From Kyivan Rus’ to the 16th Century — Galicia-Volhynia and Two Unions

This series traces the history of the land that is now Ukraine, from prehistory to the 1990s, in four articles. This first one covers the period before the Cossacks became a political force, from prehistory to the end of the 16th century. Dates for this period often vary between sources; where sources disagree, this article gives the range rather than choosing one.

5000–3000 BCE — The Trypillia Culture

A culture known as the Trypillia culture existed in the region that is now Ukraine from the Neolithic into the Bronze Age. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, CIUS, at the University of Alberta) dates it to “approximately 5000 to 3000 BCE.” The Encyclopaedia Britannica likewise describes it as “a Neolithic culture that arose in Ukraine in the fifth millennium BCE.”

The same encyclopedia states that, in the later phase of this culture, large settlements known as “megasites” appeared, with estimated areas of 50 to over 200 hectares and estimated populations of 5,000 to 15,000. The Talianky site covers about 340 hectares. All of these are estimates, not confirmed population figures.

Nomadic Powers of the Steppe and the Greek Cities of the Black Sea Coast

On the steppe of the northern Black Sea coast, the Cimmerians were mentioned by Homer around the 8th century BCE and were driven from the steppe by the Scythians in the 7th century BCE. The Scythians controlled the steppe of southern Ukraine from the 7th to the 3rd century BCE, and the Sarmatians defeated the Scythians in Crimea in the 3rd century BCE. This much comes from the respective entries in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine.

The Greek colonies on the coast were not founded all at once. According to the same encyclopedia, the oldest colony was on Berezan Island in the late 7th century BCE, while most of the others were founded in the 6th century BCE. Olbia was founded by settlers from Miletus in the early 6th century BCE, and Chersonesus was founded by Megarian Greeks from Heraclea Pontica in 422–421 BCE — a gap of more than two hundred years between Berezan and Chersonesus.

The ruins of Chersonesus were inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2013. UNESCO describes them as “the remains of an ancient city built as a Dorian Greek colonial settlement in the 5th century BCE.”

The Goths, Huns, Avars, and Khazars

The Goths moved south in the late 2nd century and reached the Black Sea, and in 375 the Huns conquered the Ostrogothic state. The Avars appeared on the steppe west of the Caspian Sea in the mid-6th century and established a khaganate by the late 560s. The Khazars appeared in southeastern Europe after the Huns withdrew in the 4th century and remained in the region until the 11th century. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine describes the Khazar khaganate as “the first state in Eastern Europe.”

What the sources describe of the East Slavic tribes is the state in which they were already settled in this region by the 8th century. None of the sources cited in this article narrow down, by century, when they spread into the region.

882 and 988 — What the Chronicles Record

Both the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine and Britannica record the story of Oleg seizing Kyiv in 882. Britannica, however, makes clear that this comes from the Primary Chronicle, compiled in Kyiv in the 12th century. The year 882 is the date the chronicle gives; it is not an event corroborated by an independent contemporary record.

For Grand Prince Volodymyr’s adoption of Christianity in 988, the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Britannica, and the UNESCO World Heritage description all give the same year. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine records that under Yaroslav the Wise, the law was codified as the Ruska Pravda (the Rus’ law code). The encyclopedia’s entry on Yaroslav the Wise states that he married Ingigerd, daughter of King Olof Skötkonung of Sweden, and gave his daughters in marriage to King Harald III of Norway, King Henri I of France, and King Andrew I of Hungary, respectively.

Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990 (official name: “Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra”). UNESCO describes it as “one of the major edifices representing the architecture and monumental art of the early 11th century,” built “during the reign of Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise of Kyiv, with the participation of local builders and Byzantine craftsmen.” It does not specify a construction start year in the Gregorian calendar.

The “Single Old Rus’ Nationality” Was a Framework the Soviet Union Made Official

Describing Kyivan Rus’ as “the medieval history shared by present-day Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus” may sound like a neutral summary. But this framing overlaps with a framework laid down by official Soviet historiography.

According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, the framework holding that “Kyivan Rus’ was built by a single Old Rus’ nationality, from which the Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian peoples split off in the 14th and 15th centuries” was put forward by a panel of historians commissioned by the Soviet Communist Party in the 1930s. In other words, this is an account of official Soviet historiography, presented at the party’s commission. Under this framework, Kyivan Rus’ is treated not as the beginning of Ukrainian history but as the common source of three peoples who later split apart. The same encyclopedia also records that Ukrainian historiography since Hrushevsky has argued against this, taking the position that the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia was the direct successor to the Kyivan state.

This article follows the view of Ukrainian historiography since Hrushevsky and writes the following section as a continuous line from Kyivan Rus’ to the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia.

1240, and Galicia-Volhynia

Kyiv had already been sacked repeatedly by rival princes before the Mongols arrived. In particular, a sack by Andrei Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Rostov-Suzdal is recorded for 1169. The Mongol invasion of 1236–40 finally destroyed the state, and Kyiv was thoroughly sacked in 1240. Britannica states only that “the Mongol conquest of the 13th century decisively ended Kyiv’s power,” without specifying the year.

In 1199, Roman Mstyslavych founded the Principality of Galicia-Volhynia. His son Danylo, in order to gain the pope’s support, recognized the pope as the head of the church in his territory and received a crown from the pope in 1253.

In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Rus’ Law and Language Survived

The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine’s entry on Lithuania states that, of this state, “only 10 percent of the territory was inhabited by Lithuanians,” and that “the official culture, language, legal code (Kyivan Rus’s Ruska Pravda), and religion of this new state became Ruthenian — that is, Ukrainian-Belarusian in character,” with “an Orthodox metropolitanate of Lithuania” established. The same encyclopedia also records that the Lithuanian-Ruthenian nobility later underwent Polonization.

1569 and 1596 — Two Unions

Under the Union of Lublin, signed on 1 July 1569, Podlachia, Volhynia, Podilia, the Bratslav region, and the Kyiv region passed to the Polish Crown.

The Union of Brest of 1596 (the encyclopedia’s entry is titled “Church Union of Berestia”) was an agreement between the Orthodox Church of Rus’ in Poland-Lithuania and the Holy See. The papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem is dated 23 February 1596. The same encyclopedia traces this lineage down to its revival in present-day Ukraine in the 1990s — a line that leads to today’s Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.

Cities Did Not Operate Under a Single Law

Magdeburg Law, a system of urban self-government, was brought into the region by German settlers. Its application varied city by city: Lviv before 1352, Kamianets-Podilskyi in 1374, Kyiv in 1494, and so on.

The same encyclopedia states that Kamianets-Podilskyi had “three separate national jurisdictions — Ukrainian, Polish, and Armenian.” Residents of the same city could be subject to different laws depending on which jurisdiction they belonged to.

The Crimean Khanate

Sources vary on the year the khanate was established. The Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine states that “from the mid-15th century onward, the khanate was an independent state,” while a separate entry gives its independence from the Golden Horde as 1449. Britannica gives 1443 as the year of founding. This article writes “the mid-15th century.”

The year the khanate came under Ottoman suzerainty is also disputed: 1478 in the same encyclopedia, 1475 in Britannica. Since this article cannot decide between the two, it writes “the 1470s.”

It is Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada that has designated the Crimean Tatars as an indigenous people. Resolution No. 1140-VII of 20 March 2014, “On the Statement of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Guarantees of the Rights of the Crimean Tatar People within the Ukrainian State,” declares that “Ukraine guarantees the preservation and development of the ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and religious identity of the Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people, and of all national minorities of Ukraine,” and also expresses support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is a declaration by a state body; this article does not state it as plain fact in the narrative voice without naming who is making the claim.

Multiple sources record that raiding on the steppe and the slave trade caused great harm to the surrounding population. But even Britannica’s entry on “slavery” gives no figures for its scale. That entry offers concrete estimates for the Atlantic slave trade while, for this region, limiting itself to a general characterization. This article likewise gives no figures.

The continuation — from the 1648 uprising to the eve of the First World War — is covered in a separate article.