Аннотация:We studied the polymorphism of the cytb gene in two forms of the Lesser White-toothed Shrewspecies complex: Crocidura suaveolens s. stricto and C. sibirica. The haplotypes of C. sibirica are found to bevery similar to those of Crocidura suaveolens. They do not belong to a distinct haplogroup. The moleculardiversity of the populations in the Asian part of the range is higher than in Eastern Europe. For the combinedsample from Asia and Europe together, we revealed a significant signal of population expansion. Analysis ofthe expansion time showed that the Asian territory was colonized earlier (before the last glacial maximum)than the Eastern Europe (at the very end of the Late Pleistocene and in the early Holocene). The results ofthe ancestral area reconstruction are consistent with the hypothesis of a Middle Asian origin of the C. suaveolens/C. sibirica group, recent colonization of Inner Asia and later penetration into Eastern Europe.