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Kievan Rus': the story on HearLore | HearLore
— Ch. 1 · Origins And Varangian Foundations —
Kievan Rus'.
~9 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
In 862, various East Slavic tribes rebelled against the Varangians and drove them back beyond the sea. They refused to pay further tribute and decided to govern themselves. This event is recorded in the Primary Chronicle, a text produced by Orthodox priests in the 12th century. Modern scholars find this narrative unlikely, suggesting it was created to explain how Vikings conquered lands along the Varangian route so easily. The three brothers Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor supposedly established themselves in Novgorod, Beloozero, and Izborsk respectively. Two of the brothers died quickly, leaving Rurik as the sole ruler of the territory. He became the progenitor of the Rurik dynasty that would rule for centuries.
The debate over whether the Rus were originally Norse or Slavs has persisted for generations. Some historians argue that if the proto-Rus were indeed originally Norse, they were quickly nativized. They adopted Slavic languages and other cultural practices within a few decades. A historian named F. Donald Logan summarized this position by stating that in 839, the Rus were Swedes, but by 1043, the Rus were Slavs. Archaeological evidence shows extensive Scandinavian settlement across Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. At the same time, there are clear Slavic influences found within the Swedish language itself.
Ahmad ibn Fadlan, an Arab traveler during the 10th century, provided one of the earliest written descriptions of the people known as the Rus. He wrote that they were tall like date palms with blond hair and ruddy skin. He noted that men among them wore garments covering only half their bodies while leaving one hand free. Liutprand of Cremona, who served twice as an envoy to the Byzantine court between 949 and 968, identified the Russi directly with the Norse. He called them Norsemen by another name. Leo the Deacon, a 10th-century Byzantine historian, referred to the Rus as Scythians and observed that they tended to adopt Greek rituals and customs.
Trade Routes And Economic Prosperity
The new Kievan state prospered due to its abundant supply of furs, beeswax, honey, and slaves for export. It controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe that connected the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. In the north, Novgorod served as a commercial link between the Baltic Sea and the Volga trade route. This route extended to the lands of the Volga Bulgars, the Khazars, and across the Caspian Sea as far as Baghdad. Merchants gained access to markets and products from Central Asia and the Middle East.
Trade from the Baltic also moved south on a network of rivers and short portages along the Dnieper known as the Route from the Varangians to the Greeks. This path continued to the Black Sea and on to Constantinople. Kiev was a central outpost along this Dnieper route and acted as a hub with the east-west overland trade route between the Khazars and the Germanic lands of Central Europe. These commercial connections enriched Rus merchants and princes. They funded military forces and the construction of churches, palaces, fortifications, and further towns.
Demand for luxury goods fostered the production of expensive jewelry and religious wares allowing their export. An advanced credit and money-lending system may have been in place during this period. Glassware found at over 30 sites ranging from Suzdal, Drutsk, and Beloozero showed that a substantial majority was manufactured in Kiev. Kiev held a monopoly on glassware products up until the early- to mid-12th century when it lost its monopoly to other towns in Rus. Byzantine amphorae, wine, and olive oil have been found along the middle Dnieper suggesting active trade between Kiev and Byzantium.
Christianization And Cultural Synthesis
Vladimir the Great ordered the population of Kiev to be baptised in August 988 after he himself was baptised in 987. He had sent emissaries to different parts of Europe including Christians of the Latin Church, Jews, and Muslims before arriving in Constantinople. His advisors were astounded by the beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the liturgical service held there. They convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Byzantine Rite was the best choice of all. Upon his arrival home, he made a journey to Constantinople and arranged to marry Princess Anna, the sister of Byzantine emperor Basil II.
Adherence to the Eastern Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences for the region. The church maintained a liturgy written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from Greek produced for the Slavic peoples. This literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs without requiring them to learn Greek. It introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy, science, and historiography. Following the Great Schism of 1054, the Kievan church eventually split to follow the Eastern Orthodox tradition.
The greatest resistance against Christianisation appears to have occurred in northern towns including Novgorod, Suzdal, and Belozersk. Before this shift, some early Kievan princes like Askold and Dir and Olga of Kiev reportedly converted to Christianity while others like Oleg, Igor, and Sviatoslav remained pagans. Vladimir had set idols of Norse, Slav, Finn, and Iranian gods on a hilltop in Kiev in an attempt to create a single pantheon for his people before abandoning it.
Legal Codes And Social Structure
Yaroslav the Wise promulgated the first law code of Kievan Rus known as the Russkaya Pravda shortly after his death. His sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra monastery system. Yaroslav also built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod. He patronized local clergy and monasticism and is said to have founded a school system. The Russkaya Pravda confined punishments to fines and generally did not use capital punishment. Certain rights were accorded to women such as property and inheritance rights.
From the 11th to 13th centuries the principalities were divided into volosts with their center usually called a pryhorod or Gord a fortified settlement. A volost consisted of several vervs or hromadas which functioned as communes or communities. A local official was called a volostel or starosta. Yaroslav the Wise assigned priority to the major principalities to reduce familial conflict over succession. He designated specific territories for his sons including the Principality of Kiev, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Smolensk, and Volhynia.
The East Slavic lands were originally divided into princely domains called zemlias or volosts from a term meaning power or government. A smaller clan-sized unit was called a verv or pogost headed by a kopa or viche. By the early 9th century bands of Scandinavian adventurers known as Varangians started plundering various villages in the region. They later extracted tribute in exchange for protection against pillaging by other Varangians. Over time these relationships evolved into more permanent political structures where Rus lords became princes and the Slavic populace became subjects.
Dynastic Succession And Internal Conflict
In the centuries that followed the state's foundation Rurik's descendants shared power over Kievan Rus. The means by which royal power was transferred from one ruler to the next remains unclear though historian Paul Magocsi noted scholars have debated what the actual system of succession was. According to historian Nancy Shields Kollmann the rota system was used with succession moving 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 minor districts before progressing to more lucrative principalities.
Whatever the case, according to professor Ivan Katchanovski no adequate system of succession to the Kievan throne was developed after the death of Yaroslav the Wise commencing a process of gradual disintegration. The unconventional power succession system fomented constant hatred and rivalry within the royal family. Familicide was frequently deployed to obtain power particularly during the time of the Yaroslavichi when the established succession system was skipped. This created major squabbles between the Olegovichi from Chernigov, the Monomakhovichi from Pereyaslavl, the Izyaslavichi from Turov-Volhynia, and the Polotsk Princes.
The position of the grand prince of Kiev was weakened by the growing influence of regional clans. Three of Yaroslav's sons who 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. By 1130 all descendants of Vseslav the Seer had been exiled to the Byzantine Empire by Mstislav the Great. The most fierce resistance to the Monomakhs was posed by the Olegovichi when the izgoi Vsevolod II managed to become the Grand Prince of Kiev.
Mongol Invasion And Final Collapse
The Mongol Empire invaded Kievan Rus in the 13th century devastating numerous cities including Ryazan Kolomna Moscow Vladimir and Kiev. The siege of Kiev in 1240 by the Mongols is generally understood as the end of Kievan Rus. Batu Khan went on to subjugate Galicia and Volhynia raid Poland and Hungary and founded the Golden Horde at Sarai in 1242. The conquests mostly halted due to a succession crisis following khan Ogedei's death leading Batu to return to Mongolia to select the clan's next overlord.
Just prior to the Mongol invasion Kievan Rus had been a relatively prosperous region with international trade and skilled artisans flourishing while farms produced enough to feed the urban population. After the invasion of the late 1230s the economy shattered and its population were either slaughtered or sold into slavery. Skilled laborers and artisans were sent to the Mongol steppe regions. On the southwestern periphery Kievan Rus was succeeded by the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia which later fell to the Gediminids.
On the north-eastern periphery traditions were adapted in the Vladimir-Suzdal principality that gradually gravitated towards Moscow. To the very north the Novgorod and Pskov feudal republics were less autocratic than Vladimir-Suzdal-Moscow until they were absorbed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. Modern historians from Belarus Russia and Ukraine alike consider Kievan Rus the first period of their modern countries' histories.
Modern Nationalist Interpretations
The modern nations of Belarus Russia and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus as their cultural ancestor with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it. The name Kievan Rus was coined by Russian historians in the 19th century to describe the period when Kiev was preeminent. In English the term was introduced in the early 20th century when it was found in the 1913 English translation of Vasily Klyuchevsky's A History of Russia. This was done to distinguish the early polity from successor states which were also named Rus.
This often unfruitful debate over origins has periodically devolved into competing nationalist narratives being promoted directly by various government bodies in a number of states. This was seen in the Stalinist period when Soviet historiography sought to distance the Rus from any connection to Germanic tribes. They aimed to dispel Nazi propaganda claiming the Russian state owed its existence and origins to supposedly racially superior Norse tribes. More recently Anglophone scholarship has analyzed renewed efforts to use this debate to create ethno-nationalist foundation stories.
Serhii Plokhy proposed to denationalize Kievan Rus arguing for separating it as a multi-ethnic state from the national histories of Russia Ukraine and Belarus. He applied this approach to both the word Rus and the concept of the Rus Land. According to Halperin Plokhy's approach does not invalidate analysis of rival claims by Muscovy Lithuania or Ukraine to the Kievan inheritance but merely relegates such pretensions entirely to the realm of ideology.
Kievan Rus began in 862 when East Slavic tribes rebelled against Varangians. The state ended with the siege of Kiev by the Mongols on the 1st of September 1240.
Who founded Kievan Rus according to the Primary Chronicle?
The three brothers Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor supposedly established themselves in Novgorod, Beloozero, and Izborsk respectively. Rurik became the sole ruler after his two brothers died quickly.
What was the religious conversion date for Vladimir the Great?
Vladimir the Great ordered the population of Kiev to be baptised in August 988 after he himself was baptised in 987. He arranged to marry Princess Anna, the sister of Byzantine emperor Basil II, following this decision.
Which law code did Yaroslav the Wise promulgate?
Yaroslav the Wise promulgated the first law code of Kievan Rus known as the Russkaya Pravda shortly after his death. This legal document confined punishments to fines and generally did not use capital punishment.
When did the Mongol Empire invade Kievan Rus?
The Mongol Empire invaded Kievan Rus in the 13th century devastating numerous cities including Ryazan Kolomna Moscow Vladimir and Kiev. The siege of Kiev occurred on the 6th of December 1240 which is generally understood as the end of Kievan Rus.