Slavs are one of the most numerous groups of peoples, similar in common genesis and kinship of languages. Today they inhabit the lands of Central and Eastern Europe, occupy the territories of Siberia and the Far East. Along with all the similarities, the Slavic peoples, in some respects, have fundamental differences.
Slavs.
Genetically opposite groups
A team of scientists led by Balanovsky and Willems conducted a study of the Eastern, Western, Southern Slavs and Baltic peoples at the genetic level. In the course of the work, it was possible to find out why the groups differ significantly. 
Russian girls.
About eight thousand DNA samples from fifty Balto-Slavic peoples were submitted for a thorough analysis. Among them were the brightest representatives of the population - Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Kashubians, Poles, Czechs, Bulgarians, Bosnians and Latvians with Lithuanians. Several genetic systems helped to draw up a reliable picture: mitochondrial DNA (maternally), Y-chromosome (paternally) and autosomal DNA (genome-wide analysis). 
East Slavs.
The results of the study confirmed the similarities between the Eastern Slavs. The Russians of the central and southern regions form a single group with Ukrainians and Belarusians. However, the Northern Russians stand out markedly from the rest of the Eastern Slavs. In genetic terms, they are much closer to the Finno-Ugric peoples. 
Ukrainian on holiday.
Of the Western group, the Poles are more similar to the Eastern Slavs. But Czechs and Slovaks are genetically biased towards Western European populations, in particular, Germans. The southern and eastern regions - Croats, Bosnians, Macedonians and Bulgarians - are close to non-Slavic neighbors in the Balkans. The study showed that they are more related to the Greeks, Hungarians and Romanians. 
Poles.
The Baltic peoples, including Latvians and Lithuanians, are similar not only to Belarusians, but also to Estonians, who speak the language of the Finno-Ugric group. At the same time, genetic affinity to the Mordovians and other Volga peoples was discovered. 
Belarusian feast.
Populations were compared in three aspects - geography, genetics, language. As it turned out, the closest relationship is observed between the territorial position and genetic characteristics. Scientists agreed that when they settled in European lands, the Slavic peoples assimilated the local populations that occupied these territories even before they appeared. They brought with them the language, at the same time absorbing someone else's gene pool. Thus, the eastern and western Slavs formed a single community, and the southern group became more similar to the representatives of the Balkans.
Language differences of the Slavs
The Indo-European family of languages includes the Slavic group, which, according to scientists, is close to the Baltic. It is conditionally divided into three branches: East Slavic (Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian), South Slavic (Bulgarian, Slovenian, Serbo-Croatian) and West Slavic (Polish, Czech, Slovak). 
Balto-Slavic languages.
Spoken languages are more similar to each other than Germanic and Romance. But although they have common features in grammatical and phonetic aspects, they are strikingly different.
The difference between the Slavic languages is mainly in writing. In Czech, Polish and Slovak it is based on the Latin alphabet. This is justified by Catholic influence. The use of Cyrillic in Russian, Bulgarian and Macedonian is due to the influence of the Orthodox Church. And only Serbo-Croatian is based on two alphabets. 
Serbian alphabet.
In some Slavic languages, there is a variety of stress positions. In Czech it falls on the first syllable, in Polish it falls on the next after the last. In Bulgarian and Russian, the shock position is variable.
In the grammatical aspect, Bulgarian and Macedonian stand out among the Slavic languages due to differences in the system of noun inflections. In addition, only they actively use the article.
Religious differences
Slavic tribes for a long period kept apart and often fought among themselves. Therefore, there is a clear separation of religious ideas between them.
Before the adoption of Christianity, the main deity of the Eastern Slavs was Perun. Many scientists agree that he was often called Svarog. It was believed that God was pursuing evil spirits that could hide in a human dwelling. Perun was cajoled by the sacrifice of animals and people.
Perun is the god of the Eastern Slavs.
Instead of pagan temples, the Eastern Slavs built tremies and temples, where all the rituals were held. At the same time, the ancestors worshiped Veles, had a clear idea of \u200b\u200b"heaven" and "hell". The Eastern Slavs have a pronounced cult of the earth. Instead of priests, the rites were performed by the oldest men in the family.
Today, about 80% of Russians and Belarusians are Orthodox. More than 76% of Ukrainians adhere to this confession.
Western Slavs worshiped Perkunas. According to legend, the rider Vytis, depicted on the Lithuanian coat of arms, personified a deity. In ancient times, it was believed that each tribe has its own progenitor in the form of an animal. For example, Lutici worshiped wolves, considering them sacred.
Unlike the Eastern peoples, they did not build sanctuaries. All idols for worship were placed in pagan temples. Only the priests had access to the temple. While the Eastern Slavs could freely approach the shrine.
Orthodoxy has taken root to a lesser extent among modern Western Slavic peoples. In Poland, up to 95% of Catholics. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this figure exceeds 60%. 
Slavic temple.
In religious preferences, the southern Slavs differ from the Western and Eastern as much as in the genetic aspect. Ancestors believed that snakes rule over nature. Human images are represented by the southern Slavs in the form of female warlike deities. The tribes believed that people who sinned during their lifetime turned into animals. Therefore, the animals fully understood human speech.
The southern Slavs in different historical periods depended on the influence of Byzantium and the Ottoman Port. Therefore, at present, Islam and Orthodoxy are widespread in many states. Macedonia is 68% Christian, while Croatia and Slovenia are up to 80% Catholic. The inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina practice Islam.
SLAVS- the largest group of European peoples, united by a common origin and linguistic proximity in the system of Indo-European languages. Its representatives are divided into three subgroups: southern (Bulgarians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Bosnians), eastern (Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians) and western (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians). The total number of Slavs in the world is about 300 million people, including Bulgarians 8.5 million, Serbs about 9 million, Croats 5.7 million, Slovenes 2.3 million, Macedonians about 2 million, Montenegrins less 1 million, about 2 million Bosnians, 146 million Russians (120 million of them in Russia), 46 million Ukrainians, 10.5 million Belarusians, 44.5 million Poles, 11 million Czechs, less than 6 Slovaks million, Lusatians - about 60 thousand. Slavs make up the bulk of the population of the Russian Federation, the Republics of Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Bulgaria, the State Community of Serbia and Montenegro, they also live in the Baltic republics, Hungary, Greece, Germany, Austria, Italy, in Americas and Australia. Most Slavs are Christians, with the exception of the Bosnians, who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule over southern Europe. Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Russians - mostly Orthodox; Croats, Slovenes, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Lusatians are Catholics, there are many Orthodox among Ukrainians and Belarusians, but there are also Catholics and Uniates.
The data of archeology and linguistics connect the ancient Slavs with a vast area of Central and Eastern Europe, bounded in the west by the Elbe and Oder, in the north by the Baltic Sea, in the east by the Volga, in the south by the Adriatic. The northern neighbors of the Slavs were the Germans and the Balts, the eastern neighbors were the Scythians and Sarmatians, the southern neighbors were the Thracians and Illyrians, and the western neighbors were the Celts. The question of the ancestral home of the Slavs remains debatable. Most researchers believe that it was the Vistula basin. Ethnonym Slavs first found among Byzantine authors of the 6th century, who called them "sklavins". This word is related to the Greek verb "klukso" ("I wash") and the Latin "kluo" ("I cleanse"). The self-name of the Slavs goes back to the Slavic lexeme "word" (that is, the Slavs - those who speak, understand each other through verbal speech, considering strangers incomprehensible, "dumb").
The ancient Slavs were the descendants of the pastoral and agricultural tribes of the Corded Ware culture, who settled in 3-2 thousand BC. from the Northern Black Sea and Carpathian regions across Europe. In the 2nd century AD, as a result of the movement to the south of the Germanic tribes of the Goths, the integrity of the Slavic territory was violated, and it was divided into western and eastern. In the 5th c. the settlement of the Slavs to the south began - to the Balkans and the North-Western Black Sea region. At the same time, however, they retained all their lands in Central and Eastern Europe, becoming the largest ethnic group for that time.
The Slavs were engaged in arable farming, cattle breeding, various crafts, and lived in neighboring communities. Numerous wars and territorial movements contributed to the collapse of the 6-7 centuries. family ties. In the 6th–8th centuries many of the Slavic tribes united in tribal unions and created the first state formations: in the 7th century. the First Bulgarian kingdom and the state of Samo, which included the lands of the Slovaks, arose in the 8th century. - the Serbian state of Raska, in the 9th century. - The Great Moravian state, which absorbed the lands of the Czechs, as well as the first state of the Eastern Slavs - Kievan Rus, the first independent Croatian principality and the state of the Montenegrins Duklja. Then - in the 9th-10th centuries. - Christianity began to spread among the Slavs, which quickly became the dominant religion.
From the end of the 9th to the first half of the 10th century, when the state was still being formed among the Poles, and the Serbian lands were gradually being collected by the First Bulgarian Kingdom, the advance of the Hungarian tribes (Magyars) into the valley of the middle Danube began, which intensified by the 8th century. The Magyars cut off the Western Slavs from the southern ones, assimilated part of the Slavic population. The Slovenian principalities of Styria, Krajina, Carinthia became part of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 10th c. the lands of the Czechs and Lusatians (the only one of the Slavic peoples who did not have time to create their own statehood) also fell into the epicenter of colonization - but already the Germans. Thus, the Czechs, Slovenes and Lusatians were gradually included in the powers created by the Germans and Austrians and became their border districts. Participating in the affairs of these powers, the listed Slavic peoples organically joined the civilization of Western Europe, becoming part of its socio-political, economic, cultural, religious subsystems. Having retained some typical Slavic ethno-cultural elements, they acquired a stable set of features that are characteristic of the Germanic peoples in family and public life, in national utensils, clothing and cuisine, in types of dwellings and settlements, in dances and music, in folklore and applied arts. Even in anthropological terms, this part of the Western Slavs acquired stable features that bring it closer to the southern Europeans and the inhabitants of Central Europe (Austrians, Bavarians, Thuringians, etc.). The coloring of the spiritual life of the Czechs, Slovenes, Lusatians began to be determined by the German version of Catholicism; have undergone changes, the lexical and grammatical structure of their languages.
Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians, Montenegrins formed during the Middle Ages, 8-9 centuries, southern Greek-Slavic natural-geographical and historical-cultural area. All of them were in the orbit of influence of Byzantium, adopted in the 9th century. Christianity in its Byzantine (orthodox) version, and with it Cyrillic writing. In the future - in the conditions of the ongoing onslaught of other cultures and the strong influence of Islam after the beginning of the second half of the 14th century. Turkish (Ottoman) conquest - Bulgarians, Serbs, Macedonians and Montenegrins successfully preserved the specifics of the spiritual system, features of family and social life, original cultural forms. In the struggle for their identity in the Ottoman environment, they took shape as South Slavic ethnic formations. At the same time, small groups of Slavic peoples converted to Islam during the period of Ottoman rule. The Bosnians - from the Slavic communities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Turks - from the Montenegrins, the Pomaks - from the Bulgarians, the Torbeshis - from the Macedonians, the Mohammedan Serbs - from the Serbian environment experienced a strong Turkish influence and therefore assumed the role of "border" subgroups of the Slavic peoples, connecting representatives Slavs with Middle Eastern ethnic groups.
Northern historical and cultural range Orthodox Slavs developed in the 8th-9th centuries on a large territory occupied by the Eastern Slavs from the Northern Dvina and the White Sea to the Black Sea region, from the Western Dvina to the Volga and Oka. Started at the beginning of the 12th century. the processes of feudal fragmentation of the Kievan state led to the formation of many East Slavic principalities, which formed two stable branches of the Eastern Slavs: the eastern (Great Russians or Russians, Russians) and the western (Ukrainians, Belarusians). Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians as independent peoples developed, according to various estimates, after the conquest of the East Slavic lands by the Mongol-Tatars, the yoke and the collapse of the state of the Mongols, the Golden Horde, that is, in the 14-15 centuries. The state of the Russians - Russia (called Muscovy on European maps) - first united the lands along the upper Volga and Oka, the upper reaches of the Don and the Dnieper. After the conquest in the 16th century. Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, the Russians expanded the territory of their settlement: they advanced into the Volga region, the Urals, and Siberia. Ukrainians after the fall of the Crimean Khanate settled the Black Sea region and, together with the Russians, the steppe and foothill regions of the North Caucasus. A significant part of the Ukrainian and Belarusian lands were in the 16th century. as part of the united Polish-Lithuanian state of the Commonwealth, and only in the middle of the 17-18 centuries. was again for a long time attached to the Russians. The Eastern Slavs managed more fully than the Balkan Slavs (who were either under the Greek spiritual and intellectual, then under the Ottoman military and administrative pressure) and a significant part of the Germanized Western Slavs, to preserve the features of their traditional culture, mental and mental warehouse (non-violence, tolerance, etc.) .
A significant part of the Slavic ethnic groups that lived in Eastern Europe from Jadran to the Baltic - they were partly Western Slavs (Poles, Kashubians, Slovaks) and partly southern (Croats) - in the Middle Ages formed their own special cultural and historical area, gravitating towards Western Europe more, than to the southern and eastern Slavs. This area united those Slavic peoples who adopted Catholicism, but avoided active Germanization and Magyarization. Their position in the Slavic world is similar to a group of small Slavic ethnic communities that combined the features inherent in the Eastern Slavs with the features of the peoples living in Western Europe - both Slavic (Poles, Slovaks, Czechs) and non-Slavic (Hungarians, Lithuanians) . These are Lemkos (on the Polish-Slovak border), Rusyns, Transcarpathians, Hutsuls, Boikos, Galicians in Ukraine and Chernorusses (West Belarusians) in Belarus, who gradually separated from other ethnic groups.
The relatively late ethnic division of the Slavic peoples, the commonality of their historical destinies contributed to the preservation of the consciousness of the Slavic community. This is self-determination in the conditions of a foreign cultural environment - Germans, Austrians, Magyars, Ottomans, and similar circumstances of national development caused by the loss of statehood by many of them (most of the Western and southern Slavs were part of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, Ukrainians and Belarusians - in part of the Russian Empire). Already in the 17th century. among the southern and western Slavs there was a tendency to unite all Slavic lands and peoples. A prominent ideologist of Slavic unity at that time was a Croat serving at the Russian court, Yuri Krizhanich.
At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century. the rapid growth of national consciousness among almost all previously oppressed Slavic peoples expressed itself in the desire for national consolidation, resulting in a struggle for the preservation and dissemination of national languages, the creation of national literatures (the so-called "Slavic revival"). Early 19th century marked the beginning of scientific Slavic studies - the study of cultures and ethnic history of the southern, eastern, western Slavs.
From the second half of the 19th century the desire of many Slavic peoples to create their own, independent states became obvious. Socio-political organizations began to operate on the Slavic lands, contributing to the further political awakening of the Slavic peoples who did not have their own statehood (Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Poles, Lusatians, Czechs, Ukrainians, Belarusians). Unlike the Russians, whose statehood was not lost even during the Horde yoke and had a history of nine centuries, as well as the Bulgarians and Montenegrins, who gained independence after Russia's victory in the war with Turkey in 1877–1878, most of the Slavic peoples were still fighting for independence.
National oppression and the difficult economic situation of the Slavic peoples in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. caused several waves of their emigration to more developed European countries in the USA and Canada, to a lesser extent - France, Germany. The total number of Slavic peoples in the world at the beginning of the 20th century. was about 150 million people (Russians - 65 million, Ukrainians - 31 million, Belarusians 7 million; Poles 19 million, Czechs 7 million, Slovaks 2.5 million; Serbs and Croats 9 million, Bulgarians 5 .5 million, Slovenes 1.5 million) At that time, the bulk of the Slavs lived in Russia (107.5 million people), Austria-Hungary (25 million people), Germany (4 million people) , countries of America (3 million people).
After the First World War of 1914–1918, international acts fixed the new borders of Bulgaria, the emergence of the multinational Slavic states of Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia (where, however, some Slavic peoples dominated others), and the restoration of national statehood among the Poles. In the early 1920s, it was announced the creation of their own states - socialist republics - Ukrainians and Belarusians, who entered the USSR; however, the trend towards Russification of the cultural life of these Eastern Slavic peoples - which became apparent during the period of the existence of the Russian Empire - continued.
The solidarity of the southern, western and eastern Slavs grew stronger during the Second World War of 1939–1945, in the fight against fascism and the "ethnic cleansing" carried out by the occupiers (by which they meant the physical destruction of a number of Slavic peoples as well). During these years, Serbs, Poles, Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians suffered more than others. At the same time, the Slavophobic Nazis did not consider Slovenes to be Slavs (having restored Slovenian statehood in 1941–1945), Lusatians were classified as East Germans (Swabians, Saxons), that is, the regional peoples (Landvolken) of German Middle Europe, and the contradictions between Croats and Serbs used to their advantage, supporting Croatian separatism.
After 1945, practically all Slavic peoples ended up in states called socialist or people's democratic republics. The existence of contradictions and conflicts on ethnic grounds was silent for decades, but they emphasized the advantages of cooperation, both economic (for which the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance was created, which existed for almost half a century, 1949–1991), and military-political (within the framework of the Warsaw Pact Organization, 1955–1991). However, the era of "velvet revolutions" in the countries of people's democracy in the 90s of the 20th century. not only revealed underlying discontent, but also led the former multinational states to a rapid fragmentation. Under the influence of these processes, which engulfed the whole of Eastern Europe, free elections were held in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the USSR and new independent Slavic states arose. In addition to positive aspects, this process also had negative ones - the weakening of existing economic ties, areas of cultural and political interaction.
The tendency for Western Slavs to gravitate toward Western European ethnic groups continues into the early 21st century. Some of them act as conductors of that Western European "onslaught on the East" that emerged after 2000. This is the role of the Croats in the Balkan conflicts, the Poles - in maintaining separatist tendencies in Ukraine and Belarus. At the same time, at the turn of the 20th-21st centuries. the question of the common destinies of all the Eastern Slavs again became topical: Ukrainians, Belarusians, Great Russians, as well as the southern Slavs. In connection with the intensification of the Slavic movement in Russia and abroad, in 1996-1999 several agreements were signed, which are a step towards the formation of a union state of Russia and Belarus. In June 2001, a congress of the Slavic peoples of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia was held in Moscow; in September 2002, the Slavic Party of Russia was founded in Moscow. In 2003, the State Community of Serbia and Montenegro was formed, which declared itself the legal successor of Yugoslavia. The ideas of Slavic unity are regaining their relevance.
Lev Pushkarev
According to the data of 2013, cited by Analytical Newspaper, today the Slavic world has about 300-350 million people, and the same number were assimilated with other peoples. In other words, assimilation literally divided the Slavic world into two halves and caused more harm than all the wars - primarily liberation ones - waged by the Slavs. The Slavs "melted" into all neighboring peoples: into Germans, Hungarians, Romanians, Turks, Albanians, Swedes, Finns, Lithuanians, and also assimilated with each other. Most often, the Slavs of the Roman Catholic faith "absorbed" Orthodox Slavs (Poles - Russians, Croats - Serbs), or the carriers of "distorted Orthodoxy" (Romanians) assimilated Orthodox Slavs (Serbs and Russians).
The complex processes that led to the disappearance of various parts of the Slavic peoples began in the distant past, but continue to this day, but Slavic scientists have not dealt with this phenomenon. It is clear that the Slavs are being attacked, and that many of them died in various wars. At the same time, the Slavs themselves did not cause the disappearance of any of their peoples - this was facilitated by (forced) assimilation, which changed their identity. In some cases, assimilation continued for a long time and affected a larger or smaller group of the Slavic people, while in other cases, under the influence of third-party centers of power, a new Slavic people was formed. True, he had a new ideology and system of values, and such a people had its own, completely different from others, culture, political guidelines and character.
According to the Russian portal kramola.info, with which Serbian supporters of autochthonism agree, the earliest example of the assimilation of a large part of the Slavic population is the process that took place on the territory of modern Greece, that is, in the Peloponnese. Assimilation ended in the 11th century, and only in the north of this region did the Slavs manage to maintain their identity. Probably the most dramatic situation was in Aegean Macedonia. According to the Turkish census of 1904, Serbs made up 85% of the population of Aegean Macedonia (896,494). But the next, Greek, 1912 census brought data that 326,426 Orthodox and 41,000 Islamized Serbs live in this region, along with 295,000 Turks, 234,000 Greeks, 60,000 Jews, 50,000 Orthodox Vlachs, plus 25,302 Gypsies. and 15,108 Albanians. According to the next census, which was conducted by Greece in 1920, there were 500 thousand Serbs, and in 1949 - 195,395. Today there are no Serbs in Aegean Macedonia, but there are Greeks who speak the Slavic language (there are ten thousand of them).
Another example of complete assimilation is the "absorption" by the Germans of numerous tribes of the Polabian Slavs, who since the 12th century have been under the rule of the Germans (secular and ecclesiastical). As a result of this assimilation, the Slavs in the east of modern Germany simply disappeared. And only the Lusatian Serbs, who lived far from the great trade routes in dense and impregnable forests, managed to save themselves (today there are about 46 thousand of them). The same fate befell the Slavs in the Eastern Alps: there their territory was reduced by two-thirds.
Ethnocide in Romania
Especially noticeable was the disappearance (ethnocide) of the Slavs, mainly Serbs and Russians, in the territory of modern Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia. The Roman Catholic Church took up social engineering there: within the framework of the so-called Ardelian school (it was led by the Jesuits), the ideology of "Romanianism" was created. According to her, the inhabitants of these three provinces, which once even formed an independent state - the Danube Principality, are descendants of citizens of the Roman Empire. For them, a corresponding Romance language was created, in which at first there were up to 50% of Slavic words, and then, after various campaigns for the "struggle for the purity of the Romanian language", no more than 25% remained. Therefore, the name of their state (in translation) is more like a joke than an ethnic reality: Romania is the state of Roman soldiers! Today, millions believe in this lie, but the fact that the people of this state are assimilated Slavs is understood only by the most knowledgeable.
Direct Romanization of the population on the territory of modern Romania began with public education - primarily in Transylvania under the control of the Habsburgs. Negotiations began on the union of the Orthodox diocese with the Roman Catholic Church, and then Romanization was carried out within the framework of universal school education. Later, Greek Catholic teachers spread the ideas of Romanian nationalism in Transylvania, and after the liberation of Wallachia and Moldavia from the Ottomans, these teachers continued the same work in the literary field. The ideas of Romanian nationalism were propagated by educated people who, paradoxically, were mostly foreigners by origin. They were supported by the Habsburg Empire, and then the French. They influenced the people's consciousness with the help of education, school education, press and literature.
First, the Jesuit Ladislav Barniai, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, negotiated the union of Rome with the Metropolitan of Transylvanian Belgrade (Alba Iulia) Theophilus Seremius (metropolitan in 1692-1697), who was ready to break the unity of the Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Theophilos convened a Metropolitan Council in 1697 to agree to union with Rome. After his death, a new candidate for the position of Metropolitan Athanasius Angel, arriving in Constantinople for ordination, was forced to swear that he would not agree to a union with Rome. Atanasy Angel was the son of an Orthodox priest from Bobiaina. However, after arriving in Alba Iulia, it turned out that the oath for the new metropolitan meant nothing. Favorable conditions for the conclusion of the union developed when all the hierarchs of the Habsburg Empire, headed by Atanasius Angelos (died in 1713), officially agreed to a union with Rome at the new council of Alba Iulia in 1698. Then, in 1700, the union with Rome was approved at the council by the rest of the Orthodox hierarchs of Transylvania. All surviving documents from this cathedral are written in the Slavic language (today Romanians hide this fact, calling the Slavic language "Old Romanian"). True, there are also scholars such as, for example, Ilia Barbulescu, who call this period of Romanian history "Slavic". But the Jesuits with the Uniates opened an educational institution to spread their own ideology. Later this school was named Ardelyanskaya. It was her students who created the movement of the Ardelian school, thanks to which in 1791 a political petition of the Romanized Vlachs of Transylvania appeared. The petition demanded to unite the Wallachian, Transylvanian and Moldavian nations on the ideological basis of revolutionary France. At that time, for the first time, a political demand was made to unite the peoples who today represent the Romanian political nation. The members of the Ardelian school movement became the real creators of the Romanian language and Romanian nationalism and the destroyers of the Slavic heritage in these lands. Unia as a method of the Roman Catholic Church for converting the Orthodox to Catholicism, unfortunately, neither the Serbs nor the Russians have fully studied it and have not drawn the necessary conclusions.
Tragic was the fate of the Slavs, especially the Serbs and Russians, and in Moldova. It is known that Moldavia was founded by the governor Dragos. The second ruler of Moldova was the governor Bogdan, who defended the independence of Moldova in the fight against the Ugrians. In 1512, the Russian (now Belarusian) Francysk Skaryna visited Moldavia with Empress Elena Brankovich, who gave him money to fight the union and the Roman Catholics. The Romanian Ilia Barbulescu, who, however, was also our academician in the interwar period, argued that until the 17th century, mainly Serbs lived in Moldova, and there was an authoritative theological school. Theologians even came to it from the Baltic States and modern Western Ukraine (from Lvov) to "study the Serbian language and church singing." We are not talking about the fact that Wallachia and Moldavia were part of the Serbian Orthodox Church (the Ohrid Archbishopric, and then the Patriarchate of Pech), priests were ordained in this church, and it was the Serbian Orthodox Church that created many handwritten books used in liturgy and education! The Romanian Church became independent, like the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church, by the decision of the state, and only when it came under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1924 according to the Tomos, which granted it the status of autocephalous. Of course, the new autocephalous church switched to Latin and Romanian, as well as the Gregorian calendar.
The discrimination against the Slavs that began in the 15th century, especially the Serbs and Bulgarians, who were under the rule of the Ottomans, led to their Islamization. Official Istanbul turned it into a state policy and remained faithful to it until the last day. Today, according to Turkish data, about ten million Serbs who converted to Islam live in the Republic of Turkey itself, and two million of the same Bulgarians. Their number in Albania, Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is yet to be known. The main consequence of the Islamization of Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina was the emergence of Bosniaks, who thus "dropped out" of the Serbian nation, while retaining a very weak Slavic identity. Their cultural and political pattern is permeated with Islam and adherence to everything Turkish, so they do not feel that they belong to the Slavic peoples. The Muslim Serbs, the Muslims of the Raska region, as well as the Torbeshi in Macedonia and the Pomaks in Bulgaria take the same position. All of them are rather opponents of the people from which they came, rather than its allies.
Austro-Hungarian Germanization
The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy pursued a policy of Germanization, although Germans made up only 25% of the population and various Slavic peoples 60%. Assimilation was carried out in various ways: with the help of schools, church union and a system of legislation, according to which, for example, the Orthodox could not become officers without adopting the Roman Catholic faith. Of course, Vienna also adopted an ideology that helped Germanization. Hence, for example, the pseudoscientific theories that the ancient Czechs were Germans who assimilated with the Slavs, and the Slovenes were "ancient Germans" who should return to their roots. Austria-Hungary achieved great success in the assimilation of Serbs in Transylvania, which it persuaded, by raising taxes 18 times, to Madarization, and in secular Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia formed a new Croatian nation from Uniate Serbs and Catholics, which became the "shock fist" of the Vatican and Vienna against Orthodox Serbs. The ideology of the Ustashe Croats and their hatred of Serbs and Russians is not even worth talking about.
The Hungarians captured the original Slavic lands of the Serbs, Ruthenians and Slovaks, who soon assimilated. The main method of assimilation in Hungary was the imposition of the Hungarian language. Best of all, the structure of the Hungarian nation is illustrated by the origin of the famous Hungarian poet and national leader Sandor Petofi (Alexander Petrovich) - he was a Serb by his father, and a Slovak by his mother. Greek Catholics (Orthodox Serbs and Ruthenians) still remain in Hungary, however, only in a liturgical sense, since they have forgotten their native language.
The situation did not improve in the 20th century either. During the Second World War, the process of assimilation of the Slavic population of Europe acquired a simply threatening character. The Third Reich wanted to "finally solve the Czech question", that is, to Germanize all Western Slavs. An ideology was promoted that Czechs are "Germans who speak the Slavic language". The Germans built similar plans for the Poles, Slovaks, Slovenes, Russians, Serbs and other peoples. Hitler was going to flood Moscow and make a lake in its place, and send all Russians to Siberia. With the help of genocide, Pavelić solved the Serbian issue on the territory of the Independent State of Croatia, while Serbia itself was divided and farmed out to various invaders.
Since the end of the Second World War, the Albanianization of Kosovo and Metohija has been carried out, and this project began with the last two letters (“ich”) being thrown out of the surnames, since such names were clearly of Slavic origin. The Muslim Serbs were the first to be hit, and then the Orthodox Serbs were persecuted and killed. The best example of the Albanianization of Kosovo and Metohija is the Serbian community of Rafcana (Orahovac and surroundings). Its complete Albanianization has not yet been completed, since its representatives, although they associate themselves with the national Albanian identity, consider Serbian their native language (although they call it “Rafchan” and “our” language). After Kosovo's "gaining" of independence, the representatives of the community ousted this part of their identity as well. According to available data, today the "state" of Kosovo is carrying out the most severe Albanianization of the remaining Serbian population.
The fact that the tragedy of the Slavs was even greater, they themselves took care. Thus, some states even organized the process of inter-Slavic assimilation, which was successful due to the proximity of peoples. Poland polonized the Russians in Belarus and Little Russia (now Ukraine) and came up with the ideology of Ukrainianism, which led to the creation of a new Slavic nation composed mainly of ethnic Russians. In our time, the situation has taken a tragic turn. The baton of "de-Russification" of Belarus and Ukraine was then taken over by various centers of power, including Austria-Hungary, the Germans (Nazis and neo-Nazis), the Bolsheviks, the EU, the USA ...
After the Second World War and the annexation of Subcarpathian Rus to Ukraine, it assimilated the Rusyns, and all of them without trial were recorded as “Ukrainian” in the “Nationality” column and schools were transferred to teaching in the Ukrainian language. Similarly, choosing a policy of brutal assimilation of the remaining Serbs, did the Croats, Slovenes and Montenegrins, more precisely the Republic of Croatia, the Republic of Slovenia and the Republic of Montenegro after they gained independence.
The current state of identity of Russians and Serbs are very similar. Today, the national policy of Russia copies the course of the times of the USSR, just as Serbia copies the policy of the SFRY. This leads to the artificial creation of national minorities and problems. For example, in Russia they declare the existence of some kind of Siberians, Cossacks, and so on, and in Serbia - "Vojvodintsy" and Romanians.
The collapse of the USSR and the SFRY again not only plunged Russians and Serbs into an identity crisis, but also deprived them of their natural protection. Representatives of other peoples, protected by national states and nationalistic ideology, called the Serbs and Russians the main evil of mankind and freely persecuted, evicted, robbed and took away the territories where they lived. After the collapse of the USSR in 1989, there were 119 million Russians in the Russian Federation, in Ukraine 11.4 million (22% of the population) considered themselves Russian, in Kazakhstan - three million (37.8 %), in Uzbekistan 1.7 million (eight percent), in Belarus - 1.4 million (13.2%), in Kyrgyzstan - 917 thousand (or 21.5%), in Lithuania - 905.5 thousand (37 .6%), in Moldova - 562 thousand (13%), in Estonia - 475 thousand (30%), in Azerbaijan - 393 thousand (5.5%), in Tajikistan - 389 thousand (7.6%), in Georgia - 342 thousand (6.3%), in Latvia - 344.5 thousand (9.3%), in Turkmenistan - 334 thousand (9.4%), in Armenia - 51.5 thousand (1.5%) . All Russians who remained outside of Russia were subjected to persecution and restriction of national rights. Moreover, in some new states that have appeared in the post-Soviet space, for example, in Ukraine, this policy continues, and the rights of Russians are still limited (we are talking about the right to language, education, the media, and so on). Ethnic Serbs found themselves in the same situation in the former Yugoslavia. We only add that 1.4 million Russians live in the far abroad, and most of them live in the USA (one million).
The absence of a policy in the sphere of the national question threatens that the fragmentation of the Slavic peoples, primarily Russians and Serbs, will continue. However, this process will not bypass the Slavic peoples living in the European Union. Under the influence of Brussels, for example, “mixed marriages” are being popularized, although for states whose leadership cares about national identity and national integration, such marriages are undesirable because they lead to national assimilation. In Israel, for example, there is a government program under which Jews are told about the dangers of mixed marriages. But in Russia and Serbia, the media popularize such marriages.
History proves that the main factors in the ethnic consolidation of the Slavic population over the centuries were language and culture, as well as internal state policy. The loss of linguistic and cultural features (namely, this is the meaning of the crushing of the Serbian and Russian languages, the replacement of the Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, and so on) has always led to the rapid assimilation of the Slavs with peoples alien to them.
