![]() ![]() 1236–41, most likely due to the surrender of the city under Alexander Nevsky (r. The Mongols overran, sacked, and subsequently controlled the majority of Rus, excepting only Novgorod in the north beginning ca. The arrival of the Mongols in the middle of the 13th century dramatically changed the entirety of Rus for the rest of its history. Each had their own policies, chronicles, ecclesiastical authorities, and so forth. The different kingdoms centered in places as diverse as Novgorod in the north, Vladimir-Suzdal in the northeast, Smolensk on the Dnieper, and Galicia-Volhynia in the southwest. The political unity of the kingdom of Rus fractured over the course of the 12th century, which left it in multiple kingdoms, often called principalities, in the 13th century. ![]() Its distance from the rest of Europe did not preclude contact with western and central Europe, but it did make it more difficult (and less common) than for areas located closer, such as Kyiv, Novgorod, or Galicia-Volhynia. This area was well known for fur gathering, but especially for fur transshipment down the Volga to the world of Central Asia. Rus also stretched to the northeast, especially the areas between the Volga and Oka rivers, which would eventually form the heartland for Muscovy, a potential successor state. The region not only had natural salt deposits, but easy access to a variety of other areas, though with no natural borders, it was prone to conquest, as would be seen in its history. Its power extended to the southwest into the newly forming areas of Galicia and Volhynia, stretching across the headwaters of the Pripyat, Vistula, Dniester, and Bug Rivers. It stretched from the Gulf of Finland in the north, where cities such as Ladoga and then Novgorod provided bases for trade and power to Polotsk on the Dvina, which provided another route from the Baltic to the interior of eastern Europe the territory’s capital was at Kyiv on the Dnieper, which was centrally located on the north-south Dnieper trade route, as well as the east-west land trade route. The kingdom of Rus was the largest kingdom in medieval Europe by territory. By Christian Raffensperger | Wittenberg University ![]()
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