in the Kievan rotational cycle and engaged in fierce competition particularly when the norms of succession were challenged. One campaign, launched by Andrei Bogolyubsky of Vladimir, resulted in the sack of Kiev in 1169. Although fought to defend the traditional succession system, this campaign is often cited as evidence of the fragmentation of the dynasty and Kievan Rus.
When the Mongols invaded and destroyed Kievan Rus, many members of the Rurikid dynasty were killed in battle. Nevertheless, with the approval of their new overlords, surviving princes continued to rule the lands of Rus. By the mid-fourteenth century, however, the dynasty lost possession of Kiev and other western lands to Poland and Lithuania. But in the northeast the princes of Moscow, a branch of the dynasty descended from Vladimir Monomakh’s grandson Vsevolod and his grandson Alexander Nevsky, gained control over the principality of Vladimir-Suzdal. Symbolized by Dmitry Donskoy’s victory at the Battle of Kulikovo (1380), they cast off Mongol suzerainty and expanded their realm to create the state of Muscovy.
The Moscow princes also reordered internal dynastic relations. After an unsuccessful challenge to Basil II (ruled 1425-1462) by his uncle and cousins that resulted in an extended civil war (1430-1453), a vertical pattern of succession firmly replaced the traditional collateral one. Ivan III (ruled 1462-1505), selecting his second son over his grandson (the son of his eldest but deceased son), defined the heir to the Muscovite throne as the eldest surviving son of the ruling prince. Basil III (ruled 1505-1533) divorced his barren wife after a twenty-year marriage in order to remarry and produce a son rather than allow the throne to pass to his brother.
Dynastic reorganization enhanced the power and prestige of the monarchs, who formally adopted the title “tsar” in 1547. But when Fyodor, the son of Ivan IV “the Terrible,” died in 1598, and left no direct heirs, the Rurikids’ seven-century rule came to an end. After a fifteen-year interregnum, known as the Time of Troubles, the Romanov dynasty, related to the Rurikids through Fyodor’s mother, replaced the Rurikid dynasty as the tsars of Russia. See also: ALEXANDER YAROSLAVICH; BASIL I; BASIL II; BASIL III; DONSKOY, DMITRY IVANOVICH; FYODOR IVANO-VICH; IVAN III; IVAN IV; OLEG; OLGA; RURIK; VLADIMIR MONOMAKH; VLADIMIR, ST; VIKINGS; YAROSLAV VLADIMIROVICH; YURY VLADIMIROVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dimnik, Martin. (1978). “Russian Princes and their Identities in the First Half of the Thirteenth Century.” Mediaeval Studies 40:157-185. Kollmann, Nancy Shields. (1990). “Collateral Succession in Kievan Rus.” Harvard Ukrainian Studies 14(3/4): 377-387.
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Belarus and Russia were constituent republics of the Soviet Union and became independent in 1991, with the collapse of the USSR. Both countries were founding members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The traditionally close ties between Russia and Belarus and a relatively weak Belarusian national identity led to a drive toward reunification, which started already in the early 1990s. A preliminary agreement (which remained only on paper) on the establishment of a monetary union between Russia and Belarus was negotiated between the end of 1993 and 1994. While the two countries retained their own currencies, the integration process became high on the agenda after Alexander Lukashenko, a supporter of the “unification of all Slavic peoples,” became the new president of Belarus in July 1994.
In April 1996 a “Treaty on Forming a Community” was signed by Lukashenko and Boris Yeltsin, president of the Russian Federation. The agreement promoted the coordination of the two countries’ foreign and economic policies, created a Supreme Council and an Executive Committee of the community (both with little or no real powers), and led to the establishment of a Russia-Belarus parliamentary assembly. On April 2, 1997, Yeltsin and Lukashenko signed a second treaty establishing a union between Russia and Belarus and pledging further cooperation in the security and economic spheres, reiterating the final goal of creating a single currency. Yeltsin’s resistance, however, prevented the two sides from defining concrete measures strengthening the integration between Russia and Belarus.
The 1996 and 1997 documents had little practical consequences. Russian reformers (some of them close to President Yeltsin) had a lukewarm attitude toward a possible confederation with an increasingly authoritarian Belarus. Another obstacle on the way of integration was the Russian authorities’ concern that creating the union could encourage Russian ethnic republics to seek the same status as Belarus in the new confederation. In Russia the main advocates of integration with Belarus were chiefly found among the nationalists and communists, while the Belarusian opposition continued to regard with suspicion the creation of a Russia-Belarus Union (which for many had an old Soviet flavor). In December 1998 Yeltsin and Lukashenko signed new treaties, including a declaration of unification where the two sides agreed to create in 1999 a union state with a single currency. However, in the following months Russia remained cautious about establishing a confederation with Belarus and opposed the creation of the post of a union president. After long negotiations a new union document was signed in December 1999. Once again, the agreement was of declaratory nature and this time set 2005 as the date for the currency union.
Since Vladimir Putin became Russian president in 2000 no other significant formal or concrete steps had been taken as of 2003 to lead the two countries toward some form of reunification. The Belarusian authoritarian regime and Soviet-style economy continued to represent serious obstacles for the integration of Belarus in a common state with Russia. In 2002 there was a crisis in the relations between the two countries, following Putin’s proposals (rejected by Lukashenko) of de facto incorporating Belarus into the Russian Federation or, alternatively, of creating a form of chiefly economic integration based on the European Union model. Officially the Russia-Belarus monetary union remains scheduled to start in 2005, when Belarus is to adopt the Russian ruble as its legal currency. See also: BELARUS AND BELARUSIANS; COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES; LUKASHENKO, ALEXANDER GRIGORIEVICH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Drakokhrust, Yuri, and Furman, Dmitri. (2002). “Belarus and Russia: The Game of Virtual Integration.” In Independent Belarus: Domestic Determinants, Regional Dynamics, and Implications for the West, eds. Margarita M. Balmaceda, James I. Clem, and Lisbeth L. Tarlow. Cambridge MA: Ukrainian Research Institute, Davis Center for Russian Studies, Harvard University. Marples, David R. (1999). Belarus: A Denationalized Nation. Amsterdam: Harwood. Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty. (2003). “Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine Report. Previous Issues.” «www .rferl.org/pbureport/archives.html». Rontoyanni, Clelia. (2002). “Belarus and Russia: Ever Closer Allies?” In The EU and Belarus: Between Moscow and Brussels, ed. Ann Lewis. London: Federal Trust for Education and Research.
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In the early modern period, different branches of international trade were controlled by large groups of merchants linked in a single company with its own charter, monopoly rights, membership, directors, and regulations. The Russia Company (also known as the Muscovy Company), founded in the mid-sixteenth century, was one of many such organizations in England. It was the first company to be organized on a joint-stock basis, thus laying the foundations for one of the most important forms of economic association and investment in the West. In addition, through its discovery of a viable water route to Russia (the White Sea or Archangel route) and its establishment of direct, regular trade with Russia, the Russia Company introduced an important new element into Western international trade and relations in general. Prior to the company’s arrival, Russia’s relations with the West were almost nonexistent. Russia was truly at the far periphery of Europe, both physically and conceptually. The Russia Company’s activities brought Russia into the Western orbit.
The Russia Company’s trade revolved around several key commodities. Its main export to Russia was woolen cloth, the staple of English foreign trade for centuries. Because of its cost, the market for English cloth was largely limited to the elite segments of Russian society, beginning with the tsar’s household. Metals were another
