About the lecturer: Tatyana Vasilyevna Chernikova – Candidate of Historical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of World and Russian History at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO (U) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation). Lecture outline. 1. The crisis of the Ancient Civilization and the Great Migration of Peoples. 2. Barbarian kingdoms in Western Europe. 3. The Proto-Slavs – Antes, Sclaveni and Wends. Formation of the three branches of the Slavs. Southern, Western and Eastern Slavs. 4. The settlement of the Eastern Slavs across the East European Plain in the 7th-9th centuries. The peoples — neighbors of the Eastern Slavs. 5. The economy and social system of the Eastern Slavs in the 7th-9th centuries. Beliefs and customs. Abstract. The lecture provides a general picture of the era of the Great Migration of Peoples. The causes of this phenomenon, its stages, characteristic features, results and significance are raised. The article characterizes both the European peoples (Germans, Slavs) who participated in the Great Migration, and the Asian nomadic tribal unions (Huns, Avars and other Turkic tribes) who broke through the steppe corridor from the eastern steppes to the European space and, together with the European "barbarians", became the destroyers of the ancient world. The lecture names the most significant leaders of the "barbarian world" - Odoacer, Theodoric, Attila. The issues of the emergence of new barbarian kingdoms on the lands of the former Roman Empire and beyond are raised. Particular attention is paid to the differences between the era of the Great Migration of Peoples in Roman-Germanic history and the history of the Eastern Slavs, since this is an essential moment that determined many features of subsequent Russian history. The most important differences were the absence of the ancient heritage in the territories developed by the Eastern Slavs, and a more severe natural and climatic factor. All this delayed the socio-economic development of the Eastern Slavs in comparison with the Germanic-Roman peoples in the Middle Ages. The lecture also raises the problem of the origin of the Slavs, in particular, points out the discrepancy in the conclusions of linguists and archaeologists regarding the time of separation of the Proto-Slavs from the ancient European community and the formation of the Slavs as an independent people. A picture is given of the colonization of the East European Plain by the East Slavic tribes: from the forest-steppe of the Middle Dnieper region to the northern lakes, from the Carpathian Mountains to the Volga-Oka interfluve. The Slavs assimilate a significant part of the Finno-Ugric and Letto-Lithuanian population of the East European Plain, making the peripheral Finno-Ugric tribes their tributaries. At the same time, a number of East Slavic tribes (Polyane, Severyan, Vyatichi) find themselves in tributary dependence on the Khazar Khaganate, a large state located on the trade routes in the Caspian steppe. Slavic colonization on the Upper Volga encounters a counter movement of Turkic colonization from the Volga Bulgaria region. From the north, "from overseas", the Scandinavian warrior-merchants Varangians begin to penetrate into the areas colonized by the Eastern Slavs, opening the Great Volga Trade Route and the route "From the Varangians to the Greeks", which connect European peoples and states with the rich and developed East. Questions on the lecture topic. 1. Give a definition of the term "Great Migration of Peoples". 2. Which peoples participated in the Great Migration of Peoples? 3. What stages can the era of the Great Migration of Peoples be divided into? 4. What problematic issues are associated with the origin of the Slavs? 5. Which peoples, mentioned in the works of late Roman and Byzantine authors, as well as the historian of the Goths Jordanes, do scholars associate with the Proto-Slavs? 6. When were the three modern branches of Slavism formed? 7. Describe the features of the Great Migration of Peoples among the Eastern Slavs. 8. Specify the direction of settlement of the Eastern Slavs and describe their relationships with neighboring peoples. 9. What was the basis of the economic life of the Eastern Slavs in the 7th-9th centuries? 10. What were the social organization, beliefs and customs of the East Slavic tribes in the 7th-9th centuries? The most relevant from the federal portal History.RF in social networks: VK: https://vk.com/rvio_ru Yandex.Zen: https://zen.yandex.ru/histrf Telegram: https://t.me/rf_history Rutube: https://rutube.ru/channel/23517827/ YouTube: / @russian.history.channel #history #greatmigrationofpeoples #egepohistory #historyoftherussianf #historytextbooks #slavs