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Slavs
In the 7th century B.C., nomadic Scythians migrated north into fertile
Russian territories. Herodotus the Greek, who visited southern Russia
in the 5th century B.C., observed that "Some tribes cultivated
the land; the builders of the Parthenon would have gone hungry without
Russian wheat; but the ruling element remained nomads, living in
tents, yet not altogether eschewing the arts of civilization."
These people also began trading furs and honey with Constantinople;
eventually, the merchants acted as middlemen between other settlements
in the far north (inhabited by Finnish tribes) and the Roman Empire.
As these early Slavic people began to cultivate the land, villages
and towns sprang up, protected by wooden citadels, or kremlins,
cut from the abundant forest timber. The inhabitants gradually occupied
an area from St. Petersburg to Kiev and spoke a language (originating
from Greek) quite similar to modern Russian.
Varangians
 The
numerous tribes were united in the 8th and 9th centuries, when the
Scandinavians, Vikings known as Varangians, migrated south and began
establishing trade settlements with the Slavs, along with their
own strongholds. Many of these settlements were situated along the
Neva River and Lake Ladoga. When the Norseman Rurik defeated the
strongest Slavic settlement, Novgorod, in A.D. 862, the Varangians
became the rulers of northern Russia. In the south, the Slavic Prince
Kii had formed the Kievan territory. In 880, Rurik's successor,
Oleg, conquered the Slavic-ruled Kiev and made the city his capital
two years later. With the two areas united, the State of Rus (its
name derived from the Viking word ruotsi, meaning "oarsman")
became one of the largest kingdoms in the world.
Christianity
Russia was still a pagan state when Prince Vladimir succeeded to
the throne in 978. To further unify his large kingdom, the prince
decided to select a monotheistic religion for his people. One of
the first Russian chronicles. The Story of the Passing Years, describes
the experiences of the Russian ambassadors in Constantinople: "We
did not know whether we were in heaven or earth for upon earth there
is no such sight or beauty; we only know that there. God is present
among men." In 988, Prince Vladimir introduced Byzantine Christianity
to Russia. It had an overwhelming effect on the country: along with
a new religion came Byzantine art, architecture, and culture.
By the 11th century, the two most important towns in Russia were
Kiev and Novgorod. The seats of the grand-prince and the metropolitan
of the Orthodox Church were in Kiev, where all the splendors of
Constantinople were recreated. Novgorod was the northern commercial
and religious center. Even though Russian culture was greatly influenced
by Byzantium, it took many years to spread the new religion through
the pagan states of the north. After the Mongols, headed by Batu
Khan (grandson of Genghis), sacked Kiev in 1240, the Russian rulers
and church leaders shifted their kingdoms to the north. Through
the next few centuries, the Golden Ring towns of Rostov, Vladimir,
Suzdal, and Zagorsk became the secular and religious capitals during
the Golden Age of Rus.
Early Days of Moscow
As Kiev declined, Russia's northern principalities grew in political
and economic importance. The governing ruler of Russia, Kievan Grand-Prince
Yuri Dolgoruky ("Long Arms''), wanted to extend and strengthen
his rule over the northern territories. His father, Vladimir Monomakh,
had succeeded in reuniting the north and south for the first time
in centuries. In 1125, Dolgoruky declared Suzdal his northern capital
and made himself the prince of the region. Between the Volga and
Oka rivers, on the banks of the Moskva River, Dolgoruky established
a protective outpost for the Rostov-Suzdal principality. The first
reference to Moscow appeared in the Chronicle Ipatyev in 1147, when
it was mentioned that Prince Yuri Dolgoruky hosted a feast in Moscow
to honor the Prince of Novgorod. In 1156, Dolgoruky built the first
wooden kremlin and added a church within the settlement. Since the
settlement lay along important trade routes to the Baltic in the
north, the Black Sea in the south, and later to Europe in the west,
Moscow slowly grew in size and significance, and it eventually became
the capital of the Moscovy principality.
Mongols
In the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongols, under the leadership
of Genghis Khan, set out to conquer Asia and Europe. The great khan
believed that his people "were intended by Heaven to rule the
world." In 1237, Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis, invaded Russia
from the south; with a vengeance he sacked and burned every town
from Kiev to Moscow. The people of Russia were subjugated under
the Golden Horde. For the next 250 years, Russia was cut off from
the outside world; the khans appointed the princes, controlled the
government, and collected taxes on the lands.
Except for the provinces of Novgorod and Moscovy, most of the other
areas of Russia were completely devastated. Many people fled to
the more isolated areas around Moscovy to escape the pillage of
their cities. In 1240, the Scandinavians again invaded from the
North, but the prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, defeated the
Swedes on the banks of the Neva River. The khan appointed Nevsky
grand-prince and his son, Danill, the prince of Moscovy. In 1299,
the metropolitan of the Russian Orthodox Church fled the ruined
city of Kiev and took up residence in Vladimir, seat of the grandprince
since 1157.
Ivans I, II, And III
In 1328, the prince of Moscovy, Ivan I, was appointed grand-prince
by the Khan. Ivan I (132840) had a strong economic hold over the
other principalities. Since Ivan collected large tributes from the
northern territories for the Mongols , he became known as Ivan Kalita,
or "Moneybags." At this time, the seats of both the grandprince
and the church metropolitan were transferred from Vladimir to Moscow.
During the rule of Ivan II (1353-59), the Mongol yoke was weakened
and the khans lost their right to appoint the grand-prince. Ivan
II's son, Dmitri, became the first Russian leader to defeat the
Mongols, in the decisive battle of Kulikovo on the Don in 1380.
Grand-Prince Dmitri Donskoi(of the Don) increased his domain by
annexing the Vladimir-Suzdal principality to Moscovy.
In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople, which released
the Russian Orthodox Church from Byzantium's domination. Eight years
later the Orthodox Church changed the title of the metropolitan
of Kiev to the patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. For the first
time, the Church was run by the grand-prince in Moscow, which further
enhanced the power of Moscovy.
Grand-Prince Ivan III (1462-1505) married the niece of the last
Byzantine emperor in 1472 and adopted the Byzantine crest of the
doubleheaded eagle for Russia. Ivan refused to pay any further tributes
to the khans. With Russian armies conquering the remaining Tartar
hordes, two centuries of Mongol oppression came to an end. Ivan
III, who became known as Veliky (''the Great''), also annexed Novgorod
to the Moscovy principality and rebuilt the city of Moscow. He summoned
foreign architects to build elaborate churches and palaces within
the Kremlin walls. The city grew to such splendor that the patriarch
declared Moscow the new Constantinople. In the early 16th century,
a monk wrote that "two Romes have already fallen, but the third
remains standing and a fourth there shall not be."
Ivan The Terrible
In 1547 Ivan IV (1533-84), grandson of Ivan the Great, was crowned
the first czar of all Russia (the term czar was derived from caesar)
in the Kremlin's Uspensky Cathedral. In addition, Moscow became
the capital of the Holy Russian Empire. Ivan ruled with a deep-seated
paranoia and ruthlessness; it's said that he gouged out the eyes
of the architects who built St. Basil's so that a cathedral of such
beauty could never again be created. The czar's power became absolute
when Ivan the Terrible succeeded in conquering the remaining independent
principalities. He confiscated the property of the boyars (ruling-class
nobles) and granted state property to those who served him. Since
the soldiers were tenured to the state for life, their land grants
became hereditary. The state also assigned a master to the peasants
who worked the lands around an estate; this, in a sense, paved the
way for serfdom. Ivan the Terrible organized the Streltsy (members
of the army elite) to govern his districts and the Oprichniki (the
first police force) to suppress boyar rebellions. In 1582, after
the Livonian War with Poland and Sweden, Russia lost her far northern
territories and her access to the Baltic. In the same year the czar
also killed his son Ivan in a fit of rage. When Ivan the Terrible
died in 1584, Moscovy was left in a state of almost total political
and economic ruin.
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