North Slavs

North Slavic tongues in Europe

Although the use of the East and West Slavonic categories the standard model, some theorists claim that these two groups share enough of the same or similar linguistic and cultural characteristics to be classed together as one North Slavic branch.[1][2][9][10] The crux of this argument is that there is a northern ethos and a southern ethos of the Slavs (a North Slavic and a South Slavic dialect continuum, a Northeastern European and a Southeastern European cuisine, etc.).[11] This split was caused by migrations of Slavonic tribes and reinforced by the Hungarian invasions of Europe at the end of the first millennium CE, causing the Slavic societies to gradually grow into two separate cultures.[7] The term "North Slav" itself has been used in academic works as early as 1841[12][3][13] and the concept continued to appear in publications in the centuries that followed.[4] A publication from 1938 noted that "the north Slavs have a little lighter hair and skin color than the south Slavs; and far to the north they have much lighter hair".[14]

In terms of language, the greatest contrasts are evident between South Slavic tongues and the rest of the family.[1][2][15] Moreover, there are many exceptions and whole dialects that break the division of East and West Slavic languages. Thus the Slavs are clearly divided into two main linguistic groups: the North Slavs and the South Slavs, which can then be further categorised as the Northwest tongues (Czech, Kashubian, Polish, Silesian, Slovak, and Sorbian) and the Northeast ones (Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian) – whereas the Southern branch is split into the widely accepted groups of the Southwest languages (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene) and the Southeast tongues (Bulgarian and Macedonian). This model is argued as being more appropriate than the triple dissection of east, west and south.[1]

North Slavic cuisine features some Central European and some Near Eastern influences.[11] The South Slavs have a considerably more Mediterranean gastronomy because of the difference in climate and close proximity of Italy and Greece. Due to centuries of interaction with the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, Byzantine and Ottoman cultural influences in the region of South Slavs are significant.[16] There is a cultural split of the North Slavonic family into two separate categories according to religion: the West Slavic languages are of mostly Catholic countries and the East Slavic languages are of primarily Orthodox territories.[1]

A 1922 article in The Living Age defined the term "Norths Slavs" differently:[17] it featured a triple grouping where the South Slavic branch remains the same but the North Slavs include only the Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles; the Russians and Ukrainians instead were categorised separately as East Slavs according to this definition.[17]

There are an estimated 265,000,000 North Slavs worldwide.

Nation	State	Numbers
Russians	RUS	130,000,000[18][19]
Poles	POL	57,393,000[20]
Ukrainians	UKR	46,700,000[21]
Czechs	CZE	12,000,000[22]
Belarusians	BLR	10,000,000[23]
Slovaks	SVK	6,940,000[24]
Silesians	POL;  CZE;  GER	2,000,000[25]
Rusyns	SVK;  SRB;  UKR	92,000[26]
Sorbs	GER	70,000[27]
Kashubians	POL	5,000[28][29]

Significant minorities of North Slavic populations exist in Western Europe (primarily Germany, the United Kingdom, and Ireland) as well as Northern America (mostly the United States and Canada. The oceanside neighbourhood of Brighton Beach in New York City's Brooklyn borough is known for its high Russian-speaking population; likewise, Chicago is home to a large number of Polish Americans and Polish immigrants. Chicago is also the city with the third largest Czech population, after Prague and Vienna.[30][31] Since the 2004 enlargement of the European Union, Germany and the UK have gathered considerable amounts of migrant Poles. In England, Polish has become the second most spoken native language after English – with over 500,000 speakers, according to the 2011 census.[32] In Ireland, over 120,000 Poles make up the largest minority in the country according to 2016 figures.[33] Polish food can be found in Eastern European shops across various parts of the British Isles.[34] Lusatia, mostly in Germany, is the original homeland of the Sorbs living there who speak the Sorbian languages; since they did not migrate there and are native to this territory, they are also known as the "Lusatian Sorbs". They are the only descendants of the Polabian Slavs to have retained their identity and culture over centuries of living under Germanic rule.

Balto-Slavic language tree

The North Slavonic tongues today are:

• Northwest branch
  • Czech-Slovak
    • Czech
    • Slovak
  • Lekhitic
    • Polish
    • Kashubian
    • Silesian
  • Sorbian
    • Upper Sorbian
    • Lower Sorbian
• Northeast branch
  • • Belarusian
    • Russian
    • Ukrainian
    • Rusyn

Much overlap can be found between the Northwest and Northeast branches. Ukrainian and Belarusian have both been hugely influenced by Polish in the past centuries due to their geographic and cultural proximity, as well as to the Polonization of the Ruthenian population of the Polish Commonwealth.[11]

According to Kostiantyn Tyshchenko, Ukrainian shares 70% common vocabulary with Polish, 66% with Slovak, and 62% with Russian.[35] Furthermore, Tyschenko identified 82 grammatical and phonetic features of the Ukrainian tongue – Polish, Czech and Slovak share upwards of 20 of these characteristics with Ukrainian, and 11 are shared with Russian.[36]

A number of now extinct tongues once existed within these groups, such as Slovincian in the Lekhitic subgroup or the Old Novgorod dialect within the Northeast section.

In contrast to other dialects of Slovak, Eastern dialects (so-called Slovjak) are less intelligible with Czech and more with Polish and Rusyn.[37]

The first written use of the name "Slavs" dates to the 6th century, when the Slavic tribes inhabited a large portion of Central and Eastern Europe. By that century, native Iranian ethnic groups (the Scythians, Sarmatians, and Alans) had been absorbed by the region's Slavic population.[38][39][40][41] Over the next two centuries, the Slavs expanded southwest toward the Balkans and the Alps and northeast towards the Volga River.[42]

Beginning in the ninth century, the Slavs gradually converted to Christianity (both Byzantine Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism) – beginning with the southern regions and ending at the eastern reaches.[43] By the 12th century, they were the core population of a number of medieval Christian states: the Northwest Slavs in Poland, the Holy Roman Empire (Pomerania, Bohemia, Moravia), Kingdom of Hungary (Nitria), and the Northeast Slavs in Kievan Rus'. During the Late Middle Ages, the main polities of the North Slavs were the Kingdom of Bohemia, Kingdom of Poland, Duchy of Masovia, Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Pskov Republic, and the Novgorod Republic. Lands of the former Kievan Rus' had become fragmented due to the Mongol invasion of the 13th century and would remain so until the first half of the 16th century.

In the early modern period, two major European powers – the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia – had large populations that consisted primarily of North Slavonic nations and North Slavic language speakers (primarily Poles, Ruthenians, Russians, Cossacks). Polish and Russian became the lingua franca of wide stretches of Catholic and Orthodox lands in Eastern Europe respectively.[44][45][46][47] Politically, Russia has dominated the region beginning with the fall of the Polish Kingdom in 1795. The Russian Empire continued to rule almost all of Eastern Europe and parts of Central Europe for the entirety of the 19th century up until the outbreak of World War I, which resulted in the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy during the October Revolution. The success of the USSR and establishment of the Eastern Bloc followed.

While the Czech lands have never been as much of a military or political power during the region's history as Poland and Russia have, it was arguably seen by some as one of the most cultured of the North Slavic lands and the first to accept their new religion.[43] The Czechs were the first in the east to be Christianised in the 9th century, they later became arguably the most religiously tolerant of the Slavonic nation-states thanks to the Bohemian Reformation. However today, the Czech Republic is one of the most irreligious countries in the world.[48] Presently, after the fall of the Eastern Bloc, North Slavonic nation-states are split among two different factions: the NATO and EU members of the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (Belarus and Russia). Ukraine is currently a partner of both the CIS and NATO, while also taking part in the EU's Eastern Partnership initiative as part of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Licheń is an example of Northwest Slavic Catholic architecture

Saint Basil's Cathedral is an example of Northeast Slavic Orthodox architecture

In the present day, Christianity dominates among the North Slavic peoples, with Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism being the most popular denominations. In 2011, 48.3% of Belarusians living in their home country declared themselves as Orthodox.[49] A 2012 study in Russia placed the number of Orthodox Russians at 41%,[50][51] whereas a 2016 survey tells us that 65.4% of Ukrainians share these beliefs.[52] 87.5% of Poland's population declared Roman Catholic faith.[53][54][55] 65% of Polish believers attend church services on a regular basis.[56] 62% of Slovakia's inhabitants are Catholic.[57] Among Czechs, 34.5% claim to have no religion, 44.7% undeclared, and only 10.5% Roman Catholics.[58][59][60]

• West Slavs
• East Slavs
• South Slavs
• Panethnicity