slavs

Slavs are a major ethnolinguistic group of Europe who speak Slavic languages. The name derives from the Proto-Slavic Slavъ, often interpreted as "glorious" or "famous." The Slavic peoples originate from a common Proto-Slavic homeland and began to diversify in the early medieval period into three primary branches: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian); West Slavic (Polish, Czech, Slovak, Sorbian); and South Slavic (Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, Montenegrin, Bulgarian, Macedonian).

Slavic languages form one of the largest language groups in Europe and are written in Cyrillic scripts (used by Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian in Cyrillic) and Latin scripts (used by Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian in Latin).

Historically, Slavic peoples formed early medieval polities such as Kievan Rus' among East Slavs and Great Moravia among West Slavs. Over the centuries, South Slavic groups interacted with medieval Byzantine and Ottoman states, while West Slavic regions became central to Poland-Lithuania and other Central European polities. In the 20th century many Slavic nations formed new states or federations, most notably Yugoslavia; today they are sovereign nations with diverse cultures.

Today Slavic peoples are spread across Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and parts of Central Europe, with diasporas worldwide. Religious affiliation varies by group: Orthodox Christianity is predominant among East Slavs and some South Slavs; Roman Catholicism is common among many West Slavs and some South Slavs; Islam exists in several Balkan communities. The Slavic language family includes hundreds of millions of speakers.