In the thirteenth century Rus was various polities and places which had less and less relationship with one another. The idea of a thirteenth-century Rus is a modern chronological and geographical convenience, not a coherent historical entity. The Kiev-Novgorod axis was the main artery of Kievan Rus in its Golden Age from the late tenth to the early twelfth century. In 1203 Roman lost Kiev, which was taken and sacked by Riurik Rostislavich of Smolensk with help from the Chernigovan Olgovichi and the Polovtsians. The true Riurikid traditionalists were the princes of Smolensk and Chernigov in the centre and the south. Mikhail of Chernigov had fled in 1240 and tried to organise resistance from abroad. By 1246, isolated and outflanked by the rival families, he too made the trip to Sarai. By contrast with Galician prevarication and Chernigovan gesticulation, the north-eastern princes of Vladimir and Suzdal co-operated fully with the Mongols from the very beginning.