During the times of Kievan Rus. Kievan Rus and Ukraine

Chronicle " Tale of Bygone Years"- the only written source confirming the existence of the so-called Kievan Rus ... Appearing to the world at the time of formation " official version»Our ancient history, it is now and then subjected to just criticism of specialists and cannot be regarded as a reliable historical document.

But even if we take this purely literary work and the events described in it seriously, this is at least not enough to confirm the existence of such a medieval association as Kievan Rus. Well, such an "outstanding" state in Eastern Europe could not leave behind only one written historical source! But first things first…

Could Kiev be the capital of Russia?

To begin with, I would like to consider the very possibility of the emergence of such a Dnieper association as Kievan Rus, and in particular its center - Kiev. Even for a person who is far from historical science, it is clear that the likelihood that Kiev, located somewhere on the outskirts, could become the center of the state is not just negligible, but also absurd. First of all, regardless of the initial size of the state, they always try to locate its capital as close to the center as possible - away from the external borders and their potential enemy. Thus, the center of the country will be reliably protected from external invasion, which we do not see at all in the case of Kiev, which was located on the outskirts of the medieval state.

Secondly, another, most favorable place for the location of the capital is the intersection of transport routes. In this case, from the center you can always easily get to any, even the most remote corner of the state. Otherwise, it is simply impossible to manage such a gigantic association as Kievan Rus without the availability of modern means of communication (telephone, radio, television, telegraph, Internet). But in the case of Kiev, we see the exact opposite picture - it is not only located on the outskirts, but also lacks convenient transport links with most important cities - Moscow, Novgorod, Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Polotsk and others.

Thirdly, most of the medieval capitals are not only administrative, but also trade centers of their states. For the convenience of maintaining trade, they could be located on the shore of the sea or a large river. And in the case of Kiev, at first glance, everything is fine - it is located on the Dnieper. But this is only at first glance! Since the prospects for the development of international trade along the Dnieper River are highly doubtful. Its tributaries make it possible to get into such "partisan" territories as Pripyat, Polesye or Pinsk, the development of which was not completed even by the beginning of the 20th century. What can we say about the earlier period and prospects for the development of transit trade through these lands. And here the supporters of the Varangian way - "from the Varangians to the Greeks" come to the aid of the dubious position of Kiev. According to some historians, it was this path that connected the northern Baltic lands, Novgorod, Kiev and the Black Sea. Absolutely irrational, and in some places absurd, it involves the passage of an intricate, winding route " Baltic - Volkhov - Lovat - Western Dvina - Dnieper»And overcoming two watersheds by dragging. But the Varangians are real heroes of their time, they don't care about anything! They can drag their ships overland and do not seek direct routes!

But seriously, the distance along the route "Baltic - Volkhov - Lovat - Zapadnaya Dvina - Dnepr" is 5 times longer than the distance along the route "Baltika - Zapadnaya Dvina - Dnepr", which involves only one portage and goes straight to the Black Sea ... Not to mention the fact that it was possible to "go to the Greeks" along the route "Baltic - Vistula - Bug - Pripyat - Dnepr". But, no matter how the Varangians went there, the existence of an economically profitable trade route connecting the north, Kiev and the south is very much in doubt. This is very unlikely due to the natural geographic features of the Dnieper itself - below Kiev it is dotted with rather dangerous rapids that exclude the possibility of the passage of merchant ships. Thus, the famous French engineer and cartographer Guillaume Beauplan in his work " Description of Ukraine”Writes:

The fertility of the soil delivers bread to the inhabitants in such abundance that they often do not know what to do with it, especially since they do not have navigable rivers flowing into the sea, with the exception of the Dnieper, which, 50 miles below Kiev, is barred by thirteen rapids, the last of which is a good seven miles from the first, which is a whole day's journey, as shown on the map. This barrier prevents them from melting their bread to Constantinople.

Interesting fact! As it is in the XVII century. suddenly ceased to be a navigable river, along which only a few centuries ago the largest trade route "from the Vikings to the Greeks" passed? Well, let's say that the selfless merchants of that time were not afraid of any obstacles. Thirsty for profit, they were ready to zip along an absurd route, drag their ships dozens of miles, smash them on the dangerous Dnieper rapids, and all in order to get from the Baltic to the Black Sea through Kiev. Then a completely natural question arises: where, in fact, is the existence of a seaport or at least a seedy fortress located at the mouth of the river. Dnieper? Indeed, only with their help, the Kiev princes could control trade and order on this route. But they simply do not exist!

And only in the future the representatives of the Ottoman Empire will build a geographically and strategically important fortress Achi-Kale, which blocked the exit to the Black Sea from the Dnieper. It is for Achi-Kale that the prince will fight for almost a year and a half Potemkin... In 1788 it will be conquered, and from 1792 it will bear the Russian name - Ochakov... A little earlier (in 1778) at the mouth of the river. Dnipro will have another large city - Kherson... But it was also founded as a Russian fortress and has nothing to do with the existence of Kievan Rus. As well as the fortress founded in 1784 in the Dneprovsko-Bug estuary, from which the history of g. Nikolaev.

But this time too, the precarious position of Kievan Rus " cunning historians save". In particular, they literally come up with the existence of an ancient Russian port at the mouth of the river. Dnieper. Say, earlier on the site of the small town of Aleshki, which was founded in 1784 and since 1854 is called Tsyurupinsk, a fairly wealthy commercial port city was built Oleshye (XI century), which appeared during the existence of the Cossack Sich. At the same time, direct historical evidence of this “ wonderful metamorphosis". And all the real archaeological finds only prove that at the beginning of the 18th century. there really was a Cossack fortification that arose at the end of the 17th century. However, this settlement bore the name Dniprovsk, and only after a while it was renamed in honor of the fictional Old Russian city of Oleshie. After all, it is not difficult for historians to change toponymy, especially if the need arises!

But back to our "great trade route", which, by all definitions, should have been a tidbit for dashing robbers. To protect them from them, the princes and their subjects were simply obliged to build well-fortified settlements on the banks of the Dnieper. With inns for the rest of merchants and the necessary infrastructure, over time they were supposed to expand and gradually turn into fairly large cities. And now the question: how many of these ancient Russian cities on the banks of the river. Do you know the Dnieper? Small Kanev with a population of only 28,000 people, villages Lyubech, district town Rogachev, Orsha and Smolensk? But this is an insignificant number in terms of its geographic and strategic scale! Especially considering the fact that the Scandinavians called the territory Ancient Rus nothing else but Gardarika - a country of cities. Where are these cities? And this is not to mention the especially dangerous sections of the "Great Trade Route" - the Dnieper rapids, overcoming which meant reliable protection from an external attack by robbers. Such protection could only be guaranteed by fortifications erected along the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks." But where are these fortifications?

Kiev archeology: few finds, many tales

And now let's try to look at the problem of the existence of Kievan Rus from an economic point of view. According to her postulates, any more or less large trading city is a place where transactions are made and there is a customs fee, i.e. washed. And in this case, historians are trying to convince us that Kiev was just such a place. Is he " gave the go-ahead"Actively trading merchants following the route" from the Varangians to the Greeks ", and here all the merchants are still with" dokievskyTimes were obliged to pay myt. At the same time, one of the most influential figures in Soviet history, professor and academician Boris Rybakov, in his research “ Kiya city”Writes the following:

The assumption of "customs fees" in the vicinity of the future Kiev is supported by a large number of finds of beautiful bronze objects decorated with multicolored champlevé enamel. Brooches, decorative chains, details of drinking horns in compact mass are found in the space from the mouth of the Desna to Rossi.

What is the academician telling us about? It turns out that the customs everywhere demanded the payment of myt in money, and the "Dokievsk" and Kiev customs officers were painfully greedy for works of applied art and, out of their kindness of soul, took a duty from merchants not in money, but in various utensils? However, thanks to academician Rybakov for this too! Indeed, unlike the modern "luminaries" of Ukrainian historical science, he at least did not lie and honestly, albeit in a veiled form, but stated: near Kiev myt coin was not found... On the other hand, there is an abundance of household utensils made of bronze. By the way! The Scandinavian researchers came to a similar conclusion, who also refute “ the greatness of the trade route from the Vikings to the Greeks". According to them, Byzantine coins account for less than 1% of all finds found on the territory of archaeological complexes. At the same time, a large number of discovered silver dirhams indicates a fairly developed trade relations with the Russians who lived in the Volga region.

Summarizing all of the above, the conclusion suggests itself. Essentially, Kiev is more of a regional trade center... He is far from the title of "world" center of trade relations, and even more so he could not play a significant role in the political life of ancient Russia. If it were really the capital, then fortifications would undoubtedly form around its center, eventually forming satellite cities, protecting its approaches from all sides. For example, around Moscow, the Golden Ring was formed with well-fortified cities and monasteries. The approaches to St. Petersburg are protected by a large number of forts and an extensive network of suburbs, etc.

Unlike Moscow and St. Petersburg, Kiev was very, very weakly defended, because of which, at the slightest threat from a potential enemy, it easily passed from hand to hand and could not withstand the onslaught. At the same time, on the territory of the city itself, we do not find even a faint semblance of an impregnable citadel, which befits the status of a capital. There is not even a hint of the Moscow Kremlin, or even the smaller Pskov or Novgorod structures. And all the known fortifications were erected on the territory of Kiev much later, in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. All this once again underlines a certain bankruptcy of Kiev in political, trade and economic terms. In response to these facts, historians do not stop repeating one thing: they say, at one time Kiev suffered greatly from the Tatar-Mongol invasion, was plundered, burned, destroyed, etc. Then it is quite a natural question: why such a "large capital" of Kievan Rus was not restored and shone in its greatness in spite of the enemies? Why did the same Moscow, burned down in 1812 and several times in an earlier period, always quickly rebuild? While "poor, unhappy" Kiev was broken, depressed and vegetated in the shadows almost until the onset of the Soviet era.

Just for reference, some statistics, so to speak, an opportunity to look at the problem from the other side. At the turn of the XVIII - XIX centuries. the population of Kiev is 188 000 person. The population of then still very young Odessa - more 193 000 person. In Kharkov at this time, about 198 000 residents. By the end of the XIX century. already living in Moscow 800 000 people, and St. Petersburg, together with the suburbs, there are more 1 350 000 residents. At the same time, the population of Kiev practically does not increase, and it itself is an insignificant provincial, practically provincial city on the territory of Russia and just a railway junction. And the point here is far from being "historical injustice"! And the geographical and strategic location of Kiev. Located far from major trade and economically significant centers, it is unattractive for settlement and continues to be just a province. And along with its vegetation, the southern region and New Russia are being actively developed. Even with the advent of Soviet power, the capital of Ukraine is not Kiev, but Kharkov, in which practically no one speaks Ukrainian. And only in the post-war period, when in 1947-1954. the architectural ensemble of Khreshchatyk was built, Kiev acquires a more attractive, solemn appearance, becomes a more "metropolitan" and beautiful city.

In general, even in the past, Kiev was never considered as a single settlement. So, at the end of the XVIII century. on the future territory of the modern city, three separate settlements were located: the Kiev-Pechersk fortress with suburbs, two versts from it was Upper Kiev and three versts from them lay Podol. According to “ Geographical description the city of Kiev, composed by the Kiev garrison by Lieutenant Vasily Ivanovich Novgorodtsov "

... The Old or Upper City of Kiev consists of four sections, which are surrounded by an earthen rampart with deliberately deep ditches and are called Andreevsky, Sofia, Mikhailovsky and Pechersky branches ... There were 682 wooden particular courtyards.

At that time, in the Kiev-Pechersk Fortress, part of which was the Lavra and the suburb, Novgorodtsev recorded 2 male monasteries, 8 stone and 3 wooden churches. And the inspector who arrived counted 9 state-owned stone and 27 wooden buildings along with a suburb and 1095 particular (civil) courtyards.

The most populated part of Kiev was Podil. Namely:

In the city of Kiev-Podil there are buildings: male monasteries: stone - 7, wooden - 2, female stone - 7; churches: stone - 9, wooden - 77; magistrate structure: stone - 4, wooden - 7; philistine courtyards: stone - 3, wooden - 1926.

Thus, in all three disparate settlements of Kiev, there were less than 4,000 households (houses), three of which were stone. And the total number of inhabitants, according to the census at the time of the reign of Catherine II, did not exceed 20,000 people! In other words, a mediocre regional center. The trading opportunities of the then Kiev can be judged by the phrase of the same lieutenant:

Merchants from the Kiev bourgeoisie, who would have had large capital, no, except for three or four, while others have mediocre, better to say, small capital.

In other words, the nature of the trade was very, very mediocre. He goes on to say:

Along the Dnieper River in the spring and in the low-water period, also in autumn from the Great Russian cities: from Bryansk, Trubchevsk, and from the Little Russia: Novgorodok-Seversky and from other places to Kiev and to the Little Russian cities of Pereyaslav, Gorodishche, Kremenchug and Perevolochny with bread, with bread wine , with strip iron and cast iron, with hemp oil, diogtum, with ropes, matting, with honey, with ham bacon and wooden utensils, barges, or so-called canyons go, and from Poland in rafts, timber and firewood, and other forest supplies are floated ... The city of Podil has a dock for ships.

In a word, the lieutenant did not report anything interesting and particularly outstanding about the life of the provincial city of Kiev in his report. The big picture " dull provincial chronicle»Is also confirmed by archaeological excavations. Designed to discover the material values \u200b\u200bof the past, they have been actively pursued on the territory of Kiev since the mid-50s. XX century During this time, a decent amount of various insignificant trifles was discovered, thanks to which many scientific works were written. What is the bottom line? - In the end, nothing! The treasures, which are of particular value for archaeologists, are found on the territory of Kiev, especially in Podil, with cherished regularity. But the problem is that the Byzantine coins found in this case have nothing to do with the period of the birth of the “statehood” of Kievan Rus and the formation of its “capital”. And based on the official dating of the discovered coins, only one conclusion can be drawn: ordinary robbers buried silver and gold in the Dnieper expanses.

Well, what about the old Russian coins? Yes, too, no way! Period XII-XIII centuries. was officially declared "coinless" by "historians". Say, there was no money in that era and, accordingly, it is pointless to look for them. At the same time, some pundits offer their version commodity-money relations - the existence of the so-called hryvnias, which were essentially silver bars.

Silver bars (hryvnias) are, of course, much better than the generally “coinless” period. But then a completely natural question arises: how did ordinary people pay for their purchases in the bazaar? Agree, it is difficult to imagine some man in the street who came to "skimp on little things" and each of the sellers "cuts off" a small piece of silver from his ingot. Any coin is a simple yet ingenious invention of mankind. After all, all coins are identical to each other - they are equal in weight and composition, which means they have absolutely the same purchasing value. As for the ingots, to determine by eye how much silver needs to be “cut off”, for example, for a chicken - neither the seller nor the buyer can do this with jewelry precision. Therefore, even ordinary common sense suggests that if coins have entered circulation at least once in the history of a people, then they will not go anywhere - this is convenient and greatly simplifies commodity-money relations.

But the problem is that silver and gold coins gradually wear out in the course of their daily use. For example, there was a coin weighing 12 g, and a year later, you see, and it no longer weighs 12 g, but 11 g. What to do in this situation? A man came up with a way out - over time, paper bills were invented, which did not lose their weight, and, consequently, their purchasing power, either after a year or two. But this happened over time, and so far hryvnia has been invented - a kind of 200-gram silver bills.

Thus, silver hryvnia bars are not expendable coins! These are large denomination bills intended for settlement for bulk purchases. And most likely they were in circulation not instead of small coins, but along with them. Moreover, they were used to pay only for major transactions, for example, merchants for their wholesale. And ordinary people still went to the shop or market with small coins. In this case, new question: why historians persistently date the hryvnia to the XII-XIII centuries? Indeed, even according to the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, they were in circulation until the 16th century, and there is no apparent reason to link their existence to the period of Kievan Rus. The answer to this question is not as simple as it might seem at first glance.

Hryvnia is a specific measure of silver... At the same time, completely different coins could be in circulation - dinars, efimkas, thalers. They could be silver or gold. The main thing is that they were all converted into a single silver hryvnia weighing 200 g. Moreover, their flow had to flow into a single princely mint, which, according to the "stories" of historians, could only be located in Kiev, as in the capital of Kievan Rus. This means that it was here that archaeologists had to find a large number of treasures with hryvnia every now and then. But where are these treasures !? Let's turn to official historical sources for the answer! So the Book Ivan Spassky « Russian monetary system"Indicates the following:

Only one coin was found in Kiev [in 1792], and even then not in the ground, but as a pendant to an icon, while all the rest gravitate towards the northwestern edge of the ancient Russian state: one was found in the ground near the ancient Yuryev (Tartu) the other on the island of Saarema; there are indications about the find in the Petersburg province. There are several known imitative coins originating from Scandinavia. "Yaroslavl srebro" is therefore attributed to the period of Yaroslav's reign in Novgorod - at the hand of Vladimir, who occupied the Russian table. Just as the image of Christ was placed on the coins of the early Kiev type described above, here the other side is occupied by the image of the Christian patron saint of Yaroslav - St. George.

... At the end of the 20s. XIX century. several more coins appeared: two silver coins of Vladimir were found in Boryspil in Ukraine, and one each at the Tsimlyansk settlement (ancient Sarkel - Belaya Vezha) and in Poland - as part of the Lenchitsky hoard.<…> In 1852, the famous Nezhinsky treasure was found - about 200 silver coins.

Thus, these coins can hardly be called "truly Kiev" - they are found anywhere, but not in the coin warehouses-hoards of the capital of Kievan Rus. For example, one of the largest treasures was discovered in 1906 on the territory of Tver. Many coins of the Kiev type were unearthed during the excavation of a Gotlandic hoard in Sweden. At the same time, historians do not provide any evidence that these “treasures” were minted in Kiev. Conclusion: their linking specifically to Kiev is nothing more than another speculative move of "would-be historians". And only one find on the territory of the Mikhailovsky Monastery could speak in favor of the minting of truly Kiev coins in Kiev. But, unfortunately, it was made in 1997, i.e. already in the period svidomo independence", And could well have been simply falsified. And the proof of this is all the latest "sensational" finds of modern Ukrainian archaeologists. Then they discovered a mass grave of victims " baturyn massacre", Then miraculously the world was shown" ukrainian"Variant of the Orlikov constitution, although the" mov "in the XVIII century. did not exist yet. In a word, if, for propaganda or political purposes, it is necessary to discover the sunken Atlantis in the middle of the Kiev reservoir, then Ukrainian toilers-archeologists will easily dig it out there.

But it is known for certain that under the so-called Kiev silver coins should be understood about 340 types of coins with different silver content. Most likely, their minting was started as soon as the princely treasury was emptied, and after they were forcibly introduced into circulation at the desired rate, which directly testifies to the economic weakness of the principality. But still! What are the Kiev treasures and what does their presence indicate? In most cases, these are modest stash of ordinary people. In essence, these are silver or gold jewelry set aside for a "rainy day": rings, earrings, crosses. As a rule, they are hidden in pots and simply buried in the ground. As for the larger treasures, for example, those belonging to the same merchants, in this case, not everything is so transparent and simple. Here is just one of the latest examples. " Treasure from the ruins of the Tithe Church» S.I. Klimovsky, an employee of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, published in the "East European Archaeological Journal" (No. 5 (6), 2000). This article starts off quite promising:

Among the ancient Russian cities, Kiev ranks first in the number of treasures found ...

However, after that there is a description of some mythical finds made in the XI century, and about which is known only from the chronicles of subsequent centuries. Of the reliably made discoveries, the author was the first to mention the treasure discovered “ in the choirs of the Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, which was the secret monastic treasury of the 17th-18th centuries. and numbering 6184 gold coins ...". Undoubtedly! This treasure is a real treasure for archaeologists and historians, but, unfortunately, it has nothing to do with ancient Kievan Rus. Finally, S.I. Klimovsky reports truly reliable information:

In 1955, during excavations on the street. Vladimirskaya, 7-9 in a dwelling of the XIII century. An earthen pot was found near the stove, in which there were gold pins, earrings, silver twisted and plate bracelets, and rings. This treasure, hidden during the siege of 1240, for many years became the last Old Russian treasure discovered in this part of Kiev. And now, 43 years later, on the opposite side of the street, a new treasure was found, sharply different from those known in the area, but closely related, like most of them, to the events of December 1240.

Based on this, it is not difficult to predict the rhetoric of interested historians: all ancient treasures have long been plundered, and “reliable” rumors about their early existence reach us. At the same time, any sane person can draw a completely logical conclusion: all the coin hoards discovered on the territory of Kiev indicate that this ancient city has never been and could not be the capital of the Russian state.

Kiev was not an administrative, commercial or economic center of Kievan Rus. Otherwise, he would now and then delight archaeologists with valuable finds proving his power and the economic flourishing of the ancient state. Why isn't this happening? Here the answer is already extremely simple! Because Kievan Rus with the capital Kiev is nothing more than an invention of historians interested in this.

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Based on the book Alexey Kungurov
« There was no Kievan Rus, or what historians are hiding»

Kievan Rus is an ancient Russian state in the west, southwest, partly in the south of the East European Plain. It existed from the ninth to the beginning of the twelfth centuries AD. The capital was Kiev. It arose by the union of Slavic tribes: Ilmen Slovens, Krivichs, Polyans, Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Polotsk, Radimichs, Northerners, Vyatichi.

The year 862 is considered fundamental in the history of Kievan Rus, when, as the ancient written source "The Tale of Bygone Years" indicates, the Slavic tribes called the Varangians to reign. The first head of Kievan Rus was Rurik, who took the throne in Novgorod.

Princes of Kievan Rus

864 - Varangians Askold and Deer seized princely power in Kiev
882 - Varyag Oleg, who reigned in Novgorod, killed Askold and Dir, sat down to reign in Kiev, united the northern and southern Slavic lands and took the title of Grand Duke
912 - Death of Oleg. Elevation Igor, son of Rurik
945 - Igor's death. His wife is on the throne Olga
957 - Olga handed over power to her son Svyatoslav
972 - Death of Svyatoslav at the hands of the Pechenegs. Took the Kiev throne Yaropolk
980 - The death of Yaropolk in a feud with his brother Vladimir. Vladimir - Kiev prince
1015 - The death of Vladimir. Power in Kiev was seized by his son Svyatopolk
1016 - Three-year struggle for supremacy in Russia between Svyatopolk and Novgorod prince Yaroslav
1019 - Death of Svyatopolk. Yaroslavnicknamed wise - prince in Kiev
1054 - After the death of Yaroslav, his son took the grand-ducal table Izyaslav
1068 - The uprising of the Kiev people, the proclamation of the Polotsk prince Vseslav Grand Duke, Return Izyaslav.
1073 - Expulsion of Izyaslav by his brothers Svyatoslav and Vsevolod. Prince - Svyatoslav Yaroslavich
1076 - Death of Svyatoslav. Return Izyaslav.
1078 - The death of Izyaslav at the hands of Oleg Svyatoslavich's nephew, Prince of Chernigov. Took the Kiev throne Vsevolod Yaroslavich
1099 - Prince Svyatopolk, son of Izyaslav
1113 - Prince Vladimir Monomakh
1125 - Death of Vladimir Monomakh. His son ascended the throne Mstislav
1132 - Death of Mstislav. The disintegration of Novgorod-Kievan Rus.

Brief history of Kievan Rus

Kiev remained the center of Kievan Rus until 1169, when it was captured and plundered by the troops of the Prince of Rostov-Suzdal Andrey Bogolyubsky

Cities of Kievan Rus

Novgorod (until 1136)
Pskov
Chernihiv
Polotsk
Smolensk
Lyubech
Zhytomyr
Iskorosten
Vyshgorod
Crossed
Pereyaslavl
Darkarakan

Until the Mongol-Tatar invasion of the mid-13th century, Kiev continued to be formally considered the center of Rus, but in fact it lost its significance. The time of feudal fragmentation has come in Russia. Kievan Rus split into 14 principalities, ruled by the descendants of different branches of the Rurik tree, and the free city of Novgorod

Denying the greatness of Russia is a terrible robbery of humanity.
Berdyaev Nikolay Alexandrovich

The origin of the ancient Russian state of Kievan Rus is one of the greatest mysteries in history. Of course, there is an official version that gives many answers, but it has one drawback - it completely rejects everything that was with the Slavs before 862. Is everything really so bad, as it is written in Western books, when the Slavs are compared with semi-savage people who are not able to manage themselves and for this they were forced to turn to a stranger, a Varangian, so that he would teach them wits about reason? Of course, this is an exaggeration, since such people cannot take Byzantium by storm twice before that time, and our ancestors did it!

In this material, we will adhere to the main policy of our site - a statement of facts that are known for certain. Also on these pages we will point out the main points that historians get around under various pretexts, but in our opinion they can shed light on what happened on our lands at that distant time.

Formation of the state of Kievan Rus

Modern history puts forward two main versions according to which the formation of the state of Kievan Rus took place:

norman. This theory is based on a rather dubious historical document - "The Tale of Bygone Years". Also, supporters of the Norman version talk about different records from European scientists. This version is basic and accepted by history. According to her, the ancient tribes of the eastern communities could not govern themselves and called for three Varangians - the brothers Rurik, Sineus and Truvor.
anti-Norman (Russian). The Norman theory, despite its generally accepted, looks rather controversial. After all, there is no answer to even a simple question, who are the Vikings? For the first time, anti-Norman statements were formulated by the great scientist Mikhail Lomonosov. This man was distinguished by the fact that he actively defended the interests of his homeland and publicly declared that the history of the ancient Russian state was written by the Germans and had no logic behind it. In this case, the Germans are not a nation as such, but a collective image, which was used to refer to all foreigners who did not speak Russian. They were called dumb, hence the Germans.

In fact, until the end of the 9th century, not a single mention of the Slavs remained in the annals. This is rather strange, since quite civilized people lived here. This question is analyzed in great detail in the material about the Huns, who, according to numerous versions, were none other than Russians. Now I would like to note that when Rurik came to the ancient Russian state, there were cities, ships, their own culture, their own language, their traditions and customs. And the cities were quite well fortified from a military point of view. Somehow it is weakly connected with the generally accepted version that our ancestors at that time ran with a digging stick.

The ancient Russian state of Kievan Rus was formed in 862, when the Varangian Rurik came to rule in Novgorod. An interesting point is that this prince exercised his rule over the country from Ladoga. In 864, the associates of the Novgorod prince Askold and Dir went down the Dnieper and discovered the city of Kiev, in which they began to rule. After the death of Rurik, Oleg took custody of his young son, who went on a campaign to Kiev, killed Askold and Dir and took possession of the future capital of the country. It happened in 882. Therefore, the formation of Kievan Rus can well be attributed to this date. During the reign of Oleg, the possession of the country expanded through the conquest of new cities, and also there was a strengthening of international power, as a result of wars with external enemies, such as Byzantium. There were good relations between the Novgorodian and Kiev princes, and their minor junctions did not lead to major wars. No reliable information has been preserved on this score, but many historians say that these people were brothers and only blood ties held back the bloodshed.

Formation of statehood

Kiev Russia was a truly powerful state, respected in other countries. Its political center was Kiev. It was a capital city that was unrivaled in its beauty and wealth. The impregnable fortress city of Kiev on the banks of the Dnieper was a stronghold of Russia for a long time. This order was violated as a result of the first fragmentation, which damaged the power of the state. It all ended with the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol troops, who literally razed the "mother of Russian cities" to the ground. According to the surviving records of contemporaries of that terrible event, Kiev was destroyed to the ground and lost forever its beauty, significance and wealth. Since then, the status of the first city did not belong to him.

Interesting is the expression "mother of Russian cities", which is still actively used by people from different countries. Here we are faced with another attempt to falsify history, since at the moment when Oleg captured Kiev, Russia already existed, and Novgorod was its capital. And the princes got into the capital Kiev-city itself, having gone down the Dnieper from Novgorod.

Internecine wars and the reasons for the collapse of the ancient Russian state

Internecine war is that terrible nightmare that tormented the Russian lands for many decades. The reason for these events was the lack of a coherent system of succession to the throne. In the ancient Russian state, a situation developed when, after one ruler, there remained a huge number of contenders for the throne - sons, brothers, nephews, etc. And each of them strove to exercise their right to rule Russia. This inevitably led to wars, when the supreme power was asserted by weapons.

In the struggle for power, individual contenders did not shy away from anything, even fratricide. The story of Svyatopolk the Accursed is widely known, who killed his brothers, for which he received this nickname. Despite the contradictions that reigned within the Rurikovichs, Kievan Rus was ruled by the Grand Duke.

In many ways, it was the internecine wars that brought the ancient Russian state to a state close to collapse. It happened in 1237, when the ancient Russian lands first heard about the Tatar-Mongols. They brought terrible troubles to our ancestors, but internal problems, disunity and unwillingness of the princes to defend the interests of other lands led to a great tragedy, and for long 2 centuries Russia fell into complete dependence on the Golden Horde.

All these events led to a completely predictable result - the ancient Russian lands began to disintegrate. The date of the beginning of this process is considered to be 1132, which was marked by the death of Prince Mstislav, nicknamed the Great by the people. This led to the fact that the two cities of Polotsk and Novgorod refused to recognize the authority of his successor.

All these events led to the disintegration of the state into small appanages ruled by individual rulers. Of course, the dominant role of the Grand Duke remained, but this title was more like a crown, which was used only by the strongest as a result of regular civil strife.

Key events

Kievan Rus is the first form of Russian statehood, which had many great pages in its history. The following can be distinguished as the main events of the era of the Kiev rise:

862 - the arrival of the Varangian-Rurik to Novgorod to reign
882 - Prophetic Oleg captured Kiev
907 AD - campaign to Constantinople
988 - Baptism of Rus
1097 - Lubech Congress of Princes
1125-1132 - reign of Mstislav the Great

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

Russian kaganate

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

The ruler of the Russian Kaganate bore the title of Kagan. In the Middle Ages, this title was of great importance. The kagan ruled not only over nomadic peoples, but also commanded over other rulers of different peoples. Thus, the head of the Russian Kaganate acted as the emperor of the steppe inhabitants.

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 dependent in a weak form on Khazaria. During the reign of Askold and Dir, it was possible to completely get rid of oppression.

Rurik's board

In the second half of the 9th century, the East Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes, due to fierce enmity, called on the Varangians overseas to reign on their lands. The first Russian prince was Rurik, who began to rule in Novgorod in 862. The new state of Rurik existed 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 Russia. In any case, the name of the term "Rus" in the X and XI centuries was used in relation to the Scandinavians. After the Scandinavian Varangian came to power, the title "kagan" gave way to the "grand duke".

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

Oleg's reign

After Rurik, power in Kievan Rus was to pass into the hands of his son Igor. However, due to the small years of the legal heir, Oleg became the ruler of the Old Russian state in 879. The new one turned out to be very belligerent and enterprising. From the very first years of his tenure in power, he strove 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 Kiev. Thus, the strategic task of conquering the Slavic tribes that lived along the Dnieper was solved. Immediately after entering the captured city, Oleg announced that Kiev was destined to become the mother of Russian cities.

The first ruler of Kievan Rus really liked the favorable location of the settlement. The gentle banks of the Dnieper River were inaccessible to the invaders. In addition, Oleg carried out large-scale work to strengthen the defense structures of Kiev. In 883-885, a number of military campaigns took place with a positive result, 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

Distinctive feature domestic policy reign of Oleg the Prophet was strengthening the state treasury by collecting tribute. In many respects, the budget of Kievan Rus was filled with extortions from the conquered tribes.

The period of Oleg's rule was marked by a successful foreign policy. In 907, a successful campaign against Byzantium took place. The trick of the Kiev prince played a key role in the victory over the Greeks. The threat of destruction loomed over the impregnable Constantinople, after the ships of Kievan Rus were put on wheels and continued their movement over land. Thus, the frightened rulers of Byzantium were forced to offer Oleg a huge tribute, and to provide Russian merchants with generous benefits. 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 Kiev 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 Kiev prince died in 912.

Prince Igor

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

The reign of Prince Igor was remembered for numerous military campaigns. After accession to the throne, he had to suppress the revolt of the Drevlyans, who wanted to cease obeying Kiev. The successful victory over the enemy made it possible to take additional tribute from the insurgents for the needs of the state.

The confrontation with the Pechenegs was carried out with varying success. In 941 Igor continued foreign policy predecessors, declaring war on Byzantium. The reason for 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, as Byzantium carefully prepared. In 944, a new peace treaty was signed between the two states because the Greeks decided to avoid a battle.

Igor died in November 945, when he was collecting tribute from the Drevlyans. The prince's mistake was that he let his squad go to Kiev, and he himself, with a small army, decided to additionally profit from his subjects. The indignant Drevlyans brutally dealt with Igor.

Period of the reign of Vladimir the Great

In 980, Vladimir, the son of Svyatoslav, became the new ruler. Before taking the throne, he was to emerge victorious from fraternal civil strife. However, after escaping "overseas", Vladimir managed to gather the Varangian squad and avenge the death of his brother Yaropolk. The reign of the new prince of Kievan Rus turned out to be outstanding. Also Vladimir was 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, to protect the lands from enemies, several fortified cities were built, one of which was Belgorod.

Baptism of Russia (988)

Paganism flourished on the territory of the Old Russian state until 988. 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 Russia in 988 did take place. Christianity was adopted by Vladimir the Great, close boyars and warriors, as well as ordinary people. For those who resisted departing from paganism, all sorts of oppression threatened. Thus, the Russian Church began in 988.

Board of Yaroslav the Wise

One of the most famous princes of Kievan Rus was Yaroslav, who was nicknamed the Wise for a reason. After the death of Vladimir the Great, the Troubles swept over 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 from the Slavs and Varangians, after which in 1016 he went to Kiev. In 1019 he managed to defeat Svyatopolk and ascend 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. The wife of Yaroslav was the daughter of the Swedish king. Around Kiev, by order of the prince, several cities and a stone wall were erected. 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 period of the reign of the Kiev 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

Yaroslav's foreign policy priority 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. On the site of the fateful battle, the Church of St. Sophia appeared. During the reign of Yaroslav, the last time there was a military conflict with Byzantium. The result of the confrontation was the signing of a peace treaty. Vsevolod, the 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 the boys were taught 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. "Russkaya Pravda" became the main asset of numerous reforms of the Kiev 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 disintegration turned out to be completely natural. An objective and progressive process took place, associated with an increase in boyar land tenure. In the principalities of Kievan Rus, nobility appeared, in whose interests it was more profitable to rely on the local prince than to support a single ruler in Kiev. According to many historians, at first, territorial fragmentation was not the reason for the collapse of Kievan Rus.

In 1097, at the initiative of Vladimir Monomakh, in order to end the strife, the process of creating regional dynasties was launched. By the middle of the XII century, the Old Russian state was divided into 13 principalities, which differed among themselves in the occupied area, military power and cohesion.

Decline of Kiev

In the XII century, there was a significant decline in Kiev, which turned from a metropolis into an ordinary principality. Largely due to Crusades the transformation of international trade communications took place. Therefore, economic factors significantly undermined the power of the city. In 1169, as a result of princely strife, Kiev was first taken by storm and plundered.

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

Population of Kievan Rus

There is no information 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 9-12 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, which arose in the 9th century as a result of the unification of the East Slavic tribes under the rule of the princes of the Rurik dynasty.

In the period of its highest prosperity, it occupied the territory from the Taman Peninsula in the south, the Dniester and the upper Vistula in the west to the upper reaches of the Northern Dvina in the north.

By the middle of the XII century, it entered a state of fragmentation and actually disintegrated into a dozen separate principalities ruled by different branches of the Rurikovich. Political ties remained between the principalities, Kiev formally continued to remain the main table of Rus, and the Kiev principality was viewed as a collective possession of all Rurikovichs. The end of Kievan Rus is considered the Mongol invasion (1237-1240), after which the Russian lands ceased to form a single political whole, and Kiev fell into decay for a long time and finally lost its nominal capital functions.

In the chronicle sources the state is called "Rus" or "Russian land", in Byzantine sources - "Russia".

Term

The definition of "Old Russian" is not associated with the division of antiquity and the Middle Ages generally accepted in historiography in Europe in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. With regard to Russia, it is usually used to denote the so-called. "Pre-Mongol" period of the 9th - mid-13th centuries, to distinguish this era from the following periods of Russian history.

The term "Kievan Rus" appeared at the end of the 18th century. In modern historiography, it is used both to designate a single state that existed until the middle of the 12th century, and for a wider period of the mid-12th - mid-13th centuries, when Kiev remained the center of the country and Rus was governed by a single princely family on the principles of "collective suzerainty."

Pre-revolutionary historians, starting with N.M. Karamzin, adhered to the idea of \u200b\u200btransferring the political center of Russia in 1169 from Kiev to Vladimir, dating 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 do not find confirmation 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 Norman theory, based on the Tale of Bygone Years of the XII century and numerous Western European and Byzantine sources, statehood was brought to Russia from outside by the Varangians - brothers Rurik, Sineus and Truvor in 862. The founders of the Norman theory are the German historians Bayer, Miller, Schlözer who worked at the Russian Academy of Sciences. The point of view about 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 bringing statehood from outside, on the idea of \u200b\u200bthe emergence of the state as a stage in the internal development of society. Mikhail Lomonosov was considered the founder of this theory in Russian historiography. In addition, there are different points of view on the origin of the Vikings themselves. Scientists, attributed to the Normanists, considered them Scandinavians (usually Swedes), some of the anti-Normanists, starting with Lomonosov, suggest their origin from the West Slavic lands. There are also intermediate versions of localization - in Finland, Prussia, and other parts of the Baltic states. The problem of ethnicity of the Varangians is independent of the question of the emergence of statehood.

In modern science, the prevailing point of view is that the rigid opposition of "Normanism" and "anti-Normanism" is largely politicized. The preconditions of the primordial statehood among the Eastern Slavs were not seriously denied by either Miller, Schlötser, or Karamzin, and the external (Scandinavian or other) origin of the ruling dynasty is a fairly common phenomenon in the Middle Ages, which does not in any way prove 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 an ethnonym is associated with them (and then the name of the state) Russiacontinue to be controversial in modern Russian historical science. Western historians generally follow the concept of Normanism.

History

Formation of Kievan Rus

Kievan Rus arose on the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" on the lands of the East Slavic tribes - Ilmen Slovenes, Krivichi, Glade, then embracing the Drevlyans, Dregovichi, Polotsk, Radimichi, Northerners, Vyatichi.

The chronicle legend considers the founders of Kiev to be the rulers of the Polyan tribe - the brothers Kyi, Shchek and Khoriv. According to archaeological excavations carried out in Kiev in the 19th-20th centuries, already in the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. there was a settlement on the site of Kiev. Arab writers of the 10th century (al-Istarhi, Ibn Khordadbeh, Ibn-Hawqal) later refer to Kuyaba as large city... Ibn Haukal wrote: "The king lives in a city called Kuyaba, which is larger than the Bulgar ... The Rus are constantly trading with the khozar and the room (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 Khagan of the Ros people are mentioned, who first arrived in Constantinople, and from there to the court of the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious. From the same time, the ethnonym "Rus" also became known. The term "Kievan Rus" appears for the first time in historical research of the 18th-19th centuries.

In the year 860 ("The Tale of Bygone Years" mistakenly refers it to the year 866) Russia makes the first campaign against Constantinople. Greek sources associate 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.

“In the year 6370 (862). They drove the Varangians across the sea, and did not give them tribute, and began to dominate themselves, and there was no truth among them, and clan after clan, and they had strife, and began to fight with each other. And they said to themselves: "Let us look for a prince who would rule over us and judge by right." And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia. Those Varangians were called Rus, as others are called the Swedes, and some Normans and Angles, and still other Gotlandians - that's how these are. Chud, Slovenia, Krivichi and the whole of Russia said: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. Come to reign and rule over us. " And three brothers with their families were elected, and they took all Russia with them, and came, and the eldest, Rurik, sat in Novgorod, and the other, Sineus, - on Beloozero, and the third, Truvor, - in Izborsk. And from those Varangians the Russian land was nicknamed. The Novgorodians are those people from the Varangian family, and before they were Slovenes. "

In 862 (the date is approximate, like the entire early chronology of the Chronicle), the Varangians, Rurik's warriors Askold and Dir, who sailed to Constantinople, trying to establish complete control over the most important trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks", establish their power over Kiev.

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

The reign of Oleg the Prophetic

In 882, according to the chronicle chronology, Prince Oleg, a relative of Rurik, set out on a campaign from Novgorod to the south. On the way, capturing Smolensk and Lyubech, establishing their power there and putting their people to reign. Further, 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 in Kiev, and Oleg said:“ Let this mother be to the Russian cities “.”); the dominant religion was paganism, although there was also a Christian minority in Kiev.

Oleg conquered the Drevlyans, Northerners and Radimichs, the last two unions 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 (the trade duty was canceled, ships were repaired, overnight stay), legal and military issues were resolved. Tribute was imposed on the tribes of Radimichi, Northerners, Drevlyans, Krivichi. According to the chronicle version, Oleg, who bore the title of Grand Duke, ruled for over 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, failed. It was also preceded by an unsuccessful military campaign against Khazaria, during which Russia, acting at the request of Byzantium, attacked the Khazar city of Samkerts on the Taman Peninsula, but was defeated by the Khazar general Pesach, and then turned its weapons 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 907 and 911 agreements, 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 adopt Christianity of the Byzantine rite (according to the most reasoned version, in 957, although other dates are proposed). However, about 959 Olga invited the German Bishop Adalbert and the priests of the Latin rite to Russia (after the failure of their mission, they were forced to leave Kiev).

Svyatoslav Igorevich

Around 962, the matured Svyatoslav took power into his own hands. His first event was the subordination 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, the Belaya Vezha fortress was built. Svyatoslav also made two trips to Bulgaria, where he intended to create his own state with the capital in the Danube region. He was killed in battle with the Pechenegs while returning to Kiev 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 Kiev prince, Oleg received the Drevlyane lands, Vladimir - Novgorod. In 977, Yaropolk defeated Oleg's squad, Oleg died. Vladimir fled "overseas", but returned 2 years later with the 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 cities of Cherven and Carpathian Rus were annexed.

Characteristics of the state in the IX-X 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; both with "b" and without it. In a narrow sense, "Rus" was understood as the territory of Kiev (with the exception of the Drevlyansky and Dregovichsky lands), Chernigov-Seversky (except for the Radimichsky and Vyatichsky lands) and Pereyaslavsky lands; it is in this sense that the term "Rus" is used up to the XIII century, for example, in Novgorod sources.

The head of state bore the title of Grand Duke, Prince of Russia. Unofficially, other prestigious titles could sometimes be attached to it, including the Turkic kagan and the Byzantine king. The princely power was hereditary. In addition to the princes, the grand ducal boyars and "men" took part in the management of the territories. These were warriors appointed by the prince. Boyars commanded special squads, territorial garrisons (for example, Pretich commanded the Chernigov squad), which, if necessary, united into a single army. Under the prince, one of the boyars-governors 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 power dealt with tribal self-government in the form of a veche and "city elders".

Druzhina

Druzhina in the period of the IX-X centuries. was hired. A significant part of it was made up of alien Varangians. Also, it was replenished by immigrants from the Baltic lands and local tribes. The amount of the annual payment for a mercenary is estimated by historians in different ways. Salaries were paid in silver, gold and furs. Usually a soldier received about 8-9 Kiev hryvnia (more than 200 silver dirhams) per year, but by the beginning of the 11th century, the pay for an ordinary war was 1 northern hryvnia, which is much less. Helmsmen on ships, headmen and townspeople received more (10 hryvnia). In addition, the squad fed at the expense of the prince. Initially, this was expressed in the form of dining, and then turned into one of the forms of taxes in kind, "feeding", the maintenance of the squad by the tax-paying population during the time of polyudye. Among the squads subordinate to the Grand Duke, his personal "small" or junior squad stands out, which included 400 soldiers. The Old Russian army also included a tribal militia, which could reach several thousand in each tribe. The total number of the Old Russian army reached from 30 to 80 thousand people.

Taxes (tribute)

The form of taxes in Ancient Rus was the tribute paid by the subordinate tribes. Most often, the unit of taxation was "smoke", that is, a house, or a family hearth. The size of the tax has traditionally been one skin per smoke. In some cases, from the Vyatichi tribe, a coin was taken from the ral (plow). The form of collecting tribute was polyudye, when the prince and his retinue from November to April traveled around his subjects. Russia was divided into several tax-paying districts, the polyudye in the Kiev district passed through the lands of the Drevlyans, Dregovichs, Krivichs, Radimichs and northerners. A special district was Novgorod, which paid about 3000 hryvnia. According to the late Hungarian legend in the 10th century, the maximum amount of tribute was 10 thousand marks (30 thousand or more hryvnias). The collection of tribute was carried out by squads of several hundred soldiers. The dominant ethno-estate 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, regulating the collection of tribute. She established "lessons", that is, the amount of tribute, and created "graveyards", fortresses on the way of the polyudye, in which the princely administrators lived and where the tribute was delivered. This form of collecting tribute and the tribute itself were called "poz". When paying the tax, the subjects received clay seals with the princely sign, which insured them against re-collection. The reform contributed to the centralization of the grand ducal power and the weakening of the power of the tribal princes.

Right

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

The principle of the inheritance of power in the 9th-10th centuries is unknown. The heirs were often young (Igor Rurikovich, Svyatoslav Igorevich). In the 11th century, princely power in Russia was passed along the "ladder", that is, not necessarily to the son, but to the oldest in the family (the uncle had an advantage over the nephews). At the turn of the XI-XII centuries, two principles collided, and a struggle broke out between the direct heirs and the side 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 (monetary and weight unit of Ancient Rus), kuna, nogat and rezana. They had a silver and fur expression.

State type

Historians have different assessments of the nature of the state of this period: "barbarian state", "military democracy", "squad period", "Norman period", "military-commercial state", "the formation of an early feudal monarchy."

Baptism of Russia and its flowering

Under Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich in 988, Christianity became the official religion of Rus. Having become the prince of Kiev, Vladimir faced an increased Pechenezh threat. For protection from nomads, he builds a line of fortresses on the border. It was during the time of Vladimir that many Russian epics take place, telling about the exploits of the heroes.

Crafts and trade. Monuments of writing ("The Tale of Bygone Years", the Novgorod Codex, the Ostromir Gospel, Lives) and architecture (Tithes Church, St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and cathedrals of the same name in Novgorod and Polotsk) were created. Numerous birch bark letters that have survived to this day testify to the high level of literacy of the inhabitants of Russia). 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 takes place in Russia. Svyatopolk the Damned in 1015 kills his brothers Boris (according to another version, Boris was killed by the Scandinavian mercenaries of Yaroslav), Gleb and Svyatoslav. Boris and Gleb were canonized in 1071. Svyatopolk himself is defeated by Yaroslav and dies in exile.

The rule of Yaroslav the Wise (1019 - 1054) was at times the highest prosperity of the state. Public relations were regulated by the collection of laws "Russian Truth" and princely charters. Yaroslav the Wise pursued an active foreign policy. He became related with many of the ruling dynasties of Europe, which testified to the wide international recognition of Russia in the European Christian world. Intensive stone construction is underway. In 1036, Yaroslav defeated the Pechenegs near Kiev and their raids on Russia ceased.

Changes in government at the end of X - beginning of XII centuries.

In the course of the baptism of Rus in all its lands, the power of the sons of Vladimir I and the power of Orthodox bishops, subordinate to the Kiev metropolitan, were established. Now all the princes who acted as vassals of the Kiev Grand Duke were only from the Rurik family. The Scandinavian sagas mention the fiefdoms of the Vikings, but they were located on the outskirts of Russia and on the newly annexed lands, therefore, at the time of writing the Tale of Bygone Years, they already seemed a relic. The Rurik princes waged a fierce struggle with the remaining tribal princes (Vladimir Monomakh mentions Prince Vyatichi Khodota and his son). This contributed to the centralization of power.

The power of the Grand Duke reached its highest strengthening 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 sources, Yaropolk Svyatoslavich, the prince began to distribute lands to the vigilantes instead of a monetary salary. If initially these were cities for feeding, then in the XI century the vigilantes received villages. Together with the villages, which became fiefdoms, the boyar title was also granted. The boyars began to make up the senior squad, which was a feudal militia by type. The younger squad ("youths", "children", "greedy"), who was with the prince, lived off feeding from the princely villages and the war. For protection southern borders the policy of resettlement of the "best men" of the northern tribes to the south was carried out, and contracts were also concluded with the allied nomads, "black hoods" (Torks, Berendey and Pechenegs). The services of a hired Varangian squad were basically 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 family (not by age, but by the line of kinship), received Kiev and became the Grand Duke, all other lands were divided among the members of the family and distributed according to seniority. Power passed from brother to brother, from uncle to nephew. The second place in the hierarchy of tables was occupied by Chernigov. At the death of one of the members of the clan, all Rurikovichs younger than him moved to the 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 the mandatory allocation of an inheritance to princes was enshrined.

Over time, a significant part of the land began to be owned by the church (“monastic estates”). Since 996, the population has paid tithes to the church. The number of dioceses, starting from 4, grew. The chair 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 he was close to Vladimir and his son Hilarion. Monasteries and their elected heads, abbots began to have great influence. The Kiev-Pechersk Monastery becomes the center of Orthodoxy.

The boyars and the squad made up special advice 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 (“snemy”) began to gather. In the cities, vecheas operated, on which the boyars often relied to support their own political demands (the uprisings in Kiev in 1068 and 1113).

In the XI - the beginning of the XII century, the first written code of laws was formed - "Russkaya Pravda", which was successively replenished with articles "Pravda Yaroslav" (c. 1015-1016), "Pravda Yaroslavichi" (c. 1072) and "Charter of Vladimir Vsevolodovich "(c. 1113). Russkaya Pravda reflected the increasing differentiation of the population (now the size of the vira depended on the social status of the victim), the position of such categories of the population as servants, slaves, smerds, purchases and ryadovichs was regulated.

"Pravda Yaroslava" made the "Rusyns" and "Slovenins" equal in rights. This, along with Christianization and other factors, contributed to the formation of a new ethnic community, aware of its unity and historical origin.
Since the end of the 10th century, Russia has known its own coin production - silver and gold coins of Vladimir I, Svyatopolk, Yaroslav the Wise and other princes.

Decay

The Polotsk principality for the first time separated from Kiev 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 among the five sons who survived him. After the death of the two younger of them, all the lands were concentrated in the hands of the three elders: Izyaslav of Kiev, Svyatoslav of Chernigov and Vsevolod Pereyaslavsky ("the triumvirate of the Yaroslavichs"). 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 the Polovtsians were first used in the strife by Vladimir Monomakh (against Vseslav of Polotsk). Izyaslav of Kiev (1078) and the son of Vladimir Monomakh Izyaslav (1096) died in this struggle. At the Lyubech Congress (1097), designed to end civil strife and unite the princes to protect them from the Polovtsy, the principle was proclaimed: "Let everyone keep his fatherland." Thus, while retaining the law of law, in the event of the death of one of the princes, the movement of heirs was limited to their fiefdom. This made it possible to end the strife and join forces to fight the Polovtsy, which was moved deep into the steppes. However, it also opened the way for political fragmentation, since a separate dynasty was established in each land, and the Grand Duke of Kiev became the first among equals, losing the role of suzerain.

In the second quarter of the XII century, Kievan Rus actually disintegrated into independent principalities. The chronological beginning of the period of fragmentation is considered by the modern historiographic tradition in 1132, when, after the death of Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, Polotsk (1132) and Novgorod (1136) ceased to recognize the power of the Kiev prince, and the title itself became an object of struggle between various dynastic and territorial associations of Rurikovich. The chronicler under 1134, in connection with the schism among the Monomakhs, wrote "the whole Russian land was torn to pieces."

In 1169, the grandson of Vladimir Monomakh, Andrei Bogolyubsky, having seized Kiev, for the first time in the practice of inter-princely strife, did not reign in it, but gave it to his inheritance. From that moment, Kiev began to gradually lose the political and then cultural attributes of the 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.

Kiev, 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, he was plundered a second time by the Smolensk prince Rurik Rostislavich, who fought against the Galician-Volyn prince Roman Mstislavich. In the battle on the Kalka River (1223), in which almost all the southern Russian princes took part, the first clash between Russia and the Mongols took place. The weakening of the southern Russian principalities increased the onslaught 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 Kiev for two years, while his older brother Yuri remained reign in Vladimir) and Smolensk (1236-1239). During the Mongol invasion of Russia, which began in 1237, in December 1240 Kiev was turned into ruins. It was received by the Vladimir princes Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, recognized by the Mongols as the oldest in Russia, and later by his son Alexander Nevsky. However, they did not move to Kiev, remaining in their fatherland Vladimir. In 1299, the Kiev Metropolitan also moved his residence there. In some church and literary sources, for example, in the statements of the Patriarch of Constantinople and Vitovt at the end of the 14th century, Kiev 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 XIV century, the Vladimir princes began to wear the title of "Great Dukes of All Russia".

The nature of the statehood of the Russian lands

At the beginning of the XIII century, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, there were about 15 relatively territorially stable principalities in Russia (in turn, divided into appanages), three of which: Kiev, Novgorod and Galitsky were objects of the all-Russian struggle, and the rest were ruled by their own branches of the Rurikovich. The most powerful princely dynasties were the Chernigov Olgovichi, the Smolensk Rostislavichi, the Volyn Izyaslavichi and the Suzdal Yurievichi. After the invasion, almost all Russian lands entered a new round of fragmentation and in the XIV century the number of great and appanage principalities reached about 250.

The only all-Russian political body was the congress of princes, which mainly resolved issues of struggle against the Polovtsy. The Church also maintained its relative unity (excluding the emergence of local cults of saints and the veneration of the cult of local relics) headed by the Metropolitan and fought all sorts of regional "heresies" by convening councils. However, the position of the church was weakened by the strengthening of tribal pagan beliefs in the XII-XIII centuries. Religious power and "zabozhni" (repression) were weakened. The candidacy of the Archbishop of Veliky Novgorod was proposed by the Novgorod Veche; there are also known cases of the expulsion of the Vladyka (Archbishop) ..

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

In the Kiev principality, the boyars, in order to weaken the intensity of the struggle between the princely dynasties, in a number of cases supported the duumvirate (co-management) of the princes and even resorted to the physical elimination of the alien princes (Yuri Dolgoruky was poisoned with poison). The Kiev boyars sympathized with the authorities 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 Kiev, did not become the patrimony of the specific princely branch of the Rurikovich clan, retaining its all-Russian significance, and during the anti-princely uprising, a republican system was established - henceforth the prince was invited and expelled in the evening. 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 junior squad physically eliminated the prince "autocratic" Andrey Bogolyubsky. In the southern Russian lands, city vecheas played a huge role in the political struggle, there were also vecheas in the Vladimir-Suzdal land (mentions of them are found up to the XIV century). In the Galician land, there was a unique case of the election of a prince from among the boyars.

The main type of army was the feudal militia, the senior squad received in the personal inherited rights of the land. The city militia was used to defend the city, urban districts and settlements. In Veliky Novgorod, the princely squad was actually hired in relation to the republican government, the lord had a special regiment, the townspeople were "a thousand" (the militia led by the tysyatsky), and there was also a boyar militia formed from the inhabitants of the "pyatins" (five dependent on the Novgorod boyars families of districts of the Novgorod land). The army of a separate principality did not exceed the size of 8000 people. According to historians, the total number of squads and city militia by 1237 was about 100 thousand people.

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

The name Rus remained during this period for the lands in the Middle Dnieper region. Residents of different lands usually called themselves by the capital cities of the appanage principalities: Novgorodians, Suzdals, Kurians, etc. Until the 13th century, according to archeology, tribal differences persist in material cultureAlso, the spoken Old Russian language was not uniform, retaining regional tribal dialects.

Trade

The most important trade routes of Ancient Rus were:

the path "from the Varangians to the Greeks", which began from the Varangian Sea, along Lake Nevo, along the Volkhov and Dnieper rivers, which went out to the Black Sea, Balkan Bulgaria and Byzantium (in the same way, entering the Danube from the Black Sea, one could get into Great Moravia) ;
Volga trade route ("the way 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 Kiev went out to the Volga and further to Asia.