The emergence of Rus, 750-1200

by Simon Franklin

This eight-volume series, covering the history of Russia and its immediate neighbors from the emergence of Rus through to the present day, is written for students and non-specialist readers. A major strength of the series its the space it devotes to the less familiar histories of Rus and Russia before the time of Peter the Great. This eagerly awaited study--the first in modern times by western scholars, explores one of the definitive processes int eh making of modern Europe: the emergence, amongst the diverse inhabitants of the bast landmass east of the Carpathians, of the 'Land of the Rus' (Russia to medieval Latin writers), whose modern heirs include Ukraine and Belarus as well as Russia itself. In the eighth century, the region was sparsely inhabited by separate groups of Slavs, Balts, Finno-Ugrain and Turkic peoples, with few focuses of settlement or wealth, and little to link one group to another.^ By the late twelfth century, it bristled with prosperous towns, bonded in networks