Varangian (Scandinavian) military leaders and merchants had…

Varangian (Scandinavian) military leaders and merchants had during the 860s established outposts in Northern Russia at Novgorod and in Ukraine at Kiev.

Prince Oleg, kinsman of Rurik of Jutland, the semilegendary founder of the Rurik dynasty of Kievan Rus’, expands control of the territory along the Dnieper River, joining Novgorod via Smolensk with Kiev, which henceforth will serve as the political and cultural center of the Kievan Rus’.

(In the early chronicles the Varangians are also called Rus’, and this corporate name becomes as well a territorial designation for the Kievan region—the basic territory of the Rus’; later, by extension, it will be applied to the entire territory ruled by members of the Kievan dynasty.)