List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine

The following is a list of tribes which dwelled and states which existed on the territories of contemporary Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.

Overview 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.

The tribes were later replaced or consolidated around Kiev by states containing a mixture of Slavs, Varangians and Finno-Ugric groups, starting with the formation of Kievan Rus'. 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", asserted their autonomy or sovereignty from Kiev. 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) and in the northeast long dependent on the Golden Horde until around 1500 (including the Novgorod Republic, Vladimir-Suzdal, Smolensk, Polotsk, and Turov, and later Tver, Moscow (Muscovy) and Nizhny Novgorod-Suzdal). In traditional historiography on Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, 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. 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.

From around the late 14th century, Muscovy would gradually dominate and absorb the northeastern Kievan Rus' principalities, while competing with Lithuania (and Poland), Novgorod, Tver, and the Teutonic Order for political, socio-economic and cultural control of the entire region. 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 ().

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. 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.

List Prehistoric period Name Period Type Notes Antes people Protohistoric Tribe Arthania Hypothetical (unknown) Hypothetical state whose existence has not been confirmed Bükk culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Bug–Dniester culture Prehistoric 6300–5000 BCE Archaeological culture Catacomb culture Prehistoric 2500–1950 BCEParpola, Asko, (2012). "Formation of the Indo-European and Uralic (Finno-Ugric) language families in the light of archaeology: Revised and integrated ‘total’ correlations", in Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne, Helsinki, p. 138. Archaeological culture Cernavodă culture Prehistoric 4000–3200 BCE Archaeological culture Chernoles culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Chernyakhov culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Corded Ware culture Prehistoric 3000–2350 BCE Archaeological culture Cucuteni–Trypillia culture Prehistoric 5000–3000 BCE Archaeological culture Dnieper–Donets culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Globular Amphora culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Khvalynsk culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Kyiv culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Korchak culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Lipiţa culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Lusatian culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Mariupol culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Middle Dnieper culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Milograd culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Penkovka culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Pomeranian culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Przeworsk culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Samara culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Trzciniec culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Usatove culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Srubna culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Sredny Stog culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture Yamna culture Prehistoric Archaeological culture

Antiquity Name Period Type Notes Bosporan Kingdom 438 BCE – 527 CE Kingdom Hellenistic Greek state in parts of Crimea, southern Ukraine and Southern Russia. Fate uncertain, but attacked by Huns, Goths and finally the Byzantine Empire. Goths Protohistoric 2nd century–4th century Tribal confederation Germanic tribal grouping which migrated to Oium in Scythia (modern Ukraine) in the 2nd century, and went on to raid and conquer parts of the Roman Empire. It is uncertain whether the Crimean Goths (and the Crimean Gothic language) descended from them, or from a later Germanic influx. Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea 600–50 BCE Greek colonies Panticapaeum, Chersonesus, and other colonies. Kingdom of Pontus 281 BCE–62 CE Kingdom Hellenistic Greek kingdom around the Black Sea. Scythia Protohistoric 7th–3rd century BCE Kingdom Successor to Iškuza. Scythians Protohistoric 7th–3rd century BCE Tribe Nomadic Iranian equestrian people.Migrated from Central Asia to modern Ukraine and Southern Russia. Scytho-Siberian world Protohistoric 900 BCE–200 CE Archaeological horizon Includes the Sarmatians.

Middle Ages