Ukraine, Russia, or Belarus: Who Inherits Kyivan Rus?

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Ultimately, all three modern East Slavic nations, Ukraine, Russia, and Bellarus, share in the cultural legacy of Kievan Rus, not unlike how the romance-sp speakaking nations of Western Europe all share in the cultural legacy of ancient Rome. Moreover, defining a medieval empire using the same framework of ethnicity and identity applies to modern nation states is inherently problematic.

[00:00:25]For example, Kievan Roose was not even an entirely Slavic realm. Its Ruricid rulers were initially Scandinavian in language and custom. And although they became increasingly Slavicized over the centuries, their realm still remained a multicultural patchwork of not just Slavs but tribes of Finnick, Baltic, Turic, Iranian, and other origins as well. Moreover, an erratic relationship of alternating war and trade with the Eastern Romans on the other end of the Black Sea and the many nomadic polities riding in from their southeastern flank added to the multi-layered culture of the Keieven RS. With all that said, it's easy to understand why many Ukrainians today consider the Kieven Rousse to be the quintessential proto Ukrainian state. For it was during the reign of its Ruricid Grand Kzv that the pillars of modern Ukrainian identity first began manifesting into being. During the reign of Vadomir the Great, the old Slavic and Norse pagan pantheons were abolished in favor of the god of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Vadomir's son Yaruslav the Wise continued down this reformative civic path. Known as the lawgiver, Yerislav oversaw a Cambrian explosion of bureaucratic innovation in his realm, manufacturing widespread legal reforms and literacy programs among his people in tandem with vast translation efforts of scripture from Byzantine Greek into the lurggical tongue of the Slavs, Old Church Slavonic, which was written in an early form of the cerillic alphabet still used by East Slavic nations today.

[00:02:03]Another epithet attributed to Yarislav was the builder. For it was under his purview that such grand monuments like the Golden Gate and St. Sophia's Cathedral were constructed in Kev. As a result, Kev became a thriving entropo of 45,000 people that rivaled cities like London, Paris, and Vienna in population, wealth, and splendor. As a result, other cities in the Rus realm like Vladimir, Palotsk, and Nogarod began developing on the model set by the gold standard of Kev.