Assignments

1) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

Capital, settlement, eminence, invasion, tribute, origin, pagan, princehood, rivalry, baptized

2) Give definitions to the following:

Golden Age, according to, pay a tribute, slavisized, intra-dinasty rivalry

3) Answer the questions on the text:

1. What can you say about the sources dealing with the history of Kiev ?

2. Who were, according to the legend, the founders of Kiev?

3. What happened in 988?

4. When did Prince Yaroslav appoint Hilarion as metropolitan bishop?

5. What can you say about the Golden Age of Kiev?

4) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

5) What can you say about this ancient building?

Unit 2: Establishment of Rus’

This theme is dealt with in a lot of historical sources. The following citation is to illustrate this:

“Kievan Rus' was officially founded by Prince Oleg about 880. The territory of his state was much smaller, compared to the state of Yaroslav the Wise. During the next 35 years, Oleg and his warriors subdued the various Eastern Slavic and Finnic tribes. In 882, Oleg deposed Haskold and Dyr subordinating Kiev directly to himself and choosing it as the capital city. In 883, Oleg conquered the Drevlians imposing a fur tribute on them. By 884 he managed to subjugate the Polians, Drevlians, Severians, Vyatichs, and Radimichs while at war with the Tivertsi and the Ulichs. The latter were located in the area known among the Greek historians as the Great Scythia (lands of lower Dniester and Dnieper rivers). In 907, Oleg led an attack against Constantinople with 80,000 warriors transported by 2,000 ships, leaving Igor in Kiev. Oleg managed to impose a tribute upon Greeks of no less than one million grivna. In 912, he signed a commercial treaty with the Byzantine Empire as an equal partner. After the death of Oleg later in 912, the Drevlians managed to break away, but were conquered again by Igor. In 914, Igor concluded a peace treaty with the Pechenegs, a nomadic tribe that was passing through Rus' towards the Danube River in order to attack the Byzantine Empire.

The new Kievan state prospered because it had an abundant supply of furs, beeswax and honey for export and because it controlled three main trade routes of Eastern Europe: the Volga trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Orient, the Dnieper trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, and the trade route from the Khazars to the Germans.

Given the postulated pro-Scandinavian bias of the Rus' Primary Chronicle, some historians of Slavic studies have debated the role of the Varangians in the establishment of Kievan Rus', as not all Slavic tribes at first recognized the rule of Kiev. Even though by the reign of Sviatoslav I of Kiev (r. 945–972) Kievan rulers had adopted Slavic religion and names, their druzhina still consisted primarily of Scandinavians. Sviatoslav's military conquests were extensive: he dealt lethal blows to two of his strongest neighbours, Khazaria and Volga Bulgaria, both of which collapsed soon after his raids. …”

The complete version of this text is at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

Assignments

1) Give Ukrainian equivalents to the following:

Compared to, subdued, fur, subjugate, conquer, abundant, lethal blow, prosperity, tribe, beeswax

2) Give definitions to the following:

Tribute, peace treaty, nomadic tribe, trade route, bias, druzhina, military conquests

3) Answer the questions on the text:

1. What did Oleg do during his reign?

2. What tribes were conquered by Oleg?

3. Did Oleg try to attack Constantinople?

4. What trade routes were controlled by Rus’?

5. Who was Oleg’s successor?

4) Speak on this issue adding extra information from other sources.

5) What can you say about prince Svyatoslav?