single name in the remote past; for they were both called Sporoi in olden times". The name Sporoi derives from Greek σπείρω ("to sow"). He described them as barbarians, who lived under democracy and believed in one god, "the maker of lightning" (Perun), to whom they made sacrifice. They lived in scattered housing and constantly changed settlement. In war, they were mainly foot soldiers with shields, spears, bows, and little armour, which was reserved mainly for chiefs and their inner circle of warriors.{{cite book |last= Barford |first= Paul M |year= 2001 |publisher= Cornell University Press |title = The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe | isbn = 978-0-8014-3977-3 }} Their language is "barbarous" (that is, not Greek), and the two tribes are alike in appearance, being tall and robust, "while their bodies and hair are neither very fair or blond, nor indeed do they incline entirely to the dark type, but they are all slightly ruddy in color. And they live a hard life, giving no heed to bodily comforts..."

Jordanes describes the Sclaveni as having swamps and forests for their cities. Another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly-impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes.

Menander Protector mentions Daurentius ({{reign | c. 577 | 579}}) who slew an Avar envoy of Khagan Bayan I for asking the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars; Daurentius declined and is reported as saying: "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs – so it shall always be for us as long as there are wars and weapons".{{sfn|Curta|2001|pp=91–92, 315}}

{{Further|Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe}}

File:Slavic tribes in the 7th to 9th century.jpg

According to eastern homeland theory,{{cite web |url=https://rodnovery.ru/images/knigi/making-of-the-slavs-history-and-archaeology.pdf |title=The Making of the Slavs |author=Florin Curta |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=2001 |access-date=2025-05-23}} prior to becoming known to the Roman world, Slavic-speaking tribes formed part of successive multi-ethnic confederacies of Eurasia – such as the Sarmatian,{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sarmatian |title=Sarmatian |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2025-05-23}} Hun{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hun-people |title=Huns |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2025-05-23}} and Gothic empires.{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Goth |title=Goth |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2025-05-23}} The Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germanic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries AD (thought{{cite web |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/421362 |title=The Great Migration of Peoples |author=Peter Heather |publisher=The Journal of Roman Studies |date=2000 |access-date=2025-05-23}} to be in conjunction with the movement of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe: Huns, and later Avars and Bulgars) started the great migration of the Slavs, who settled the lands abandoned by Germanic tribes who had fled from the Huns and their allies.{{cite web |url=https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/migration-period |title=Migration Period |publisher=History.com |access-date=2025-05-23}} Slavs, according to this account, moved westward into the country between the Oder and the Elbe-Saale line; southward into Bohemia, Moravia, much of present-day Austria, the Pannonian plain and the Balkans; and northward along the upper Dnieper river. It has also been suggested that some Slavs migrated with the Vandals to the Iberian Peninsula and even to North Africa.{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Slav |title=Slav |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2025-05-23}}

Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in large numbers.{{cite book|author= Cyril A. Mango|title= Byzantium, the empire of New Rome|url= https://archive.org/details/byzantium00cyri_0|url-access= registration |page= [https://archive.org/details/byzantium00cyri_0/page/26 26]|year= 1980|publisher= Scribner|isbn= 978-0-684-16768-8}} Byzantine records note that Slav numbers were so great, that grass would not regrow where the Slavs had marched through.{{cite web |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100305364 |title=Slavs |publisher=Oxford Reference |access-date=2025-05-23}}{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Slavic-migrations |title=Slavic migrations |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |access-date=2025-05-23}} Military movements resulted in even the Peloponnese and Asia Minor being reported to have Slavic settlements.Tachiaos, Anthony-Emil N. 2001. Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica: The Acculturation of the Slavs. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press. This southern movement has traditionally been seen as an invasive expansion. By the end of the 6th century, Slavs had settled the Eastern Alps regions.{{cite book|last= Štih|first= Peter|title= The Middle Ages Between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic: Select Papers on Slovene Historiography and Medieval History|date= 2010|section= V. Wiped Out By The Slavic Settlement? The Issue Of Continuity Between Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages In The Slovene Area|section-url= https://brill.com/view/book/9789004187702/Bej.9789004185913.i-463_007.xml|isbn= 978-9-004-18770-2|publisher= Brill|pages= 85–99|doi= 10.1163/ej.9789004185913.i-463.18|series= East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages|volume=2}}

Pope Gregory I in 600 AD wrote to Maximus, the bishop of Salona (in Dalmatia), expressing concern about the arrival of the Slavs,

{{blockquote|Latin: Et quidem de Sclavorum gente, quae vobis valde imminet, et affligor vehementer et conturbor. Affligor in his quae jam in vobis patior; conturbor, quia per Istriae aditum jam ad Italiam intrare coeperunt.}}

{{Blockquote|English: I am both distressed and disturbed about the Slavs, who are pressing hard on you. I am distressed because I sympathize with you; I am disturbed because they have already begun to arrive in Italy through the entry-point of Istria.Željko Rapanić; (2013) O početcima i nastajanju Dubrovnika (The origin and formation of Dubrovnik. additional considerations) p. 94; Starohrvatska prosvjeta, Vol. III No. 40, [https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=241899]}}

File:Great moravia svatopluk.png during Svatopluk I ({{Reign|871|894}}), according to Štefanovičová (1989)]]

When Slav migrations ended, their first state organizations appeared, each headed by a prince with a treasury and a defense force. In the 7th century, the Frankish merchant Samo supported the Slavs against their Avar rulers and became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe, Samo's Empire. This early Slavic polity probably did not outlive its founder and ruler, but it was the foundation for later West Slavic states on its territory.

The oldest of them was Carantania; others are the Principality of Nitra, the Moravian principality (see under Great Moravia) and the Balaton Principality. The First Bulgarian Empire was founded in 681 as an alliance between the ruling Bulgars and the numerous Slavs in the area, and their South Slavic language, the Old Church Slavonic, became the main and official language of the empire in 864 AD. Bulgaria was instrumental in the spread of Slavic literacy and Christianity to the rest of the Slavic world. Duchy of Croatia was founded in 7th century and later became Kingdom of Croatia.During the reign of Heraclius (r. 610–641). De Administrando Imperio chapter 30. Principality of Serbia was founded in 8th, Duchy of Bohemia and Kievan Rus' both in the 9th century.

The expansion of the Magyars into the Carpathian Basin and the Germanization of Austria gradually separated the South Slavs from the West and East Slavs. Later Slavic states, which formed in the following centuries included the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, Banate of Bosnia, Duklja and Kingdom of Serbia which later grew into Serbian Empire.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

File:Pan-Slavic postcard "Dědictví otců, zachovej nám, Pane".jpg, with the text "God/Our Lord, watch over our grandfatherland/
heritage" in 8 Slavic languages.]]

Pan-Slavism, a movement which came into prominence in the mid-19th century, emphasized the common heritage and unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires: the Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice. Austria-Hungary envisioned its own political concept of Austro-Slavism, in opposition of Pan-Slavism that was predominantly led by the Russian Empire.{{Cite web |last=Stergar |first=Rok |date=12 July 2017 |title=Panslavism |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/panslavism |website=International Encyclopedia of the First World War}}

As of 1878, there were only three majority Slavic states in the world: the Russian Empire, Principality of Serbia and Principality of Montenegro. Bulgaria was effectively independent but was de jure vassal to the Ottoman Empire until official independence was declared in 1908. The Slavic peoples who were, for the most part, denied a voice in the affairs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were calling for national self-determination.

During World War I, representatives of the Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes set up organizations in the Allied countries to gain sympathy and recognition.{{cite web |last1=Stergar |first1=Rok |title=Nationalities (Austria-Hungary) |url=https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/nationalities_austria-hungary |publisher=International Encyclopedia of the First World War}} In 1918, after World War I ended, the Slavs established such independent states as Czechoslovakia, the Second Polish Republic, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

The first half of the 20th century in Russia and the Soviet Union was marked by a succession of wars, famines and other disasters, each accompanied by large-scale population losses.Mark Harrison (2002). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=yJcD7_Q_rQ8C&pg=PA167 Accounting for War: Soviet Production, Employment, and the Defence Burden, 1940–1945]". Cambridge University Press. p.167. ISBN 0-521-89424-7 The two major famines were in 1921 to 1922 and 1932 to 1933, which caused millions of deaths mostly around the Volga region, Ukraine and the Northern Caucasus.Rudnytskyi, Omelian et al. “The 1921–1923 Famine and the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine: Common and Distinctive Features.” Nationalities Papers 48.3 (2020): 549–568. Web.{{Cite journal |last=Livi-Bacci |first=Massimo |date=2021-07-28 |title=Nature, Politics, and the Traumas of Europe |journal=Population and Development Review |volume=47 |issue=3 |pages=579–609 |doi=10.1111/padr.12429 |issn=0098-7921|doi-access=free }} The latter resulted from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin's collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine.{{Cite web |date=2023-02-24 |title=Russia and Ukraine: the tangled history that connects—and divides—them |url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/russia-and-ukraine-the-tangled-history-that-connects-and-divides-them |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=History |language=en}}

During the war, Nazi Germany used hundreds of thousands of people for slave labor in their concentration camps, the majority of whom were Jewish or Slavic.{{Cite journal |last=Gwiazda II |first=Henry J. |date=2016 |title=The Nazi Racial War: Concentration Camps in the New Order |url=https://scholarlypublishingcollective.org/tpr/article/61/3/59/215387/The-Nazi-Racial-War-Concentration-Camps-in-the-New |journal=The Polish Review |language=en |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=59–84 |doi=10.5406/polishreview.61.3.0059|url-access=subscription }} Both groups were a part of what Germans claimed to be a "vast racially subhuman surplus population" that they "intended to eliminate in time from their new empire", their term for "racial subhumans" being Untermensch.{{Cite web |date=2023-08-01 |title=Vocabulary Terms Related To The Holocaust - Holocaust Museum Houston |url=https://hmh.org/education/resources/vocabulary-terms-related-holocaust/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=hmh.org |language=en-US}} Thus, one of Adolf Hitler's ambitions at the start of World War II was to exterminate, expel, or enslave most or all West and East Slavs from their native lands, so as to make "living space" for German settlers.

In early 1941, Germany began planning Generalplan Ost, the genocide of Slavs in Eastern Europe which was supposed to start after a major expansion of German concentration camps in occupied Poland and the fall of Stalin's regime.{{Cite web |date=2022-03-18 |title=Remembrance of the Great Patriotic War and Russia's Invasion of Ukraine |url=https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/great-patriotic-war-russia-invasion-ukraine |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=The National WWII Museum {{!}} New Orleans |language=en}} This plan was to be carried out gradually over 25 to 30 years.{{cite book |last1=Fritz |first1=Stephen G. |title=Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gxGxGgzxKHsC&q=Generalplan+Ost |at=Generalplan Ost (General plan for the east) |year=2011 |publisher=University Press of Kentucky |via=Google Books |isbn=978-0-8131-4050-6}} After an approximate 30 million{{Cite web |last=Blakemore |first=Erin |date=2017-02-21 |title=The Nazis' Nightmarish Plan to Starve the Soviet Union |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-nazis-nightmarish-plan-to-starve-the-soviet-union/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-US}} Slavs would be killed through starvation and their major cities depopulated, the Germans were supposed to repopulate Eastern Europe.{{Cite web |title=History of Germany - Germany from 1871 to 1918 {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Germany/Germany-from-1871-to-1918 |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}{{Cite news |last=Rubenstein |first=Joshua |date=2010-11-26 |title=The Devils' Playground |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/books/review/Rubenstein-t.html |access-date=2024-05-23 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} In June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, Hitler paused the plan to focus on the extermination of the Jews. However, some of the plan was nonetheless implemented. Millions of Slavs were murdered in Eastern Europe; this includes victims of the Hunger Plan, Germany's intentional starvation of the region, as well as the murders of 3.3. million Soviet prisoners of war.{{Cite web |title=Nazi Persecution of Soviet Prisoners of War |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-persecution-of-soviet-prisoners-of-war |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en}} Germany's Heinrich Himmler also ordered his subordinate Ludolf-Hermann von Alvensleben to start repopulating Crimea, and hundreds of ethnic Germans were forcibly moved to cities and villages there.Berkhoff, Karel C. Central European History, vol. 39, no. 4, 2006, pp. 728–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20457191. Accessed 23 May 2024. The Soviet Red Army took back their land from the Germans in 1944. Stephen J. Lee estimates that, by the end of World War II in 1945, the Russian population was about 90 million fewer than it could have been otherwise.Stephen J. Lee (2000). "[https://books.google.com/books?id=KnvJO9yfvEAC&pg=PA86 European dictatorships, 1918–1945]". Routledge. p.86. ISBN 0-415-23046-2.

The ultra-nationalist, fascist Ustaše committed genocide against Serbs during World War II.{{cite book|last=Yeomans|first=Rory|author-link=Rory Yeomans|title=The Utopia of Terror: Life and Death in Wartime Croatia|year=2015|page=18|publisher=Boydell & Brewer|isbn=9781580465458|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8HEDCwAAQBAJ|archive-date=27 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230927204208/https://books.google.com/books?id=8HEDCwAAQBAJ|url-status=live}} The Serbian nationalist Chetniks committed genocide against Croats and Bosniaks.{{cite book |last1=Totten |first1=Samuel |last2=Parsons |first2=William Spencer |title=Centuries of Genocide: Essays and Eyewitness Accounts |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-41587-191-4 |page=483 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6XYp-z5aP4MC&pg=PA483}}{{cite book|last=Hoare|first=Marko Attila|author-link=Marko Attila Hoare|title=The History of Bosnia: From the Middle Ages to the Present Day|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OWQtAQAAIAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Saqi|isbn=978-0-86356-953-1|pages=254, 279}} Also during World War II, fascist Italy sent tens of thousands of Slavs to concentration camps in mainland Italy, Libya, and the Balkans.{{Cite news |date=2022-10-22 |title='The Italians hid behind Nazi crimes to forget their own and failed to firmly anchor democracy in their society' |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2022/10/22/the-italians-hid-behind-nazi-crimes-to-forget-their-own-and-failed-to-firmly-anchor-democracy-in-their-society_6001338_23.html |access-date=2024-05-23 |work=Le Monde.fr |language=en}}

In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and many former Soviet republics became independent countries.{{cite news |date=10 December 2013 |title=Kyrgyzstan Offers an Unlikely Window Into Slavic Culture |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2013/12/10/kyrgyzstan-offers-an-unlikely-window-into-slavic-culture-a30350 |work=The Moscow Times}} Currently, former Soviet states in Central Asia such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have very large minority Slavic populations, with most being Russians. Kazakhstan has the largest Slavic minority population.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4420922.stm Russians left behind in Central Asia], by Robert Greenall, BBC News, 23 November 2005.

{{main|History of the Slavic languages|Slavic languages}}

[[File:Lenguas_eslavas_orientales.PNG|thumb|upright|left|East Slavic languages{{imagefact|date=November 2022}}

{{legend|#008080|Russian}}

{{legend|#00FF7F|Belarusian}}

{{legend|#FFD700|Ukrainian}}

{{legend|#FF7F50|Rusyn}}]]

File:South_Slavic_dialect_continuum.svg

[[File:Lenguas eslavas occidentales.PNG|thumb|upright|left|West Slavic languages{{imagefact|date=November 2022}}

{{legend|#FF0000|Polish}}

{{legend|#A52A2A|Kashubian}}

{{legend|#FF6347|Silesian}}

{{legend|#8B008B|Polabian †}}

{{legend|#FF00FF|Lower Sorbian}}

{{legend|#EE82EE|Upper Sorbian}}

{{legend|#FF8C00|Czech}}

{{legend|#FFD700|Slovak}}

]]

Proto-Slavic, the supposed ancestor language of all Slavic languages, is a descendant of common Proto-Indo-European, via a Balto-Slavic stage in which it developed numerous lexical and morphophonological isoglosses with the Baltic languages. In the framework of the Kurgan hypothesis, "the Indo-Europeans who remained after the migrations [from the steppe] became speakers of Balto-Slavic".

Proto-Slavic is defined as the last stage of the language preceding the geographical split of the historical Slavic languages. That language was uniform, and on the basis of borrowings from foreign languages and Slavic borrowings into other languages, it cannot be said to have any recognizable dialects, which suggests that there was, at one time, a relatively-small Proto-Slavic homeland. However, from a historical and archaeological point of view, the existence of a homogeneous Proto-Slavic people is judged improbable.{{sfn|Brather|2008|pp=54-55}}

Slavic linguistic unity was to some extent visible as late as Old Church Slavonic (or Old Bulgarian) manuscripts which, though based on local Slavic speech of Thessaloniki, could still serve the purpose of the first common Slavic literary language.J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (2006), pp. 25–26.

Standardised Slavic languages that have official status in at least one country are: Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, and Ukrainian. Russian is the most spoken Slavic language, and is the most spoken native language in Europe.{{cite web|url=https://learn.utoronto.ca/programs-courses/languages-and-translation/language-learning/russian|title=Russian|publisher=University of Toronto|quote=Russian is the most widespread of the Slavic languages and the largest native language in Europe.|access-date=26 March 2022}}

The alphabets used for Slavic languages are usually connected to the dominant religion among the respective ethnic groups. Orthodox Christians use the Cyrillic alphabet while Catholics use the Latin alphabet; the Bosniaks, who are Muslim, also use the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet in Serbia. Additionally, some Eastern Catholics and Western Catholics use the Cyrillic alphabet. Serbian and Montenegrin use both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. There is also a Latin script to write in Belarusian, called Łacinka and in Ukrainian, called Latynka.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

West Slavs originate from early Slavic tribes which settled in Central Europe after the East Germanic tribes had left this area during the migration period.{{cite book|last1= Kobyliński|first1= Zbigniew |chapter= The Slavs|editor1-last= McKitterick |editor1-first= Rosamond |editor1-link= Rosamond McKitterick |title= The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 1, c.500-c.700 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JcmwuoTsKO0C |publisher= Cambridge University Press |page= 531|isbn= 978-0-521-36291-7 |year= 1995}} They are noted as having mixed with Germanics, Hungarians, Celts (particularly the Boii), Old Prussians, and the Pannonian Avars.{{cite book|author=Roman Smal Stocki |title=Slavs and Teutons: The Oldest Germanic-Slavic Relations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VM0KAQAAIAAJ |year=1950 |publisher=Bruce}} The West Slavs came under the influence of the Western Roman Empire (Latin) and of the Catholic Church.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

East Slavs have origins in early Slavic tribes who mixed and contacted with Finns, Balts{{cite book|author1=Raymond E. Zickel|author2=Library of Congress. Federal Research Division|title=Soviet Union: A Country Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TnYsAAAAYAAJ|date=1 December 1991|publisher=Federal Research Division, Library of Congress|isbn=978-0-8444-0727-2|page=138}}{{cite book|title=Comparative Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yTAkDMtho0sC&pg=PA182|publisher=Pearson Education India|isbn=978-81-317-6033-8|pages=182–}} and with the remnants of the people of the Goths.[https://www.academia.edu/98572077 Tarasov I.M. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev. 2023. P. 59–60] Their early Slavic component, Antes, mixed or absorbed Iranians, and later received influence from the Khazars and Vikings.{{sfn|Vlasto|1970|p=237}} The East Slavs trace their national origins to the tribal unions of Kievan Rus' and Rus' Khaganate, beginning in the 10th century. They came particularly under the influence of the Byzantine Empire and of the Eastern Orthodox Church.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

South Slavs from most of the region have origins in early Slavic tribes who mixed with the local Proto-Balkanic tribes (Illyrian, Dacian, Thracian, Paeonian, Hellenic tribes), and Celtic tribes (particularly the Scordisci), as well as with Romans (and the Romanized remnants of the former groups), and also with remnants of temporarily settled invading East Germanic, Asiatic or Caucasian tribes such as Gepids, Huns, Avars, Goths and Bulgars.{{citation needed|date=December 2015}} The original inhabitants of present-day Slovenia and continental Croatia have origins in early Slavic tribes who mixed with Romans and romanized Celtic and Illyrian people as well as with Avars and Germanic peoples (Lombards and East Goths). The South Slavs (except the Slovenes and Croats) came under the cultural sphere of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), of the Ottoman Empire and of the Eastern Orthodox Church and Islam, while the Slovenes and the Croats were influenced by the Western Roman Empire (Latin) and thus by the Catholic Church in a similar fashion to that of the West Slavs.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Consistent with the proximity of their languages, analyses of Y chromosomes, mDNA, and autosomal marker CCR5 delta 32 shows that East Slavs and West Slavs are genetically very similar, but demonstrating significant differences from neighboring Finno-Ugric, Turkic, and North Caucasian peoples. Such genetic homogeneity is somewhat unusual, given such a wide dispersal of Slavic populations.{{sfn|Verbenko|2005|pp=10–18}}{{sfn|Balanovsky|2012|p=13}} Together they form the basis of the "East European" gene cluster, which also includes non-Slavic Hungarians and Aromanians.{{sfn|Verbenko|2005|pp=10–18}}{{sfn|Balanovsky|2012|p=23}}

Only Northern Russians among East and West Slavs belong to a different, "Northern European" genetic cluster, along with Balts, Germanic and Baltic Finnic peoples (Northern Russian populations are very similar to Balts).{{sfn|Balanovsky|Rootsi|2008|pp=236–250}}{{sfn|Balanovsky|2012|p=26}}

File:Mapa de R1a.png haplogroup, which is the most frequently found haplogroup among the Slavic peoples of Europe]]

The 2006 Y-DNA study results "suggest that the Slavic expansion started from the territory of present-day Ukraine, thus supporting the hypothesis placing the earliest known homeland of Slavs in the basin of the middle Dnieper".{{cite journal | pmid = 17364156 | year = 2007 | last1 = Rebała | first1 = K | last2 = Mikulich | first2 = AI | last3 = Tsybovsky | first3 = IS | last4 = Siváková | first4 = D | last5 = Dzupinková | first5 = Z | last6 = Szczerkowska-Dobosz | first6 = A | last7 = Szczerkowska | first7 = Z | title = Y-STR variation among Slavs: Evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin | volume = 52 | issue = 5 | pages = 406–14 | doi = 10.1007/s10038-007-0125-6 | journal = Journal of Human Genetics | doi-access = free }} According to genetic studies until 2020, the distribution, variance and frequency of the Y-DNA haplogroups R1a and I2 and their subclades R-M558, R-M458 and I-CTS10228 among South Slavs correlate with the spread of Slavic languages during the medieval Slavic expansion from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day Ukraine and Southeastern Poland.{{cite journal|author=A. Zupan|title=The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251567977|journal=Annals of Human Biology|volume=40|issue=6|date=2013|doi=10.3109/03014460.2013.813584|pmid=23879710|display-authors=etal|pages=515–526 |s2cid=34621779|quote=However, a study by Battaglia et al. (2009) showed a variance peak for I2a1 in the Ukraine and, based on the observed pattern of variation, it could be suggested that at least part of the I2a1 haplogroup could have arrived in the Balkans and Slovenia with the Slavic migrations from a homeland in present-day Ukraine... The calculated age of this specific haplogroup together with the variation peak detected in the suggested Slavic homeland could represent a signal of Slavic migration arising from medieval Slavic expansions. However, the strong genetic barrier around the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, associated with the high frequency of the I2a1b-M423 haplogroup, could also be a consequence of a Paleolithic genetic signal of a Balkan refuge area, followed by mixing with a medieval Slavic signal from modern-day Ukraine.}}{{Citation |last1=Underhill |first1=Peter A. |year=2015 |title=The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a |journal=European Journal of Human Genetics |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=124–131 |doi=10.1038/ejhg.2014.50 |pmid=24667786 |pmc=4266736 |quote=R1a-M458 exceeds 20% in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Western Belarus. The lineage averages 11–15% across Russia and Ukraine and occurs at 7% or less elsewhere (Figure 2d). Unlike hg R1a-M458, the R1a-M558 clade is also common in the Volga-Uralic populations. R1a-M558 occurs at 10–33% in parts of Russia, exceeds 26% in Poland and Western Belarus, and varies between 10 and 23% in the Ukraine, whereas it drops 10-fold lower in Western Europe. In general, both R1a-M458 and R1a-M558 occur at low but informative frequencies in Balkan populations with known Slavonic heritage.}}{{cite thesis |type=PhD |author=O.M. Utevska |date=2017 |title=Генофонд українців за різними системами генетичних маркерів: походження і місце на європейському генетичному просторі |trans-title=The gene pool of Ukrainians revealed by different systems of genetic markers: the origin and statement in Europe |publisher=National Research Center for Radiation Medicine of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine|url=http://nrcrm.gov.ua/science/councils/dissertation/|language=uk|pages=219–226, 302}}{{cite journal |last1=Neparáczki |first1=Endre |last2=Maróti |first2=Zoltán |display-authors=1 |date=2019 |title=Y-chromosome haplogroups from Hun, Avar and conquering Hungarian period nomadic people of the Carpathian Basin |journal=Scientific Reports |publisher=Nature Research |volume=9 |issue=16569 |page=16569 |doi=10.1038/s41598-019-53105-5 |pmc=6851379 |pmid=31719606 |bibcode=2019NatSR...916569N |quote=Hg I2a1a2b-L621 was present in 5 Conqueror samples, and a 6th sample form Magyarhomorog (MH/9) most likely also belongs here, as MH/9 is a likely kin of MH/16 (see below). This Hg of European origin is most prominent in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, especially among Slavic speaking groups.}}{{cite book|first1=Horolma|last1=Pamjav|first2=Tibor|last2=Fehér|first3=Endre|last3=Németh|first4=László|last4=Koppány Csáji|title=Genetika és őstörténet|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xq2xDwAAQBAJ|year=2019|publisher=Napkút Kiadó|language=hu|isbn=978-963-263-855-3|page=58|quote=Az I2-CTS10228 (köznevén "dinári-kárpáti") alcsoport legkorábbi közös őse 2200 évvel ezelőttre tehető, így esetében nem arról van szó, hogy a mezolit népesség Kelet-Európában ilyen mértékben fennmaradt volna, hanem arról, hogy egy, a mezolit csoportoktól származó szűk család az európai vaskorban sikeresen integrálódott egy olyan társadalomba, amely hamarosan erőteljes demográfiai expanzióba kezdett. Ez is mutatja, hogy nem feltétlenül népek, mintsem családok sikerével, nemzetségek elterjedésével is számolnunk kell, és ezt a jelenlegi etnikai identitással összefüggésbe hozni lehetetlen. A csoport elterjedése alapján valószínűsíthető, hogy a szláv népek migrációjában vett részt, így válva az R1a-t követően a második legdominánsabb csoporttá a mai Kelet-Európában. Nyugat-Európából viszont teljes mértékben hiányzik, kivéve a kora középkorban szláv nyelvet beszélő keletnémet területeket.}}{{Citation |last1=Fóthi |first1=E. |last2=Gonzalez |first2=A. |last3=Fehér |first3=T. |display-authors=etal |title=Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes |journal=Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences |volume=12 |issue=1 |date=2020 |page=31 |doi=10.1007/s12520-019-00996-0|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020ArAnS..12...31F |quote=Based on SNP analysis, the CTS10228 group is 2200 ± 300 years old. The group's demographic expansion may have begun in Southeast Poland around that time, as carriers of the oldest subgroup are found there today. The group cannot solely be tied to the Slavs, because the proto-Slavic period was later, around 300–500 CE... The SNP-based age of the Eastern European CTS10228 branch is 2200 ± 300 years old. The carriers of the most ancient subgroup live in Southeast Poland, and it is likely that the rapid demographic expansion which brought the marker to other regions in Europe began there. The largest demographic explosion occurred in the Balkans, where the subgroup is dominant in 50.5% of Croatians, 30.1% of Serbs, 31.4% of Montenegrins, and in about 20% of Albanians and Greeks. As a result, this subgroup is often called Dinaric. It is interesting that while it is dominant among modern Balkan peoples, this subgroup has not been present yet during the Roman period, as it is almost absent in Italy as well (see Online Resource 5; ESM_5).}}{{citation |last1=Kushniarevich |first1=Alena |last2=Kassian |first2=Alexei |editor=Marc L. Greenberg |date=2020 |title=Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online |chapter=Genetics and Slavic languages |publisher=Brill |doi=10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_032367 |access-date=10 December 2020 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341945550 |quote=The geographic distributions of the major eastern European NRY haplogroups (R1a-Z282, I2a-P37) overlap with the area occupied by the present-day Slavs to a great extent, and it might be tempting to consider both haplogroups as Slavic-specic patrilineal lineages}}

According to a 2017 study, Slavic speakers like Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians have similar genetic components. Ukrainians and Belarusians have near-equal amounts of two "European components", which are commonly found in North Europe and Caucasus respectively. There is also no evidence of Asian admixture. However, samples of Novosibirsk residents and Old Believers in Siberia have 5-10% Central Siberian ancestry despite being genetically close to European Slavs.{{Cite journal |last1=Triska |first1=Petr |last2=Chekanov |first2=Nikolay |last3=Stepanov |first3=Vadim |last4=Khusnutdinova |first4=Elza K. |display-authors=3 |date=2017 |title=Between Lake Baikal and the Baltic Sea: genomic history of the gateway to Europe |journal=BMC Genetics |volume=18 |issue=1 |page=110 |doi=10.1186/s12863-017-0578-3 |doi-access=free |pmid=29297395 |pmc=5751809 }}

{{See also|Slavic paganism}}

File:"Swiatowid (cult statue)", Kraków 2013.2.jpg" preserved at the Kraków Archaeological Museum]]

The pagan Slavic populations were Christianized between the 7th and 12th centuries. Orthodox Christianity is predominant among East and South Slavs, while Catholicism is predominant among West Slavs and some western South Slavs. The religious borders are largely comparable to the East–West Schism which began in the 11th century. Islam first arrived in the 7th century during the early Muslim conquests, and was gradually adopted by a number of Slavic ethnic groups through the centuries in the Balkans.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

Among Slavic populations who profess a religion, the majority of contemporary Christian Slavs are Orthodox, followed by Catholic. The majority of Muslim Slavs follow the Hanafi school of the Sunni branch of Islam.{{cite book|author-link=Sabrina P. Ramet|author=Sabrina P. Ramet|title=Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=50GTIhntKvYC&pg=PA380|year=1989|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-0891-1|pages=380–}} Religious delineations by nationality can be very sharp; usually in the Slavic ethnic groups, the vast majority of religious people share the same religion.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

{{Col-begin|width=60%}}

{{Col-break}}

Mainly Eastern Orthodoxy:{{cite journal|last=Goldblatt|first=Harvey|title=Orthodox Slavic Heritage and National Consciousness: Aspects of the East Slavic and South Slavic National Revivals|journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies|publisher=Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute|pages=336–354|date=December 1986|volume=10|number=3/4|jstor=41036261}}{{cite book|last1=Zdravkovski|first1=Aleksander|last2=Morrison|first2=Kenneth|chapter=The Orthodox Churches of Macedonia and Montenegro: The Quest for Autocephaly|pages=240–262|title=Religion and Politics in Post-Socialist Central and Southeastern Europe|date=January 2014|doi=10.1057/9781137330727_10|isbn=978-1-349-46120-2}}

• Russians
• Ukrainians
• Serbs
• Bulgarians
• Belarusians
• Macedonians
• Montenegrins

{{Col-break}}

Mainly Catholicism:{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

• Poles
• Silesians
• Kashubians
• Gorals
• Czechs (largely irreligious)
• Slovaks
• Croats
• Slovenes
• Sorbs{{cite web|last=Sparrow|first=Thomas|title=Sorbs: The ethnic minority inside Germany|url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210615-sorbs-the-ethnic-minority-inside-germany|work=BBC|date=16 June 2021|access-date=3 April 2022}}
• Rusyns{{efn|name=rusyn-religion|Originally Eastern Orthodox, with some groups adopting Byzantine-Rite Catholicism under Polish and Austro-Hungarian rule and reverting to Eastern Orthodoxy starting in the late 19th Century.{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}}}
• Banat Bulgarians{{cite journal |last=Vučković |first=Marija |date=2008 |title=Savremena istraživanja malih etničkih zajednica |trans-title=Contemporary studies of small ethnic communities |url=https://www.academia.edu/5364641 |language=sh |journal=XXI Vek |volume=3 |pages=2–8 |access-date=1 March 2019}}

{{Col-break}}

Mainly Islam:

• Bosniaks{{cite journal|last=Lopasic|first=Alexander|title=Bosnian Muslims: A Search for Identity|journal=British Society for Middle Eastern Studies|volume=8|number=2|date=1981|pages=115–121|publisher=Taylor & Francis|doi=10.1080/13530198108705319|jstor=194542}}
• Pomaks{{cite book|author1=Hugh Poulton|author2=Suha Taji-Farouki|title=Muslim Identity and the Balkan State|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lQqHjwW6XzcC&pg=PA33|date=January 1997|publisher=Hurst|isbn=978-1-85065-276-2|page=33}}
• Gorani{{citation|editor=Bursać, Milan|year=2000|title=ГОРАНЦИ, МУСЛИМАНИ И ТУРЦИ У ШАРПЛАНИНСКИМ ЖУПАМА СРБИЈЕ: ПРОБЛЕМИ САДАШЊИХ УСЛОВА ЖИВОТА И ОПСТАНКА: Зборник радова са "Округлог стола" одржаног 19. априла 2000. године у Српској академији наука и уметности|publisher=SANU|location=Belgrade|url=http://www.rastko.rs/rastko-gora/zbornici/gora2000.php|pages=71=73}}
• Torbeši{{cite book |last=Kowan |first=J. |year=2000 |title=Macedonia: The Politics of Identity and Difference |location=London |publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=0-7453-1594-1 |page=111 }}
• Ethnic Muslims

{{col-end}}

{{See also|Baltic Slavic piracy|Narentines|Germania Slavica|Bavaria Slavica}}

Throughout their history, Slavs came into contact with non-Slavic groups. In the postulated homeland region (present-day Ukraine), they had contacts with the Iranian Sarmatians and the Germanic Goths. After their subsequent spread, the Slavs began assimilating non-Slavic peoples. For example, in the Northern Black Sea region, the Slavs assimilated the remnants of the Goths.[https://www.academia.edu/98572077 Tarasov I.M. On the Mention of the Dnieper Varangians in the Context of the Legend of the Beginning of Kiev. 2023. P. 59–60] In the Balkans, there were Paleo-Balkan peoples, such as Romanized and Hellenized (Jireček Line) Illyrians, Thracians and Dacians, as well as Greeks and Celtic Scordisci and Serdi.The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond, {{ISBN|0-521-22717-8}}, 1992, page 600: "In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long being supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin." Because Slavs were so numerous, most indigenous populations of the Balkans were Slavicized. Thracians and Illyrians mixed as ethnic groups in this period.

A notable exception is Greece, where Slavs were Hellenized because Greeks were more numerous, especially with more Greeks returning to Greece in the 9th century and the influence of the church and administration,{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=41}} however, Slavicized regions within Macedonia, Thrace and Moesia Inferior also had a larger portion of locals compared to migrating Slavs.Florin Curta's An ironic smile: the Carpathian Mountains and the migration of the Slavs, Studia mediaevalia Europaea et orientalia. Miscellanea in honorem professoris emeriti Victor Spinei oblata, edited by George Bilavschi and Dan Aparaschivei, 47–72. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2018. Other notable exceptions are the territory of present-day Romania and Hungary, where Slavs settled en route to present-day Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria and East Thrace but assimilated, and the modern Albanian nation which claims descent from Illyrians and other Balkan tribes.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

The status of the Bulgars as a ruling class and their control of the land nominally left their legacy in the Bulgarian country and people, but Bulgars were gradually also Slavicized into the present-day South Slavic ethnic group known as Bulgarians. The Romance speakers within the fortified Dalmatian cities retained their culture and language for a long time.{{sfn|Fine|1991|p=35}} Dalmatian Romance was spoken until the high Middle Ages, but, they too were eventually assimilated into the body of Slavs.{{Cite web |last=Simmonds |first=Lauren |date=May 11, 2023 |title=Croatian Language – The Difference between Dalmatic and Dalmatian |url=https://total-croatia-news.com/lifestyle/croatian-language-8/#:~:text=The%20Dalmatic%20language%20does%20not,both%20Slavic%20and%20Romance%20languages}}

In the Western Balkans, South Slavs and Germanic Gepids intermarried with invaders, eventually producing a Slavicized population.{{citation needed|date=April 2015}} In Central Europe, the West Slavs intermixed with Germanic, Hungarian, and Celtic peoples, while in Eastern Europe the East Slavs had encountered Finnic and Scandinavian peoples. Scandinavians (Varangians) and Finnic peoples were involved in the early formation of the Rus' state but were completely Slavicized after a century. Some Finno-Ugric tribes in the north were also absorbed into the expanding Rus population.{{sfn|Balanovsky|Rootsi|2008|pp=236—250}} In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchak and the Pecheneg, caused a massive migration of East Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north.{{cite book |last=Klyuchevsky |first=Vasily |date=1987 |chapter-url=http://www.kulichki.com/inkwell/text/special/history/kluch/kluch16.htm |title=The course of the Russian history |chapter=1: Mysl |publisher=Мысль |language=ru |isbn=5-244-00072-1 |access-date=9 October 2009}} In the Middle Ages, groups of Saxon ore miners settled in medieval Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria, where they were Slavicized.{{Citation needed|date=April 2022}}

File:Slavic raids on Scandinavia, Nar.Muz.Mor., Gdańsk, Poland.jpg on Scandinavia in the mid-12th century]]

Saqaliba refers to the Slavic mercenaries and slaves in the medieval Arab world in North Africa, Sicily and Al-Andalus. Saqaliba served as caliph's guards.{{cite web |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html |title=ch 1 |author=Lewis |year=1994 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010401012040/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/lewis1.html |archive-date=1 April 2001}}Eigeland, Tor. 1976. [http://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/197605/the.golden.caliphate.htm "The golden caliphate"]. Saudi Aramco World, September/October 1976, pp. 12–16. In the 12th century, Slavic piracy in the Baltics increased. The Wendish Crusade was started against the Polabian Slavs in 1147, as a part of the Northern Crusades. The pagan chief of the Slavic Obodrite tribes, Niklot, began his open resistance when Lothar III, Holy Roman Emperor, invaded Slavic lands. In August 1160, Niklot was killed, and German colonization (Ostsiedlung) of the Elbe-Oder region began. In Hanoverian Wendland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lusatia, invaders started germanization. Early forms of germanization were described by German monks: Helmold in the manuscript Chronicon Slavorum and Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum.{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639735/Wend |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507201210/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/639735/Wend |archive-date=2008-05-07 |title=Wend |website=Britannica.com |date=13 September 2013 |access-date=4 April 2014}} The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony.{{cite web |url=http://www.britannica.com/topic/Polabian-language |title=Polabian language |website=Britannica.com |access-date=4 April 2014}} In Eastern Germany, around 20% of Germans have historic Slavic paternal ancestry, as revealed in Y-DNA testing.{{cite journal|author=|date=2013|title=Contemporary paternal genetic landscape of Polish and German populations: from early medieval Slavic expansion to post-World War II resettlements|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=21|issue=4|pages=415–22|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2012.190|pmc=3598329|pmid=22968131}} Similarly, in Germany, around 20% of the foreign surnames are of Slavic origin.{{cite journal|author=|date=2006|title=Y-chromosomal STR haplotype analysis reveals surname-associated strata in the East-German population|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=14|issue=5|pages=577–582|doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201572|pmid=16435000|doi-access=free}}

Cossacks, although Slavic and practicing Orthodox Christianity, came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, including Tatars and other peoples.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} The Gorals of southern Poland and northern Slovakia are partially descended from the originally Balkan Romance speaking Vlachs, who migrated into the region from the 14th to 17th centuries and were quickly absorbed into the local population, especially since the majority of Vlachs were already slavicized and the term became synonymous with Ruthenians. The populations of Moravian Wallachia, Carpathian Ruthenia and parts of northern Slovakia are also descended partially from the Vlachs.{{Cite web |title=Wołoscy pasterze w Ochotnicy oraz tutejsze nazwy pochodzenia wołoskiego |url=http://skansen-studzionki.pl/wolosi-w-ochotnicy |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=skansen-studzionki.pl |language=pl-PL}}{{Cite web |last=Redakcja |date=2017-11-23 |title=Skąd pochodzą górale? Inwazja Wołochów zmieniła historię polskich gór |url=https://naszahistoria.pl/skad-pochodza-gorale-inwazja-wolochow-zmienila-historie-polskich-gor/ar/12701192 |access-date=2024-03-29 |website=Nasza Historia |language=pl-PL}}{{Cite book |last=Magocsi |first=Paul Robert |title=With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns |date=2015 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-615-5053-46-7 |location=Budapest}} Conversely, some Slavs were assimilated into other populations. Although the majority continued towards Southeast Europe, attracted by the riches of the area that became the state of Bulgaria, a few remained in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe and were assimilated into the Magyar people. Numerous rivers and places in Romania have a name with Slavic origins.{{cite journal |last=Nandriș |first=Grigore |title=The Relations between Toponymy and Ethnology in Rumania |jstor=4204755 |volume=34 |number=83 |date=June 1956 |pages=490–494 |journal=The Slavonic and East European Review |publisher=Modern Humanities Research Association}}

[[File:Slavic ancestry in the USA and Canada.png|thumb|Slavs in the US (1990 census) and Canada (2016 census) by area:

{{legend|#6A006A|20–35%}}

{{legend|#63070C|14–20%}}

{{legend|#9A0E15|11–14%}}

{{legend|#D2131D|8–11%}}

{{legend|#FF7F27|5–8%}}

{{legend|#FFC90E|3–5%}}

{{legend|#BBBBBB|0–3%}}]]

File:Percentage of Russians by region.svg of Russia according to the 2010 census:{{cite web |url=http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/rus_etn_10.php |title=EAll- Russian population census 2010 – Population by nationality, sex and subjects of the Russian Federation |work=Demoscope Weekly |year=2010}}

{{legend|#ff0000|above 80%}}

{{legend|#ff9955|70—79%}}

{{legend|#ffccaa|50—69%}}

{{legend|#ffe6d5|20—49%}}

{{legend|#ffffff|below 20%}}]]

Winkler Prins (2002) estimated the number of Slavs worldwide to be around {{circa}} 260 million at the time.{{cite encyclopedia |title=Slaven |encyclopedia=Encarta Encyclopedie Winkler Prins |date=1993–2002 |publisher=Microsoft Corporation/Het Spectrum |language=nl}}{{reliable source|date=August 2022}} Currently it is estimated that there are 300 million Slavic inhabitants in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe.{{Cite journal |last1=Loginova |first1=Nina N. |last2=Radovanović |first2=Milan M. |last3=Yamashkin |first3=Anatoliy A. |last4=Vasin |first4=Goran |last5=Petrović |first5=Marko D. |last6=Demirović Bajrami |first6=Dunja |date=2020-12-31 |title=Analysis of the population dynamics in the "Slavic World" with a special focus on Russia |journal=Indonesian Journal of Geography |volume=52 |issue=3 |pages=317 |doi=10.22146/ijg.51202 |issn=2354-9114|doi-access=free }}

{{Main|List of Slavic studies journals}}

{{Wikimedia}}

{{portal|Europe}}

{{div col|colwidth=18em}}

• Ethnic groups in Europe
• Gord (archaeology)
• Church Slavonic language
• Lech, Čech, and Rus
• List of modern ethnic groups
• List of Slavic tribes
• Outline of Slavic history and culture
• Panethnicity
• Pan-Slavic colors
• Slavic names
• Asia Minor Slavs
• Bulgarisation
• Russification
• Serbianisation
• Polonization

{{div col end}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|refs=

{{cite encyclopedia |author=Encyclopædia Britannica |url = http://www.britannica.com/topic/Slav |title = Slav (people) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=18 September 2006 |access-date=18 August 2010}}

Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, V.33.

Jordanes, The Origin and Deeds of the Goths, V. 35.

[http://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art111e.pdf F. Kortlandt, The spread of the Indo-Europeans], Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 18 (1990), pp. 131–140. Online version, p. 4.

[http://www.kortlandt.nl/publications/art111e.pdf F. Kortlandt, The spread of the Indo-Europeans], Journal of Indo-European Studies, vol. 18 (1990), pp. 131–140. Online version, p. 3.

{{Cite web|url=http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lecture1.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990225154722/http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lecture1.html|archive-date=25 February 1999|title=Geography and ethnic geography of the Balkans to 1500|date=25 February 1999}}

Procopius, History of the Wars,\, VII. 14. 22–30, VIII.40.5

Maurice's Strategikon: handbook of Byzantine military strategy, trans. G.T. Dennis (1984), p. 120.

{{cite web|url=http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fcurta/Procopius.htm |title=Procopius, History of the Wars, VII. 14. 22–30 |publisher=Clas.ufl.edu |access-date=4 April 2014}}

}}

; Primary sources

• {{cite book |editor-last=Moravcsik |editor-first=Gyula |editor-link = Gyula Moravcsik |title = Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio |year = 1967 |orig-date = 1949 |edition = 2nd revised |location=Washington D.C. |publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3al15wpFWiMC |isbn = 978-0-88402-021-9 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Scholz |editor-first = Bernhard Walter |title = Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories |year=1970 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=sTzl6wFjehMC |isbn = 978-0-472-06186-0 |ref=none}}

; Secondary sources

{{div col}}

• {{cite journal |last1=Allentoft |first1=ME |date=June 11, 2015 |title=Population genomics of Bronze Age Eurasia |journal=Nature |publisher=Nature Research |volume=522 |issue=7555 |pages=167–172 |doi=10.1038/nature14507 |pmid=26062507 |bibcode=2015Natur.522..167A |s2cid=4399103 |url=https://depot.ceon.pl/handle/123456789/13155 |ref=none}}
• {{cite journal |date=January 2008 |last1=Balanovsky |first1=Oleg |last2=Rootsi |first2=Siiri |display-authors=etal |title=Two sources of the Russian patrilineal heritage in their Eurasian context |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=236–250 |pmc=2253976 |pmid=18179905 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.019}}
• {{cite thesis |year=2012 |surname=Balanovsky |given=Oleg P. |title=Изменчивость генофонда в пространстве и времени: синтез данных о геногеографии митохондриальной ДНК и Y-хромосомы |trans-title=Variability of the gene pool in space and time: synthesis of data on the genogeography of mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome |type=Dr. habil. in Biology thesis |url=http://www.med-gen.ru/ar/ar_Balanovsky.pdf |place=Moscow: Russian Academy of Medical Sciences |language=ru}}
• {{cite book |last=Barford |first=Paul M. |title=The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe |year=2001 |location=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Z9ItAtbJ5AC |isbn=978-0-8014-3977-3 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Brather |first=Sebastian |author-link=Sebastian Brather|date=2008|lang=de |title=Archäologie der westlichen Slawen. Siedlung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Ostmitteleuropa |trans-title=Archaeology of the Western Slavs. Settlement, economy and society in early and high medieval East-Central Europe |publisher=de Gruyter| location=Berlin, New York |isbn=978-3-11-020609-8 |edition=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Curta |first=Florin |author-link=Florin Curta |title=The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700 |year=2001 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcFGhCVs0sYC |isbn=978-1-139-42888-0}}
• {{cite book |last=Curta |first=Florin |author-link=Florin Curta |title=Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250 |year=2006 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/southeasterneuro0000curt |url-access=registration |isbn=978-0-521-81539-0 |ref=none}}
• Curta Florin, [https://www.academia.edu/229543/The_early_Slavs_in_Bohemia_and_Moravia_a_response_to_my_critics The early Slavs in Bohemia and Moravia: a response to my critics]
• {{Cite journal |last1=Đečević |first1=Mehmed |last2=Vuković-Ćalasan |first2=Danijela |last3=Knežević |first3=Saša |date=2017 |title=Re-designation of Ethnic Muslims as Bosniaks in Montenegro |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0888325416678042 |journal=East European Politics and Societies |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=137–157 |doi=10.1177/0888325416678042 |s2cid=152238874 |access-date=18 August 2022|url-access=subscription }}
• {{cite book |last=Dvornik |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Dvornik |title=The Slavs in European History and Civilization |year=1962 |location=New Brunswick |publisher=Rutgers University Press |url=https://archive.org/details/slavsineuropeanh0000dvor |url-access=registration |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Fine |first=John Van Antwerp Jr. |author-link=John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. |title=The Early Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Sixth to the Late Twelfth Century |year=1991 |orig-date=1983 |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |publisher=University of Michigan Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y0NBxG9Id58C |isbn=978-0-472-08149-3}}
• {{cite book |last=Fine |first=John Van Antwerp Jr. |author-link=John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. |title=The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest |year=1994 |orig-date=1987 |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |publisher=University of Michigan Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LvVbRrH1QBgC |isbn=978-0-472-08260-5 |ref=none}}
• Lacey, Robert. 2003. Great Tales from English History. Little, Brown and Company. New York. {{ISBN|0-316-10910-X}}.
• Lewis, Bernard. Race and Slavery in the Middle East. Oxford Univ. Press.
• {{cite journal |last1=Mathieson |first1=Iain |date=February 21, 2018 |title=The Genomic History of Southeastern Europe |journal=Nature |publisher=Nature Research |volume=555 |issue=7695 |pages=197–203 |bibcode=2018Natur.555..197M |doi=10.1038/nature25778 |pmc=6091220 |pmid=29466330 |ref=none}}
• Nystazopoulou-Pelekidou, Maria. 1992. [http://www.hri.org/cgi-bin/brief?/docs/macque/ The "Macedonian Question": A Historical Review]. © Association Internationale d'Etudes du Sud-Est Europeen (AIESEE, International Association of Southeast European Studies), Comité Grec. Corfu: Ionian University. (English translation of a 1988 work written in Greek.)
• {{cite book |last=Obolensky |first=Dimitri |author-link=Dimitri Obolensky |title=The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500–1453 |year=1974 |orig-date=1971 |location=London |publisher=Cardinal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RlBoAAAAMAAJ |isbn=978-0-351-17644-9 |ref=none}}
• {{cite book |last=Ostrogorsky |first=George |author-link=George Ostrogorsky |year=1956 |title=History of the Byzantine State |location=Oxford |publisher=Basil Blackwell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ |ref=none}}
• Rębała, Krzysztof, et al.. 2007. [https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10038-007-0125-6 Y-STR variation among Slavs: evidence for the Slavic homeland in the middle Dnieper basin]. Journal of Human Genetics, May 2007, 52(5): 408–414.
• {{cite journal |last=Verbenko |first=Dmitry A. |display-authors=etal |title=Variability of the 3'ApoB Minisatellite Locus in Eastern Slavonic Populations |journal=Human Heredity |date=2005 |volume=60 |number=1 |pages=10–18 |doi=10.1159/000087338 |pmid=16103681 |s2cid=8926871}}
• {{cite book |last=Vlasto |first=Alexis P. |author-link=Alexis P. Vlasto |title=The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom: An Introduction to the Medieval History of the Slavs |year=1970 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpVOAAAAIAAJ |isbn=978-0-521-07459-9}}

{{div col end}}

• {{cite web|url=http://macedonia.kroraina.com/rs/rs43_7.pdf|title=Linguistic Marginalia on Slavic Ethnogensis|work=Sorin Palgia, University of Bucharest}}

{{Commons category|Slavs}}

{{Wiktionary|Slav}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100614174952/http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/8/1651 Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny in Eastern and Western Slavs, B. Malyarchuk, T. Grzybowski, M. Derenko, M. Perkova, T. Vanecek, J. Lazur, P. Gomolcaknd I. Tsybovsky, Oxford Journals] (archived 14 June 2010)
• {{Wikisource-inline|list=
• {{Cite Americana|short=1|wstitle=Slavs|noicon=x}}
• {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Slavs|short=1|noicon=x}}
• {{CathEncy|wstitle=The Slavs|author=Leopold Lénard|noicon=x}}

}}

{{Slavic ethnic groups}}

{{History of Slavs}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slavic Peoples}}

Category:Indo-European peoples