Four distinct stages of development can be seen in the earliest period of Russian history. The first, prehistoric stage is concerned strictly with the Eastern Slavs rather than with the Russians, for it is only at its close, in the ninth century A.D., that the Rus', who were to give a collective name to the Eastern Slavs, their territory, and their political community, make their first appearance in historical sources. Russian history proper begins with the second stage, extending from the middle of the ninth century to the seizure of the Kievan throne by Vladimir I in 978, and marked by the birth and formation of Kievan Russia. The latter achieves its maximum power and development in the third stage (Map 15), the reigns of Vladimir I (c. 980–1015) and Yaroslav the Wise (1019–54); while the fourth witnesses its decline, interrupted only in the reigns of Vladimir Monomakh (1113–25) and his immediate successors, and is brought to an end by the Mongol invasion in 1237.

EARLY HISTORY

Our knowledge of the early history of the Eastern Slavs in particular, and of the Slavs in general, is fragmentary and imprecise. The exact location of the original Slav homeland is disputed. It certainly covered an area of eastern Europe to the north of the Carpathians, and may indeed have extended from the Elbe to the Dnieper, but conclusive archaeological and philological evidence is lacking, and the early Slavs did little to attract the attention of contemporary writers. In the period of the great migrations their role appears to have been largely passive.