Lecture 24: In the late 9th and 10th centuries, the Swedish Rus developed a new primary trade route from Novgorod to Kiev on the Dneiper and, thence, to the Black Sea and Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. This route required far more …
Lecture 24: In the late 9th and 10th centuries, the Swedish Rus developed a new primary trade route from Novgorod to Kiev on the Dneiper and, thence, to the Black Sea and Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. This route required far more organization than that on the Volga. South of Kiev, Turkomen Pechenegs dominated the steppes. The Rus risked attack by Pecheneg horse archers when they took ships and cargo overland to avoid rapids on the lower Dneiper. The Rus coveted Constantinople (ON: Miklagard, “Great City,”), the seat of a powerful Macedonian bureaucratic state, as the source of silks and gold.
In 860, the jarls Askold and Dir launched the first Viking attack on Constantinople. Their fleet of 200 ships was driven off by the imperial navy, equipped with Greek fire. Prince Oleg, who moved his capital from Novgorod to Kiev, led a more successful attack in 907, gaining a commercial treaty from the emperor in 911. His successor, Igor, launched Viking fleets against Constantinople, winning his own treaty in 945. Trade and mercenary service was far more common. In the Byzantine emperors, the Rus found employers who paid well. From the mid-10th century on, Varangians arrived from Scandinavia to serve in imperial armies. Most important for Russian history was Prince Vladimir’s conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 988–989.
Suggested Reading:
S. H. Cross and O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor. The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text. Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America, 1973.
Mark Whittow. The Making of Byzantium, 600–1025. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
Lecture 25: https://www.bitchute.com/video/YEKLySl7KJQ6/
