Eastern Slavs, on the first writtencertificates, stood out from the Indo-European community by the middle of the 2nd century. BC. e. By the next millennium they became very numerous and influential in the world around them. Thus, references to the Eastern Slavs began to appear in Arabic, Roman, Byzantine, Greek authors. Ancient authors called these people "sklavins", "antes", "Veneds", referring to them as tribes of "innumerable".
Eastern Slavs in the period of great migrationbegan to be pushed aside by other peoples. As a result, Slavic fragmentation began. Part of the people remained in Europe. Later they will be called southern Slavs. Serbs, Bulgarians, Croats, Montenegrins, Bosnians, Slovenes will originate from them. Another part of the people moved to the northern territories. They began to be called Western Slavs. They came from Poles, Czechs, Slovaks. The western and southern peoples were captured by other peoples.
По мнению ученых, оставшаяся часть славянского people did not want to obey anyone. People moved to the East European Plain (to the north-east). Thus, the eastern Slavs appeared. The origin of Byelorussians, Russians and Ukrainians is associated precisely with these immigrants.
It should be noted that many tribesresettlement rushed to the ruins of the Roman Empire, to Central Europe. Under the onslaught of the invaders in 476 AD Rome fell. On its territory invaded barbarians created their statehood, using the cultural heritage of the Romans.
Eastern Slavs went to the territory wherethere was no cultural heritage. One part of the people went to Lake Ilmen. After some time on this place the ancient city of Novgorod will be founded. The other half of the Eastern Slavs went to the lower and middle reaches of the Dnieper. In this place Kiev will be founded.
As early as the 6th-8th centuries, the Eastern Slavs settledthroughout the East European Plain. However, other peoples lived on the same territory. The Baltic coast and the north were inhabited by the Baltic (Latvians, Lithuanians) and the Finno-Ugric tribes (Estonians, Finns, Ugrians (Hungarians), Mansi, Khanty, Komi). It should be noted that the colonization of the territory was peaceful. The Eastern Slavs and their neighbors in this territory got along with each other.
Однако ситуация на юго-востоке и востоке была somewhat different. On that territory, the steppe joined the East European Plain. Here the neighbors of the Slavs were the steppe nomads - the Turkic group. At that time, the peoples whose way of life was very different (sedentary and nomadic) often feuded among themselves. Due to raids on sedentary tribes, there were nomads. Thus, almost 1000 years of history of the Eastern Slavs consisted in the struggle against nomadic steppe tribes.
The Turks created their statehood onsouth-eastern and eastern borders of Slavic settlements. In the middle of the 6th century there was the Avarian Kaganate - the Turkic state. Byzantium in 625 destroyed this state, the Avarian Khaganate ceased to exist.
In the 7th-8th centuries, the same territoryanother state is the Bulgarian kingdom. Found it other Turks. After a while this state disintegrated. Part of the Bulgars, who left to the middle course of the Volga, Volga Bulgaria was formed. Another part of the people moved to the Danube. Here they formed the Danube Bulgaria. Later, the foreign Turks merged with the local southern Slavs. Thus, a new ethnos was formed, which took the name of the Bulgarians.
After the departure of the Bulgars the steppes were occupied by Pechenegs(new Turks). On the territory of the lower Volga and the steppes between the Azov and Caspian Seas, the Khazar Khaganate was created by the semi-nomadic Turks. Over the Eastern Slavic tribes, the rule of the Khazars was established, receiving tribute from some tribes up to the 9th century.
