Kyivan Rus Is Not Russia

Where Did This Myth Come From?

The concept of “Kyivan Rus = Russia” was formulated in the 18th–19th centuries by Russian imperial historians, notably Nikolai Karamzin in his “History of the Russian State” (1816–1829). This idea served to justify Russia’s imperial claims on Ukrainian and Belarusian lands.

Soviet historiography cemented this concept, proclaiming the “Old Rus nationality” as the common ancestor of three “fraternal peoples,” with Russians occupying the dominant position.

What Do Independent Researchers Say?

Hrushevsky: Rus vs. Muscovite History

Mykhailo Hrushevsky, in his foundational work “History of Ukraine-Rus” (1898–1936), convincingly demonstrated that the history of Kyivan Rus is primarily the history of the Ukrainian people, not the Russian. Hrushevsky showed that Muscovite statehood developed as a separate branch with no direct lineage from the Kyivan state.

“The conventional scheme of ‘Russian’ history… is essentially the history of the Muscovite state… It applies the standards of the later Muscovite state to the Kyivan state, projecting onto Kyivan Rus what is characteristic of Muscovy” — M.S. Hrushevsky

Plokhy: Separate Slavic Nations

Harvard historian Serhii Plokhy, in his book “The Origins of the Slavic Nations” (2006), demonstrates that Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian identities were forming as separate ones from the late Middle Ages onward. Plokhy shows that the concept of a single “Old Rus people” is a retrospective projection of later national narratives onto the past.

Tolochko: Kyiv as the Center

Petro Tolochko, a leading archaeologist of Kyivan Rus, emphasizes that the political, cultural, and economic center of Rus was in Kyiv, not Moscow or Suzdal. Moscow was founded only in 1147 as an insignificant settlement on the periphery of the Rus world.

Key Facts

1. Kyiv was founded in the 5th–6th century — centuries before Moscow (1147)
2. The capital of Rus was Kyiv, not Moscow. Moscow had no significance until the 13th–14th centuries
3. The Primary Chronicle (early 12th century) describes Rus as a state centered in Kyiv
4. The name “Rus” originally referred to the territory around Kyiv (the Middle Dnipro region)
5. The Muscovite Principality arose as an ulus of the Golden Horde and inherited a significant share of Mongol political traditions
6. Residents of Muscovy until the 18th century did not call themselves “Russian” in the modern sense — the name “Russia” (a Hellenized version of “Rus”) was officially adopted only under Peter I in 1721

Why Does This Matter Today?

The myth of a “shared cradle” is used to justify Russia’s territorial claims on Ukraine. If Kyivan Rus is “the origin of Russia,” then Russia supposedly has a “historical right” to Kyiv and all of Ukraine. This is precisely the logic Putin used in his essay “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” (2021), which effectively denied Ukraine’s right to exist as a separate nation.

The scholarly community unequivocally refutes this concept: Kyivan Rus was a medieval state that is not the direct predecessor of any modern state, but its heritage belongs most of all to Ukraine as the successor to the territory and culture of Rus.