Pirate Kingdom―the Kyivan State ∼862
The first great pirate city of Rus' was centered at the great trading hub of Kyiv. The Dnieper and Desna river systems flow into it, and it was a short portage way via the Desna River to the Volga.
To the south lay the Black Sea; the back door to Constantinople with its fabled wealth. Constantinople—now Istanbul—was the capital city of the vast Eastern Christian empire (the Byzantine Empire). It dominated the Eastern Mediterranean until 1453, when the forces of Sultan Mehmed II besieged it and broke its resistance.As the Scandinavian settlements around Ukraine became prosperous from the usual method of gaining and maintaining a stranglehold on trade routes, the Riurikid clan started to gain power. We must be a little skeptical about the main source of information on those early days, the so-called “Russian Primary Chronicle.” This document appears to be some abbot’s hobby historiography, and is described as “historical fiction”—but it’s the earliest source we have, dating from about 1100. The story “Nestor the Chronicler'” tells is that Hroerek the Norseman was “invited” to be king of the Northwestern Russia Scandinavian settlements in 862. The “rule by invitation” theme has continued down the years, and has now become an important plank in Vladimir Putin’s rationale for his dealings with Ukraine. The “voluntary” subjects of Hroerek became known as the “Riurik,” and became a force to be reckoned with. They were reinforced by a stream of Swedish and Finnish mercenaries coming to seek their fortunes from the North—who meshed into a professional fighting class known as the Varangians. Hroerek died in about 879, and was succeeded by Helgi, who swept down and overran the prosperous city of the Jewish Khazars, Kyiv. Vikings will do what Vikings do.
This time, they realized that if they could keep control of the trade routes, they could get the silver without having to fight for it every time. Under Riurik rule, Kyiv became the center of a network of cities, each with its own king. One city emerged as dominant amongst the cities of the region—Kyiv. The kings of the lesser cities submitted to becoming princes in alliance with Kyiv, and gradually the princedoms merged into a unified state. By the end of the 900s, a combined “Kyivan Rus’” had become the major regional power.