S2:E0
A Long Time Ago
Introduction to Season 2
Map of East Slavic Tribes (700-850)
The states of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus formed after centuries of migrations and wars between a number of tribes. Outside sources describe these often nomadic peoples with varying degrees of disdain, admiration, and confusion and call them by a plurality of names. Customs described by sources such as Herodotus and Ibn Fadlan reflect the biases and aims of writers, drawing (sometimes stretched) comparisons to other groups and combining mythology with history.
image: SeikoEn (via Wikimedia Commons)
image: Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople during the Rus’-Byzantine War (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The Rus’ Primary Chronicle
Sources for Rus’ history are somewhat elusive. Even the Rus’ Primary Chronicle, although written in East Slavic, is an unreliable source, reckoning dates from the Biblical flood. The story of the Rus’ must be pieced together from tidbits and sometimes contradictory accounts, coupled with what archaeological evidence we have available to us (which isn’t all that much).
_by_Florentine_cartographer_Cristoforo_Buondelmonte.jpg)
image: the earliest surviving map of Constantinople, by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, 1422 (public domain via Wikimedia Commons)
The Rus’ and the Byzantine Empire
One theory about the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire (aka the Byzantine Empire) goes like this: warring tribes to the north forced refugees further and further south into Byzantine territory, overwhelming the already-weakened empire and leading to its ultimate demise. Byzantine-Rus’ relations will feature heavily in our story this season, as we trace the moments where these distinct groups come into conflict and cooperation with one another.