Western Civilization

defeat at Lechfeld in 955, was also converted to Chris-

tianity by German missionaries. Saint Stephen, king of

Hungary from 997 to 1038, facilitated the acceptance

of Christianity by his people. The Poles, Czechs, and

Hungarians all accepted Catholic or Western Christian-

ity and became closely tied to the Roman Catholic

Church and its Latin culture.

Southern Slavs

The southern and eastern Slavic populations largely

took a different path because of their proximity to

the Byzantine Empire. The southern Slavic peoples

were converted to the Eastern Orthodox Christianity

of the Byzantine Empire by two Byzantine missionary

brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who began their activ-

itiesin863.TheycreatedaSlavonic(Cyrillic)alpha-

bet, translated the Bible into Slavonic, and created

Slavonic church services. While the southern Slavic

peoples accepted Christianity, a split eventually

developed between the Croats, who accepted the

Roman church, and the Serbs, who remained loyal to

Eastern Christianity.

Although the Bulgars were originally an Asiatic peo-

ple who conquered much of the Balkan Peninsula, they

were eventually absorbed by the larger native southern

Slavic population. Together, by the ninth century, they

formed a largely Slavic Bulgarian kingdom. Although

the conversion to Christianity of this state was compli-

cated by the rivalry between the Roman Catholic and

Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Bulgarians eventually

accepted the latter. By the end of the ninth century,

they embraced the Slavonic church services earlier

developed by Cyril and Methodius. The acceptance of

Eastern Orthodoxy by the southern Slavic peoples, the

Serbs and Bulgarians, meant that their cultural life was

also linked to the Byzantine state.

Eastern Slavs

The eastern Slavic peoples, from whom the modern

Russians, White Russians (Belarusians), and Ukrain-

ians are descended, had settled in the territory of

present-day Ukraine and European Russia. There, be-

ginning in the late eighth century, they began to

contend with Viking invaders. Swedish Vikings,

known to the eastern Slavs as Varangians, moved

down the extensive network of rivers into the lands

of the eastern Slavs in search of booty and new trade

routes. After establishing commercial links with the

Byzantine state, the Varangians built trading settle-

ments, became involved in the civil wars among the

Slavic peoples, and eventually came to dominate the

native peoples, just as their fellow Vikings were doing

in parts of western Europe. According to the tradi-

tional version of the story,the semilegendary Rurik

secured his ruling dynasty in the Slavic settlement of

Novgorod (NAHV-guh-rahd) in 862. Rurik (ROO-rik)

and his fellow Vikings were called the Rus, from which

Russia, the name eventually attached to the state they

founded, is derived (see the box on p. 192). Although

much about Rurik is unclear, it is certain that his fol-

lower Oleg (ca. 873–913) took up residence in Kiev

(KEE-eff) and established the Rus state, a union of east

Slavic territories known as the principality of Kiev.

Oleg’s successors extended their control over the east-

ern Slavs and expanded the territory of Kiev until it

encompassed the lands between the Baltic and Black

Seas and the Danube and Volga Rivers. By marrying

Slavic wives, the Viking ruling class was gradually

assimilated into the Slavic population, a process con-

firmed by their assumption of Slavic names.

The growth of the principality of Kiev attracted

religious missionaries, especially from the Byzantine

Empire. One Rus ruler, Vladimir (ca. 980–1015), mar-

ried the Byzantine emperor’s sister and officially

accepted Christianity for himself and his people in

987.Byallaccounts,Vladimirwasacruelandvicious

man who believed an established church would be

helpful in the development of an organized state.

From the end of the tenth century on, Byzantine

Christianity became the model for Russian religious

life, just as Byzantine imperial ideals came to influ-

ence the outward forms of Russian political life.

Women in the Slavic World

As in western Europe, women in central and eastern

Europe were subordinated to men and expected to

focus their lives on their families, nurturing their

children, providing food and clothing, and helping

their husbands and fathers. Female labor thus made

up a significant part of the early medieval economy

in the Slavic world. In the centuries after 1000,

more opportunities for women became available,

especially for aristocratic women. Beginning in the

eleventh century, for example, noble women in Rus-

sia could administer the household and the family’s

property.

The Slavic Peoples of Central and Eastern Europe 191

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