On Slavic People

Recently I got thinking that there are few scientific misconceptions when it comes to Slavs. Countries like Russia like to falsify history and since they like to claim to be a leader of Slavs, they too mess with information regarding Slavic people to suit Kremlin agenda.

To begin with origins. Many claim that Slavs originated somewhere after collapse of Roman Empire and then rapidly spread across eastern Europe. I personally think its incorrect. Most likely Slavs were the indegious people of eastern Europe, much like Celts (Galls) were in western Europe.

The reason Slavs were not displaced to the same extend as Celts where is the fact that land in eastern Europe much less hospitable than that of western Europe so there was less desire by more advanced and powerful civilisations to claim these for themselves. Only Hungarians, that originated somewhere around Khanty-Mansiysk on the other side of Ural Mountains in modern Russia, took some of the better lands in the area, splitting Slavs into Western and Southern ones. The fact that Hungarians inhabit fertile plains around Danube while Slavs live in much less hospitable mountains both north and south of these areas clearly indicate that it were Hungarians who displaced Slavs, not the other way around. The fact that Czech and Slovak languages in certain regards closes to those of southern Slavs, rather than to Polish only further proves this point.

Speaking of languages, similarities between different Slavic languages make some people believe that Slavs originated much earlier that was likely the case. Slav languages are closer to each other than different Germanic languages like for example English and German or either of these two compared to Scandinavian languages. However, reasons for differences between English and German are due to the fact that English branched out of Lowland Germanic, spoken in coastal areas and Modern German originated from Middle German, spoken much further inland. English was further influenced by Celtic languages native to Britain as well as French, while German was not. If you compare Slavic languages to Romance languages that branched out after the fall of Roman Empire, then, with exception of French and Romanian, the other three Romance languages are actually mutually intelligible. A Spaniard would understand an Italian or Portuguese without much trouble. I had a friend from Peru who travelled around the continent and had little trouble understanding Portuguese when he visited Brazil. The same could not be said about Slavic speakers, who will have hard time understanding even their close neighbors, much less a more distant Slavic variant. That points towards much earlier origins of Slavic languages as well as much slower spread across the parts of Eastern Europe. 

It is also possible than Slavic and Germanic languages have common origins, but the link between two is lost due to the fact that both Eastern Germanic, like Gothic and Western Baltic, like Old Prussian, languages have gone extinct. If this theory is correct that it might be possible that both Germanic and Slavic languages originated from common proto-Baltic language that first split into different Baltic varieties between like old Prussian in the West, Latvian and Lithuanian in the east. Then these branches further evolved into Proto-Germanic and proto-Slavic that went on to spread further southwest and southeast respectively.

Finally on assimilation of Slavs. Slavs in general are more of people who adapt and imitate other cultures and traditions than the other way around. For example, Serbs adopted many of Byzantine symbols and titles, like double headed eagle and Tetragramic cross that Serbia still uses as its symbols. Even Russia still uses Byzantine double headed eagle. Complete assimilation into other cultures is also possible. For example, Romanians are likely Slavs who adopted a Romance language for themselves to be more like Romans who they admired. Germans did it too with Holy Roman Empire but not to the same extend. Assimilation of Slavs into Germans also happened, most of areas east of Elbe were once inhabitant by Slavs but are now German. Germans established marches in the area that gradually spread German way of life to local people, some of them are still around these days but they are tiny minority. This was not only done by German efforts alone. Local Slavic rulers, like those of Mecklenburg and Pomerania Germanised themselves and their people with no involvement of outsiders from western bank of Elbe. There was no evidence of any coercion to achieve these results. Most likely people willingly embraced German way of live, finding it superior to their own ways. Not dissimilar of how modern eastern Europeans embrace European Union and its reforms compare to old local ways of doing things. That particularly refuses Kremlin's narrative that Russians are some kind of non-European people who dislike European ways and prefer Mongolo-Asiatic dictatorship of Putin. The number of German cars, German music and culture that Russians consume, including those who propagate these anti-Western views paints a different picture. 

Generally, people are more inclined to emulate cultural practices if they find them useful, and Slavs are no exception. The anti-Western nativist narrative is mostly popular with Russian women and elderly, while men prefer alternatives to Slavic ways and often seek out these in other cultures. One problem with Slavic cultures is that it does not give men enough control over women so Slavic men often embrace cultures that give men more power in relationships.

These are my correction to current orthodoxy on Slavic people. Unlike other researchers, I am not paid by Kremlin to advance narrative that benefits Putin regime, so my views are more objective than theirs. Read and learn.