The Extinction of the Rurikids and the Fall of Ruthenia

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]The story of the Cossacs begins with the lands of modern Ukraine under foreign rule, but not by who you might expect.

[00:00:08]In 1323, the kingdom of Runthenia was ruled jointly by two brother kings, Andrew and Lev II. The great grandsons of the kingdom's founder, Danilo. It was that year that disaster struck as both were killed in a battle fought against their ostensible susarin Usbg Khn of the Golden Horde. As neither brother had any heirs, Danilo's branch of the Rirkid bloodline went extinct and Runthenia was left without a rightful ruler. Caught in such a state of vulnerability, the Runthenian kingdom came into the crosshairs of two up and cominging powers, Poland and Lithuania.

[00:00:48]To vastly oversimplify a half decade of complex political jockeying, the Kingdom of Renia was ultimately partitioned between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who carved it in twain along the historic borders of the principalities of Galysia and Fellinia. Surprisingly enough, it was the Lithuanians who for a time were the most powerful overlords in the proto Ukrainian world. Under the dynamic Grand Duke Gedinus, the last pagan country in Europe had become a mighty military juggernaut, remarkably defeating the seemingly invincible Mongol juggernaut of the Golden Horde to annex not just the far west principality of Valinia, but also lands in eastern and central Ukraine, such as Chenniv, Pereslav, Pedoleia, and even Kev.