Expanding eastwards at the expense of the Volosovo culture, the Fatyanovo people developed copper mines in the western Urals.

From 2300 BC they established settlements engaged in Bronze metallurgy, giving rise to the Balanovo culture.

Although belonging to the southeastern part of the Fatyanovo horizon, the Balanovo culture is quite distinct from the rest.

[4] The Fatyanovo culture has been described as a "genuine folk movement" from Central Europe in the Russian forests.

[3] Spreading eastward down the Volga the Fatyanovo people discovered the copper ores of the western Ural foothills, and started long term settlements in lower Kama river region.

[5] The metallurgy-based Fatyanovo settlements in this area gave rise to the Balanovo culture around 2300 BC.

[3] Ceramic finds indicate Balanovo coexisted with the Volosovo people (mixed Balanovo-Volosovo sites), and also displaced them.

The villages were usually situated on the high hills of the riverbanks, consisting of several above-ground houses built from wooden logs with saddle roofs, and also joined by passages.

The absence of settlements are typical of the Corded Ware horizon, and are indicative of the mobile economy of the Fatyanovo-Balanovo people.

The Fatyanovo culture is viewed as introducing an economy based on domestic livestock (sheep, cattle, horse & dog) into the forest zone of Russia.

[12] Balanovo burials (like the Middle Dnieper culture[3]) were both of the flat and kurgan type, containing individual and also mass graves.

[7] The deceased were wrapped in animal skins or birch bark and placed into wooden burial chambers in subterranean rectangular pits.

[11] Numerous skeletons from Fatyanovo-Balanovo cemeteries show evidence of injury, including broken bones and smashed skulls.

[21] According to David W. Anthony, Fatyanovo migrations correspond to regions with hydronyms of a Baltic language dialect mapped by linguists as far as the Oka river and the upper Volga.

Thus, the migrations of the Fatyanovo-Balanovo people might have established pre-Baltic populations in the upper Volga basin.

[23][24][25] Both the paternal and maternal lineages of the examined Fatyanovo individuals were characteristic of the Corded Ware culture.