Was there Kievan Rus? History of Kievan Rus. Briefly. Reign of Oleg the Prophet

Metro "Kyiv" of the Circle Line of the Moscow Metro is located between the stations "Park Kultury" and "Krasnopresnenskaya". This is the only station on the Circle Line located outside the Central Administrative District of Moscow.

Station history

The Kievskaya Koltsevaya metro station was the favorite station of Nikita Khrushchev, who in 1953 was elected to the post of First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and finally had the opportunity to build a station related to his native Ukraine. He announced a competition in which 40 projects from Moscow and Kyiv architects took part. As expected, the victory went to the Kyiv metro builders. The construction was headed by E. Katonin, a member of the Academy of Architecture of the Ukrainian SSR.

History of the name

The station is named after the nearby Kievsky railway station.

Description of the station

The design of the station is dedicated to the themes “Friendship of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples” and “History of Ukraine”. The 18 panels decorating the station tell the story of relations between Russia and Ukraine, starting with the Pereyaslav Rada, when the Cossacks decided to reunite with Russia, and until the revolution of 1917.

The end wall of the central hall is occupied by a panel on which, surrounded by stucco flags, a mosaic portrait of Lenin and lines of the USSR anthem are laid out.

Specifications

Metro "Kyiv" is a three-vaulted deep pylon station located at a depth of 53 meters. The authors of the standard project are G. E. Golubev, E. I. Katonin and V. K. Skugarev. The artistic design of the station was carried out by artists G. I. Opryshko, A. V. Mizin and A. G. Ivanov.

Lobbies and transfers

The station has a transition to the stations of the same name on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya and Filevskaya lines. The transition to the Filyovskaya line is located in the station hall. The Kyiv metro station has a common lobby with the station of the same name on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line. The lobby is located in the building of the Kievsky railway station and has access to both the station itself and the streets 2nd Bryansky passage and Kyiv.

Useful facts

The exit to the station from the station lobby is open from 7:00 to 22:00, to commuter trains - from 5:30 to 1:00.

Aeroexpress regularly runs on the route Kyiv Station - Vnukovo Airport.

Kievan Rus first formed in the lands of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, and from the mid-ninth century until 1240 the Russian state was centered around the city of Kyiv. Kievan Rus was inhabited by Eastern Slavs, Finns and Baltic peoples who lived in the territories along the Dnieper, Western Dvina, Lovat, Volkhv and in the upper reaches of the Volga.

All these peoples and territories recognized the Rurik dynasty as their rulers, and after 988 they formally recognized the Christian Church led by the Metropolitan in Kyiv. Kievan Rus was destroyed by the Mongols in 1237-1240. The era of Kievan Rus is considered in history to be a stage in the formation of modern Ukraine and Russia.

The process of formation of the Russian state is the subject of debate among Norman historians. They argue that the Scandinavian Vikings played a key role in the creation of Rus'. Their view is based on archaeological evidence of Scandinavian travelers and traders in the regions of northwestern Russia and the upper Volga from the 8th century.

He also relies on an account in the Primary Chronicle, compiled in the 11th and early 12th centuries, which reports that in 862, tribes of Slavs and Finns in the vicinity of the Lovat and Volkhov rivers invited the Varangian Rurik and his brothers to restore order to their lands. Rurik and his descendants are considered the founders of the Rurik dynasty, which ruled Kievan Rus. Anti-Normanists underestimate the role of the Scandinavians as the founders of the state. They argue that the term Rus refers to the Polyans, a Slavic tribe that lived in the Kyiv area, and that the Slavs themselves organized their own political structure.

Early years of Kievan Rus

According to the First Chronicle, Rurik's immediate successors were Oleg (ruled 879 or 882-912), who was regent for Rurik's son Igor (ruled 912-945); Igor's wife Olga (regent for his young son Svyatoslav in 945-964) and their son Svyatoslav Igorevich (ruled 964-972). They established their rule over Kiev and surrounding tribes, including the Krivichi (in the Valdai Hills area), the Polyans (around Kiev on the Dnieper River), the Drevlyans (south of the Pripyat River, a tributary of the Dnieper), and the Vyatichi, who inhabited the lands along the Oka and Volga rivers.

Since the 10th century, the Rurik not only took away subordinate territories and tribute from them from Volga Bulgaria and Khazaria, but also pursued an aggressive policy towards these states. In 965, Svyatoslav began a campaign against Khazaria. His enterprise led to the collapse of the Khazar Empire and the destabilization of the lower Volga and the steppe areas south of the forests inhabited by the Slavs.

His son Vladimir (Prince of Kiev in 978-1015), who conquered the Radimichi (east of the Upper Dnieper), attacked the Volga Bulgars in 985; the agreement he subsequently reached with the Bulgars became the basis for peaceful relations that lasted a century.

The early Rurikovichs also helped out their neighbors in the south and west: in 968, Svyatoslav saved Kyiv from the Pechenegs, a steppe tribe of nomadic Turks. However, he intended to establish control over the lands on the Danube River, but the Byzantines forced him to abandon this. In 972, he was killed by the Pechenegs when he was returning to Kyiv. Vladimir and his sons fought many times with the Pechenegs, built border forts, which seriously reduced the threat to Kievan Rus.

Heirs of Rurik and power in Kievan Rus

Soon after the death of Svyatoslav, his son Yaropolk became the Prince of Kyiv. But a conflict broke out between him and his brothers, which prompted Vladimir to flee Novgorod, the city he ruled, and raise an army in Scandinavia. Upon his return in 978, he first became related to the Prince of Polotsk, one of the last rulers of the Eastern Slavs not from the Rurikids.

Vladimir married his daughter and strengthened his army with the army of the prince, with which he defeated Yaropolk and seized the throne of Kyiv. Vladimir outmaneuvered both his brothers and the rival rulers of the neighboring non-Rurik powers, gaining for himself and his heirs a monopoly on power throughout the region.

Prince Vladimir decided to baptize Kievan Rus. Although Christianity, Judaism and Islam had long been known in these lands, and Olga personally converted to Christianity, the population of Kievan Rus remained pagan. When Vladimir accepted the throne, he tried to create a single pantheon of gods for his people, but soon abandoned this, choosing Christianity.

Abandoning his many wives and concubines, he married Anna, the sister of the Byzantine Emperor Basil. The Patriarch of Constantinople appointed a metropolitan for Kyiv and all of Rus', and in 988 the Byzantine clergy baptized the population of Kyiv on the Dnieper.

After accepting Christianity, Vladimir sent his eldest sons to rule different parts of Rus'. Each prince was accompanied by a bishop. The lands ruled by the Rurik princes and subordinate to the Kievan Church constituted Kievan Rus.

Structure of the state of Kievan Rus

During the 11th and 12th centuries, Vladimir's descendants developed a dynastic political structure to govern the ever-expanding kingdom. However, during this period there are different characteristics of the political development of the state. Some argue that Kievan Rus reached its apogee in the 11th century. The next century saw a decline, marked by the emergence of powerful autonomous principalities and war between their princes. Kyiv lost its centralizing role, and Kievan Rus disintegrated before the Mongol invasion.

But there are opinions that Kyiv never ceased to be viable. Some argue that Kievan Rus maintained its integrity throughout the period. Although it became an increasingly complex state, containing numerous principalities that competed in the political and economic sectors, dynastic and ecclesiastical ties provided them with cohesion. The city of Kyiv remained a recognized political, economic and ecclesiastical center.

Creating an effective political structure became a constant problem for the Rurikovichs. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the princely administration gradually replaced all other rulers. Already during Olga's reign, her officials began to replace tribal leaders.

Vladimir distributed the regions among his sons, to whom he also delegated responsibility for collecting taxes, protecting roads and trade, as well as local defense and territorial expansion. Each prince had his own squad, which was supported by tax revenues, commercial fees and booty captured in battle. They also had the authority and means to hire additional forces.

“Russian Truth” - a set of laws of Kievan Rus

However, when Vladimir died in 1015, his sons became involved in a power struggle, which ended only after four of them died and the other two, Yaroslav and Mstislav, divided the kingdom among themselves. When Mstislav died (1036), Yaroslav began to fully control Kievan Rus. Yaroslav passed a law known as "Russian Truth", which, with amendments, remained in force throughout the era of Kievan Rus.

He also tried to put dynastic relations in order. Before his death, he wrote a “Testament”, in which he handed over Kyiv to his eldest son Izyaslav. He placed his son Svyatoslav in Chernigov, Vsevolod in Pereyaslavl, and his younger sons in small towns. He told them all to obey their elder brother as a father. Historians believe that the “Testament” laid the foundation for the succession of power, which included the principle of transfer of power according to seniority among princes, the so-called ladder order (when power is transferred to the oldest relative, not necessarily a son), the appanage system of land ownership by collateral branches of heirs and dynastic power of Kievan Rus. Having appointed Kyiv to the senior prince, he left Kyiv as the center of the state.

Fight against the Cumans

This dynastic system, through which each prince maintained contact with his immediate neighbors, served as an effective means of protecting and expanding Kievan Rus. He also encouraged cooperation between princes if danger arose. The invasions of the Cumans, Turkic nomads who moved into the steppe and displaced the Pechenegs in the second half of the 11th century, were countered by the concerted actions of princes Izyaslav, Svyatoslav and Vsevolod in 1068. Although the Cumans were victorious, they retreated after another meeting with Svyatoslav's forces. With the exception of one border skirmish in 1071, they refrained from attacking Rus' for the next twenty years.

When the Cumans resumed hostilities in the 1090s, the Rurikovichs were in a state of internecine conflict. Their ineffective defense allowed the Cumans to reach the outskirts of Kyiv and burn the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, founded in the mid-11th century. But after the princes agreed at the congress in 1097, they were able to push the Polovtsy into the steppe and defeated them. After these military campaigns, relative peace was established for 50 years.

The rise of the Rurik dynasty and the struggle for power in Kievan Rus

However, the dynasty grew, and the system of succession required revision. Confusion and constant disputes arose in connection with the determination of seniority and the rights of collateral branches to appanages. In 1097, when the internecine wars became so serious that they weakened the defense against the Cumans, the princely congress in Lyubech decided that each appanage in Kievan Rus would become hereditary to a specific branch of heirs. The only exceptions were Kyiv, which in 1113 returned to the status of a dynastic possession, and Novgorod, which by 1136 asserted the right to choose its prince.

The congress in Lyubech streamlined the succession to the Kyiv throne for the next forty years. When Svyatopolk Izyaslavich died, his cousin Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh became Prince of Kyiv (1113-1125). He was succeeded by his sons Mstislav (ruled 1125-1132) and Yaropolk (ruled 1132-1139). But the Lyubech Congress also recognized the division of the dynasty into separate branches and Kievan Rus into various principalities. The heirs of Svyatoslav ruled Chernigov. The Galician and Volyn principalities, located southwest of Kyiv, acquired the status of separate principalities in the late 11th and 12th centuries, respectively. In the 12th century, Smolensk, located north of Kyiv on the upper Dnieper, and Rostov-Suzdal, northeast of Kyiv, also became powerful principalities. The northwestern part of the kingdom was dominated by Novgorod, whose strength was based on its lucrative commercial relationships with Scandinavian and German merchants of the Baltic, as well as on its own vast territory, which extended to the Urals by the end of the 11th century.

The changing political structure contributed to repeated dynastic conflicts for the Kiev throne. Some princes, having no rights to Kyiv, focused on developing their increasingly autonomous principalities. But the heirs, who became princes of the Volyn, Rostov-Suzdal principalities, Smolensk and Chernigov, began to get involved in disputes about inheritance, often caused by attempts by the young to bypass the older generation and reduce the number of princes entitled to the throne.

Serious civil strife occurred after the death of Yaropolk Vladimirovich, who tried to appoint his nephew as successor and thereby aroused objections from his younger brother Yuri Dolgoruky, Prince of Rostov-Suzdal. As a result of discord among the heirs of Monomakh, Vsevolod Olgovich of Chernigov sat on the Kiev throne (1139-1146), taking a place on the Kiev throne for his dynastic branch. After his death, the struggle between Yuri Dolgoruky and his nephews resumed; it lasted until 1154, when Yuri finally ascended the Kiev throne and restored the traditional order of succession.

An even more destructive conflict broke out after the death in 1167 of Rostislav Mstislavovich, the successor of his uncle Yuri. When Mstislav Izyaslavich, a Volyn prince from the next generation, tried to seize the Kiev throne, a coalition of princes opposed him. Led by Yuri's son Andrei Bogolyubsky, he represented the older generation of princes, including also the sons of the late Rostislav and the princes of Chernigov. The struggle ended in 1169, when Andrei's army expelled Mstislav Izyaslavich from Kyiv and plundered the city. Andrei's brother Gleb became the prince of Kyiv.

Prince Andrew personified the growing tensions between the increasingly powerful principalities of Kievan Rus and the state center in Kyiv. As Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal (Rostovo-Suzdal), he focused on the development of the city of Vladimir and challenged the primacy of Kyiv. Andrei persistently advocated that the rulers in Kyiv be replaced according to the principle of seniority. However, after Gleb died in 1171, Andrei was unable to secure the throne for his other brother. The prince of the Chernigov line, Svyatoslav Vsevolodovich (reigned 1173-1194), took the Kiev throne and established a dynastic peace.

At the turn of the century, the right to the Kiev throne was limited to three dynastic lines: the princes of Volyn, Smolensk and Chernigov. Since the opponents were often of the same generation, and at the same time the sons of former grand dukes, dynastic traditions of succession did not very accurately determine which prince had seniority. By the mid-1230s, the princes of Chernigov and Smolensk were mired in a long conflict that had serious consequences. During hostilities, Kyiv was ravaged two more times, in 1203 and 1235. The disagreement highlighted the division between the southern and western principalities, which were mired in conflicts over Kyiv, while the north and east were relatively indifferent. Conflicts between the Rurik princes, aggravated by the lack of cohesion between parts of Kievan Rus, undermined the integrity of the state. Kievan Rus remained practically defenseless against the Mongol invasion.

Economy of Kievan Rus

When Kievan Rus was just forming, its population consisted mainly of peasants who grew cereals, as well as peas, lentils, flax and hemp, clearing forest areas for fields by cutting down and uprooting trees or burning them with the slash-and-burn method. They also fished, hunted and collected fruits, berries, nuts, mushrooms, honey and other natural products from the forests around their villages.

However, trade provided the economic basis of Kievan Rus. In the 10th century, the Rurikovichs, accompanied by squads, made annual tours of their subjects and collected tribute. During one of these raids in 945, Prince Igor met his death when he and his men, while collecting tribute from the Drevlyans, tried to take more than their fair share. The Kyiv princes collected furs, honey and wax, loaded goods and prisoners onto boats, which were also taken from the local population, and along the Dnieper they got to the Byzantine market of Kherson. Twice they undertook military campaigns against Constantinople - in 907 Oleg and in 944, less successfully, Igor. The agreements resulting from the wars allowed the Russians to trade not only in Kherson, but also in Constantinople, where they had access to goods from almost every corner of the known world. This advantage allowed the Kyiv Rurik princes to control all transport moving from the cities north to the Black Sea and neighboring markets.

The route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” ran along the Dnieper north to Novgorod, which controlled trade routes from the Baltic Sea. Novgorod goods were also transported east along the upper Volga through Rostov-Suzdal to Bulgaria. In this center of trade in the Middle Volga, which connected Rus' with the markets of Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, Russians exchanged their goods for oriental silver coins or dirhams (until the beginning of the 11th century) and luxury goods: silks, glassware, fine ceramics.

Social strata of Kievan Rus

The establishment of political dominance of the Rurikovichs changed the class composition of the region. The princes themselves, their squads, servants and slaves were added to the peasants. After the introduction of Christianity by Prince Vladimir, along with these classes, the clergy arose. Vladimir also changed the cultural face of Kievan Rus, especially in its urban centers. In Kyiv, Vladimir built the stone Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary (also known as the Church of the Tithes), surrounded by two other palace buildings. The ensemble formed the central part of the “city of Vladimir”, which was surrounded by new fortifications. Yaroslav expanded the "city of Vladimir" by building new fortifications, which became part of the theater of operations when he defeated the Pechenegs in 1036. The Golden Gate of Kyiv was installed in the southern wall. Within the protected area, Vladimir built a new complex of churches and palaces, the most impressive of which was the brick Hagia Sophia, where the Metropolitan himself served. The cathedral became the symbolic center of Christianity in Kyiv.

The introduction of Christianity met with resistance in some parts of Kievan Rus. In Novgorod, representatives of the new church threw an idol into the Volkhov River, as a result of which a popular uprising broke out. But the landscape of Novgorod quickly changed with the construction of wooden churches and, in the mid-11th century, the Hagia Sophia made of stone. In Chernigov, Prince Mstislav built the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Savior in 1035.

By agreement with the Rurikovichs, the church became legally responsible for a range of social and familial acts, including birth, marriage and death. Church courts were under the jurisdiction of the priests and enforced Christian norms and practices within the larger community. Although the church received income from its courts, the clergy were not very successful in their attempts to persuade the people to abandon pagan customs. But to the extent that they were accepted, Christian social and cultural standards provided a common identity for the different tribes that made up the society of Kievan Rus.

The spread of Christianity and the construction of churches strengthened and expanded trade relations between Kiev and Byzantium. Kyiv also attracted Byzantine artists and craftsmen, who designed and decorated early Russian churches and taught their style to local students. Kyiv became the center of handicraft production in Kievan Rus in the 11th and 12th centuries.

While architecture, mosaic art, fresco and icon painting were visible attributes of Christianity, Kievan Rus received chronicles, lives of saints, sermons and other literature from the Greeks. The outstanding literary works of this era were the "Primary Chronicle" or "Tale of Bygone Years", compiled by the monks of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, and the "Sermon on Law and Grace", compiled (about 1050) by Metropolitan Hilarion, the first native of Kievan Rus to head the church.

In the 12th century, despite the emergence of competing political centers within Kievan Rus' and the repeated sacks of Kyiv (1169, 1203, 1235), the city continued to prosper economically. Its population, which, according to various estimates, reached from 36 to 50 thousand people by the end of the 12th century, included princes, soldiers, clergy, merchants, artisans, unskilled workers and slaves. Kyiv's artisans produced glassware, glazed pottery, jewelry, religious items, and other goods that were sold throughout Rus'. Kyiv also remained a center of foreign trade and increasingly imported foreign goods, such as Byzantine amphorae used as wine vessels, into other Russian cities.

The spread of political centers within Kievan Rus was accompanied by economic growth and an increase in social strata characteristic of Kyiv. Novgorod's economy also continued to trade with the Baltic region and with Bulgaria. By the twelfth century, artisans in Novgorod had also mastered enameling and fresco painting. The developing economy of Novgorod supported a population of 20 to 30 thousand by the beginning of the 13th century. Volyn and Galicia, Rostovo-Suzdal and Smolensk, whose princes competed with Kiev, became much more economically active on trade routes. The construction of the brick Church of the Mother of God in Smolensk (1136-1137), the Assumption Cathedral (1158) and the Golden Gate in Vladimir reflected the wealth concentrated in these centers. Andrei Bogolyubsky also built his own Bogolyubovo palace complex outside Vladimir and celebrated his victory over the Volga Bulgars in 1165 by building the Church of the Intercession next to the Nerl River. In each of these principalities, the boyars, officials and servants of the princes formed local landowning aristocracies, and also became consumers of luxury goods produced abroad, in Kyiv and in their own cities.

Mongol Empire and the collapse of Kievan Rus

In 1223, the troops of Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongol Empire, first reached the steppe in the south of Kievan Rus. they defeated the united army of Cumans and Russians from Kyiv, Chernigov and Volyn. The Mongols returned in 1236 when they attacked Bulgaria. In 1237-1238 they conquered Ryazan, and then Vladimir-Suzdal. In 1239 the southern cities of Pereyaslavl and Chernigov were devastated, and in 1240 Kyiv was conquered.

The fall of Kievan Rus occurred with the fall of Kyiv. But the Mongols did not stop and attacked Galicia and Volhynia before invading Hungary and Poland. In the lower reaches of the Volga, the Mongols founded part of their empire, commonly known as. The surviving Rurik princes went to the Horde to pay tribute to the Mongol Khan. The Khan assigned each of the princes their principalities, with the exception of Prince Mikhail of Chernigov - he executed him. Thus, the Mongols completed the collapse of the once strong state of Kievan Rus.

Today, more and more historians are inclined to the point of view that Kievan Rus was not a state in the full sense of the word. There were no class structures in it (there were estates), there was no centralized power in strict accordance with this term, there was no developed legal system, there was no established diplomacy.

Princely law was just in its infancy; the city council, princes and squad had the right to coerce. It was not a monarchy, not a despotism, not a republic, it was more like some kind of corporate governance.

Single currency

It must also be said that in Kievan Rus there was no single currency, and a coin is one of the main signs of an established state system. Until the 15th century, zlatniks, silver coins and foreign coins were in use in Rus'. But there were few of them, so people were mainly engaged in natural exchange.

The opinions of historians on the issue of statehood in Kievan Rus vary greatly. Historian Igor Froyanov considers Kievan Rus to be a potestar, pre-class state. In this assessment, he talks about the territorial, and not the tribal principle of population distribution, that there was a public power, separated from the people, which collected tribute to support itself.

State

Of course, during the period of “Kievan Rus” it would never have occurred to anyone to even think about whether I live in a state, since the term “state” itself was first used only in the 15th century, and in our country the word “sovereign” was first used addressed only to Ivan the Terrible.

People of that time could not feel part of the state, or, at most, part of the city, squad, community. The Russian person knew, according to the definition of the historian Boris Flori, that he lived in the “Russian land.” The historian Romanov also notes: “Russian land,” the idea of ​​which holds the entire ideological layer of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” was not even close to the vocabulary and stock of concepts of Danilov’s “Tale” (written in the 13th century).

Thus, from the beginning of Oleg’s reign in Kyiv, “Kievan Rus” existed for less than three centuries. For 30 years, from 1146 to 1176, power changed in Kyiv at least twenty times. Not the best stability for the state. However, “Vladimir Rus” lasted even less.

Founded at the end of the 10th century on the site of a small village of the Merya tribe, Vladimir received the status of the capital city of North-Eastern Rus'. But the Mongol-Tatar invasion undermined the promising development of Vladimir. Despite the conditional status of the capital, the city quickly lost its primacy. The last prince who reigned directly in Vladimir was Alexander Nevsky.

One of the most powerful in its time was Kievan Rus. A huge medieval power arose in the 9th century as a result of the unification of East Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes. During its heyday, Kievan Rus (in the 9th-12th centuries) occupied an impressive territory and had a strong army. By the middle of the 12th century, the once powerful state, due to feudal fragmentation, split into separate ones. Thus, Kievan Rus became easy prey for the Golden Horde, which put an end to the medieval power. The main events that took place in Kievan Rus in the 9th-12th centuries will be described in the article.

Russian Kaganate

According to many historians, in the first half of the 9th century, on the territory of the future Old Russian state, there was a state formation of the Rus. Little information has been preserved about the exact location of the Russian Kaganate. According to historian Smirnov, the state formation was located in the region between the upper Volga and Oka.

The ruler of the Russian Kaganate bore the title of Kagan. In the Middle Ages this title was very important. The Kagan ruled not only over nomadic peoples, but also commanded over other rulers of different nations. Thus, the head of the Russian Kaganate acted as the emperor of the steppes.

By the middle of the 9th century, as a result of specific foreign policy circumstances, the transformation of the Russian Kaganate into the Russian Great Reign took place, which was weakly dependent on Khazaria. During the reign of Askold and Dir, it was possible to completely get rid of oppression.

Rurik's reign

In the second half of the 9th century, the East Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes, due to cruel enmity, called the Varangians overseas to reign in their lands. The first Russian prince was Rurik, who began to rule in Novgorod in 862. The new state of Rurik lasted until 882, when Kievan Rus was formed.

The history of Rurik's reign is full of contradictions and inaccuracies. Some historians are of the opinion that he and his squad are of Scandinavian origin. Their opponents are supporters of the West Slavic version of the development of Rus'. In any case, the name of the term “Rus” in the 10th and 11th centuries was used in relation to the Scandinavians. After the Scandinavian Varangian came to power, the title “Kagan” gave way to “Grand Duke”.

The chronicles preserve scant information about the reign of Rurik. Therefore, praising his desire to expand and strengthen state borders, as well as strengthen cities, is quite problematic. Rurik is also remembered for the fact that he was able to successfully suppress the rebellion in Novgorod, thereby strengthening his authority. In any case, the reign of the founder of the dynasty of future princes of Kievan Rus made it possible to centralize power in the Old Russian state.

Reign of Oleg

After Rurik, power in Kievan Rus was to pass into the hands of his son Igor. However, due to the early age of the legal heir, Oleg became the ruler of the Old Russian state in 879. The new one turned out to be very militant and enterprising. From his first years in power, he sought to take control of the waterway to Greece. To realize this grandiose goal, Oleg in 882, thanks to his cunning plan, dealt with the princes Askold and Dir, capturing Kyiv. Thus, the strategic task of conquering the Slavic tribes who lived along the Dnieper was solved. Immediately after entering the captured city, Oleg declared that Kyiv was destined to become the mother of Russian cities.

The first ruler of Kievan Rus really liked the advantageous location of the settlement. The gentle banks of the Dnieper River were impregnable to invaders. In addition, Oleg carried out large-scale work to strengthen the defense structures of Kyiv. In 883-885, a number of military campaigns took place with positive results, as a result of which the territory of Kievan Rus was significantly expanded.

Domestic and foreign policy of Kievan Rus during the reign of Oleg the Prophet

A distinctive feature of the internal policy of the reign of Oleg the Prophet was the strengthening of the state treasury through the collection of tribute. In many ways, the budget of Kievan Rus was filled thanks to extortions from conquered tribes.

The period of Oleg's reign was marked by a successful foreign policy. In 907, a successful campaign against Byzantium took place. The trick of the Kyiv prince played a key role in the victory over the Greeks. The threat of destruction loomed over impregnable Constantinople after the ships of Kievan Rus were put on wheels and continued to move by land. Thus, the frightened rulers of Byzantium were forced to offer Oleg a huge tribute and provide generous benefits to the Russian merchants. After 5 years, a peace treaty was signed between Kievan Rus and the Greeks. After a successful campaign against Byzantium, legends began to form about Oleg. The Kyiv prince was credited with supernatural powers and a penchant for magic. Also, a grandiose victory in the domestic arena allowed Oleg to receive the nickname Prophetic. The Kyiv prince died in 912.

Prince Igor

After Oleg's death in 912, its legal heir, Igor, the son of Rurik, became the full-fledged ruler of Kievan Rus. The new prince was naturally distinguished by modesty and respect for his elders. That is why Igor was in no hurry to throw Oleg off the throne.

The reign of Prince Igor was remembered for numerous military campaigns. After ascending the throne, he had to suppress the rebellion of the Drevlyans, who wanted to stop obeying Kyiv. The successful victory over the enemy made it possible to take additional tribute from the rebels for the needs of the state.

The confrontation with the Pechenegs was carried out with varying success. In 941, Igor continued the foreign policy of his predecessors, declaring war on Byzantium. The cause of the war was the desire of the Greeks to free themselves from their obligations after the death of Oleg. The first military campaign ended in defeat, since Byzantium had carefully prepared. In 944, a new peace treaty was signed between the two states because the Greeks decided to avoid battle.

Igor died in November 945 while collecting tribute from the Drevlyans. The prince’s mistake was that he sent his squad to Kyiv, and he himself, with a small army, decided to profit additionally from his subjects. The indignant Drevlyans brutally dealt with Igor.

The reign of Vladimir the Great

In 980, Vladimir, the son of Svyatoslav, became the new ruler. Before taking the throne, he had to emerge victorious from the fraternal feud. However, after escaping “overseas”, Vladimir managed to gather a Varangian squad and avenge the death of his brother Yaropolk. The reign of the new prince of Kievan Rus turned out to be outstanding. Vladimir was also revered by his people.

The most important merit of the son of Svyatoslav is the famous Baptism of Rus', which took place in 988. In addition to numerous successes in the domestic arena, the prince became famous for his military campaigns. In 996, several fortress cities were built to protect the lands from enemies, one of which was Belgorod.

Baptism of Rus' (988)

Until 988, paganism flourished on the territory of the Old Russian state. However, Vladimir the Great decided to choose Christianity as the state religion, although representatives from the Pope, Islam and Judaism came to him.

The Baptism of Rus' in 988 still took place. Vladimir the Great, his close boyars and warriors, as well as ordinary people, accepted Christianity. Those who resisted leaving paganism were threatened with all kinds of oppression. Thus, the Russian Church began in 988.

Reign of Yaroslav the Wise

One of the most famous princes of Kievan Rus was Yaroslav, who was not accidentally nicknamed the Wise. After the death of Vladimir the Great, turmoil gripped the Old Russian state. Blinded by the thirst for power, Svyatopolk sat on the throne, killing 3 of his brothers. Subsequently, Yaroslav gathered a huge army of Slavs and Varangians, after which in 1016 he went to Kyiv. In 1019 he managed to defeat Svyatopolk and ascend to the throne of Kievan Rus.

The reign of Yaroslav the Wise turned out to be one of the most successful in the history of the Old Russian state. In 1036, he managed to finally unite the numerous lands of Kievan Rus, after the death of his brother Mstislav. Yaroslav's wife was the daughter of the Swedish king. Several cities and a stone wall were erected around Kyiv by order of the prince. The main city gates of the capital of the Old Russian state were called Golden.

Yaroslav the Wise died in 1054, when he was 76 years old. The reign of the Kyiv prince, 35 years long, is a golden time in the history of the Old Russian state.

Domestic and foreign policy of Kievan Rus during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise

The priority of Yaroslav's foreign policy was to increase the authority of Kievan Rus in the international arena. The prince managed to achieve a number of important military victories over the Poles and Lithuanians. In 1036 the Pechenegs were completely defeated. At the site of the fateful battle, the Church of St. Sophia appeared. During the reign of Yaroslav, a military conflict with Byzantium took place for the last time. The result of the confrontation was the signing of a peace treaty. Vsevolod, son of Yaroslav, married the Greek princess Anna.

In the domestic arena, the literacy of the population of Kievan Rus increased significantly. In many cities of the state, schools appeared in which boys were trained in church work. Various Greek books were translated into Old Church Slavonic. During the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the first collection of laws was published. “Russian Truth” became the main asset of numerous reforms of the Kyiv prince.

The beginning of the collapse of Kievan Rus

What are the reasons for the collapse of Kievan Rus? Like many early medieval powers, its collapse turned out to be completely natural. An objective and progressive process took place associated with the increase in boyar land ownership. In the principalities of Kievan Rus, nobility appeared, in whose interests it was more profitable to rely on a local prince than to support a single ruler in Kyiv. According to many historians, at first territorial fragmentation was not the reason for the collapse of Kievan Rus.

In 1097, on the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, in order to stop strife, the process of creating regional dynasties was launched. By the middle of the 12th century, the Old Russian state was divided into 13 principalities, which differed in area, military power and cohesion.

Decline of Kyiv

In the 12th century, there was a significant decline in Kyiv, which turned from a metropolis into an ordinary principality. Largely due to the Crusades, international trade communications were transformed. Therefore, economic factors significantly undermined the power of the city. In 1169, Kyiv was first stormed and plundered as a result of princely strife.

The final blow to Kievan Rus was dealt by the Mongol invasion. The scattered principality did not represent a formidable force for numerous nomads. In 1240 Kyiv suffered a crushing defeat.

Population of Kievan Rus

There is no information left about the exact number of inhabitants of the Old Russian state. According to the historian, the total population of Kievan Rus in the 9th - 12th centuries was approximately 7.5 million people. About 1 million people lived in cities.

The lion's share of the inhabitants of Kievan Rus in the 9th-12th centuries were free peasants. Over time, more and more people became stinkers. Although they had freedom, they were obliged to obey the prince. The free population of Kievan Rus, due to debts, captivity and other reasons, could become servants who were powerless slaves.

Kievan Rus or Old Russian state- a medieval state in Eastern Europe that arose in the 9th century as a result of the unification of East Slavic tribes under the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty.

At its peak, it occupied the territory from the Taman Peninsula in the south, the Dniester and the headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the headwaters of the Northern Dvina in the north.

By the middle of the 12th century, it entered into a state of fragmentation and actually broke up into one and a half dozen separate principalities, ruled by different branches of the Rurikovichs. Political ties were maintained between the principalities, Kyiv continued to formally remain the main table of Rus', and the Principality of Kiev was considered as the collective possession of all the Rurikovichs. The end of Kievan Rus is considered to be the Mongol invasion (1237-1240), after which the Russian lands ceased to form a single political whole, and Kyiv fell into decline for a long time and finally lost its nominal capital functions.

In chronicle sources the state is called “Rus” or “Russian Land”, in Byzantine sources - “Russia”.

Term

The definition of “Old Russian” is not connected with the division of antiquity and the Middle Ages in Europe generally accepted in historiography in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. In relation to Rus', it is usually used to refer to the so-called. the “pre-Mongol” period of the 9th - mid-13th centuries, in order to distinguish this era from the following periods of Russian history.

The term “Kievan Rus” arose at the end of the 18th century. In modern historiography, it is used both to designate a single state that existed until the mid-12th century, and for the broader period of the mid-12th - mid-13th centuries, when Kiev remained the center of the country and the governance of Russia was carried out by a single princely family on the principles of “collective suzerainty.”

Pre-revolutionary historians, starting with N.M. Karamzin, adhered to the idea of ​​​​transferring the political center of Rus' in 1169 from Kyiv to Vladimir, going back to the works of Moscow scribes, or to Vladimir and Galich. However, in modern historiography these points of view are not popular, since they are not confirmed in the sources.

The problem of the emergence of statehood

There are two main hypotheses for the formation of the Old Russian state. According to the Norman theory, based on the Tale of Bygone Years of the 12th century and numerous Western European and Byzantine sources, statehood in Rus' was brought from outside by the Varangians - the brothers Rurik, Sineus and Truvor in 862. The founders of the Norman theory are considered to be the German historians Bayer, Miller, and Schlözer who worked at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The point of view on the external origin of the Russian monarchy was generally held by Nikolai Karamzin, who followed the versions of The Tale of Bygone Years.

The anti-Norman theory is based on the concept of the impossibility of introducing statehood from the outside, on the idea of ​​the emergence of the state as a stage in the internal development of society. The founder of this theory in Russian historiography was considered to be Mikhail Lomonosov. In addition, there are different points of view on the origin of the Varangians themselves. Scientists classified as Normanists considered them to be Scandinavians (usually Swedes); some anti-Normanists, starting with Lomonosov, suggest their origin from West Slavic lands. There are also intermediate versions of localization - in Finland, Prussia, and other parts of the Baltic states. The problem of the ethnicity of the Varangians is independent of the issue of the emergence of statehood.

In modern science, the prevailing point of view is that the strict opposition between “Normanism” and “anti-Normanism” is largely politicized. The prerequisites for the primordial statehood of the Eastern Slavs were not seriously denied by either Miller, Schlözer, or Karamzin, and the external (Scandinavian or other) origin of the ruling dynasty was a fairly common phenomenon in the Middle Ages, which in no way proves the inability of the people to create a state or, more specifically, the institution of monarchy. Questions about whether Rurik was a real historical person, what is the origin of the chronicled Varangians, whether the ethnonym (and then the name of the state) is associated with them Rus, continue to remain controversial in modern Russian historical science. Western historians generally follow the concept of Normanism.

Story

Education of Kievan Rus

Kievan Rus arose on the trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks” on the lands of the East Slavic tribes - the Ilmen Slovenes, Krivichi, Polyans, then covering the Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Polotsk, Radimichi, Severians, Vyatichi.

The chronicle legend considers the founders of Kyiv to be the rulers of the Polyan tribe - the brothers Kiya, Shchek and Khoriv. According to archaeological excavations carried out in Kyiv in the 19th-20th centuries, already in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. there was a settlement on the site of Kyiv. Arab writers of the 10th century (al-Istarhi, Ibn Khordadbeh, Ibn-Haukal) later speak of Cuyaba as a large city. Ibn Haukal wrote: “The king lives in a city called Cuyaba, which is larger than Bolgar... The Rus constantly trade with the Khozar and Rum (Byzantium).”

The first information about the state of the Rus dates back to the first third of the 9th century: in 839, the ambassadors of the Kagan of the people of Rus were mentioned, who arrived first in Constantinople, and from there to the court of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious. From this time on, the ethnonym “Rus” also became known. The term “Kievan Rus” appears for the first time in historical studies of the 18th–19th centuries.

In 860 (The Tale of Bygone Years erroneously dates it to 866), Rus' makes its first campaign against Constantinople. Greek sources connect it with the so-called first baptism of Rus', after which a diocese may have arisen in Rus', and the ruling elite (possibly led by Askold) adopted Christianity.

In 862, according to the Tale of Bygone Years, the Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes called the Varangians to reign.

“Per year 6370 (862). They drove the Varangians overseas, and did not give them tribute, and began to control themselves, and there was no truth among them, and generation after generation arose, and they had strife, and began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: “Let’s look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us by right.” And they went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Those Varangians were called Rus, just as others are called Swedes, and some Normans and Angles, and still others Gotlanders, just like these. The Chud, the Slovenians, the Krivichi and all said to the Russians: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. Come reign and rule over us." And three brothers were chosen with their clans, and they took all of Rus' with them, and they came and the eldest, Rurik, sat in Novgorod, and the other, Sineus, in Beloozero, and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. And from those Varangians the Russian land was nicknamed. Novgorodians are people from the Varangian family, but before that they were Slovenians.”

In 862 (the date is approximate, like the entire early chronology of the Chronicle), the Varangians, Rurik’s warriors Askold and Dir, sailing to Constantinople, seeking to establish complete control over the most important trade route “from the Varangians to the Greeks,” established their power over Kiev.

In 879 Rurik died in Novgorod. The reign was transferred to Oleg, regent for Rurik’s young son Igor.

Reign of Oleg the Prophet

In 882, according to chronicle chronology, Prince Oleg, a relative of Rurik, set off on a campaign from Novgorod to the south. Along the way, he captured Smolensk and Lyubech, establishing his power there and putting his people under reign. Then Oleg, with the Novgorod army and a hired Varangian squad, under the guise of merchants, captured Kiev, killed Askold and Dir, who ruled there, and declared Kiev the capital of his state (“And Oleg, the prince, sat down in Kyiv, and Oleg said: “Let this be the mother of Russian cities.” “.”); the dominant religion was paganism, although there was also a Christian minority in Kyiv.

Oleg conquered the Drevlyans, Northerners and Radimichi; the last two alliances had previously paid tribute to the Khazars.

As a result of the victorious campaign against Byzantium, the first written agreements were concluded in 907 and 911, which provided for preferential terms of trade for Russian merchants (trade duties were abolished, ship repairs and overnight accommodation were provided), and resolution of legal and military issues. The tribes of the Radimichi, Northerners, Drevlyans, and Krivichi were subject to tribute. According to the chronicle version, Oleg, who bore the title of Grand Duke, reigned for more than 30 years. Rurik's own son Igor took the throne after Oleg's death around 912 and ruled until 945.

Igor Rurikovich

Igor made two military campaigns against Byzantium. The first, in 941, ended unsuccessfully. It was also preceded by an unsuccessful military campaign against Khazaria, during which Rus', acting at the request of Byzantium, attacked the Khazar city of Samkerts on the Taman Peninsula, but was defeated by the Khazar commander Pesach, and then turned its arms against Byzantium. The second campaign against Byzantium took place in 944. It ended with a treaty that confirmed many of the provisions of the previous treaties of 907 and 911, but abolished duty-free trade. In 943 or 944, a campaign was made against Berdaa. In 945, Igor was killed while collecting tribute from the Drevlyans. After Igor's death, due to the minority of his son Svyatoslav, real power was in the hands of Igor's widow, Princess Olga. She became the first ruler of the Old Russian state to officially accept Christianity of the Byzantine rite (according to the most reasoned version, in 957, although other dates are also proposed). However, around 959 Olga invited the German bishop Adalbert and priests of the Latin rite to Rus' (after the failure of their mission they were forced to leave Kyiv).

Svyatoslav Igorevich

Around 962, the matured Svyatoslav took power into his own hands. His first action was the subjugation of the Vyatichi (964), who were the last of all the East Slavic tribes to pay tribute to the Khazars. In 965, Svyatoslav made a campaign against the Khazar Kaganate, taking its main cities by storm: Sarkel, Semender and the capital Itil. On the site of the city of Sarkela, he built the Belaya Vezha fortress. Svyatoslav also made two trips to Bulgaria, where he intended to create his own state with its capital in the Danube region. He was killed in a battle with the Pechenegs while returning to Kyiv from an unsuccessful campaign in 972.

After the death of Svyatoslav, civil strife broke out for the right to the throne (972-978 or 980). The eldest son Yaropolk became the great prince of Kyiv, Oleg received the Drevlyan lands, Vladimir received Novgorod. In 977, Yaropolk defeated Oleg’s squad, Oleg died. Vladimir fled “overseas”, but returned 2 years later with a Varangian squad. During the civil strife, Svyatoslav's son Vladimir Svyatoslavich (reigned 980-1015) defended his rights to the throne. Under him, the formation of the state territory of Ancient Rus' was completed, the Cherven cities and Carpathian Rus' were annexed.

Characteristics of the state in the 9th-10th centuries.

Kievan Rus united under its rule vast territories inhabited by East Slavic, Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes. In the chronicles the state was called Rus; the word “Russian” in combination with other words was found in various spellings: both with one “s” and with a double one; both with and without “b”. In a narrow sense, “Rus” meant the territory of Kyiv (with the exception of the Drevlyan and Dregovichi lands), Chernigov-Seversk (with the exception of the Radimich and Vyatichi lands) and Pereyaslavl lands; It is in this meaning that the term “Rus” is used, for example, in Novgorod sources up to the 13th century.

The head of state bore the title of Grand Duke, Russian Prince. Unofficially, other prestigious titles could sometimes be attached to it, including Turkic kagan and Byzantine king. Princely power was hereditary. In addition to the princes, grand-ducal boyars and “men” participated in the administration of the territories. These were warriors appointed by the prince. The boyars commanded special squads, territorial garrisons (for example, Pretich commanded the Chernigov squad), which, if necessary, were united into a single army. Under the prince, one of the boyar-voevodas also stood out, who often performed the functions of real government of the state; such governors under the young princes were Oleg under Igor, Sveneld under Olga, Svyatoslav and Yaropolk, Dobrynya under Vladimir. At the local level, the princely government dealt with tribal self-government in the form of the veche and “city elders.”

Druzhina

Druzhina during the 9th-10th centuries. was hired. A significant part of it were newcomer Varangians. It was also replenished by people from the Baltic lands and local tribes. The size of the annual payment of a mercenary is estimated by historians differently. Salaries were paid in silver, gold and furs. Typically, a warrior received about 8-9 Kyiv hryvnia (more than 200 silver dirhams) per year, but by the beginning of the 11th century, the pay of a private soldier was 1 northern hryvnia, which is much less. Ship helmsmen, elders and townspeople received more (10 hryvnia). In addition, the squad was fed at the expense of the prince. Initially, this was expressed in the form of canteen, and then turned into one of the forms of taxes in kind, “feeding”, the maintenance of the squad by the tax-paying population during polyudye. Among the squads subordinate to the Grand Duke, his personal “small”, or junior, squad, which included 400 warriors, stands out. The Old Russian army also included a tribal militia, which could reach several thousand in each tribe. The total number of the ancient Russian army reached from 30 to 80 thousand people.

Taxes (tribute)

The form of taxes in Ancient Rus' was tribute, which was paid by subject tribes. Most often, the unit of taxation was “smoke,” that is, a house or family hearth. The tax amount was traditionally one skin per smoke. In some cases, from the Vyatichi tribe, a coin was taken from the ral (plough). The form of collecting tribute was polyudye, when the prince and his retinue visited his subjects from November to April. Rus' was divided into several tax districts; Polyudye in the Kiev district passed through the lands of the Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Krivichis, Radimichis and Northerners. A special district was Novgorod, paying about 3,000 hryvnia. The maximum amount of tribute according to late Hungarian legend in the 10th century was 10 thousand marks (30 thousand or more hryvnia). The collection of tribute was carried out by squads of several hundred soldiers. The dominant ethno-class group of the population, which was called “Rus”, paid the prince a tenth of their annual income.

In 946, after the suppression of the Drevlyan uprising, Princess Olga carried out a tax reform, streamlining the collection of tribute. She established “lessons”, that is, the size of the tribute, and created “cemeteries”, fortresses on the route of Polyudya, in which the princely administrators lived and where the tribute was brought. This form of collecting tribute and the tribute itself was called a “cart.” When paying the tax, subjects received clay seals with a princely sign, which insured them against repeated collection. The reform contributed to the centralization of grand-ducal power and the weakening of the power of tribal princes.

Right

In the 10th century, customary law was in force in Rus', which in sources is called “Russian Law”. Its norms are reflected in the treaties of Rus' and Byzantium, in the Scandinavian sagas and in “The Truth of Yaroslav”. They concerned the relationship between equal people, Russia, one of the institutions was “vira” - a fine for murder. Laws guaranteed property relations, including ownership of slaves (“servants”).

The principle of inheritance of power in the 9th-10th centuries is unknown. The heirs were often minors (Igor Rurikovich, Svyatoslav Igorevich). In the 11th century, princely power in Rus' was transferred along the “ladder”, that is, not necessarily to the son, but to the eldest in the family (the uncle had precedence over his nephews). At the turn of the 11th-12th centuries, two principles collided, and a struggle broke out between the direct heirs and the collateral lines.

Monetary system

In the 10th century, a more or less unified monetary system developed, focused on the Byzantine liter and the Arab dirham. The main monetary units were the hryvnia (the monetary and weight unit of Ancient Rus'), kuna, nogata and rezana. They had a silver and fur expression.

State type

Historians have different assessments of the nature of the state of a given period: “barbarian state”, “military democracy”, “druzhina period”, “Norman period”, “military-commercial state”, “the formation of the early feudal monarchy”.

The Baptism of Rus' and its heyday

Under Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich in 988, Christianity became the official religion of Rus'. Having become the prince of Kyiv, Vladimir faced an increased Pecheneg threat. To protect against nomads, he builds a line of fortresses on the border. It was during the time of Vladimir that many Russian epics took place, telling about the exploits of heroes.

Crafts and trade. Monuments of writing (The Tale of Bygone Years, the Novgorod Codex, the Ostromirovo Gospel, Lives) and architecture (Tithe Church, St. Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv and the cathedrals of the same name in Novgorod and Polotsk) were created. The high level of literacy of the inhabitants of Rus' is evidenced by numerous birch bark letters that have survived to this day). Rus' traded with the southern and western Slavs, Scandinavia, Byzantium, Western Europe, the peoples of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

After the death of Vladimir, a new civil strife occurs in Rus'. Svyatopolk the Accursed in 1015 kills his brothers Boris (according to another version, Boris was killed by Scandinavian mercenaries of Yaroslav), Gleb and Svyatoslav. Boris and Gleb were canonized as saints in 1071. Svyatopolk himself is defeated by Yaroslav and dies in exile.

The reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1019 - 1054) was the time of the greatest prosperity of the state. Social relations were regulated by the collection of laws “Russian Truth” and princely statutes. Yaroslav the Wise pursued an active foreign policy. He became related to many ruling dynasties of Europe, which testified to the wide international recognition of Rus' in the European Christian world. Intensive stone construction is underway. In 1036, Yaroslav defeated the Pechenegs near Kiev and their raids on Rus' ceased.

Changes in public administration at the end of the 10th - beginning of the 12th centuries.

During the baptism of Rus', the power of the sons of Vladimir I and the power of Orthodox bishops, subordinate to the Kyiv Metropolitan, were established in all its lands. Now all the princes who acted as vassals of the Kyiv Grand Duke were only from the Rurik family. Scandinavian sagas mention the fief possessions of the Vikings, but they were located on the outskirts of Rus' and on newly annexed lands, so at the time of writing “The Tale of Bygone Years” they already seemed like a relic. The Rurik princes waged a fierce struggle with the remaining tribal princes (Vladimir Monomakh mentions the Vyatichi prince Khodota and his son). This contributed to the centralization of power.

The power of the Grand Duke reached its highest strength under Vladimir, Yaroslav the Wise and later under Vladimir Monomakh. Attempts to strengthen it, but less successfully, were also made by Izyaslav Yaroslavich. The position of the dynasty was strengthened by numerous international dynastic marriages: Anna Yaroslavna and the French king, Vsevolod Yaroslavich and the Byzantine princess, etc.

Since the time of Vladimir or, according to some information, Yaropolk Svyatoslavich, the prince began to distribute lands to the warriors instead of monetary salaries. If initially these were cities for feeding, then in the 11th century villages received warriors. Along with the villages, which became fiefdoms, the boyar title was also granted. The boyars began to form the senior squad, which was a feudal militia in type. The younger squad (“youths”, “children”, “gridi”), who were with the prince, lived off feeding from the princely villages and the war. To protect the southern borders, a policy was pursued of relocating the “best men” of the northern tribes to the south, and agreements were also concluded with the allied nomads, the “black hoods” (Torks, Berendeys and Pechenegs). The services of the hired Varangian squad were largely abandoned during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise.

After Yaroslav the Wise, the “ladder” principle of land inheritance in the Rurik family was finally established. The eldest in the clan (not by age, but by line of kinship) received Kyiv and became the Grand Duke, all other lands were divided among members of the clan and distributed according to seniority. Power passed from brother to brother, from uncle to nephew. Chernigov occupied second place in the hierarchy of tables. When one of the members of the clan died, all the Rurikovichs younger in relation to him moved to lands corresponding to their seniority. When new members of the clan appeared, their destiny was determined - a city with land (volost). In 1097, the principle of mandatory allocation of inheritance to princes was established.

Over time, the church began to own a significant part of the land (“monastery estates”). Since 996, the population has paid tithes to the church. The number of dioceses, starting from 4, grew. The department of the metropolitan, appointed by the Patriarch of Constantinople, began to be located in Kiev, and under Yaroslav the Wise, the metropolitan was first elected from among the Russian priests; in 1051, Hilarion, who was close to Vladimir and his son, became him. Monasteries and their elected heads, abbots, began to have great influence. The Kiev-Pechersk Monastery becomes the center of Orthodoxy.

The boyars and squad formed special councils under the prince. The prince also consulted with the metropolitan, bishops and abbots who made up the church council. With the complication of the princely hierarchy, by the end of the 11th century, princely congresses (“snems”) began to gather. There were veches in the cities, which the boyars often relied on to support their own political demands (uprisings in Kyiv in 1068 and 1113).

In the 11th - early 12th centuries, the first written set of laws was formed - “Russian Truth”, which was successively replenished with articles from “The Truth of Yaroslav” (c. 1015-1016), “The Truth of the Yaroslavichs” (c. 1072) and the “Charter of Vladimir” Vsevolodovich" (c. 1113). The “Russian Truth” reflected the increasing differentiation of the population (now the size of the vira depended on the social status of the killed), and regulated the position of such categories of the population as servants, serfs, smerdas, purchases and ryadovichi.

“Pravda Yaroslava” equalized the rights of “Rusyns” and “Slovenians”. This, along with Christianization and other factors, contributed to the formation of a new ethnic community that was aware of its unity and historical origin.
Since the end of the 10th century, Rus' has known its own coin production - silver and gold coins of Vladimir I, Svyatopolk, Yaroslav the Wise and other princes.

Decay

The Principality of Polotsk first separated from Kyiv at the beginning of the 11th century. Having concentrated all the other Russian lands under his rule only 21 years after the death of his father, Yaroslav the Wise, dying in 1054, divided them between the five sons who survived him. After the death of the two youngest of them, all lands were concentrated in the hands of the three elders: Izyaslav of Kyiv, Svyatoslav of Chernigov and Vsevolod of Pereyaslav (the “Yaroslavich triumvirate”). After the death of Svyatoslav in 1076, the Kiev princes attempted to deprive his sons of the Chernigov inheritance, and they resorted to the help of the Polovtsians, whose raids began in 1061 (immediately after the defeat of the Torks by the Russian princes in the steppes), although for the first time the Polovtsians were used in strife by Vladimir Monomakh (against Vseslav of Polotsk). In this struggle, Izyaslav of Kiev (1078) and the son of Vladimir Monomakh Izyaslav (1096) died. At the Lyubech Congress (1097), designed to stop civil strife and unite the princes for protection from the Polovtsians, the principle was proclaimed: “Let everyone keep his fatherland.” Thus, while preserving the right of ladder, in the event of the death of one of the princes, the movement of the heirs was limited to their patrimony. This made it possible to stop the strife and join forces to fight the Cumans, which was moved deep into the steppes. However, this also opened the way to political fragmentation, since a separate dynasty was established in each land, and the Grand Duke of Kiev became first among equals, losing the role of overlord.

In the second quarter of the 12th century, Kievan Rus actually disintegrated into independent principalities. The modern historiographic tradition considers the chronological beginning of the period of fragmentation to be 1132, when, after the death of Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, the power of the Kiev prince was no longer recognized by Polotsk (1132) and Novgorod (1136), and the title itself became the object of struggle between various dynastic and territorial associations of the Rurikovichs. In 1134, the chronicler, in connection with a schism among the Monomakhovichs, wrote “the whole Russian land was torn apart.”

In 1169, the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, Andrei Bogolyubsky, having captured Kyiv, for the first time in the practice of inter-princely strife, he did not reign in it, but gave it as an appanage. From that moment on, Kyiv began to gradually lose the political and then cultural attributes of an all-Russian center. The political center under Andrei Bogolyubsky and Vsevolod the Big Nest moved to Vladimir, whose prince also began to bear the title of great.

Kyiv, unlike other principalities, did not become the property of any one dynasty, but served as a constant bone of contention for all powerful princes. In 1203, it was plundered for the second time by the Smolensk prince Rurik Rostislavich, who fought against the Galician-Volyn prince Roman Mstislavich. The first clash between Rus' and the Mongols took place in the Battle of the Kalka River (1223), in which almost all the southern Russian princes took part. The weakening of the southern Russian principalities increased the pressure from the Hungarian and Lithuanian feudal lords, but at the same time contributed to the strengthening of the influence of the Vladimir princes in Chernigov (1226), Novgorod (1231), Kiev (in 1236 Yaroslav Vsevolodovich occupied Kyiv for two years, while his elder brother Yuri remained reign in Vladimir) and Smolensk (1236-1239). During the Mongol invasion of Rus', which began in 1237, Kyiv was reduced to ruins in December 1240. It was received by the Vladimir princes Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, recognized by the Mongols as the oldest in Rus', and later by his son Alexander Nevsky. However, they did not move to Kyiv, remaining in their ancestral Vladimir. In 1299, the Kiev Metropolitan moved his residence there. In some church and literary sources, for example, in the statements of the Patriarch of Constantinople and Vytautas at the end of the 14th century, Kyiv continued to be considered the capital at a later time, but by this time it was already a provincial city of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. From the beginning of the 14th century, the Vladimir princes began to bear the title of “Grand Dukes of All Rus'”.

The nature of statehood of Russian lands

At the beginning of the 13th century, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, there were about 15 relatively territorially stable principalities in Rus' (in turn divided into fiefs), three of which: Kiev, Novgorod and Galicia were objects of all-Russian struggle, and the rest were ruled by the Rurikovich’s own branches. The most powerful princely dynasties were the Chernigov Olgovichs, the Smolensk Rostislavichs, the Volyn Izyaslavichs and the Suzdal Yuryevichs. After the invasion, almost all Russian lands entered a new round of fragmentation and in the 14th century the number of great and appanage principalities reached approximately 250.

The only all-Russian political body remained the Congress of Princes, which mainly decided on issues of the fight against the Polovtsians. The church also maintained its relative unity (excluding the emergence of local cults of saints and veneration of the cult of local relics) headed by the metropolitan and fought against various kinds of regional “heresies” by convening councils. However, the position of the church was weakened by the strengthening of tribal pagan beliefs in the 12th-13th centuries. Religious authority and "zabozhni" (repression) were weakened. The candidacy of the Archbishop of Veliky Novgorod was proposed by the Novgorod Council, and cases of expulsion of the ruler (archbishop) are also known.

During the period of fragmentation of Kievan Rus, political power passed from the hands of the prince and the younger squad to the strengthened boyars. If earlier the boyars had business, political and economic relations with the whole Rurik family, headed by the Grand Duke, now - with individual families of appanage princes.

In the Principality of Kiev, the boyars, in order to ease the intensity of the struggle between the princely dynasties, in a number of cases supported the duumvirate (government) of the princes and even resorted to the physical elimination of the alien princes (Yuri Dolgoruky was poisoned). The Kiev boyars sympathized with the power of the senior branch of the descendants of Mstislav the Great, but external pressure was too strong for the position of the local nobility to become decisive in the choice of princes. In the Novgorod land, which, like Kyiv, did not become the fiefdom of the appanage princely branch of the Rurik family, retaining all-Russian significance, and during the anti-princely uprising a republican system was established - from now on the prince was invited and expelled by the veche. In the Vladimir-Suzdal land, princely power was traditionally strong and sometimes even prone to despotism. There is a known case when the boyars (Kuchkovichi) and the younger squad physically eliminated the “autocratic” prince Andrei Bogolyubsky. In the southern Russian lands, city councils played a huge role in the political struggle; there were councils in the Vladimir-Suzdal land (mentions of them are found until the 14th century). In the Galician land there was a unique case of electing a prince from among the boyars.

The main type of army became the feudal militia, the senior squad received personal inheritable land rights. The city militia was used to defend the city, urban area and settlements. In Veliky Novgorod, the princely squad was actually hired in relation to the republican authorities, the ruler had a special regiment, the townspeople made up the “thousand” (militia led by the thousand), there was also a boyar militia formed from the inhabitants of “Pyatin” (five dependent on the Novgorod boyars families of districts of Novgorod land). The army of a separate principality did not exceed 8,000 people. The total number of squads and city militia by 1237, according to historians, was about 100 thousand people.

During the period of fragmentation, several monetary systems emerged: Novgorod, Kyiv and “Chernigov” hryvnias are distinguished. These were silver bars of various sizes and weights. The northern (Novgorod) hryvnia was oriented towards the northern mark, and the southern one - towards the Byzantine liter. Kuna had a silver and fur expression, the former being to the latter as one to four. Old skins sealed with a princely seal (the so-called “leather money”) were also used as a monetary unit.

The name Rus was retained during this period for the lands in the Middle Dnieper region. Residents of different lands usually called themselves after the capital cities of appanage principalities: Novgorodians, Suzdalians, Kurians, etc. Until the 13th century, according to archeology, tribal differences in material culture persisted; the spoken Old Russian language was also not unified, maintaining regional tribal dialects.

Trade

The most important trade routes of Ancient Rus' were:

• the path “from the Varangians to the Greeks”, starting from the Varangian Sea, along Lake Nevo, along the Volkhov and Dnieper rivers leading to the Black Sea, Balkan Bulgaria and Byzantium (by the same route, entering the Danube from the Black Sea, one could get to Great Moravia) ;
• the Volga trade route (“the path from the Varangians to the Persians”), which went from the city of Ladoga to the Caspian Sea and further to Khorezm and Central Asia, Persia and Transcaucasia;
• a land route that began in Prague and through Kyiv went to the Volga and further to Asia.