How did the lands of Rus’ change?

Once the political unity of Rus’ began to weaken, the different parts of the country had more freedom to develop in their own ways. This was not only a political change. Geography, trade and local traditions all began to matter more. The people living in the north did not have exactly the same interests as those living around Kyiv, and the lands of the northeast were becoming very different from the old centres on the Dnieper.

Kyiv was still the most famous city of Rus’, but it was no longer the only important one. Novgorod had become a major centre in the north. Vladimir and Suzdal were growing in the northeast. Smolensk stood on important routes to the west. Chernihiv remained a powerful principality, while Galicia and Volhynia developed their own political life in the southwest.

Each region had its own advantages. Novgorod was connected to the Baltic and to the northern forests, where furs were an important source of wealth. The city also stood on routes leading towards the lands of Scandinavia and western Europe. Merchants could bring goods from distant places, and the city grew rich from its position between different worlds.

Novgorod was also unusual because its political life was not controlled by its prince alone. The city had a powerful body of citizens known as the veche, an assembly that could take part in important decisions. The prince was still needed, especially as a military leader, but he had to work with the city’s leading families. Novgorod could invite a prince to rule and could also ask him to leave if the relationship failed.

Far to the northeast, the lands of Vladimir and Suzdal were developing under different conditions. The region was covered with forests and crossed by rivers, and new settlements appeared as people moved into the area. It was farther from the old Byzantine trade route than Kyiv, but it had its own resources and its own opportunities.

The princes of this region became increasingly powerful. They built new towns and churches and tried to strengthen their authority over the local population. Under rulers such as Yuri Dolgorukiy and his successors, the northeastern lands became an important political centre of Rus’.

One of the most famous princes of the region was Andrei Bogolyubsky. He preferred Vladimir to Kyiv and wanted his own land to have greater independence. His ambition was a sign of the changing political world. A prince no longer had to measure his success only by whether he could sit on the throne of Kyiv. He could build up his own city and make it the centre of a powerful principality.

The southwest developed in another direction. Galicia and Volhynia were closer to Poland, Hungary and other parts of Central Europe. Their rulers had contacts with western neighbours and controlled routes that were different from those of the northern and eastern lands. In the early thirteenth century, these territories were brought together for a time under Roman Mstislavich, creating one of the strongest powers in the southwest.

The map of Rus’ was therefore becoming more varied. There was no single model of what a Russian principality should look like. Novgorod was a wealthy trading republic in which merchants and powerful families had a strong political role. Vladimir was ruled by ambitious princes who built their own centre of power. Galicia and Volhynia looked towards Central Europe as well as towards the other lands of Rus’.

Yet these differences did not destroy the common identity of the old Rus’ world. The same Christian faith connected the principalities. The princes still belonged to the same great family, even when they were fighting one another. Churches in distant cities followed the same religious tradition, while books and religious ideas travelled from one land to another.

Politically, Rus’ was becoming divided. Culturally, it remained connected.

The result was a strange mixture of unity and separation. Politically, Rus’ was becoming divided. Culturally, it remained connected. A merchant travelling from one city to another would still recognise much of the world around him: the language, the churches, the customs and the people.

The changes also brought new opportunities. Local princes could spend more resources on their own cities, and regional traditions became stronger. New churches were built, new towns grew, and different styles of architecture appeared. Rus’ was not becoming poorer simply because it was politically divided.

But there was a price for this freedom. When the princes faced one another, there was no single ruler strong enough to make them obey. A disagreement between two families could become a war involving several principalities, and an outside enemy could take advantage of their divisions.

The old state had once been held together by Kyiv. Now the lands of Rus’ were held together by something much less definite: family, faith, language, custom and memory.

And as the other centres grew stronger, the question became unavoidable. If Kyiv was no longer the unquestioned centre of Rus’, what would happen to Kyiv itself?