(Adapted  from  World  History:  Human  Legacy  by  Susan  Ramirez,  et  al.)        .  The  Rus  and  Kiev  For  thousands  of  years,  hunter-­‐gatherers,  steppe  nomads,  and  farmers  managed  to  make  a  living  in  the  sometimes  harsh  climate  of  the  lands  we  now  call  Ukraine  and  Russia.  Among  the  people  who  occupied  the  plains  were  the  Slavs,  who  originated  in  the  area  of  Eastern  Europe  that  is  today  Poland  and  Ukraine.  They  do  not  enter  the  written  historical  record,  however,  until  the  800s  CE.  The  history  of  the  Slavs  is  told  in  The  Russian  Primary  Chronicle,  written  during  the  1100s.  According  to  this  account,  during  the  mid-­‐800s,  the  Slavs  along  the  Dnieper  (NEE-­‐puhr)  River  were  fighting  among  themselves  and  asked  for  help  from  northern  Europeans  called  the  Rus.  While  there  is  an  ongoing  debate  as  who  the  Rus  really  were,  most  historians  identify  them  as  a  Viking  tribe  from  Sweden  that,  over  time,  became  fully  assimilated  among  the  majority  Slavic  population.    PRIMARY  SOURCE  “‘Our  whole  land  is  great  and  rich,  but  there  is  no  order  in  it.  Come  to  rule  and  reign  over  us.’  They  thus  selected  three  brothers,  with  their  kinsfolk,  who  took  with  them  all  the  Rus,  and  migrated.”  —The  Russian  Primary  Chronicle      The  oldest  of  the  three  brothers,  Rurik,  took  Novgorod,  a  trading  center,  and  brought  order  to  the  Slavs  there.  In  882  Rurik’s  successor,  Oleg,  ventured  farther  south  to  a  town  called  Kiev.  He  united  the  whole  region  and  ruled  over  it.  That  state  came  to  be  called  Kiev  after  the  town  on  the  Dnieper.  Oleg  wanted  to  extend  Kiev  to  the  south,  and  in  907  he  successfully  attacked  Constantinople.  Legend  claims  that  he  nailed  his  shield  to  the  city  gates  to  celebrate  his  victory.  That  victory  enabled  Oleg  to  demand  an  

advantageous  trade  agreement.  The  agreement  was  the  beginning  of  a  close  connection  between  the  Byzantine  Empire  and  the  Russian  people,  for  whom  Kiev  became  an  important  center  of  trade.    Christianity  Among  the  Slavs:  Cyril  and  Methodius  Warfare  and  trade  were  not  the  only  ways  in  which  the  Byzantine  Empire  affected  Russia.  Christianity  spread  to  Russia  from  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Before  Rurik  and  Oleg  arrived  in  Russia,  the  Slavs  practiced  a  native  religion.  That  belief  system  was  based  on  nature  and  had  many  gods.  In  863  a  churchman  in  Constantinople  sent  two  Greek  monks  to  Moravia  (now  in  the  Czech  Republic)  to  convert  the  Slavs  to  Christianity.  The  monks,  Cyril  and  Methodius,  were  brothers.  They  spoke  the  Slavonic  language  and  used  it  instead  of  the  traditional  Greek  to  celebrate  mass.  Use  of  the  native  language  helped  Cyril  and  Methodius  

The Rise of Russia

convert  many  Moravian  Slavs  to  Christianity.  Cyril  and  Methodius  did  not  travel  far  beyond  Moravia.  However,  their  desire  to  translate  religious  texts  for  a  larger  group  of  readers  led  them  to  develop  a  written  alphabet  for  the  Slavonic  language.  Based  mainly  on  the  characters  of  the  Greek  alphabet,  it  is  called  the  Cyrillic  alphabet.    Use  of  the  Cyrillic  alphabet  and  the  Slavonic  mass  became  widespread  in  what  are  now  Serbia  and  Bulgaria,  Slavic  regions  of  Southeastern  Europe,  and  their  use  eventually  spread  even  farther.  As  a  result  of  the  Greek  brothers’  efforts,  it  was  the  Byzantine  version  of  Christianity,  Eastern  Orthodox  Christianity,  that  spread  to  Russia.  Within  some  100  years,  Christianity  was  established  and  claimed  an  important  convert  when  Grand  Duke  Vladimir  I  of  Kiev  gave  up  the  old  beliefs  and  was  baptized  a  Christian.  The  Primary  Chronicle  reports  that  Vladimir  sent  out  teams  to  observe  the  major  religions  of  the  times.  Three  of  the  teams  returned  with  lukewarm  accounts  of  Islam,  Judaism,  and  Western  Christianity.  But  the  team  from  Byzantium  told  quite  a  different  story:    PRIMARY  SOURCE  “The  Greeks  led  us  to  the  [buildings]  where  they  worship  their  God,  and  we  knew  not  whether  we  were  in  heaven  or  on  earth.  For  on  earth  there  is  no  such  splendor  or  such  beauty,  and  we  are  at  a  loss  how  to  describe  it.  We  only  know  that  God  dwells  there  among  men,  and  .  .  .  we  cannot  forget  that  beauty.”  —The  Russian  Primary  Chronicle    This  report  convinced  Vladimir  to  convert  to  Byzantine  Christianity  and  to  make  all  his  subjects  convert,  too.  In  989,  a  baptism  of  all  the  citizens  of  Kiev  was  held  in  the  Dnieper  River.  He  then  married  the  sister  of  a  Byzantine  emperor.  Kiev,  already  linked  to  Byzantium  by  trade,  now  looked  to  the  empire  for  religious  guidance.  Vladimir  imported  teachers  to  instruct  the  people  in  the  new  faith.  All  the  beliefs  and  traditions  of  Orthodox  Christianity  flourished  in  Kiev.  Vladimir  appreciated  the  Byzantine  idea  of  the  emperor  as  supreme  ruler  of  the  Church.  So  the  close  link  between  Church  and  state  took  root  in  Russia  as  well.  Some  historians  say  that  Vladimir’s  conversion  was  just  a  preliminary  step  in  gaining  economic  and  political  advantages  from  the  Byzantine  Empire.  Even  if  his  conversion  was  politically  motivated,  Vladimir  did  build  libraries,  schools,  and  churches  afterwards.  In  988  Vladimir  made  Orthodox  Christianity  the  state  religion  of  Kievan  Russia.    Vladimir  led  the  way  in  establishing  Kiev’s  power.  He  expanded  his  state  west  into  Poland  and  north  almost  to  the  Baltic  Sea.  He  also  fought  off  troublesome  Turkic  nomads  from  the  steppes  to  the  south.  In  1019,  Vladimir’s  son  Yaroslav  the  Wise  came  to  the  throne  and  led  Kiev  to  even  greater  glory,  having  religious  texts  translated  into  the  Slavic  language,  improving  cities,  and  developing  a  law  code.  But  the  decline  of  the  Kievan  state  started  with  the  death  of  Yaroslav  in  1054.  During  his  reign,  Yaroslav  had  divided  his  realm  among  his  sons,  instead  of  following  the  custom  of  passing  on  the  throne  to  the  eldest  son.  Upon  their  father’s  death,  the  sons  tore  the  state  apart  fighting  for  the  most  desirable  territories.  And  because  this  system  of  dividing  the  kingdom  among  sons  continued,  each  generation  saw  new  struggles.  The  Crusades—the  numerous  clashes  between  Christians  and  Muslims  for  control  of  the  Holy  Lands  of  the  Middle  East  that  began  in  1095—added  to  Kiev’s  troubles  by  disrupting  trade.  Then,  just  when  it  seemed  that  things  could  not  get  worse,  a  new  threat  emerged:  The  Mongols.  

Russian  Orthodox  Cathedral