East Europe (820 – 963 CE): Varangian Routes, Khazar Gateways, and the Making of Rus’

Geographic and Environmental Context

East Europe includes Belarus, Ukraine, the European portion of Russia, and the sixteen Russian republics west of the Urals.

• A vast transition from northern taiga and mixed forests to southern forest-steppe and Pontic steppe, threaded by great rivers—the Dnieper, Volga, Dvina, Oka, and Don.

• Major nodes formed along portage chains between the Baltic, Caspian, and Black Sea basins, especially at Novgorod, Smolensk, Kiev, and Volga Bulgar markets.

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Climate and Environmental Shifts

• A cool–temperate regime prevailed; by the mid-10th century the onset of the Medieval Warm Period (c. 950–1250) modestly lengthened growing seasons in the forest-steppe.

• Flood pulses on the Dnieper and Volga structured seasonal travel; winter freeze created over-ice corridors for sled transport.

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Societies and Political Developments

• Varangians and Tribal Unions (9th c.): Scandinavian merchant-warriors (Varangians) entered forest trade routes, installing ruling groups among Slavic and Finnic unions—Krivichs, Drevlians, Severians, Radimichs, Vyatichs, and others.

• Rurik and Oleg: Tradition places Rurik at Novgorod (862); his kinsman Oleg seized Kiev (882), uniting the “route from the Varangians to the Greeks.” Kiev became the core of   Kievan Rus’, extracting tribute from neighboring tribes and mediating steppe diplomacy.

• Khazar Khaganate: The Khazars controlled the lower Volga–Don and Caspian Gate, taxing trade between the steppe and Islamic markets; their elite adopted Judaism (9th c.). Rus’ princes alternately paid tribute, raided Khazar towns, and competed for Volga access.

• Volga Bulgars: A commercial polity at the Volga–Kama confluence; conversion to Islam (922) under Almış tied them to the Samanid economy.

• Steppe Frontiers: After c. 895 the Magyars moved into the Carpathian Basin; Pechenegs replaced them on the Pontic steppe, pressuring Rus’ river traffic and Sarmatian corridors.

• Byzantine Relations: Rus’ raids on Constantinople (notably 860) gave way to treaties (907/911 per later compilations), regulating trade duties and mercenary service.

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Economy and Trade

• Exports: high-value furs, wax, honey, slaves, and falcons moved south on river craft; iron swords and worked amber moved internally along forest routes.

• Imports: Byzantine silk, wine, fine metalwork via the Dnieper; Samanid silver dirhams, glassware, and textiles via the Volga.

• Monetization: massive inflows of Samanid dirhams fueled a hack-silver economy; coin hoards appear from Ladoga/Novgorod to the middle Dnieper and upper Volga.

• Kiev and Novgorod functioned as hinge markets, auditing tolls and tribute before goods crossed portages toward Cherson and Constantinople, or toward Volga Bulgar and the Caspian.

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Subsistence and Technology

• Agriculture: forest-steppe communities practiced plow agriculture (millet, rye, wheat) with slash-and-burn in the forest zone; stock-keeping expanded in river meadows.

• Crafts: iron tools, plows, and broad-seax blades; antler combs, bone skates, glass beads; early urban smithies in Ladoga, Novgorod, Kiev.

• River boats: light dugouts and plank-built craft—monoxyla—ported between watersheds; winter travel used sleds over frozen rivers.

• Fortifications: earthen ramparts and timber palisades ringed hillforts (gorodishche); princes maintained druzhina (retinues) of armored cavalry and river fighters.

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Movement and Interaction Corridors

• “From the Varangians to the Greeks”: the Dvina–Dnieper and Volkhov–Dnieper chains funneled Baltic goods to the Black Sea; the Dnieper porohy (rapids) demanded portage and escorts through Pecheneg country.

• Volga Route: Ladoga/Novgorod → Volga → Volga Bulgar → Khazaria → Caspian, connecting to Samanid markets in Gurgān and Tabaristan.

• Forest Portages: Smolensk, Rzhev, and Gorodets nodalized crossings between upper river systems, creating dense hub-and-spoke exchanges.

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Belief and Symbolism

• Slavic paganism (Perun, Veles), Finnic and Baltic animisms, and Norse cults coexisted among Varangian elites and local communities; shrines and sacred groves sacralized hilltops and river bends.

• Khazars patronized Judaism at court; Volga Bulgars normalized Islamic law and markets after 922.

• Christianity: Byzantine missions influenced Crimea and lower Dnieper; individual baptisms occurred among elites, but mass conversion of Rus’ came later (988).

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Adaptation and Resilience

• Dual-route strategy (Dnieper + Volga) hedged against steppe raids and political tolls; when Pechenegs blocked the Dnieper, merchants shifted to the Volga.

• Seasonal logistics—summer navigation, winter sled freight—smoothed transport risk; caches and fortified gorodishche protected goods and people.

• Tribute diplomacy balanced payments to Khazars and Pechenegs with punitive raids and alliances, keeping corridors open.

• Urban niches (Ladoga, Novgorod, Kiev) developed storage, craft specialization, and legal customs for foreign merchants, stabilizing long-distance exchange.

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Long-Term Significance

By 963 CE, East Europe had coalesced into a river-route commonwealth under emerging Kievan Rus’, framed by Khazar gatekeeping on the Caspian and Byzantine markets on the Black Sea.

• Silver-driven commerce integrated forest, steppe, and sea;

• Tribal unions and Varangian retinues forged the institutions of Rus’ rulership;

• Volga Bulgar Islam and Khazar Judaism embedded the region in wider religious economies.

On the eve of the next age, Sviatoslav’s campaigns (from 964) would crack Khazar hegemony, Pecheneg pressure would intensify, and the Dnieper metropolis of Kiev would begin its ascent toward high-medieval preeminence.

Kievan Rus' is founded by the Rus' people, who come from Scandinavia across Staraya Ladoga and settle in Kiev around CE 880.

Kievan Rus' includes the central, western and northern part of modern Ukraine, Belarus, far eastern strip of Poland and the western part of present-day Russia.

Many ethnically diverse peoples have migrated onto the East European Plain, but the East Slavs remain and gradually become dominant.

Kievan Rus', the first East Slavic state, emerges in the ninth century CE and develops a complex and frequently unstable political system that will flourish until the thirteenth century, when it declines abruptly.

Among the lasting achievements of Kievan Rus are the introduction of a Slavic variant of the Eastern Orthodox religion and a synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures.

The disintegration of Kievan Rus' will play a crucial role in the evolution of the East Slavs into the Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian peoples.

Oleg, another Varangian, moves south from Novgorod to expel the Khazars from Kiev and founds Kievan Rus' about  880.

During the next thirty-five years, Oleg subdues the various East Slavic tribes.

In 907, he leads a campaign against Constantinople, and in 911 he signs a commercial treaty with the East Roman Empire as an equal partner.

The new Kievan state prospers because it controls the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and because it has an abundant supply of furs, wax, honey, and slaves for export.

Historians have debated the role of the Varangians in the establishment of Kievan Rus'.

Most Russian historians—especially in the Soviet era—have stressed the Slavic influence in the development of the state.

Although Slavic tribes had formed their own regional jurisdictions by 860, the Varangians accelerate the crystallization of Kievan Rus'.

Little is known of the origin of the Slavs.

Philologists and archaeologists theorize that the Slavs settled very early in the Carpathian Mountains or in the area of present-day Belarus.

By 600, they had split linguistically into southern, western, and eastern branches.

The East Slavs had settled along the Dnepr River in what is now Ukraine; then they spread northward to the northern Volga River valley, east of modern-day Moscow, and westward to the basins of the northern Dnestr and the western Bug rivers, in present-day Moldova and southern Ukraine.

In the eighth and ninth centuries, many East Slavic tribes pay tribute to the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking people who had adopted Judaism about 740 and live in the southern Volga and Caucasus regions.

Iranian and other peoples lived in the area of present-day Ukraine long before the organization of Kievan 'Rus.

The best known of those groups was the nomadic Scythians, who occupied the region from about 600 BCE to 200 BCE and whose skill in warfare and horsemanship is legendary.

Between CE 100 and 900, Goths and nomadic Huns, Avars, and Magyars have passed through the region in their migrations.

Although some of them subjugated the Slavs in the region, those tribes left little of lasting importance.

More significant in this period is the expansion of the Slavs, who are agriculturists and beekeepers as well as hunters, fishers, herders, and trappers.

By 600, the Slavs were the dominant ethnic group on the East European Plain.

The Swedish Viking Age lasts roughly from the eighth century to the eleventh century.

It is believed that Swedish Vikings and Gutar mainly traveled east and south, going to Finland, the Baltic countries, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, the Black Sea and even as far as Baghdad.

Their routes pass through the Dnieper south to Constantinople, on which they carry out numerous raids.

The Emperor Theophilos notices their great skills in war, and invites them to serve as his personal bodyguard, known as the Varangian Guard.

The Swedish Vikings, called Rus, are believed to be the founding fathers of Kievan Rus'.

The Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described these Vikings as follows:

    I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Itil. I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear neither tunics nor caftans, but the men wear a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves a hand free. Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort.

The Rus of Novgorod seize Kiev in 882, uniting the northern and southern Rus'.

According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg, who was a relative (likely brother-in-law) of the first ruler, Rurik, and was entrusted by Rurik to take care of both his kingdom and his young son Ingvar, or Igor, gradually took control of the Dnieper cities, captured Kiev (previously held by the Varangian warlords, Askold and Dir) and finally moved his capital from Novgorod there.

The new capital would be a convenient place to launch a raid against Tsargrad (Constantinople) in 911.

According to the chronicle, the imperial Greeks attempted to poison Oleg, but the Rus' leader demonstrated his oracular powers by refusing to drink the cup of poisoned wine.

Having fixed his shield to the gate of the imperial capital, Oleg won a favorable trade treaty, which eventually was of great benefit to both nations.

Although Byzantine sources did not record these hostilities, the text of the treaty survives in the Primary Chronicle.

The Primary Chronicle's brief account of Oleg's life contrasts with other early sources, specifically the Novgorod First Chronicle, which states that Oleg was not related to Rurik, and was rather a Scandinavian client-prince who served as Igor's army commander.

The Novgorod First Chronicle does not give the date of the commencement of Oleg's reign, but dates his death to 922 rather than 912.

Scholars have contrasted this dating scheme with the "epic" reigns of roughly thirty-three years for both Oleg and Igor in the Primary Chronicle.

The Primary Chronicle and other Kievan sources place Oleg's grave in Kiev, while Novgorodian sources identify a funerary barrow in Ladoga as Oleg's final resting place.

In the Primary Chronicle, Oleg is known as the Prophet, an epithet alluding to the sacred meaning of his Norse name ("priest"), but also ironically referring to the circumstances of his death.

According to this legend, romanticized by Alexander Pushkin in his celebrated ballad "The Song of the Wise Oleg," it was prophesied by the pagan priests that Oleg would take death from his stallion.

Proud of his own foretelling abilities, he sent the horse away.

Many years later he asked where his horse was, and was told it had died.

He asked to see the remains and was taken to the place where the bones lay.

When he touched the horse's skull with his boot a snake slithered from the skull and bit him.

Oleg died, thus fulfilling the prophecy.

In Scandinavian traditions, this legend lived on in the saga of Orvar-Odd.

According to the Primary Chronicle, Oleg died in 912 and his successor, Igor of Kiev, ruled from then until his assassination in 945.

The Schechter Letter, a document written by a Jewish Khazar, a contemporary of Romanus I Lecapenus, describes the activities of a Rus' warlord named HLGW (Hebrew: הלגו), usually transcribed as "Helgu".

For years, many scholars disregarded or discounted the Schechter Letter account, which referred to Helgu (often interpreted as Oleg) as late as the 940s.

Recently, however, scholars such as David Christian and Constantine Zuckerman have suggested that the Schechter Letter's account is corroborated by various other Russian chronicles, and suggests a struggle within the early Rus' polity between factions loyal to Oleg and to the Rurikid Igor, a struggle that Oleg ultimately lost.

Zuckerman posited that the early chronology of the Rus' had to be re-determined in light of these sources.

Among Zuckerman's beliefs and those of others who have analyzed these sources are that the Khazars did not lose Kiev until the early tenth century (rather than 882, the traditional date, that Igor was not Rurik's son but rather a more distant descendant, and that Oleg did not immediately follow Rurik, but rather that there is a lost generation between the legendary Varangian lord and his documented successors.

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.)

The Magyars' early homes had been on the upper waters of the Volga and Kama rivers; unrecorded causes had driven them, at an uncertain date, southward into the steppes, where they have adopted the life of peripatetic herders.

Their base in the late ninth century is the lower Don, ranging over the steppes to the west of that river.

They now comprise a federation of hordes, or tribes, each under a hereditary chieftain and each composed of a varying number of clans, the members of which share a real or imagined blood kinship.

All clan members are free, but the community includes slaves taken in battle or in raids.

There are seven Magyar hordes, but other elements are part of the federation, including three hordes of Turkic Khazars (the Kavars).

Either because of this fact or perhaps because of a memory of earlier conditions, this federation is known to its neighbors as the On-Ogur (literally, “Ten Arrows”), from the Slavic pronunciation of which the name “Hungarian” is derived.

In the late ninth century, the Magyars breach Khazar control of the steppe, but in 889, attacks by a newly arrived Turkic people, the Pechenegs, whose migration the declining Khazar state can no longer impede, drive the Magyars and their confederates from their home in the northern Caucasus to the western extremities of the steppes, the strong presence of the Varangian Rus’ in Kiev blocking the Magyars’ northward advance.