Russia has long played a dominant role in the history of the world. Due to its sheer land size and population it is hard to ignore it. One thing that interested me is exactly where the Russian people came from and how was the first empire formed so long ago that was the beginning of the Russian Empire. Some of the things I will try to examine in this paper will be to look at some of the early peoples from the earliest known times up until the formation of the Muscovite Dynasty. I would like to look at some of the early Slavs and where they came from how they split up and went their different directions to form the countries and peoples we see today in Eastern Europe. I will also look at the set up of Kievan Rus and the role in which the Vikings played in that, and go on to show the fall of Kiev up to the rise of the Muscovite dynasty. One of the main points of this paper will be the topic of the “Normanist Controversy.” This is a debate of the role that the Vikings played in the formation and the running of Kievan Rus. There are many different views in this debate with some saying that they had no role in that part of Russian history, yet it is known for a fact that Vikings were present in some East Slavic waterways long before the 860s. The Vikings were there, but what role did they play? Is the “Normanist Controversy” correct? We will need to look at what the Vikings were doing around the 9th century and try and see what sort of impact they had.

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