Prior to its empirialization, Russian history can be broken down into three periods: Kiev RusÃÂ, the conquering by the Golden Horde, and the rise of the Muskovy principality. These three different periods of Russian history shaped major events and influential mindsets that would change the world. The weak economy, coupled with a lack of natural barriers to hinder invaders, an orthodoxy that accepted things as mysterious without pursuing reasonable answers, and a state of constant fear due to foreign domination and a national autocracy kept early Russia weak and insignificant to medieval world affairs. Rus was, as far as is known, inhabited by mainly Slavic and Finnish peoples around the early ninth century, who were primarily agriculturalists and whose land, created by these peoples by a ÃÂslash and burnÃÂ method of deforestation, (Freeze 3) was centered in a forested area of eastern Europe and stretched between the Dnieper, western Dvina, Lovat-Volkhov, and Volga rivers (Freeze 3).
Golden Horde ceramic ware from State Historical Mu...
English: Grand Duke Mikhail Yaroslavich Being Murd...
English: The campaign of Timur against the Golden ...Two main Viking tribes nearby that traded and plundered wherever they could, the Varangians and the Rus, eventually settled into the land that would eventually carry one of their names. Upon conquering the Slav and Finnish tribes, the Rus and Varangians named themselves princes and enslaved the inhabitants establishing the stratification system that would embody Russian politics for centuries. From the very emergence of Russian society it was already under the power of a foreign prince, totalitarian autocracy was to be KievÃÂs governmental system. The first new ruler written about was Prince Riurik (Freeze 3), who died in either 879 or 882 AD. According to Scandinavian tradition the kingÃÂs lands were then split among male heirs (Freeze 4) which would be the downfall of Kiev in about two hundred and fifty years. Even during some kingÃÂs lifetime he would give parts of his...