The Rise of Kiev
As in the case of most of the world’s great cities, location played a crucial role in propelling Kiev to prominence. Situated midway down the Dnieper, Kiev served as a key transit point for the vast territory encompassed by its headwaters and tributaries.
At the same time, it was an excellent springboard for the journey down the Dnieper and across the Black Sea to the rich cities of the Levant. Moreover, its position on the border of two environmental and cultural zones – that of the forests and wooded plains to the north and the open steppe to the south – meant that the city had great strategic importance. It thus became the focal point where two historical processes met and merged.To one of these processes we have already alluded – the slow amalgamation of the numerous, fragmented East Slav communal units into large, territorially based tribes led by native chieftains and protected by well-fortified stockades. In the forefront of this development were the Polianians, the tribe living in the area in which Kiev would arise. Scholars estimate that as early as the 6th–7th centuries, the Polianians, led by their semilegendary leader, Kyi, formed a strong tribal confederation that lorded over its neighbors and maintained close contacts with Byzantium. According to legend, it was Kyi, together with his brothers, Shchek and Khoriv, and sister, Lebid, who founded Kiev and gave it its name. Murky though our knowledge of this period is, it can be assumed that the East Slavs in general and the Polianians in particular were well on the way to laying the foundation for the vast political, commercial, and cultural entity that would be called Kievan Rus’.
The other process, which brought the Scandinavians on the scene, was more rapid, far ranging, and decisive. To understand it one must first look to the rocky, barren shores of 8th–9th-century Scandinavia where, for reasons that are still unclear, an unprecedented population boom occurred.
Unable to find a livelihood at home, many young, adventurous Norsemen took to their ships and sought their fortunes abroad. They launched devastating raids on Western Europe, where, in time, they settled in the lands they raided, founding kingdoms and principalities in England, Ireland, France, and Sicily. Other Scandinavians crossed the Atlantic and colonized Iceland, Greenland, and, quite possibly, reached the American mainland. Others still, especially those from Sweden and the Island of Gotland who came to be called Varangians, turned to the southeast. Initially they established themselves near the Baltic coast, in Aldeigjuborg on Lake Ladoga and, somewhat later, in Novgorod on Lake Ilmen. The Varangian settlements were not the modest earth and wood stockades of the East Slavs, but substantial fortress towns that housed the Varangian leaders, their retinues, and their families and around which native artisans and traders built their suburbs.Either by trade or by extortion (when one activity proved fruitless, the other tactic was usually applied), the Varangians obtained furs, honey, wax, and slaves from the natives. But they were after even greater profits than the East Slavs could provide. Using their settlements as a base, they explored the river routes that led south to the great centers of Byzantine and Islamic civilization and wealth. It was not long before they discovered a network of rivers and portages that linked the Baltic with the Caspian by way of the Volga and opened the way to Baghdad, the cosmopolitan capital of the Islamic world. Later an even more important route emerged. Called in the chronicles “the route from the Varangians to the Greeks,” it followed the Dnieper down to the Black Sea and across to Constantinople, the great emporium of Levantine trade and the richest city in Christendom.
It was only a matter of time before the enterprising Varangians would move farther south to be closer to Constantinople. According to the “Chronicle of Bygone Years,” in approximately 830, two Varangians, Askold and Dir, left the retinue of their lord, Riurik of Novgorod, and sailed down the Dnieper with their followers.
Noting Kiev’s excellent location high on the river banks, they established control over the settlement and imposed tribute on the Polianians in the vicinity. Apparently they prospered, for in 860 they were in a position to launch a raid against Constantinople together with their Polianian subjects. News of their success soon got back to Novgorod. Although Riurik was no longer alive and his son Ihor (Ingvar in Scandinavian, Igor in Russian) was too young to take command, Oleh (Helgi in Scandinavian, Oleg in Russian), the regent during Ihor’s minority, gathered a force of Varangians, Slavs, and Finns and, taking Ihor along, sailed for Kiev. By means of a ruse he lured Askold and Dir outside the city walls, accused them of being usurpers, and killed them. In 862 Oleh established himself in Kiev, declaring that it would become “the mother of all the Rus’ cities.”Such is the chronicler Nestor’s version of how the Varangians came to Kiev. However, close textual analysis by generations of scholars has revealed numerous internal inconsistencies and weak points in this tale. Modern historians have wondered why the supposedly mighty Riurik is never mentioned in any of the contemporary sources and some question whether he existed at all. Is it likely that such experienced leaders as Askold and Dir would have fallen for Oleh’s simple ruse? Was Oleh really associated with Riurik or is the chronicler merely trying to invent for him a more illustrious pedigree? And how can one explain the regent Oleh’s extended tenure in power long after Ihor came of age? In short, up to the reign of Oleh, when other sources can be brought to bear on the period, it is difficult to separate fact from fiction in Nestor’s account of the origins of Rus’.