The eastern lands of Europe are a vast flat area called the European plain.
It’s intersected with large waterways, thick forests and flush meadows.
Such geography meant that throughout History this land had extensive natural resources
that could be used for farming, fishing, hunting, etc. supporting a large population.
However the flat lands also paved the way for an ease of access to many migrating groups.
And such was the early history for most of eastern Europe, with many tribes coming and
going but in the grand scheme of things still leaving this vast land largely unpopulated.
However one people group that would change this where the eastern slavs.
They largely came in to the vast lands of eastern europe during the 6th century slavic
migrations.
Although valid arguments can be made that some small slavic settlements may have existed
in the area for a far longer time.
Nonetheless the reason why the eastern slavs where the ones able to populate such a vast
area is usually attributed to two main things.
First the sheer number of them, and how do we know this?
Well even though we can’t know it for sure because we have no written records, archeology
combined with the fact that their western and southern brothers that came in to central/western
europe in such large numbers that even western authors were surprised it is most likely that
eastern slavs did the same maybe even on a larger scale.
Second is the fact that eastern slavs as oppose to the other slavs used a slash and burn farming
method mixed with hunting and gathering.
This combined with no crop rotation and very rich soil and fauna of eastern europe meant
that they could produce a lot of food however would have to resettle every few years due
to hunting and soil depletion.
However these resources could in few years replenish and be used again by a different
slavic clan resettling.
All this meant that you had a large constantly moving, reproducing, resettling population
with more than adequate food supply, which resulted in the fact that these slavs were
able to settle this vast area and become in most regions the majority people group.
Going down the mostly empty center, going northward and meeting baltic and finno-ugric
groups, and eventually also going south meeting first the Avars, then the bulgars, then the
Khazars etc.
In fact it is largely believed that by the start of the 8th century most eastern slavs
living in the south were forced to pay some sort of a tribute to the Khazars.
The important thing to understand about these eastern Slavs expanding in to the european
plane is that they weren’t as homogeneous in culture and language as we may have thought.
Thanks to some findings of slavic birch bark writings in Novgorod dating back to as far
as the 10th century, we can tell with pretty good certainty that there was quite a bit
of diversity between the many eastern slavic tribes that settled the european plane.
And looking at much more recent historical eastern slavic documents or even contemporary
ones we can tell by comparison that the eastern slavic cultural and language was very much
convergent since the 10th century or even earlier.
But i digress.
It was also around the 8th century and maybe in some places as early as the 7th century
that the slavs slowly started to move from the slash and burn farming method and hunting
to more reliable crop rotation farming.
This meant that the chaotic autonomous nature of constant resettling started to be replaced
by the creation of many small self independent areas of farming communities.
These communities where held together by the main family/clan alliances that divided up
the arable and pastoral land and together defended it from outsiders.
It was in to this Slavic society that the famous Varangians arrived around in the 8th
century.
Although again arguments can be made that norse people from Sweden may have come to
eastern europe even earlier then that but these would only be trading expeditions.
However the arrival of the varangians in the 8th century was a much different story.
Yes some came for trade but many of them came to plunder and settle the rich areas around
the vast waterways of eastern Europe.
Side note here, the word Varangian is mostly used to describe norse/viking “outsiders”
from sweden that usually but don’t necessarily are in one way or another connected to the
eastern lands of europe mostly through service to some kind of a chieftain.
With these arriving Varangians also came two major changes.
One was the increase in trade between the Blacksee/the middle east and the Baltics and
that is how the scandinavians acquired the knowledge of making damascus steel which came
from India prompting the creation of the famous viking ulfberht swords.
And second was the restructuring of the eastern european predominantly slavic society.
This meant that at the beginning of the 9th century the close knit family communities
that existed up until now started to make way for the creation of large settlements
with ditches, ramparts and market places.
This in turn fueled even more trade and economic development but also the centralization of
power in to small chieftainses runned from these newly created fortified towns.
And since most of these towns were established by incoming Varangians most of these early
chieftains where Varangians, ruling over a much larger slavic population.
However there most likely existed some small chieftences around, that where just Slavic.
It was also during this time that a new word for the Varangians emerged, the Rus.
Derived from a norse word to row, as many of the Varangians would do, rowing up and
down the eastern european waterways.
But it is important to note the difference between the Rus and the Varangians, unlike
the Varangians the Rus mostly refered to norse people born and living in eastern Europe including
the many chieftains.
This is why foreign writers like Ahmad Ibn Fadlan who wrote the first hand account of
a viking funeral referred to the Norseman as the Rus, because they came from eastern
Europe not Scandinavia.
But the word Rus later started to be used not just for the norse people and Chieftains
but also their subjects, which where mostly slavic, this combined with the fact that the
Rus chieftains and people overtime assimilated in to the much larger Slavic population the
word Rus kind got assimilated as well, with all eastern slavs being called the Rus by
around the 11th and 12th century.
But going back to the 9th century from here as it so often does some chieftenses started
to grow more powerful than others and absorb the weaker ones.
Forming large town centers some of which we would even recognize today.
And this is where most historians start referring to one of the most important Eastern European
historical documents, the nestor’s chronicle or the primary chronicle or just Povest.
Now there’s many problems with the primary chronicle that could have it’s own entire
video like for example the fact it most likely wasn’t even written by nestor, or that it
was written 2 to 3 hundred years after the certain events it talks about, or the fact
that its starts of with a mistakes stating the wrong starting date of Michael the 3rd’s
reign (Byzantine Emperor), etc.
However, this is not to say that we should dismiss the entire Primary Chronicle.
Because not all of it that we can check with archeology or other documents is wrong.
Just some of it is.
Therefore we have to be aware that the events it talks about that we at the moment can’t
check with other means may be wrong or altered from the truth.
So with that in mind I will sight the primary chronicle however also combine it with any
other possible sources to try to get the most completely picture as it stands.
So hold on to your hats as it gets a bit convoluted from here.
The primary chronicle states that the Slavic tribes along with some Finno-Ugric tribes
rebelled against their Varangian overlords and chased them out of the Lands of Eastern
Europe in the early 9th century.
Now this may be true for some chieftences that existed at the time but eastern europe
wasn’t one big unified area and what may have occurred in one of the chieftaincies
probably didn’t happen in all of them.
After that it is said that the people who through out the Varangians started to squabble
amongst themselves and chaos ensued.
To fix this problem some of these tribes invited back the Varangians to restore order.
The Varangians agreed and came in 860 to 862, with a large force lead by a person named
Rurik.
However it is debated if Rurik really came being invited or just came as another conqueror
trying to get land for himself, just like many vikings did in western Europe.
It is also very likely that Rurik came to take the land from another Varangian/Rus and
the expulsion story never happened, being invented years later to make it seem like
a union between the Varangians and the slavs not a conquest.
There’s also a Byzantine source stating a Rus siege of constantinople in 860 where
the Rus laid siege to the city before retreating.
This is the same year as the early estimates of Ruriks arrival to Eastern Europe so we
know it wasn’t Rurik.
It may have been a different Rus chieftain of eastern Europe, or it may have been a independent
raiding expedition of some Rus people wanting to get rich or it may have been an expedition
by the Chief of the northern lands that Rurik was now conquering.
The ladder would make some sense as Rurik would naturally want to attack during the
absence of the Chieftain and his army.
On top of that the Byzantines sources state that the Rus suddenly lifted the seage leaving,
even though they had the upper hand.
So it may have well been the Chieftain quickly trying to get back to his lands because Rurik
was there.
Whatever may have happened we know that Rurik won, solidifying his reign over the northern
lands and supposedly founding Novgorod in the later half of the 9th century.
But this has been disproven as archeological finds date the settlement of Veliky Novgorod
to late 10th century.
However this probably was just a misinterpretation as Novgorod just means new city or new fortification,
so Ruriks “new city” wasn’t the “new city”.
Shortly after that Rurik died in 879.
Leaving his kingdom and a very young son Igor to quote unquote “his kin” Oleg.
The primary Chronicle states that Oleg went on an expansionist campaign conquering many
chieftaincies and cities including Kiev in 882 which he promptly named as the capital
of a kingdom from then on known as the Kievan Rus.
He then died in 912 after which Igor, Rurik’s son succeeded him.
But there’s a Khazar letter from 940 mentioning Oleg being the king of the Rus, well after
the primary chronicle states that he died.
So this prompted some historians to think that maybe Oleg didn’t really die in 912
but actually had a power struggle with Igor well in to the 9th century.
Whichever it may have been Igor did succeed Oleg eventually becoming the King of the Kievan
Rus.
In the 940s he went on to fight the Byzantines, probably oversaw raiding expeditions along
the Caspian sea and eventually was killed by his own subjects for demanding too many
tributes/taxis in 945.
But his wife Olga took initiative and as a regent for their young son Sviatoslav hunted
down the people that killed her husband, established new frontiered castles, centralized the power
within the kingdom and enacted first ever law reforms in eastern Europe.
She was also the first high ranking person in eastern europe to convert to Christianity
in Constantinople and therefor today she’s known as Saint Olga of Kiev.
And even though his mother was a christian Sviatoslav was a starch pagan his entire life.
With that said Sviatoslav fought many successful wars against the Byzantines, the Bulgars,
the Khazars who were replaced by another invading nomadic group the Pechenegs, etc.
Forming at the time the largest Empire in Europe.
However in 970 his streak would end being defeated by the Byzantines who then bribed
the Pechenegs to ambush him on his way home from the unsuccessful campaign.
The ambush was successful killing Sviatoslav in 972.
And since he didn’t have time to solidify most of his conquests lots of the land he
conquered was lost in the subsequent 6 year long succession crisis between his 3 sons.
The eldest, Yaropolk, prince of Kiev, the second eldest, Oleg, prince of Drelinia and
the youngest and also a bastard, Vladimir, prince of Novgorod.
Yaropolk in Kiev was poised to become the king of the Rus and as such waited to find
a causes belly for attacking one of his brothers and when one dubious claim came in 977 he
seaced on the opportunity and attacked Oleg.
Quickly conquering Drelinia and killing his brother.
He then turned his attention to Vladimir but after Vladimir found out about his brothers
death he new that the balance of power within the kingdom wasn’t in his favor and fled
leaving the Yaropolk as the sole ruler of the Kievan Rus.
But Vladimir had a plan in mind.
He fled to Scandinavia to one of his relatives Håkon Sigurdsson a vassal king of Norway
under the famous Harald Bluetooth.
He asked Hakon for help who did, but Vladimir also most likely heavily recruited soldiers
on his own, promising land, money and seats at his court ones they retake Kievan Rus.
With this new Varangian army assembled, Vladimir returned to Eastern Europe.
However on his way to Kiev he stopped by Polotsk and asked the local princess to marry him.
She refused to marry a bastard and so Vladimir did the only sensible thing he could have
done.
Conquered the town, killed her father and forced her to marry him anyways.
After that he also conquered Smolensk, after which he could finally move on to besiege
Kiev, where in 978 through deceit he managed to kill his brother Yaropolk, ending the 6
year long succession crisis.
Vladimir went on to solidify his kingdom and reconquer most of the lands lost since his
father's death.
But at this point Kievan Rus was a cultural and a religious melting pot.
Most of the peasants practiced slavic paganism but there were also Khazar jews, norse pagans,
volga bulgar muslims, finno ugric pagans, christians, and even the nobility practiced
a weird mixture of norse slavic paganism.
All of these different religious believes naturally didn’t provide much stability
to the kingdom.
So Vladimir decided it’s time to reform the religion of the Rus people and send out
envoys to go find out more about all the various religions.
He was put off by islams taboo on drinking stating that “Drinking is the joy of all
Rus'.
We cannot exist without that pleasure.".
He rejected Judaism as well as he didn’t like the fact that they lost control of their
Holy Land.
And In the end he settled on Orthodox Christianity being told their churches were much more lavish
and grandiose then the ones of the Catholics in the west.
Vladimir was baptized in 988 and set about converting the rest of his subject effectively
closing the pages on the formerly pagan Kievan Rus.
That is where I will end my early Eastern Slavic History video.
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I am also planning to do more early history of certain people groups at some point in
the future so if you’re into that stick around, for History.