Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus', was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including See more

Origin
Prior to the emergence of Kievan Rus' in the 9th century, most of the area north of the Black Sea was primarily populated by eastern Slavic tribes. … See more

The East Slavic lands were originally divided into princely domains called zemlias, "lands", or volosts (from a term meaning "power" or … See more

Kievan Rus', although sparsely populated compared to Western Europe, was not only the largest contemporary European state in terms of area … See more

During its existence, Kievan Rus' was known as the "Rus' land" (Old East Slavic: ро́усьскаѧ землѧ́, romanized: rusĭskaę zemlę, from the ethnonym Роусь, Rusĭ; Medieval Greek: Ῥῶς, romanized: Rhos; Arabic: الروس, romanized: ar-Rūs), in Greek as Ῥωσία, Rhosia, … See more

Culture
The lands of Kievan Rus' were mostly made up of forests and steppes (see East European forest steppe and Central European mixed forests), … See more

Military history
Steppe peoples
From the 9th century on, the Pecheneg nomads had an uneasy relationship with Kievan Rus'. For over two centuries they launched sporadic raids into Rus', which sometimes … See more