Concise Russian history for a traveler

Ancient Russia

Indo-European, Ural-Atlantic, and diverse other peoples, have occupied what is now the territory of Russia since the second millennium before Christ, but little is known about their ethnic identity, institutions, and activities.

From about 770 commercial explorers began an intensive penetration of the Volga region and territory populated by Finnic and Slavic tribes, where they found timber products, fur, honey, wax and amber. The Scandinavians involved in these exploits are known as Varangians; they were adventurers of diverse origins, often led by princes of warring dynastic clans.

One of these princes, Rurick of Yutland, is considered the progenitor of the dynasty that ruled in various portions of East Slavic territory until 1598.

The rise of Kiev. The consecutive history of the first East Slavic state begins with Vladimir (980-1015), who established the dynastic seniority system of his clan as the political structure by which the scattered territories of Rus were to be ruled.

Vladimir extended the realm (to include the watersheds of the Don, Dnieper, Neman, Western Dvina and Volga), destroyed the remnants of competing Varangian organizations, and established relations with neighbouring dynasties. Once Vladimir had adopted Christianity in 988, his rule was supported by propagation of Byzantine notions of imperial authority. The success of his long reign made it possible for the reign of his son Yaroslav, who gained control of Kiev, to produce a flowering of cultural life. The political history of Rus is one of clashing separatist and centralizing trends. As Vladimir’s 12 sons and innumerable grandsons prospered in the rapidly developing territories they inherited, they and their retainers acquired settled interests that conflicted with the interests of unity.