Lechites (Polish: Lechici)) is a name given to certain West Slavic peoples, including the ancestors of modern Poles and the historical Pomeranians and Polabians, speakers of the Lechitic languages.

When Mieszko I (also Dagome) inherited the ducal throne from his father he probably ruled over two-thirds of the territory inhabited by eastern Lechite tribes. He united the Lechites east of the Oder (Polans, Masovians, Pomeranians, Vistulans, Silesians) united into a single country: Poland. His son, Bolesław the Brave, with the assistance of Saint Adalbert, eradicated heathenism, and founded the bishoprics at Wrocław, Colberg, and Cracow, and an archbishopric at Gniezno. Bolesław carried out successful wars against Bohemia, Moravia, Kievan Rus and Lusatia, and forced the western Pomeranians to pay Poland a tribute. Shortly before his death Boleslav became the first King of Poland 1024.

The western Slavs included the ancestors of the peoples know later Poles, Pomeranians, Czechs, Slovaks and Polabians. The northern so-called Lechitic group includes, along with Polish, the dead Polabian and Pomeranian languages. The languages of the southern part of the Polabian area, preserved as relics today in Upper and Lower Lusatia, occupy a place between the Lechitic and Checho-Slovak groups.