Kyivan Rus' and the Claim of Inheritance
Russians trace their state, faith and name to medieval Rus', centred on Kyiv, a heritage Ukrainians and Belarusians also claim.
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
- The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2015)
- Russian History: A Very Short Introduction — Geoffrey Hosking, Oxford University Press (2012)
In the ninth and tenth centuries East Slavic, Finnic and Scandinavian (“Varangian”) peoples came together in a loose realm along the river route between the Baltic and Byzantium. Its rulers, the Rurikid dynasty, made Kyiv their chief seat. In 988 Grand Prince Volodymyr (Vladimir in Russian) accepted Orthodox Christianity from Constantinople, bringing Byzantine liturgy, icons and the Church Slavonic script.
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
- The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2015)
Rus’ was a family of principalities, not a nation-state, and it broke apart in the twelfth century. The Mongol invasion of 1237–40, which sacked Kyiv, ended it. Its north-eastern lands, around Vladimir, Suzdal and a small town called Moscow, became the core of the later Russian state. Its south-western lands became the heartland of Ukraine and, by way of Lithuania, of Belarus.
- Russian History: A Very Short Introduction — Geoffrey Hosking, Oxford University Press (2012)
- The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2015)
Who inherited Rus’ is one of the most charged questions in Eastern Europe. Russian school history treats it as the cradle of Russia, and Ukrainian historians see it as the start of Ukrainian history. In 2016 a large statue of Vladimir was unveiled beside the Kremlin. Russians who visit Kyiv’s St Sophia Cathedral or the Caves Monastery have often felt they were seeing their own roots. Many Ukrainians now hear that feeling as a claim on their country.
- On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians — Vladimir Putin, Kremlin.ru (2021)
- The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History — Serhii Plokhy, W. W. Norton (2023)
Rus' was the first Russian state. After the Mongol conquest its political centre moved north-east to Vladimir and then Moscow, which "gathered the Russian lands" and is the rightful heir of Kyiv.
- A History of Russia — Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Mark D. Steinberg, Oxford University Press
- On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians — Vladimir Putin, Kremlin.ru (2021)
Rus' was a shared medieval realm, but its heartland was Kyiv, and its direct successors were the principality of Galicia-Volhynia and the Ukrainian lands. Moscow was a later, peripheral offshoot that took over the name "Rus'" and the history that went with it, an argument made most influentially by the historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky.
- The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2015)
- Kyivan Rus' (Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine) — Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (signed entries by subject specialists), Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies (2024)
Rus' was neither "Russian" nor "Ukrainian" in the modern sense. Modern nations grew out of it much later, and Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians all have a genuine but partial claim to it.
- The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine — Serhii Plokhy, Basic Books (2015)
- Russian History: A Very Short Introduction — Geoffrey Hosking, Oxford University Press (2012)
Why it matters today
For most Russians, Kyiv is "the mother of Rus' cities" and Volodymyr's baptism of 988 is the start of their own history. The Kremlin has turned this shared heritage into an argument that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people", which became part of the justification for war in 2022.