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Soviet Union [USSR] The Golden Age of Kiev
Kiev dominated Kievan Rus' for the next two centuries
(see
fig. 2). The grand prince controlled the lands around Kiev, while his
theoretically subordinate relatives ruled in other cities and sent
him tribute. The zenith of Kievan Rus' came during the reigns of
Prince Vladimir (978-1015) and Prince Iaroslav the Wise (1019-54).
Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus', begun
under Prince Oleg. To enhance his power, Vladimir married the
sister of the Byzantine emperor. Iaroslav arranged marriages for
his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France,
Hungary, and Norway. Vladimir's greatest achievement was the
Christianization of Kievan Rus', starting in 988, and he built the
first great edifice of Kievan Rus', the Tithe Church in Kiev.
Iaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Ruska
Pravda (Rus' Justice); built the St. Sofia cathedrals in
Kiev and Novgorod; patronized native clergy and monasticism; and is
said to have founded a school system. Kiev's great Monastery of the
Caves, which functioned in Kievan Rus' as an ecclesiastical
academy, was developed under Iaroslav's sons.
Vladimir's choice of Eastern Orthodoxy reflected his close
political ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea
and hence the Dnepr River trade. His decision had long-range
political, cultural, and religious consequences. The Eastern
Orthodox Church had a liturgy written in
Cyrillic (see Glossary)
and a corpus of translations, which had been produced earlier for
the South Slavs. This literature facilitated the conversion to
Christianity and introduced East Slavs to rudimentary Greek
philosophy, science, and historiography without their having to
learn Greek. In contrast, educated people in medieval western and
central Europe learned Latin. East Slavs learned neither Greek nor
Latin and thus were isolated from Byzantine culture as well as from
the culture of their European neighbors to the west.
Rurik's purported descendants organized Kievan Rus' as their
shared possession. Princely succession devolved from elder to
younger brother and from uncle to nephew, as well as from father to
son. Junior members of the dynasty usually began their princely
careers by ruling a minor district, then sought to obtain a more
lucrative principality, and finally competed for the coveted golden
throne of Kiev.
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the princes and their
retinues--a mixture of Varangian and native Slavic elites plus
small Finno-Ugric and Turkic elements--dominated the society of
Kievan Rus'. Leading warriors and officials, who sometimes
constituted an advisory council, or
duma (see Glossary), received
income or land from the princes in return for their services. The
society of Kievan Rus' did not develop class institutions, the
concept of legal reciprocity, or autonomous towns, all of which
characterized Western feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchants,
artisans, and laborers sometimes exercised political influence
through a popular assembly, or veche. In some cases, the
veche either made agreements with princes or expelled them
and invited others to take their places. At the bottom of society
was a small stratum of slaves. More important were tribute-paying
peasants, who gradually came under the influence of the Orthodox
Church and landlords. As in the rest of eastern Europe, the
peasants owed labor duty to the princes, but the widespread
personal serfdom characteristic of western Europe did not exist in
Kievan Rus'.
Data as of May 1989
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