Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus' (Old East Slavic: Роусь, romanized: Rusĭ, or роусьскаѧ землѧ, romanized: rusĭskaę zemlę, lit. 'Rus' land'; Old Norse: Garðaríki), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from … See more

Origin
Prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, most of the area north of the See more

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

Turkic peoples
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 … See more

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 as Rusia or Russia (with local … See more

During the Kievan era, trade and transport depended largely on networks of rivers and portages. By this period, trade networks had … See more

Kievan Rus', although sparsely populated compared to Western Europe, was not only the largest contemporary European state in terms of … See more