The great East-European plain which was in the process of history united, together with Siberia, under the sway of Russian tsars, presents in spite of its general uniformity two contrasting geographic aspects which profoundly influenced the trend of its historical development : the northern and the southern. A primi tive forest extending over the northern part of Russia reminds one of that described by Tacitus in his Germania. It was indeed its continuation and connected Russia with the western part of the European plain. It was comparatively late that this part of Europe was set free from its prehistoric ice-cover. It is still full of seas and great rivers which for long remained the only ways of communication for a scanty population scattered in distant glades. The primitive settlers added a few patches of cultivated land to their habitual means of livelihood—fish in the rivers, wild bee-hives and fur-bearing animals in the forests.
Quite different is the southern Russian landscape. It is the steppe, the prehistoric seat of nomad hordes which inhabited it from time immemorial until quite recently. These lived on horse back and in tents, used mare's milk as their food and throve on the booty taken in regular incursions against northern sedentary tribes. Here the most ancient traces of aborigines are found, of the palaeolithic stage, followed by the neolithic, also traces of Aegean culture in its primitive form. Here also we learn, by the intermediary of ancient Greek colonies on the northern Black sea shore, the names of ancient peoples of Southern Russia ; we are unable, however, to identify their nationality. The most ancient of them, the Cimmerians, are said to have been replaced by the Scyths (see SCYTHIA) and these by Sarmatians (q.v.). Some patriotic Russian historians (Zacelin, Ilovaisky, Samokvasov) tried to prove that these populations were Slays but later research points to an Iranian origin (e.g., the present representatives of the Sarmatae-Alani are found to be the Ossetes, who are not Slays but a Caucasian people).
The original home of all Slays is not to be sought in the steppe, but in the forest. Prof. Niederle states that, originating in the marshy land between the Vistula and Dnieper, the southern Slays (Serbs and Bulgarians) descended to the Danube as early as the first century A.D. The first federation of eastern Slav tribes (Russians) appears in the 3rd-4th centuries A.D. as a powerful and numerous people called Antae, living between the Dnieper and Dniester. They were involved in the wars of the Goths and Huns
and were defeated by the Avars in the 6th-7th centuries. In the 7th century appears a new conquering nomad nationality in the steppe, the Khazars (q.v.) possessing a certain degree of civiliza tion. They brought under their subjection some eastern Slav tribes whose names are given in the ancient Russian annals (Severiane, Radimichi, Viatichi, Poliane). Khazar domination lasted until the beginning of the I oth century, when other nomads of Turkish descent and wilder habits—Hungarians (middle 9th century) and Petchenegs (end of 9th century) overran the steppe and broke for long the connection between Slav settlements and the Black Sea shore.