List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine

Clan cultures of the Stone Age and Bronze Age, up to the Late Antiquity period of the tribal societies that were replaced or incorporated into the Early Slavs. The Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies in the Iron Age and Migration Age Europe whose tribal organizations created the foundations for today's Slavic nations.[1]

The tribes were later replaced or consolidated by states containing a mixture of Slavs, Varangians and Finno-Ugric groups, starting with the formation of Kievan Rus'.[2] When Kievan Rus' gradually disintegrated in the 12th and 13th centuries, in part by the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus', its constituent principalities, known historiographically as "Rus' principalities",[3] asserted their autonomy or sovereignty.[lower-alpha 1] This included semi-autonomous Rus' principalities in the southwest dependent on the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (and later absorbed into Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, such as Halych (Galicia) and Volhynia[3]) and in the northeast long dependent on the Golden Horde until around 1500 (including the Novgorod Republic, Vladimir-Suzdal, Smolensk, Polotsk, and Turov,[5] and later Tver, Moscow (Muscovy) and Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal[6]). In traditional historiography on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, the impact of Turco-Mongol rule by the Golden Horde and its successor states (traditionally called the "Tatar yoke" or "Mongol yoke") has been neglected or downplayed, with Imperial Russian historiography of the 18th century expressing European superiority over Muslims, nomads, and Asians, of the 19th century expressing racist and colonialist ideologies, and around 1900 expressing Great Russian chauvinism towards minorities.[7] 20th-century Soviet and Western scholars have sought to give a more balanced perspective, but were still influenced by earlier Imperial Russian literature and their own biases.[7]

From around the late 14th century, Muscovy would gradually dominate and absorb the northeastern Rus' principalities,[6][8] while competing with Lithuania (and Poland), Novgorod, Tver, and the Teutonic Order for political, socio-economic and cultural control of the entire region.[8] Muscovy became the Tsardom of Russia in 1547, followed by the Russian Empire in 1721, which conquered and annexed the southwestern former Rus' territories from Poland–Lithuania, the Cossack Hetmanate and the Crimean Khanate during the reign of Catherine the Great (r. 1762–1796).[9]

After World War I, the Russian Civil War and the Polish–Soviet War, most of these areas were part of the Soviet Union during the interwar period, except for the western territories that were part of the Second Polish Republic or other states.[lower-alpha 2] During the Cold War, all of Belarus, Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union as three of its fifteen constituent republics, becoming independent upon its dissolution in 1991.

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  Maximum extent of the Scythian kingdom in the Pontic steppe (c. 600 – c. 250 BCE)
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  Bosporan Kingdom from 5th century BCE to 1st century CE
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  The Roman Empire, tribes and archaeological cultures around 100 CE
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  Archaeological cultures and tribes in Eastern Europe around 700
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  Kievan Rus' around 1100 (Council of Liubech)
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  Kievan Rus' between 1113 and 1194
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  Expansion of the Mongol Empire 1206–1294 compared to modern borders
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  Mongol raids into Europe around 1230
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  Kievan Rus' in 1237, on the eve of the Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'
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  The Golden Horde and Galicia–Volhynia during 1245–1349
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  Old Prussian clans in the 13th century (partially in modern Kaliningrad Oblast)
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  Rus' principalities, Lithuania and the Golden Horde in 1389
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  Northeastern Rus' principalities in the 14th century
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  Grand Duchy of Moscow (Muscovy) during 1300–1462
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  Growth of Muscovy from 1390 to 1525
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  The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1619 compared to 1991 borders
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  The Cossack Hetmanate in c. 1650
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  Crimean Khanate, Cossack Hetmanate, Poland–Lithuania, Russian Empire (1751)
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  The Partitions of Poland (1772–1795)
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       Russian Empire in 1914      Lost in 1856–1914
       Spheres of influence      Protectorates[lower-alpha 4]
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  The Soviet Union (1956–1991) during the Cold War
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  Political map of Europe in 2006

• Outline of Slavic history and culture
• List of Slavic studies journals
• List of historic states of Italy
• List of historic states of Germany
• List of ancient Slavic peoples
• Mythical founders
  • Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv
  • Lech, Czech, and Rus'
  • Rurik, Sineus and Truvor
• Upper Oka Principalities

• Halperin, Charles J. (1987). Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact on Medieval Russian History. p. 222. ISBN 9781850430575. (e-book).
• Kollmann, Nancy Shields (1995). "23. The principalities of Rus' in the fourteenth century". In Reuter, Timothy (ed.). The New Cambridge Medieval History: Volume 6, c.1300–c.1415. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 764–794. ISBN 9780521362900. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
• Martin, Janet (2004). Medieval Russia: 980–1584. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521368322. (digital printing 2004)