midterm Flashcards
(83 cards)
steppe
open grassland, ukraine
dnieper
river through ukraine, near kyiv
scythians
c. 700-200 b.c.e; nomadic, language related to persians, egalitarian (amazons)
tunguska event
june 17/30 1908; largest meteor strike in recorded human history, 12 megatons, 80 million trees knocked down, made the night sky glow for days
khazars
judaism for elite, trading over violence
oleg
first kievan prince (grand prince); lead trade and military expeditions south into byzantium, died on a campaign against the drevelaine
olga
sviatoslav only three, first woman to run russia, avenged her husband and killed the drevelaines; drevelaines offered for her to marry their leader, she went with it and had them buried alive and second group prepared bath and had soldiers lock the doors and set it on fire, proceeds to wipe out the drevelaines, converted to christianity around 955, may be the reason the country converted, proclaimed saint by the orthodox church
sviatoslav
10 years; almost contrast campaigning, son led unsuccessful campaign against byzantium in 941 and lost the trading connection, defeated several groups in the volga region
vladimir the great
has to fight to secure his throne, established eastern orthodoxy, starts building st. sophia, ordered schools established, almshouses, monasteries, hostels, called prince vladimir because of anti-religious soviet union
yaroslav the wise
needed civil war to gain power over his brothers, connected with western europe via marriages, issued russian’s first law code, the russkaya pravda (pravda means truth today but back then more “justice”, mild for its day), wergeld (monetary value)
veche
town assembly
liudi
middle class
smerdy
“people who stink,” agricultural labourers
appanage era
political fragmentation, started with iaroslav’s death in 1054 and lack of succession line
polovtsy
Starting in 1061, they began raiding Kievan territory
They remained a constant threat for the next two hundred years providing a steady drain on Kievan resources
Even harassed trade through the Black Sea. Kiev ultimately failed in protecting its commercial lines across the steppe
vladimir monomakh
campaigned against the polovtsy
passed laws to help poor/debtors
“testament”
a lasting contribution to russian literature
combines a life story (including 83 battles with the polovtsy) with a set of precepts by which he hoped his sons would rule
lay of the host of igor
poetic account of an unsuccessful campaign, basically a failed raid, against the polovtsy in 1185
hilarion
“The best theologian and preacher in all ancient Russia”
His sermon On Law and Grace skillfully compares the Old and New Testaments
Fine example of the joyously affirmative spirit of Kievan Christianity
He also wrote biographies/hagiographies of Volodomyr and Yaroslav
temuchin
unified mongols
batu
golden horde
batu establishes as apart of the mongol empire
spider poised to attack
tartar yoke 1240-1480
mongol oppression
alexander nevsky
gained his nickname from a victory against Sweden at the Neva River, later fought the Germanic Teutonic Knights
novgorod
The city was well fortified, and its people well-organized
They not only had a strong overall veche, they had local and district level veches too
Perhaps the most sophisticated economy in all of Kievan Rus as well
iver
greater threat, so the Mongols tended to back Moscow, Mongol actions weakened Tver’s power, aiding Moscow’s ambitions.