Historical Background
As Tatiana Jackson has observed, Norse sagas contain more detailed information about the Western Dvina (Norse: Dyna) than about any other river of Eastern Europe. This fact highlights a great importance attached to the Dvina trade route by the Vikings.
Gnyozdovo is situated downstream from the Dvina–Dnieper portages, at a point where the Svinets and several small waterways empty into the Dnieper. Like Smolensk at a later period, Gnyozdovo flourished through trade along the Dnieper going south to Constantinople and north over portages to the Dvina and the Lovat, two rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea. At the time of its establishment, the local citadel served a defensive function against possible attacks on the portages, where the Norse traders would be at their most vulnerable. After internal tensions within Kievan Rus settled down, the site of Gnyozdovo "formed the critical exchange centre and refitting base on the route from the Baltic to the Black Sea".
The settlement declined in the early years of the 11th century, simultaneously with other Varangian trade stations in Eastern Europe. By the end of the century, Gnyozdovo's importance as a trade centre had been completely supplanted by nearby Smolensk.
Read more about this topic: Gnezdovo
Famous quotes containing the words historical and/or background:
“Culture is the name for what people are interested in, their thoughts, their models, the books they read and the speeches they hear, their table-talk, gossip, controversies, historical sense and scientific training, the values they appreciate, the quality of life they admire. All communities have a culture. It is the climate of their civilization.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)