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The Kiev State and Its Relations with Western Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The early history of Russia is still in many respects an unexplored field, and the place which the first Russian political organisation occupied in Europe from the tenth to the twelfth century is not yet appreciated as it deserves to be, even by Russian scholars themselves. The research carried out in this field in Russia at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth century was cut short for almost three decades by political events. It is only recently that the history of Kievan Russia has aroused a keener interest among the historians of Soviet Russia, as witness the many studies published in Vestnik Drevnei Istorii and especially the work of B. D. Grekov.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1947

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References

page 27 note 1 See a short review of the most important works dealing with the early history of Russia in Laehr, G., Die Anfänge des Russischen Reiches. Polit. Geschichte von 9. u. 10 Jh. (Histor. Studien, vol. 189. Berlin, 1930), p. 116.Google Scholar

page 27 note 2 Kievskaya Rus (Academy of SSSR, Moscow, 1939, 2nd edn., 1945).Google Scholar

page 27 note 3 Ancient Russia (New Haven, 1934).Google Scholar

page 27 note 4 I am dealing more fully with these problems of early Russian history in my book The Making of Central and Eastern Europe, which is due shortly to appear in New York.

page 28 note 1 On the Antes, cf. my work Les Slaves, Byzance et Rome au IXe siècle (Paris, 1926), pp. 22 ff., 55 ff.Google Scholar

page 29 note 1 Bosworth, J., King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon Version (London, 1859), p. 18.Google Scholar See the study by Malone, K., ‘King Alfred's North, A Study in Medieval Geography’, Speculum, v (1930), 139–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar But Malone's correction of Alfred's geographical information is not warranted. Alfred is right in locating the Horoti to the east of the Dalamentsan, since he was thinking of the White Croats in modern Galicia, not south-east, where the existence of a White Croat tribe in Eastern Bohemia is established by other evidence.

page 29 note 2 See Constantini Porphyrogenniti de Administrando Imperio (ed. Bury, J. B., London, 1920), chs. 29–76.Google Scholar

page 30 note 1 On the Khazars see ch. v of my book Les Légendes de Constantin et de Méthode vues de Byzance (Prague, 1933), pp. 148–78.Google Scholar

page 30 note 2 Bosworth, , op. cit., pp. 19Google Scholar f. See also Ross, Alan S. C., The Terfinnas and Beormas of Ohthere (Leeds School of English Language, Texts and Monographs, no. vii. 1940)Google Scholar, new edition with commentary on the passage and recent bibliography.

page 30 note 3 See new materials on the commercial relations between the Bulgare on the Volga and the northern peoples in Marquart, J., ‘Ein arabischer Bericht über die arktischen Länder aus dem 10. Jh.’, Ungarische Jahrbücher, iv (1924), 322 ff.Google Scholar

page 31 note 1 See the English translation with introduction by Cross, S. H., The Russian Primary Chronicle (Harvard Studies and Notes in Philology and Literature, xii. 1930), pp. 144 ff.Google Scholar

page 32 note 1 Chadwick, N. K., The Beginnings of Russian History (Cambridge, 1946). pp. 12 ff.Google Scholar, rightly points out that the centres where the Norsemen settled must have been flourishing long before their arrival, the very reason why the colonists felt attracted. The land of the Polians played its part as early as the Sarmatian period of Kievan prehistory.

page 32 note 2 This is also vouched for by the Primary Chronicle (ed. Cross, , p. 147, an. 6368–6370).Google Scholar It is not sure, though possible, that they were of Hálogaland origin, as suggested by Chadwick, N. K., op. cit., p. 24.Google Scholar

page 32 note 3 For particulars, see my books Les Slaves, Byzance et Rome, pp. 138, 146Google Scholar; Les Légendes, pp. 172 ff.Google Scholar

page 33 note 1 For a detailed discussion of the sources and the bibliography on the baptism of Olga, see Laehr, , op. cit., pp. 103–6.Google Scholar

page 33 note 2 The religious policy of the Ottos deserves closer attention on the part of historians. A. Brackmann tried to break new ground in his interesting studies, especially in ‘Die Ostpolitik Ottos des Grossen’, Hist. Zeitschrift, cxxxiv (1926), 254 ff.Google Scholar, but he underestimated the Slavonic element and the Polish reaction against Otto's designs. We have outlined Otto's plans in a short paper ‘The First Wave of the Drang nach Osten’, Cambridge Historical Journal, vii (1943), 129 ff.Google Scholar and we will deal with it fully in a work to be published in the near future.

page 34 note 1 See the recent study on the Volga Bulgars by Smirnov, A. P., ‘Ocherki po Istorii drevnikh Bulgar’ (Trudy Gosud. Istor. Muzeya, xi, Moscow, 1940), 55136.Google Scholar

page 34 note 2 Ad a. 6494–6497 (Cross, , op. cit., 183207Google Scholar); also the complete list of sources bearing on Vladimir's conversion in H. Koch's study ‘Byzanz, Ochrid und Kiev’, Kyrios, iii (Berlin, 1938), 290–2.Google Scholar

page 34 note 3 The theory was developed by Baumgarten, N. de, ‘Vladimir et la Conversion de la Russie’, Orientalin Christiana, xxvii (1932).Google Scholar We are told there that Scandinavian priests had acquainted Vladimir with the principles of Christianity and that Olaf Tryggvason finally prevailed on Vladimir to embrace the faith. Yet, it is well known that Christianity made very slow progress in Novgprod, where Scandinavian influence was most marked. This would make Scandinavian Christian influence in Russia very doubtful. The ‘western theory’ was lately developed by M. Jugie in his book, Le Schisme byzantin (Paris, 1940), pp. 177–86.Google Scholar I am dealing with it in the work about to be published.

page 35 note 1 See Vasiliev, , ‘Was Old Russia a Vassal State of Byzantium?Speculum, vii (1932), 350 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. Chadwick, N. K., op. cit., 71 ff.Google Scholar

page 35 note 2 I have dealt with this problem in my Birkbeck Lectures, Cambridge, 1946, which I hope to publish.

page 36 note 1 Their share is somewhat overdone by the partisans of the so-called Bulgarian theory first elaborated by M. D. Priselkov and later developed by Koch, H., op. cit., pp. 254–92.Google Scholar There is no serious evidence for the Bulgarian origin of the Russian hierarchy.

page 37 note 1 For more details on these recent discoveries, see the study by Weingart, M. in Svatováclavský Sborník (Prague, 1936), 863 ff.Google Scholar

page 37 note 2 Most of the documents were published by Sobolevsky, A. I. in Izvestya Otdeleniya Russk. Yazyka I Slovesnosti Imp. Akad. Nauk, viii (1903)Google Scholar, x (1905), xi (1906), in the Sbornik of the same Institution (vol. lxxxviii), and in Russkyi Filologicheskii Vestnik, no. 1 (1900).Google Scholar

page 38 note 1 On the church of St. Olaf in Novgorod which was set apart for the Scandinavian and German merchants, see Abraham, W., ‘Powstanie Organiz. Kosciola Latinsk. na Rusi’, Rozsprawe of the Polish Acad., Phil. Hist. Cl, 1904, pp. 47 ff.Google Scholar

page 39 note 1 For the lives of these saints see Acta Sanctorum: St. Magnus (6 Sept.), St. Canute (10 July), St. Olaf (29 July), St. Alban (21 June), St. Botulf (17 June), St. Victor (30 Sept.).

page 40 note 1 For particulars, see Leib, B., Rome, Kiev et Byzance (Paris, 1924), pp. 6574.Google Scholar

page 40 note 2 ‘Vita S. Mariani’, Acta Sanct., 9 Feb. ch. iv.

page 40 note 3 For details, see Abraham, W., Powstanie Organ. Kosc. Lac., 69 ff.Google Scholar

page 40 note 4 Mon. Germ. Hist., SS., xii. 647.Google Scholar

page 41 note 1 Details, sources and bibliography will be found in Leib, B., op. cit., 143–78.Google Scholar Saxo Grammaticus' account (a. 1067, in SS. xxix. 67) of the unfortunate English princess's marriage to the Russian duke is pathetic enough. Cf. also Cross, S. H., ‘Medieval Russian Contacts with the West’, Speculum, x (1935). 137–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 42 note 1 Published in Mon. Germ. Hist., Capit. Reg. Franc., pp. 244 ff.Google Scholar

page 42 note 2 Relative documents were published in V. Vasilevskii's study ‘Drevnaya Toroga Kieva s Regensburgom’, Zhurnal of the Ministry of Instruction, 1888, no. vii., 121 ff.

page 42 note 3 See Bernhardi, W., Jahrbücher der Deutschen Geschichte: Konrad III (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 271 ff.Google Scholar

page 42 note 4 Meiller, A. V., ‘Öster. Stadtrechte u. Satzungen’, Archiv f. Kunde Öster. Geschichtquellen, x (1853), 92–6.Google Scholar

page 42 note 5 Codex Traditionum S. Emmerammensium in Pez, , Thesaurus Anecdotorum (Augsburg, 17211729, t. i, pars 3), p. 173.Google Scholar

page 42 note 6 R. Petachiae Itinerarium, in Ugolinus, B., Thesaurus Antiq. Sacr. (Venice, 1767) vi. 1168 ff.Google Scholar

page 42 note 7 Schránil, J., Die Vorgeschichte Böhmens und Māhrens (Berlin, Leipzig, 1928), pp. 298 ff., tables 65–74.Google Scholar

page 42 note 8 SS. ix. 418.

page 43 note 1 Confirmation of Russian trade in the eleventh century is to be found in an English document, ‘Ex Libris de S. Thoma Cantuarensi’, SS. xxvii. 4.

page 43 note 2 Hansisches Urkundenbuch (Halle, 18761886), i. 41, no. 33Google Scholar; Goetz, L. K., Deutsch-Russische Handelsverträge (Hamburg, 1916), pp. 1572.Google Scholar

page 43 note 3 For. details, see Goetz, L. C., Deutsch-Russische Handelsgeschichte des Mittelalters (Lübeck, 1922), pp. 3146.Google Scholar

page 43 note 4 Cf. Pirenne, H., ‘Draps d'Ypres à Novgorod au commencement du XIIe siècle’, Revue Belge de Phil, et d'Histoire, ix (1930), 563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 43 note 5 Goetz, L. C., Deutsch-Russ. Handelsgesch., pp. 152 ff., 160 ff., 289 ff.Google Scholar

page 43 note 6 Cf. Leib, B., op. cit., pp. 77, 96 ff.Google Scholar

page 43 note 7 ‘La Russie dans la littérature française du moyen age’, Revue des Etudes Slaves, ix (1929), 7188, 253–69.Google Scholar

page 44 note 1 Lozinskij, , op. cit., pp. 262 ff.Google Scholar

page 44 note 2 Gesta Hammaburg. eccl., ii. 19; iv. 1, 10–14 (SS. vii. 368, 372 ff.).Google Scholar

page 44 note 3 Ocia Imperialia (SS. xxvii. 37).Google Scholar

page 44 note 4 Miller, K., Mappaemundi (Stuttgart, 1895), iii. 21 ff.Google Scholar

page 44 note 5 Ibid., 16 ff.

page 44 note 6 The Map of the Psalter of London (Ibid., iii. 37 ff.), dating from the second half of the thirteenth century, also places ‘Ruscite’ on the left bank of the Lower Danube.

page 44 note 7 The Map of Ebstorf (about 1248; ibid., v. 24 ff.) reflects the new knowledge of northern Russia.

page 44 note 8 For instance, in the Continuation of Gervase of Canterbury's Gesta Regum, a. 1240 (SS. xxvii. 310Google Scholar); Annals of Burton, ibid., 474; Matthew of Paris, Chronica Maiora, in ibid., xviii. 207 ff., 292.

page 45 note 1 Complete Works (ed. W. W. Skeat), iv. 2 (Prologue, , v. 54Google Scholar), 461 (The Squieres Tales, v. 10).

page 45 note 2 This is what the monk of Malmesbury says of Russia in his Eulogium, ch. 121 (ed. Haydon, F. S., p. 944Google Scholar): ‘Rucea sive Rucena provincia est in Minori Asia; habet ab Oriente Gothiam, a Septentrione Pannoniam, ab Occidente Graeciam. Cum Boemis et Sclavis concordat in idiomate. Haec in quadam sui parte Galatia est vocata, ad quam Paulus Apostolus Epistolas dirigebat.’ Cf. also ch. 67 (p. 62) on the Slavs. The monk takes this inform ation not from the Geographia Universalis, an anonymous work preserved in the fourteenth-century manuscript No. 123 of the Arundel Collection in the British Museum (fo. 17r, 18r, 19)—as F. S. Haydon believes—but from the fifteenth book of Bartholomaeus Anglicus' famous work De Proprietatibus Rerum (ch. 131, 140, ed. G. B. Pontanus a Braitenberg, Francfurt, 1601, pp. 693, 697), written about 1250. As the study of the Arundel Manuscript has shown, this part of the anonymous Geography was simply copied from Bartholomaeus work. It should be noticed that the English Franciscan is not as emphatic in placing Russia in Asia Minor as is the author of the Eulogium. Bartholomaeus places ‘Ruthia’ ‘in Minoris Asiae confinio’. His information on the Baltic Slavs is surprisingly accurate.

page 45 note 3 See her letter to Mieszko in Mon. Poloniae Histor., i. 323.Google Scholar