Slavic Peoples

Slavic Peoples, most numerous of European peoples, with a population of more than 250 million, distributed principally in eastern and central Europe, most of the Balkan Peninsula, and beyond the Ural Mountains in Asia. The Slavic language group, with its many dialects, is part of the Indo-European language family.

The early Slavs were an obscure group of farmers and herders living in what is now eastern Poland and western Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. From about 150 the Slavic tribes began to expand. By the 7th century the Slavs had reached as far south as the Adriatic and Aegean seas. During the next two centuries they settled in most of the Balkan Peninsula. By the 19th century Slavic culture had reached the Pacific Ocean.

Extensive contact with a variety of peoples has influenced the physical and cultural development of the Slavs. Christianity was initially introduced to the Slavs by Greek missionaries during the 9th and 10th centuries. The Slavs quickly became the focus of intense rivalry between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. In the 14th century the Ottomans conquered much of southeastern Europe, and converted many of the Balkan Slavs to Islam. After World War II (1939-1945) most of the Slavic nations came under the influence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the breakdown of the Soviet Union, the various East European nations moved toward independent democratic governments. In some areas, particularly the former Yugoslavia, this transition ignited conflict among Slavs of different national and religious groups.

Source: Microsoft's Encyclopedia (Bookshelf 98)

- Conclusion

The FYROM "Macedonians" are Slavs who came in the Balcan region during the 7th century A.D. They are not related to the Greek people or their language by no means, whatsoever.