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Kievan Rus: Origins and Society
How the early East Slavic state of Rus emerged around Kyiv, who ruled it, how its society was organized, and why it fragmented before the Mongol invasion.
The Wider Medieval World
Medieval Russia and Eastern Europe
Rus, Poland, Hungary and Bohemia between the Latin and Orthodox worlds.
Bohemia and the Czech Lands in the Middle Ages
A look at Bohemia's Premyslid and Luxembourg rulers, the silver of Kutna Hora, and the kingdom's unusual place as an electoral state inside the Holy Roman Empire.
Lithuania: Europes Last Pagan Kingdom
How Lithuania stayed pagan into the 1380s, resisted crusading orders, expanded into Rus lands, and became a large Grand Duchy tied to Poland.
Medieval Poland Under the Piast Kings
How the Piast dynasty built the Polish state from Mieszko's baptism in 966 to Casimir the Great, including fragmentation, German settlement and Mongol raids.
Novgorod: A Merchant Republic in the North
How Novgorod's city assembly, elected officials and northern trade shaped an unusual medieval republic, and what its birchbark letters reveal about daily life.
The Conversion of Rus to Orthodox Christianity
Why Prince Vladimir of Kyiv chose Byzantine Christianity in the late 980s, what the sources say, how the change spread, and what it meant for Rus.
The Kingdom of Hungary Before the Ottomans
How the Magyars became a Christian kingdom under the Arpad dynasty, survived the Mongol invasion, and flourished under Angevin kings in the fourteenth century.
The Teutonic Knights and the Baltic Crusades
How the Teutonic Order moved from a hospital at Acre to conquer Prussia, rule a Baltic state, and clash with Poland and Lithuania until its defeat at Grunwald.
Related topics
More in the wider medieval world
The Islamic World and Caliphates How the Abbasid, Fatimid and Andalusian worlds worked and what they shared with Europe. Mongols and the Steppe Steppe peoples, Mongol conquests and the Eurasian links they created. Africa and Asia in the Middle Ages Mali, Ethiopia, Song China, Japan and India during the European medieval centuries. Scandinavia and the North Iceland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden after the Viking Age.