During its existence, Kievan Rus' was known as the "land of the Rus" (Old East Slavic: ро́усьскаѧ землѧ, from the ethnonym Ро́усь; Greek: Ῥῶς; Arabic: الروس ar-Rūs), in Greek as Ῥωσία, in Old French as Russie, Rossie, in Latin

 ...

Origin
Prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century AD, the lands between the Baltic Sea and Black Sea were primarily populated by

 ...

During the Kievan era, trade and transport depended largely on networks of rivers and portages. The peoples of Rus' experienced a period of great economic expansion, opening trade routes with the Vikings to the north and west and with the Byzantine Greeks to

 ...

Kievan Rus', although sparsely populated compared to Western Europe, was not only the largest contemporary European state in terms of area but also culturally advanced. Literacy in Kiev,

 ...

Turco-Mongols
From the 9th century, the Pecheneg nomads began an uneasy relationship with Kievan Rus'. For over two centuries they launched sporadic raids into the lands of Rus′, which sometimes escalated into full-scale wars (such as the

 ...

11th century
• Novgorod Land 862–1478 the allied territory of Kievan Rus'; from 1136 the Novgorod Republic

 ...

Due to the expansion of trade and its geographical proximity, Kiev became the most important trade centre and chief among the communes;

 ...