Slavs
a division of the Aryan or Indo-Germano family, inhabiting eastern and central Europe. They number about 176,000,000. Included in the group (eastern division) are Great and Little Russians, or Malo-Russians (Ukrainians and Ruthenians) and White Russians; (western division): Slovenes and Serbo-Croats, Slavic inhabitants of Macedonia and Bulgaria. The Slavs before the great migration of nations inhabited the territory between the Oder and Dneiper rivers and between the 3rd or 4th century and the SLAVONIA SLIDELL 7th century migrated toward the Baltic dies. This sleeping stage lasts from a Sea, the Danube and the Balkan penin- few weeks to several months. sula. The Germans in the 10th century The only drug that has proved of any forced out the Slavs from many regions, which then became German. The Bulgarians, a Turkish people who had invaded the Balkan peninsula, were absorbed by the Slavic occupants of the territory. The Slavic states are described under their several headings. See SLAV- ONIA, UKRAINE, JUGOSLAVIA, and CZECHO- SLOVAKIA. Also BALKAN PENINSULA; BALKAN WARS.