Slavs

2020: Russia, Ukraine and Poland are the largest countries by the number of Slavs

Data for 2020

10th century: Sakaliba (Slavs) - Byzantine warriors and slaves in the East

The Sakaliba of Islamic literature are former warriors of the Slavic contingents of the Byzantine armies, who switched to the side of Muslims during the battles in Asia Minor, as well as Slavic slaves brought to the East from the Slavic-German region, the Czech Republic, Russian lands, from the Balkans.

• Monograph: Mishin, Dmitry Evgenievich. Sakaliba in the Islamic world in the early Middle Ages

7th century

Languages spoken in Europe in 600 g (as of 2021)

V century: Kolochinsky, Penkovskaya (ants) and Prague-Korchak cultures

Kyiv (pre-Slavic) culture ceased to exist by the beginning of the 5th century, almost simultaneously with Chernyakhovskaya. The heirs of the Kyiv culture were three early Slavic cultures of the 5th-7th centuries: Kolochin, Penkovo and Prague-Korchak.

4th century

The invasion of the Huns opens the way for the Slavs to the south and to Central Europe

The invasion of the Huns did not allow the state of Germanarich to take shape in a full-fledged state entity, to which there were prerequisites. The Huns simply routed her on their way west.

It was the arrival of the Huns in Europe that allowed the Slavs (that is, representatives of the Kyiv culture) to occupy new territories and enter the historical arena. Apparently, before that, Chernyakhov's culture had closed their access to ancient civilization. After its defeat (some archaeological materials give reason to suspect that the Slavs also took part in this), they regained the territory previously seized by representatives of the Chernyakhov culture, and entered into direct contact with the eastern Roman provinces. Fleeing the Huns, the Goths crossed the Danube in 376 approximately in the area of ​ ​ the current Romanian-Bulgarian border, east of Bucharest.

Other German peoples also moved west and south - vandals from modern Poland, along with Suevs, Alans and part of the Goths, passed through all of Europe to Spain, and then moved to North Africa, the Lombards occupied the north of Italy. As a result, huge areas were depopulated in Central Europe in the 5th century. The Slavs gradually occupied them and by the 7th century reached the Elbe, that is, almost to the south of the modern German state of Schleswig-Holstein.

Germanarich conquers all, Meria and Mordovia

It is very difficult to determine the ethnic composition of the population of any territory without relying on written or anthropological sources. Therefore, very little information remains about what happened in Eastern Europe in the first millennium. So, only one of the Gothic traditions was preserved in the retelling of the Jordan about the campaign of Germanarich (or Ermanrich - king of the Ostrogoths in the IV century, from the Amalov clan) to the north, where the allegedly conquered Finno-Ugric peoples of present-day Central Russia are mentioned - all, Meria and Mordva.

Perhaps in the future, the current ideas will be revised, especially if paleogenetics comes to the aid of archeology, which allows determining ethnogenesis by haplogroups.

III century: Chernyakhovskaya culture, led by the Goths, pushes the Kyiv culture north

Both the Velbar culture in Poland replaced the Oksyva culture and displaced the Pshevor culture, and the Chernyakhov culture, led by the Goths in Ukraine, pushed to the north, towards Polesie, the Kyiv culture. The artifacts of the Kyiv culture found (for example, heavy and massive bronze jewelry with enamels, rough pots), as well as the structure of its settlement, indicate its rather archaic character. Chernyakhov culture was actively in contact with ancient Greco-Roman civilization (in historical science for such cultures there is the term "provincial Roman"), and the Kyiv culture remained barbaric and primitive in comparison. Judging by our observations, relations between them were most likely conflicting^[1]

For 2020, it is generally accepted that the ancestors of the Slavs were carriers of the Kyiv culture. More precisely, she actively participated in the ethnogenesis of the early medieval Slavs.

Academician Andrei Zaliznyak argued that the pre-Slavic language borrowed a large vocabulary from the language of ready-Germans: bread, prince, cauldron, letter, glass, regiment, buy. Judging by the archaeological material, it was Chernyakhov's culture that influenced Kyiv more than vice versa. At the late stage of the existence of both cultures, the active penetration of Chernyakhov-type things into the Kyiv area was noticeable, inside which traditional household items and clothes were replaced with new samples in accordance with the then pan-European barbarian fashion.

Early ethnogenesis of the Slavs: nomadic pastoralists in the Upper and Middle Dnieper

For 2020, it is customary to attribute the territory of the Upper and Middle Dnieper to the ancestral homeland of the Slavs, that is, the area of ​ ​ Kyiv culture. Although some scholars still believe that the ethnogenesis of the Slavs actually occurred in Middle Podunavye or in the Carpathian region. But early ethnogenesis is the most difficult process, and a variety of ethnocultural groups take part in it. Therefore, given the peculiarities of the funeral rite, we have a lot of unknown aspects of the life of the Praslavs.

In Soviet times, at the suggestion of Academician Boris Rybakov, it was believed that the Slavs had long been settled ploughmen-farmers. But modern archaeological evidence does not support this theory. Judging by the research of the settlements of the Kyiv and Kolochin cultures, the ancestors of the Slavs were not a constantly settled population, but periodically wandered along the river valleys. An important role in their economic structure was played by undeveloped agriculture (although from the 5th century a large number of agricultural tools and axes began to be recorded, including in treasures), but cattle breeding and horse breeding. The settlements remained small and short-lived, although their inhabitants could return to one place more than once^[1] of the^[1]

Notes