Galindae, Galindai, or Galindians is an extinct Western Baltic tribe which formerly lived in Galindia (today Masuria, Poland (so-called Western Galindae) and in the basin of the Protva River, near the modern Russian towns of Mozhaysk, Vereya, and Borovsk (so-called Eastern Galindae).

Their name is thought to derive from the word galas ("the end"), alluding to the fact that they settled farther south than any other Baltic tribes. Ptolemy was the first to mention them in the 2nd century AD. It is probable that the Galindae occupied much of Tver Oblast, Moskva Oblast and Belarus, until the Early East Slavs invaded the area in the 6th century.

The Russian chronicles first mention them as Golyad in 1058. Yury Dolgoruky arranged a campaign against them in 1147, the year he founded Moscow in the land of the Galindae. It is not clear when they ceased to exist. Their name survives in European topography as Goniądz, as the Poles call one part of Masuria, and as Golyad, a woody area not far from Moscow.

See also

• Prussians and Yotvingians - other extinct Western Baltic peoples

Baltic peoples

Galinden Galindowie | Голядь