White Croatians

White Croatians (bili khorvaty). A proto-Slavic tribe that was part of an alliance of tribes in Subcarpathia. They migrated westward and to the Balkan Peninsula in the 7th century. They are believed to be the ancestors of certain Ukrainians, specifically the Hutsuls. In the Primary Chronicle they are mentioned twice in an undated tribal survey and also, later, as Prince Oleh's allies in his Byzantine campaign (907) and as the target of a campaign by Volodymyr the Great (993). There has been much controversy about the origin and migrations of the White Croatians. Among Ukrainian historians Yakiv Holovatsky, Omelian Partytsky, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, Yaroslav Pasternak, and Markiian Smishko have written about the tribe. The 10th-century Stilsko fortified settlement of the White Croatians was discovered in 1984 in the vicinity of Mykolaiv (Lviv region).

[This article was updated in 2005.]