Slav Bewley

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, and a substantial Slavic diaspora in the Americas, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.

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:{{cite book , last1=Kamusella , last2=Nomachi , last3=Gibson , first1=Tomasz , first2=Motoki , first3=Catherine , date=2016 , title= The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders , location=London , publisher=Palgrave Macmillan , isbn=978-1-137-34839-5{{cite web , url=https://www.academia.edu/32675557 , title=Cultural Proximity of the Slavic Nations , website=Academia , last=Serafin , first=Mikołaj , format=PDF , date=January 2015 , access-date=28 April 2017 , archive-date=22 July 2020 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722200348/https://www.academia.edu/32675557/Cultural_Proximity_of_the_Slavic_Nations , url-status=dead {{cite book , last1=Živković , last2=Crnčević , last3=Bulić , last4=Petrović , last5=Cvijanović , last6=Radovanović , first1=Tibor , first2=Dejan , first3=Dejan , first4=Vladeta , first5=Irena , first6=Bojana , date=2013 , title=The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD) , location=Belgrade , publisher=Istorijski institut , isbn=978-86-7743-104-4
* West Slavs (Czechs, Kashubians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks, and Sorbs);
* East Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians);
* South Slavs (Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Gorani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenes).

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.{{cite book , author1=Robert Bideleux , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vzw8CHYQobAC , title=A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change , author2=Ian Jeffries , date=January 1998 , publisher=Psychology Press , isbn=978-0-415-16112-1 , page=325

Ethnonym

{{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), 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''.{{Citation needed, date=April 2022

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.{{Citation needed, date=April 2022

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

History

Origins

First mentions

{{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

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, 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), 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. 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

Migrations

{{Further, Slavic migrations to Southeastern Europe

According to eastern homeland theory,{{cn, date=August 2024 prior to becoming known to the Roman world, Slavic-speaking tribes formed part of successive multi-ethnic confederacies of Eurasia – such as the Sarmatian, Hun and Gothic empires. The Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germanic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries AD (thought{{cn, date=August 2024 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. 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.

Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in large numbers. Byzantine records note that Slav numbers were so great, that grass would not regrow where the Slavs had marched through{{citation needed, date=November 2021. Military movements resulted in even the Peloponnese and Asia Minor being reported to have Slavic settlements. 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.

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.

Middle Ages

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. 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

Modern era

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.

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). "
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. 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 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''. 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 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. 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. 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.

The ultra-nationalist, fascist Ustaše committed genocide against Serbs during World War II. The Serbian nationalist Chetniks committed genocide against Croats and Bosniaks. Also during World War II, fascist Italy sent tens of thousands of Slavs to concentration camps in mainland Italy, Libya, and the Balkans.

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.

Languages

{{main, History of the Slavic languages, Slavic languages

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 rom the steppebecame 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 manuscripts which, though based on local Slavic speech of Thessaloniki, could still serve the purpose of the first common Slavic literary language.

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.

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

Ethno-cultural subdivisions

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. 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 and with the remnants of the people of the Goths. 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

Genetics

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

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 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.

Religion

{{See also, Slavic paganism

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:
* 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
* 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
* Pomaks
* Gorani
* Torbeši
* Ethnic Muslims
{{col-end

Relations with non-Slavic people

{{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. 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. 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. 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.

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