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Soviet Union [USSR] EMERGENCE OF THE EAST SLAVS
Many ethnically diverse peoples migrated onto the East European
Plain, but the East Slavs remained and gradually became dominant.
Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state, emerged in the late ninth
century A.D. and developed a complex and frequently unstable
political system. Nonetheless, Kievan Rus' flourished until the
thirteenth century, when it rapidly declined. A Slavic variant of
the Eastern Orthodox religion and a synthesis of Byzantine and
Slavic cultures are among its lasting achievements. The
disintegration of Kievan Rus' played a crucial role in the
evolution of the East Slavs into the Russian, Ukrainian, and
Belorussian peoples.
The Peoples of the East European Plain
Long before the appearance of Kievan Rus', Iranian and other
peoples lived in the area of the present-day Ukrainian Republic.
The most famous of these were the Scythians (ca. 600-200 B.C.),
whose stylized animal jewelry can be seen in museums throughout the
world. From A.D. 100 to 900, Goths and nomadic Huns, Avars, and
Magyars passed though this region but left little of lasting
import. More significant was the simultaneous spread of the East
Slavs, who were agriculturists and beekeepers, as well as hunters,
fishers, herders, and trappers. The East Slavs demographically
dominated the region.
Little is known of the origins of the Slavs. Philologists and
archaeologists have surmised that they settled very early in the
Carpathian Mountains or in the area of the present-day Belorussian
Republic. By A.D. 600, they had split linguistically into southern,
western, and eastern branches. The East Slavs settled along the
Dnepr River and its tributaries and then spread northward to Lake
Ladoga and the Neva River Basin, northeastward to the northern
Volga River region, and westward to the northern Dnestr and western
Bug river basins. In the eighth and ninth centuries, many of the
East Slavic tribes paid tribute to the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking
people living in the southern Volga and Caucasus regions.
Data as of May 1989
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