--- title: Kyiv's beginnings and Kyivan Rus — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Kyiv's beginnings and Kyivan Rus», a lesson of the history course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Danylo, a boy in the class, tells history like a football fan: Kyiv is the oldest, the biggest and the best, and anyone who disagrees is --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/) / Kyiv's beginnings and Kyivan Rus # Kyiv's beginnings and Kyivan Rus Lesson 41 of the history course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/0/) — Danylo, a boy in the class, tells history like a football fan: Kyiv is the oldest, the biggest and the best, and anyone who disagrees is an enemy. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/1/) — The history teacher sometimes holds old wording from Soviet books. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/2/) — The wise way is to check: sometimes Danylo is right, sometimes he stretches it, sometimes the teacher has to update his notes. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/3/) — Kyiv is very old: it was clearly an important town by the 900s, long before Moscow is first mentioned in 1147, but nobody knows its exact birthday, so the 1,500 years celebrated in 1982 is a chosen round date, like a party for a grandad who lost his birth certificate. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/4/) — A legend says three brothers, Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv, and their sister Lybid founded the city; it is a legend, like Romulus and Remus for Rome, but the river Lybid and two hills still carry their names. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/6/) — Kyiv celebrated 1,500 years in 1982; the date was chosen in Soviet times from legends and archaeology, and the exact founding year is not known. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/7/) — Kyiv was an important town by the 10th century, and Moscow is first mentioned in a chronicle in 1147. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/8/) — The legend of Kyi, Shchek, Khoryv and their sister Lybid was written down in the Primary Chronicle; the river Lybid and the hills Shchekavytsia and Khorevytsia carry their names, but nobody can prove they were real people. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/10/) — Kyivan Rus was a large medieval state from the 9th to the 13th century, centred on Kyiv, covering lands of today's Ukraine, Belarus and part of Russia; historians call it the shared ancestor of all three. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/11/) — The chronicle says Varangian (Scandinavian) leaders such as Oleh came to rule Kyiv in the 9th century; names like Oleh (Helgi) and Olha (Helga) come from Old Norse, and within a few generations the rulers spoke the local Slavic language. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/12/) — Princess Olha ruled Kyiv as regent (ruling for her young son) after her husband Ihor was killed in 945; she reformed tax collection and was the first ruler of Rus to be baptised; the story of her burning a town with pigeons is a chronicle legend. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/13/) — The Byzantine writer Leo the Deacon described Prince Sviatoslav with a shaved head and one lock of hair; he defeated the Khazars, lost his war with Byzantium (the Greek-speaking empire whose capital was Constantinople) and was killed by Pechenegs, horsemen of the steppe, in 972, about five centuries before the first Cossacks. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/14/) — In the 11th century Kyiv was one of Europe's largest cities, perhaps 40,000–50,000 people, but Constantinople, Baghdad, Cordoba and Chinese cities were far larger. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/15/) — The Primary Chronicle (the Tale of Bygone Years) was put together around 1113, probably at the Kyiv Caves Monastery; it mixes facts and legends, so historians check it against archaeology and foreign sources. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/41-kyivs-beginnings-and-kyivan-rus/16/) — The name Rus first meant the ruling group, then the lands around Kyiv, then the whole state; the names Russia and Ruthenia both grew from it, and people in Ukrainian lands called themselves Rusyny for centuries. - ← previous: [Australia and New Zealand: a short story](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/40-australia-and-new-zealand-a-short-story/) - next →: [Volodymyr, Yaroslav the Wise and the Mongols](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/42-volodymyr-yaroslav-the-wise-and-the-mongols/) - ↑ back to [History](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/)