Editing Slavs (section)

=== Modern era ===
[[File:Pan-Slavic postcard "Dědictví otců, zachovej nám, Pane".jpg|thumb|upright|Pan-Slavic postcard depicting [[Saints Cyril and Methodius|Cyril and Methodius]], with the text "God/Our Lord, watch over our grandfatherland/<br>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 [[Republic of Venice|Venice]]. Austria-Hungary envisioned its own political concept of [[Austro-Slavism]], in opposition of Pan-Slavism that was predominantly led by the [[Russian Empire]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> 

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.<ref name=":1" /> 

During [[World War I]], representatives of the Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes set up organizations in the [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] countries to gain sympathy and recognition.<ref name=":1">{{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}}</ref> 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 [[Russian Civil War|wars]], [[Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union|famine]]s and other disasters, each accompanied by large-scale population losses.<ref name=":2">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</ref> The two major famines were in [[Russian famine of 1921–1922|1921 to 1922]] and [[Holodomor|1932 to 1933]], which caused millions of deaths mostly around the [[Volga region]], [[1921–1923 famine in Ukraine|Ukraine]] and the [[North Caucasus|Northern Caucasus]].<ref>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.</ref><ref>{{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 }}</ref> The latter resulted from Soviet leader [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[Collectivization in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|collectivization of agriculture in Ukraine]].<ref name=":3">{{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}}</ref> 

During the war, [[Nazi Germany]] used hundreds of thousands of people for [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|slave labor in their concentration camps]], the majority of whom were [[Jews|Jewish]] or Slavic.<ref name=":4">{{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}}</ref> Both groups were a part of what Germans claimed to be a "vast racially [[Dehumanization|subhuman]] surplus population" that they "[[Racial policy of Nazi Germany|intended to eliminate]] in time from [[New Order (Nazism)|their new empire]]",<ref name=":4" /> their term for "racial subhumans" being ''[[Untermensch]]''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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 "[[Lebensraum|living space]]" for German settlers.<ref name=":2" />

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 camps in occupied Poland during World War II|German concentration camps in occupied Poland]] and the fall of Stalin's regime.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6">{{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}}</ref> This plan was to be carried out gradually over 25 to 30 years.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5">{{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}}</ref> After an approximate 30 million<ref name=":7">{{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}}</ref> Slavs would be killed through starvation and their major cities depopulated, the Germans were supposed to repopulate Eastern Europe.<ref name=":6" /><ref>{{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}}</ref><ref name=":8">{{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}}</ref> In June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union in [[Operation Barbarossa]], Hitler paused the plan to focus on the [[The Holocaust|extermination of the Jews]].<ref name=":8" /> However, some of the plan was nonetheless implemented. Millions of Slavs were murdered in Eastern Europe;<ref name=":8" /> this includes victims of the [[Hunger Plan]], Germany's intentional starvation of the region,<ref name=":7" /> as well as the [[German atrocities committed against Soviet prisoners of war|murders of 3.3. million Soviet prisoners of war]].<ref>{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref>Berkhoff, Karel C. ''Central European History'', vol. 39, no. 4, 2006, pp. 728–30. ''JSTOR'', <nowiki>http://www.jstor.org/stable/20457191</nowiki>. Accessed 23 May 2024.</ref> The Soviet [[Red Army]] took back their land from the Germans [[Operation Bagration|in 1944]].<ref name=":8" /> Stephen J. Lee estimates that, by the end of [[World War II]] in 1945, the Russian population was about [[World War II casualties of the Soviet Union|90 million fewer]] than it could have been otherwise.<ref>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.</ref> 

The ultra-nationalist, fascist [[Ustaše]] committed [[Genocide of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|genocide against Serbs]] during World War II.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The Serbian nationalist [[Chetniks]] committed [[Chetnik war crimes in World War II|genocide against Croats and Bosniaks]].<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref> Also during World War II, [[fascist Italy]] sent tens of thousands of Slavs to [[List of Italian concentration camps|concentration camps]] in mainland Italy, [[Italian Libya|Libya]], and [[Balkans campaign (World War II)|the Balkans]].<ref>{{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}}</ref>

In 1991, the [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union collapsed]], and many former Soviet republics became independent countries.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":9">{{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]]}}</ref> Currently, former Soviet states in Central Asia such as [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Kyrgyzstan]] have very large minority Slavic populations, with most being Russians.<ref name=":9" /> Kazakhstan has the largest Slavic minority population.<ref>[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.</ref>