 | Kievan Rus': Encyclopedia II - Kievan Rus' - The Golden Age of Kiev
Kievan Rus' - The Golden Age of Kiev
The region of Kiev dominated the state of Kievan Rus′ for the next two centuries. The grand prince (velikiy kniaz') of Kiev controlled the lands around the city, and his theoretically subordinate relatives ruled in other cities and paid him tribute. The zenith of the state's power came during the reigns of Prince Vladimir (Vladimir the Great, r. 980-1015) and Prince Yaroslav (the Wise; r. 1019-1054). Both rulers continued the steady expansion of Kievan Rus′ that had begun under Oleg.
Vladimir rose to power in Kiev after the death of his father Sviatoslav I in 972 and after defeating his half-brother Yaropolk in 980. As Prince of Kiev, Vladimir's greatest achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus′, a process that began in 988. The annals of Rus¹ state that when Vladimir had decided to accept a new faith instead of the traditional idol-worship (paganism) of the Slavs, he sent out some of his most valued advisors and warriors as emissaries to different parts of Europe. After visiting the Roman Catholics, the Jews and the Muslims, they finally arrived in Constantinople. There, they were so astounded by the beauty of the cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the liturgical service held there, that they made up their minds there and then about the faith they would like to follow. Upon their arrival home, they convinced Vladimir that the faith of the Greeks was the best choice of all, upon which Vladimir made a journey to Constantinople and arranged a marriage between himself and Princess Anna, the sister of the Byzantine emperor Basil II.
Vladimir's choice of Eastern Christianity may also have reflected his close personal ties with Constantinople, which dominated the Black Sea and hence trade on Kiev's most vital commercial route, the Dnieper river. Adherence to the Eastern Orthodox Church had long-range political, cultural, and religious consequences. The church had a liturgy written in Cyrillic and a corpus of translations from the Greek that had been produced for the Slavic peoples. The existence of this literature facilitated the conversion to Christianity of the Eastern Slavs and introduced them to rudimentary Greek philosophy, science, and historiography without the necessity of learning Greek. In contrast, educated people in medieval Western and Central Europe learned Latin. Enjoying independence from the Roman authority and free from tenets of Latin learning, the East Slavs developed their own literature and fine arts, quite distinct from those of other Orthodox countries. See Old Russian literature and Old Russian architecture for details.
Yaroslav, known as "The Wise", also struggled for power with his brothers. Although he first established his rule over Kiev in 1019, he did not have uncontested rule of all of Kievan Rus until 1036. Like Vladimir, Yaroslav was eager to improve relations with the rest of Europe, especially the Byzantine Empire. Yaroslav's granddaughter, Eupraxia the daughter of his son Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev, was married to Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor. Yaroslav also arranged marriages for his sister and three daughters to the kings of Poland, France, Hungary, and Norway. He built the first great edifice of Kievan Rus′, the Desyatinnaya Church in Kiev. Yaroslav promulgated the first East Slavic law code, Russkaya Pravda (Justice of Rus′); built Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod; patronized local clergy and monasticism; and is said to have founded a school system. Yaroslav's sons developed the great Kiev Pechersk Lavra (monastery), which functioned in Kievan Rus′ as an ecclesiastical academy.
In the centuries that followed the state's foundation, Rurik's descendants shared power over Kievan Rus′. Princely succession moved 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 official careers as rulers of a minor district, progressed to more lucrative principalities, and then competed for the coveted throne of Kiev. In the 11th century and the 12th century, the princes and their retinues, which were a mixture of Slavic and Scandinavian elites, dominated the society of Kievan Rus′. Leading soldiers and officials received income and land from the princes in return for their political and military services. Kievan society lacked the class institutions and autonomous towns that were typical of West European feudalism. Nevertheless, urban merchants, artisans, and laborers sometimes exercised political influence through a city assembly, the veche (council), which included all the adult males in the population. In some cases, the veche either made agreements with their rulers or expelled them and invited others to take their place. At the bottom of society was a small stratum of slaves. More important was a class of tribute-paying peasants, who owed labor duty to the princes; the widespread personal serfdom characteristic of Western Europe did not exist in Kievan Rus′, however.
Other related archives1015, 1019, 1036, 1054, 1169, 11th century, 1204, 1238, 1264, 1299, 12th century, 1321, 13th century, 14th century, 17th century, 859, 860, 862, 880, 907, 911, 972, 980, 988, Baltic Sea, Baltic region, Basil II, Belarus, Belarusians, Black Sea, Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine, Byzantine Empire, Central Europe, Chernigov, Christianization, Chuds, Constantinople, Crusades, Cyrillic, De Administrando Imperio, Desyatinnaya Church, Dnieper, Dnieper river, East Slavic, East Slavs, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Slavs, Finnic, Fourth Crusade, France, Galicia, Galicia-Volhynia, Gediminas, Golden Age, Greek, Greek philosophy, Hagia Sophia, Halych, Hanseatic League, Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, History of Belarus, History of Russia, History of Ukraine, Hungarians, Hungary, Jews, Khazars, Kiev, Kiev Pechersk Lavra, Krivichs, Ladoga, Latin, Lithuanian, Merias, Mongol invasion, Muscovy, Muslims, Norway, Novgorod, Old Russian literature, Oleg, Orient, Orthodox Christianity, Pereyaslav, Poland, Poles, Polotsk, Polovtsians, Primary Chronicle, Prince Andrey Bogolyubskiy, Prince Daniil, Prince Roman Mstislavich, Prince Vladimir, Prince Yaroslav, Republic of Novgorod, Roman Catholics, Rulers of Kievan Rus', Rurik, Rurik Dynasty, Rurikids, Rus' (people), Russia, Russian architecture, Russians, Russkaya Pravda, Rus′, Ruthenia, Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod, Scandinavian, Slavic, Slavs, Smolensk, Suzdal′, Sviatoslav I, Svyatoslav, Ukraine, Ukrainians, Varangian, Varangians, Veses, Viking, Vladimir, Vladimir the Great, Vladimir-Suzdal, Vladimir-Suzdal′, Volga River, Volhynia, Vsevolod I, Prince of Kiev, Western, Yaropolk, Yaroslav I the Wise, autocratic, beeswax, civil wars, druzhina, ending the rule of Rurikids in the city, furs, grand prince, historiographical, historiography, honey, metropolitan, migrations, paganism, papacy, predecessor state, principality, serfdom, veche, velikiy kniaz'
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The Golden Age of Kiev", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
