Kyvian Rus week 2

Question 1

Which countries made up Kyvian Rus?

Answer 1

Kyvian Rus wasn’t Ukrainian, Russian, or Belarusian - it was a quality of east Slavs that was located on the territories of present day Ukraine and partly Belarus and European Russia between the 10th and mid 13th century

Question 2

What was happening between the 10th and mid 13th century?

Answer 2

• viking age in 783
• era of migrations
• Formation of KR was directly related to the viking age (late 8th century and mid 11th century)
• Beginning of the 8th century, Europe was invaded by several groups, one of the most powerful being the vikings
  Noresmen or vikings were Germanic people from present day Sweden, Norway and denmark

Question 3

How did the Vikings find themselves in Ukraine?

Answer 3

• emergence of France which was on a rise in Europe, forced vikings to find new trade routes
  →bc most trade by boat, they looked for new trading routes far from the francs which brought them to Eastern Europe
  →to present day Ukraine and Byzantine empire (turkey)
  →looked for new trading routes to Asia to trade with the Arabs
  →the Dnieper trading route brought them to Ukraine
  →as they travelled towards byzantium, the new trading post emerged (Kyiv)

Question 4

Who were the Eastern Slavs?

Answer 4

• Origins of Slavs still not entirely clear to scholars and remain a subject to controversy
• indigenous inhabitants of eastern Europe who were concentrated in some parts of Poland and Ukraine
• Local Slavs constantly interacted with all kinds of nomadic tribes
• Slavic tribes expanded over various parts of eastern Europe in 7th century
• 8th century, local eastern, Slavic tribes started to interact with the vikings whose presence started to increase in the region

Question 5

Who were the Rurikids?

Answer 5

• one of the oldest European royal houses
• viking ruler, rurik, established vikings rule in present day Novgorod, Russia and founded the rurik dynasty
• Vikings established that dynasty in kiev and ruled over the country
• It would be historically inaccurate to describe KR as an exclusively viking state (vikings assimilate with local slavic tribes)

Question 6

What are normanists?

Answer 6

Scholars that believe that the vikings were responsible for the establishment of KR

Question 7

What are anti-normanists?

Answer 7

Scholars who argued that the underlying state structures of the KR existed before the arrival of vikings

Question 8

Who were the first rulers of Kyvian Rus?

Answer 8

• Helgi (Oleh) and Ingvar (little ihor)
• waged all kinds or military campaigns
• ## capture Kyiv, laying the foundation of Kyvian Rus

Question 9

Who was Sviatoslav?

Answer 9

• the “last viking”
• Focused on conquering new territories and had little interest in leading the “real” built by his predecessors
• His successors focused more on ruling the land they already possessed rather than conquering new territories

Question 10

Who was Volodymyr the Great?

Answer 10

• Sviatoslav’s son
• brought Christianity to the country which completely re-shaped Kyvian Rus culturally and politically
• baptized in Chersonesus, this is why Crimea plays an important symbolic role in the Russian historical imagination and Putin’s current politics
  →because it’s the place where Christianity in Kyvian Rus started and that’s why in Putin’s opinion the holy Chersonesus must be in Russia

Question 11

Why did many rulers at the time convert to Christianity?

Answer 11

• converting to Christianity was more of a political choice
• Christianity provided important benefits that pagan religion couldn’t offer
• adopting Christianity meant countries would be recognised as legitimate by other powerful Christian states

Question 12

The christianization of KR was directly related to the Byzantine empire because …

Answer 12

• because of riches, power and prestige attracted the vikings to byzantine (and its capital, Constantinople now Istanbul)
• Constantinople and Byzantine were symbols of luxury, culture, and civilization
• The byzantine architecture, religious liturgies and court rituals were objects of admiration

Question 13

Why did Volodymyr agree to Christianize the entire country?

Answer 13

• Volodymyr may have chosen byzantine christianity bc the byzantine empire was the strongest in the region
• The emperor was an important ecclesiastical (religious figure) probably even more important than the patriarch
  →the patriarch has been the highest authority in the orthodox church
• By choosing christianity, volodymyr gained the prestige of marrying into an imperial family
  He obtained a political and religious model to emulate at home

Question 14

Who was Yaroslav the Wise?

Answer 14

• Volodymyr’s son
• secured a place for the Rus in the christian community of nations dominated by the byzantium empire
• Also called the builder bc of his main accomplishments were in creating peace, nurturing culture and building the state
  Started large-scale construction projects, primarily known for building the citadel, the golden gate (served as an official entrance to the capital)
• Period of yaroslav’s rule associated with the compilation of a law code
  Codification of common law had an enormous impact on the legal system of KR and its successor states
• His rule is considered the high point in the history of Rus

Question 15

Who were Saint Cyril and Methodius?

Answer 15

• Yaroslav’s rule marked the beginning of literacy in KR
• Country adopted church Slavonic - written in the alphabet specifically created by Cyril and Methodius for the Slavs to translate religious texts written in Greek

Question 16

What happened to Kyviv when Yaroslav transferred his political power to his sons?

Answer 16

• Problem of succession (very common in KR) had destabilized the country following the death of each grand prince
• yaroslav’s solution was to group the lands of KR into 5 patrimonies each to be assigned to one of his sons and with a “six land poled” to be ruled by his brother
• Eldest son became grand prince of kyviv to be followed after his death by the other sons in a defined order of succession
• Each son built up his own dynasty on the lands given to him as his patrimony
  What happened when he divided the country is that he left it without a single influential ruler

Question 17

What happened at the pillage of Kyviv in 1169?

Answer 17

• Bc in 1169, andrei Bogoliubski organized a coalition of Rus princes who marched on Kviv captures the city, pillages and burns many of his churches and monasteries and killed many of its inhabitants
  It epitomized the era of disintegration
  → previously, warring Rus princes had fought for control of Kyviv but none had treated it as a foreign country in the way that andrei did

Question 18

What does pax mongolica refer to?

Answer 18

• a period of relative stability in Eurasia under the Mongol Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries. The Pax Mongolica brought a period of stability among the people who lived in the conquered territory.

Question 19

Why did the mongols suddenly emerge as a dominant force on the historical stage?

Answer 19

• a drop in the mean temperature created a supply crisis or provision crisis
  → as pastures shrank, they and other norms had to look beyond the step to get more of the food
  →appearance of a single individual genghis khan- subdued various nomadic tribes and built up an army of loyal followers

Question 20

When did the Mongols siege Kyviv?

Answer 20

Dec 7, 1240 marks the collapse of Kyviv

Question 21

When did the contest for Kyviv’s legacy start?

Answer 21

• During mid 19th century
  →when an increasing number of people living on ukrainian territories started to identify themselves as Ukrainians
  Ukrainian scholars not only began to delve into origins of ukrainians, but also to challenge Russian imperial interpretations of history
• Contest for material artifacts including the bodies and bones of the Kyvian princes
• During ww2, the battle began over the remains of prince yaroslav
  →stolen from its tomb in the 40’s