CHAPTER I

LAND AND PEOPLE AND EARLY HISTORY (TO 1054 A.D.) 79

Extent, configuration, and climate, 79. The similarity of European and Asiatic Russia, 80. The dualism of north and south, 81. The soil of the Black Lands and the Steppes, 82. Diversity of races, 84. The Finns, 85. Ethnological distribution of religions, 87. The Great Russians and the Little Russians, 91. Social and political organisation, 92. The treaty with Constantinople, 96. The first written document of Russian history, 97. The reign of Igor, 97. The regency of Olga, 99. Nestor tells of the baptism of Olga, 100. Sviatoslav; the victory of north over south, 101. Nestor’s account of Vladimir’s conversion, 103. The death of Vladimir the Christian, 106. Sviatopolk is succeeded by Iaroslav, 107. Iaroslav’s code of laws, 110. Iaroslav dies, 115.

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