HISTORY OF Kievan RUSSIA

Written by dimitrios Antoniou, Greece 2022 HISTORY OF Kievan RUSSIA

Kurgan hypothesis: South Russia as the urheimat of Indo-European peoples.

Kievan Rus' in the 11th century Ultimately Kievan Russ' disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–40, (Tatars) that resulted in the destruction of Kiev and the death of about half the population of Russ'. The invaders, later known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities and ruled the southern and central expanses of Russia for over two centuries.

Ivan III the Great of Russia (1462-1505), liberates Russia from the Mongolian Golden Horde, in 1470. Ivan III married in 1472 Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI`(r.1449-1453), and made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually Russian, coat-of-arms.

He named Moscow as the “Third Rome” and himself as the successor of the Roman Caesars (Tsars) and Byzantine Emperors.

The Grand Duke Ivan IV (the Terrible) was officially crowned the first Tsar ("Caesar") of Russia and ruled in 1547-1584.

The death of Ivan IV`s sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik Dynasty in 1598.

Boris Fyodorovich Godunov was de facto regent of Russia from c.1585 to 1598 and then the first non-Rurikid tsar from 1598 to 1605. The end of his reign saw Russia descend into the Time of Troubles.

Michael Romanov (1613-1645) was founder of the Romanov Dynasty (lasted until 1917, with the decapitation of Tsar Nikolaos B`).

The Romanov Tsar Peter the Great (r.1682-1725), was the first Emperor of Russia, proclaimed it as Empire in 1721. On the Baltic Sea Peter founded a new capital called Saint Petersburg, later known as Russia's Window to Europe.

Peter the Great's reforms brought considerable Western European cultural influences to Russia.

Peter I's daughter Elizabeth ruled Russis in 1741–62.

Catherine II the Great, who ruled in 1762–96, presided over the Age of Russia Enlightenment. She extended Russian political control over the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth and incorporated most of its territories into Russia during the Partitions of Poland, pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe. In the south, after successful Russo-Turkish Wars against the Ottoman Empire, Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea, defeating the Crimean Khanate. As a result of victories over the Ottomans, by the early 19th century Russia also made significant territorial gains in Transcaucasia. This continued with Alexander I's (1801–25) wresting of Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809 and of Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. At the same time Russians colonized Alaska and even founded settlements in California, like Fort Ross.

In alliances with various European countries, Russia fought against Napoleon's France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 failed miserably as the obstinate resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian Winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders, in which more than 95% of the pan-European Grande Armée perished. Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly, the Russian army ousted Napoleon from the country and drove through Europe in the war of the Sixth Coalition, finally

entering Paris. Alexander I headed Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna that defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe.

The officers of the Napoleonic Wars brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia with them and attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825. At the end of the conservative reign of Nicolas I (1825–55) a zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe was disrupted by defeat in the Crimean War. Between 1847 and 1851 a massive wave of Asiatic cholera swept over Russia, claiming about one million lives.

Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–81) enacted significant changes in the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861. These Great Reforms spurred industrialization and modernized the Russian army, which had successfully liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule in 1877–78 Russo-Turkish War.

The Russian Empire in 1912 and its spheres of influence Alexander II was killed in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists, and the reign of his son Alexander III (1881–94) was less liberal but more peaceful. The last Russian Emperor, Nicholas II (1894–1917), was unable to prevent the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905, triggered by the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War and the demonstration incident known as Bloody Sunday. The uprising was put

down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms, including granting the freedoms of speech and assembly, the legalization of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body, the State Duma of the Russian Empire. Migration to Siberia increased rapidly in the early 20th century, particularly during the Stolypin agrarian reform. Between 1906 and 1914 more than four million settlers arrived in that region.

In 1914 Russia entered World War I in response to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Russia's ally Serbia, and fought across multiple fronts while isolated from its Triple Entente allies. In 1916 the Brusilov Offensive of the Russian Army almost completely destroyed the military of Austria-Hungary.

However, the already-existing public distrust of the regime was deepened by the rising costs of war, high casualties, and rumors of corruption and treason.

All this formed the climate for the Russian Revolution of 1917, carried out in two major acts.

The February Revolution 1917 forced Nicholas II to abdicate; he and his family were imprisoned and later executed during the Russian Civil War. The monarchy was replaced by a shaky coalition of political parties that declared itself the Provisional Government. An alternative socialist establishment existed alongside, the Petrograd Soviet, wielding power through the democratically elected councils of workers and peasants, called Soviets. The rule of the new authorities only aggravated the crisis in the country, instead of resolving it. Eventually, the October Revolution, led by Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Provisional Government and created the world’s first socialist state.

Following the October Revolution 1917, a civil war broke out between the anticommunist White movement and the new Soviet regime with its Red Army.

Russia lost its Ukrainian, Polish, Baltic, and Finnish territories by signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that concluded hostilities with the Central Powers in World War I. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (called Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic at the time) together with the Ukrainian, Byelorussian, and Transcaucasion Soviet Socialist Republics, formed the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union, on 30 December 1922.

Out of the 15 total republics that would make up the USSR, the Russian SFSR was the largest in terms of size, and making up over half of the total USSR population, dominated the union for its entire 69-year history.

Following Lenin's death in 1924, a troika had been designated to govern the Soviet Union. However, Joseph Stalin (d. 1953) an elected General Secretary of the Communist Party, managed to put down all opposition groups within the party and consolidate much power in his hands. Leon Trotsky, the main proponent of the world revolution, was exiled from the Soviet Union in 1929, and Stalin's idea of Socialism in One Country became the primary line. The continued internal struggle in the Bolshevik party culminated in the Great Purge, a period of mass repressions in 1937–38, in which hundreds of thousands of people were executed, including original party members and military leaders convicted in coup d'état plots.

On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany broke the non-aggression treaty and invaded the Soviet Union with the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history, opening the largest theater of World War II. Although the German army had considerable success early on, their onslaught was halted in the Battle of Moscow. Subsequently the Germans were dealt major defeats first at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–43, and then in the Battle of Kursk in the summer of 1943. Another German failure was the Siege of Leningrad, in which the city was fully blockaded on land between 1941–44 by German and Finnish forces, suffering starvation and more than a million deaths, but never surrendering. Under Stalin's administration and the leadership of such commanders as Georgy Zhukov and Konstantin Rokossovsky, Soviet forces drove through Eastern Europe in 1944–45 and captured Berlin in May 1945. In August 1945 the Soviet Army ousted Japanese from China's Manchukuo and North Korea, contributing to the allied victory over Japan.

Russian Federation 1991, under the new President of Russia Boris Yeltsin consisted of 83 federal subjects. They differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.

The Russian Federation comprises 83 federal subjects. These subjects have equal representation—two delegates each—in the Federation Council.

However, they differ in the degree of autonomy they enjoy.  

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46 oblasts (provinces): most common type of federal subjects, with federally appointed governor and locally elected legislature.

21 republics: nominally autonomous; each has its own constitution, president or a similar post, and parliament. Republics are allowed to establish their own official language alongside Russian but are represented by the federal government in international affairs.

Republics are meant to be home to specific ethnic minorities.

9 krais (territories): essentially the same as oblasts. The "territory" designation is historic, originally given to frontier regions and later also

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to the administrative divisions that comprised autonomous okrugs or autonomous oblasts.

4 autonomous okrugs (autonomous districts): originally autonomous entities within oblasts and krais created for ethnic minorities, their status was elevated to that of federal subjects in the 1990s. With the exception of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, all autonomous okrugs are still administratively subordinated to a krai or an oblast of which they are a part.

1 autonomous oblast (the Jewish Autonomous Oblast): historically, autonomous oblasts were administrative units subordinated to krais.

In 1990, all of them except for the Jewish AO were elevated in status to that of a republic.

2 federal cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg): major cities that function as separate regions.

Federal districts Federal subjects are grouped into eight federal districts, each administered by an envoy appointed by the President of Russia. Unlike the federal subjects, the federal districts are not a subnational level of government, but are a level of administration of the federal government. Federal districts' envoys serve as liaisons between the federal subjects and the federal government and are primarily responsible for overseeing the compliance of the federal subjects with the federal laws.

On 31 December 1999 President Yeltsin resigned, handing the post to the recently appointed Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, who won the 2000 presidential election. On 2 March 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was elected President of Russia, whilst Putin became Prime Minister. Putin returned to the presidency following the 2012 presidential elections, and Medvedev was appointed Prime Minister.

Byzantium`s Contribution to the West and Global civilization In this book we study, in brief, the Byzantium`s Contribution to West and Global civilization (and specifically to Italy`s) and not to Slavs (Kiev Rous, Bulgarians and Serbs), to which their contribution, in religion, art, alphabet (by the Byzantine monks Methodios and Kirillos in 9th ce), were crucial. And definitely, its out of the scope of this book to study the Architectonic heritage Byzantium inherited to Ottoman conquerors.

In this domain we are referring to an –rather-unknown contribution of the Justinian`s I law system in the west Monarchy.

Justin`s I law system, firmly legalized the Authority and the Power of the Absolute Monarchy, on political and legal grounds. This was used by the Germans Emperors Frederick Barbarossa and Frederick B` (both of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty) and later by the French King Luis XIV, to founder the legality of their reign.

Byzantium`s Relations with the Kiev Rus “Between 850 and 1100 the Byzantine Empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state of Kiev Russ, that emerged around around the central valley of Dnieper`s river to the north and across the Black Sea. The Byzantine Empire quickly became a main trading and cultural partner for Kiev, after Christianizing the Puss Princess Olga in 957 in Constantinopole (during the reign of Byzantine Macedonian Emperor Konstantinos VII Porphyrogenitos, r.

913-959 ) and later his grandson King of Rus Vladimir the Great (ruled 980 to 1015) in 989 (*) (during the reign of the Byzantine Macedonian Emperor Basil II) and by the employment of many Byzantine architects and artists to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus, expanded the Byzantine influence even further. (*) Vladimir the Great`s father was Sviatoslav I Igorevich (c. 942 – March 972) of the Rurik dynasty (**) (and son of Igor of Kiev and Olga). In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life.

Sviatoslav is the first ruler of the Kievan Russ' recorded in the Primary Chronicle (***) with a name of Slavic origin, as opposed to his predecessors, whose names derived from Old Norse. Old Norse was a North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia (Vikings) and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during about the 9th to 13th

centuries. Nevertheless, recent evidences suggest that Rurik Dynasty is most probably of Varangian “blood” origin, which were Slavonazing by their neighbors Slavs.

They were probably mistaken for the Slavs Slovenes who inhabited the same area. (**) Rurik dynasty or Rurikids was a dynasty founded by the Varangian (Scandinavian, Viking) prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD, leading a group of Rukids known as the Rus. The Rurikids conquered Kiev in 882 and were the ruling dynasty of Kievan Russ' (after 862), as well as the successor principalities of GaliciaVolhynia (after 1199), Chernigov, Vladimir-Suzdal, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the founders of the Tsardom of Russia. They ruled until 1598 and the Time of Troubles, following which they were succeeded by the Romanovs.

They are one of Europe's oldest royal houses, with numerous existing cadet branches. (***) The Tale of Bygone Years (Old Church Slavonic: or Primary Chronicle is a history of Kievan Russ from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113. The work is considered to be a fundamental source in the interpretation of the history of the Eastern Slavs.

Kiev Princes were often married into the Byzantine imperial family and Constantinople often employed Princes' armies, most notably Vladimir the Great presented Byzantine with the famous Varangian Guard - an army of vicious Scandinavian mercenaries. Some believe that it was done in exchange for the marriage to Basil II`s sister, porphyrogenita Anna to Vladimir the Great. However, as Primary Chronicle states the marriage was in exchange for the Rus conversion to Orthodoxy, the creation of the Varangian Guard, although significant, was only a by-product of this exchange.

Yaroslav (r. 1015-1054), Vladimir`s the Great son, continued the “Byzantinization” of Russia`s civilization, built in the Empire` Capital Kiev (*) the Great Cathedral “Agia Sophia” on the plans of Agia Sophia in Konstantinopole and the fortification “Golden Gates of Kiev”, which also was named in imitation of the Golden Gate of Constantinople. he decorated it-as all the churches in the Empire- with Byzantine mosaics and frescoes by Byzantine Architects and painters. He was called as the “Charlemagne of Puss”. (*) Kiev was completely destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1240. The Mongol conquest lasted (Golden Hord) until the 15th ce (see below).

These relationships were not always friendly. During those three hundred years Constantinople and other Byzantine cities were attacked several times by the armies of Kiev Russ (see Russ'-Byzantine Wars). Kiev never went far enough

to actually endanger the Empire, those wars were only a tool to force the Byzantine to sign increasingly favorable trade treaties, the texts of which are recorded in the Primary Chronicle, Russ'-Byzantine Treaty (907) and other historical documents. Constantinople at the same time constantly played Kiev Russ, Bulgaria, and Poland against each other.

The Byzantine influence on Kiev Rus cannot be underestimated. Byzantinestyle writing became a standard for the Cyrillic alphabet, Byzantine architecture was dominating in Kiev, and as a main trading partner Byzantine played a critical role in the establishment, rise and fall of Kiev Russ”.

After the Fall of Byzantium in 1453.

“After the fall of Constantinopole to Ottoman Turks in 1453, the role of the emperor as a patron of Eastern Orthodoxy was claimed by Ivan III the Great (reigned 1462-1505), Grand Duke of Muscovy, who tripled the territory of his state, ended the dominance of the Golden Horde over the Russ in 1470, renovated the Moscow Kremlin and laid the foundations of what later became called the Russian state. He was one of the longest-reigning Russian rulers in history.

Ivan III wedded Sophia Paleologos (also known under her original Greek and Orthodox name of Zoe), daughter of Thomas Palaeologus, despot of Morea, who claimed the throne of Constantinople as the brother of Constantine XI, the last Byzantine emperor. Frustrating the Pope's hopes of reuniting the two faiths, the princess endorsed Orthodoxy. Due to her family traditions, she encouraged imperial ideas in the mind of her consort. It was through her influence that the ceremonious etiquette of Constantinople (along with the imperial double-headed eagle and all that it implied) was adopted by the court of Moscow. Ivan`s III and Sophias`s grandson, Ivan IV, would become the first Tsar of Russia (tsar, or czar, meaning caesar, is a term traditionally applied

by Slavs to the Byzantine Emperors). Their successors supported the idea that Moscow was the proper heir to Rome and Constantinople. The idea of the Russian Empire as the new, Third Rome, was kept alive until its demise with the Russian Revolution of 1917”.

Type D, 2, ii. Paleologean Renaissance. “Idealistic Realism”.

Church Fathers Order: Mosaic in Agia Sophia of Kiev, 11th c. In places of loss (lower part of the composition), oil painting of the 18th c.

Agia Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Built during the reign of Tsar Yaroslav (r. 10151054). Together with the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra (also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves), it is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Agia Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. Built during the reign of Tsar Yaroslav (r. 10151054).

http://sofiyskiysobor.polnaya.info/en/sofia_cathedral_mosaics_and_frescoes.shtml

“Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Orthodox Christian monastery which gave its name to one of the city districts where it is located in Kiev. Together with the Saint Sophia Cathedral, it is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

According to the Primary Chronicle, in the early 11th century, Anthony, an Orthodox monk from Esphigmenon monastery on Mount Athos, originally from Liubech of the Principality of Chernihiv, returned to Rus' and settled in Kiev as a missionary of monastic tradition to Kievan Russ'. He chose a cave at the Berestov Mount that overlooked the Dnieper River and a community of disciples soon grew. Prince Iziaslav I of Kiev ceded the whole mount to the Antonite monks who founded a monastery built by architects from Constantinople”.

Type D, 2. 1. “Sacerdotal” Art. Mosaics in the interior of Agia Sophia of Kiev Russ. 11th ce. (see Mosaics in Osios Loukas Mona, Greece).

Type D, 2, ii. “Idealized Realism”. Paleologean Renaissance. Mosaics in the interior of Agia Sophia of Kiev Russ. 11th ce.

The Golden Gates of Kiev was the main gate in the 11th-century fortifications of Kiev, the capital of Kievan Russ'. It was named in imitation of the Golden Gate of Constantinople.

St. Panteleimon Monastery, in Holly Mount Athos, Greece, in 11th ce. by Kievan Russ Monks.