Talk:Balts

Slavs

Are Balts a slavic people? I always thought so, but this is not mentioned. Sylvain1972 17:10, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, you thought wrong. It's a great insult to call a Balt slavic. And I'm also slightly insulted by your ignorance T. Marc-cius 10:38, 13 April 2007 (UTC)

Dont be so insulted - we (Slavs) and you (Balts) are from the same Balto-Slavic family, so I dont know why should you be so insulted. He just thought wrong (you dont know everything too). Slavs and Balts are very close related but they are two different indo-european branches.

Balto-Slavic family is a myth. We aren't "very close related" and we haven't lived in the same territory after the proto-indoeuropean times. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.199.126.2 (talk) 11:06, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, you fellows are getting all mixed up! No need for any Slavs to get into bed with Balts or vice versa. The family being referenced is not a biological one. The biological Balto-Slavic family is a myth for sure, mainly yours, but the linguistic family is pretty solid. Both Slavic and Baltic linguists will tell you that. I suggest you do some Wikipedia lookups on languages and language theories.Dave (talk) 03:38, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Actually there was an ancient Indo-European culture or group of tribes living in what is now today Belarus, according to social-cultural anthropologist, this culture may have been one of the direct ancestors of both Baltic and Slavic people. the Baltic people, only split off from Slavs as may lived together and among another ancient group of people in the Baltic region and eventually after further influences from the other cultures like the Finns, Scandinavians, and of course the Germans the Baltic People greatly differed from the Slavic people, both culturally, Linguistically and thus Genetically. This, mean that they were once related to one another but were influence differently by other cultures. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.143.156.250 (talk) 06:26, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

The question of whether Balts and Slavs are related is practically meaningless; from a purely biological perspective, there is no such thing as "Slavic" or "Baltic" (or for that matter, "Germanic"). Recent DNA sampling indicates that the people inhabiting Eastern Europe are almost totally genetically identical (see: Haplogroup R1a1a). The only differences between these groups are purely cultural, including language, arts and technology, etc.

The spreading influence of the Corded Ware culture in the Neolithic period does not indicate that a group of people (presumably the Proto-Indo-Europeans) moved en masse and conquered this region by force. Rather, it may simply be a matter of technological and artistic innovation that spread naturally as people interacted with one another. The genetic evidence seems to indicate that this latter theory does have its own merits, however the question of the origin and dispersal of the Proto-Indo-Europeans from their mythical Urheimat homeland remains a mystery (see: Mallory, J. P. (1997). Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 1884964982), and anyone claiming to have solid proof that a particular branch of the Indo-Europeans is uniquely different from another ought to take care in making unfounded assertions.

As such, the creation of different cultures that sprang out of this earlier cradle occurred not because the various groups were unrelated, but rather due to political and economic contingencies. In other words, yes, the Balts and Slavs are the "same people", but so are the Prussians and Germanic Tribes, at least for the most part. However, the biased perception of a group's uniqueness often acts as a motivator to encourage people to do things such as make war against another group, support a demagogue leader, or stain themselves by committing acts of ethnic cleansing, etc. Such nationalistic furor should be left out of any Wikipedia article, since it does not reflect the NPOV stance, and should only be noted in context of its influence on historic events.

In summary, the similarities between Eastern European groups far outweigh the differences; let us not forget that. --Saukkomies ^talk 15:17, 12 June 2016 (UTC)

Baltic region

If I'm looking at maps correctly, the Baltic region appears to be in Northeastern Europe. Eastern and Southeastern Europe are predominantly Slavic.

Balts

Balts (German "Balten") are a group of people ,who live at the Baltic Sea . The Baltic Sea or Eastern Sea ("Ostsee") was earlier by Tacitus in 98 AD Agricola and Germania called Mare Suebicum after the Suebi.

The languages of the Balts , or [Baltic Languages]? are classified as [East Baltic]? and [West Baltic]?. The Baltic Germans (Balten-Deutsche) were forced out of their homelands in Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia (earlier "Kurland, Livland, Lettland )by Stalin . They were either brought to Siberia , killed or escaped to the West, along with fifteen to eighteen million other ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe.

Some orphaned children of the German Balts and of neighboring Eastern Prussia were taken in and hidden from communist authorities . Stalin's military troups had overrun the Baltic lands and all of Eastern Europe, starting in winter 1944 .The Soviet Union occupied Lithuania ,Latvia and Esthonia for fifty years . After the fall of the Iron Curtain these children, called "Wolfskinder?" (children raised by wolfs) now are attempting to find out their identity .

Today only the Eastern Baltic countries are called Baltic States , because the Western Baltic country of Prussia has been dismembered by the Soviet Union, now Russia asOblast Kaliningrad.The larger part of West and East-Prussia is submerged into Poland. While millions of the inhabitants were killed or forced to leave ,some have been able to remain in their homeland of East or West Prussia, despited greatest hardships.In 1946/47 they received classification as "Autochthones" by the communist occupation Polish administration authorities.

The text above was removed by user:167.83.96.xxx saying "eliminated non relevant information".

1946 Prussia was NOT the Western Baltic Country!!! - it was one of the German Lands. Real Baltic Prussians were already germanizated by the German Teutonic Order (and later by Polish-Royal Prussia and German Prussia) till XVI-XVII century.

Attention experts

New page: Prusi. - Staszek Lem (talk) 21:24, 7 December 2012 (UTC)