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Conflict Europe

Wars of the Kievan Rus'

860 CE – 1240 CE · 380 years

The Rus' state expanded from Viking origins into a major European power, warring with Byzantium and steppe nomads before fracturing into rival principalities conquered by the Mongols.

Belligerents

The main peoples, kingdoms and states involved.

  • Kievan Rus' princes
  • Byzantine Empire, Pechenegs, Cumans, Mongols

Key moments

Defining events in the Wars of the Kievan Rus'.

  1. 860 Siege of Constantinople
  2. 968–971 Sviatoslav's Balkan campaign
  3. 1223 Battle of the Kalka River
  4. 1240 Fall of Kyiv to the Mongols

Elsewhere in Europe at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

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Image credits6 pictures from Wikimedia Commons