Kievan Rus'
Encyclopedia
Kievan Rus' was a medieval
polity
in Eastern Europe
, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240.
Contemporarily, the state was known as "land of the Rus'
" (Old East Slavic , from the ethnonym , Greek
, Arabic ), in Greek as , later also .
The name "Kievan Rus'" was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography.
In English usage, the term was introduced in the early 20th century,
where it is found in the 1913 English translation of Vasily Klyuchevsky
's A History of Russia, to distinguish the early polity from successor states, which were also called Rus in their title.
Also in the 20th century, the Russian term was rendered in Belarusian
and Ukrainian
as and , respectively.
The early phase of the state is sometimes known as the "Rus Khaganate", while the history of Rus' proper begins in 882, when the capital was moved from Novgorod to Kiev
, after Varangians
(Vikings), who were called Rus, liberated this slavic
city from the Khazars
' tribute.
The state reached its zenith in the mid 11th century, when it encompassed territories stretching south to the Black Sea
, east to Volga, and west to the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
.
The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav I the Wise
(1019–1054) constituted the "Golden Age" of Kiev, which saw the introduction of Christianity and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda
("Justice of Rus").
Coinciding with the end of the Viking age
, the state declined beginning in the later 11th and during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers.
It was further weakened by economic factors such as the collapse of Rus' commercial ties to Byzantium
due to the decline of Constantinople
and the falling off of trade routes
, and it finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1230s.
The various East Slavic principalities were united within the Russian Empire
in the 18th century.
The modern East Slavic states of Belarus
, Ukraine
and Russia
all derive their identity from the early medieval state.
In the early 9th century, the Rus, a group of Swedish Vikings, became loosely organized under the Rus' Khaganate
. The ruler of the Rus during their Anatolian
expedition in 839
was called chaganus (i.e. khaqan). In 860, the Rus invaded the Byzantine Empire, and subsequently launched several wars with the Byzantine Empire and expeditions to the Caspian Sea.
The early leaders of Rus' were most likely a Norse
elite that ruled a majority of Slavic subjects.
According to the Primary Chronicle
, the earliest chronicle of Rus', the territory of the future Kievan state was divided between Varangians and Khazars. The Laurentian Codex
says:
However, in 6368-6370 (860-862)
The three brothers—Rurik
(the oldest), Sineus, and Truvor—established themselves in Novgorod, Beloozero and Izborsk
, respectively. After two years, two of Rurik's brothers died leaving Rurik the sole ruler. He in turn installed his nakhodniks to assist him in governing the land. The principals' cities became Novgorod (capital) ruling over Ilmen Slavs, Polotsk – Krivichi, Rostov
– Merya, Beloozero – Veps, and Murom
– Muroma. The chronicle names him as the progenitor of the Rurik Dynasty
. The Primary Chronicle says:
Two of Riurik's boyars, Askold and Dir
who were not blood-related to Riurik, asked him to go with their families to Tsargrad
. Going down the Dnieper River
they noticed settlement named Kiev which they liberated from the Khazars' tribute and settled there, eventually conquering the rest of the Polians' land.
The kingdom of the Kievan Rus' was officially founded by Prince Oleg
(Helgu in Khazarian records) about 880. The territory of his state was much smaller than the later state of Yaroslav the Wise
. During the next 35 years, Oleg and his warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic (Smolensk
and Liubech
) and Finnic tribes
. In 882, Oleg deposed Askold and Dir
subordinating Kiev directly to himself and choosing it as the capital city. In 883, Oleg conquered the Drevlians imposing a fur tribute on them. By 884 he managed to subjugate the Polians, Drevlians, Severians
, Vyatichs
, and Radimichs
while at war with the Tivertsi
and the Ulichs
. The latter were located in the area known among the Greek historians as the Great Scythia (lands of lower Dniester and Dnieper river
s). In 907, Oleg led an attack against Constantinople with 80,000 warriors transported by 2,000 ships, leaving Igor, son of Rurik
in Kiev. Through a treaty, Oleg managed to impose a tribute upon Greeks of no less than one million grivna. In 911, he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire
as an equal partner. After the death of Oleg later in 912, the Drevlians managed to break away, but were conquered again by Igor. In 914, Igor concluded a peace treaty with the Pechenegs, a nomadic tribe that was passing through Rus' towards the Danube River in order to attack the Byzantine Empire.
The new Kievan state prospered because it had an abundant supply of fur
s, beeswax
and honey
for export and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe
: the Volga trade route
from the Baltic Sea
to the Orient
, the Dnieper trade route
from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea
, and the trade route from the Khazars to the Germans (see Raffelstetten Customs Regulations).
Liutprand of Cremona
, who was twice (949 and 968) an envoy to the Byzantine
court, identifies the "Russi" with the Norse
(Rusios, quos alio nos nomine Nordmannos apellamus, "the Russi, whom we call Norsemen by another name"), but explains the name as a Greek term referring to their physical traits (Gens quaedam est sub aquilonis parte constituta, quam a qualitate corporis Graeci vocant [...] Rusios, nos vero a positione loci nominamus Nordmannos, "A certain people made up of a part of the Norse, whom the Greeks call [...] the Russi on account of their physical features, we designate as Norsemen because of the location of their origin.").
Following the death of Grand Prince Igor
in 945, his wife Olga
ruled as regent
in Kiev until their son Sviatoslav
reached maturity (ca. 963). His decade-long reign over Rus' was marked by rapid expansion through the conquest of the Khazars
of the Pontic steppe
, and Invasion of the Balkans
. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev
to Pereyaslavets
on the Danube
in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav, like his druzhina
remained a staunch pagan
. Due to his abrupt death in ambush, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to fratricidal
feud among his sons, resulted in two of his three sons being killed.
It is not clearly documented when the title of the Grand Duke was first introduced, but the importance of the Kiev principality was recognized after the death of Sviatoslav I (Sviatoslav the Brave; r. 945–972) and the struggle between Vladimir the Great
and Yaropolk I
. The region of Kiev
dominated the state of Kievan Rus' for the next two centuries. The Grand Prince
(velikiy kniaz') of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his formally subordinate relatives ruled the other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith
of the state's power came during the reigns of Prince Vladimir (Vladimir the Great, r. 980–1015) and Prince Yaroslav
(the Wise; r. 1019–1054). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus' that had begun under Oleg.
Vladimir
rose to power in Kiev after the death of his father Sviatoslav I in 972. After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Scandinavia
in 976 after his half-brother Yaropolk
had murdered his other brother Oleg
and taken control Rus. In Scandinavia
with the help from his relative Earl
Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, Vladimir assembled a viking
army and reconquered Novgorod and Kiev
from Yaropolk
. As Prince of Kiev, Vladimir's most notable achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus', a process that began in 988. The Primary Chronicle
states that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of the traditional idol-worship (paganism
) of the Slavs, he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. The emissaries visited the Christians of the Latin Rite, the Jews and the Muslims, they finally arrived in Constantinople. They rejected Islam because, among other things, it prohibited the consumption of alcohol, and Judaism because the god of the Jews had permitted his chosen people
to be deprived of their country. They found the ceremonies in the Roman church to be dull. But, at Constantinople, they were so astounded by the beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia
and the liturgical service held there, that they made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Byzantine Rite
was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged to marry with Princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor, Basil II
.
Vladimir's choice of Eastern Christianity may also have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea
and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the River Dnieper
. Adherence to the Eastern Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy
written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from Greek that had been produced for the Slavic peoples
. The existence of this literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy
, science, and historiography
without the necessity of learning Greek
. In contrast, educated people in medieval Western
and Central Europe
learned Latin. Enjoying independence from the Roman authority and free from tenets of Latin learning, the East Slavs developed their own literature and fine arts, quite distinct from those of other Eastern Orthodox countries. See Old East Slavic language
and Architecture of Kievan Rus
for details. Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Rus' church maintained communion with both Rome and Constantinople for some time, but along with most of the Eastern churches eventually split to go with the Eastern Orthodox.
Yaroslav, known as "the Wise", struggled for power with his brothers. A son of Vladimir the Great
, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Subsequently, his eldest surviving brother, Svyatopolk the Accursed, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev
. Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Viking
mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk and became the grand prince of Kiev in 1019. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, although he did not have uncontested rule of all of Kievan Rus' until 1036. Like Vladimir, Yaroslav was eager to improve relations with the rest of Europe, especially the Byzantine Empire. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Eupraxia the daughter of his son Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev, was married to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
. Yaroslav also arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary and Norway. Yaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Russkaya Pravda
; built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod
; patronized local clergy and monasticism
; and is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra
(monastery
), which functioned in Kievan Rus' as an ecclesiastical academy.
In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants
shared power over Kievan Rus'. Princely succession moved from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for the coveted throne of Kiev. In the 11th century and the 12th century, the princes and their retinues, which were a mixture of Slavic
and Scandinavia
n elites, dominated the society of Kievan Rus'. Leading soldiers and officials received income and land from the princes in return for their political and military services. Kievan society lacked the class institutions and autonomous towns that were typical of Western Europe
an feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchant
s, artisan
s and labourers sometimes exercised political influence through a city assembly, the veche
(council), which included all the adult males in the population. In some cases, the veche either made agreements with their rulers or expelled them and invited others to take their place. At the bottom of society was a stratum of slaves. More important was a class of tribute-paying peasant
s, who owed labour duty to the princes. The widespread personal serfdom
characteristic of Western Europe did not exist in Kievan Rus'.
Unconventional power succession system where the power was transferred not from father to son, but to the eldest member of the ruling dynasty, i.e. in most cases to the eldest brother of the ruler, bred constant hatred and rivalry within the royal family. Familicide
was a rather common way to obtain power. That particularly could be traced during the time of Yaroslavichi rule (sons of Yaroslav the Wise) when the established rota system
was skipped with establishing of Vladimir II Monomakh
as the Grand Prince of Kiev in turn creating big squabbles between Olegovichi
from Chernihiv
, Monomakhs from Pereyaslav, Izyaslavichi from Turov/Volhynia
, and Polotsk Princes.
By 1130 all descendants of Vseslav the Seer
were exiled to the Byzantine Empire
by Vladimir Monomakh
. The most fierce resistance to Monomakhs posed Olegovichi when the izgoi
Vsevolod II
managed to become the Grand Prince of Kiev. Rostislavichi
who have initially established in Halych
lands by 1189 were defeated by the Monomakh-Piast descendant Roman the Great
.
The decline of Constantinople — a main trading partner of Kievan Rus', played a significant role in the decline of the Kievan Rus'. The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
, along which the goods were moving from the Black Sea
(mainly Byzantine
) through Eastern Europe
to the Baltic
, was a cornerstone of Kiev wealth and prosperity. Kiev was the main power and initiator in this relationship, once the Byzantine Empire
fell into turmoil and the supplies became erratic, profits dried out, and Kiev lost its appeal.
The most prominent struggle for power was the conflict that erupted after the death of Yaroslav the Wise. The rivaling Principality of Polotsk was contesting the power of the Grand Prince by occupying Novgorod, while Rostislav Vladimirovich
was fighting for the Black Sea
port of Tmutarakan
belonging to Chernigov. Three of Yaroslav's sons that first allied together found themselves fighting each other especially after their defeat to the Cuman forces in 1068 at the Battle of the Alta River
. At the same time an uprising took place in Kiev, bringing to power Vseslav of Polotsk
who supported the traditional Slavic paganism. The ruling Grand Prince Iziaslav fled to Poland asking for support and in couple of years returned to establish the order. The affairs became even more complicated by the end of the 11th century driving the state into chaos and constant warfare. On the initiative of Vladimir II Monomakh
in 1097 the first federal council
of Kievan Rus took place near Chernigov in the city of Liubech
with the main intention to find an understanding among the fighting sides. However even though that did not really stopped the fighting, it certainly cooled things off.
The last ruler to maintain some sort of united state was
Mstislav the Great. After his death in 1132, the Kievan Rus fell into recession and a rapid decline, and Mstislav's successor Yaropolk II of Kiev
instead of focussing on the external threat of the Cumans
was embroiled in conflicts with the growing power of the Novgorod Republic
.
The Crusades
brought a shift in European trade routes that accelerated the decline of Kievan Rus'. In 1204 the forces of the Fourth Crusade
sacked Constantinople, making the Dnieper
trade route marginal. At the same time the Teutonic Knights
of Northern Crusades
were conquering the Baltic
region and threatening the Lands of Novgorod. Concurrently with it the Ruthenian Federation of Kievan Rus started to disintegrate into smaller principalities as the Rurik dynasty
grew. The local Orthodox Christianity
of Kievan Rus', while struggling to establish itself in the predominantly pagan state and losing its main base in Constantinopol was on the brink of extinction. Some of the main regional centers that later have developed were Novgorod, Chernigov, Galich, Kiev, Ryazan, Vladimir-upon-Klyazma, Vladimir of Volyn, Polotsk, and others.
. As Kievan Rus' declined, Novgorod became more independent. A local oligarchy
ruled Novgorod; major government decisions were made by a town assembly, which also elected a prince as the city's military leader. In the 12th century, Novgorod acquired its own archbishop
Ilya
in 1169, a sign of increased importance and political independence, while about 30 years prior to that in 1136 in Novgorod was established a republican form of government - elective monarchy. Since then Novgorod enjoyed a wide degree of autonomy although being closely associated with the Kievan Rus.
by subjugating and merging with the Finnic tribes already occupying the area. The city of Rostov
the oldest centre of the northeast, was supplanted first by Suzdal
and then by the city of Vladimir
, which become the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal'. The combined principality
of Vladimir-Suzdal asserted itself as a major power in Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century. In 1169 Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal sacked the city of Kiev. Prince Andrey then installed his younger brother, who ruled briefly in Kiev while Andrey continued to rule his realm from Suzdal. Roman of Halych (1160–1205) also claimed primacy in Rus at the time. In 1299, in the wake of the Mongol invasion
, the metropolitan
moved from Kiev to the city of Vladimir and Vladimir-Suzdal.
had developed trade relations with its Polish
, Hungarian
and Lithuania
n neighbours and emerged as the local successor to Kievan Rus'. In the early 13th century, Prince Roman Mstislavich united the two previously separate principalities, conquered Kiev, and assumed the title of Grand Duke
of Kievan Rus'. His son, Prince Daniil (r. 1238–1264) was the first ruler of Kievan Rus' to accept a crown from the Roman papacy, apparently doing so without breaking with Constantinople. Early in the 14th century, the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church
in Constantinople granted the rulers of Galicia-Volhynia a metropolitan to compensate for the move of the Kievan metropolitan to Vladimir. Lithuanian rulers also requested and received a metropolitan for Novagrudok shortly afterwards. Early in the 15th century, these Metropolia were ruled again from Kiev by the "Metropolitan of Kiev, Galich and all Rus'".
However, a long and unsuccessful struggle against the Mongols combined with internal opposition to the prince and foreign intervention weakened Galicia-Volhynia. With the end of the Mstislavich branch of the Rurikids in the mid-14th century, Galicia-Volhynia ceased to exist; Poland conquered Galich; Lithuania took Volhynia
, including Kiev, conquered by Gediminas in 1321 ending the rule of Rurikids in the city
. Lithuanian rulers then assumed the title over Ruthenia
.
The state fragmented into successor principalities, tributary to the Golden Horde
(the so-called Tatar Yoke). In the late 15th century Muscovite Grand Dukes
began taking over former Kievan territories and claimed themselves to be the sole legal successors of the Kievan principality according to the logic of the medieval theory of translatio imperii
.
In the western periphery, the Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. Later, as these lands along with the territories of modern central Ukraine
and Belarus
fell to the Gediminids
, the powerful, largely Ruthenized Grand Duchy of Lithuania
, drew heavily on Rus' cultural and legal traditions. Due to the fact that the economical and cultural core of Rus' was located on the territory of modern Ukraine
some Ukrainian historians and scholars consider Kievan Rus' to be a founding Ukrainian state.
On the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus' traditions were adapted in the Vladimir-Suzdal
Principality that gradually gravitated towards Moscow. In the very north, the Novgorod
and Pskov
Feudal Republic
s carried on a separate and less autocratic version of Rus' legacy into the 16th century until they were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow
.
s to the north and west and the Byzantine Greeks
to the south and west; traders also began to travel south and east eventually making contact with Persia and the peoples of Central Asia
.
Due to the expansion of trade and its geographical proximity, Kiev became the most important trade center and chief among the communes; therefore the leader of Kiev gained political "control" over the surrounding areas. This princedom emerged from a coalition of traditional patriarchic family communes banded together in an effort to increase the applicable workforce and expand the productivity of the land. This union developed the first major cities in the Rus' and was the first notable form of self government. As these communes became larger, the emphasis was taken off the family holdings and placed on the territory that surrounded. This shift in ideology became known as the verv'.
The change in political structure led to the inevitable development of the peasant class or smerdy. The smerdy were free un-landed peoples that found work by laboring for wages on the manors which began to develop around 1031 as the verv' began to dominate socio-political structure. The smerdy were initially given equality in the Kievian law code, they were theoretically equal to the prince, so they enjoyed as much freedom as can be expected of manual laborers. However in the 13th century they began to slowly lose their rights and became less equal in the eyes of the law.
s attest, they exchanged love letters and prepared cheat sheets for schools. Novgorod had a sewage system and wood paving not often found in other cities at the time. The Russkaya Pravda
confined punishments to fines and generally did not use capital punishment
. Certain inalienable rights
were accorded to women, such as property and inheritance
rights.
The economic development of Kievan Rus may be translated into demographic statistics. Around 1200, Kiev had a population of 50,000, Novgorod and Chernigov both had around 30,000. Constantinople
had population of about 400,000 around 1180. The Soviet scholar Mikhail Tikhomirov
calculated that Kievan Rus' on the eve of the Mongol invasion had around 300 urban centers.
Kievan Rus' also played an important genealogical role in European politics. Yaroslav I the Wise
, whose stepmother belonged to the greatest dynasty to rule Byzantium
, married the only legitimate daughter of the king who Christianized Sweden. His daughters became queens of Hungary, France and Norway, his sons married the daughters of a Polish king and a Byzantine emperor (not to mention a niece of the Pope), while his granddaughters were a German Empress and (according to one theory) the queen of Scotland
. A grandson married the only daughter of the last Anglo-Saxon
king of England. Thus the Rurikids were the most well-connected royal family of the time. The Rurik Dynasty
were the ruling the Kievan Rus' successor principalities of Galicia-Volhynia (after 1199), Chernigov, Vladimir-Suzdal
, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow
, as well as the early Tsardom of Russia
(after 1168).
), but there were also temporary military alliances (e.g. the 943 Byzantine campaign by Igor). In 968, the Pechenegs attacked and then besieged the city of Kiev
. There exist some speculations that the Pechenegs drove away the Tivertsi
and the Ulichs
to the regions of the upper Dniester river in Bukovina
. The Byzantine Empire was known to support the Pechenegs in their military campaigns against the Eastern Slavic states.
Boniak
was a Cuman khan
who led an invasions on Kievan Rus'. In 1096 Boniak attacked Kiev
, plundered the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, and burned down the prince's palace in Berestovo. He was defeated in 1107 by Vladimir Monomakh, Oleg, Sviatopolk and other Rus princes.
Between 850 and 1100, the Empire developed a mixed relationship with a new state that emerged to the north across the Black Sea
, that of the Rus'. This relationship would have long-lasting repercussions in the history of East Slavs
. Byzantium quickly became the main trading
and cultural partner for Kiev, but relations were not always friendly. The most serious conflict between the two powers was the war of 968–971 in Bulgaria, but several Rus' raiding expeditions against the Byzantine cities of the Black Sea coast and Constantinople itself are also recorded. Although most were repulsed, they were concluded by trade treaties
that were generally favourable to the Rus'.
Rus'-Byzantine relations became closer following the marriage of the porphyrogenita Anna to Vladimir the Great, and the subsequent Christianization of the Rus': Byzantine priests, architects and artists were invited to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus', expanding Byzantine cultural influence even further. Numerous Rus' served in the Byzantine army as mercenaries, most notably as the famous Varangian Guard
.
after it was officially adopted as the state religion. According to several chronicles after that date the predominant cult of Slavic paganism was persecuted.
It is uncertain the exact date of creation the Kiev Metropolitan as well as who was the first leader of the church. Predominantly it is considered that the first head was Michael I of Kiev
, however some sources also claim Leontiy who is often placed after Michael or Anastas Chersonesos, became the first bishop of the Church of the Tithes
. The first metropolitan to be confirmed by historical sources is Theopemp, who was appointed by Patriarch Alexius of Constantinople in 1038. Before 1015 there were five dioceses: Kiev, Chernihiv, Bilhorod, Volodymyr, Novgorod, and soon thereafter Yuriy-upon-Ros
. The Kiev Metropolitan sent its own delegation to the Council of Bari
in 1089.
After the sacking of Kiev in 1169, part of the Kiev metropolitan started to move to Vladimir-upon-Klyazma
, concluding the move sometime after 1240 when Kiev was taken by Batu Khan
. Metropolitan Maxim was the first metropolitan who chose Vladimir-upon-Klyazma as his official residence in 1299. As a result, in 1303 Lev I of Galicia petitioned Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople
for the creation of a new Halych metropolitan, however it only existed until 1347.
The first Cathedral Temple was chosen the Church of the Tithes
. In 1037 the cathedral was transferred to the newly built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
. Upon the transferring of the metropolitan seat in 1299, the new cathedral was chosen the Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir.
By the mid 13th century there were following dioceses of Kiev Metropolitan (988): Kiev (988), Pereyaslav, Chernihiv (991), Volodymyr-Volynsky (992), Turov (1005), Polotsk (1104), Novgorod
(~990s), Smolensk (1137), Murom (1198), Peremyshl (1120), Halych (1134), Vladimir-upon-Klyazma (1215), Rostov (991), Bilhorod, Yuriy (1032), Chełm (1235), Tver (1271). There also were dioceses in Zakarpattia and Tmutarakan
. In 1261 there was established Sarai-Batu diocese.
http://abimperio.net/cgi-bin/aishow.pl?state=showa&idart=1846&idlang=1&Code=
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
polity
Polity
Polity is a form of government Aristotle developed in his search for a government that could be most easily incorporated and used by the largest amount of people groups, or states...
in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240.
Contemporarily, the state was known as "land of the Rus'
Rus (name)
Originally, the name Rus referred to the people, the region, and the medieval states of the Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus' polities...
" (Old East Slavic , from the ethnonym , Greek
Medieval Greek
Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...
, Arabic ), in Greek as , later also .
The name "Kievan Rus'" was coined in the 19th century in Russian historiography.
In English usage, the term was introduced in the early 20th century,
where it is found in the 1913 English translation of Vasily Klyuchevsky
Vasily Klyuchevsky
Vasily Osipovich Klyuchevsky dominated Russian historiography at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He is still regarded as one of three most reputable Russian historians, alongside Nikolay Karamzin and Sergey Solovyov.-Early life:...
's A History of Russia, to distinguish the early polity from successor states, which were also called Rus in their title.
Also in the 20th century, the Russian term was rendered in Belarusian
Belarusian language
The Belarusian language , sometimes referred to as White Russian or White Ruthenian, is the language of the Belarusian people...
and Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
as and , respectively.
The early phase of the state is sometimes known as the "Rus Khaganate", while the history of Rus' proper begins in 882, when the capital was moved from Novgorod to Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, after Varangians
Varangians
The Varangians or Varyags , sometimes referred to as Variagians, were people from the Baltic region, most often associated with Vikings, who from the 9th to 11th centuries ventured eastwards and southwards along the rivers of Eastern Europe, through what is now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.According...
(Vikings), who were called Rus, liberated this slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
city from the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
' tribute.
The state reached its zenith in the mid 11th century, when it encompassed territories stretching south to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, east to Volga, and west to the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
.
The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav I the Wise
Yaroslav I the Wise
Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise (Old Norse: Jarizleifr; ; Old East Slavic and Russian: Ярослав Мудрый; Ukrainian: Ярослав Мудрий; c...
(1019–1054) constituted the "Golden Age" of Kiev, which saw the introduction of Christianity and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda
Russkaya Pravda
Russkaya Pravda was the legal code of Kievan Rus' and the subsequent Rus' principalities during the times of feudal division.In spite of great influence of Byzantine legislation on the contemporary world, and in...
("Justice of Rus").
Coinciding with the end of the Viking age
Viking Age
Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the late 8th to 11th centuries. Scandinavian Vikings explored Europe by its oceans and rivers through trade and warfare. The Vikings also reached Iceland, Greenland,...
, the state declined beginning in the later 11th and during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers.
It was further weakened by economic factors such as the collapse of Rus' commercial ties to Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
due to the decline of Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and the falling off of trade routes
Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of...
, and it finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1230s.
The various East Slavic principalities were united within the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
in the 18th century.
The modern East Slavic states of Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
all derive their identity from the early medieval state.
History
Rus' Khaganate
Rus' khaganate is a historiographical term for the formative phase of the Rus state in the 9th century AD....
. The ruler of the Rus during their Anatolian
Paphlagonian expedition of the Rus'
The Paphlagonian expedition of the Rus is documented in the Life of St. George of Amastris. This hagiographic work describes the Rus' as "the people known to everyone for their barbarity, ferocity, and cruelty". According to the text, they attacked Propontis before turning east and raiding...
expedition in 839
Paphlagonian expedition of the Rus'
The Paphlagonian expedition of the Rus is documented in the Life of St. George of Amastris. This hagiographic work describes the Rus' as "the people known to everyone for their barbarity, ferocity, and cruelty". According to the text, they attacked Propontis before turning east and raiding...
was called chaganus (i.e. khaqan). In 860, the Rus invaded the Byzantine Empire, and subsequently launched several wars with the Byzantine Empire and expeditions to the Caspian Sea.
The early leaders of Rus' were most likely a Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
elite that ruled a majority of Slavic subjects.
According to the Primary Chronicle
Primary Chronicle
The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
, the earliest chronicle of Rus', the territory of the future Kievan state was divided between Varangians and Khazars. The Laurentian Codex
Laurentian Codex
Laurentian Codex or Laurentian Chronicle is a collection of chronicles that includes the oldest extant version of the Primary Chronicle and its continuations, mostly relating the events in Northern Russia ....
says:
However, in 6368-6370 (860-862)
The three brothers—Rurik
Rurik
Rurik, or Riurik , was a semilegendary 9th-century Varangian who founded the Rurik dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and later some of its successor states, most notably the Tsardom of Russia, until 1598....
(the oldest), Sineus, and Truvor—established themselves in Novgorod, Beloozero and Izborsk
Izborsk
Izborsk is a rural locality in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia. It contains one of the most ancient and impressive fortresses of Western Russia....
, respectively. After two years, two of Rurik's brothers died leaving Rurik the sole ruler. He in turn installed his nakhodniks to assist him in governing the land. The principals' cities became Novgorod (capital) ruling over Ilmen Slavs, Polotsk – Krivichi, Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
– Merya, Beloozero – Veps, and Murom
Murom
Murom is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of Oka River. Population: -History:In the 9th century CE, the city marked the easternmost settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the land of the Finno-Ugric people called Muromians. The Russian Primary Chronicle...
– Muroma. The chronicle names him as the progenitor of the Rurik Dynasty
Rurik Dynasty
The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...
. The Primary Chronicle says:
Two of Riurik's boyars, Askold and Dir
Askold and Dir
Askold and Dir are semi-legendary rulers of Kiev who, according to the Primary Chronicle, were two of Rurik's voivodes in 870s...
who were not blood-related to Riurik, asked him to go with their families to Tsargrad
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
. Going down the Dnieper River
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
they noticed settlement named Kiev which they liberated from the Khazars' tribute and settled there, eventually conquering the rest of the Polians' land.
Foundation of the Kievan state
Oleg of Novgorod
Oleg of Novgorod was a Varangian prince who ruled all or part of the Rus' people during the early 10th century....
(Helgu in Khazarian records) about 880. The territory of his state was much smaller than the later state of Yaroslav the Wise
Yaroslav I the Wise
Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise (Old Norse: Jarizleifr; ; Old East Slavic and Russian: Ярослав Мудрый; Ukrainian: Ярослав Мудрий; c...
. During the next 35 years, Oleg and his warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic (Smolensk
Smolensk
Smolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
and Liubech
Liubech
Liubech or Lyubech is a small ancient town connected with many important events since the times of the Kievan Rus'. It is currently a small settlement located in Ripky Raion, in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine...
) and Finnic tribes
Finnic peoples
The Finnic or Fennic peoples were historic ethnic groups who spoke various languages traditionally classified as Finno-Permic...
. In 882, Oleg deposed Askold and Dir
Askold and Dir
Askold and Dir are semi-legendary rulers of Kiev who, according to the Primary Chronicle, were two of Rurik's voivodes in 870s...
subordinating Kiev directly to himself and choosing it as the capital city. In 883, Oleg conquered the Drevlians imposing a fur tribute on them. By 884 he managed to subjugate the Polians, Drevlians, Severians
Severians
The Severians or Severyans or Siverians were a tribe or tribal union of early East Slavs occupying areas to the east of the middle Dnieper river around the rivers Desna, Sejm and Sula on the territory of the archaeological Romny culture....
, Vyatichs
Vyatichs
The Vyatichi or Viatichi were a tribe of East Slavs who inhabited a part of the Oka basin.The Primary Chronicle names a certain tribal leader Vyatko as the forefather of the tribe, but the modern etymology places the word as a cognate to Veneti and Vandals. The Vyatichi were mainly engaged in...
, and Radimichs
Radimichs
The Radimichs , were a tribe of West Slavs of the last few centuries of the 1st millennium, which inhabited upper east parts of the Dnieper down the Sozh River and its tributaries...
while at war with the Tivertsi
Tivertsi
Tivertsi, a.k.a. Tivertsy, Tiverians is a tribe of early East Slavs which lived in the lands near the Dniester, and probably the lower Danube, that is in modern-day western Ukraine and Moldova and possibly in eastern Romania and southern Odessa oblast of Ukraine...
and the Ulichs
Ulichs
The Ulichs were a tribe of Early East Slavs who between the eighth and the tenth century inhabited the territories along the Lower Dnieper, Bug River and the Black Sea littoral....
. The latter were located in the area known among the Greek historians as the Great Scythia (lands of lower Dniester and Dnieper river
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
s). In 907, Oleg led an attack against Constantinople with 80,000 warriors transported by 2,000 ships, leaving Igor, son of Rurik
Rurik
Rurik, or Riurik , was a semilegendary 9th-century Varangian who founded the Rurik dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and later some of its successor states, most notably the Tsardom of Russia, until 1598....
in Kiev. Through a treaty, Oleg managed to impose a tribute upon Greeks of no less than one million grivna. In 911, he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
as an equal partner. After the death of Oleg later in 912, the Drevlians managed to break away, but were conquered again by Igor. In 914, Igor concluded a peace treaty with the Pechenegs, a nomadic tribe that was passing through Rus' towards the Danube River in order to attack the Byzantine Empire.
The new Kievan state prospered because it had an abundant supply of fur
Fur
Fur is a synonym for hair, used more in reference to non-human animals, usually mammals; particularly those with extensives body hair coverage. The term is sometimes used to refer to the body hair of an animal as a complete coat, also known as the "pelage". Fur is also used to refer to animal...
s, beeswax
Beeswax
Beeswax is a natural wax produced in the bee hive of honey bees of the genus Apis. It is mainly esters of fatty acids and various long chain alcohols...
and honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
for export and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
: the Volga trade route
Volga trade route
In the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far as Baghdad...
from the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
to the Orient
Orient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
, the Dnieper trade route
Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of...
from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, and the trade route from the Khazars to the Germans (see Raffelstetten Customs Regulations).
Liutprand of Cremona
Liutprand of Cremona
Liutprand, also Liudprand, Liuprand, Lioutio, Liucius, Liuzo, and Lioutsios was a Lombard historian and author, and Bishop of Cremona....
, who was twice (949 and 968) an envoy to the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
court, identifies the "Russi" with the Norse
Norsemen
Norsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who spoke what is now called the Old Norse language belonging to the North Germanic branch of Indo-European languages, especially Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish and Danish in their earlier forms.The meaning of Norseman was "people...
(Rusios, quos alio nos nomine Nordmannos apellamus, "the Russi, whom we call Norsemen by another name"), but explains the name as a Greek term referring to their physical traits (Gens quaedam est sub aquilonis parte constituta, quam a qualitate corporis Graeci vocant [...] Rusios, nos vero a positione loci nominamus Nordmannos, "A certain people made up of a part of the Norse, whom the Greeks call [...] the Russi on account of their physical features, we designate as Norsemen because of the location of their origin.").
Following the death of Grand Prince Igor
Igor, Grand Prince of Kiev
Igor was a Varangian ruler of Kievan Rus' from 912 to 945.-Biography:...
in 945, his wife Olga
Olga of Kiev
Saint Olga , or Olga the Beauty, hypothetically Old Norse: Helga In some Scandinavian sources she was called other name. born c. 890 died 11 July 969, Kiev) was a ruler of Kievan Rus' as regent Saint Olga , or Olga the Beauty, hypothetically Old Norse: Helga In some Scandinavian sources she was...
ruled as regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...
in Kiev until their son Sviatoslav
Sviatoslav I of Kiev
Sviatoslav I Igorevich ; , also spelled Svyatoslav, was a prince of Rus...
reached maturity (ca. 963). His decade-long reign over Rus' was marked by rapid expansion through the conquest of the Khazars
Khazars
The Khazars were semi-nomadic Turkic people who established one of the largest polities of medieval Eurasia, with the capital of Atil and territory comprising much of modern-day European Russia, western Kazakhstan, eastern Ukraine, Azerbaijan, large portions of the northern Caucasus , parts of...
of the Pontic steppe
Pontic-Caspian steppe
The Pontic-Caspian steppe is the vast steppeland stretching from the north of the Black Sea as far as the east of the Caspian Sea, from western Ukraine across the Southern Federal District and the Volga Federal District of Russia to western Kazakhstan,...
, and Invasion of the Balkans
Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria
Sviatoslav's invasion of Bulgaria refers to a conflict beginning in 967/968 and ending in 971, carried out in the eastern Balkans and involving the Kievan Rus', Bulgaria, and the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines instigated the Rus' ruler Sviatoslav to attack Bulgaria, leading to the collapse of the...
. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
to Pereyaslavets
Pereyaslavets
Pereyaslavets or Preslavets was a trade city located at the mouth of the Danube...
on the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav, like his druzhina
Druzhina
Druzhina, Drużyna or Družyna in the medieval history of Slavic Europe was a retinue in service of a chieftain, also called knyaz. The name is derived from the Slavic word drug with the meaning of "companion, friend". -Early Rus:...
remained a staunch pagan
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
. Due to his abrupt death in ambush, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to fratricidal
Fratricide
Fratricide is the act of a person killing his or her brother....
feud among his sons, resulted in two of his three sons being killed.
Reign of Vladimir and Christianisation
Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, , Vladimir, , Volodymyr, was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in .Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty...
and Yaropolk I
Yaropolk I of Kiev
Yaropolk I Svyatoslavich was a young and rather enigmatic ruler of Kiev between 972 and 980. His royal title is traditionally translated as "Prince"....
. The region of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
dominated the state of Kievan Rus' for the next two centuries. The Grand Prince
Grand Prince
The title grand prince or great prince ranked in honour below emperor and tsar and above a sovereign prince .Grand duke is the usual and established, though not literal, translation of these terms in English and Romance languages, which do not normally use separate words for a "prince" who reigns...
(velikiy kniaz') of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his formally subordinate relatives ruled the other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith
Zenith
The zenith is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the imaginary celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction opposite to the apparent gravitational force at that location. The opposite direction, i.e...
of the state's power came during the reigns of Prince Vladimir (Vladimir the Great, r. 980–1015) and Prince Yaroslav
Yaroslav I the Wise
Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise (Old Norse: Jarizleifr; ; Old East Slavic and Russian: Ярослав Мудрый; Ukrainian: Ярослав Мудрий; c...
(the Wise; r. 1019–1054). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus' that had begun under Oleg.
Vladimir
Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, , Vladimir, , Volodymyr, was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in .Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty...
rose to power in Kiev after the death of his father Sviatoslav I in 972. After the death of his father in 972, Vladimir, who was then prince of Novgorod, was forced to flee to Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
in 976 after his half-brother Yaropolk
Yaropolk I of Kiev
Yaropolk I Svyatoslavich was a young and rather enigmatic ruler of Kiev between 972 and 980. His royal title is traditionally translated as "Prince"....
had murdered his other brother Oleg
Oleg of Drelinia
Oleg was a Rurikid ruler of the Drevlyans from 969 to his death in 977. He was the second son of Sviatoslav I of Kiev.Date of birth is not known, but is probably before 957. Sviatoslav split up his domains, and gave the Drevlyan lands to Oleg. Oleg and his brother Yaropolk went to war after their...
and taken control Rus. In Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
with the help from his relative Earl
Earl
An earl is a member of the nobility. The title is Anglo-Saxon, akin to the Scandinavian form jarl, and meant "chieftain", particularly a chieftain set to rule a territory in a king's stead. In Scandinavia, it became obsolete in the Middle Ages and was replaced with duke...
Håkon Sigurdsson, ruler of Norway, Vladimir assembled a viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
army and reconquered Novgorod and Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
from Yaropolk
Yaropolk I of Kiev
Yaropolk I Svyatoslavich was a young and rather enigmatic ruler of Kiev between 972 and 980. His royal title is traditionally translated as "Prince"....
. As Prince of Kiev, Vladimir's most notable achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus', a process that began in 988. The Primary Chronicle
Primary Chronicle
The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
states that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of the traditional idol-worship (paganism
Paganism
Paganism is a blanket term, typically used to refer to non-Abrahamic, indigenous polytheistic religious traditions....
) of the Slavs, he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. The emissaries visited the Christians of the Latin Rite, the Jews and the Muslims, they finally arrived in Constantinople. They rejected Islam because, among other things, it prohibited the consumption of alcohol, and Judaism because the god of the Jews had permitted his chosen people
Chosen people
Throughout history and even today various groups of people have considered themselves as chosen by a deity for some purpose such as to act as the deity's agent on earth. In monotheistic faiths, like Abrahamic religions, references to God are used in constructs such as "God's Chosen People"...
to be deprived of their country. They found the ceremonies in the Roman church to be dull. But, at Constantinople, they were so astounded by the beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia
Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...
and the liturgical service held there, that they made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Byzantine Rite
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...
was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged to marry with Princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor, Basil II
Basil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...
.
Vladimir's choice of Eastern Christianity may also have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the River Dnieper
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
. Adherence to the Eastern Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from Greek that had been produced for the Slavic peoples
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
. The existence of this literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy
Greek philosophy
Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BCE and continued through the Hellenistic period, at which point Ancient Greece was incorporated in the Roman Empire...
, science, and historiography
Historiography
Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...
without the necessity of learning Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
. In contrast, educated people in medieval Western
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
and Central Europe
Central Europe
Central Europe or alternatively Middle Europe is a region of the European continent lying between the variously defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe...
learned Latin. Enjoying independence from the Roman authority and free from tenets of Latin learning, the East Slavs developed their own literature and fine arts, quite distinct from those of other Eastern Orthodox countries. See Old East Slavic language
Old East Slavic language
Old East Slavic or Old Ruthenian was a language used in 10th-15th centuries by East Slavs in the Kievan Rus' and states which evolved after the collapse of the Kievan Rus...
and Architecture of Kievan Rus
Architecture of Kievan Rus
The medieval state of Kievan Rus incorporated parts of what is now modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, and was centered around Kiev and Novgorod. Its architectural style quickly established itself after the adoption of Christianity in 988 and was strongly influenced by the Byzantine...
for details. Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Rus' church maintained communion with both Rome and Constantinople for some time, but along with most of the Eastern churches eventually split to go with the Eastern Orthodox.
Reign of Yaroslav
Vladimir I of Kiev
Vladimir Sviatoslavich the Great Old East Slavic: Володимѣръ Свѧтославичь Old Norse as Valdamarr Sveinaldsson, , Vladimir, , Volodymyr, was a grand prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus' in .Vladimir's father was the prince Sviatoslav of the Rurik dynasty...
, he was vice-regent of Novgorod at the time of his father's death in 1015. Subsequently, his eldest surviving brother, Svyatopolk the Accursed, killed three of his other brothers and seized power in Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
. Yaroslav, with the active support of the Novgorodians and the help of Viking
Viking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
mercenaries, defeated Svyatopolk and became the grand prince of Kiev in 1019. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, although he did not have uncontested rule of all of Kievan Rus' until 1036. Like Vladimir, Yaroslav was eager to improve relations with the rest of Europe, especially the Byzantine Empire. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Eupraxia the daughter of his son Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev, was married to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry III , called the Black or the Pious, was a member of the Salian Dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors...
. Yaroslav also arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary and Norway. Yaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Russkaya Pravda
Russkaya Pravda
Russkaya Pravda was the legal code of Kievan Rus' and the subsequent Rus' principalities during the times of feudal division.In spite of great influence of Byzantine legislation on the contemporary world, and in...
; built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. Today, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first Ukrainian patrimony to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kiev Cave Monastery complex...
and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod
The Cathedral of St. Sophia in the Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.-History:...
; patronized local clergy and monasticism
Monasticism
Monasticism is a religious way of life characterized by the practice of renouncing worldly pursuits to fully devote one's self to spiritual work...
; and is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra
Kiev Pechersk Lavra or Kyiv Pechersk Lavra , also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine....
(monastery
Monastery
Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...
), which functioned in Kievan Rus' as an ecclesiastical academy.
In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants
Rurik Dynasty
The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...
shared power over Kievan Rus'. Princely succession moved from elder to younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for the coveted throne of Kiev. In the 11th century and the 12th century, the princes and their retinues, which were a mixture of Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
and Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n elites, dominated the society of Kievan Rus'. Leading soldiers and officials received income and land from the princes in return for their political and military services. Kievan society lacked the class institutions and autonomous towns that were typical of Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
an feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s, artisan
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...
s and labourers sometimes exercised political influence through a city assembly, the veche
Veche
Veche was a popular assembly in medieval Slavic countries.In Novgorod, where the veche acquired the greatest prominence, the veche was broadly similar to the Norse thing or the Swiss Landsgemeinde.-Etymology:...
(council), which included all the adult males in the population. In some cases, the veche either made agreements with their rulers or expelled them and invited others to take their place. At the bottom of society was a stratum of slaves. More important was a class of tribute-paying peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
s, who owed labour duty to the princes. The widespread personal serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
characteristic of Western Europe did not exist in Kievan Rus'.
Fragmentation and decline
The gradual disintegration of the Kievan Rus' began in the 11th century, after the death of Yaroslav the Wise. The position of the Grand Prince of Kiev was weakened by the growing influence of regional clans.Unconventional power succession system where the power was transferred not from father to son, but to the eldest member of the ruling dynasty, i.e. in most cases to the eldest brother of the ruler, bred constant hatred and rivalry within the royal family. Familicide
Familicide
A familicide is a type of murder or murder-suicide in which at least one spouse and one or more children are killed; or in which a parent or parents and possibly other relatives such as siblings and grandparents are killed. In some cases all of the family members' lives are taken...
was a rather common way to obtain power. That particularly could be traced during the time of Yaroslavichi rule (sons of Yaroslav the Wise) when the established rota system
Rota System
The rota system, from the Old Church Slavic word for "ladder" or "staircase", was a system of collateral succession practiced in Kievan Rus' and later Appanage and early Muscovite Russia, in which the throne passed not linearly from father to son, but laterally from brother to brother and then to...
was skipped with establishing of Vladimir II Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) was a Velikiy Kniaz of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I and Anastasia of Byzantium Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) (1053 – May 19, 1125) was a Velikiy Kniaz (Grand Prince) of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I (married in...
as the Grand Prince of Kiev in turn creating big squabbles between Olegovichi
Oleg I of Chernigov
Oleg Svyatoslavich of Chernigiv , sometimes also styled as of Tmutarakan, was a Rurikid prince whose equivocal adventures ignited political unrest in Kievan Rus at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries....
from Chernihiv
Chernihiv
Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...
, Monomakhs from Pereyaslav, Izyaslavichi from Turov/Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
, and Polotsk Princes.
By 1130 all descendants of Vseslav the Seer
Vseslav of Polotsk
Vseslav of Polotsk , also known as Vseslav the Sorcerer or Vseslav the Seer, was the most famous ruler of Polotsk and was briefly Grand Prince of Kiev in 1068–1069. Together with Rostislav Vladimirovich and voivode Vyshata made up a coalition against the Yaroslaviches triumvirate...
were exiled to the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
by Vladimir Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) was a Velikiy Kniaz of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I and Anastasia of Byzantium Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) (1053 – May 19, 1125) was a Velikiy Kniaz (Grand Prince) of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I (married in...
. The most fierce resistance to Monomakhs posed Olegovichi when the izgoi
Izgoi
Izgoi is a term found in medieval Kievan Rus'. In primary documents, it is used to indicate orphans protected by the church. In historiographic writing on the period, it meant a prince in Kievan Rus' who was excluded from succession to the Kievan throne because his father had not held the throne...
Vsevolod II
Vsevolod II of Kiev
Vsevolod II Olgovich was the Prince of Chernigov and Grand Prince of Kiev , son of Oleg Svyatoslavich, Prince of Chernigov....
managed to become the Grand Prince of Kiev. Rostislavichi
Volodar of Peremyshl
Volodar Rostislavich was Prince of Zvenyhorod and Peremyshl .He actively was involved in the Polish internal affairs. Volodar also waged a war against the Grand Prince of Kiev Sviatopolk II of Kiev and his son Yaroslav...
who have initially established in Halych
Halych
Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
lands by 1189 were defeated by the Monomakh-Piast descendant Roman the Great
Roman the Great
Roman Mstislavich , also Roman Mstyslavych or Roman the Great, was a Rus’ prince, Grand Prince of Kiev ....
.
The decline of Constantinople — a main trading partner of Kievan Rus', played a significant role in the decline of the Kievan Rus'. The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of...
, along which the goods were moving from the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
(mainly Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
) through Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
to the Baltic
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
, was a cornerstone of Kiev wealth and prosperity. Kiev was the main power and initiator in this relationship, once the Byzantine Empire
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
fell into turmoil and the supplies became erratic, profits dried out, and Kiev lost its appeal.
The most prominent struggle for power was the conflict that erupted after the death of Yaroslav the Wise. The rivaling Principality of Polotsk was contesting the power of the Grand Prince by occupying Novgorod, while Rostislav Vladimirovich
Rostislav of Tmutarakan
Rostislav Vladimirovich was a landless prince from the Rurikid dynasty of Kievan Rus’. He was baptized as Mikhail.During his minority, Rostislav ruled Rostov in the land of the Merya. His father Vladimir of Novgorod was the eldest son of Yaroslav I of Kiev. If Vladimir had not predeceased his...
was fighting for the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
port of Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan was a Mediaeval Russian principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa . It was situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia,...
belonging to Chernigov. Three of Yaroslav's sons that first allied together found themselves fighting each other especially after their defeat to the Cuman forces in 1068 at the Battle of the Alta River
Battle of the Alta River
The Battle of Alta River was a 1068 clash on the Alta River between Kipchak army on the one hand and Kievan Rus' forces of Grand Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev, Prince Sviatoslav of Chernigov, and Prince Vsevolod of Periaslavl on the other in which the Rus' forces were routed and fled back to Kiev and...
. At the same time an uprising took place in Kiev, bringing to power Vseslav of Polotsk
Vseslav of Polotsk
Vseslav of Polotsk , also known as Vseslav the Sorcerer or Vseslav the Seer, was the most famous ruler of Polotsk and was briefly Grand Prince of Kiev in 1068–1069. Together with Rostislav Vladimirovich and voivode Vyshata made up a coalition against the Yaroslaviches triumvirate...
who supported the traditional Slavic paganism. The ruling Grand Prince Iziaslav fled to Poland asking for support and in couple of years returned to establish the order. The affairs became even more complicated by the end of the 11th century driving the state into chaos and constant warfare. On the initiative of Vladimir II Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh
Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) was a Velikiy Kniaz of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I and Anastasia of Byzantium Vladimir II Monomakh |Basileios]]) (1053 – May 19, 1125) was a Velikiy Kniaz (Grand Prince) of Kievan Rus'.- Family :He was the son of Vsevolod I (married in...
in 1097 the first federal council
Council of Liubech
The Council of Liubech was the first known federal council of the Kievan Rus'. It was held in 1097 between the constantly rivaling regional princes...
of Kievan Rus took place near Chernigov in the city of Liubech
Liubech
Liubech or Lyubech is a small ancient town connected with many important events since the times of the Kievan Rus'. It is currently a small settlement located in Ripky Raion, in the Chernihiv Oblast of northern Ukraine...
with the main intention to find an understanding among the fighting sides. However even though that did not really stopped the fighting, it certainly cooled things off.
The last ruler to maintain some sort of united state was
Mstislav the Great. After his death in 1132, the Kievan Rus fell into recession and a rapid decline, and Mstislav's successor Yaropolk II of Kiev
Yaropolk II of Kiev
Yaropolk II Vladimirovich , Prince of Pereyaslav , Velikiy Kniaz of Kiev , son of Vladimir II Monomakh and Gytha of Wessex. He fought in several campaigns against the Polovtsy , once in 1103 and again in 1116.After the death of his brother in 1132, Msitslav I the Great, Yaropolk received the...
instead of focussing on the external threat of the Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
was embroiled in conflicts with the growing power of the Novgorod Republic
Novgorod Republic
The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
.
The Crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
brought a shift in European trade routes that accelerated the decline of Kievan Rus'. In 1204 the forces of the Fourth Crusade
Fourth Crusade
The Fourth Crusade was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire...
sacked Constantinople, making the Dnieper
Dnieper River
The Dnieper River is one of the major rivers of Europe that flows from Russia, through Belarus and Ukraine, to the Black Sea.The total length is and has a drainage basin of .The river is noted for its dams and hydroelectric stations...
trade route marginal. At the same time the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
of Northern Crusades
Northern Crusades
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were crusades undertaken by the Christian kings of Denmark and Sweden, the German Livonian and Teutonic military orders, and their allies against the pagan peoples of Northern Europe around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea...
were conquering the Baltic
Baltic region
The terms Baltic region, Baltic Rim countries, and Baltic Rim refer to slightly different combinations of countries in the general area surrounding the Baltic Sea.- Etymology :...
region and threatening the Lands of Novgorod. Concurrently with it the Ruthenian Federation of Kievan Rus started to disintegrate into smaller principalities as the Rurik dynasty
Rurik Dynasty
The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...
grew. The local Orthodox Christianity
Orthodox Christianity
The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to:* the Eastern Orthodox Church and its various geographical subdivisions...
of Kievan Rus', while struggling to establish itself in the predominantly pagan state and losing its main base in Constantinopol was on the brink of extinction. Some of the main regional centers that later have developed were Novgorod, Chernigov, Galich, Kiev, Ryazan, Vladimir-upon-Klyazma, Vladimir of Volyn, Polotsk, and others.
Novgorod Republic
In the north, the Republic of Novgorod prospered because it controlled trade routes from the River Volga to the Baltic SeaBaltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
. As Kievan Rus' declined, Novgorod became more independent. A local oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
ruled Novgorod; major government decisions were made by a town assembly, which also elected a prince as the city's military leader. In the 12th century, Novgorod acquired its own archbishop
Archbishop of Novgorod
The Archbishop of Novgorod is the head of the eparchy of Novgorod the Great and is one of the oldest offices in the Russian Orthodox Church. The archbishops have, in fact, been among the most important figures in medieval Russian history and culture and their successors continued to play...
Ilya
Ilya (Archbishop of Novgorod)
Ilya , also known as Ioann , was Archbishop of Novgorod from 1165 to his death in 1186.-Life:The son of a priest, Ilya was himself priest of the Church of St. Blaise south of the Novgorod Kremlin. The church was rebuilt in 1407, destroyed during the Second World War, and has been rebuilt again; it...
in 1169, a sign of increased importance and political independence, while about 30 years prior to that in 1136 in Novgorod was established a republican form of government - elective monarchy. Since then Novgorod enjoyed a wide degree of autonomy although being closely associated with the Kievan Rus.
Northeast
In the northeast, Slavs from the Kievan region colonized the territory that eventually became the Grand Duchy of MoscowGrand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
by subjugating and merging with the Finnic tribes already occupying the area. The city of Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
the oldest centre of the northeast, was supplanted first by Suzdal
Suzdal
Suzdal is a town in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, situated northeast of Moscow, from the city of Vladimir, on the Kamenka River. Population: -History:...
and then by the city of Vladimir
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
, which become the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal'. The combined principality
Principality
A principality is a monarchical feudatory or sovereign state, ruled or reigned over by a monarch with the title of prince or princess, or by a monarch with another title within the generic use of the term prince....
of Vladimir-Suzdal asserted itself as a major power in Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century. In 1169 Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal sacked the city of Kiev. Prince Andrey then installed his younger brother, who ruled briefly in Kiev while Andrey continued to rule his realm from Suzdal. Roman of Halych (1160–1205) also claimed primacy in Rus at the time. In 1299, in the wake of the Mongol invasion
Mongol invasion of Rus
The Mongol invasion of Russia was resumed on 21 December 1237 marking the resumption of the Mongol invasion of Europe, during which the Mongols attacked the medieval powers of Poland, Kiev, Hungary, and miscellaneous tribes of less organized peoples...
, the metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
moved from Kiev to the city of Vladimir and Vladimir-Suzdal.
Southwest
To the southwest, the principality of HalychHalych
Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
had developed trade relations with its Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n neighbours and emerged as the local successor to Kievan Rus'. In the early 13th century, Prince Roman Mstislavich united the two previously separate principalities, conquered Kiev, and assumed the title of Grand Duke
Grand Duke
The title grand duke is used in Western Europe and particularly in Germanic countries for provincial sovereigns. Grand duke is of a protocolary rank below a king but higher than a sovereign duke. Grand duke is also the usual and established translation of grand prince in languages which do not...
of Kievan Rus'. His son, Prince Daniil (r. 1238–1264) was the first ruler of Kievan Rus' to accept a crown from the Roman papacy, apparently doing so without breaking with Constantinople. Early in the 14th century, the patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
in Constantinople granted the rulers of Galicia-Volhynia a metropolitan to compensate for the move of the Kievan metropolitan to Vladimir. Lithuanian rulers also requested and received a metropolitan for Novagrudok shortly afterwards. Early in the 15th century, these Metropolia were ruled again from Kiev by the "Metropolitan of Kiev, Galich and all Rus'".
However, a long and unsuccessful struggle against the Mongols combined with internal opposition to the prince and foreign intervention weakened Galicia-Volhynia. With the end of the Mstislavich branch of the Rurikids in the mid-14th century, Galicia-Volhynia ceased to exist; Poland conquered Galich; Lithuania took Volhynia
Volhynia
Volhynia, Volynia, or Volyn is a historic region in western Ukraine located between the rivers Prypiat and Southern Bug River, to the north of Galicia and Podolia; the region is named for the former city of Volyn or Velyn, said to have been located on the Southern Bug River, whose name may come...
, including Kiev, conquered by Gediminas in 1321 ending the rule of Rurikids in the city
Battle on the Irpen' River
The Battle on the Irpin River occurred in early 1320s between the armies of Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, and Prince Stanislav of Kiev, allied with Oleg of Pereyaslavl' and Roman of Bryansk. On the small Irpin River about south west of Kiev, Gediminas resoundingly defeated Stanislav and...
. Lithuanian rulers then assumed the title over Ruthenia
Ruthenia
Ruthenia is the Latin word used onwards from the 13th century, describing lands of the Ancient Rus in European manuscripts. Its geographic and culturo-ethnic name at that time was applied to the parts of Eastern Europe. Essentially, the word is a false Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus...
.
Final disintegration
The state finally disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of Rus'.The state fragmented into successor principalities, tributary to the Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
(the so-called Tatar Yoke). In the late 15th century Muscovite Grand Dukes
Grand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
began taking over former Kievan territories and claimed themselves to be the sole legal successors of the Kievan principality according to the logic of the medieval theory of translatio imperii
Translatio imperii
Translatio imperii, Latin for "transfer of rule", is a concept invented in the Middle Ages for describing history as a linear succession of transfers of imperium, that is of supreme power concentrated with a series of single rulers .-Origin:...
.
In the western periphery, the Kievan Rus' was succeeded by the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. Later, as these lands along with the territories of modern central Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
and Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
fell to the Gediminids
Gediminids
The Gediminids were a dynasty of monarchs of Grand Duchy of Lithuania that reigned from the 14th to the 16th century. One branch of this dynasty, known as the Jagiellons, reigned also in Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Hungary and Kingdom of Bohemia...
, the powerful, largely Ruthenized Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
, drew heavily on Rus' cultural and legal traditions. Due to the fact that the economical and cultural core of Rus' was located on the territory of modern Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
some Ukrainian historians and scholars consider Kievan Rus' to be a founding Ukrainian state.
On the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus' traditions were adapted in the Vladimir-Suzdal
Vladimir-Suzdal
The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...
Principality that gradually gravitated towards Moscow. In the very north, the Novgorod
Novgorod Republic
The Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
and Pskov
Pskov Republic
Pskov, known at various times as the Principality of Pskov or the Pskov Republic , was a medieval state on the south shore of Lake Pskov. The capital city, also named Pskov, was located at the southern end of the Peipus–Pskov Lake system at the southeast corner of Ugandi, about southwest of...
Feudal Republic
Republic
A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...
s carried on a separate and less autocratic version of Rus' legacy into the 16th century until they were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow
Grand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
.
Economy and social structure
During this Kievian period the Rus' experienced a period of great economic expansion. The people began to open trade routes with the VikingViking
The term Viking is customarily used to refer to the Norse explorers, warriors, merchants, and pirates who raided, traded, explored and settled in wide areas of Europe, Asia and the North Atlantic islands from the late 8th to the mid-11th century.These Norsemen used their famed longships to...
s to the north and west and the Byzantine Greeks
Byzantine Greeks
Byzantine Greeks or Byzantines is a conventional term used by modern historians to refer to the medieval Greek or Hellenised citizens of the Byzantine Empire, centered mainly in Constantinople, the southern Balkans, the Greek islands, Asia Minor , Cyprus and the large urban centres of the Near East...
to the south and west; traders also began to travel south and east eventually making contact with Persia and the peoples of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
.
Due to the expansion of trade and its geographical proximity, Kiev became the most important trade center and chief among the communes; therefore the leader of Kiev gained political "control" over the surrounding areas. This princedom emerged from a coalition of traditional patriarchic family communes banded together in an effort to increase the applicable workforce and expand the productivity of the land. This union developed the first major cities in the Rus' and was the first notable form of self government. As these communes became larger, the emphasis was taken off the family holdings and placed on the territory that surrounded. This shift in ideology became known as the verv'.
The change in political structure led to the inevitable development of the peasant class or smerdy. The smerdy were free un-landed peoples that found work by laboring for wages on the manors which began to develop around 1031 as the verv' began to dominate socio-political structure. The smerdy were initially given equality in the Kievian law code, they were theoretically equal to the prince, so they enjoyed as much freedom as can be expected of manual laborers. However in the 13th century they began to slowly lose their rights and became less equal in the eyes of the law.
Historical assessment
Kievan Rus', although sparsely populated compared to Western Europe, was not only the largest contemporary European state in terms of area but also culturally advanced. Literacy in Kiev, Novgorod and other large cities was high. As birch bark documentBirch bark document
A birch bark document is a document written on pieces of birch bark. Such documents existed in several cultures. For instance, some Gandharan Buddhist texts have been found written on birch bark and preserved in clay jars....
s attest, they exchanged love letters and prepared cheat sheets for schools. Novgorod had a sewage system and wood paving not often found in other cities at the time. The Russkaya Pravda
Russkaya Pravda
Russkaya Pravda was the legal code of Kievan Rus' and the subsequent Rus' principalities during the times of feudal division.In spite of great influence of Byzantine legislation on the contemporary world, and in...
confined punishments to fines and generally did not use capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
. Certain inalienable rights
Rights
Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people, according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical theory...
were accorded to women, such as property and inheritance
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of passing on property, titles, debts, rights and obligations upon the death of an individual. It has long played an important role in human societies...
rights.
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
had population of about 400,000 around 1180. The Soviet scholar Mikhail Tikhomirov
Mikhail Tikhomirov
Mikhail Nikolayevich Tikhomirov was a leading Soviet specialist in medieval Russian paleography.Tikhomirov was born and spent his whole life in Moscow, where he was in charge of the Archaeographic Commission of the Soviet Academy of Sciences...
calculated that Kievan Rus' on the eve of the Mongol invasion had around 300 urban centers.
Kievan Rus' also played an important genealogical role in European politics. Yaroslav I the Wise
Yaroslav I the Wise
Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise Yaroslav I, Grand Prince of Rus, known as Yaroslav the Wise (Old Norse: Jarizleifr; ; Old East Slavic and Russian: Ярослав Мудрый; Ukrainian: Ярослав Мудрий; c...
, whose stepmother belonged to the greatest dynasty to rule Byzantium
Byzantium
Byzantium was an ancient Greek city, founded by Greek colonists from Megara in 667 BC and named after their king Byzas . The name Byzantium is a Latinization of the original name Byzantion...
, married the only legitimate daughter of the king who Christianized Sweden. His daughters became queens of Hungary, France and Norway, his sons married the daughters of a Polish king and a Byzantine emperor (not to mention a niece of the Pope), while his granddaughters were a German Empress and (according to one theory) the queen of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. A grandson married the only daughter of the last Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon
Anglo-Saxon may refer to:* Anglo-Saxons, a group that invaded Britain** Old English, their language** Anglo-Saxon England, their history, one of various ships* White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, an ethnicity* Anglo-Saxon economy, modern macroeconomic term...
king of England. Thus the Rurikids were the most well-connected royal family of the time. The Rurik Dynasty
Rurik Dynasty
The Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...
were the ruling the Kievan Rus' successor principalities of Galicia-Volhynia (after 1199), Chernigov, Vladimir-Suzdal
Vladimir-Suzdal
The Vladimir-Suzdal Principality or Vladimir-Suzdal Rus’ was one of the major principalities which succeeded Kievan Rus' in the late 12th century and lasted until the late 14th century. For a long time the Principality was a vassal of the Mongolian Golden Horde...
, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow
Grand Duchy of Moscow
The Grand Duchy of Moscow or Grand Principality of Moscow, also known in English simply as Muscovy , was a late medieval Rus' principality centered on Moscow, and the predecessor state of the early modern Tsardom of Russia....
, as well as the early Tsardom of Russia
Tsardom of Russia
The Tsardom of Russia was the name of the centralized Russian state from Ivan IV's assumption of the title of Tsar in 1547 till Peter the Great's foundation of the Russian Empire in 1721.From 1550 to 1700, Russia grew 35,000 km2 a year...
(after 1168).
Turco-Mongols
From the 9th century, the Pecheneg nomads began an uneasy relationship with Kievan Rus. For more than two centuries they launched random raids into the lands of Rus, which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars (such as the 920 war on the Pechenegs by Igor of Kiev reported in the Primary ChroniclePrimary Chronicle
The Primary Chronicle , Ruthenian Primary Chronicle or Russian Primary Chronicle, is a history of Kievan Rus' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.- Three editions :...
), but there were also temporary military alliances (e.g. the 943 Byzantine campaign by Igor). In 968, the Pechenegs attacked and then besieged the city of Kiev
Siege of Kiev (968)
The siege of Kiev by the Pechenegs in 968 is documented in the Primary Chronicle, whose account freely mixes historical details with folklore....
. There exist some speculations that the Pechenegs drove away the Tivertsi
Tivertsi
Tivertsi, a.k.a. Tivertsy, Tiverians is a tribe of early East Slavs which lived in the lands near the Dniester, and probably the lower Danube, that is in modern-day western Ukraine and Moldova and possibly in eastern Romania and southern Odessa oblast of Ukraine...
and the Ulichs
Ulichs
The Ulichs were a tribe of Early East Slavs who between the eighth and the tenth century inhabited the territories along the Lower Dnieper, Bug River and the Black Sea littoral....
to the regions of the upper Dniester river in Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
. The Byzantine Empire was known to support the Pechenegs in their military campaigns against the Eastern Slavic states.
Boniak
Boniak
Boniak Khan was a Cuman khan who led the invasions, together with Togortac, on Kievan Rus'. In 1096 Boniak attacked Kiev, plundered the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, and burned down the prince's palace in Berestovo. He was defeated in 1107 by the princes of Rus's forces, near Lubni...
was a Cuman khan
Khan (title)
Khan is an originally Altaic and subsequently Central Asian title for a sovereign or military ruler, widely used by medieval nomadic Turko-Mongol tribes living to the north of China. 'Khan' is also seen as a title in the Xianbei confederation for their chief between 283 and 289...
who led an invasions on Kievan Rus'. In 1096 Boniak attacked Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
, plundered the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, and burned down the prince's palace in Berestovo. He was defeated in 1107 by Vladimir Monomakh, Oleg, Sviatopolk and other Rus princes.
Byzantine Empire
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, that of the Rus'. This relationship would have long-lasting repercussions in the history of East Slavs
East Slavs
The East Slavs are Slavic peoples speaking East Slavic languages. Formerly the main population of the medieval state of Kievan Rus, by the seventeenth century they evolved into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian peoples.-Sources:...
. Byzantium quickly became the main trading
Trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks
The trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks was a trade route that connected Scandinavia, Kievan Rus' and the Byzantine Empire. The route allowed traders along the route to establish a direct prosperous trade with Byzantium, and prompted some of them to settle in the territories of...
and cultural partner for Kiev, but relations were not always friendly. The most serious conflict between the two powers was the war of 968–971 in Bulgaria, but several Rus' raiding expeditions against the Byzantine cities of the Black Sea coast and Constantinople itself are also recorded. Although most were repulsed, they were concluded by trade treaties
Rus'-Byzantine Treaty
Treaties between the Kievan Rus and the Byzantine Empire:*Rus'–Byzantine Treaty *Rus'–Byzantine Treaty , supplementary agreement to the one of 907*Rus'–Byzantine Treaty *Rus'–Byzantine Treaty *Rus'–Byzantine Treaty...
that were generally favourable to the Rus'.
Rus'-Byzantine relations became closer following the marriage of the porphyrogenita Anna to Vladimir the Great, and the subsequent Christianization of the Rus': Byzantine priests, architects and artists were invited to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus', expanding Byzantine cultural influence even further. Numerous Rus' served in the Byzantine army as mercenaries, most notably as the famous Varangian Guard
Varangian Guard
The Varangian Guard was an elite unit of the Byzantine Army in 10th to the 14th centuries, whose members served as personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperors....
.
Administrative divisions of Rus
11th century- Novgorod Land 862–1478 (the allied territory of Kievan Rus', since 1136 the Novgorod RepublicNovgorod RepublicThe Novgorod Republic was a large medieval Russian state which stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Ural Mountains between the 12th and 15th centuries, centred on the city of Novgorod...
) - Principality of Rostov-Suzdal (until 1125 Rostov Principality, later in 1155 Vladimir-Suzdal Principality)
- Principality of Polotsk 9th century-14th century (separatist territory, partial suzerainty under Kievan Rus)
- Principality of Minsk
- Principality of SmolenskPrincipality of SmolenskThe Principality of Smolensk was a Kievan Rus' lordship from the eleventh to the fifteenth century...
(from 1054) - Principality of PereyaslavlPrincipality of PereyaslavlThe Principality of Pereslavl was a regional principality of Kievan Rus from the end of 9th to 1302 based on the city of Pereyaslavl on the Trubezh river. It was usually administrated by younger sons of the Grand Prince of Kiev...
- Principality of Volyn
- Principality of Kiev (1132–1399)
- Principality of Galicia
- Principality of Turov and PinskPrincipality of Turov and PinskThe Duchy of Turov and Pinsk was a medieval principality and state on the territory of modern southern Belarus and northern Ukraine. The principality's capital was Turov or Pinsk, other important cities were Mazyr and Slutsk, Lutsk, Brest, and Volodymyr-Volynskyi...
- Principality of Chernigov
- Murom-Ryazan Principality (until 1078)
- Novgorod-Siversk Principality
- City of TmutarakanTmutarakanTmutarakan was a Mediaeval Russian principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa . It was situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia,...
(from 988 and until sometime in the 12th century) - Belaya VezhaSarkelSarkel was a large limestone-and-brick fortress built by the Khazars with Byzantine assistance in the 830s. It was named white-house because of the white limestone bricks they have used to build Sarkel...
(from 965 and until sometime in the 12th century) - Southern dependancies (OleshkyTsiurupynskTsiurupynsk is a city in Kherson Oblast of Ukraine that until 1928 was called Oleshky. It is the oldest city of the oblast and one of the oldest in the southern Ukraine. Population of it is 30,123 ....
, New Galich, Peresechen') - Drevlian territories (?-884 (annexation to Rus' by Oleg) 912–946 (vassal of Rus' since 914, Drevlians Uprising in 945))
Principal cities
- Veliky NovgorodVeliky NovgorodVeliky Novgorod is one of Russia's most historic cities and the administrative center of Novgorod Oblast. It is situated on the M10 federal highway connecting Moscow and St. Petersburg. The city lies along the Volkhov River just below its outflow from Lake Ilmen...
- ChernihivChernihivChernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...
, capital along with Kiev in 1024–1036 (joined rule of Yaroslav and Mstislav) - Bilhorod Kyivsky, capital of Rus under Rurik RostislavichRurik RostislavichRuryk Rostislavich , Prince of Novgorod , Belgorod Kievsky, presently Bilohorodka , Grand Prince of Kiev , Prince of Chernigov...
- VyshgorodVyshhorodVyshhorod is a city in the Kiev Oblast , in central Ukraine. It is the administrative centre of the Vyshhorodskyi Raion , and is located along the Dnieper River upstream from the national capital, Kiev...
, prince residence and royal library (at Mezhyhirya) - Polotsk
- Rostov VelikyRostovRostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
- SuzdalSuzdalSuzdal is a town in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, situated northeast of Moscow, from the city of Vladimir, on the Kamenka River. Population: -History:...
- VladimirVladimirVladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
- MuromMuromMurom is a historic city in Vladimir Oblast, Russia, which sprawls along the left bank of Oka River. Population: -History:In the 9th century CE, the city marked the easternmost settlement of the Eastern Slavs in the land of the Finno-Ugric people called Muromians. The Russian Primary Chronicle...
- HalychHalychHalych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
- SmolenskSmolenskSmolensk is a city and the administrative center of Smolensk Oblast, Russia, located on the Dnieper River. Situated west-southwest of Moscow, this walled city was destroyed several times throughout its long history since it was on the invasion routes of both Napoleon and Hitler. Today, Smolensk...
- RyazanRyazanRyazan is a city and the administrative center of Ryazan Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Oka River southeast of Moscow. Population: The strategic bomber base Dyagilevo is just west of the city, and the air base of Alexandrovo is to the southeast as is the Ryazan Turlatovo Airport...
- Staraya LadogaStaraya LadogaStaraya Ladoga , or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, 8 km north of the town of Volkhov. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries...
- TmutarakanTmutarakanTmutarakan was a Mediaeval Russian principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa . It was situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia,...
- PereyaslavetsPereyaslavetsPereyaslavets or Preslavets was a trade city located at the mouth of the Danube...
(BulgariaBulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
), capital of Rus' in 969–971
Religion
In 988 the Christian Church in Rus' territorially fell under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of ConstantinopleEcumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople , part of the wider Orthodox Church, is one of the fourteen autocephalous churches within the communion of Orthodox Christianity...
after it was officially adopted as the state religion. According to several chronicles after that date the predominant cult of Slavic paganism was persecuted.
It is uncertain the exact date of creation the Kiev Metropolitan as well as who was the first leader of the church. Predominantly it is considered that the first head was Michael I of Kiev
Michael I of Kiev (metropolitan)
Metropolitan Michael I of Kiev was a saint and the first Metropolitan of Kiev and All-Rus' from 988-992. June 15 and September 30 are dedicated to him on the Julian Calendar....
, however some sources also claim Leontiy who is often placed after Michael or Anastas Chersonesos, became the first bishop of the Church of the Tithes
Church of the Tithes
The Church of the Tithes or Church of the Dormition of the Virgin was the first stone church in Kiev. It was built by the order of Grand Prince Vladimir the Great between 989 and 996 by Byzantine and local workers to commemorate the Baptism of Kievan Rus' and was originally named the "Church of...
. The first metropolitan to be confirmed by historical sources is Theopemp, who was appointed by Patriarch Alexius of Constantinople in 1038. Before 1015 there were five dioceses: Kiev, Chernihiv, Bilhorod, Volodymyr, Novgorod, and soon thereafter Yuriy-upon-Ros
Bila Tserkva
Bila Tserkva is a city located on the Ros' River in the Kiev Oblast in central Ukraine, approximately south of the capital, Kiev. Population 203,300 Area 34 km².-Administrative status:...
. The Kiev Metropolitan sent its own delegation to the Council of Bari
Council of Bari
During the brief period of rapproachement between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Pope, in the course of the First Crusade the Council of Bari was called by Urban II in 1098 in a stated attempt to deal with the Great Schism between the Western Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church and to resolve...
in 1089.
After the sacking of Kiev in 1169, part of the Kiev metropolitan started to move to Vladimir-upon-Klyazma
Vladimir
Vladimir is a city and the administrative center of Vladimir Oblast, Russia, located on the Klyazma River, to the east of Moscow along the M7 motorway. Population:...
, concluding the move sometime after 1240 when Kiev was taken by Batu Khan
Batu Khan
Batu Khan was a Mongol ruler and founder of the Ulus of Jochi , the sub-khanate of the Mongol Empire. Batu was a son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan. His ulus was the chief state of the Golden Horde , which ruled Rus and the Caucasus for around 250 years, after also destroying the armies...
. Metropolitan Maxim was the first metropolitan who chose Vladimir-upon-Klyazma as his official residence in 1299. As a result, in 1303 Lev I of Galicia petitioned Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople
Patriarch Athanasius I of Constantinople
Athanasius I was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for two terms, from 1289 to 1293 and 1303 to 1309. He was born in Adrianople and died in Constantinople. Chosen by the emperor Andronicus II Palaeologus as patriarch, he opposed the reunion of the Greek and Roman Churches and introduced...
for the creation of a new Halych metropolitan, however it only existed until 1347.
The first Cathedral Temple was chosen the Church of the Tithes
Church of the Tithes
The Church of the Tithes or Church of the Dormition of the Virgin was the first stone church in Kiev. It was built by the order of Grand Prince Vladimir the Great between 989 and 996 by Byzantine and local workers to commemorate the Baptism of Kievan Rus' and was originally named the "Church of...
. In 1037 the cathedral was transferred to the newly built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev is an outstanding architectural monument of Kievan Rus'. Today, it is one of the city's best known landmarks and the first Ukrainian patrimony to be inscribed on the World Heritage List along with the Kiev Cave Monastery complex...
. Upon the transferring of the metropolitan seat in 1299, the new cathedral was chosen the Dormition Cathedral, Vladimir.
By the mid 13th century there were following dioceses of Kiev Metropolitan (988): Kiev (988), Pereyaslav, Chernihiv (991), Volodymyr-Volynsky (992), Turov (1005), Polotsk (1104), Novgorod
Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod
The Cathedral of St. Sophia in the Kremlin in Veliky Novgorod is the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Novgorod and the mother church of the Novgorodian Eparchy.-History:...
(~990s), Smolensk (1137), Murom (1198), Peremyshl (1120), Halych (1134), Vladimir-upon-Klyazma (1215), Rostov (991), Bilhorod, Yuriy (1032), Chełm (1235), Tver (1271). There also were dioceses in Zakarpattia and Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan
Tmutarakan was a Mediaeval Russian principality and trading town that controlled the Cimmerian Bosporus, the passage from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Its site was the ancient Greek colony of Hermonassa . It was situated on the Taman peninsula, in the present-day Krasnodar Krai of Russia,...
. In 1261 there was established Sarai-Batu diocese.
See also
- Rus' (people)Rus' (people)The Rus' were a group of Varangians . According to the Primary Chronicle of Rus, compiled in about 1113 AD, the Rus had relocated from the Baltic region , first to Northeastern Europe, creating an early polity which finally came under the leadership of Rurik...
- Rus (name)Rus (name)Originally, the name Rus referred to the people, the region, and the medieval states of the Rus' Khaganate and Kievan Rus' polities...
- Rulers of Kievan Rus'Rulers of Kievan Rus'Grand Prince of Kiev was the title of the Kievan prince and the ruler of Kievan Rus' in the 9th–12th centuries....
- Rurik DynastyRurik DynastyThe Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD...
- Slavic studies
- De Administrando ImperioDe Administrando ImperioDe Administrando Imperio is the Latin title of a Greek work written by the 10th-century Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine VII. The Greek title of the work is...
Further reading
- Christian, DavidDavid Christian (historian)Dr. David Gilbert Christian is an Anglo-American historian.Christian was born in Brooklyn, New York, to British and American parents. He grew up in Africa and in England, where he earned his B.A. and Ph.D. at Oxford University....
. A History of Russia, Mongolia and Central Asia. Blackwell, 1999. - Franklin, Simon and Shepard, Jonathon, The Emergence of Rus, 750–1200. (Longman History of Russia, general editor Harold Shukman.) Longman, London, 1996. ISBN 0-582-49091-X
- Fennell, John, The Crisis of Medieval Russia, 1200–1304. (Longman History of Russia, general editor Harold Shukman.) Longman, London, 1983. ISBN 0-582-48150-3
- Jones, Gwyn. A History of the Vikings. 2nd ed. London: Oxford Univ. Press, 1984.
- Martin, Janet, Medieval Russia 980–1584. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993. ISBN 0-521-36832-4
- Obolensky, DimitriDimitri ObolenskySir Dimitri Obolensky was born Prince Dmitriy Dmitrievich Obolensky to Prince Dimitri Alexandrovich Obolensky and Countess Maria Shuvalov . He was descended from Rurik, Igor, Svyatoslav, St Vladimir of Kiev, St Michael of Chernigov, and Prince Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov...
, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500–1453. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971. ISBN 0-297-00343-7 - Pritsak, Omeljan. The Origin of Rus'. Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1991.
- Stang, Håkon. The Naming of Russia. Meddelelser, Nr. 77. Oslo: University of Oslo Slavisk-baltisk Avelding, 1996.
- Alexander F. Tsvirkun E-learning course. History of Ukraine. Journal Auditorium, Kiev 2010
- Velychenko, Stephen, National history as cultural process : a survey of the interpretations of Ukraine's past in Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian historical writing from the earliest times to 1914" Edmonton,1992.
- Velychenko, Stephen, "Nationalizing and Denationalizing the Past. Ukraine and Russia in Comparative Context", Ab Imperio 1 (2007).
http://abimperio.net/cgi-bin/aishow.pl?state=showa&idart=1846&idlang=1&Code=