Slavs

"Slav" redirects here. For other uses, see Slav (disambiguation).
"Slav people" redirects here. For the Slavs of the Early Middle Ages, see Early Slavs. For the First Nations ethnic group, see Slavey.

Slavs
Total population
see § Population
Regions with significant populations
Languages
Slavic languages
Religion
Mostly Christianity
(Orthodox · Catholic · Protestant · Spiritual)
Minorities:
Non-religious · Sunni Islam · Slavic paganism (neopaganism)
Related ethnic groups
Other European peoples

The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and Northern Asia, though there is a large Slavic minority scattered across the Baltic states and Central Asia,[1][2] and a substantial Slavic diaspora in the Americas, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.[3]

Early Slavs lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th century AD), and came to control large parts of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe between the sixth and seventh centuries. Beginning in the 7th century, they were gradually Christianized. By the 12th century, they formed the core population of a number of medieval Christian states: East Slavs in the Kievan Rus', South Slavs in the Bulgarian Empire, the Principality of Serbia, the Duchy of Croatia and the Banate of Bosnia, and West Slavs in the Principality of Nitra, Great Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, and the Kingdom of Poland.

Beginning in the mid-19th century, a pan-Slavic movement has emphasized the common heritage and unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus of the movement was in the Balkans, whereas the Russian Empire was opposed to it.

The Slavic languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Present-day Slavs are classified into three groups:[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Though the majority of Slavs are Christians, some groups, such as the Bosniaks, mostly identify as Muslims. Modern Slavic nations and ethnic groups are considerably diverse, both genetically and culturally, and relations between them may range from "ethnic solidarity to mutual feelings of hostility" — even within the individual groups.[10]

  1. ^ Kirch, Aksel (June 1992). "Russians as a Minority in Contemporary Baltic States". Bulletin of Peace Proposals. 23 (2). SAGE Publishing: 205–212. doi:10.1177/096701069202300212. JSTOR 44481642. S2CID 157870839.
  2. ^ Ramet, Pedro (1978). "Migration and Nationality Policy in Soviet Central Asia". Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. 6 (1). California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt: 79–101. JSTOR 23261898.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference msu was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Slav (people) - Britannica Online Encyclopedia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Kamusella, Tomasz; Nomachi, Motoki; Gibson, Catherine (2016). The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-34839-5.
  6. ^ Serafin, Mikołaj (January 2015). "Cultural Proximity of the Slavic Nations" (PDF). Academia. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
  7. ^ Živković, Tibor; Crnčević, Dejan; Bulić, Dejan; Petrović, Vladeta; Cvijanović, Irena; Radovanović, Bojana (2013). The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD). Belgrade: Istorijski institut. ISBN 978-86-7743-104-4.
  8. ^ Gasparov, Boris; Raevsky-Hughes, Olga (2018). Christianity and the Eastern Slavs, Volume I: Slavic Cultures in the Middle Ages. Univ of California Press. pp. 120 & 124. ISBN 978-0-520-30247-1.
  9. ^ Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 199, ISBN 0-19-823671-9
  10. ^ Robert Bideleux; Ian Jeffries (January 1998). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change. Psychology Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-415-16112-1.