InKend
Info on popular culture and everyday life
InKend
Info on popular culture and everyday life
On the Oka River, Old Ryazan was a wealthy Kievan Rus capital of churches and treasures, until the Mongol invasion of 1237 destroyed it in one of Russia’s great tragedies.
On the Dnieper near Smolensk, Gnyozdovo was a key hub on the Viking trade route to Byzantium, where Scandinavian and Slavic worlds fused at the dawn of early Rus.
On the Don, the Khazars built Sarkel with Byzantine engineers, a brick fortress guarding steppe trade routes, now submerged beneath a reservoir but saved by archaeology.
On the Volga in medieval Tatarstan, Bolgar was the capital of the Volga Bulgars, where the Islamic world met the northern forests through fur, silver, and faith.
Founded by Dorian settlers in Crimea, Chersonesus endured for over two millennia through Greek, Roman, and Byzantine eras, becoming a sacred and strategic Black Sea city.
