Kievan Rus

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Kievan Rus at the turn of the millennium before last

The Kievan Rus ( Russian Киевская Русь , Ukrainian Київська Русь , Belarusian Кіеўская Русь ) was a medieval old Russian empire, which is regarded as the forerunner of today's Russia , Ukraine and Belarus (Belarus). The expression can also be understood as a designation of the epoch in the history of the Rus , in which Kiev, as the seat of the grand prince, was the political and cultural center of the Rurikid dynasty.

term

The name "Rus" was given to the rulership areas of the Rurikids , named after their tribal prince Rjurik . The medieval sources call this country " Rus " or "Russian country" ( русская земля ). Along the way from the Varangians to the Greeks , a trade chain was formed between the Baltic Sea region, the Black Sea and the Bosporus. This area was united under the rule of the Rurikids and the eponymous tribe Rus. The term "Kievan Rus" was coined in the 19th century by the Russian historian Nikolai Karamsin in order to differentiate this Kievan empire politically and temporally from the later Vladimir Rus and Moscow Rus . More modern Russian and Belarusian science tends to use the term Old Russian State ( Древнерусское государство ). The reason for this is that the term "Kievan Rus" traditionally includes the beginning of statehood in Novgorod under Ryurik before the capital was moved to Kiev in 882, but does not take into account the name.

history

Varangians in Gardarike

Since the 8th century, Scandinavian long-distance traders ( Varangians ) drove along the rivers Dnepr and Don on their way to the Byzantine Empire . Around 750 they founded the first settlement in Ladoga . In Scandinavian texts and rune stones, the area is referred to as Gardarike (realm of castles). The area was inhabited by Slavic , Finno-Ugric and Baltic tribes during this period .

Establishment of the Rurikid state in Novgorod

Burial mounds of the Rus warriors along the Volkhov near Novgorod

The Primary Chronicle According to the warring tribes called the Novgorod Slavs (Slovenes) krivichs , Chud and Wes a nobleman named Rurik and his brothers Truvor and Sineus "from the other side of the sea", to be their princes. Because of their neutral origin, lasting peace was expected. Rurik began ruling Novgorod in 862 , his brothers in Izborsk and Beloosero respectively . Rurik became the founder of the Rurikid dynasty, which was to rule Russia until 1598 (or until 1610 as a side branch of Shuiski ).

The new rulers belonged to the tribe " Rus " (Русь), which the Nestor Chronicle saw as part of the Varangians. However, there are other theories about the origin of the Rus, including a Slavic one. The initial rulership of the Rurikids at that time included Rostov , Murom , Smolensk and Polotsk in addition to the cities already mentioned . Over time , the name Rus became a geographical term that initially referred to their territory and in the later centuries the entire ethno-cultural area of ​​the Eastern Slavs (other name variations: Russia, Reuss , Ruthenia ).

Relocation of the center to Kiev

In 882 Rurik's general Oleg conquered Kiev, which until then had been ruled by Askold and Dir . He moved the capital there. Kiev was the recommended location because of its good east-west connection and the possibility of being able to reach Byzantine territory by ship from the Dnieper estuary in 48 hours . This marked the beginning of a new form of colonization by the Varangians in East Slavic areas, as it was no longer easy to return to the traditional area from here. The Rus now controlled the entire trade route between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea . From now on, their state grew around this main artery.

Oleg's campaign against Constantinople 907

The state soon included all East Slavic territories. In the north it bordered the Baltic Sea and the White Sea , important cities here were Novgorod , Pskov , Old Ladoga , Beloosero and Jurjew (Tartu). In the west, the Kievan Rus bordered the Baltic tribes and Poles with important border towns Grodno , Vladimir-Volynsk , Peremyschl (Przemysl) and Galitsch . In the southwest, the sphere of influence of the Kiev princes extended along the Prut and the Dnestr at times to the Black Sea. For a long time, the south and south-east borders of the empire ran not far from Kiev along the rivers Ros and Sula . Here the settled East Slavic civilization bordered the so-called Wild Field . The steppe areas were known by this name, from which attacks by the Turkic nomads of horsemen repeatedly took place. In the northeast, Slavic settlers continued to penetrate sparsely populated Finno-Ugric areas, establishing new cities and assimilating the local population. Cities like Ryazan , Murom , Vladimir , Suzdal , Yaroslavl , Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod were built here . The kingdom of the Volga Bulgarians became the eastern neighbor of the Kievan Rus . Outside their large contiguous area, the Rurikid princes controlled several southern exclaves: Tmutarakan , Oleschje , Berezan and Belaya Wescha (Sarkel).

The Rus initially made up the majority of the aristocracy, merchants and warriors of the state. The dominant culture and language was Slavic ( Old East Slavonic language ).

blossom

Statue of Vladimir in Kiev (1853) on the bank of the Dnieper , where, according to legend, the Christian Orthodox baptism of the Rus took place

The 10th century marked the height of Kiev's power: after a successful campaign against Constantinople in 907, Oleg of Kiev was able to impose a dictated peace on the Byzantine Empire with numerous trade privileges for Kiev. Prince Svyatoslav destroyed the Khazar Empire and temporarily conquered large parts of the Balkans , including the Danube-Bulgarian Empire .

Due to the trade, which was mainly focused on Constantinople, despite initial attempts at conquest by the Rus, close contacts were established with Byzantium, which led to Christian proselytizing and finally in 988 during the reign of Vladimir the Holy to convert the Rus to the Orthodox faith (see Christianization of the Rus ).

The Kiev princes were highly respected and married all over Europe ; they made dynastic alliances with Norway , Sweden , France , England , Poland , Hungary , the Byzantine Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, among others . The Kievan Rus achieved a cultural heyday under the Grand Duke Vladimir the Holy (reign 978-1015) and Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054). The latter had many churches, monasteries, writing schools and fortifications built throughout the empire based on the Byzantine model , reformed the East Slavic legislation, recorded it in writing for the first time ( Russkaja Pravda ) and founded the first East Slav library in Kiev .

A model of the original appearance of the Kiev Cathedral of St. Sophia , 11th century

However, like the Holy Roman Empire, the Kievan Rus was not a unified state, but consisted of a large number of relatively independent sub-principalities that were ruled by the Rurikids . One of them inherited the dignity of the Grand Duke in accordance with the seniority principle and moved to Kiev to rule. In the meantime, other princes moved up in the government hierarchy and took over power in the individual principalities of different importance. Such partial Russian principalities in the 11th and 12th centuries included Kiev , Chernigov , Pereyaslav , Smolensk , Polotsk , Turow-Pinsk , Rostov-Suzdal , Murom-Ryazan and Galicia-Volhynia, as well as the Novgorod Republic . On the Princely Congress of Lyubetsch in 1097, the principle of succession was abandoned, so that individual Rurikid lines became permanent masters of their lands from now on. This laid the foundation for the system of feudal landowning.

Decay

The Kievan Rus suffered throughout its existence from the geographical peripheral location in Europe on the border with the so-called Wild Field . Due to the lack of natural barriers, new equestrian peoples such as Alans , Pechenegs or Kyptschaks (Polowzers) came from the southern and southeastern steppes , who always kept the empire at war with their raids. To protect against the nomads, new fortresses were built on the southern border and defensive lines such as the snake walls were used. Not infrequently, however, the Druzhina of the Grand Duke, made up of professional warriors, was powerless against the huge cavalry armies. The old Russian Igorlied is about such an unfortunate campaign against the Polovzians .

Partial Russian principalities between 1054 and 1132

Another major problem was the succession regulation based on the seniority principle , which led to armed feudal feuds among the Rurikid candidates at almost every change of throne in Kiev and, from the second half of the 11th century, to the increasing independence of the individual principalities and the decline in the leading role of Kiev. After the death of the influential Grand Duke Vladimir Monomakh (1125) and his son Mstislav I (1132), who were able to reunite the quarreling princes under the rule of Kiev, the Kievan Rus fell apart. At the same time, large parts of the population began to migrate to the northeast in order to avoid the increasing number of attacks by steppe nomads and the raging feudal wars for the throne of the Kiev Grand Dukes. Under Yuri Dolgoruki , numerous cities were founded in this region called “Zalessye” (“land behind the forest”), and the political weight of the newly settled areas rose rapidly. His son Andrei Bogolyubsky , Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal , was able to take Kiev in 1169 and usurp the dignity of the Grand Duke. He was the first Grand Duke to remove them from Kiev and ruled from Vladimir from then on .

The feudal fragmentation of the region facilitated the Mongol invasion of the Rus from 1223 onwards .

Timetable

  • approx. 750: Scandinavian settlement in Staraja Ladoga ( Old Ladoga ).
  • approx. 838: Formation of a state of Rus on the Dnepr / Dnipro .
  • 844: Ibn Chordadhbeh writes that the Rus sell “eunuchs, male slaves, female slaves, beaver and marten skins and other furs”.
  • 854–856: Probable arrival of 'Prince' Rjurik from Scandinavia in Rurikowo Gorodishche .
  • approx. 858: Rjurik conquers the area around Kiev , which at the time was under Magyar and Khazar rule.
  • 859: According to the Nestor Chronicle , the Varangians levy interest on the Slavs , Finns and Estonians .
  • 860: First Rus attack on Constantinople.
  • 862: According to the Nestor Chronicle , there are fights between locals and Varangians, which lead to the expulsion of the Varangians. Afterwards, a delegation of Slavs, Finns and Estonians travels to Sweden and invites the Warsaw Rus to rule over the divided tribes.
  • 864–883: The Rus attacked and sacked Islamic cities on the Caspian Sea .
  • 865: Another attack by the Rus on Constantinople.
  • approx. 868: The Rus under Askold and Dir take control of the Slavic city ​​of Kiev.
  • 882: Oleg / Helgi becomes Prince of Kiev: Founding of the Kievan Rus through the union of the Varangian rule in the north (around Novgorod ) with those in the south (around Kiev ).
  • 902: 700 mercenaries from the Rus are involved in a military operation in Crete in Byzantine service .
  • 907–913: Rus campaigns against the Byzantine Empire and against Islamic countries. Ahmad ibn Rustah recorded the title Kagan for the Rus princes.
  • 907: Rus naval attack on Constantinople, the Byzantine emperor pays tribute and offers trade privileges.
  • 920: The Arab traveling salesmen Ibn Fadlan hits the Rus in Bolgar on the Volga and writes his famous report on the Vikings the Rus.
The Ostromir Gospel from Novgorod (1056/1057) is the oldest surviving literary monument of the Kiev era
  • approx. 930: Igor , prince of the Volga-Rus, takes over the rule in Kiev.
  • 944: Peace treaty between the Kievan Rus and the Byzantine Empire.
  • approx. 945: The rebellious Drewljanen tribe kills Igor. Olga becomes princess of Kiev.
  • 955: Svyatoslaw , the son of Igor / Ingvarr and Olga / Helga is baptized , but remains only superficially Christianized.
  • 957: Serious baptism of Princess Olga by Byzantine priests.
  • 965-969: The Rus under Sviatoslav destroyed the fortress Sarkel and Itil , the capital of Chasarenreichs , coat of Islamic territories conquered coastal areas of the Baltic and makes war against the Volga Bulgars , the eastern trade routes to the Orient under their control to get .
  • 967–969: Russian campaign under Svyatoslav across the entire Balkans . In Bulgaria , Svyatoslav took 80 cities on the Danube and took on the title of tsar of Bulgarian ruler, who was demoted to vassal of the Russian grand duke. Svyatoslav announced the planned relocation of his capital from Kiev to Preslaw on the Danube, because "the center of his empire would be there".
  • 969: The Rus destroys the Khazar empire, but cannot effectively subjugate it.
  • 971: after a devastating defeat by the Byzantine army, Svyatoslav meets the Byzantine emperor Johannes Tsimiskes on the Danube and concludes a peace treaty with him that obliges him to renounce Bulgaria and return to the Kievan Rus. The Byzantine chronicler Leo Diaconus then wrote down his famous portrait of Svyatoslav ('blonde, blue-eyed, mustache, shaved hair except for two locks of hair').
  • 972: Svyatoslav is killed by Pechenegen on the way back to his kingdom on the Dnieper rapids .
  • 972–980: Jaropolk I is prince of Kiev.
  • 980–982: Vladimir Svyatoslawitsch becomes Grand Duke of Kiev and suppresses the uprisings of Slavic tribes.
  • 987: Vladimir Svyatoslavich is baptized by Byzantine priests in Kiev. Thereupon he marries the purple-born Byzantine princess Anna. The prince of Rus is the only European ruler to date to have the honor of marrying a daughter of an emperor of Byzantium. The German Emperor Otto II was denied this honor shortly before.
  • 988: Grand Duke Vladimir I (the Holy) converts the Rus to the Orthodox faith . In Kiev, pagan temples are destroyed and Slavic idols thrown into the Dnieper (see also Slavic mythology ).
  • 990–1015: War between the Rus and the Pechenegs.
Igor song : After the battle of Igor against the Cumans . Painting by Viktor Wasnetsov , 1880

population

A nation-state view of medieval multi-ethnic empires such as the Kiev Empire does not do justice to its multi-ethnic composition. The Kievan Rus was not a Ukrainian or Russian nation-state that would have been ethnically relatively uniform and from which the later polyethnic and multi-religious Russia would have developed in the course of further expansion. It was itself a dynastic sovereignty association, in the next Slavs Finno-ugrisch- , Baltic-and Turkic ( Tatar lived) tribes. First Normans, then Greeks and Southern Slavs played an important role in the elite. However, the percentage of the non-East Slav population was relatively small and assimilated quickly. In Kievan Rus there was no non-Slavic enclave or territory that would have retained its language, beliefs or social structure in the long term. From the 12th century onwards, the differentiation between individual East Slavic tribes disappears in the sources in favor of a common ethnonym: Rus (русь) as plural or Russin (русин) or Russitsch (русич) as singular. On the basis of this self-identification and other characteristics, numerous historians assume that one can only speak of a polyethnic character of the Kievan Rus to a limited extent and that their population melted into a relatively uniform Old Russian people in the time before the Mongol invasion in the course of the ethnogenesis process .

On the basis of the Russkaja Pravda , the legal code of Yaroslav the Wise, different social groups are distinguished in the Kievan Rus. The aristocracy consisted mainly of representatives of the Rurikid dynasty, which had ousted the original East Slav ruling class, but then assimilated relatively quickly under the East Slavs. The princes were accompanied by a Druzhina , a personal guard from which the boyars later emerged. The rich class included merchants, a few craftsmen and the large landowners. The majority of the population consisted of free peasants ( Ljudin ), with more and more of them becoming legally dependent on the princes ( Smerd ). A prisoner of war or someone who could not pay off debts, one was Cholop or Chelyadin , basically a lawless slave.

The population of the Kievan Rus was estimated to be 7.5 million in their later period, of which around 1 million were in the cities. About 340 cities are known from the chronicles, most of which were in the southern principalities.

Culture

Written culture

Nestor of Kiev

With the Christianization of the Rus , the Cyrillic script , which came from the southern Slavic region and which reproduced Slavic sounds well, spread in the Kievan Rus . The fact that the Orthodox Church, unlike the Catholic Church, allowed services in national languages, encouraged the development of a Russian written culture. Prince Vladimir I organized the first schools and invited South Slavic and Greek teachers.

The oldest known Russian documents are treaties with Byzantium from the 10th century. Among the other oldest writings are the Novgorod Codex , the Ostromir Gospel and two Isborniks of Prince Svyatoslav II . The high level of professionalism with which these works were produced shows that there was a well-developed manuscript tradition as early as the 11th century. However, the Russian Orthodox Church did not become a monopoly in the field of education and written culture. Reading and writing skills were not limited to the upper class, they also penetrated the classes of ordinary citizens. Finds of birch bark documents in Novgorod and other Russian cities, which date back to the 11th century, testify to the spread of written education . These are mostly private letters, messages or invoices that offer insights into everyday urban life.

The main centers for the creation of books were monasteries and large cathedrals, in which special book workshops existed. Their teams were not only busy copying the manuscripts, but also kept chronicles, wrote original literary works or translated foreign books. One of the leading centers was the Kiev Pechersk Lavra , where a special literary movement developed. Libraries containing several hundred books sprang up in many cities. Education was highly valued in ancient Russian society, as numerous traditional panegyric about the benefits of books and education show.

Due to the Orthodox faith, the Kievan Rus quickly became an integral part of the Slavia Orthodoxa , as the literary community of the Orthodox Slavs from the 9th century to modern times is called today. The use of Church Slavonic enabled access to a large shared library. The Kievan Rus only adopted the ascetic Byzantine tradition and avoided Byzantine influences from the capital. It was also limited to Christian works in contrast to the ancient ones, which were considered pagan and harmful to the human soul. Old Russian literature is shaped by the morally instructive style, which even extended to chronicles.

The best-known works of literature in Old Russia include the speech on law and grace , the Nestor Chronicle , the Teaching , the Igor song, etc.

architecture

Demetrius Church in Vladimir (1195–1197)

Up until the 10th century there were no monumental stone structures in Kievan Rus, but there was a developed tradition of timber construction. After the adoption of Christianity, stone churches began to be built, often based on the Byzantine model . The first stone church was the Desjatynna Church in Kiev (around 989), later the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev and Novgorod followed . Over time, the individual principalities began to develop their own architectural schools and schools, for example in Grodno , Polotsk, Pskow, Novgorod, Smolensk and Vladimir-Suzdal. The well-preserved White Monuments of Vladimir and Suzdal are now a World Heritage Site . Secular stone buildings such as royal palaces have also come down to us. The construction of fortifications and towers had a special position.

performing Arts

The Mother of God Oranta in Kiev (11th century)

From Byzantium the Kievan Rus took over the tradition of mosaics and frescoes, as well as icon art . The Church closely watched over the maintenance of the canon in religious art. The oldest surviving works of art are of a religious nature and come from Kiev, Staraya Ladoga , Suzdal and Novgorod. However, not only religious but also secular motifs have been preserved, such as images of princes and their families, but also motifs from nature.

folklore

The folklore of the Kievan Rus often retained customs from pagan times. These included songs, poems, festivals, etc. The church fought doggedly against the remains of paganism, but the pagan cultural elements often merged with Christian traditions and have persisted into our time.

Legends about events from the 2nd to 6th centuries (wars, founding cities, heroic sagas) have been passed down orally and have been incorporated into the Igor Song, for example. A special genre were the bylins , which told of Bogatyrs and their heroic deeds. Real historical personalities often served as prototypes for the Bogatyrs. The princes' court had their own poetry and musical tradition in which the old Russian string instrument gusli was used.

Current different interpretations

The legacy of the Kievan Rus is now partly controversial in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian historiography . This discussion is not a scientific but a political question.

Russian representation

Depiction of the Kiev Grand Duke Yaroslav the Wise in the Russian titular book of the Tsars from 1672

Russia sees itself as a direct continuation of the Kievan Rus and refers to several circumstances. One of them is the direct dynastic succession between the Kiev and Moscow empires . The Rurikid Moscow grand princes and tsars saw themselves as the only remaining legitimate heirs of the Kiev princes, after a separate statehood and the Rurikid dynasty had expired in the other territories of the Kievan Rus, which were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland . On the other hand, Metropolitan Maximos moved the headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church from Kiev to Vladimir a little later in 1321, who moved to Moscow.

In Russian historiography, the Kiev Empire is traditionally understood as a unified East Slavic (Russian) empire. In the times of the tsars, the prevailing view was that the Great , Small and White Russians were three lines of the Russian people who already existed at the time of the Kievan Rus. In contrast, in the Soviet Union the Ukrainians and the Belarusians had the status of independent peoples, which, however, like the Russian, are said to have developed from an old Russian people who had meanwhile fully developed. Both the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union had the self-image of a “common state of the Eastern Slavs” and saw themselves not only justified, but also in the historical duty to unite all East Slavic, former areas of the Kievan Rus (“Collection of the Russian earth "). Most of the Russo-Lithuanian and Russian-Polish wars, the Polish partitions of Catherine the Great and the capture of western Ukraine in the two world wars were in this context .

Ukrainian point of view

Modern Ukrainian historiography claims the legacy of the Kievan Rus especially for Ukraine and points out that the area around Kiev was their heartland. The first Ukrainian historians active in the 18th and 19th centuries did not deny the close relationship of the Little and Great Russians, but criticized the prevailing Moscow-centrism on the question of the cultural and political heritage of the Kievan Rus. Later historians such as Mychajlo Hruschewskyj , on the other hand, tried, in part based on traditional Polish historiography, to reduce the relationship of the Great Russians to the Kievan Rus to a minimum and to portray the Ukrainians ( Ruthenians ) as the only legitimate heirs of the Kievan Rus. Especially since Ukraine gained independence in 1991, Kievan Rus has been portrayed as the Ukrainian state in the works of many publicists.

Belarusian representation

In Belarusian historiography there are different views of the Kievan Rus. While the Russian and Soviet interpretations are predominantly represented in academic history, national-patriotic publicists in Kievan Rus tend to attach little importance to Belarusian history. The ethnogenesis of the Belarusians is considered an independent process based on the local Slavic and Baltic tribes. Politically and culturally, they identify themselves primarily with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , in which Belarus is said to have experienced a golden age and whose achievements they attribute above all to the Belarusians.

See also

literature

  • Helmut Castritius , Jürgen Udolph :  Kiev. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 16, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016782-4 , pp. 482-487.
  • Erich Donnert : The Kiev Russia - culture and intellectual life from the 9th to the beginning of the 13th century. 1st edition. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig a. a. 1983.
  • Simon Franklin, Jonathan Shepard: The Emergence of Rus. 750-1200. 1st edition, 2nd imprint. Longman, London et al. a. 1998, ISBN 0-582-49091-X (Longman history of Russia; English).
  • Ernst Kunik : The calling of the Swedish Rodsen by the Finns and Slavs. A preliminary work on the genesis of the Russian state. W. Graeff's heirs, St. Petersburg a. a. 1844.
  • Janet Martin: Medieval Russia. 980–1584 (= Cambridge medieval textbooks). 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-85916-5 (English).
  • David Nicolle , Angus McBride: Armies of medieval Russia. 750-1250. Osprey, Oxford 2001, ISBN 1-85532-848-8 (Osprey military men-at-arms series 333; English).
  • Gottfried Schramm : The beginning of old Russia. Historical conclusions from names, words and texts on the 9th and 10th centuries. Rombach, Freiburg 2002, ISBN 3-7930-9268-2 (Rombach Wissenschaft - Series Historiae 12).
  • Eva Verma: Marriage Policy in Kievan Rus. In: Eva Verma: "... wherever you come from". Binational couples through the millennia. dipa, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-7638-0196-0 (pp. 35-40: historical map).

Web links

Commons : Kievan Rus  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Kievan Rus  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dittmar Schorkowitz: Günter Baranowski The Russkaya Pravda - a medieval legal monument. Peter Lang, European publishing house of the sciences Frankfurt aM [etc.] 2005. = legal historical series, 321. ISBN 3-631-52390-4 . January 7, 2009, Retrieved July 18, 2020 (American English).
  2. ↑ Jürgen Hartman: Russia: Introduction to the Political System and Comparison with the Post-Soviet States , Wiesbaden 2013, ISBN 978-3-658-00174-2 , pp. 19f.
  3. ↑ Pritsak. Origin of Rus. Retrieved June 28, 2019 .
  4. ^ Andreas Kappeler: Russia as a multi-ethnic empire: emergence - history - decay . Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-36472-1 , pp. 19–24 [new edition. 2001: ISBN 3-406-47573-6 ]. And again: A short history of Ukraine . Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37449-2 [new edition. 2000: ISBN 3-406-45971-4 ], p. 37: “The Kiev Empire was not a Ukrainian or Russian nation-state, but, like most of the premodern formations of rule, a multinational empire that was not only influenced by Slavs, but also by Finnish, Baltic and Turkic-speaking tribes was inhabited. First Normans, then Greeks and Southern Slavs played an important role in the elite. "
  5. ^ Andreas Kappeler: Russia as a multi-ethnic empire: emergence - history - decay . Munich 1992, ISBN 3-406-36472-1 , pp. 19–24 [new edition. 2001: ISBN 3-406-47573-6 ]. And again: A short history of Ukraine . Munich 1994, ISBN 3-406-37449-2 [new edition. 2000: ISBN 3-406-45971-4 ], p. 37
  6. ↑ Толочко П. П. Древнерусская народность: воображаемая или реальная. СПб. : Алетейя, 2005. С. 25, 59.
  7. ↑ Горский А. А. История России с древнейших времен до 1914 года. М. : АСТ - Астрель, 2008. С. 50.
  8. ↑ Вернадский Г. В. Золотой век Киевской Руси. - М .: Алгоритм, 2012. с. 120