Culture of Ancient Rus

The culture of ancient Rus can be divided into different historical periods of the Middle Ages. During the Kievan period (989-), the principalities of Kievan Rus’ came under the sphere of influence of the Byzantine Empire, one of the most advanced cultures of the time, and adopted Christianity. In the Suzdalian period, the Russian principalities gained a wide range of opportunities for developing their political and cultural ties not only with Byzantium, but with the European countries, as well, with a resulting impact on architecture and other cultural indicators. By the Muscovite period in the thirteenth century, Russian culture was recovering from the invasion of Batu Khan and subsequent domination of Russian lands by the Golden Horde.

The city-states of Novgorod and Pskov, which had been spared the Tatar raids, created an original kind of culture under some influence from their western Baltic neighbors. Finally, only by the end of the fifteenth century, Russia ended its subordination to the Golden Horde with the Great standing on the Ugra river of 1480, which marked the birth of the sovereign Russian state, headed by the Grand Prince of Moscow.