The Historian Channel: Ukraine, The Birth Of A Nation, History of Ukraine, History Documentary -- From Rus To Ukraine
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| Realm of Kievan Rus at its height (with dependent lands) |
Kievan Rus' (Old East Slavic Рѹ́сь
(Rus'), Рѹ́сьскаѧ землѧ[1]
(Ruskaya zemlya), Greek Ῥωσία, Latin Rus(s)ia, Ruscia,
Ruzzia, Rut(h)enia,[2][3] Old Norse Garðaríki) was a loose federation[4] of
East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century,[5]
under the reign of the Rurik dynasty. The modern peoples of Belarus, Ukraine,
and Russia all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestors.
At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, it stretched
from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south and from the
headwaters of the Vistula in the west to the Taman Peninsula in the east,
uniting the majority of East Slavic tribes.
Kievan Rus' begins with the rule (882–912) of Prince Oleg,
who extended his control from Novgorod south along the Dnieper river valley in
order to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east and moved his
capital to the more strategic Kiev. Sviatoslav I (died 972) achieved the first
major expansion of Kievan Rus' territorial control, fighting a war of conquest
against the Khazar Empire. Vladimir the Great (980–1015) introduced
Christianity with his own baptism and, by decree, that of all the inhabitants
of Kiev and beyond. Kievan Rus' reached its greatest extent under Yaroslav I
(1019–1054); his sons assembled and issued its first written legal code, the
Rus' Justice, shortly after his death.
The state declined beginning in the late 11th century and
during the 12th century, disintegrating into various rival regional powers.
It was further weakened by economic factors such as the collapse of Rus'
commercial ties to Byzantium due to the decline of Constantinople and the
accompanying diminution of trade routes through its territory. The state
finally fell to the Mongol invasion of the 1240s.
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