history of russia - Early history
(Picture) Kurgan hypothesis: South Russia as the urheimat of Indo-European peoples.

• • history of russia - Early history - Pre-Slavic inhabitants
    • The vast steppes of Southern Russia were home to disunited tribes, such as Proto-Indo-Europeans and Scythians.Andrej Belinskij and Heinrich Härke, "The 'Princess' of Ipatovo," in Archeology , Volume 52 Number 2, March/April 1999. Astonishing remnants of these long-gone steppe civilizations were discovered in the course of the 20th century in such places as Ipatovo, Sintashta, Arkaim, ^{Dr. Ludmila Koryakova} and Pazyryk. ²
  • history of russia - Early history - Early East Slavs
    • The ancestors of the Russians were the Slavic tribes, whose original home is thought by some scholars to have been the wooded areas of the Pripet Marshes. ^{For a discussion of Slavic origins} Moving into the lands vacated by the migrating Germanic tribes, the Early East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev toward present-day Suzdal and Murom and another from Polotsk toward Novgorod and Rostov.David Christian, op cit., pp. 6–7. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia and slowly but peacefully assimilated the native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, ^{Henry K Paszkiewicz} the Muromians, ^{Rosamond McKitterick} and the Meshchera.Aleksandr Lʹvovich Mongaĭt, Archeology in the U.S.S.R. , Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1959, p. 335.
  • history of russia - Early history - Kievan Rus'
    • Picture of Kievan Rus' in the 11th century.
  • history of russia - Early history - Mongol invasion
    • The invading Mongols accelerated the fragmentation of the Ancient Rus'. In 1223, the disunited southern princes faced a Mongol raiding party at the Kalka River and were soundly defeated. ^{See David Nicolle} In 1237 the Mongols sacked the city of Vladimir, ^{Tatyana Shvetsova} routed the Russians at the Sit' River, ^{Janet Martin} and then moved west into Poland and Hungary. ^{Piero Scaruffi} By then they had conquered most of the Russian principalities. Only the Novgorod Republic escaped occupation and continued to flourish in the orbit of the Hanseatic League. ^{Jennifer Mills}
  • history of russia - Early history - Russo-Tatar relations
    • Picture of thumbnail|200px|left|Alexander Nevsky of Russia