Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south.The largest city is the capital, Bratislava, and the second largest is Košice.
In religion, the Slavs traditionally divided into two main groups: those associated with the Eastern Orthodox church (Russians, most Ukrainians, some Belorussians, Serbs, and Macedonians) and those associated with the Roman Catholic church (Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croats, Slovenes, some Ukrainians, and most Belorussians).
The division is further marked by the use of the Cyrillic alphabet by the former (but including all Ukrainians and Belorussians) and the Latin alphabet by the latter.
During the 9th century, Slavic ancestors of the Slovaks established another political entity, the Principality of Nitra, which later together with the Principality of Moravia, formed Great Moravia.
After the 10th century the territory of today's Slovakia was gradually integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which itself became part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or Habsburg Empire.
Finally, the movement westward of the Germans in the 5th and 6th centuries AD started the great migration of the Slavs, who proceeded in the Germans' wake westward into the country between the Oder and the Elbe-Saale line, southward into Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, and the Balkans, and northward along the upper Dnieper River.
When the migratory movements had ended, there appeared among the Slavs the first rudiments of state organizations, each headed by a prince with a treasury and defense force, and the beginning of class differentiation.
Customarily Slavs are subdivided into east Slavs (chiefly Russians, Ukrainians, and Belorussians), west Slavs (chiefly Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, and Wends, or Sorbs), and south Slavs (chiefly Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Macedonians).
Bulgarians, though of mixed origin like the Hungarians, speak a Slavic language and are often designated as south Slavs.
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It has the population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi).
Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era (200,000 – 80,000 BC) come from the Prévôt (Prepoštská) cave near Bojnice and from other nearby sites.