The Viking Ruling Class That Dominated Russia
In due course, Kiev became the heartland of, and gave its name to, the Kievan Rus civilization. After the death of Rurik the Viking in 879, his successor Prince Oleg (reigned 879 – 912) began to conquer and unite the Eastern Slavic lands in earnest. From Novgorod, he expanded Rurik’s realm southward along the Dnieper, and in 882, he seized Smolensk and Kiev. Oleg then relocated his capital to Kiev, which lay astride an important waterborne trade route from northern Russia, down the Dnieper until it empties into the Black Sea, and thence to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire and beyond.
It was from Oleg’s new capital that the Kievan Rus state and civilization got its name. The new entity – a Slavic state with a Viking ruling class – reached its peak in the early to mid-tenth century. Oleg was succeeded in 912 by Rurik’s son, Igor, who founded the Rurik Dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus until its demise. Igor’s descendants also founded and ruled the Tsardom of Russia until its collapse into anarchy in the early 1600s, after which they were succeeded by the Romanovs.
