THE despatch CHRISTMAS 2023
Ukraine and Russia: their Historical Ties By Thomas Hibbert
Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus have major historical ties, ranging back to the
Viking Age when the Vikings founded the Kingdom of Kievan Rus.
This was kingdom that was born out of trading outposts on the way to the
lucrative capital of Constantinople. The Vikings intermingled, and married
into the local Slavic population, just like other Vikings did in northern
England. Kievan Rus bordered many dangerous tribes such as the
Pechenegs and the Khazars, so warriors were in demand to protect their
tribe.
Harald Hardrada was one such warrior. He served in the Rus army, and
like many others, went on to serve in the Varangian Guard, an elite
fighting core of soldiers for the Byzantines, one that the Rus was
instrumental in creating. Hardrada met his end at the Battle of Stanford
Bridge in 1066,
A new tribe, the Cumans, arrived on the scene, and the Byzantines
began to slowly crumble, losing valuable trade for the Rus in the 1000s.
Kievan Rus stumbled on for two more centuries, losing land, trade, and
power thanks to internal and external war, until 1238, when they were
subdued by the Mongols and turned into a puppet Mongols.
Moscow then began to develop into an economic powerhouse in the
region. The new Duchy of Muscovy expanded into Mongol and Lithuanian
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