You Slavs they are a people who originated in Russia and spread across eastern Europe.
This appellation came from the Greeks and Romans who thought they were all equal to each other.
Origin
The first human settlements in Russia – the region that would give rise to the Slavs – dates back to the Neolithic.
The word “Slavic” comes from the Greek and means “slave”. Another version holds that it could be "the one who comes from the East".
The first descriptions we have of the Slavs came from the Romans. They were described as barbarians and fierce warriors who looked like wolves. This observation is due to the fact that the Slavs wore long hair and beards, while the Romans kept their hair cut and their faces almost always hairless.
The Romans called them “Slavs” to differentiate them from the peoples who came from the north.
Due to population pressure, some Slav tribes begin to leave Russian territory and spread across the European continent. They occupied part of present-day Scandinavia and the Danube River was the gateway to Western Europe. They settled where countries like Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Macedonia and Croatia are located today.
Culture
Among the Slavic culture we can highlight the traditional folk dances performed in pairs. Also, we have choreographies aimed at men that include jumps and where the steps are performed with the crouching dancer. This would demonstrate strength and courage.
Also noteworthy are the richly sewn and decorated costumes that men and women wore at parties. The higher the social position, the more ornate the clothes would be.
Russian dancer performs Cossack dance steps.
Slavonic
Slavs joined the Roman Empire by force or through federalization that guaranteed the Slavs Roman citizenship in exchange for military service.
However, as they were absorbed by Rome in its decay phase, they did not undergo major changes in the spoken and written language. In this way, they did not adopt the Latin alphabet, but Cyrillic as a form of writing.
Composed of 44 letters, the Cyrillic alphabet would have been invented by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, in the ninth century when they were catechizing the Bulgarians. With the expansion of the First Bulgarian Empire, the Cyrillic alphabet was adopted by other Slavic peoples such as the Slovenes, Serbs and Macedonians.
Also through Christian Byzantine missionaries, Russians and Ukrainians adopted the Cyrillic alphabet for their language. In the 18th century, during the reforms introduced in Russia by Peter the Great, the Russian Cyrillic alphabet was simplified.
Read more about the Byzantine Empire.
Religion
Like all tribal societies, Slavs were polytheistic and their gods were used to explain natural phenomena, to give cohesion and hierarchy to the society.
Among the pantheon of Slavic gods we can highlight three main gods:
Svarog – is the creator god, the blacksmith who forged this world. It symbolizes the sun, justice and life itself.
Veles – sometimes represented as a man, sometimes as a woman. It is the divinity of nature, water, agriculture, birth.
Striborg - the wind is its main element. He is the god of death, who carries souls to Triglav. He was not, as seen in other mythologies, an evil god.
It is important to note that Triglav is a mountain of three peaks that are identified as the three heads of these gods. Located in Slovenia, it has more than 2,800 meters of altitude.
Each of these gods had a dragon, which had three heads in certain cases, which helped them in their tasks.
As Slavs joined the Roman Empire, they adopted or were converted to Christianity. Later, the Slavs, who belonged to the Eastern Roman Empire, became Orthodox Christians, a religion that predominates in Eastern Europe to this day.
Slavs in Brazil
The Slav people with the greatest presence in Brazil are the Poles. About 60,000 Polish immigrants are believed to have come to the country fleeing the endless wars that raged in Poland.
Most settled in the countryside where they devoted themselves to agriculture.
Slav countries
- Russia,
- Belarus,
- Ukraine,
- Poland,
- Czech republic,
- Slovakia,
- Lusatia,
- Bulgaria,
- Croatia,
- Macedonia,
- Serbia,
- Bosnia and Herzegovina,
- Kosovo,
- Slovenia.
Read more:
- Balkan Peninsula
- barbarian peoples