The Viking Princess Who Changed The History Forever
OLGA OF KIEV: The Viking Princess Who Changed History Forever..
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Olga of Kiev was born around the year 900 in what is now the Russian city of Pskov, close to the border with Estonia. But at the time, the city was part of a large Viking kingdom called Kievan Rus, which was based on the land. Olga was a Varangian, a descendant of the first Vikings to settle in the kingdom. When she married Grand Prince Igor I, the ruler of Kievan Rus, she was no more than 15 years old.
Prince Oleg, who came before Igor and was his foster father, consolidated power and made Kyiv the new capital city. (Until the fall of the Soviet Union, the city was spelled "Kiev" in English. Olga's name comes from the fact that "Kievan Rus" was once spelled "Kiev" in English.) But there was one tribe, the Drevlians, that he couldn't fully rule. The Drevlians had their own culture and goals, but they often fought with the Kievan Rus against the Byzantine Empire and paid respect to Oleg. But they stopped paying when he died in 945 C.E.
When Prince Igor went to their capital, which is now the city of Korosten in the north of Ukraine, to pay, they killed him in a terrible way. One Byzantine historian wrote, "Two birch trees were bent down to the prince's feet and tied to his legs. Then they let the trees grow back straight, which tore the prince's body into pieces.
But his wife, Princess Olga of Kiev, was a lot stronger than the Drevlians thought. Olga was about 20 years old at the time, and her son Sviatoslav was three years old. And because he was too young to lead, Olga became the regent of Kievan Rus.
--ar 16:9
The Kievan Rus'.
During the 9th and 10th centuries, the area that would become Ukraine was attacked often. During the Viking Age, raiders from Scandinavia called Varangians came down the Dnieper river by boat. At first, all they did was trade. But it didn't take more than a few decades for these trading trips to turn into attacks. The Vikings attacked the Slavs who lived in the area.
In the year 882, the Varangians took over Kiev. (Kyiv). Their leader called himself the Grand Prince of Kiev and started building a kingdom in Eastern Europe. The state he started and grew is called the Kievan Rus' state to set it apart from Russia, which is a much younger country with roots that go back to at least the 13th century CE. The Drevlians were one of the local Slavic tribes that the Rus' conquered. They even fought for their new masters and led a war against the powerful Byzantine Empire on their behalf. But when the grand prince of the Rus died in 912, the Drevlians stopped working together and stopped giving Kiev money.
