-Early Russians were the Slavs, a peaceful folk with blue or grey eyes and fair skin.
-Always were being raided by warlike people, such as the Scythians.
-We know a lot about the Slavs from the writings of Herodotus, a Greek historian from the 5th century BC ("The Father of History").
-He wrote about the Scythian domination of the Slavs.
-After the Scythian civilization crumbled the Slavs were dominated by the Sarmatians (the conquerors of the Scythians) in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.
-The Goths began to invade their lands in the 2nd century AD.
-This went on for like 200 years!
-They were invaded by the Huns in the 4th century AD.
-The Huns' conquest of the region ended in 453 AD when Attila the Hun died and his empire collapsed.
-The Bulgars invaded after the collapse of the Huns' empire.
-The "Avars" (unclear as to who exactly these barbarians were) then invaded c. 558 AD.
-The Avars were so brutal that many Slavs were forced to flee to the north, and according to legend it was there that they founded the city named after their prince (or "knyaz"), Kyi- the city of Kiev!
-After the founding of Kiev, it was conquered by the Khazars. It then became a tributary state to this horde.
-However, because of this trade began to flourish between Kiev and the Byzantines, as the Khazars were major trading partners with between the two during this time.
-The Arabs were also growing quite powerful in the Middle East, but the Khazars kept them from spreading into Slavic lands.
-During this time the Slavs began migrating outwards into modern-day Finland and Lithuania.
-The Slavs typically had no currency, so wealth was measured in slaves.
-The Slavs worshiped many gods, such as Perun (god of thunder and lightning).
-Christianity was just starting to make its way into the region due to Byzantine missionaries, which included Saints Cyril and Methodius (the former of whom the Cyrillic alphabets are named after!).
-Government of these Slavic lands were very loose in terms of control, and poorly organized.
-800s AD- Vikings explode onto the European scene!
-One of these groups was the Varangians, led by a dude named Rurik (AKA Hrøríkʀ).
-Rurik and the Varangians arrived at the Slavic town of Ladoga and took over. They later moved their seat of power to the city of Novgorod.
-There are two legends that have different accounts as to why the Varangians set up shop in Novgorod:
-Aristocrats of Novgorod invited the Varangians to serve as mercenaries.
-Same as above, except Rurik and his crew ended up taking over instead.
-Prince Vadim (prince of Novgorod) tried to defend his town from these invaders, but he ended up being defeated.
-Regardless of why the Varangians came to Novgorod, Rurik's dynasty was founded c. 862 AD and would last over 700 years!!
-Rurik's brothers moved down to Kiev to rule there while Rurik was up in Ladoga and/or Novgorod.
-They also began expanding their territory south along the Dnieper River all the way to the Black Sea, with their ultimate goal being to conquer Constantinople!
-860 AD- the Varangians attack Constantinople! Of course, they also ravaged the countryside along the way.
-During this time the Byzantine emperor Michael III (AKA Michael the Drunkard (haha)) was in the middle of fighting off the Abassid Caliphate and the main Byzantine army wasn't close to the city.
-Unfortunately for the Byzantines, however, the Varangians couldn't breach the walls and were soon chased off by the main Byzantine forces when they returned to the city.
-879 AD- Prince Rurik dies. His kingdom had grown quite big, so it ended up getting divided into fiefdoms to be ruled by his sons as princes/dukes (based out of Kiev, the new capital).
-First grand duke/prince (knyaz) was Oleg (AKA Helgi or "Örvar) of Novgorod (who was responsible for moving the capital from Novgorod to Kiev and who was ruling as regent since Rurik's son was too young).
-Consolidated power by making the other Slavic princes swear fealty to him or be executed!
-He took Kiev by having Askhold and Dir (who had been ruling the city) put to death.
-Oleg's three goals:
-Turn the Slavic lands into a powerful kingdom centered around Kiev.
-Expand trade with Mediterranean powers.
-Expand his kingdom, now known Rus' (AKA "Kievan Rus'").
-907 AD- Oleg attacks Constantinople (The Rus'-Byzantine War of 907).
-Demanded better trade deals with the Byzantines, which actually resulted in the Byzantines accepting their terms. However, Byzantine records have no mention of this, so it's very confusing as to what really was going on during this time.
-912 AD- Oleg dies, replaced by Rurik's son, Igor (Ingvar Røriksen).
-According to legend, Oleg had been told by pagan priests that he would die because of his horse. When his horse died, Oleg was really happy and went to where the remains of his horse were to confirm its death. However, when he touched the horse's skull with his boot, a snake came out of the skull and bit him, killing him!
-941 AD- Igor attacks Constantinople. However, the Byzantines used "Greek fire" to destroy the Rus' ships, which really fucked them up.
-944 AD- Igor tries again to attack Constantinople, this time with a Pecheneg army as an ally. However, it's also possible that the Pechenegs had joined up with them earlier too.
-Hoping to avoid trouble, the Byzantines were able to negotiate a deal; this satisfied the Rus' and so they backed off.
-945 AD- Igor is killed by the Drevlians, a nearby Slavic tribe who had stopped paying tribute to Kievan Rus' and whom Igor was trying to dominate again.
-Igor was executed by being tied up to two birch trees that had been bent down with ropes, so that when the ropes were cut the trees snapped up straight Igor was ripped apart!
-Unfortunately, Igor's son, Svyatoslav (AKA Sveinald Ingvarsson), was too young to rule, so his mother (Igor's wife), Queen Olga, ruled as regent in his place.
-955 AD- Queen Olga converts to Christianity.
-957 AD- Queen Olga travels to Constantinople and is warmly received by Constantine VII.
-She was blown away by by the Hagia Sophia (a giant cathedral dedicated to "the holy wisdom of God").
-The Hagia Sophia would have an extremely strong and long-lasting impact on Russian architecture in the future.
-Olga was baptized and Constantine VII became her godfather.
-Perhaps her main motive was for religious reasons, or it's possible that she just wanted to improve trade agreements.
-She was forced to stay in Constantinople for one year (!) to perform a seemingly never-ending series of rituals.
-Anyway, although she was now a Christian, Olga was still brutal as fuck.
-As revenge against the Drevlians, Olga destroyed entire villages in "creative" ways, including using birds to set fire to houses and then forcing the inhabitants to stay inside while their buildings burned.
-Instituted the poliudie system, which streamlined the tribute gathering system and was also the first recorded legal reform in Eastern Europe.
-However, Olga was unable to get her son or the Rus' as a whole to convert to Christianity.
-969 AD- Olga dies (maybe; see below), Svyatoslav finally becomes knyaz.
-At this point, we see the rulers becoming less like Vikings and more like a Slav, such as shaving his beard, taking a Slavic name, etc.
-Sviatoslav kicked off his reign by starting a war with the Khazars!
-At this point it's also possible that Olga was actually not dead and was still technically ruling as regent, but either way Svyatoslav was calling the shots.
-Next he started to fuck up neighboring tribes and/or groups who refused to pay tribute or submit to Kievan Rus'.
-Because of this, Kievan Rus' doubled in size in terms of territory!
-In fact, the kingdom grew so powerful that the Byzantines actually paid them to help out in a war against the Bulgars!
-Thus, Kievan Rus' were eventually successful in conquering some of the Bulgars' northern territory. Also, the Bulgars were quite wealthy, so when Sviatoslav invaded with his army he ended up just deciding to stay in this newly conquered territory, even going so far as to move the Kievan Rus' capital to the city of Pereyaslavets (outside of modern-day Tulcea, Romania), which really pissed off everyone in Kiev (including his mom, who ended up dying three days later (according to some sources).
-The Byzantines were also scared that they had created a monster!
-969 AD- Byzantine emperor Nikephoros II Phokas was assassinated, replaced by his nephew, wife's secret lover, and assassin General John I Tzimiskes (the greatest military leader in Byzantine history!).
-Svyatoslav, not knowing this, decided to try and take on the Byzantines again by demanding that the Byzantines allow Kievan Rus' to keep their Bulgarian lands, which was a ridiculous proposal since the Byzantines had hired Kievan Rus' to simply invade as mercenaries.
-Of course, John I Tzimiskes turned down Svyatoslav's proposal, so Kievan Rus' began to attack some Byzantine cities in retaliation. Big mistake- eventually John I Tzimiskes raised a huge army and fucked up the Kievan Rus' forces pretty badly, and soon Svyatoslav found himself besieged by Byzantine forces at the city of Sorostolon (modern-day Silistra, Bulgaria).
-Knowing that he was facing defeat, Svyatoslav finally sued for peace with a crushed army, and John I Tzimiskas allowed them to leave peacefully.
-972 AD- on their way back to Kiev, the Kievan Rus' army was constantly attacked by bands of Pecheneg barbarians, which ultimately resulted in Svyatoslav himself being hacked to pieces!
-According to legend, the Pecheneg khan, Kurya, used Svyatoslav's skull as a chalice.
972-980 AD- war broke out over who would rule after Sviatoslav's death between his sons Oleg and Yaropolk.
-977 AD- Oleg was killed by Yaropolk. Thus, Yaropolk became Knyaz Yaropolk I and ruled Kievan Rus' unopposed.
-However, Svyatoslav also had another son, Vladimir, who had thus far been not involved in the war of succession. Still, worrying for his life Vladimir ended up fleeing to Novgorod, where he rallied a Varangian army and crushed the Kievan Rus' (which also included the death of Yaropolk I himself) in 980 AD.
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