POST-CLASSICAL RUSSIA:
Kiev & Moscow
RUSSIA’S GEOGRAPHY:
 The Steppe:
o
o rich soil =
o modern-day Ukraine & Kazakhstan
 The Taiga:
o subarctic region
o
o bogs & lakes
 Siberia:
o
o
o Includes tundra in northern latitudes
 Great Rivers:
o
o Run north to south
o
RUSSIA’S EARLY INHABITANTS
 Vast ethnic mix whose territories shifted through Russia’s history
o
in east
o
in north
o
in south
RISE OF THE KIEVAN STATE
 Patterns of trade arose between Western Russian areas
o Caravan trade along
o Scandinavians (
) active along
 700s-800s CE
 Trade with
 Vikings as
for Byzantine Emperors
THE KIEVAN RUS

 Established trading cities
o
o
 Cultures mix =


= 1st prince of Kievan Rus, 855 CE
, Grand Prince of Kiev, 980 CE
o chose Orthodox Church

 Made church appointments  Russian Orthodoxy
 Grand Prince Yaroslav, 1019 CE
o

EARLY BYZANTINE INFLUENCS: CYRIL & METHODIUS

o Developed
Alphabet


o Byzantine influence on Russian Christianity


THE BOYARS
 Boyars =
o Kievan princes must negotiate with them
DECLINE OF KIEV, 1100s-1200s CE
 Princes argue & war, succession disputes, invaders, decline of Byzantine Empire
 Kingdom of
established

(“
” or “
”) invade
o 1237-1238 and 1240-1241
o
o
destroyed after refusal to surrender
o Led to further cultural division from W. Europe



 Slowed transmission of late Middle Ages & Renaissance
W. Europe
o Mongol influence through 1400s
RUSSIA REEMERGES: MOSCOW – “THE THIRD ROME”
 Rebuilt after Mongol destruction
 Benefited most from Mongol rule, because Princes…
o
from

o
o Begin to
 Defeat Mongols at
(1380)
 Grand Prince Ivan III (“
”) ends Mongol rule – 1480s


– Constantinople fell to Ottoman Turks
o
relocated to Moscow
o Moscow preserves
under powerful leadership
of
“
”
IVAN IV “THE TERRIBLE”: RUSSIA’S FIRST CZAR
 r.1533-1584 CE
 took title of Czar (“
”)
o saw himself as heir to
o on throne at age
 extremely paranoid
o
o torture & murder suspected enemies (
o St. Basil’s Cathedral
)