Global InformationSlavs information
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2022) |
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| see § Population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
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| Slavic languages | |
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| Majority: Christianity (Orthodoxy and Catholicism) Minority:
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| Other European peoples |
The Slavs or Slavic people are a group of peoples who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southeastern Europe, though there is a large Slavic minority scattered across the Baltic states, Northern Asia, and Central Asia,[1][2] and a substantial Slavic diaspora in the Americas, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.[3]
Early Slavs lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th century AD), and came to control large parts of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe between the sixth and seventh centuries. Beginning in the 7th century, they were gradually Christianized. By the 12th century, they formed the core population of a number of medieval Christian states: East Slavs in the Kievan Rus', South Slavs in the Bulgarian Empire, the Principality of Serbia, the Duchy of Croatia and the Banate of Bosnia, and West Slavs in the Principality of Nitra, Great Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, and the Kingdom of Poland.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, a pan-Slavic movement has emphasized the common heritage and unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus of the movement was in the Balkans, whereas the Russian Empire was opposed to it.
The Slavic languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Present-day Slavs are classified into three groups:[4][5][6][7][8][9]
- the West Slavs (chiefly Czechs, Kashubians, Poles, Slovaks, and Sorbs);
- the East Slavs (chiefly Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians);
- the South Slavs (chiefly Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Gorani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Slovenes).
Though the majority of Slavs are Christians, some groups, such as the Bosniaks, mostly identify as Muslims. Modern Slavic nations and ethnic groups are considerably diverse, both genetically and culturally, and relations between them may range from "ethnic solidarity to mutual feelings of hostility" — even within the individual groups.[10]
- ^ Kirch, Aksel (June 1992). "Russians as a Minority in Contemporary Baltic States". Bulletin of Peace Proposals. 23 (2). SAGE Publishing: 205–212. doi:10.1177/096701069202300212. JSTOR 44481642. S2CID 157870839.
- ^ Ramet, Pedro (1978). "Migration and Nationality Policy in Soviet Central Asia". Humboldt Journal of Social Relations. 6 (1). California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt: 79–101. JSTOR 23261898.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
msuwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
Slav (people) - Britannica Online Encyclopediawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Kamusella, Tomasz; Nomachi, Motoki; Gibson, Catherine (2016). The Palgrave Handbook of Slavic Languages, Identities and Borders. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-137-34839-5.
- ^ Serafin, Mikołaj (January 2015). "Cultural Proximity of the Slavic Nations" (PDF). Academia. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
- ^ Živković, Tibor; Crnčević, Dejan; Bulić, Dejan; Petrović, Vladeta; Cvijanović, Irena; Radovanović, Bojana (2013). The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD). Belgrade: Istorijski institut. ISBN 978-86-7743-104-4.
- ^ Gasparov, Boris; Raevsky-Hughes, Olga (2018). Christianity and the Eastern Slavs, Volume I: Slavic Cultures in the Middle Ages. Univ of California Press. pp. 120 & 124. ISBN 978-0-520-30247-1.
- ^ Stephen Barbour, Cathie Carmichael, Language and Nationalism in Europe, Oxford University Press, 2000, p. 199, ISBN 0-19-823671-9
- ^ Robert Bideleux; Ian Jeffries (January 1998). A History of Eastern Europe: Crisis and Change. Psychology Press. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-415-16112-1.