East Slavs

Eastern Slavs, according to the first written testimonies, were separated from the Indo-European community by the middle of the 2nd century. BC. E. By the next millennium they became very numerous and influential in the world around them. So, mention of the Eastern Slavs began to appear in Arabic, Roman, Byzantine, Greek authors. Ancient authors called these people "sklavinami", "antami", "Venedi", referring to them as tribes of "innumerable".

During the period of great migration, Eastern Slavs began to be pushed aside by other peoples. As a result, Slavic fragmentation began. Part of the people remained in Europe. Later they will be called southern Slavs. From them there will be Serbs, Bulgarians, Croats, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Slovenes. Another part of the people moved to the northern territories. They began to be called Western Slavs. From them there were Poles, Czechs, Slovaks. Western and southern nationalities were captured by other peoples.

According to scientists, the remaining part of the Slavic people did not want to obey anyone. People moved to the East European Plain (to the north-east). Thus, the eastern Slavs appeared . The origin of Byelorussians, Russians and Ukrainians is associated precisely with these immigrants.

It should be noted that many tribes moved to the ruins of the Roman Empire, to Central Europe during resettlement. Under the onslaught of the invaders in 476 AD, Rome fell. On its territory, the invading barbarians created their statehood, using the cultural heritage of the Romans.

Eastern Slavs went to a territory where there was no cultural heritage. One part of the people went to Lake Ilmen. After some time on this place the ancient city of Novgorod will be founded. The other half of the eastern Slavs went to the lower and middle reaches of the Dnieper. In this place Kiev will be founded.

In the 6th-8th centuries the Eastern Slavs settled throughout the East European plain. However, other nations lived on the same territory. The Baltic coast and the north were inhabited by the Baltic (Latvians, Lithuanians) and the Finno-Ugric tribes (Estonians, Finns, Ugrians (Hungarians), Mansi, Khanty, Komi). It should be noted that the colonization of the territory was peaceful. The Eastern Slavs and their neighbors in this territory got along with each other.

However, the situation in the south-east and east was somewhat different. On that territory, the steppe joined the Eastern European Plain. Here the neighbors of the Slavs were the steppe nomads - the Turkic group. At that time, the peoples whose way of life was very different (sedentary and nomadic) often feuded among themselves. Due to raids on sedentary tribes, there were nomads. Thus, almost 1000 years of history of the Eastern Slavs consisted in the struggle against nomadic steppe tribes.

The Turks created their statehood on the southeastern and eastern borders of the Slavic settlements. In the middle of the 6th century there was the Avarian Kaganate - the Turkic state. Byzantium in 625 destroyed this state, the Avarian Khaganate ceased to exist.

In the 7th-8th centuries another state emerged in the same territory - the Bulgarian kingdom. Found it other Turks. After a while this state disintegrated. Part of the Bulgars, who left the middle course of the Volga, was formed Volga Bulgaria. Another part of the people moved to the Danube. Here they formed the Danube Bulgaria. Later, the newly arrived Turks merged with the local southern Slavs. Thus, a new ethnos was formed, which took the name of the Bulgarians.

After the departure of the Bulgars the steppes were occupied by Pechenegs (new Turks). On the territory of the lower Volga and the steppes between the Azov and Caspian seas , the Khazar Khaganate was created by the semi-nomadic Turks . Over the East Slavic tribes , the rule of the Khazars was established, receiving tribute from some tribes up to the 9th century.