Chapter I
Before Rus, and the birth of Kievan Rus
How Rus’ began
Long before there was a Russian state, there was a country of forests and rivers. The sections below follow that world into the first princes, Kyiv, and the years when Rus’ took shape.
- 01Before Rus — who lived here, and what this world looked like
- 02How the first princes appeared — Varangians, trade, tribute, Rurik, Oleg, Kyiv
- 03How Rus lived — towns, peasants, merchants, the druzhina, everyday life
- 04Olga and Sviatoslav — two completely different ways of ruling
- 05The baptism of Rus — why Vladimir changed the religion
- 06Yaroslav and the flowering — what Rus looked like at its peak
- 07Why it began to fall apart — a short bridge to the next chapter