East Slavs facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
East Slavs
Усходнія славяне Uskhodniya slavianie (be.)
Восточные славяне Vostochnyye slavianie (ru.)
Восточны славяне Vostochny slavianie (rue.)
Східні слов'яни Skhidni slovyany (uk.)

Countries with predominantly East Slavic population
Total population
200+ million
Regions with significant populations
Majority: Belarus, Russia, Ukraine Minority: Baltics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Serbia, Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia), Moldova, other former Soviet states.
Languages
East Slavic languages: Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian
Related ethnic groups
Other Slavs

Maximum extent of European territory inhabited by the East Slavic tribes - predecessors of Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state - in the 8th and 9th century.

The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking the East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the loose medieval Kievan Rus federation state , by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn and Ukrainian people.

History

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.

Very few native Rus' documents dating before the 11th century (none before the 10th century) have survived. The earliest major manuscript with information on Rus' history, the Primary Chronicle, dates from the late 11th and early 12th centuries. It lists twelve Slavic tribal unions which, by the 10th century, had settled in the later territory of the Kievan Rus between the Western Bug, the Dniepr and the Black Sea: the Polans, Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Radimichs, Vyatichs, Krivichs, Slovens, Dulebes (later known as Volhynians and Buzhans), White Croats, Severians, Ulichs, and Tivertsi.

Images for kids

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  A young girl of Slavic appearance in a Ukrainian folk costume, by Nikolay Rachkov

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  Ethnic Russians in former Soviet Union states according to the most recent census

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  Three generations of a Russian family, c. 1910

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  Belarusians in traditional dress

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  Ukrainians in traditional dress

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  Russians in traditional dress of Vologda region

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  Bread and salt greeting ceremony in Vladivostok, Russia

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  Bread and salt greeting ceremony in Kyiv, Ukraine

See also

In Spanish: Eslavos orientales para niños