Sources Researchers know relatively little about the Eastern Slavs prior to approximately 859 AD when the first events recorded in the
Primary Chronicle occurred. The Eastern Slavs of these early times apparently lacked a written language. The few known facts come from
archaeological digs, foreign travellers' accounts of the Rus' land, and linguistic comparative analyses of
Slavic languages. The East Slavs flooded Eastern Europe in two streams. One group of tribes settled along the
Dnieper river in what is now
Ukraine and
Belarus to the North; they then spread northward to the northern
Volga valley, east of modern-day
Moscow and westward to the basins of the northern
Dniester and the
Southern Buh rivers in present-day
Ukraine and southern Ukraine. Another group of East Slavs moved to the northeast, where they encountered the
Varangians of the
Rus' Khaganate and established an important regional centre of
Novgorod for protection. The same Slavic population also settled the present-day
Tver Oblast and the region of
Beloozero. Having reached the lands of the
Merya near
Rostov, they linked up with the Dnieper group of Slavic migrants.
Pre-Kievan period According to archeology, the Prague,
Korchak,
Penkova,
Kolochin, and
Kyiv cultures are classified as early Slavic. The earliest of which, Kyiv, from the 2nd–3rd centuries AD. e. was the northern neighbor of the more developed and multi-ethnic Chernyakhov culture, associated with another early group of slavs(Veneti/Venedi/Venedae?). Rare, few and short-lived settlements of the Slavs were located "in unusual topographic conditions: in low places, often now flooded during floods". Eastern Slavs, who found themselves as a result of migrations of the 4th–5th centuries. in the basins of lakes
Chudskoye and
Ilmen, formed the
culture of Pskov long barrows. This culture was strongly influenced by the autochthonous Finno-Ugric and Baltic peoples, from whom it adopted a specific burial rite and some features of ceramics, but in general, the way of life of the Eastern Slavs changed little. By the 5th century on the site of the Kyiv culture and in other regions to the north, east, west and south of it, a number of related cultures arise, such as
Korchak,
Kolochin, etc. Among the East Slavs, fortified cities appeared in northern Ukraine and in southern Belarus and southwest Russia; the Ilmen
Slovenes and the
Krivichs did not reach
Lake Ladoga and the northern reaches of the
Baltic Sea until the 7th century AD. (based on archaeological data in the town on Mayat river). The first settlements near the
Polans and
Severians arose in the region of Kyiv and Chernigov already by the 7th–8th centuries, which indicates at least a partial rejection of the previous strategy of scattered and secretive living among the forests. This is also evidenced by the fact that in the VIII-IX centuries. in all other East Slavic lands there were no more than two dozen cities, while only on the Left Bank of the Dnieper there were about a hundred of them. The foundation of the main Slavic city of this region,
Novgorod, is attributed by the
letopis to 862. In the same era, settlements appeared on the territories of other East Slavic tribes (see
Old Russian cities). So, the northerners who lived on the territory of modern Voronezh, Belgorod and Kursk regions, along with settlements in the 9th–10th centuries. built fortified settlements, mainly at the confluence of large rivers (see Romensko-Borshchiv culture). In the 10th century, a fortress appeared not far from the city of
Smolensk that arose later (the
Gnezdovsky archaeological complex). Somewhat apart are the early East Slavic settlements, the creation of which is attributed to the tribal unions of
Dulebs and
Antes. Archaeologically, they are represented by the Prague-Korchak and Penkov cultures, respectively. A number of such settlements of the Prague-Korchak (Zimino, Lezhnitsa, Khotomel, Babka, Khilchitsy,
Tusheml) and Penkovo (Selishte, Pastyrskoe) cultures existed in the 6th–7th centuries. on a vast territory from the borders of modern Poland and Romania to the Dnieper. The Prague-Korchak settlements were a site surrounded by a wooden wall with one building, which was part of the common wall of the settlement. They did not have agricultural tools, and the settlements, apparently, were built to collect and accommodate a military detachment. Penkovsky settlements could have up to two dozen buildings inside the walls and were large trade, craft and administrative centers for their time. The center of the territory controlled by the dulebs (Zimino, Lezhnitsa) was in the basin of the Western Bug; the geographical center of the Penkovo culture falls on the Dnieper region, but the main fortress of the
Antes (Selishte) was located in the western part of this area, near the borders of
Byzantine Empire (in modern Moldova), on which they made military campaigns.
Post-Kievan period The disintegration, or parcelling of the polity of
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century resulted in considerable population shifts and a political, social, and economic regrouping. The resultant effect of these forces coalescing was the marked emergence of new peoples. While these processes began long before the fall of Kiev, its fall expedited these gradual developments into a significant linguistic and ethnic differentiation among the
Rus' people into
Ukrainians,
Belarusians, and
Russians. whereas the Russian ethnic identity developed in the
Muscovite northeast and the
Novgorodian north.
Modern East Slavs girl in a folk costume, by Nikolay Rachkov Modern East Slavic peoples and ethnic/subethnic groups include: •
Belarusians •
Litvins •
Cossacks •
Zaporozhian Cossacks • Tavria Zaporozhians •
Black Sea Zaporozhians •
Podlashuks •
Poleshuks •
Russians •
Albazinians •
Doukhobors •
Goryuns •
Kamchadals •
Kamenschiks •
Lipovans •
Polekhs •
Pomors •
Semeiskie •
Siberians •
Starozhily •
Rusyns •
Boyko •
Hutsuls •
Lemkos •
Pannonian Rusyns •
Ukrainians •
Cossacks •
Galicians •
Podolyans • Slobozhanians •
Zaporozhian Cossacks == Population ==