Russians trace the origins of their own nation to the Kievan state of that era.
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Issue 1: Memorials of Law of Kievan State of the 10th-12th centuries / Aleksandr Zimin. Moscow: Gosyurizdat (State Juridical Publisher), 1952. p. 257. ().
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Memorials of Russian Law / ed. by Serafim Yushkov. Issue 1: Memorials of Law of Kievan State of the 10th-12th centuries / Aleksandr Zimin. Moscow, 1952. p. 257. ().
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Issue 1: Memorials of Law of Kievan State of the 10th–12th centuries / Aleksandr Zimin. Moscow, 1952. p. 236. (). Church Statute of Prince Yaroslav and other Old Russian princely statutes served to closely purposes. One of the sources of the statute was Byzantine law, including Nomocanon.
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The pre-Christian Kievan state was presented as a world power that benefitted little from Byzantium's influences. Ivan the Terrible was presented as inspired by Christian theology. It was denied that Christianity had introduced monogamy. The role of monasticism in Russia's history was belittled and blackened.
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Existence of West Russian (Lithuanian) redaction of 1499 (Scroll of Yaroslav, West Russian: Свиток Ярославль) means that the statute could be also applied in Grand Duchy of Lithuania.Memorials of Russian Law / ed. by Serafim Yushkov. Issue 1: Memorials of Law of Kievan State of the 10th-12th centuries / Aleksandr Zimin.
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The mythological byliny of giants and the like probably originated long before the Kievan state was founded, and cannot be classified easily by principality. Scholars of the historical school often consider mythological byliny separately. Other scholars group byliny based on content, including heroic, fairy tale type, novella type and ballad-byliny. Most scholars prefer classification based on principalities.
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Oleg continued to develop and expand a network of Rus' forts in Slav lands, begun by Rurik in the north.George Vernadsky, Kievan Russia (1976), p. 23. The new Kievan state prospered due to its abundant supply of furs, beeswax, honey, and slaves for export,Walter Moss, A History of Russia: To 1917 (2005), p. 37. and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe.
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This changed the perception of Kiev and was evidence of the fragmentation of the Kievan Rus'. By the end of the 12th century, the Kievan state fragmented even further, into roughly twelve different principalities. Rus' principalities in 1212 The Crusades brought a shift in European trade routes that accelerated the decline of Kievan Rus'. In 1204, the forces of the Fourth Crusade sacked Constantinople, making the Dnieper trade route marginal.
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This chronicle identifies them as a Germanic tribe called the Swedes. According to the Kievan Rus' Primary Chronicle, compiled in about 1113, the Rus' were a group of Varangians, Norsemen who had relocated somewhere from the Baltic region (literally "from beyond the sea"), first to Northeastern Europe, then to the south where they created the medieval Kievan state. In the 11th century, the dominant term in the Latin tradition was Ruscia. It was used, among others, by Thietmar of Merseburg, Adam of Bremen, Cosmas of Prague and Pope Gregory VII in his letter to Izyaslav I. Rucia, Ruzzia, Ruzsia were alternative spellings.
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He was the first researcher to point out unique textual parallels in a rare version of the Tale of the Battle against Mamai (Skazanie o Mamaevom poboishche), published by N.G. Golovin in 1835. It contains what Mann claims is the earliest known redaction of the Skazanie, a redaction that scholars posited but could not locate. Based on byliny and Old Russian sources, Mann has attempted to reconstruct an early Russian song about the conversion of the Kievan State. Mann believes that this early conversion cycle left its imprint on several passages of the Tale, including the motif sequence in which the pagan Div warns the Tmutorokan idol that Igor's army is approaching.
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The Kievan federation, however, took the path of the German Empire and still contained characteristics of city-state independence; the individual family communes still thought of themselves as independent entities. In Europe as often happened, independent states often banded together and formed a strong central power in efforts to achieve a common goal, such as defense. Unfortunately for the people of Rus' they found themselves with no strong government, no clear successor, and no foreseeable way to ward off the invasions of its enemies. It would not take long for sorties in the north and west by the Norse and Poles to begin the weakening of the Kievan state to a point where the Tatars were able to conquer the country unopposed.
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Silver coin minted at Sigtuna for a Swedish king around the year 1000 The Culture of Sweden has long been known for the accomplishments of a wide variety of artists. Prehistoric Sweden was the source of Norse culture, dominant in all of Scandinavia for hundreds of years, and the Temple at Uppsala in Sweden was a site of pilgrimage for Scandinavian peoples takla the Aesir. Western culture mostly recalls Vikings of Norway and Denmark for invading France, England, Scotland and Ireland, but Swedish Vikings influenced Byzantine culture, where they were known as Varangians, and are also known for founding the Kievan state. Of the country's many monarchs, a few of the more powerful ones, such as King Gustav III and Queen Christina, have been exceptionally important to its cultural development.
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Led by a Varangian dynasty, the Kievan Rus' controlled the routes connecting Northern Europe to Byzantium and to the Orient (for example: the Volga trade route). The Kievan state began with the rule (882–912) of Prince Oleg, who extended his control from Novgorod southwards along the Dnieper river valley in order to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east and moved his capital to the more strategic Kiev. Sviatoslav I (died 972) achieved the first major expansion of Kievan Rus' territorial control, fighting a war of conquest against the Khazar Empire and inflicting a serious blow on Bulgaria. A Rus' attack (967 or 968), instigated by the Byzantines, led to the collapse of the Bulgarian state and the occupation of the east of the country by the Rus'.
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Before its reconstruction in the 18th century, St. Sofia in Kiev was a prime example and a model for all churches in Kievan Rus The great churches of Kievan Rus', built after the adoption of Christianity in 988, were the first examples of monumental architecture in the East Slavic lands. The architectural style of the Kievan state, which quickly established itself, was strongly influenced by Byzantine architecture. Early Eastern Orthodox churches were mainly made of wood with the simplest form of church becoming known as a cell church. Major cathedrals often featured scores of small domes, which led some art historians to take this as an indication of what the pagan Slavic temples should have looked like. The 10th-century Church of the Tithes in Kiev was the first cult building to be made of stone.
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