Slavs Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Slavs" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Slavs

World map of countries with:[citation needed]   Majority Slavic ethnicities (More than 50%)   Minority Slavic populations (10–50%)
Total population
c. 300 million
Regions with significant populations
Russians	c. 134 million
Poles	c. 60 million
Ukrainians	c. 59 million
Czechs	c. 10 million
Serbs	c. 10 million
Belarusians	c. 10 million
Bulgarians	c. 9 million
Croats	c. 8 million
Slovaks	c. 7 million
Cossacks	c. 5 million
Bosniaks	c. 3 million
Slovenes	c. 2.5 million
Macedonians	c. 2.4 million
Rusyns	c. 1.7 million
Pomaks	c. 1 million[1]
Silesians	c. 860,000
Moravians	c. 700,000
Kashubians	c. 570,000
Montenegrins	c. 460,000
Yugoslavs	c. 415,000
Sorbs	c. 150,000
Muslims	c. 140,000
Lemkos	c. 67,000
Gorani	c. 60,000
Bunjevci	c. 20,000
Pomors	c. 6,000
Krashovani	c. 5,000
Šokci	c. 600
Gorals	?
Poleshuks	c. 25
Languages
Slavic languages
Religion
Majority: Eastern Orthodoxy Catholicism (Greek Catholicism or Latin Catholicism) Minority: Islam Protestantism Slavic Neopaganism Spiritual Christianity Irreligion
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Europeans

Slavs are the largest European ethnolinguistic group.^[2] They speak the various Slavic languages, belonging to the larger Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout northern Eurasia, mainly inhabiting Central and Eastern Europe, and the Balkans to the west; and Siberia to the east. A large Slavic minority is also scattered across the Baltic states and Central Asia,^[3][4] while a substantial Slavic diaspora is found throughout the Americas, as a result of immigration.^[5]

Present-day Slavs are classified into East Slavs (chiefly Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians), West Slavs (chiefly Czechs, Kashubs, Poles, Slovaks, Silesians and Sorbs) and South Slavs (chiefly Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes).^[6][7][8][9]

The vast majority of Slavs are traditionally Christians. However, modern Slavic nations and ethnic groups are considerably diverse both genetically and culturally, and relations between them – even within the individual groups – range from "ethnic solidarity to mutual feelings of hostility".^[10]

Ethnonym[edit]

The oldest mention of the Slavic ethnonym is the 6th century AD Procopius, writing in Byzantine Greek, using various forms such as Sklaboi (Σκλάβοι), Sklabēnoi (Σκλαβηνοί), Sklauenoi (Σκλαυηνοί), Sthlabenoi (Σθλαβηνοί), or Sklabinoi (Σκλαβῖνοι),^[11] while his contemporary Jordanes refers to the Sclaveni in Latin.^[12] The oldest documents written in Old Church Slavonic, dating from the 9th century, attest the autonym as Slověne (Словѣне). These forms point back to a Slavic autonym which can be reconstructed in Proto-Slavic as *Slověninъ, plural Slověne.^{[citation needed]}

The reconstructed autonym *Slověninъ is usually considered a derivation from slovo ("word"), originally denoting "people who speak (the same language)", i.e. people who understand each other, in contrast to the Slavic word denoting German people, namely *němьcь, meaning "silent, mute people" (from Slavic *němъ "mute, mumbling"). The word slovo ("word") and the related slava ("glory, fame") and slukh ("hearing") originate from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱlew- ("be spoken of, glory"), cognate with Ancient Greek κλέος (kléos "fame"), as in the name Pericles, Latin clueo ("be called"), and English loud.^{[citation needed]}

In Medieval and Early Modern sources written in Latin, Slavs are most commonly referred to as Sclaveni, or in shortened version Sclavi.^[13]

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

First mentions[edit]

The origin and migration of Slavs in Europe between the 5th and 10th centuries AD:

  Original Slavic homeland (modern-day southeastern Poland, northwestern Ukraine and southern Belarus)

  Expansion of the Slavic migration in Europe

Terracotta tile from the 6th–7th century AD found in Vinica, North Macedonia depicts a battle scene between the Bulgars and Slavs with the Latin inscription BOLGAR and SCLAVIGI ^[14]

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,^[15][16] between the upper Vistula and Dnieper rivers. The Slavs under name of the Antes and the Sclaveni first appear in Byzantine records in the early 6th century. Byzantine historiographers under emperor Justinian I (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, invading the Danubian provinces of the Eastern Empire.^{[citation needed]}

Jordanes, in his work Getica (written in 551 AD),^[17] 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 ("I scatter grain"). He described them as barbarians, who lived under democracy, believed in one god, "the maker of lightning" (Perun), to whom they made a 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 cheifs and their inner circle of warriors.^[18] 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..."^[19] Jordanes described the Sclaveni having swamps and forests for their cities.^[20] Another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes.^[21]

Menander Protector mentions a Daurentius (circa 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".^[22]

Migrations[edit]

According to eastern homeland theory, prior to becoming known to the Roman world, Slavic-speaking tribes were part of the many 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 CE (thought 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 fleeing the Huns and their allies: 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 North Africa.^[23]

Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared on Byzantine borders in great numbers.^[24] Byzantine records note that Slav numbers were so great, that grass would not regrow where the Slavs had marched through^{[citation needed]}. After a military movement even the Peloponnese and Asia Minor were reported to have Slavic settlements.^[25] This southern movement has traditionally been seen as an invasive expansion.^[26] By the end of the 6th century, Slavs had settled the Eastern Alps regions.^[27]

Pope Gregory I in 600 CE wrote to Maximus, the bishop of Salona (in Dalmatia), in which he expresses concern about the arrival of the Slavs: "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." ("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.")^[28]

Middle Ages[edit]

Great Moravia was one of the first major Slavic states, 833–907 AD

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. Bulgaria was instrumental in the spread of Slavic literacy and Christianity to the rest of the Slavic world. 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 Kievan Rus', the Second Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Poland, Duchy of Bohemia, the Kingdom of Croatia, Banate of Bosnia and the Serbian Empire.^{[citation needed]}

Modern era[edit]

Seal from the pan-Slavic Congress held in Prague, 1848

In the late 19th century, there were four Slavic states in the world: the Russian Empire, the Principality of Serbia, the Principality of Montenegro and the Principality of Bulgaria. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire, out of a population of approximately 50 million people, about 23 million were Slavs. Because of the vastness and diversity of the territory occupied by Slavic people, there were several centers of Slavic consolidation. At the beginning of the 20th century, following the end of World War I and the collapse of the Central Powers, several Slavic nations emerged and became independent, such as the Second Polish Republic, First Czechoslovak Republic, and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (officially named Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes until 1929). After the end of the Cold War and subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia, additional new Slavic states emerged, such as Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.^{[citation needed]}

Pan-Slavism[edit]

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. Austro-Hungary envisioned its own political concept of Austro-Slavism, in opposition of Pan-Slavism that was predominantly led by the Russian Empire.^{[citation needed]}

Languages[edit]

East Slavic languages

  Russian

  Belarusian

  Ukrainian

  Rusyn

South Slavic languages
Slovene

  Pannonian

  Styrian

  Carinthian

  Upper/Lower Carniolan

  Rovte

  Littoral

Serbo-Croatian

  Kajkavian

  Chakavian

Shtokavian (prestige dialect)

  Neo-Ijekavian

  Jekavian / Archaic Šćakavian

  Younger Ikavian

  Đekavian-Ijekavian

  Older Ekavian

  Younger Ekavian

Torlakian (transitional dialect)

  Torlakian / Prizren–Timok

Macedonian

  Northern (Tetovo, Skopska Crna Gora, Kumanovo / Kratovo)

  Western (Gora, Reka, Gostivar, Vevčani-Radožda, Upper/Lower Prespa dialect)

  Central (Prilep-Bitola, Kičevo-Poreče, Skopje-Veles)

  Southern (Nestram-Kostenar, Kostur, Solun-Voden, Ser / Drama)

  Eastern (Štip-Kočani, Strumica, Maleševo-Pirin)

Bulgarian

  Northwestern/Southwestern Bulgarian dialects

  Rup dialects

  Balkan dialects

  Moesian dialects

West Slavic languages

  Polish

  Kashubian

  Silesian

  Polabian †

  Lower Sorbian

  Upper Sorbian

  Czech

  Slovak

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 [from the steppe] became speakers of Balto-Slavic".^[29] 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, cannot be said to have any recognizable dialects – this suggests that there was, at one time, a relatively small Proto-Slavic homeland.^[30]

Slavic linguistic unity was to some extent visible as late as Old Church Slavonic (or Old Bulgarian) manuscripts which, though based on local Slavic speech of Thessaloniki, could still serve the purpose of the first common Slavic literary language.^[31]

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.^[32]

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. 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]}

Ethno-cultural subdivisions[edit]

Slavs are customarily divided along geographical lines into three major subgroups: West Slavs, East Slavs, and South Slavs, each with a different and a diverse background based on the unique history, religion and culture of particular Slavic groups within them. Apart from prehistorical archaeological cultures, the subgroups have had notable cultural contact with non-Slavic Bronze- and Iron Age civilisations.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[33] They are noted as having mixed with Germanics, Hungarians, Celts (particularly the Boii), Old Prussians, and the Pannonian Avars.^[34] The West Slavs came under the influence of the Western Roman Empire (Latin) and of the Catholic Church.^{[citation needed]}

East Slavs have origins in early Slavic tribes who mixed and contacted with Finns and Balts.^[35][36] Their early Slavic component, Antes, mixed or absorbed Iranians, and later received influence from the Khazars and Vikings.^[37] 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]}

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]} 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]}

Genetics[edit]

According to Y chromosome, mDNA, and autosomal marker CCR5de132, the gene pool of Eastern (Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians) and Western Slavs (Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks) is identical, which is consistent with the proximity of their languages, 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, especially Russians.^[38][39] Together they form the basis of the "East European" gene cluster, which also includes non-Slavic Hungarians and Aromanians.^[38][40]

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).^[41][42]

The 2006 Y-DNA study results "suggest that the Slavic expansion started from the territory of present-day Ukraine, thus supporting the hypothesis that places the earliest known homeland of Slavs in the basin of the middle Dnieper".^[43] 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 are in correlation with the spreading of Slavic languages during the medieval Slavic expansion from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day Ukraine and Southeastern Poland.^{[44][45][46][47][48][49][50]}

Other studies conclude that the ancient Slavic homeland was in Pomerania, Germany. According to a 1919 Shakhmatov study, Slavic tribes from the Elbe and Vistula moved from west to east in two groups. The western group, gradually moving to the north, northeast and east. They would occupy the territories of present-day Belarus and the Pskov, Novgorod, and Smolensk areas of modern Russia. The second, moving south and southeast, gradually settled in the territories of modern Volhynia, Ukraine and the Carpathian Mountains. The Slavs would gradually occupy the territories that would make up the Kievan Rus Empire. Those territories being modern day Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.^[51]

Religion[edit]

The "Zbruch Idol" preserved at the Kraków Archaeological Museum

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]}

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.^[52] Religious delineations by nationality can be very sharp; usually in the Slavic ethnic groups, the vast majority of religious people share the same religion. The Czech Republic is the only Slavic country with a population that is majority irreligious.^[53]

Relations with non-Slavic people[edit]

First Bulgarian Empire, the Bulgars were a Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribe that became Slavicized in the 7th century AD

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 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.^[62] 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,^[63] however, Slavicized regions within Macedonia, Thrace and Moesia Inferior also had a larger portion of locals compared to migrating Slavs.^[64] 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]}

Ruling status of Bulgars and their control of land cast the nominal legacy of the Bulgarian country and people onto future generations, 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.^[65] Dalmatian Romance was spoken until the high Middle Ages, but, they too were eventually assimilated into the body of Slavs.^{[citation needed]}

In the Western Balkans, South Slavs and Germanic Gepids intermarried with invaders, eventually producing a Slavicized population.^{[citation needed]} 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) and Finnic peoples were involved in the early formation of the Rus' state but were completely Slavicized after a century. Some Finnic tribes in the north were also absorbed into the expanding Rus population.^[41] In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchak and the Pecheneg, caused a massive migration of East Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north.^[66] In the Middle Ages, groups of Saxon ore miners settled in medieval Bosnia, Serbia and Bulgaria, where they were Slavicized.^{[citation needed]}

Saqaliba refers to the Slavic mercenaries and slaves in the medieval Arab world in North Africa, Sicily and Al-Andalus. Saqaliba served as caliph's guards.^[67][68] In the 12th century, Slavic piracy in the Baltics increased. The Wendish Crusade was started against the Polabian Slavs in 1147, as a part of the Northern Crusades. The pagan chief of the Slavic Obodrite tribes, Niklot, began his open resistance when Lothar III, Holy Roman Emperor, invaded Slavic lands. In August 1160 Niklot was killed, and German colonization (Ostsiedlung) of the Elbe-Oder region began. In Hanoverian Wendland, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Lusatia, invaders started germanization. Early forms of germanization were described by German monks: Helmold in the manuscript Chronicon Slavorum and Adam of Bremen in Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum.^[69] The Polabian language survived until the beginning of the 19th century in what is now the German state of Lower Saxony.^[70] In Eastern Germany, around 20% of Germans have historic Slavic paternal ancestry, as revealed in Y-DNA testing.^[71] Similarly, in Germany, around 20% of the foreign surnames are of Slavic origin.^[72]

Cossacks, although Slavic and practicing Orthodox Christianity, came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, including Tatars and other peoples. Initially, the Cossacks were a mini-subethnos, but now they are less than 5%, and most of them live in the south of Russia.^[73] The Gorals of southern Poland and northern Slovakia are partially descended from Romance-speaking Vlachs, who migrated into the region from the 14th to 17th centuries and were absorbed into the local population. The population of Moravian Wallachia also descended from the Vlachs. Conversely, some Slavs were assimilated into other populations. Although the majority continued towards Southeast Europe, attracted by the riches of the area that became the state of Bulgaria, a few remained in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe and were assimilated into the Magyar people. Numerous rivers and places in Romania have a name with Slavic origins.^[74]

Population[edit]

There are an estimated c. 300 million Slavs worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Slavs in the US and Canada by area:

  20–35%

  14–20%

  11–14%

  8–11%

  5–8%

  3–5%

  0–3%

The percentage of ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states according to last censuses

  90.0%-100.0%

  80.0%-89.9%

  65.0%-79.9%

  50.0%-64.9%

  35.0%-49.9%

  20.0%-34.9%

  10.0%-19.9%

  5.0%-9.9%

  2.0%-4.9%

  0.0%-1.9%

Ethnicity	Nation-state	Approximate numbers
Russians	Russia	129,000,000 — 134,000,000	[75][76][77][78][79]
Poles	Poland	60,000,000 — 65,000,000	[80][81][82][83]
Ukrainians	Ukraine	37,000,000 — 59,000,000	[84][85][86]
Serbs	Serbia	10,000,000	[87][88][89]
Czechs	Czech Republic	9,500,000 — 14,000,000	[90][91][92]
Belarusians	Belarus	9,500,000 — 10,000,000	[93][94][95]
Bulgarians (incl. Banat Bulgarians and Pomaks)	Bulgaria	8,000,000 — 10,000,000	[96][97][98][99][100]
Croats	Croatia	6,000,000 — 9,000,000	[101][102][103]
Slovaks	Slovakia	5,500,000 — 7,000,000	[104]
Bosniaks (before Bosnian Muslims)	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2,200,000 – 3,000,000	[105][106]
Slovenes	Slovenia	2,000,000 — 2,500,000	[107]
Macedonians (incl. Torbeši)	North Macedonia	1,800,000 — 2,400,000	[108][109]
Silesians	Poland and  Czech Republic	173,000 — 860,000	[110] [111][112][113][114]
Moravians	Czech Republic	630,000 — 700,000	[115]
Yugoslavs	Serbia and other countries ex-Yugoslavia	380,000 — 415,000	[116]
Rusyns (incl. Lemkos)	Ukraine and  Poland and  Slovakia	350,000 — 1,600,000	[117][118]
Slavs in Greece	Greece	350,000 — 600,000	[119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126]
Czechoslovaks	Czech Republic and  Slovakia	335,000 — 350,000	[127]
Montenegrins	Montenegro	330,000 — 460,000	[128][129]
Kashubians	Poland	233,000 — 570,000	[130][131][132]
* Slavs (American or Canadian Slavs)	—	140,000 — 200,000	[133]
Slavic Muslims	Serbia	100,000 — 140,000	[134][135]
Sorbs	Germany	65,000 — 150,000	[136]
Gorani	Serbia /  Kosovo	35,000 — 60,000	[137]
Bunjevci (incl. Šokci)	Serbia and  Croatia	c. 20,000	[138][139]

Historiography[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Sources[edit]

Primary sources

• Moravcsik, Gyula, ed. (1967) [1949]. Constantine Porphyrogenitus: De Administrando Imperio (2nd revised ed.). Washington D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies. ISBN 9780884020219.
• Scholz, Bernhard Walter, ed. (1970). Carolingian Chronicles: Royal Frankish Annals and Nithard's Histories. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0472061860.

Secondary sources

Further reading[edit]

• "Linguistic Marginalia on Slavic Ethnogensis" (PDF). Sorin Palgia, University of Bucharest.

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Slavs.

Look up Slav in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Mitochondrial DNA Phylogeny in Eastern and Western Slavs, B. Malyarchuk, T. Grzybowski, M. Derenko, M. Perkova, T. Vanecek, J. Lazur, P. Gomolcaknd I. Tsybovsky, Oxford Journals
• Texts on Wikisource:
  • "Slavs". Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.
  • "Slavs". The New Student's Reference Work. 1914.
  • Leopold Lénard (1913). "The Slavs". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.