PolotskPolotsk or Polatsk (Полоцк; Polack) is a historical city in Belarus, situated on the Dvina River. It serves as the administrative center of Polotsk District in Vitebsk Region. Its population is more than 80,000 people. It is served by Polotsk Airport and Borovitsy air base. The Old East Slavic name, Polotesk, derives from the Polota river, which flows into the neighboring Western Dvina. The Vikings rendered that name as Palteskja. Lake Babyna Polotsk is one of the earliest mentioned cities of the Eastern Slavs.
Kievan Rus'Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus' ( , or ро́усьскаѧ землѧ́ ; Garðaríki), was a state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century. Encompassing a variety of polities and peoples, including East Slavic, Norse, and Finnic, it was ruled by the Rurik dynasty, founded by the Varangian prince Rurik. The modern nations of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine all claim Kievan Rus' as their cultural ancestor, with Belarus and Russia deriving their names from it.
Nicholas II of RussiaNicholas II (Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; 1868 - 17 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer, was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Finland, ruling from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. During his reign, Nicholas gave support to the economic and political reforms promoted by his prime ministers, Sergei Witte and Pyotr Stolypin. He advocated modernization based on foreign loans and close ties with France, but resisted giving the new parliament (the Duma) major roles.
Volga trade routeIn the Middle Ages, the Volga trade route connected Northern Europe and Northwestern Russia with the Caspian Sea and the Sasanian Empire, via the Volga River. The Rus used this route to trade with Muslim countries on the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, sometimes penetrating as far as Baghdad. The powerful Volga Bulgars (cousins of today's Balkan Bulgarians) formed a seminomadic confederation and traded through the Volga river with Viking people of Rus' and Scandinavia (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians) and with the southern Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) Furthermore, Volga Bulgaria, with its two cities Bulgar and Suvar east of what is today Moscow, traded with Russians and the fur-selling Ugrians.
Novgorod RepublicThe Novgorod Republic (Новгородская республика) was a medieval state that existed from the 12th to 15th centuries in northern Russia, stretching from the Gulf of Finland in the west to the northern Ural Mountains in the east. Its capital was the city of Novgorod. The republic prospered as the easternmost trading post of the Hanseatic League, and its people were much influenced by the culture of the Byzantines. The state was called Novgorod and Great Novgorod (Veliky Novgorod) with the form Sovereign Lord Novgorod the Great (Gosudar Gospodin Veliky Novgorod) becoming common in the 15th century.
Mongol invasion of Kievan Rus'The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered Kievan Rus' in the mid-13th century, destroying numerous cities including the largest such as Kiev (50,000 inhabitants) and Chernigov (30,000 inhabitants). The Mongol siege and sack of Kiev in 1240 is generally held to mark the end of Kievan Rus'. Many other major Rus' principalities and urban centres in the northwest escaped destruction or suffered little to no damage from the Mongol invasion, including the Novgorod Republic, Pskov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, and probably Rostov and Uglich.
YaroslavlYaroslavl (Ярослáвль, jɪrɐˈsɫavlj) is a city and the administrative center of Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located northeast of Moscow. The historic part of the city is a World Heritage Site, and is located at the confluence of the Volga and the Kotorosl rivers. It is part of the Golden Ring, a group of historic cities northeast of Moscow that have played an important role in Russian history. Population: Reportedly the capital of an independent Principality of Yaroslavl from 1218, it was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Moscow in 1463.
VisbyVisby (ˈvǐːsbʏ) is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia, and, since 1995, it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Among the most notable historical remains are the long town wall that encircles the town center, and a number of church ruins.
Rus' peopleThe Rus' (Роусь; Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian: Русь; Old Norse: Garðar; Greek: Ῥῶς, Rhos) were a people in early medieval eastern Europe. The scholarly consensus holds that they were originally Norsemen, mainly originating from present-day Sweden, who settled and ruled along the river-routes between the Baltic and the Black Seas from around the 8th to 11th centuries AD. In the 9th century, they formed the state of Kievan Rusʹ, where the ruling Norsemen along with local Finnic tribes gradually assimilated into the East Slavic population, with Old East Slavic becoming the common spoken language.
East SlavsThe East Slavs are the most populous subgroup of the Slavs. They speak the East Slavic languages, and formed the majority of the population of the medieval state Kievan Rus', which they claim as their cultural ancestor. Today, the East Slavs consist of Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians. Rus' people and Ruthenians Researchers know relatively little about the Eastern Slavs prior to approximately 859 AD when the first events recorded in the Primary Chronicle occurred.
