{"id":324,"date":"2019-10-21T12:31:36","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T16:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/fcurta\/?page_id=324"},"modified":"2026-03-19T08:55:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T12:55:45","slug":"medieval-russia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/people.clas.ufl.edu\/fcurta\/medieval-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Medieval Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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Medieval Russia<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Time and Location<\/h3>\n\n\n
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MWF 10:40-11:30<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Keene-Flint 101<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Description<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It has long been accepted that there was in fact no such thing as “Russia” in the Middle Ages. Instead, this is a course about the history of Russia in the original Latin sense: a history of the land ruled by people known as the Rus. As such, this is not a course about the modern state of Russia, but about the lands now included in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. All three states currently claim the legacy of “Kievan Rus,” despite the fact that the traditional center of that medieval polity is now the capital city of Ukraine. The city of Kiev was the key to the economic, political and cultural life of the Rus, but the history of the lands of the Rus’ is not the same thing as the history of Kievan Rus’. This course will try to move away from a “kievocentric” point of view of medieval Russian history, which has been the object of much nationalist manipulation in the recent past. Following a chronological order, we will look, each week, at the questions and problems raised by the study of this region, and at some of the primary sources from which historians draw their analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Textbooks<\/h3>\n\n\n\n