1.
The first human settlement on Russia dates back to the Oldowan period in the early Lower Paleolithic.
About 2 million years ago, representatives of Homo erectus migrated to the Taman Peninsula in
southern Russia.[24] Flint tools, some 1.5 million years old, have been discovered in the North
Caucasus.[25] Radiocarbon dated specimens from Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains estimate the
oldest Denisovan specimen lived 195–122,700 years ago.[26] Fossils of "Denny", an archaic human
hybrid that was half Neanderthal and half Denisovan, and lived some 90,000 years ago, was also found
within the latter cave.[27] Russia was home to some of the last surviving Neanderthals, from about
45,000 years ago, found in Mezmaiskaya cave.[28]
The first trace of a early modern human in Russia dates back to 45,000 years, in western Siberia.[29] The
discovery of high concentration cultural remains of anatomically modern humans, from at least 40,000
years ago, was found at Kostyonki and Borshchyovo,[30] and at Sungir, dating back to 34,600 years
ago—both, respectively in western Russia.[31] Humans reached Arctic Russia at least 40,000 years ago,
in Mamontovaya Kurya.[32]
The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of southern Russia and Ukraine as the urheimat
of the Proto-Indo-Europeans.[33]
Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic–Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic.[34]
Remnants of these steppe civilizations were discovered in places such as Ipatovo,[34] Sintashta,[35]
Arkaim,[36] and Pazyryk,[37] which bear the earliest known traces of horses in warfare.[35] In classical
antiquity, the Pontic-Caspian Steppe was known as Scythia.[38] In late 8th century BCE, Ancient Greek
traders brought classical civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria.[39]
In the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, the Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia, which was later
overrun by Huns.[40] Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD, the Bosporan Kingdom, which was a
Hellenistic polity that succeeded the Greek colonies,[41] was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions
led by warlike tribes such as the Huns and Eurasian Avars.[42] The Khazars, who were of Turkic origin,
ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century.[43]
The ancestors of Russians are among the Slavic tribes that separated from the Proto-Indo-Europeans,
who appeared in the northeastern part of Europe ca. 1500 years ago.[44] The East Slavs gradually
settled western Russia in two waves: one moving from Kiev towards present-day Suzdal and Murom and
another from Polotsk towards Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century onwards, the East Slavs
constituted the bulk of the population in western Russia,[45] and slowly but peacefully assimilated the
native Finnic peoples.[40]
Kievan Rus'

2.
Main articles: Rus' Khaganate; Kievan Rus'; and List of tribes and states in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine
Kievan Rus' in the 11th century
The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of
Varangians, the Vikings who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the
Black and Caspian Seas.[46] According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from the Rus' people,
named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and
conquered Kiev, which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars.[40] Rurik's son Igor and Igor's
son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar
Khaganate,[47] and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.[48][49]
In the 10th to 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in
Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054)
constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium,
and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.[40] The age of feudalism
and decentralization had come, marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik dynasty
that ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. Kiev's dominance waned, to the benefit of Vladimir-Suzdal in the
north-east, Novgorod Republic in the north-west and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west.[40]
Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated, with the final blow being the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240, which
resulted in the sacking of Kiev, and the death of a major part of the population of Rus'.[40] The invaders,
later known as Tatars, formed the state of the Golden Horde, which pillaged the Russian principalities
and ruled the southern and central expanses of Russia for over two centuries.[50]
Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Kingdom of Poland, while the Novgorod Republic and
Vladimir-Suzdal, two regions on the periphery of Kiev, established the basis for the modern Russian
nation.[40] Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky, Novgorodians repelled the invading Swedes in the Battle of
the Neva in 1240,[51] as well as the Germanic crusaders in the Battle of the Ice in 1242.[52]