600 AD        Since emerging from their homeland, most commonly believed to be in Eastern Europe, by 600 AD the Slavs have split linguistically into southern, western and eastern branches: the West Slavs (including Czechs, Poles and Slovaks), the East Slavs (including Belarusians, Russians and Ukrainians), and the South Slavs (including Croats, Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenians). The Slavs have inhabited most of eastern Central Europe and the Balkans. Many settled later in Northern Asia, modern-day Turkey or emigrated to other parts of the world. Slavic settlers mixed with existing local populations and later invaders. Thus modern Slavs are connected by speaking often closely related Slavic languages. Meanwhile, the East Slavs flooded Eastern Europe in two streams. One group of tribes settled along the Dnieper river in what is now Ukraine; they then spread northward to the northern Volga valley, east of modern-day Moscow. Another group of East Slavs moved from Pomerania, modern-day Baltic region, to the northeast, where they established an important regional centre of Novgorod - nowadays Great Novgorod City in Russia.

850 AD        Very little is known about the Russians and East Slavs in general prior to approximately 850 AD when a history of the ancient Kievan Rus starts. Russians are an East Slavic ethnic group, primary living in Russia. Nowadays, the English term Russians is also used to refer to citizens of Russia and all nationalities inhabiting the country. Ethnic Russians make up about 75 % of the population of Russia. Russians predecessors were the medieval East Slavic nation Rus, who were also the predecessors of Belarusians and Ukrainians. Linguists believe that the term Rus comes from the Russian word "rusiy" - light brown colored hear of East Slavs.