Slavics and Normans
There seems to be no doubt about the Indo-European affiliation descent of the Slavs, but there are little news about them because the Germans isolated them of the Roman Empire. When there were invasions that ended the Empire, the displacement of the Germans allowed the Slavic movement westward, and so, in the sixth century, penetrations were already seen by peoples of this race in present Poland and Bohemia, and Brandenburg (Germany). Furthermore the Slavic incursions also came to the South, settling on the Adriatic coast of the Balkans.
In the seventh century,the penetration of barbarians folks, as well as the Avars in Central Europe, disconnected thus these Slavs from their racial brothers, becoming known by the name of South Slavs, who still nowadays make up the most of the population of Yugoslavia.
The Slavs who remained in the current western Russia were limited in their expansion to the east and to south by the establishment of other barbarians folks: the Khazars (or Kazars), the Pechenegs and Magyars. But taking as the axis of their residence the Dnieper River, became merchants carrying southward, to the country of the Khazars and even the Byzantine Empire, skins, honey and wax.
At the mid-ninth century already existed in this territory a true urban culture, while in Western Europe began The Feudalism. A number of towns located in the axis just spoken ensured the commercial link between the Baltic See and the Byzantine Empire: Kiev, Smolensk, Novgorod, Tchernigov, Minsk, Ryazan, Pskov Iaroslav and were the main ones.
For the same time lies the penetration of Vikings groups from Sweden, called "Varangians". These Vikings took upon themselves trade and defense of Slav cities against attacks from other nations. And according the oldest Russian chronicle, was a Varangian, Rurik, the first prince who ruled that fusion of Slavs and Vikings, in which it seems certain that the Vikings were absorbed by the Slavs, being in the history of Russia as a mere episode.
The successors of Rurik, Oleg (879-912) and Igor (912-944), alternated trade relations with Byzantium and the attacks on the capital of the Empire, until that Olga times (945-965) succeeded to Byzantine influence when became that princess to Christianity in 955 by the name of Elena in a trip she did to Constantinople.
From then on, Kiev had already surpassed the importance of Novgorod, and the princes of that city dominated the other, which, however, left some autonomy on the condition that they pay taxes regularly. The same soldiers who perceive them-in-kind were engaged then transfer them for sale in the Byzantine Empire.
The fullness of the rising state was in the last third of the tenth century, under the rule of Prince of Kiev, Sviatoslav (965-973), son of Olga, who, still pagan, was the first to conceive the idea of reaching out to an open sea - the Mediterranean in this case - so repeatedly present since then on this Russian policy of all time. The distribution of territories that Sviatoslav did on his death caused struggle between his sons, in which the winner was Vladimir the Great (973-1015), who married a Byzantine princess, Anna, was converted to Christianity in 988 forcing his subjects to embrace mass.
The bad policy of dividing the kingdom, repeated by his successors, caused the decline of the bright state, which finished at casting down new Asian nomadic invasions. Among these princes can still be noted to Yaroslav, founder of the archbishop of Kiev in 1035 and editor of the Russian law code called Russkaya Pravda.
From Rurik was born the famous dynasty of Russian Tsars that ruled Russia for over 750 years. At the beginning of the tenth century the military company of the Princes of Novgorod from Constantinople to protect trade relations with Byzantium were concluded by the integration of East-Slavic tribes in the ancient state of Kievan Rus.
The title of Tzar, Czar or Csar, (царь) was first adopted by Ivan IV as a symbol of the changing nature of the Russian Monarchy in 1547.
Ivan IV Vasilyevich (Иван Васильевич IV), also known as Ivan the Terrible (Kolomenskoie, Russia, August 25, 1530 - Moscow, March 18, 1584) Tsar of Russia (1547-1584). Considered one of the creators of the Russian state. He married at least seven times, but his most important marriage was the first one, with Anastasia Romanova in 1547. His greatest contributions were Russian conquest of Siberia, creating a new legal code, the Sudiébnik, the centralization of the power in the capital, the creation of institutions with popular participation, the conquest of the khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars, the destruction of the Teutonic Order and big internal reforms, including the reform of the army and the revision of the legal code.
His Early Years
Grandson of Tsar Ivan Vasilyevich III the Great and son of Vasily III and Elena Glinskaya, belongs to the lineage Varangian of Rurik and princess of Lithuania. According to the legend he was born with two teeth. He was crowned Grand Prince of Moscow within three years after the death of his father. However, the kingdom was administered by his mother, who was poisoned five years after the coronation of boyars clans who vied for power. He was recluded to the humiliation of the boyars, which overshadowed his character. He was held in the Kremlin Palace of living almost as a beggar. This fact led in Ivan a great hatred against boyars, and has as a consequence the constant persecution and massacres that he organized against these clans. In these early years Ivan suffered mental ramblings, now irreversibles, which led him to give vent to their anger and throwing torturing dogs from the towers. It is known that he had a deaf brother who nothing more is known.
With 13 years people began to respect him and ordered to one of his loyal groups to capture the Prince Andrei Shuisky in order to throw a pack of dogs against him, which brutaly tore him. With 16 years already stated in writing and was an avid reader of books, besides of being and a big, muscular young. He studied rhetoric from the hand of Bishop Macarius. During this time it was deeply religious.
To be respected as Tsar, Macario determined that Ivan came (according to a family tree) of the lineage of the first Roman Caesars.