How did the Russians become the most numerous Slavic ethnic group?

[poiuytrewq0987]

Discuss.

[Loki]

Not only the most numerous Slavic ethnic group, but European as well. By far.

Probably because they were furthest to the East of the Slavic folk, and hence had endless lebensraum to expand into, while the others were boxed in.

Modern Russians are also an amalgamation of several smaller Slavic tribes, including Kriviches, Ilmen Slavs, Radimichs, Vyatiches, and others. And of course the early Varangian influence is interesting, if not controversial.

[Guapo]

All Slavic nations are an amalgamation of several smaller Slavic tribes.

[Osweo]

Geography and climate, and the nature of the neighbours.

Their neighbours to the north didn't have the economy to withstand them. The lucrative fur trade lured the Russians up into the taiga, and there they adapted and stayed, mixing to some extent with the earlier Finnic populations. But this is not the major part of the Russian population in terms of raw numbers.

Those neighbours to the east had been softened up by the Horde, and once the titanic struggle with that polity had finally gone in Russia's favour, she steamrolled over to the Pacific in no time at all. That struggle had led to the adoption of several adaptations that were to suit the Russians in spreading into and holding the regions they conquered. The role of Kazachestvo could be stressed - 'Cossackdom'. The effectiveness of such units, coupled with the lack of any major effort and expenditure on behalf of the central administration in supporting them, ensured that the Russians put down roots in the places they penetrated. Having formed originally on the border between the Steppe and the forest zone, the Russian state could rely upon subjects from both habitats to settle in respective regions to the east. Chernozem should be mentioned too. This is the famous 'Black Earth' belt that goes all the way to Mongolia. Once the Tatars had been cowed, the Russian peasants were able to take advantage of this resource as far as it went, all the way to the Altai. Again however, we're not dealing with the numerical centre of gravity.

Most Russians still live in the bounds of the region that was called Rus' in the Tenth Century, near enough. Why is there ONE ethnic group here, and not ten? It's a huge area, even if we don't go past Nizhny Novgorod. I suppose the geopolitics of the early mediaeval period are important here, in homogenising a large area. It was already very monotonous from an environmental point of view, but the trade routes 'From the Varangians to the Greeks' seem to have been the key in bringing it under one state structure, and thence promoting and maintaining homogeneity.

[Tabiti]

Because not all of them are "Slavic"

[Cail]

Russian would also be waaaay more numerous, if not for the perils of WW2 and fucked-up times of perestroika and post-USSR. Tens of millions of direct casualties of the war, plus backturn in the demography in the 90s.



Luckily the pattern changes:



The numbers probably come from breeding, lol. It was absolutely normal for an orthodox patriarchal peasant family to have 9-10 children. My own great-grandmother on the Belarussian side had 7 brothers and sisters (and she was born in USSR already, in the 1922).

[Äike]

Discuss.

The answer is Russian imperialism. Everyone were assimilated and Russified, thus Russians are the most diverse European people.

Example: If the English would have been like the Russians, then the Scottish people and the Welsh people would currently be English, there wouldn't exist such a thing as a Welsh and a Scottish ethnicity.

If the Russians would have acted like the English during their imperialistic days, then modern day Russia would have several hundred small nations.

[Wulfhere]

Another factor in the apparent recent decline in population is Russia's current biggest export - women. I've known two people who have brought Russian women over and married them, and very glad to leave those women are too. Furthermore, they won't argue with you if you expect them to do the cooking, and are very pleasant in general. All that leaves is a bunch of men in Russia, drinking vodka and killing each other.

[Svarog]

It's ridiculous to blame Russian imperialism for their numerous nature, as they have always been the biggest nation in Europe by numbers, travel back to Great Duchy of Moscovy, Kiev Russ or any other of the small pre-Russian Slavic states.

Because not all of them are "Slavic"

This is just stupid, number of non-Slavic people that lives in Russia is minor to the Slavic factor or 'pure or whatever' Russian factor, and beside, what do you consider Slavic anyway? Everyone who speaks Russian as a mother tongue is Slavic.

[Basil]

As far as I know Russia didn't have the largest population in Europe until the 19th century. The population of France in 1700 was 21 million people, the population of Russia in the reign of Peter the First was only 14. It was the glorious rise of the Russian Empire during 1800-1917 and attendant demographic outburst that changed the situation drastically.
Why are the Russians the most numerous Slavic group? That is much easier to answer: Russia was the only sovereign Slavic state for a long time.