Kievan Russia

A medieval Slavic state that was the forerunner of modern Russia. Centered around the city of Kiev, it included most of present-day Ukraine and Belarus and part of northwest Russia. Kievan power and influence grew steadily through the 10th and 11th century, but was later weakened by internal disputes and fell to the Mongols by 1240.

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Kievan Rus, the first organized state located on the lands of modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, was ruled by members of the Rurikid dynasty and centered around the city of Kiev from the mid-ninth century to 1240. Its East Slav, Finn, and Balt population dwelled in territories along the Dnieper, the Western Dvina, the Lovat-Volkhov, and the upper Volga rivers. Its component peoples and territories were bound together by common recognition of the Rurikid dynasty as their rulers and, after 988, by formal affiliation with the Christian Church, headed by the metropolitan based at Kiev. Kievan Rus was destroyed by the Mongol invasions of 1237 - 1240. The Kievan Rus era is considered a formative stage in the histories of modern Ukraine and Russia.

The process of the formation of the state is the subject of the Normanist controversy. Normanists stress the role of Scandinavian Vikings as key agents in the creation of the state. Their view builds upon archeological evidence of Scandinavian adventurers and travelling merchants in the region of northwestern Russia and the upper Volga from the eighth century. It also draws upon an account in the Primary Chronicle, compiled during the eleventh and early twelfth centuries, which reports that in 862, Slav and Finn tribes in the vicinity of the Lovat and Volkhov rivers invited Rurik, a Varangian Rus, and his brothers to bring order to their lands. Rurik and his descendants are regarded as the founders of the Rurikid dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus. Anti-Normanists discount the role of Scandinavians as founders of the state. They argue that the term Rus refers to the Slav tribe of Polyane, which dwelled in the region of Kiev, and that the Slavs themselves organized their own political structure.

According to the Primary Chronicle, Rurik's immediate successors were Oleg (r. 879 or 882 to 912), identified as a regent for Rurik's son Igor (r. 912 - 945); Igor's wife Olga (r. 945 - c. 964), and their son Svyatoslav (r. c. 964 - 972). They established their authority over Kiev and surrounding tribes, including the Krivichi (in the region of the Valdai Hills), the Polyane (around Kiev on the Dneper River), the Drevlyane (south of the Pripyat River, a tributary of the Dneper), and the Vyatichi, who inhabited lands along the Oka and Volga Rivers.

The tenth-century Rurikids not only forced tribal populations to transfer their allegiance and their tribute payments from Bulgar and Khazaria, but also pursued aggressive policies toward those neighboring states. In 965 Svyatoslav launched a campaign against the Khazaria. His venture led to the collapse of the Khazar Empire and the destabilization of the lower Volga and the steppe, a region of grasslands south of the forests inhabited by the Slavs. His son Vladimir (r. 980 - 1015), having subjugated the Radimichi (east of the upper Dnieper River), attacked the Volga Bulgars in 985; the agreement he subsequently reached with the Bulgars was the basis for peaceful relations that lasted a century.

The early Rurikids also engaged their neighbors to the south and west. In 968, Svyatoslav rescued Kiev from the Pechenegs, a nomadic, steppe Turkic population. He devoted most of his attention, however, to establishing control over lands on the Danube River. Forced to abandon that project by the Byzantines, he was returning to Kiev when the Pechenegs killed him in 972. Frontier forts constructed and military campaigns waged by Vladimir and his sons reduced the Pecheneg threat to Kievan Rus.

Shortly after Svyatoslav's death, his son Yaropolk became prince of Kiev. But conflict erupted between him and his brothers. The crisis prompted Vladimir to flee from Novgorod, the city he governed, and raise an army in Scandinavia. Upon his return in 980, he first engaged the prince of Polotsk, one of last non-Rurikid rulers over East Slavs. Victorious, Vladimir married the prince's daughter and added the prince's military retinue to his own army, with which he then defeated Yaropolk and seized the throne of Kiev. Vladimir's triumphs over his brothers, competing non-Rurikid rulers, and neighboring powers provided him and his heirs a monopoly over political power in the region.

Prince Vladimir also adopted Christianity for Kievan Rus. Although Christianity, Judaism, and Islam had long been known in these lands and Olga had personally converted to Christianity, the populace of Kievan Rus remained pagan. When Vladimir assumed the throne, he attempted to create a single pantheon of gods for his people, but soon abandoned that effort in favor of Christianity. Renouncing his numerous wives and consorts, he married Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil. The Patriarch of Constantinople appointed a metropolitan to organize the see of Kiev and all Rus, and in 988, Byzantine clergy baptized the population of Kiev in the Dnieper River.

After adopting Christianity, Vladimir apportioned his realm among his principal sons, sending each of them to his own princely seat. A bishop accompanied each prince. The lands ruled by Rurikid princes and subject to the Kievan Church constituted Kievan Rus.

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries Vladimir's descendants developed a dynastic political structure to administer their increasingly large and complex realm. There are, however, divergent characterizations of the state's political development during this period. One view contends that Kievan Rus reached its peak during the eleventh century. The next century witnessed a decline, marked by the emergence of powerful autonomous principalities and warfare among their princes. Kiev lost its central role, and Kievan Rus was disintegrating by the time of the Mongol invasion. An alternate view emphasizes the continued vitality of the city of Kiev and argues that Kievan Rus retained its integrity throughout the period. Although it became an increasingly complex state containing numerous principalities that engaged in political and economic competition, dynastic and ecclesiastic bonds provided cohesion among them. The city of Kiev remained its acknowledged and coveted political, economic, and ecclesiastic center.

The creation of an effective political structure proved to be an ongoing challenge for the Rurikids. During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, princely administration gradually replaced tribal allegiance and authority. As early as the reign of Olga, her officials began to replace tribal leaders. Vladimir assigned a particular region to each of his sons, to whom he also delegated responsibility for tax collection, protection of communication and trade routes, and for local defense and territorial expansion. Each prince maintained and commanded his own military force, which was supported by tax revenues, commercial fees, and booty seized in battle. He also had the authority and the means to hire supplementary forces.

When Vladimir died in 1015, however, his sons engaged in a power struggle that ended only after four of them had died and two others, Yaroslav and Mstislav, divided the realm between them. When Mstislav died (1036), Yaroslav assumed full control over Kievan Rus. Yaroslav adopted a law code known as the Russkaya Pravda, which with amendments remained in force throughout the Kievan Rus era.

He also attempted to bring order to dynastic relations. Before his death he issued a "Testament" in which he left Kiev to his eldest son Izyaslav. He assigned Chernigov to his son Svyatoslav, Pereyaslavl to Vsevolod, and lesser seats to his younger sons. He advised them all to heed their eldest brother as they had their father. The Testament is understood by scholars to have established a basis for the rota system of succession, which incorporated the principles of seniority among the princes, lateral succession through a generation, and dynastic possession of the realm of Kievan Rus. By assigning Kiev to the senior prince, it elevated that city to a position of centrality within the realm.

This dynastic system, by which each prince conducted relations with his immediate neighbors, provided an effective means of defending and expanding Kievan Rus. It also encouraged cooperation among the princes when they faced crises. Incursions by the Polovtsy (Kipchaks, Cumans), Turkic nomads who moved into the steppe and displaced the Pechenegs in the second half of the eleventh century, prompted concerted action among Princes Izyaslav, Svyatoslav, and Vsevolod in 1068. Although the Polovtsy were victorious, they retreated after another encounter with Svyatoslav's forces. With the exception of one frontier skirmish in 1071, they then refrained from attacking Rus for the next twenty years.

When the Polovtsy did renew hostilities in the 1090s, the Rurikids were engaged in intradynastic conflicts. Their ineffective defense allowed the Polovtsy to reach the environs of Kiev and burn the Monastery of the Caves, founded in the mid-eleventh century. But after the princes resolved their differences at a conference in 1097, their coalitions drove the Polovtsy back into the steppe and broke up the federation of Polovtsy tribes responsible for the aggression. These campaigns yielded comparatively peaceful relations for the next fifty years.

As the dynasty grew larger, however, its system of succession required revision. Confusion and recurrent controversies arose over the definition of seniority, the standards for eligibility, and the lands subject to lateral succession. In 1097, when the intradynastic wars became so severe that they interfered with the defense against the Polovtsy, a princely conference at Lyubech resolved that each principality in Kievan Rus would become the hereditary domain of a specific branch of the dynasty. The only exceptions were Kiev itself, which in 1113 reverted to the status of a dynastic possession, and Novgorod, which by 1136 asserted the right to select its own prince.

The settlement at Lyubech provided a basis for orderly succession to the Kievan throne for the next forty years. When Svyatopolk Izyaslavich died, his cousin Vladimir Vsevolodich Monomakh became prince of Kiev (r. 1113 - 1125). He was succeeded by his sons Mstislav (r. 1125 - 1132) and Yaropolk (r. 1132 - 1139). But the Lyubech agreement also acknowledged division of the dynasty into distinct branches and Kievan Rus into distinct principalities. The descendants of Svyatoslav ruled Chernigov. Galicia and Volynia, located southwest of Kiev, acquired the status of separate principalities in the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, respectively. During the twelfth century, Smolensk, located north of Kiev on the upper Dnieper river, and Rostov-Suzdal, northeast of Kiev, similarly emerged as powerful principalities. The northwestern portion of the realm was dominated by Novgorod, whose strength rested on its lucrative commercial relations with Scandinavian and German merchants of the Baltic as well as on its own extensive empire that stretched to the Ural mountains by the end of the eleventh century.

The changing political structure contributed to repeated dynastic conflicts over succession to the Kievan throne. Some princes became ineligible for the succession to Kiev and concentrated on developing their increasingly autonomous realms. But the heirs of Vladimir Monomakh, who became the princes of Volynia, Smolensk, and Rostov-Suzdal, as well as the princes of Chernigov, became embroiled in succession disputes, often triggered by attempts of younger members to bypass the elder generation and to reduce the number of princes eligible for the succession.

The greatest confrontations occurred after the death of Yaropolk Vladimirovich, who had attempted to arrange for his nephew to be his successor and had thereby aroused objections from his own younger brother Yuri Dolgoruky, the prince of Rostov-Suzdal. As a result of the discord among Monomakh's heirs, Vsevolod Olgovich of Chernigov was able to take the Kievan throne (r. 1139 - 1146) and regain a place in the Kievan succession cycle for his dynastic branch. After his death, the contest between Yuri Dolgoruky and his nephews resumed; it persisted until 1154, when Yuri finally ascended to the Kievan throne and restored the traditional order of succession.

An even more destructive conflict broke out after the death in 1167 of Rostislav Mstislavich, successor to his uncle Yuri. When Mstislav Izyaslavich, the prince of Volynia and a member of the next generation, attempted to seize the Kievan throne, a coalition of princes opposed him. Led by Yuri's son Andrei Bogolyubsky, it represented the senior generation of eligible princes, but also included the sons of the late Rostislav and the princes of Chernigov. The conflict culminated in 1169, when Andrei's forces evicted Mstislav Izyaslavich from Kiev and sacked the city. Andrei's brother Gleb became prince of Kiev.

Prince Andrei personified the growing tensions between the increasingly powerful principalities of Kievan Rus and the state's center, Kiev. As prince of Vladimir-Suzdal (Rostov-Suzdal), he concentrated on the development of Vladimir and challenged the primacy of Kiev. Nerl Andrei used his power and resources, however, to defend the principle of generational seniority in the succession to Kiev. Nevertheless, after Gleb died in 1171, Andrei's coalition failed to secure the throne for another of his brothers. A prince of the Chernigov line, Svyatoslav Vsevolodich (r. 1173 - 1194), occupied the Kievan throne and brought dynastic peace.

By the turn of the century, eligibility for the Kievan throne was confined to three dynastic lines: the princes of Volynia, Smolensk, and Chernigov. Because the opponents were frequently of the same generation as well as sons of former grand princes, dynastic traditions of succession offered little guidance for determining which prince had seniority. By the mid-1230s, princes of Chernigov and Smolensk were locked in a prolonged conflict that had serious consequences. During the hostilities Kiev was sacked two more times, in 1203 and 1235. The strife revealed the divergence between the southern and western principalities, which were deeply enmeshed in the conflicts over Kiev, and those of the northeast, which were relatively indifferent to them. Intradynastic conflict, compounded by the lack of cohesion among the components of Kievan Rus, undermined the integrity of the realm. Kievan Rus was left without effective defenses before the Mongol invasion.

When the state of Kievan Rus was forming, its populace consisted primarily of rural agriculturalists who cultivated cereal grains as well as peas, lentils, flax, and hemp in natural forest clearings or in those they created by the slash-and-burn method. They supplemented these products by fishing, hunting, and gathering fruits, berries, nuts, mushrooms, honey, and other natural products in the forests around their villages.

Commerce, however, provided the economic foundation for Kievan Rus. The tenth-century Rurikid princes, accompanied by their military retinues, made annual rounds among their subjects and collected tribute. Igor met his death in 945 during such an excursion, when he and his men attempted to take more than the standard payment from the Drevlyane. After collecting the tribute of fur pelts, honey, and wax, the Kievan princes loaded their goods and captives in boats, also supplied by the local population, and made their way down the Dnieper River to the Byzantine market of Cherson. Oleg in 907 and Igor, less successfully, in 944 conducted military campaigns against Constantinople. The resulting treaties allowed the Rus to trade not only at Cherson, but also at Constantinople, where they had access to goods from virtually every corner of the known world. From their vantage point at Kiev the Rurikid princes controlled all traffic moving from towns to their north toward the Black Sea and its adjacent markets.

The Dnieper River route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" led back northward to Novgorod, which controlled commercial traffic with traders from the Baltic Sea. From Novgorod commercial goods also were carried eastward along the upper Volga River through the region of Rostov-Suzdal to Bulgar. At this market center on the mid-Volga River, which formed a nexus between the Rus and the markets of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, the Rus exchanged their goods for oriental silver coins or dirhams (until the early eleventh century) and luxury goods including silks, glassware, and fine pottery.

The establishment of Rurikid political dominance contributed to changes in the social composition of the region. To the agricultural peasant population were added the princes themselves, their military retainers, servants, and slaves. The introduction of Christianity by Prince Vladimir brought a layer of clergy to the social mix. It also transformed the cultural face of Kievan Rus, especially in its urban centers. In Kiev Vladimir constructed the Church of the Holy Virgin (also known as the Church of the Tithe), built of stone and flanked by two other palatial structures. The ensemble formed the centerpiece of "Vladimir's city," which was surrounded by new fortifications. Yaroslav expanded "Vladimir's city" by building new fortifications that encompassed the battlefield on which he defeated the Pechenegs in 1036. Set in the southern wall was the Golden Gate of Kiev. Within the protected area Vladimir constructed a new complex of churches and palaces, the most imposing of which was the masonry Cathedral of St. Sophia, which was the church of the metropolitan and became the symbolic center of Christianity in Kievan.

The introduction of Christianity met resistance in some parts of Kievan Rus. In Novgorod a popular uprising took place when representatives of the new church threw the idol of the god Perun into the Volkhov River. But Novgorod's landscape was also quickly altered by the construction of wooden churches and, in the middle of the eleventh century, by its own stone Cathedral of St. Sophia. In Chernigov Prince Mstislav constructed the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior in 1035.

By agreement with the Rurikids the church became legally responsible for a range of social practices and family affairs, including birth, marriage, and death. Ecclesiastical courts had jurisdiction over church personnel and were charged with enforcing Christian norms and rituals in the larger community. Although the church received revenue from its courts, the clergy were only partially successful in their efforts to convince the populace to abandon pagan customs. But to the degree that they were accepted, Christian social and cultural standards provided a common identity for the diverse tribes comprising Kievan Rus society.

The spread of Christianity and the associated construction projects intensified and broadened commercial relations between Kiev and Byzantium. Kiev also attracted Byzantine artists and artisans, who designed and decorated the early Rus churches and taught their techniques and skills to local apprentices. Kiev correspondingly became the center of craft production in Kievan Rus during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

While architectural design and the decorative arts of mosaics, frescoes, and icon painting were the most visible aspects of the Christian cultural transformation, Kievan Rus also received chronicles, saints' lives, sermons, and other literature from the Greeks. The outstanding literary works from this era were the Primary Chronicle or Tale of Bygone Years, compiled by monks of the Monastery of the Caves, and the "Sermon on Law and Grace," composed (c. 1050) by Metropolitan Hilarion, the first native of Kievan Rus to head the church.

During the twelfth century, despite the emergence of competing political centers within Kievan Rus and repeated sacks of it (1169, 1203, 1235), the city of Kiev continued to thrive economically. Its diverse population, which is estimated to have reached between 36,000 and 50,000 persons by the end of the twelfth century, included princes, soldiers, clergy, merchants, artisans, unskilled workers, and slaves. Its expanding handicraft sector produced glassware, glazed pottery, jewelry, religious items, and other goods that were exported throughout the lands of Rus. Kiev also remained a center of foreign commerce, and increasingly reexported imported goods, exemplified by Byzantine amphorae used as containers for oil and wine, to other Rus towns as well.

The proliferation of political centers within Kievan Rus was accompanied by a diffusion of the economic dynamism and increasing social complexity that characterized Kiev. Novgorod's economy also continued to be centered on its trade with the Baltic region and with Bulgar. By the twelfth century artisans in Novgorod were also engaging in new crafts, such as enameling and fresco painting. Novgorod's flourishing economy supported a population of twenty to thirty thousand by the early thirteenth century. Volynia and Galicia, Rostov-Suzdal, and Smolensk, whose princes vied politically and military for Kiev, gained their economic vitality from their locations on trade routes. The construction of the masonry Church of the Mother of God in Smolensk (1136 - 1137) and of the Cathedral of the Dormition (1158) and the Golden Gate in Vladimir reflected the wealth concentrated in these centers. Andrei Bogolyubsky also constructed his own palace complex of Bogolyubovo outside Vladimir and celebrated a victory over the Volga Bulgars in 1165 by building the Church of the Intercession nearby on the Nerl River. In each of these principalities the princes' boyars, officials, and retainers were forming local, landowning aristocracies and were also becoming consumers of luxury items produced abroad, in Kiev, and in their own towns.

In 1223 the armies of Chingis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire, first reached the steppe south of Kievan Rus. At the Battle of Kalka they defeated a combined force of Polovtsy and Rus drawn from Kiev, Chernigov, and Volynia. The Mongols returned in 1236, when they attacked Bulgar. In 1237 - 1238 they mounted an offensive against Ryazan and then Vladimir-Suzdal. In 1239 they devastated the southern towns of Pereyaslavl and Chernigov, and in 1240 conquered Kiev.

The state of Kievan Rus is considered to have collapsed with the fall of Kiev. But the Mongols went on to subordinate Galicia and Volynia before invading both Hungary and Poland. In the aftermath of their conquest, the invaders settled in the vicinity of the lower Volga River, forming the portion of the Mongol Empire commonly known as the Golden Horde. Surviving Rurikid princes made their way to the horde to pay homage to the Mongol khan. With the exception of Prince Michael of Chernigov, who was executed, the khan confirmed each of the princes as the ruler in his respective principality. He thus confirmed the disintegration of Kievan Rus.

Bibliography

Chronicle of Novgorod, 1016 - 1471, tr. Robert Michell and Nevill Forbes. (1914). London: Royal Historical Society.

Dimnik, Martin. (1994). The Dynasty of Chernigov 1054 - 1146. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.

Fennell, John. (1983). The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200 - 1304. London: Longman.

Franklin, Simon, and Shepard, Jonathan. (1996). The Emergence of Rus 750 - 1200. London: Longman.

Kaiser, Daniel H. (1980) The Growth of Law in Medieval Russia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Martin, Janet. (1995). Medieval Russia 980 - 1584. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Poppe, Andrzej. (1982). The Rise of Christian Russia. London: Variorum Reprints.

The Russian Primary Chronicle, Laurentian Text, tr. Samuel Hazzard Cross and Olgerd P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor.(1953). Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America.

Shchapov, Yaroslav Nikolaevich. (1993). State and Church in Early Russia, Tenth - Thirteenth Centuries. New Rochelle, NY: Aristide D. Caratzas.

Vernadsky, George. (1948). Kievan Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

—JANET MARTIN

Русь Rus' ← 880s–1132 →   →   → Coat of arms Kievan Rus (green), c. 1000. Capital Kiev Language(s) Old East Slavic Religion Paganism Orthodox Christianity Government Monarchy Grand Prince of Kiev  - 882–912 Oleg Legislature Veche History  - Established 880s  - Disestablished 1132 Currency Kuna, grivna, nogata

Kievan Rus' (Belarusian: Кіеўская Русь, Russian: Ки́евская Русь, Ukrainian: Ки́ївська Русь, romanised: Kievskaya Rus’, IPA: [rusʲ]), usually written simply Kievan Rus and sometimes Kyivan Rus', was a medieval state which existed from approximately 880 to the middle of the 12th century. Founded by the Scandinavian traders (Varangians) called "Rus'" and centered in the city of Kiev (now the capital of Ukraine), Rus' polity is considered an early predecessor of three modern East Slavic nations: Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians.^[1] The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav I the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Christianity and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda. The early leaders of Rus' were most likely a Scandinavian warrior-elite that ruled a majority of Slavic subjects.^[2] Scandinavians continued to remain in control until at least the mid-11th century.^[3]

Contents 1 Early history 2 Golden age of Kiev 3 The rise of regional centers 3.1 Novgorod Republic 3.2 Northeast 3.3 Southwest 4 Reasons for decline and fall 5 Historical assessment 6 See also 7 Notes 8 Further reading 9 References 10 External links

Early history

Map showing the major Rus' trade routes, the Volga trade route (in red) and the Trade Route from the Varangians to the Greeks (in purple). Other trade routes of the 8th–11th centuries shown in orange

The Rus' people probably dominated what is now northwestern Russia since the 8th century. In the early ninth they became loosely organized under the Rus' Khaganate, which may be regarded as a predecessor state to the Kievan Rus'.^[4] According to the Primary Chronicle, the earliest chronicle of Kievan Rus′, a Varangian (Viking) named Rurik first established himself in Novgorod, located in modern Russia (he was selected as common ruler by several Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes) in about 860 before moving south and extending his authority to Kiev, the capital of modern day Ukraine. The chronicle cites him as the progenitor of the Rurik Dynasty. The Primary Chronicle says:

In the year 6367 (859): Varangians from over the sea had tribute from Chuds, Slavs, Merias, Veses, Krivichs...

In the year 6370 (862): [They] [d]rove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them tribute, and set out to govern themselves. But there was no law among them, and tribe rose against tribe. Discord thus ensued among them, and they began to war one against the other. They said to themselves, "Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to custom." Thus they went overseas to the Varangians, to the Rus. These particular Varangians were called Rus, just as some are called Swedes, and others Normans and Angles, and still others Goths [Gotlanders], for they were thus named. The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs and the Ves then said to the Rus, "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come reign as princes, rule over us". Three brothers, with their kinfolk, volunteered. They took with them all the Rus and came.

Map of Kievan Rus' right before Sviatoslav's campaigns, mid 10th century

These Varangians first settled in Ladoga, then moved southward to Novgorod eventually reaching Kiev, finally putting an end to the Khazars' collecting tribute from Kievans. The so-called Kievan Rus was founded by prince Oleg (Helgu in Khazarian records) about 880. During the next 35 years, Oleg and his warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic and Finnic tribes. In 907, Oleg led an attack against Constantinople, and in 911 he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire as an equal partner. The new Kievan state prospered because it had an abundant supply of furs, 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.

Given the postulated pro-Scandinavian bias of the Rus' Primary Chronicle, some Slavic historians have debated the role of the Varangians in the establishment of Kievan Rus′ (see Rus′). By the reign of Sviatoslav I of Kiev (r. 945–972) Kievan rulers had adopted Slavic religion and names, but their druzhina still consisted primarily of Scandinavians. Sviatoslav's military conquests were astonishing: he dealt lethal blows to two of his strongest neighbours, Khazaria and the Bulgarian Empire, both of which collapsed soon after his raids.

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 (like the 920 war on the Pechenegs by Igor of Kiev reported in the Primary Chronicle), but there were also temporary military alliances (e.g. 943 Byzantine campaign by Igor).^[5] In 968, the Pechenegs attacked and then besieged the city of Kiev.^[6]

Golden age of Kiev

Novgorod merchants sailing overseas, by Ivan Bilibin.

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 theoretically subordinate relatives ruled in 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 and after defeating his half-brother Yaropolk in 980. As Prince of Kiev, Vladimir's most notable achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus′, a process that began in 988. The annals of Rus¹ state 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 use of alcohol and Judiasm because the god of the Jews had permitted them 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. ^[7]

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 Dnieper river. 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 Russian 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", also struggled for power with his brothers. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, 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 (Justice of Rus′); 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.

Kievan Rus in 1015–1113 with division into principalities (in Russian)

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 Scandinavian 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 West European feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchants, artisans, and laborers 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 small stratum of slaves. More important was a class of tribute-paying peasants, who owed labor duty to the princes. The widespread personal serfdom characteristic of Western Europe did not exist in Kievan Rus′.

The rise of regional centers

Administering justice in Kievan Rus, by Ivan Bilibin.

Kievan Rus' was not able to maintain its position as a powerful and prosperous state, in part because of the amalgamation of disparate lands under the control of a ruling clan. As the members of that clan became more numerous, they identified themselves with regional interests rather than with the larger patrimony. Thus, the princes fought among themselves, frequently forming alliances with outside groups such as the Polovtsians, Poles, and Hungarians. During the years from 1054 to 1224 no fewer than 64 principalities had a more or less ephemeral existence, 293 princes put forward succession claims, and their disputes led to 83 civil wars^{[citation needed]}.

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. As it declined, Kievan Rus′ splintered into many principalities and several large regional centers: Chernigov (modern Chernihiv), Halych(Galich), Novgorod, Pereyaslav, Polotsk, Smolensk, and Vladimir-Suzdal. The inhabitants of those regional centers then evolved into three nationalities: Ukrainians in the southeast and southwest, that is to say central Rus', Belarusians in the northwest, and Russians in the north and northeast.

Novgorod Republic

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, mid-11th century

Main article: Republic of Novgorod

In the north, the Republic of Novgorod prospered as part of Kievan Rus' because it controlled trade routes from the Volga River to the Baltic Sea. 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, a sign of increased importance and political independence. In its political structure and mercantile activities, Novgorod resembled the north European towns of the Hanseatic League, the prosperous alliance that dominated the commercial activity of the Baltic region between the 13th century and the 17th century, more than the other principalities of Kievan Rus'.

Northeast

Main article: Vladimir-Suzdal

In the northeast, Slavs colonized the territory that eventually became Muscovy by subjugating and merging with the Finno-Ugric tribes already occupying the area. The city of Rostov was the oldest center of the northeast, but it was supplanted first by Suzdal′ and then by the city of Vladimir, which become the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal′. There was recorded a large wave of migrations from Kiev region northward, to escape continuing excursions of the Turkic nomads from the "Wild Steppe". As the southern lands were being depopulated and more boyars, nobles, artisans arrived to the court at Vladimir, the combined principality of Vladimir-Suzdal′ asserted itself as a major power in Kievan Rus′. In 1169 Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy of Vladimir-Suzdal′ dealt a severe blow to the waning power of Kievan Rus′ when his armies 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′. Thus, political power began to drift away from Kiev in the second half of the 12th century. In 1299, in the wake of the Mongol invasion, the metropolitan moved from Kiev to the city of Vladimir, and Vladimir-Suzdal′ replaced Kiev as a religious center for the northern regions.

Southwest

Illumination of Theotokos from the Gertrude Psalter, supposedly executed by Galician masters in the 1080s.

To the southwest, the principality of Galich had developed trade relations with its Polish, Hungarian, and Lithuanian neighbors 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.

Reasons for decline and fall

The combination of events brought on the decline of Rus.

As mentioned earlier the rise of the regional centres played a great role. Unconventional power succession system where the power was transferred from father to son (not always the eldest, usually the favorite one) to brother to son, bred constant hatred and rivalry within the royal family. Brutal killing of siblings and relatives was a very common way to obtain power.

The decline of Constantinople — a main trading partner of Kiev Rus, played a tremendous role. 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. Other routes that went through Kiev were not remotely as significant. The other major Volga Trade Route laid far to the east and north of Kiev and later contributed to the rise of Moscow.

Moving of the Orthodox Metropolitan See from Kiev to Vladimir significantly undermined Kiev authority. The Mongol Invasion finished off all hopes for reintegration.

Historical assessment

Kievan Rus', although sparsely populated compared to Western Europe [1], was not only the largest contemporary European state in terms of area but also culturally advanced.^[8] Literacy in Kiev, Novgorod and other large cities was high.^[9][10] As birch bark documents attest, they exchanged love letters and prepared cheat sheets for schools. Novgorod had a sewage system^[11] 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.^[12] Certain inalienable rights were accorded to women, such as property and inheritance rights.^[13][14][15]

The field of Igor Svyatoslavich's battle with the Polovtsy, by Viktor Vasnetsov.

The economic development of Kievan Rus may be translated into demographic statistics. Around 1200, Kiev had a population of 50,000 people, Novgorod and Chernihiv both had around 30,000 people.^[16] Constantinople had population of about 400,000 people around 1180.^[17] The Soviet scholar Mikhail Tikhomirov calculated that Kievan Rus' on the eve of the Mongol invasion had around 300 urban centers.^[18]

Kievan Rus' also played an important genealogical role in European politics. Yaroslav 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.^[19][20]

Unsurprisingly, Kievan Rus' left a powerful legacy. The leader of the Rurikid Dynasty united a large territory inhabited by East Slavs into an important, albeit unstable, state. After Vladimir accepted Eastern Orthodoxy, Kievan Rus' came together under a church structure and developed a Byzantine-Slavic synthesis in culture, statecraft, and the arts.

In the Western periphery, the Kievan Rus' legacy was carried for two more centuries 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. On the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus', those traditions were adapted to form the legacy that gradually gravitated towards the Moscow rulers, eventually leading to modern Russian statehood. Thus, modern Russia can trace a lineage to historic Rus' via Vladimir-Suzdal, Muscovy, and the Russian Empire. In the very north, the Novgorod and Pskov Feudal Republics carried on a separate and less autocratic version of Rus' legacy into the 16th century until they were absorbed by Muscovite Russia.

See also

History of East Slavs
This article is part of a series
Middle Ages
Early East Slavs
Khazars
Rus' Khaganate
Kievan Rus'
Vladimir-Suzdal
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Novgorod Republic
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Notes

1. ^ "Kievan Rus". 2001-2005. http://www.bartleby.com/65/ki/KievanRu.html. 
2. ^ Robin Milner-Gulland, The Russians, Blackwell Publishing, 1999, ISBN 0631218491, 9780631218494, p. 45
3. ^ Michael Psellus: Chronographia, ed. E. Sewter, (Yale University Press, 1953), 91. and R. Jenkins, Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries AD 610-1071 (Toronto 1987) p. 307
4. ^ See, e.g., Franklin and Shepard 33–36; Jones 249-250; Christian 340-341 Pritsak passim for additional sources, see Rus' Khaganate.
5. ^ Ibn Haukal describes the Pechenegs as the long-standing allies of the Rus, whom they invariably accompanied during the 10th century Caspian expeditions.
6. ^ The Pechenegs, History and Warfare, Steven Lowe and Dmitriy V. Ryaboy
7. ^ Janet Martin, Medieval Russia, 980-1584, (Cambridge, 1995), p. 7
8. ^ "The adoption of Christianity by Vladimir... was followed by commerce with the Eastern Empire. In its wake came Byzantine art and culture. And in the course of the next century what is now Southeastern Russia became more advanced in civilization than any western European State of the period, for Russia came in for a share of Byzantine culture, then vastly superior to the rudeness of Western nations." Sherman, Charles Phineas (1917). "Russia". Roman Law in the Modern World. Boston: The Boston Book Company,. pp. 191. http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=OCLC00824429&id=zh6ksO3bn0YC&pg=PA191&lpg=PA191&dq=advanced+culture+OR+cultural+Kiev+novgorod&vq=%22Russia+became+more+advanced++in+civilization+than+any+western+European+State+of+the+period%22. 
9. ^ Tikhomirov, Mikhail Nikolaevich (1956). "Literacy among the citi dwellers" (in Russian). Drevnerusskie goroda (Cities of Ancient Rus). Moscow. pp. 261. http://www.archeologia.ru/Library/Book/3bcf6c93aa36/page261. 
10. ^ Vernadsky, George (1973). "Russian Civilization in the Kievan Period: Education". Kievan Russia. Yale University Press. pp. 426. ISBN 0300016476. "It is to the credit of Vladimir and his advisors they built not only churches but schools as well. This compulsory baptism was followed by compulsory education... Schools were thus founded not only in Kiev but also in provincial cities. From the "Life of St. Feodosi" we know that a school existed in Kursk around the year of 1023. By the time of Yaroslav's reign (1019-54), education had struck roots and its benefits were apparent. Around 1030 Iaroslav founded a divinity school in Novgorod for three hundred children of both laymen and clergy to be instructed in "book-learning". As a general measure he made the parish priests to "teach the people."" 
11. ^ Miklashevsky, N.; and others (2000). "Istoriya vodoprovoda v Rossii (History of water-supply in Russia" (in Russian). Chistaya voda (Clean water). Saint Petersburg, Russia: ?. pp. 240. ISBN 5-8206-0114-0. http://ecoflash.narod.ru/likbez_8.htm. 
12. ^ "The most notable aspect of the criminal provisions was that punishments took the form of seizure of property, banishment, or, more often, payment of a fine. Even murder and other severe crimes (arson, organized horse thieving, robbery) were settled by monetary fines. Although the death penalty had been introduced by Vladimir the Great, it too was soon replaced by fines." Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine, p. 90, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-0830-5.
13. ^ Tikhomirov, Mikhail Nikolaevich (1953) (in Russian). Пособие для изучения Русской Правды (2nd ed.). Moscow: Издание Московского университета. pp. 190. http://www.hist.msu.ru/ER/Etext/RP/. 
14. ^ Janet Martin, Medieval Russia, 980-1584, (Cambridge, 1995), p. 72
15. ^ Vernadsky, George (1973). "Social organization: Woman". Kievan Russia. Yale University Press. pp. 426. ISBN 0300016476. 
16. ^ Janet Martin, Medieval Russia, 980-1584, (Cambridge, 1995), p. 61
17. ^ J. Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople page 144
18. ^ Tikhomirov, Mikhail Nikolaevich (1956). "The origin of Russian cities" (in Russian). Drevnerusskie goroda (Cities of Ancient Rus). Moscow. pp. 36, 39, 43. http://www.archeologia.ru/Library/Book/3bcf6c93aa36/page9. 
19. ^ "In medieval Europe, a mark of a dynasty's prestige and power was the willingness with which other leading dynasties entered into matrimonial relations with it. Measured by this standard, Iaroslav's prestige must have been great indeed... . Little wonder that Iaroslav is often dubbed by historians as 'the father-in-law of Europe.'" -(Subtelny, Orest (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 35. ISBN 0-8020-5808-6. )
20. ^ "By means of these marital ties, Kievan Rus’ became well known throughout Europe." —Magocsi, Paul Robert (1996). A History of Ukraine, p. 76, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 0-8020-0830-5.

Further reading

• Christian, David. 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, Dimitri, The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe 500–1453. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1971. ISBN 0-297-00343-7
• Pritsak, Omeljan. The Origin of Rus'. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.
• Stang, Håkon. The Naming of Russia. Meddelelser, Nr. 77. Oslo: University of Oslo Slavisk-baltisk Avelding, 1996.

References

•  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Library of Congress Country Studies. - Russia

External links

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Look up Kievan Rus in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Graphic History of Kievan Rus from c. 800 to 988
• Rus’, Encyclopedia of Ukraine
• Ancient Rus: trade and crafts

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