Kyivan Rus'

Kyivan Rus (862—1240) was the first East Slavic state — for nearly four centuries it held Europe's largest territory and connected Scandinavia with Byzantium along the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks". According to the chronicles, in 882 Oleh the Wise seized Kyiv; his successors Ihor, Olha, Sviatoslav and Volodymyr extended power from the Baltic to the Black Sea and accepted Christianity from Byzantium in 988. The age of Yaroslav the Wise (1019—1054) was the golden era: the Ruska Pravda law code, Saint Sophia's Cathedral, dynastic marriages with France, Norway and Hungary. In 1240 Kyiv fell to Batu Khan.