Kievan Rus

Kievan Rus was a federation of East Slavic and Finno-Ugric peoples ruled by the Rurikid dynasty, founded when Oleg of Novgorod captured Kiev in 882 and made it his capital. It became the largest state in medieval Europe, controlling trade routes from Scandinavia to Byzantium along the Dnieper River, and reached its cultural zenith under Vladimir the Great, who adopted Orthodox Christianity in 988, and Yaroslav the Wise. The state gradually fragmented into competing principalities through the 12th century, fatally weakening it before the Mongol invasion. The Mongol armies of Batu Khan systematically destroyed its cities between 1237 and 1240, sacking Kiev and ending Kievan Rus as a unified political entity. Its legacy endures as the claimed ancestor of modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history