Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The first attested East Slavic state has come to be known as Kievan (Kyivan) Rus′. In broad outline its history may be simply stated. Established by the ninth century, it was centered at Kiev and ruled by the Riurikid dynasty, which acquired exclusive authority over its East Slavic and Finnic inhabitants from the tenth century. Over the next two and a half centuries the state expanded into a composite of multiple principalities. At its peak Kievan Rus′ stretched from the shores of the Gulf of Finland eastward to the Volga-Oka region, northward toward the White Sea, southward to the mid-Dnieper (Dnipro) region and beyond the steppe to include Tmutorokan′, and southwestward to encompass Galicia and Volhynia on the borders of Poland. After the Mongol invasion of 1238–40, Kievan Rus′ ceased to exist. This overview, however, does not address some fundamental problems relating to the history of Kievan Rus′: the origins of the state, the character of that state; and the factors that drove its development and led to its collapse.These problems have not been easy to solve. Kievan Rus′ was a complex state and society. The Riurikids, its ruling dynasty, were originally from Sweden; early rulers used the title khagan, borrowed from the neighboring Khazar Empire; they wielded political authority over a largely East Slavic and Finnic population; their dynastic organization resembled the model ... log in or subscribe to read full text