Editing East Slavs

{{Short description|Slavic peoples speaking the East Slavic languages}}
{{refimprove|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = East Slavs
| native_name      = <small>Усходнія славяне ([[Belarusian language|Belarusian]])<br>Восточные славяне ([[Russian language|Russian]])<br>Выходнї славяне ([[Rusyn language|Rusyn]])<br>Східні слов'яни ([[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]])</small>
| image            = [[File:East Slavic Europe.svg|300px]]
| caption          = {{leftlegend|#61db6fc3|Countries with predominantly East Slavic population ([[Belarus]], [[Russia]], [[Ukraine]])}}
| pop              = '''210 million+'''<ref name="britannica.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/East-Slavic-languages |title=East Slavic languages &#124; Britannica }}</ref>
| regions          = * Majority: [[Russia]], [[Belarus]], [[Ukraine]]
* Minority: [[Bulgaria]], [[Baltic states|Baltics]], [[Central Asia]], [[Caucasus]] and other
| langs            = [[East Slavic languages]]:<br><small>[[Belarusian language|Belarusian]], [[Russian language|Russian]], [[Rusyn language|Rusyn]], [[Ukrainian language|Ukrainian]]</small>
| religions        = Majority: [[File:OrthodoxCrossblack.svg|15px]] [[Eastern Orthodoxy]]<br /><br />[[File:Christian cross.svg|15px]] [[Latin Catholicism]] (minority among [[Belarusians]], [[Russians]] and [[Ukrainians]])<br /><br />[[File:Patriarchal or Archbishop Cross.svg|15px]] [[Eastern Catholic Churches|Eastern Catholicism]] (minority among [[Ukrainians]] and [[Belarusians]])
| related          = Other [[Slavs]] ([[West Slavs|West]], [[South Slavs|South]])
}}
[[File:East Slavic tribes peoples 8th 9th century.jpg|thumb|250px|Maximum extent of European territory inhabited by the East Slavic tribes—predecessors of Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state<ref name="Halecki">[[Oscar Halecki]]. (1952). ''Borderlands of Western Civilization''. New York: Ronald Press Company. pp. 45–46</ref>—in the 8th and 9th centuries]]
The '''East Slavs''' are the most populous subgroup of the [[Slavs]].<ref name="GRE1">{{Cite book|author=Ilya Gavritukhin, [[Vladimir Petrukhin]]|title=Slavs|url=https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/3625013|publisher=[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30.|date=2015|editor=[[Yury Osipov]]|pages=388–389|access-date=2022-08-22|archive-date=2022-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803062631/https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/3625013|url-status=dead}}</ref> They speak the [[East Slavic languages]],<ref name="GRE2">{{Cite book|author=Sergey Skorvid|title=Slavic languages|url=https://bigenc.ru/linguistics/text/3625253|publisher=[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30.|date=2015|editor=[[Yury Osipov]]|pages=396–397–389|access-date=2022-08-22|archive-date=2019-09-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190904000000/https://bigenc.ru/linguistics/text/3625253|url-status=dead}}</ref> and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state [[Kievan Rus']], which they claim as their cultural [[ancestor]].<ref>{{cite book|title=The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus|last=Plokhy|first=Serhii|year=2006|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=[[New York City]]|isbn=978-0-521-86403-9|pages=10–15|url=http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/64039/excerpt/9780521864039_excerpt.pdf|quote=For all the salient differences between these three post-Soviet nations, they have much in common when it comes to their culture and history, which goes back to Kievan Rus', the medieval East Slavic state based in the capital of present-day Ukraine, |access-date=2010-04-27}}</ref><ref name="channon">John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia'' (Penguin, 1995), p. 16.</ref> Today [[Belarusians]], [[Russians]] and [[Ukrainians]] are the existent East Slavic nations. [[Rusyns]] can also be considered as a separate nation, although they are often considered a subgroup of the Ukrainian people.

==History==
{{Main|Rus' people|Ruthenians}}

===Sources===
Researchers know relatively little about the Eastern Slavs prior to approximately 859 AD when the first events recorded in the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'' occurred. The Eastern Slavs of these early times apparently lacked a written language. The few known facts come from [[archaeological]] digs, foreign travellers' accounts of the Rus' land, and linguistic comparative analyses of [[Slavic languages]].<ref name="GRE2" />

Very few native Rus' documents dating before the 11th century (none before the 10th century) have survived. The earliest major manuscript with information on Rus' history, the ''[[Primary Chronicle]]'', dates from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It lists twelve Slavic [[Slavic tribes|tribal unions]] which, by the 10th century, had settled in the later territory of the Kievan Rus <!-- since 981 / 992 --> between the [[Western Bug]], the [[Dniepr]] and the [[Black Sea]]: the ''[[Polans (eastern)|Polans]]'', ''[[Drevlyans]]'', ''[[Dregovichs]]'', ''[[Radimich]]s'', ''[[Vyatichs]]'', ''[[Krivichs]]'', ''[[Slovens]]'', ''[[Dulebes]]'' (later known as [[Volhynians]] and [[Buzhans]]), ''[[White Croats]]'', ''[[Severians]]'', ''[[Ulichs]]'', and ''[[Tivertsi]]''.<ref name="GRE1" />

{{Anchor|Land of Rus'}}

===Migration===
{{main|Early Slavs}}
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Slavyanskiy poselok pchelko.jpg|thumb|250px|"Slavic settlement" by I. Pchelko]] -->

There is no consensus among scholars as to the [[urheimat]] of the [[Slavs]]. In the first millennium AD, Slavic settlers are likely to have been in contact with other ethnic groups who moved across the [[Eastern Europe]]an Plain during the [[Migration Period]]. Between the first and ninth centuries, the [[Sarmatians]], [[Huns]], [[Alans]], [[Avars (Carpathians)|Avars]], [[Bulgars]], and [[Magyars]] passed through the [[Pontic steppe]] in their westward migrations. Although some of them could have subjugated the region's Slavs, these foreign tribes left little trace in the Slavic lands. The [[Early Middle Ages]] also saw Slavic expansion as an agriculturist and [[beekeeper]], hunter, fisher, herder, and trapper people. By the 8th century, the Slavs were the dominant ethnic group on the East European Plain.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

By 600 AD, the [[Slavs]] had split linguistically into [[South Slavs|southern]], [[West Slavs|western]], and eastern branches. The East Slavs practiced "[[slash-and-burn]]" agricultural methods which took advantage of the extensive forests in which they settled.  This method of agriculture involved clearing tracts of forest with fire, cultivating it and then moving on after a few years.  Slash and burn agriculture requires frequent movement because soil cultivated in this manner only yields good harvests for a few years before exhausting itself, and the reliance on slash and burn agriculture by the East Slavs explains their rapid spread through eastern Europe.<ref name="Pipes">[[Richard Pipes]]. (1995). ''Russia Under the Old Regime''. New York: Penguin Books. pp. 27–28</ref>  The East Slavs flooded Eastern Europe in two streams. One group of tribes settled along the [[Dnieper]] river in what is now [[Ukraine]] and [[Belarus]] to the North; they then spread northward to the northern [[Volga]] valley, east of modern-day [[Moscow]] and westward to the basins of the northern [[Dniester]] and the [[Southern Buh]] rivers in present-day [[Ukraine]] and southern Ukraine.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

Another group of East Slavs moved to the northeast, where they encountered the [[Varangians]] of the [[Rus' Khaganate]] and established an important regional centre of [[Novgorod]] for protection. The same Slavic population also settled the present-day [[Tver Oblast]] and the region of [[Beloozero]]. Having reached the lands of the [[Merya people|Merya]] near [[Rostov, Yaroslavl Oblast|Rostov]], they linked up with the Dnieper group of Slavic migrants.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

===Pre-Kievan period===
According to archeology, the Prague, [[Korchak culture|Korchak]], [[Penkovka culture|Penkova]], [[Kolochin culture|Kolochin]], and [[Kyiv culture|Kyiv cultures]] are classified as early Slavic. The earliest of which, Kyiv, from the 2nd–3rd centuries AD. e. was the northern neighbor of the more developed and multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture, associated with another early group of slavs(Veneti/Venedi/Venedae?). Rare, few and short-lived settlements of the Slavs were located "in unusual topographic conditions: in low places, often now flooded during floods".<ref>Schukin, Mikhail B. [http://www.krotov.info/history/09/schukin.html Birth of the Slavs] — 2001.</ref>

Eastern Slavs, who found themselves as a result of migrations of the 4th–5th centuries. in the basins of lakes Chudskoye and Ilmen, formed the [[:nl:Pskovse lange grafheuvelscultuur|culture of Pskov long barrows]]. This culture was strongly influenced by the autochthonous Finno-Ugric and Baltic peoples, from whom it adopted a specific burial rite and some features of ceramics, but in general, the way of life of the Eastern Slavs changed little. By the 5th century on the site of the Kyiv culture and in other regions to the north, east, west and south of it, a number of related cultures arise, such as [[Korchak culture|Korchak]], [[Kolochin culture|Kolochin]], etc.<ref name="sedov_part_10">{{Cite book|author=Седов В. В. |title=Культура псковских длинных курганов // Славяне в раннем средневековье |url=http://lib.crimea.edu/avt.lan/student/book5/part1/p1_10.html |place=Moscow |publisher=Научно-производительное благотворительное общество "Фонд археологии" |year=1995 |volume= |pages=211–217, 416 |isbn=5-87059-021-3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030611030121/http://lib.crimea.edu/avt.lan/student/book5/part1/p1_10.html |archive-date=2003-06-11 }} {{Cite web |url=http://lib.crimea.edu/avt.lan/student/book5/part1/p1_10.html |title=Славяне северной зоны Русской равнины |access-date=2008-11-01 |archive-date=2003-06-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030611030121/http://lib.crimea.edu/avt.lan/student/book5/part1/p1_10.html }}</ref>

Among the East Slavs, fortified cities, appeared in northern ukraine and soutern belarus and southwest russia, the ilmen slovenes and tge kriviches didnt reach the ladoga lake and the northern reaches of the baltic sea until the 7th century ad.
 (based on archaeological data in the town on Mayat river). The first settlements near the [[Polans (eastern)|Polans]] and [[Severians]] arose in the region of Kyiv and Chernigov already by the 7th–8th centuries,<ref>Gorsky, Andrey A. [http://www.teacher.syktsu.ru/02/liter/031.htm Political centers of the Eastern Slavs and Kievan Rus: problems of evolution] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080930162314/http://www.teacher.syktsu.ru/02/liter/031.htm|date=2008-09-30}} // Domestic History. 1993. No. 6. S. 157–162.</ref> which indicates at least a partial rejection of the previous strategy of scattered and secretive living among the forests. This is also evidenced by the fact that in the VIII-IX centuries. in all other East Slavic lands there were no more than two dozen cities, while only on the Left Bank of the Dnieper there were about a hundred of them.
The foundation of the main Slavic city of this region, [[Novgorod]], is attributed by the [[letopis (genre)|letopis]] to 862.<ref>[http://old.pushkinskijdom.ru/ The tale of bygone years]. {{Cite web |url=http://www.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=4869|title=Электронная библиотека ИРЛИ РАН > Собрания текстов > Библиотека литературы Древней Руси > Том 1 > Повесть временных лет |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316192444/http://www.pushkinskijdom.ru/Default.aspx?tabid=4869 |access-date=2015-11-16 |archive-date=2015-03-16 }}</ref> In the same era, settlements appeared on the territories of other East Slavic tribes (see [[:ru:Древнерусские города|Old Russian cities]]). So, the northerners who lived on the territory of modern Voronezh, Belgorod and Kursk regions, along with settlements in the 9th–10th centuries. built fortified settlements, mainly at the confluence of large rivers (see Romensko-Borshchiv culture).<ref>[http://www.hist.vsu.ru/archmus/slav.htm Slavs on the Don (Voronezh State University)]. {{Cite web |url=http://www.hist.vsu.ru/archmus/slav.htm|title=Archived copy |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170412115013/http://www.hist.vsu.ru/archmus/slav.htm |access-date=2008-11-01 |archive-date=2017-04-12 }}</ref> In the 10th century, a fortress appeared not far from the city of [[Smolensk]] that arose later (the [[Gnezdovo|Gnezdovsky archaeological complex]]).

Somewhat apart are the early East Slavic settlements, the creation of which is attributed to the tribal unions of [[Dulebs]] and [[Antes people|Antes]]. Archaeologically, they are represented by the Prague-Korchak and Penkov cultures, respectively. A number of such settlements of the Prague-Korchak (Zimino, Lezhnitsa, Khotomel, Babka, Khilchitsy, [[:nl:Toesjemljacultuur|Tusheml]]) and Penkovo (Selishte, Pastyrskoe) cultures existed in the 6th–7th centuries. on a vast territory from the borders of modern Poland and Romania to the Dnieper. The Prague-Korchak settlements were a site surrounded by a wooden wall with one building, which was part of the common wall of the settlement. They did not have agricultural tools, and the settlements, apparently, were built to collect and accommodate a military detachment. Penkovsky settlements could have up to two dozen buildings inside the walls and were large trade, craft and administrative centers for their time. The center of the territory controlled by the dulebs (Zimino, Lezhnitsa) was in the basin of the Western Bug; the geographical center of the Penkovo culture falls on the Dnieper region, but the main fortress of the [[Antes people|Antes]] (Selishte) was located in the western part of this area, near the borders of [[Byzantine Empire]] (in modern Moldova), on which they made military campaigns.<ref name="sedov_part_10" /> The early Slavic settlements were destroyed by the Avars in the 7th century, after which they were not built until the 10th century.<ref>V. Prokopensko. [http://velizariy.kiev.ua/avallon/tactics/slav1.htm Military affairs of the Slavs] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131135444/http://velizariy.kiev.ua/avallon/tactics/slav1.htm |date=2009-01-31 }} (in Russian). {{Cite web |url=http://velizariy.kiev.ua/avallon/tactics/slav1.htm |title=Военное дело славян |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131135444/http://velizariy.kiev.ua/avallon/tactics/slav1.htm |access-date=2009-01-31 |archive-date=2009-01-31 }}</ref>

===Post-Kievan period===
The disintegration, or parcelling of the polity of [[Kievan Rus']] in the 11th century resulted in considerable population shifts and a political, social, and economic regrouping. The resultant effect of these forces coalescing was the marked emergence of new peoples.<ref name="riasan61">{{cite book|last1=Riasanovsky|first1=Nicholas|author1-link=Nicholas V. Riasanovsky|last2=Steinberg|first2=Mark D.|author2-link=Mark D. Steinberg|title=A History of Russia|edition=7th|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|pages=61, 87|isbn=978-0-19-515394-1 |url=https://www.amazon.ca/History-Russia-Combined-Riasanovsky-Steinberg/dp/B00BTM4U4A/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1387442486&sr=1-5&keywords=a+history+of+russia+riasanovsky}}</ref> While these processes began long before the fall of Kiev, its fall expedited these gradual developments into a significant linguistic and ethnic differentiation among the [[Rus' people]] into [[Ukrainians]], [[Belarusians]], and [[Russians]].<ref name="riasan61" /> All of this was emphasized by the subsequent polities these groups migrated into: southwestern and western Rus', where the [[Ruthenians|Ruthenian]] and later Ukrainian and Belarusian identities developed, was subject to [[Grand Duchy of Lithuania|Lithuanian]] and later [[Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)|Polish]] influence;<ref name="magocsi73">{{cite book|last=Magocsi|first=Paul Robert|author-link=Paul Robert Magocsi|title=A History of Ukraine: A Land and Its Peoples|year=2010|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|page=73|isbn=9781442640856|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BNUtdVrw6lIC}}</ref> whereas the Russian ethnic identity developed in the [[Moscow|Muscovite]] northeast and the [[Novgorod]]ian north.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}

== Modern East Slavs ==
[[File:Slavic girl.jpg|200px|thumb|A young [[Ukraine|Ukrainian]] girl in a folk costume, by Nikolay Rachkov]]
{{Further|List of ancient Slavic peoples}}
Modern East Slavic peoples and ethnic/subethnic groups include:{{Citation needed|date=June 2022}}
* [[Belarusians]]
** [[Litvin#Modern usage|Litvins]]
* [[Cossacks]]
** [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]]
*** Tavria Zaporozhians
*** [[Black Sea Cossack Host|Black Sea Zaporozhians]]
* [[Podlashuks]]
* [[Poleshuks]]
* [[Russians]]
** [[Albazinians]]
** [[Doukhobors]]
** [[Goryuns]]
** [[Kamchadals]]
** [[Kamenschik]]s
** [[Lipovans]]
** [[Polekhs]]
** [[Pomors]]
** [[Semeiskie]]
** [[Siberians]]
** [[Starozhily]]
* [[Rusyns]]
** [[Boyko]]
** [[Hutsuls]]
** [[Lemkos]]
** [[Pannonian Rusyns]]
* [[Ukrainians]]
** [[Cossacks]] 
** [[Galicia (Eastern Europe)|Galicians]]
** [[Podolyans]]
** Slobozhanians
** [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]]

== Population ==
{{Main|Slavs#Population}}

==Genetics==
{{Further|Slavs#Genetics}}
According to [[Y chromosome]], [[Mitochondrial DNA|mDNA]] and [[autosome|autosomal]] marker CCR5de132, East Slavs and West Slavs are genetically very similar, which is consistent with the proximity of their languages, demonstrating significant differences from the neighboring Finno-Ugric, Turkic and North Caucasian peoples all the way from west to east; such genetic homogeneity is somewhat unusual for genetics given such a wide dispersal of Slavic populations, especially Russians.{{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 [[Balts]], some Balkan peoples.{{sfn|Verbenko|2005|pp=10–18}}{{sfn|Balanovsky|2012|p=23}} Genetic research has shown that the genomes of East Slavs are homogenous and contrary to popular belief, unaffected by [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]] or [[Mongols|Mongol]] influences.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Balanovsky |first=Oleg |last2=Rootsi |first2=Siiri |last3=Pshenichnov |first3=Andrey |last4=Kivisild |first4=Toomas |last5=Churnosov |first5=Michail |last6=Evseeva |first6=Irina |last7=Pocheshkhova |first7=Elvira |last8=Boldyreva |first8=Margarita |last9=Yankovsky |first9=Nikolay |last10=Balanovska |first10=Elena |last11=Villems |first11=Richard |date=2008 |title=Two sources of the Russian patrilineal heritage in their Eurasian context |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18179905 |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=82 |issue=1 |pages=236–250 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2007.09.019 |issn=1537-6605 |pmc=2253976 |pmid=18179905}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Шейкин |first=Нестор |date=2008-01-18 |title=Поскреби русского — найдёшь поляка |url=https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2008/01/14_a_2552231.shtml |access-date=2024-04-23 |work=Газета.Ru}}</ref>

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

==See also==
* [[East Slavic languages]]
* [[List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine]]
* [[All-Russian nation]]
* [[West Slavs]]
* [[South Slavs]]
* [[Outline of Slavic history and culture]]
* [[List of Slavic studies journals]]
* [[List of ancient Slavic peoples]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{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=236–50 |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: [[USSR Academy of Medical Sciences|Russian Academy of Medical Sciences]] |language=ru }}
* {{country study|country=Russia|abbr=ru}}
* {{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 |url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16103681/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120054800/http://www.online.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowPDF&ArtikelNr=87338&Ausgabe=231260&ProduktNr=224250&filename=87338.pdf |archive-date=2012-01-20 |url-status=live }}
* {{Cite book|author=Ilya Gavritukhin, [[Vladimir Petrukhin]]|title=Slavs|url=https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/3625013|publisher=[[Great Russian Encyclopedia]] (in 35 vol.) Vol. 30.|date=2015|editor=[[Yury Osipov]]|pages=388–389|access-date=2022-08-22|archive-date=2022-08-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220803062631/https://bigenc.ru/ethnology/text/3625013|url-status=dead}}
{{refend}}

{{Russia topics}}
{{Ukraine topics}}
{{Slavic ethnic groups}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:East Slavs| ]]
[[Category:History of Kievan Rus']]
[[Category:Slavic ethnic groups|*East]]