Slavic peoples

The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples currently living in Europe. They are defined by speaking Slavic languages and reside chiefly in Central and Eastern Europe, but are also found in Asia. The idea that the Slavic people have more in common than their origin, the origin of their languages and some cultural aspects is derived from romantic nationalism, the panslavism movement and the notion of race as a biological basis of nations.

Slavs in the historical period

Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germans and Celts in the 5th and 6th centuries AD (necessitated by the onslaught of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe: Huns, Avars, Bulgars and Magyars) started the great migration of the Slavs, who followed in the Germans' wake: westward into the country between the Odra 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.

Related Topics:
5th - 6th centuries AD - Huns - Avars - Bulgars - Magyars - Great migration - Elbe - Saale - Bohemia - Moravia - Austria - Pannonian plain - Balkans - Dnieper

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When their migratory movements ended, there appeared among the Slavs the first rudiments of state organizations, each headed by a prince with a treasury and defense force; and the beginnings of class differentiation, with nobles who pledged allegiance to the Frankish and Holy Roman Emperors.

Related Topics:
State - Frankish - Holy Roman Emperors

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In the 7th century the Frankish nobleman Samo, who supported the Slavs fighting their Avar rulers, became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe. Karantania in today's Austria and Slovenia was one Slavic state; very old also are the Principality of Nitra and the Moravian principality (see under Great Moravia). In this period there existed central Slavic groups and states, such as the Balaton Principality, but the subsequent expansion of the Magyars and Romanians, as well as the Germanisation of Austria, separated the northern and southern Slavs.

Related Topics:
7th century - Samo - Avar - Karantania - Nitra - Moravian - Great Moravia - Balaton Principality - Magyars - Romanians - Germanisation - Austria

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In the early history of the Slavs, and continuing into the Dark Ages, non-Slavic groups were sometimes assimilated by Slavic-speaking populations: the Bulgars became Slavicized and their Turkic tongue disappeared; in other cases, Slavs themselves were assimilated into other groups such as the Romanians, Magyars, Greeks, etc. The Croats and the Serbs were probably merged Alans and/or Illyrians.

Related Topics:
Bulgars - Turkic - Croats - Serbs - Alans - Illyrians

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Scarcely any unity developed among various Slavic peoples in the early historic period, although faint traces of co-operation sometimes appeared. Because of the vastness and diversity of the territory occupied by Slavic peoples, there were several centers of Slavic consolidation, a process that was never completed for many reasons. In the 19th century, Pan-Slavism developed as a movement among intellectuals, scholars, and poets, but it rarely influenced practical politics. Tsarist Russia used panslavism as ideology justifing its territorial conquests in Central Europe, and as such the ideology became associated with Russian imperialism. The common Slavic experience of communism combined with the repeated usage of the ideology by Soviet propaganda after World War II within the Eastern bloc (Warsaw Pact) was a forced high-level political and economic hegemony of USSR dominated by Russians, and as such despised by rest of conquered nations. A notable political union of the 20th century that covered many South Slavs was Yugoslavia, but it broke apart as well.

Related Topics:
Pan-Slavism - World War II - Eastern bloc - Warsaw Pact - Hegemony - Yugoslavia

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Nazi Germany, whose proponents claimed a racial superiority for the Germanic people, particularly over Semitic and Slavic peoples, plotted an enslavement of the Slavic peoples, and the reduction of their numbers by killing the majority of the population. As a result, a large number of Slavs were slain during World War II.

Related Topics:
Nazi Germany - Semitic - World War II

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