Saint Bruno of Querfurt ( c. 974 – February 14, 1009 ), also known as Brun and Boniface, is a sainted missionary bishop and martyr, who was beheaded near the border of Kievan Rus and Lithuania while trying to spread Christianity in Eastern Europe.

The Pravda Yaroslava, originally combined by Yaroslav the Wise the Grand Prince of Kiev, was granted to Great Novgorod around 1017, and in 1054 was incorporated into the Russkaya Pravda, that became the law for all of Kievan Rus.

Capital punishment has in the past been practised by most societies ( one notable exception being Kievan Rus ); currently 58 nations actively practice it, and 97 countries have abolished it ( the remainder have not used it for 10 years or allow it only in exceptional circumstances such as wartime ).

The East Slavic languages descend from a common predecessor, the language of the medieval Kievan Rus ' ( 9th to 13th centuries ).

Byzantium's close cultural and political interaction with its Balkan neighbors Bulgaria and Serbia, and with Russia ( Kievan Rus ', then Muscovy ) led to the adoption of Byzantine imperial traditions in all of these countries.

Glagolitic was also used in Kievan Rus.

Another Scandinavian people, the Rus ' people, would go on to found Kievan Rus ', an early state which was a precursor for the modern country of Russia.

The Kievan Rus ' state had broken up, replaced by several small warring states.

Kievan Rus ', the

Kievan Rus ' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of the Mongol invasion of Rus ' in 1237 – 1240.

During that time a number of regional magnates, in particular Novgorod and Pskov, fought to inherit the cultural and political legacy of Kievan Rus '.

Kievan Rus ' in the 11th century

Thus, the first East Slavic state, Kievan Rus ', emerged in the 9th century along the Dnieper River valley.

A coordinated group of princely states with a common interest in maintaining trade along the river routes, Kievan Rus ' controlled the trade route for furs, wax, and slaves between Scandinavia and the Byzantine Empire along the Volkhov and Dnieper Rivers.

By the 11th century, particularly during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, Kievan Rus ' displayed an economy and achievements in architecture and literature superior to those that then existed in the western part of the continent.

Kievan Rus ' ultimately disintegrated as a state because of in-fighting between members of the princely family that ruled it collectively.

The impact of the Mongol invasion on the territories of Kievan Rus ' was uneven.

The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus ' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity from the Eastern Roman ( Byzantine ) Empire in 988 AD.

Between 965 and 969, Khazar sovereignty was broken by Kievan Rus.

After the disintegrations of the Kievan Rus, the Russian Empire and the USSR, some fortresses considered Kremlin-type, remained beyond the borders of modern Russia.

During the 11th century, Lithuanian territories were included in the list of lands paying tribute to Kievan Rus ', but by the 12th century, the Lithuanians were invading neighboring territories themselves.

Through alliances and conquest, in competition with the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Lithuanians eventually gained control of significant parts ( western and southern portions ) of the formerly Kievan Rus ' territory.

In order to distinguish this state from other states derived from it, it is denoted as Kievan Rus by modern historiography.

* 1043: the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus engage in a naval confrontation, although a later treaty is signed between two parties that included the marriage alliance of Vsevolod I of Kiev to a princess daughter of Constantine IX Monomachos.

* Khazar kingdom is attacked and defeated by Kievan Rus ( 965 )

Bosham Church: the lower three storeys of the tower are Saxon, the top storey Norman Harold's daughter Gytha of Wessex married Vladimir Monomakh Grand Duke ( Velikii Kniaz ) of Kievan Rus ' and is ancestress to dynasties of Galicia, Smolensk, and Yaroslavl.

One of the largest Kievan cathedrals is dedicated to him.

Certainly, it can be ( and often is ) argued that without the Mongol destruction of Kievan Rus ' that Moscow, and subsequently the Russian Empire, would not have risen.

The Primary Chronicle (, often translated into English as Tale of Bygone Years ) is a history of Kievan Rus ' from about 850 to 1110, originally compiled in Kiev about 1113.

The language of this work is the East Slavic version of Church Slavonic language with many additional irregular east-slavisms ( like other east-Slavic codices of the time ). Whereas the Laurention ( Muscovite ) text traces the Kievan legacy through to the Muscovite princes, the Hypation text traces the Kievan legacy through the rulers of the Halych principality. The Hypatian codex was re-discovered in Kiev in the 1620s and copy was made for Prince Kostiantyn Ostrozhsky.

Ukrainian is a lineal descendant of the colloquial language used in Kievan Rus ' ( 10th – 13th century ).

It is believed that up to the 14th century, ancestors of the modern Ukrainians spoke dialects of the language known collectively as Old East Slavic ( today known as Ruthenian language ), also spoken by other East Slavs of Kievan Rus.

" Grand duke " is the traditional translation of the title Velikiy Kniaz ( Великий Князь ), which from the 11th century was at first the title of the leading Prince of Kievan Rus ', then of several princes of the Rus '.

While it is considered certain that Harald took part in Yaroslav's campaign against the Poles in 1031, it is possible that he also fought against other 1030s Kievan enemies and rivals such as the Chudes in Estonia, the Byzantines, as well as the Pechenegs and other steppe nomad people.

Ruthenia is the latinized version of Rus ’, a region in Eastern Europe inhabited by Slavs and the cradle of Kievan Rus ’, a 9th to 12th-century state that existed in the territories of modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Eastern Poland.

He is credited with moving the capital of Rus ' from Novgorod the Great to Kiev and, in doing so, he laid the foundation of the powerful state of Kievan Rus '.

As a town, Brest – Berestye in Kievan Rus – was first mentioned in the Primary Chronicle in 1019 when the Kievan Rus took the stronghold from the Poles, and is one of the oldest cities in Belarus.

Immediately after the victory, Constantine was attacked by a fleet from Kievan Rus '; it is " incontrovertible that a Rus ' detachment took part in the Maniakes rebellion ".

The English term Ruthenian, also Ruthene, also Rusyns, (,, Rusyn: Русины ); Latin Ruthenia, is a well established if sometimes obsolete exonym originally used for the people of Rus, primarily the medieval kingdom of Kievan Rus ', comprising parts of modern-day Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.

The war's main area of contention is in present-day Ukraine and Belarus and was, until the middle of the 14th century, part of the medieval state of Kievan Rus '.

In the times of Kievan Rus ', the term gusli is thought to simply refer to any generic stringed instrument.

Dažbog ( or Dažboh ) is mentioned in the Primary Chronicle, a history of early Kievan Rus ' as one of seven gods whose statues Prince Vladimir the Great erected in front of his palace in Kiev in 980, when he came to the throne.