I'm curious as to where the Slavic peoples come from and the history of their migrations to Eastern Europe. We know that the Germanic peoples come from Northern Europe and gradually moved southwards. By the time of the Roman Empire, there was a lot of interaction between the Romans and Germans, whether it be through peace or war. Lastly, the Germanic peoples caused the fall of the Western Roman Empire and occupied their territories, which gradually evolved into Medieval Kingdoms like France and Lombardy.
However, it seems that not much attention is paid to the origin of the Slavic Kingdoms in the Middle Ages. History books don't go into detail, if at all, in explaining the genesis of kingdoms like Bohemia and Poland, which makes it seem like they suddenly "popped" into existence during the Middle Ages.
So could you tell me about the origins of the Slavic peoples? Where they came from and if there was any Roman or pre-Roman records of Slavs in Europe? And how did the Slavs migrate to Eastern Europe and found their kingdoms?
Thanks in advance.
This is a very difficult area. The issue of Slavic origins is beset by nationalisms, with Polish scholars pushing for a Polish homeland, Russian scholars for a Russian homeland, and so on. In The Dawn of Slavic, Schenker calls the Polish origin theory "the autochthonous theory", on the basis that it was championed by many Polish scholars, but that seems to me a bit of a pretext, especially given that he was born in Poland himself. Anyways, besides this theory of Polish origin (which Schenker rejects), there is also the Danubian theory, which holds the Danube basin as the homeland of the Slavs. There are problems with this: it's based in large part on the Primary Chronicle, which is not inherently an issue--though it should make us wary--but the Primary Chronicle puts the Slavs along the Danube during dateable events like the invasions of the Hungarians and Bulgars. That's not prehistoric, not really. The Dnieper is, I think, the most popular homeland among scholars of early Slavs. It puts the early Slavs in reasonably close contact with Baltic, Germanic, and Iranian, and there is botanical evidence in favor of the hypothesis as well. Given that the first evidence in Greek-speaking sources of Slavs on the Danube comes from the sixth century, a homeland for the Slavs outside of the Danube makes sense. Jordanes mentions the Sclaveni, Veneti, and Antes, and Schenker links them to the South, West, and East Slavs, but this is a bit fanciful. It seems that these early Slavs, who according to Jordanes, stretched from the Danube to the Vistula to the Dniepr, still shared a fairly uniform speech, since three centuries later, when manuscripts in Slavic first begin to appear, we find surprisingly little evidence of linguistic variation.
So, if Slavic-speaking peoples came from the Dniepr, and had spread to quite considerable extents by the middle of the sixth century, when Jordanes was writing, your question of how they did it still remains. I'll leave that to someone better-versed in archaeology than me, but I would recommend, besides Schenker's The Dawn of Slavic, the eighth chapter of Heather's Empires and Barbarians.
Others have covered the origins of the Slavs, let me add something about the other part of your question, the origin of one of the Slavic states in the area, Bohemia.
The general consensus seems to be that Slavs came to Bohemia somewhere around the end of the sixth century, with earliest examples of their settlements found in southern Moravia and around present day Prague. Some historians and archeologists also suggest another wave reaching the Czech lands about a century later, but in any case, they replaced (or displaced) the Lombard and Thuringii tribes, with no archeological evidence suggesting co-existence between them and the Slavs.
The Historia Francorum, also known as the Chronicle of Fredegar, a work attributed to a Burgundian monk, tells us of Samo's 'empire', perhaps better described as a tribal union of sorts. The Slavs in present day Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia had been for many years attacked by Avar raiders from what is now Hungary, and around 623 banded together and fought back. This is where Samo came in, with his prowess in battle and leadership skills soon being recognized and getting him elected as the ruler of this union. Under Samo, the Slavs had beaten the Avars back, and also defeated the Frankish king Dagobert I in his attempts to extend his rule eastward in the battle of Wogastisburg.
After Samo's death things get once again unclear. Supposedly the Frankish merchant had a dozen wives, and it is probable that his realm had broken down into much smaller parts along local tribal lines. Several chronicles mention that Charlemagne clashed with the Czechs around the turn of the 8th and 9th century unsuccessfully at first, but ultimately a campaign led by his son Pippin forced them to pay tribute. Also in 845 fourteen Czech princes were baptised in Regensburg, the first mention of Christianity and the local Slavs.
Around that time, Great Moravia, the first state in present day Czech Republic and Slovakia emerged under Mojmir I, and it would later expand to Hungary and Poland as well. Apart from being located in a fertile region with good access to the Danube, a major trade route, the destruction of the the Avars by Charlemagne also helped it grow. The Frankish king Louis the German extracted tribute from the Moravians, but they soon rebelled during the rule of Mojmir's son Rastislav and the Franks were unable to defeat them.
Rastislav was also responsible for requesting missionaries from the from the Byzantines in an attempt to undermine the influence of Frankish clergy in his realm. He had actually originally called for priests from the pope in Rome, but was unsuccessful. Emperor Michael III was more receptive, however, and sent Constantine and Methodius to Moravia in 863, an important point in the history of Christianity in Czech lands, and also for the evolution of Slavic languages as the two helped develop the first Slavic alphabet.
Some time after that, Rastislav formally submitted to Louis the German, but in fact continued to support his opponents. Rastislav's nephew, Svatopluk, then conspired with the Franks to depose his uncle and became ruler himself. Later he would also get into a conflict with the Franks, but in the end he did make peace and his reign actually saw the height of territorial expansion of Great Moravia. Alas, after his death in 894 the realm declined and disintegrated.
However, this paved way for Premyslid princes Borivoj I and later his son Spytihnev I to oversee the beginnings of a Czech state independent on Great Moravia, moving the seat of power to Prague and slowly spreading their influence. The process of consolidating power in the hands of the Premyslid dynasty is considered to be over by the early 10th century as mentions of other tribes and rulers disappear during the rule of duke Boleslav I.
What followed was a period of various conflicts – with other dynasties or the neighboring Poles and Germans – expansion, as Moravia and parts of Poland succumbed to the Czechs in early 11th century, though the latter was soon lost, and succession crises. Perhaps most importantly, the Duchy of Bohemia and its rulers became more and more involved in the politics of the Holy Roman Empire.
In fact, it was in recognition of their support to the various German emperors that Czech dukes first secured the title of king. However, their titles were not hereditary: Vratislav II had been granted the crown by Henry IV in 1085, Frederick Barbarossa did the same to Vladislav II in 1158. It was only between 1198 and 1212 when the Duchy of Bohemia would finally become the Kingdom of Bohemia with a hereditary royal title.
Premysl Ottokar I was the man to secure the crown for his successors, as he took advantage of the conflict between Philip, King of the Romans, and his rival and future Emperor, Otto IV. Both acknowledged Ottokar as the king (he would first support the former and then the latter), as did pope Innocent III. And for good measure, in 1212 Emperor Frederick II confirmed everything with the Golden Bull of Sicily.
So there you have it, a brief history of how Bohemia became a kingdom. Slavs came, formed Great Moravia, after its decline Czechs would consolidate under the Premyslids, Duchy of Bohemia would become involved in the Holy Roman Empire, several dukes became non-hereditary kings, finally Premysl Ottokar I secured a hereditary crown for the Kingdom of Bohemia.
Has there been any work done with mitochondrial DNA which would bear on the question?