Before Rus — who lived here, and what this world looked like

Long before there was a Russian state, there was a country of forests and rivers. Most of the land was covered with thick woods, and between them were wide rivers, marshes and open fields. There were many settlements, but no single ruler who governed them all, and there was no city that could yet be called the capital of a great country.

The people who lived here were mostly Slavs, together with Finnic and Baltic peoples and other local tribes. They spoke different languages and lived in different ways, but they were connected by the same land and, above all, by its rivers. In a country where roads were few and forests were difficult to cross, a river was the easiest road there was. A boat could carry a man, his goods and his weapons much farther than he could travel on foot.

A boat could carry a man, his goods and his weapons much farther than he could travel on foot.

This was important because the rivers of Eastern Europe did not end at the borders of one small tribe. The Dnieper led south towards the Black Sea and, beyond it, to Constantinople, the richest city of the eastern world. Other rivers led west and north, while the Volga carried merchants towards the lands of the Bulgars, the Caspian Sea and the markets of the East. Along these rivers travelled furs, wax, honey, silver and other goods. Men travelled with them, too.