Emperor Basil the Second, Anna, here, in the city he captured, the prince is baptized (hundreds of pagan wives are exempted from duties).
The first Metropolitan of Kiev, witnessed by written sources – Theophylacte, translated by Emperor Basil II in Rosia from the Byzantine province of Armenia Second, the city of Sevastia (the northeast of modern Turkey, or rather its center), which took the origin of the four episcopses – Belgorod, Novgorod, Chernigov, and Polotsk. There is little information on the activities of the metropolitan, he leaves his high post Theophylact in 1018.
Vladimir Krasnoe Solnyshko is known for his participation in the voluntary and forced change of state religion. The character of many folk tales. With it, a church statute is introduced, a hierarchy of priests is built, the chasing of «srebreniki» begins; high-quality classic coins, which replaced the extended silver hryvnia. Around 980, Vladimir kills Rogvolod, the prince of the Polotsk principality (the territory of modern central and northern Belarus), his daughter, Rogneda, wields power by force. Three sons from her become a branch of the Rurik, Izyaslavichi Polotsk, or, in other words, Rogvolodovichi.
Yaroslav Vladimirovich Wise, son of Vladimir, prince of Novgorod, Kiev and Rostov. The heyday of the Russian kingdom. The introduction of a set of laws – «Russian Truth». Princes and princesses from Yaroslav and his wife, the daughter of the Swedish king, Indigerda, are fully welcomed in France, Hungary, Greece, Norway, Poland and Austria.
Three centers of power – Kiev, Vladimir and Veliky Novgorod. Here you can add Polotsk, the capital of the future Belarusia (or, if its modern «king» – «Belarus» demands). Kiev is an outpost of Russian civilization: to the south, immediately behind the system, it is unknown who, two centuries before the era of the Zmiyiv ramparts erected, are the possessions of the Polovtsians and Mongols, with the island of Russian possessions, Tmutarakan, located on the site of the present Krasnodar Territory, and partially dependent on it by the eastern Crimea.
The next popular ruler (according to the «lestive» principle of the seniority of the princely family, most often from brother to brother) is Vladimir Vsevolodovich Monomakh, ie. «Edinoborets», (1113—1125), the grandson of the fifth son of Yaroslav the Wise and the Emperor of Byzantium Constantine Monomakh; Prince of Rostov, Chernigov, Pereyaslav, Grand Duke of Kiev. It is known primarily for the exclusion of the Polovtsians from the borders of Rus (1111, a kind of «Crusade» to the Great Steppe), interesting autobiographical texts («Instruction to Children», «Chronicle of Life»), restriction of tyranny of usurers from ex-Khazars in Kiev – decrease, so to speak, the discount rate from 200% to 50%, the release of purchases – dependent debtors, and similar measures.
The war of the prince with powerful Byzantium, for the interests of the husband of his daughter, the impostor of «Leo Diogenes» (1116—1122), and then his son (his grandson) are somewhat less familiar to us, to mass readers. There is an opinion that in a series of fierce and, in general, unnecessary fights, Vladimir completely depleted the potential of his country, prepared it for the subsequent period of fragmentation and decline.
In the twelfth century, after the death of the last strong ruler, Mstislav the Great, the son of Vladimir Monomakh, with the skirmishes of the princes Andrei Volynsky and Yuri Dolgoruky, Rostov, a civil war begins. Daughters of Mstislav marry the prestigious European kings – Norway, Hungary, Denmark, then the popularity of matchmaking in these parts of the royal blood falls sharply.
Rus splits into fifteen or eighteen principalities, with its dynasties, and without them. In the absence of external enemies, such a separation, for a time, is permissible. Great Novgorod, on the decision of the mixed boyar and people’s veche, invites to itself worthy princes. His example is followed by three more princedoms, choosing to reign the remaining inferior sons of the main dynasty. In Kiev, the thrones governing this or that land work side by side, somewhat resembling the present, consisting mainly of governors, or their deputies, the Russian Senate (Federation Council). Variety works in a plus, if fragments can be collected and divided by virtue of some of their natural causes. As part of a single body, parts should breathe, have «play» – experimenting with forms of the world order, absorbing vital energy in large volume, while remaining in communication with each other. So that in a state of solidarity to assimilate the best achievements of friends-allies. But, this time the union comes from outside, when the state organism is most susceptible to external influences.
In 1240 the Russian princedoms were captured by the Mongol conquerors, a half-million-strong army, who shortly before conquered the Chinese empire of the Jin dynasty. The northern fragments of Rus are free from direct invasion, but they pay Batu a heavy tribute of property, money and people. The question of whether the Rusyns could unite for an irreconcilable struggle, in principalities-bastions, hidden in the North, remains open. Alexander Nevsky prefers to «make friends» with the Golden Horde, willy-nilly introducing in Asia its Asian customs and customs, rather than being measured with it, hardly reaching fifty thousand relatively regular troops.
Polotsk avoids the Mongol invasion, but falls into the composition of the Lithuanian principality – in fact, Western Russia, nominally ready to fight the Horde. Many Russian princes who disagree with the conciliatory doctrine of Nevsky leave for Livonia (not to be confused with modern Lithuania!), Together with their squads, experience the effect of two centers of gravitation – Moscow Rus and Poland. Separated from the Horde by the Wild Field, and also already regularly paying tribute to the Russian state, they are more or less left to themselves.
To the current Lithuania this state education has only indirect. The tribes of the Zhmudy, Zhemut, Auschayt, etc., indeed, were the tributaries of the great (for the most part – Russian-speaking) principality. After their conquest by German orders, as if as moral compensation, the northern nationalities borrowed the names «Lithuania». The very same Lithuanian principality, united with Poland, largely adopted Catholicism, was eventually called the «Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth».
Due to their geographical position, mainly the steppe southern principalities are subjected to the most powerful blows, lose their former significance and are unable to recover independently. Since the thirteenth century, Kiev is run by the Baskakov of the Nogai ulus, little-known local stewards, who do not even need to come to the Khan’s bid for the label’s approval. The city ceases to be the residence of the metropolitan. In the middle of the fourteenth century, Kiev captures the Principality of Lithuania, although for this he has to fight, and with the Horde troops somewhat weakened in a series of internecine strife.
The money is again becoming less expressive with two hundred-gram oblong ingots; in the North, because of the custom to cut such money into several parts, the name «ruble» appears.
The era of Dmitry Donskoy, the second half of the fourteenth century, is very controversial. The victory over the troops of Mamai, father-in-law of the supreme ruler of the Horde, Berdibek, who imagined himself to be there chief, in 1380, does not change anything particularly. Remains of Mamai troops, gaining strength in the Crimea, «presses» the legitimate heir of Genghis Khan, Khan Tokhtamysh. Mamai lives near Kafa, gets involved in the struggle with the Genoese who shelter him, and loses his head. This is a character buried in Russian community memory, which is buried in Russian community memory, as the excavations carried out in 1941 near Feodosia in the village of Aivazovsky (Sheikh Mamai) confirm that for me, now leafing through encyclopedia files is an amazing discovery.
Yagailo (Yakov), a potential ally of Mamai (if you believe the annals), he is also Vladislav Second Jagiello, prince of Vitebsk, Grand Duke of Lithuania, later – King of Poland, in one way or another, participating in the epic battle, on the side of the Horde does not accept. Later, in 1384, on one of the fractures of History, the question is solved: a union with Poland, or an alliance with Russia. As a result, as is known, the second variant falls out. Two years later, the Lithuanian principality passes into the Catholic faith, the Grand Duke marries the 13-year-old Polish princess Jadwiga. His descendants (from the second and fourth wives) form the dynasty of Jagiellons, ruling the Commonwealth