The Rus were an early medieval group who gave their name to the Lands of RusSia, RutHenia, and BelArus. It is believed they were a group of VarAngIans, specifically NorseMen. A Chronicle compiled in about 1113 C says that the Rus relocated themselves "from over sea," first to NorthEastern Europe, creating an early polity that finally came under the leadership of RurIk.
RurIk (830-879) was a legendary VarAngIan chieftain who gained control of Ladoga (LowLand River in 862), and made it his capital and used it as a trade port. It became one of the most important trading ports of Eastern Europe (800-900). Merchant Vessels sailed from the Baltic Sea through Ladoga to NovGorod and then to Constantinople or the Caspian Sea. The Route was known as the Trade Route from the VarAngIans to the Greeks. An alternative way led down the Volga river along the Volga Trade route to the Khazar capital of Atil, and then to the Southern Shores of the Caspian Sea, all the way to Baghdad. The oldest Arabian Middle Age coin in Europe (Tellingly) was unearthed in Ladoga (LowLand River). RurIk's successors later moved to NovGoRod and then to Kiev, thus laying foundations of the powerful State of Kievan Rus (9th to the mid-13th century).
At its greatest extent in the mid-11th century, it stretched from the Baltic Sea in the North to the Black Sea in the South, and from the headwaters of the VisTula (the longest and largest River in Poland splitting the country in half) in the West to the Taman Peninsula (borders on the North with the Sea of Azov, on the West with the Strait of Kerch, on the South with the Black Sea) uniting the majority of East Slavic Tribes.
Kievan Rus begins with the rule of Prince Oleg (882-912), who extended his control from NovGoRod South along the Dnieper River (one of the major Rivers of Europe rising in Russia and flowing through Russia, BelArUs and Ukraine to the Black Sea) Valley in order to protect trade from Khazar incursions from the east and moved his capital to the more strategic Kiev.
Sviatoslav I (died 972) achieved the 1st major expansion fighting a war of conquest against the Khazar Empire. The Khazars were a seminomadic Turkic people, who created what for its duration the most powerful polity to emerge from the breakup of the Western Turkish steppe Empire. Astride a major artery of commerce between Northern Europe and Northern Asia, the Khazar Empire became one of the foremost trading emporia of the Medieval World, commanding the Western Marches of the Silk Road and played a Key Commercial Role as a CrossRoad between China, the Middle East, and Kievan Rus. For some 3 centuries (650-965) the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga-Don steppes to the Eastern Crimea and the Northern Caucasus. Sviatoslav's decade-long reign was marked by rapid expansion through the conquest of the Khazars of the Pontic steppe and the invasion of the Balkans. In contrast to his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav and his princes remained anti-Christians. Due to his abrupt death in an ambush, his carved largest state in Europe were not consolidated into a functioning empire, and his failure to establish a stable succession led to a fratricidal feud among his sons, which resulted in two of his three sons being killed.
Vladimir had been prince of NovGoRod when his father died. He was forced to flee to Scandinavia in 976 after his half-brother Yarapolk had murdered his older brother Oleg and taken control of Rus.
In Scandinavia, with the help of his relative, the Ruler of Norway, Vladimir assembled a Viking army and reconquered NovGoRod and Kiev from Yaropolik. As Prince of Kiev, Vladimir's most notable achievement was the Christianization of Kievan Rus, a process that began in 988, instead of the traditional idol-worship religion of the Slavs.
There are several huge royal funerary barrows named, Kurgans at the outskirts of Ladoga. One of them is said to be RurIk's grave, and another one -that of his successor Oleg.
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