Early East Slavic tribal grouping settled around Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov, Lovat, Msta, and upper Mologa river basins from the 7th-8th centuries, the direct predecessor population of Novgorod and Staraya Russa and one of the formative peoples of both Kievan Rus' and the later Russian state.
Coalesced into the emerging polity of Novgorod through the 9th-10th centuries as part of the founding of Kievan Rus' (traditionally 862 for the Rurikid invitation, 882 for Oleg's unification with Kiev); the tribal identity was absorbed into the broader Rus' polity rather than ending in any single event.
Covers the Ilmen Slav tribal union and its role in the founding of Novgorod and Rus'.