Kievan Rus’ (882–1283)
Main article: Kievan Rus
Scandinavian Norsemen, known as Vikings in Western Europe and Varangians[27] in the East, combined piracy and trade throughout Northern Europe. In the mid-9th century, they began to venture along the waterways from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas.[28] According to the earliest Russian chronicle, a Varangian named Rurik was elected ruler (knyaz) of Novgorod in about 860,[29] before his successors moved south and extended their authority to Kiev,[30] which had been previously dominated by the Khazars.[31] Oleg, Rurik’s son Igor and Igor’s son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.
Thus, the first East Slavic state, Rus’, emerged in the 9th century along the Dnieper River valley.[29] A coordinated group of princely states with a common interest in maintaining trade along the river routes, Kievan Rus’ controlled the trade route for furs, wax, and slaves between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire along the Volkhov and Dnieper Rivers.[29]
Mongol invasion (1223–1240)
Main articles: Mongol invasion of Rus’ and Tatar invasions
The Sacking of Suzdal by Batu Khan in February 1238: a miniature from the 16th-century chronicle
The invading Mongols accelerated the fragmentation of the Rus’. In 1223, the disunited southern princes faced a Mongol raiding party at the Kalka River and were soundly defeated.[41] In 1237–1238 the Mongols burnt down the city of Vladimir (4 February 1238)[42] and other major cities of northeast Russia, routed the Russians at the Sit’ River,[43] and then moved west into Poland and Hungary. By then they had conquered most of the Russian principalities.[44] Only the Novgorod Republic escaped occupation and continued to flourish in the orbit of the Hanseatic League.[45]