Chapter 23: The Eastern Slavs

§        Slavs moved into area N of Byzantine Empire.

Section 1: Early Eastern Slavs

§        ~500 AD group of Slavs settled by Volga River in villages.

§        Families owned their houses but land, seed, animals, and tools were owned by the village.

§        Oldest man governed with the help of a council.

§        Used slash and burn technique to make farmland.

§        This method was not efficient because farmers had to move often.

§        As they moved E they found forests and used the timber to build izbas (houses), boats, and create instruments.

§        People worshipped many gods that affected different areas of life.

§        Eastern Slavs (ES) used rivers for transportation and then for trade routes.

§        Towns grew around major rivers.

§        Most important trade route was the Varangian Route (VR) that went mainly over rivers from the Baltic Sea to Constantinople.

§        To protect trade routes the ES hired Vikings (called them Varangians) who eventually became a part of the ES population.

Section 2: Kievan Rus

§        862 AD Varangian named Rurik became prince of a town on the N part of the VR called Novgorod.

§        Later a friend of Rurik called Oleg established an area called Kievan Rus (KR) to the S with a capital at Kiev.

§        Kiev was on the VR on the Dnieper River so it was important to trade.

§        The leader of KR was called the Grand Prince of Kiev and he ruled many smaller territories with the help of boyars (landowning nobles).

§        A veche (assembly) helped to solve problems of the town.

§        Any man who was free could call an assembly meeting.

Vladimir I  (VI) and the Eastern Orthodox Church

§        VI was an important ruler of Kiev who expanded the territories.

§        Biggest influence of VI was that he made Eastern Orthodox (EO) Christianity the official religion of KR.

§        By choosing EO, VI made KR closer to the Byzantines and separated them from Western Europe.

§        KR got a lot of ideas from the Byzantines and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet and architectural styles from them.

Yaroslav the Wise (YW)

§        YW was a son of VI who took over after a battle with his brothers.

§        Kiev grew very large and more educated under YS and a law code was established where most of the punishments were fines.

The Decline of Kievan Rus

§        After YW died KR started to decline because of frequent fighting over who should be the new ruler.

§        Because everyone was paying attention to the internal fighting the borders were not protected well.

§        Trade was disrupted due to invasions and the decline of the Byzantine Empire also affected KR.

§        Many people left KR and moved N to escape invasions.

Section 3: The Mongols Conquest

§        ~1240 group called the Mongols invaded and took over KR.

§        People in KR area had to serve in Mongol armies and pay a tribute to the khan (Mongol leader).

The Church

§        EO remained strong during Mongol period.

§        People started to fear foreigners because of the poor way the Mongols treated them.

§        Some changes from EO occurred because of isolation due to Mongols.

Daily Life

§        Rich and poor continued to have very different lives under Mongols.

Section 4: The Rise of Moscow (MO)

§        People moving to get away from Mongols went N and many ended up in MO by its kremlin (fortress).

§        Princes of MO worked well with the Mongols and were able to get the power to tax the territories under the Mongols for the Mongols.

§        If the territory did not pay MO took over and it started to expand.

§        In MO the son of the dead leader would take over so was peaceful.

§        Metropolitan of EO lived in Moscow so was religious center.

§        Eventually MO became more powerful than the Mongols (they were fighting among themselves) so MO was able to get them to leave and stay E.

Ivan the Great (IG)

§        IG expanded Moscow’s control to E and N and defeated the Mongols.

§        IG also married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor and tried to make Moscow the center of culture and Christianity.

§        He became very powerful over both the church and the people and was called Czar (emperor).

Ivan the Terrible (IT)

§        When IG died his son IT was only 3 so a group of boyars ruled for him.

§        The boyars wanted more power abused him so he did not like the boyars when he took over at the age of 16.

§        He took advice from friend and merchants instead of the boyars.

§        IT started made it illegal for peasants to leave the land and rewarded his advisors with land.

§        Was able to defeat Mongols because his army had gunpowder.

§        When he lost a territory called Livonia he blamed the Boyars and then left to live in a monastery.

§        He tried to give up the throne but the people wanted him to rule because they were afraid what would happen without a strong leader.

§        He returned but put into place the Oprichnina (secret police) to attack his enemies.

§        The Oprichnina helped IT to destroy the boyars political power and terrorized the countryside.

§        IT was known as Ivan the Awesome to his own people and was looked at as a great ruler.

§        IT increased the czar’s power and encouraged learning from W Europe.

§        When IT died there was not a good person to take over because IT had killed his oldest son in a fit of rage, his middle son was feebleminded, and his youngest was 3.

§        So for 25 years after his death there was confusion and disorder.