Slavs (origin of the Slavs). Slavs - a family of kindred peoples Who are the Slavs what peoples

The Slavs are one of the most ancient peoples of the European continent. Its culture goes back many centuries and has unique characteristics.

Today, few people know about the origin and life of the ancient Slavs. You can find out about this by downloading a Slavic video online, which can be found on one of the specialized sites.

South Slavs

Peoples are groups that spread over a large area of ​​Europe. According to some experts, their number is more than 350 million people.

The South Slavs are a group of peoples who, by coincidence, found a home closer to the south of the mainland. These include people living in such countries:

• Bulgaria;
• Bosnia and Herzegovina;
• Macedonia;
• Slovenia;
• Montenegro;
• Serbia;
• Croatia.

This group of people populates almost all of the Balkans and the Adriatic coast. Today, the culture of these peoples is undergoing significant changes under the influence of Western peoples.

Eastern and Western Slavs

Western peoples are indigenous descendants, since it was from these places that settlement took place.

This group includes the descendants of several nationalities:

• Poles;
• Czechs;
• Slovaks;
• kashuba;
• Luzhi residents.

The last two peoples differ in small numbers, therefore they do not have their own states. The Kashubians live in Poland. As for the Lusatians, certain groups are found in Saxony and Brandenburg. All these peoples have their own culture and values. But it should be understood that there is no clear division between nationalities, as there is a constant movement of people and their mixing.

Eastern Slavs live on the territory of several states:

• Ukraine;
• Belarus;
• Russia.

As for the latter, the Slavs did not settle throughout the country. They live near all other peoples, which spread near the Dnieper and Polesie.

It should be noted that the culture of the Slavs succumbed to a certain change. This is due to the fact that many territories have been under the influence of neighboring peoples for a long time.

Thus, the southern peoples absorbed some of the traditions of the Greeks and Turks. In turn, the Eastern Slavs were under the Tatar-Mongol yoke for a long time, which also contributed to their language and cultural values.

Slavic peoples are a unique group of people distinguished by innovative thinking and beautiful traditions.

When starting a conversation about the Eastern Slavs, it is very difficult to be unambiguous. There are practically no sources that tell about the Slavs in antiquity. Many historians come to the opinion that the process of the origin of the Slavs began in the second millennium BC. It is also believed that the Slavs are a separate part of the Indo-European community.

But the region where the ancestral home of the ancient Slavs was located has not yet been determined. Historians and archaeologists continue to debate where the Slavs came from. Most often it is argued, and Byzantine sources say about this, that the Eastern Slavs already in the middle of the 5th century BC lived in the territory of Central and Eastern Europe. It is also generally accepted that they were divided into three groups:

The Veneds (lived in the Vistula River basin) - Western Slavs.

The Sklavins (lived between the upper reaches of the Vistula, Danube and Dniester) are the southern Slavs.

Anty (lived between the Dnieper and Dniester) - Eastern Slavs.

All historical sources characterize the ancient Slavs as people with will and love for freedom, characterized by temperament, strong character, endurance, courage, solidarity. They were hospitable to strangers, had pagan polytheism and thoughtful rituals. Initially, there was no particular fragmentation among the Slavs, since the tribal unions had similar language, customs and laws.

Territories and tribes of the Eastern Slavs

An important question is how the development of new territories by the Slavs and their resettlement in general took place. There are two main theories of the appearance of the Eastern Slavs in Eastern Europe.

One of them was put forward by the famous Soviet historian, academician B. A. Rybakov. He believed that the Slavs originally lived on the East European Plain. But the famous historians of the XIX century S. M. Soloviev and V. O. Klyuchevsky believed that the Slavs moved from the territories near the Danube.

The final settlement of the Slavic tribes looked like this:

Activities of the Eastern Slavs

Agriculture, which was associated with the characteristics of local soils, must be attributed to the main occupations of the Eastern Slavs. Arable farming was widespread in the steppe regions, and slash-and-burn agriculture was practiced in the forests. Arable land was quickly depleted, and the Slavs moved to new territories. Such farming required a lot of labor, even small plots were difficult to cultivate, and the harsh continental climate did not allow relying on high yields.

Nevertheless, even in such conditions, the Slavs sowed several varieties of wheat and barley, millet, rye, oats, buckwheat, lentils, peas, hemp, and flax. Turnips, beets, radishes, onions, garlic, and cabbage were grown in the gardens.

Bread was the staple food. The ancient Slavs called him "zhito", which was associated with the Slavic word "live".

Livestock was raised in Slavic farms: cows, horses, sheep. Trades were of great help: hunting, fishing and beekeeping (collecting wild honey). The fur trade has become widespread. The fact that the Eastern Slavs settled along the banks of rivers and lakes contributed to the emergence of shipping, trade and various crafts that provide products for exchange. Trade routes also contributed to the emergence of large cities and tribal centers.

Social structure and tribal unions

Initially, the Eastern Slavs lived in tribal communities, later they were united into tribes. The development of production, the use of draft power (horses and oxen) contributed to the fact that even a small family could cultivate their allotment. Family ties began to weaken, families began to settle separately and plow new plots of land on their own.

The community remained, but now it included not only relatives, but also neighbors. Each family had its own piece of land to cultivate, its own implements of production and the harvested crop. Private property appeared, but it did not extend to forests, meadows, rivers and lakes. The Slavs used these benefits together.

In the neighboring community, the property status of different families was no longer the same. The best lands began to be concentrated in the hands of elders and military leaders, and they also got most of the spoils from military campaigns.

At the head of the Slavic tribes, wealthy leaders-princes began to appear. They had their own armed detachments - squads, and they also collected tribute from the population under their control. The collection of tribute was called polyudye.

The 6th century is characterized by the unification of Slavic tribes into unions. The most powerful princes in military terms led them. Around these princes, the local nobility gradually strengthened.

One of such tribal unions, as historians believe, was the unification of the Slavs around the Ros (or Rus) tribe, who lived on the Ros River (a tributary of the Dnieper). Later, according to one of the theories of the origin of the Slavs, this name was transferred to all the Eastern Slavs, who received the general name "Rus", and the whole territory became the Russian land, or Rus.

Neighbors of the Eastern Slavs

In the 1st millennium BC in the Northern Black Sea region, the neighbors of the Slavs were the Cimmerians, but after a few centuries they were ousted by the Scythians, who on these lands founded their own state - the Scythian kingdom. Later, the Sarmatians came from the east to the Don and the Northern Black Sea region.

During the Great Migration of Nations, the East German tribes of the Goths passed through these lands, then the Huns. All this movement was accompanied by plunder and destruction, which contributed to the resettlement of the Slavs to the north.

Another factor in the resettlement and formation of the Slavic tribes was the Turks. It was they who formed the Türkic Kaganate on the vast territory from Mongolia to the Volga.

The movement of various neighbors in the southern lands contributed to the fact that the eastern Slavs occupied territories dominated by forest-steppe and swamps. Here communities were created that were more reliably protected from alien raids.

In the VI-IX centuries, the lands of the Eastern Slavs were located from the Oka to the Carpathians and from the Middle Dnieper to the Neva.

Nomad raids

The movement of nomads created a constant danger for the Eastern Slavs. Nomads seized bread, livestock, and burned houses. Men, women and children were taken into slavery. All this required the Slavs to be in constant readiness to repel raids. Every Slavic man was also a part-time warrior. Sometimes the land was plowed with armed forces. History shows that the Slavs successfully coped with the constant onslaught of nomadic tribes and defended their independence.

Customs and beliefs of the Eastern Slavs

The Eastern Slavs were pagans who deified the forces of nature. They worshiped the elements, believed in kinship with various animals, made sacrifices. The Slavs had a clear annual cycle of agricultural holidays in honor of the sun and the change of seasons. All ceremonies were aimed at ensuring high yields, as well as the health of people and livestock. The Eastern Slavs did not have a single idea of ​​God.

The ancient Slavs did not have temples. All ceremonies were carried out at stone idols, in groves, in glades and in other places revered by them as sacred. We must not forget that all the heroes of fairytale Russian folklore come from that time. Goblin, brownie, mermaids, mermaids, and other characters were well known to the Eastern Slavs.

In the divine pantheon of the Eastern Slavs, the following gods occupied the leading places. Dazhbog is the god of the Sun, sunlight and fertility, Svarog is the blacksmith god (according to some sources, the supreme god of the Slavs), Stribog is the god of wind and air, Mokosh is a female goddess, Perun is the god of lightning and war. A special place was given to the god of earth and fertility Veles.

The main pagan priests of the Eastern Slavs were the Magi. They performed all the rituals in the sanctuaries, turned to the gods with various requests. The Magi made various male and female amulets with different spell symbols.

Paganism was a clear reflection of the occupations of the Slavs. It was the admiration for the elements and everything connected with it that determined the attitude of the Slavs to agriculture as the main way of life.

Over time, the myths and meanings of pagan culture began to be forgotten, but much has survived to this day in folk art, customs, and traditions.

The Slavs are one of the most numerous groups of peoples, similar in common genesis and language kinship. Today they inhabit the lands of Central and Eastern Europe, occupy the territories of Siberia and the Far East. Along with all the similarities, the Slavic peoples have fundamental differences in some ways.

Slavs.

Genetically opposite groups

A team of scientists headed by Balanovsky and Willems conducted a study of the Eastern, Western, Southern Slavs and Baltic peoples at the genetic level. In the course of the work, it was possible to find out why the groups differ significantly.


Russian girls.

For a thorough analysis, about eight thousand DNA samples from fifty Balto-Slavic peoples were presented. Among them were the brightest representatives of the population - Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Kashubians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians, Bosnians and Latvians with Lithuanians. Several genetic systems helped to create a reliable picture: mitochondrial DNA (maternal), Y-chromosome (paternal), and autosomal DNA (genome-wide analysis).

East Slavs.

The results of the study confirmed the similarities between the Eastern Slavs. The Russians of the central and southern regions form a single group with the Ukrainians and Belarusians. However, the northern Russians stand out noticeably from the rest of the eastern Slavs. In genetic terms, they are much closer to the Finno-Ugric peoples.


Ukrainian at the holiday.

From the western group, the Poles are more similar to the eastern Slavs. But the Czechs and Slovaks are genetically biased towards Western European populations, in particular, the Germans. The southern and eastern regions - Croats, Bosnians, Macedonians and Bulgarians - are close to their non-Slavic neighbors in the Balkans. Research has shown that they are more related to Greeks, Hungarians and Romanians.


Poles.

Baltic peoples, including Latvians and Lithuanians, are similar not only to Belarusians, but also to Estonians, who speak the language of the Finno-Ugric group. At the same time, a genetic affinity was found for the Mordovians and other Volga peoples.


Belarusian feast.

The populations were compared in three aspects - geography, genetics, language. As it turned out, the closest relationship is observed between territorial position and genetic characteristics. Scientists agreed that when they were located in European lands, the Slavic peoples assimilated the local populations that occupied these territories even before their appearance. They brought language with them, at the same time absorbing someone else's gene pool. Thus, the eastern and western Slavs formed a single community, and the southern group acquired greater resemblance to the representatives of the Balkans.

Language differences of the Slavs

The Indo-European family of languages ​​includes the Slavic group, according to scientists, close to the Baltic. It is conditionally subdivided into three branches: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian) and West Slavic (Polish, Czech, Slovak).


Balto-Slavic languages.

The spoken languages ​​are more similar to each other than Germanic and Romance. But in the presence of common features in grammatical and phonetic aspects, they are strikingly different.

The difference between the Slavic languages ​​is mainly in the writing. In Czech, Polish and Slovak, it is based on the Latin alphabet. This is based on Catholic influence. The use of the Cyrillic alphabet in Russian, Bulgarian and Macedonian is due to the influence of the Orthodox Church. And only the Serbo-Croatian language is based on two alphabets.


Serbian alphabet.

In some Slavic languages, there is a variety of stress positions. In Czech it falls on the first syllable, in Polish it falls on the next after the last. In Bulgarian and Russian, the striking position is variable.

In the grammatical aspect, Bulgarian and Macedonian stand out among the Slavic languages ​​due to the differences in the noun inflection system. In addition, only they actively use the article.

Religious differences

Slavic tribes kept apart for a long period and often fought among themselves. Therefore, the fragmentation of religious ideas is clearly expressed between them.

Before the adoption of Christianity, the main deity among the Eastern Slavs was Perun. Many scientists agree that he was often called Svarog. It was believed that God persecutes evil spirits that may hide in human dwellings. Perun was spiced up with the sacrifice of animals and people.

Perun is the god of the Eastern Slavs.

Instead of pagan temples, the Eastern Slavs built temples and temples, where all the rituals were performed. At the same time, the ancestors worshiped Veles, had a clear idea of ​​"heaven" and "hell". The Eastern Slavs have a pronounced cult of the land. Instead of priests, the rites were performed by the oldest men in the family.

Today, about 80% of Russians and Belarusians are Orthodox. More than 76% of Ukrainians adhere to this confession.

The Western Slavs worshiped Perkunas. According to legend, the horseman Vytis, depicted on the Lithuanian coat of arms, personified a deity. In ancient times, it was believed that each tribe has its own progenitor in the form of an animal. For example, lutichi worshiped wolves, considering them sacred.

Unlike the Eastern peoples, they did not erect sanctuaries. All idols for worship were placed in pagan temples. Only the priests had access to the temple. While the Eastern Slavs could freely approach the shrine.

Among the modern Western Slavic peoples, Orthodoxy has taken root to a lesser extent. On the territory of Poland, up to 95% are Catholics. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this figure exceeds 60%.


Slavic temple.

In religious preferences, the South Slavs differ from the West and East as much as in the genetic aspect. The ancestors believed that snakes rule over nature. Human images are represented among the southern Slavs in the form of female warlike deities. The tribes believed that people who sinned during life turned into animals. Therefore, the animals fully understood human speech.

The South Slavs in different historical periods depended on the influence of Byzantium and the Ottoman ports. Therefore, at present, Islam and Orthodoxy are widespread in many states. Macedonia is 68% inhabited by Christians, while in Croatia and Slovenia up to 80% are Catholics. Residents of Bosnia and Herzegovina are Muslims.

SLAVS, the largest group of kindred peoples in Europe. The total number of Slavs is about 300 million people. Modern Slavs are divided into three branches: eastern (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians), southern (Bulgarians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Croats, Slovenes, Muslim Bosnians, Macedonians) and western (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians). They speak the languages ​​of the Slavic group of the Indo-European family. The origin of the ethnonym Slavs is not clear enough. Apparently, it goes back to the common Indo-European root, the semantic content of which is the concept of "man", "people", "speakers." In this sense, the ethnonym Slavs is registered in a number of Slavic languages ​​(including the ancient Polabian language, where "Slavak", "Tslavak" meant "man"). This ethnonym (middle Slovenes, Slovaks, Slovins, Novgorod Slovenes) in various modifications is most often traced on the periphery of the settlement of the Slavs.

The question of ethnogenesis and the so-called ancestral home of the Slavs remains controversial. The ethnogenesis of the Slavs probably developed in stages (Proto-Slavs, Proto-Slavs and the early Slavic ethnolinguistic community). By the end of the 1st millennium AD, separate Slavic ethnic communities (tribes and tribal unions) were formed. Ethnogenetic processes were accompanied by migration, differentiation and integration of peoples, ethnic and local groups, assimilation phenomena, in which various, both Slavic and non-Slavic, ethnic groups took part as substrates or components. Contact zones arose and changed, which were characterized by ethnic processes of different types at the epicenter and at the periphery. In modern science, the views that the Slavic ethnic community originally developed in the area either between the Oder (Oder) and the Vistula (Oder-Vistula theory), or between the Oder and the Middle Dnieper (Oder-Dnieper theory) have received the greatest recognition. Linguists believe that the speakers of the Proto-Slavic language were consolidated no later than the 2nd millennium BC.

From here began a gradual advance of the Slavs in the southwestern, western and northern directions, coinciding mainly with the final phase of the Great Migration of Nations (V-VII centuries). At the same time, the Slavs interacted with the Iranian, Thracian, Dacian, Celtic, Germanic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric and other ethnic components. By the 6th century, the Slavs occupied the Danube territories that were part of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, about 577 crossed the Danube and in the middle of the 7th century settled in the Balkans (Moesia, Thrace, Macedonia, the bulk of Greece, Dalmatia, Istria), partially penetrating into the Lesser Asia. At the same time, in the 6th century, the Slavs, having mastered Dacia and Pannonia, reached the Alpine regions. Between the 6th-7th centuries (mainly at the end of the 6th century), another part of the Slavs settled between the Oder and the Elbe (Labe), partially moving to the left bank of the latter (the so-called Wendland in Germany). Since the 7th-8th centuries, there has been an intensive advance of the Slavs into the central and northern zones of Eastern Europe. As a result, in the IX-X centuries. formed a vast area of ​​Slavic settlement: from the North-East of Europe and the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and from the Volga to the Elbe. Along with this, there was a disintegration of the Proto-Slavic ethnolinguistic community and the formation, on the basis of local pra-dialects, of Slavic language groups and later - the languages ​​of separate Slavic ethnosocial communities.

The ancient authors of the 1st-2nd centuries and the Byzantine sources of the 6th-7th centuries mention the Slavs under different names, either calling them generically as Wends, or singling out Ants and Sklavins among them. It is possible, however, that such names (especially "Wends", "Antes") were used to designate not only the Slavs proper, but also neighboring or other peoples associated with them. In modern science, the location of the ants is usually localized in the Northern Black Sea region (between the Seversky Donets and the Carpathians), and the Sklavins are interpreted as their western neighbors. In the 6th century, the Antes, together with the Sklavins, participated in the wars against Byzantium and partially settled in the Balkans. The ethnonym "anty" disappears from written sources in the 7th century. It is possible that it was reflected in the later ethnonym of the East Slavic tribe "Vyatichi", in the generalized designation of Slavic groups on the territory of Germany - "Venda". Starting from the 6th century, Byzantine authors increasingly report the existence of "Slavinii" ("Slavii"). Their occurrence was recorded in different parts of the Slavic world - in the Balkans ("Seven Clans", Berzitia among the Berzit tribe, Draguvitia among the Draguvites, etc.), in Central Europe ("Samo State"), in the eastern and western (including the Pomor and Polabian) Slavs. These were fragile formations that arose and again disintegrated, changed territories and united various tribes. So, the state of Samo, which emerged in the 7th century to protect against the Avars, Bavarians, Lombards, Franks, united the Slavs of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia, Luzhits and (partially) Croatia and Slovenia. The emergence of "Slavinia" on tribal and intertribal bases reflected the internal changes of the ancient Slavic society, in which the formation of the ruling elite was going on, and the power of the tribal princes gradually grew into hereditary.

The emergence of statehood among the Slavs dates back to the 7th-9th centuries. The foundation date of the Bulgarian state (the First Bulgarian Kingdom) is considered to be 681. Although at the end of the 10th century Bulgaria fell into dependence on Byzantium, as further development showed, the Bulgarian nationality had already acquired a stable identity by that time. In the second half of the VIII - the first half of the IX centuries. there is a formation of statehood among the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes. In the 9th century, the Old Russian statehood was formed with the centers in Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod and Kiev (Kievan Rus). By the 9th - early 10th centuries. The existence of the Great Moravian state, which was of great importance for the development of common Slavic culture, belongs here - here in 863 the educational activities of the creators of Slavic writing, Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius, began, continued by their students (after the defeat of Orthodoxy in Great Moravia) in Bulgaria. At the time of its highest prosperity, the Great Moravian state included Moravia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, as well as Lusatia, part of Pannonia and Slovenian lands and, apparently, Lesser Poland. In the 9th century, the Old Polish state emerged. At the same time, the process of Christianization proceeded, with most of the southern Slavs and all Eastern Slavs in the sphere of the Greek Orthodox Church, and the Western Slavs (including Croats and Slovenes) - in the Roman Catholic Church. Reformation movements (Hussism, the community of Czech brothers, etc. in the Czech Kingdom, Arianism in Poland, Calvinism among Slovaks, Protestantism in Slovenia, etc.), which were largely suppressed during the Counter-Reformation period, arose among a part of the Western Slavs in the 15th-16th centuries.

The transition to state formations reflected a qualitatively new stage in the ethnosocial development of the Slavs - the beginning of the formation of nationalities.

Social factors (the presence of “complete” or “incomplete” ethnosocial structures) and political (the presence or absence of their own state and legal institutions, stability or mobility of the boundaries of early state formations, etc.) ). Political factors in a number of cases, especially at the initial stages of ethnic history, acquired a decisive importance. So, the further process of development of the Great Moravian ethnic community on the basis of the Moravian-Czech, Slovak, Pannonian and Lusatian tribes of the Slavs that were part of Great Moravia turned out to be impossible after the fall of this state under the blows of the Hungarians in 906. There was a break in the economic and political ties of this part of the Slavic ethnos and its administrative-territorial division, which created a new ethnic situation. On the contrary, the emergence and consolidation of the Old Russian state in the east of Europe was the most important factor in the further consolidation of the East Slavic tribes into a relatively single Old Russian nationality.

In the 9th century, the lands inhabited by the tribes - the ancestors of the Slovenes, were captured by the Germans and from 962 became part of the Holy Roman Empire, and at the beginning of the 10th century, the ancestors of the Slovaks, after the fall of the Great Moravian state, were included in the Hungarian state. Despite the long resistance to German expansion, the bulk of the Polabian and Pomor Slavs lost their independence and underwent forced assimilation. Despite the disappearance of this group of Western Slavs of their own ethnopolitical base, their separate groups in different regions of Germany persisted for a long time - until the 18th century, and in Brandenburg and near Luneburg even until the 19th century. The only exceptions were the Lusatians, as well as the Kashubians (the latter later became part of the Polish nation).

Around the XIII-XIV centuries, the Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian, Czech and Polish peoples began to move to a new phase of their development. However, this process among the Bulgarians and Serbs was interrupted at the end of the XIV century by the Ottoman invasion, as a result of which they lost independence for five centuries, and the ethnosocial structures of these peoples were deformed. Croatia, in view of the danger from the outside in 1102, recognized the rule of the Hungarian kings, but retained autonomy and an ethnically Croatian ruling class. This had a positive impact on the further development of the Croatian people, although the territorial division of the Croatian lands led to the preservation of ethnic regionalism. By the beginning of the 17th century, the Polish and Czech peoples had reached a high degree of consolidation. But in the Czech lands, included in the Habsburg Austrian monarchy in 1620, as a result of the events of the Thirty Years' War and the counter-reformation policy in the 17th century, significant changes took place in the ethnic composition of the ruling strata and townspeople. Although Poland remained independent until the partitions of the end of the 18th century, the general unfavorable internal and foreign policy situation and the lag in economic development slowed down the process of nation formation.

The ethnic history of the Slavs in Eastern Europe had its own specific features. The consolidation of the Old Russian nationality was influenced not only by the proximity of culture and the affinity of dialects used by the Eastern Slavs, but also by the similarity of their socio-economic development. The originality of the process of the formation of individual nationalities, and later - ethnic groups among the Eastern Slavs (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians) was that they survived the stage of the Old Russian nationality and general statehood. Their further formation was a consequence of the differentiation of the Old Russian nationality into three independent closely related ethnic groups (XIV-XVI centuries). In the 17th-18th centuries, Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians again found themselves in the composition of one state - Russia, now as three independent ethnic groups.

In the 18th-19th centuries, East Slavic peoples grow into modern nations. This process took place among the Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians at different rates (the most intense - among the Russians, the slowest - among the Belarusians), which was due to the peculiar historical, ethno-political and ethnocultural situations experienced by each of the three peoples. So, for Belarusians and Ukrainians, an important role was played by the need to resist Polonization and Magyarization, the incompleteness of their ethnosocial structure, formed as a result of the merger of their own upper social strata with the upper social strata of Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, etc.

Among the Western and Southern Slavs, the formation of nations, with some asynchrony in the initial boundaries of this process, begins in the second half of the 18th century. With a common formation, in the stadial relationship between the regions of Central and Southeastern Europe, there were differences: if among the Western Slavs this process basically ends in the 60s of the XIX century, then among the southern Slavs - after the liberation Russian-Turkish war of 1877-78.

Until 1918, Poles, Czechs and Slovaks were part of multinational empires, and the task of creating a national statehood remained unresolved. At the same time, the political factor retained its significance in the process of the formation of the Slavic nations. The consolidation of the independence of Montenegro in 1878 created the basis for the subsequent formation of the Montenegrin nation. After the decisions of the Berlin Congress of 1878 and the change in the borders in the Balkans, most of Macedonia was outside Bulgaria, which subsequently led to the formation of the Macedonian nation. At the beginning of the 20th century, and especially in the period between the first and second world wars, when the western and southern Slavs gained state independence, this process, however, was contradictory.

After the February Revolution of 1917, attempts were made to create the Ukrainian and Belarusian statehood. In 1922, Ukraine and Belarus, together with other Soviet republics, were the founders of the USSR (in 1991 they declared themselves sovereign states). The totalitarian regimes established in the Slavic countries of Europe in the second half of the 1940s with the dominance of the administrative-command system had a deforming effect on ethnic processes (violation of the rights of ethnic minorities in Bulgaria, ignorance of the autonomous status of Slovakia by the leadership of Czechoslovakia, aggravation of interethnic contradictions in Yugoslavia, etc.) .). This was one of the most important reasons for the national crisis in the Slavic countries of Europe, which led here, starting from 1989-1990, to significant changes in the socio-economic and ethnopolitical situation. Modern processes of democratization of the socio-economic, political and spiritual life of the Slavic peoples create qualitatively new opportunities for expanding interethnic contacts and cultural cooperation, which have strong traditions.

The Slavs constantly entered into cultural interaction and mixing with neighbors and invaders. Even during the migration of peoples, the Slavs were influenced by the Avars, Goths and Huns. Later, we were influenced by the Finno-Ugrians, Tatar-Mongols, (which, which is characteristic, did not leave a trace in our genetics, but had a strong influence on the Russian language and even stronger on our statehood), the nations of Catholic Europe, the Turks, the Balts and many other peoples. Here the Poles disappear right away - their culture was formed under the strong influence of their western neighbors.

In the XVIII-XX centuries. Poland was divided between neighboring powers, which also influenced the national culture and identity. Russians too - in our language there are many Finnish and Turkic borrowings, the Tatar-Mongols, Greeks had a very strong influence on our traditions, as well as the transformations of Peter, quite alien from the point of view of tradition. In Russia, for several centuries, it has been customary to build a tradition to Byzantium or to the Horde, and at the same time completely forget about, for example, Veliky Novgorod.

The South Slavic peoples without exception were subject to the strongest influence of the Turks - we can see this in the language, and in the cuisine, and in traditions. The least vriya foreign peoples experienced, first of all, the Slavs of the Carpathians: Hutsuls, Lemkos, Rusyns, to a lesser extent Slovaks, Western Ukrainians. These peoples were formed in the area of ​​Western civilization, however, due to isolation, they were able to preserve many ancient traditions and protect their languages ​​from a large number of borrowings.

It is also worth noting the efforts of the peoples who strive to restore their traditional culture, spoiled by historical processes. First of all, these are the Czechs. When they fell under the rule of the Germans, the Czech language began to rapidly disappear. By the end of the 18th century, it was known only in remote villages, and the Czechs, especially in cities, did not know any other language than German.

Maria Yanechkova, a teacher at the Department of Bohemism at Karolav University in Prague, says that if a Czech intellectual wanted to learn the Czech language, he went to a special linguistic circle. But it is these national activists who have restored bit by bit the almost lost Czech language. At the same time, they cleared him of all borrowings in a rather radical spirit. For example, theater in Czech is divadlo, aviation is leitadlo, artillery is delo shooting, and so on. The Czech language and Czech culture are very Slavic, but this was achieved through the efforts of the intellectuals of the New Time, and not through the continuous broadcast of the ancient tradition.