Bibliography of the history of the Early Slavs and Rus'

This is a select bibliography of post-World War II English-language books (including translations) and journal articles about the Early Slavs and Rus' and its borderlands until the Mongol invasions beginning in 1223. Book entries may have references to reviews published in academic journals or major newspapers when these could be considered helpful.

A brief selection of English translations of primary sources is included. The sections "General surveys" and "Biographies" contain books; other sections contain both books and journal articles. Book entries have references to journal articles and reviews about them when helpful. Additional bibliographies can be found in many of the book-length works listed below; see Further reading for several book and chapter-length bibliographies. The External links section contains entries for publicly available select bibliographies from universities.

Inclusion criteria

Works included are referenced in the notes or bibliographies of scholarly secondary sources or journals. Included works should either be published by an academic or widely distributed publisher, be authored by a notable subject matter expert as shown by scholarly reviews and have significant scholarly journal reviews about the work. To keep the bibliography length manageable, only items that clearly meet the criteria should be included.

Citation style

This bibliography uses APA style citations. Entries do not use templates. References to reviews and notes for entries do use citation templates.

If a work has been translated into English, the translator should be included and a footnote with appropriate bibliographic information for the original language version should be included.

When listing works with titles or names published with alternative English spellings, the form used in the latest published version should be used and the version and relevant bibliographic information noted if it previously was published or reviewed under a different title.

General works

See also: History of Russia and History of the Soviet Union

Further information: Bibliography of the Soviet Union

General works on Russian history which have significant content about this bibliography's timeframe of history.

• Ascher A. (2017). Russia: A Short History. (3rd Revised Ed.). London: Oneworld Publications.^[1]
• Auty R., Obolensky D. D. (Ed.) (1980-1981). Companion to Russian Studies (3 vols.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Bartlett, R. P. (2005). A History of Russia. — Basingstoke; N. Y.: Palgrave Macmillan. (Macmillan Essential Histories).^[2][3]
• Billington, J. (2010). The Icon and Axe: An Interpretative History of Russian Culture. New York: Vintage.^[4]
• Blum, J. (1971). Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.^[5][6]
• Bogatyrev, S. (Ed.). (2004). Russia Takes Shape. Patterns of Integration from the Middle Ages to the Present. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.^[7][8]
• Borrero, M. (2004) Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present. New York: Facts on File.^[9]
• Boterbloem, K. (2018) A History of Russia and Its Empire: From Mikhail Romanov to Vladimir Putin. (2nd Ed.) Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.^[10]
• Boterbloem, K. (2020) Russia as Empire: Past and Present. London: Reaktion Books.^[11]
• Breyfogle, N., Schrader, A., Sunderland W. (2007) Peopling the Russian Periphery: Borderland Colonization in Eurasian History. London: Routledge.^[12]
• Bushkovitch, P. (2011). A Concise History of Russia (Illustrated edition). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[13][14][15][16]}
• Chatterjee, Choi. (2022) Russia in World History: A Transnational Approach. London: Bloomsbury Academic.^[17]
• Cherniavsky, M. (Ed.). (1970). The Structure of Russian History: Interpretive Essays. New York, NY: Random House.
• Christian, D. (1998). A History of Russia, Central Asia and Mongolia (2 vols.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.^{[18][19][20][21]}
• Clarkson, J. D. (1961). A History of Russia. New York: Random House.^[22][23]
• Connolly, R. (2020). The Russian Economy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Dmytryshyn, B. (1967, 1973, 1997). Medieval Russia: A Source Book 2: 850-1700. San Diego: Harcourt Brace College Publishers.^[24][25]
• Dmytryshyn, B. (1977). A History of Russia. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.^[26][27]
• Dukes, P. (1998) A History of Russia: Medieval, Modern, Contemporary. New York: McGraw-Hill.^{[28][29][30][31]}
• Figes, O. (2022). The Story of Russia. New York: Metropolitan Books.^[32]
• Forsyth, J. (1992). A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581–1990. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[33][34][35][36][37]}
• Freeze, G. L. (2009). Russia: A History (Revised edition). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.^[38]
• Gleason A. (Ed.). (2009). A Companion to Russian History. — Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. (Wiley-Blackwell Companions to World History).^[39][40][41]
• Grousset, R. (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (N. Walford, Trans.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.^[42]
• Lieven, D., Perrie, M., & Suny, R. (Eds.). (2006). The Cambridge History of Russia (3 vols.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.^[a]
• Moss W. G. (1955, 2d ed. 2003-2005) A History of Russia (2 Vols). London: Anthem Press.
• Pipes, R. (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons.^{[43][44][45][46]}
• Poe, M. T. (2003) The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press.^{[47][48][49][50]}
• Riasanovsky, N. V. (2018). A History of Russia (9th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.^[51]
• Shubin, D. H. (2005). A History of Russian Christianity (4 vols.). New York: Agathon Press.
• Ward, C. J., & Thompson J. M. (2021). Russia: A Historical Introduction from Kievan Rus' to the Present. (9th Ed.). New York: Routledge.

Period works (750–1223)

See also: Rurik dynasty

• Alef, G. (1983). Rulers and Nobles in 15th-Century Muscovy. London, UK: Variorum.
• Birnbaum, H., Flier, M. S., & Rowland, D. B. (1984, 1994). Medieval Russian Culture (2 vols.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.^{[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59]}
• Martin, J. (2007). Medieval Russia, 980–1584. Cambridge University Press.^[60][61]
• Meyendorff, J. (1997). Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relations in the Fourteenth Century. St Vladimirs Seminary Press.^[62][63]
• Nicolle, D., & PhD, D. N. (1999). Armies of Medieval Russia, 750-1250 (Illustrated edition). Osprey Publishing.
• Ostrowski, D., & Poe, M. T. (Eds.). (2011). Portraits of Old Russia: Imagined Lives of Ordinary People, 1300-1745. London, UK: Routledge.^[64][65]
• Paszkiewicz. H. (1954). The Origin of Russia. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.^[66][67]
• Presniakov, A. E. (1970). The Formation of the Great Russian State. A Study of Russian History in the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Centuries. (A. E. Moorhouse, Trans.) Chicago: Quadrangle Books.^[68]

Early Slavs

See also: Early Slavs and Rus' Khaganate

• Barford, P. M. (2001). The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe (1st edition). New York, NY: Cornell University Press.^{[69][70][71][72]}
• Bocek, V., Jansens, N., & Klir, T. (Eds.). (2020). New Perspectives on the Early Slavs and the Rise of Slavic: Contact and Migrations. Heidelberg: Universitatsverlag Winter.
• Bogatyrev, S. (2000). The Sovereign and his Counsellors: Ritualised Consultations in Muscovite Political Culture, 1350s-1570s. The Finnish Academy Sciences and Letters.^[73][74][75]
• Curta, F. (2001). The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[76][77][78]
• Curta, F. (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[79][80][81]
• Dolukhanov, P. (1996). The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus. London, UK: Routledge.^[82][83]
• Dvornik, F. (1956). The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. Boston, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[84][85]
• Garipzanov, I. H. (Ed.). (2008). Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe. Turnhout: Brepols.^[86][87][88]
• Geary, P. (2001). Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.^[89][90][91]
• Gimbutas, M. A. (1971). The Slavs. London, UK: Thames & Hudson.^{[92][93][94][95]}
• Halperin, C. (2010). National Identity in Premodern Rus'. Russian History, 37(3), 275–294.
• Magocsi, P. R. (2015). With Their Backs to the Mountains: A History of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns. Budapest: Central European University Press.^{[96][97][98][99][100][101]}
• Noonan, T. F. (1998). The Islamic World, Russia and the Vikings, 750-900. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.^[102][103]
• Plokhy, S. (2010). The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[104][105][106]}
• Pritsak, Omeljan (1977). The Origin of Rus'. The Russian Review, 36(3), 249–273.
• Pritsak, O. (1991). The Origin of Rus. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.^{[107][108][109][110][111][112][113]}

Kievan Rus'

See also: Kievan Rus'

• Dimnik, M. (1981). Mikhail, Prince of Chernigov and Grand Prince of Kiev, 1224–1246. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.^{[114][115][116][117][118][119][120]}
• Dimnik, M. (1987). The "Testament" of Iaroslav "The Wise": A Re-examination. Canadian Slavonic Papers / Revue Canadienne Des Slavistes, 29 (4), 369–386.
• Dimnik, M. (1994). The Dynasty of Chernigov 1054-1146. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.^{[121][122][123]}
• Dimnik, M. (1996). Succession and inheritance in Rus' before 1054. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
• Dimnik, M. (2003). The Dynasty of Chernigov, 1146–1246 (2nd edition). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^{[124][125][126]}
• Dvornichenko, A. Y. (2016). "The Place of the Kievan Rus in History". Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University: History (4): 5–17.
• Fennell J. (1983, 2014). The Crisis of Medieval Russia 1200-1304. London: Routledge.^{[127][128][129][130][131][132][133]}
• Franklin, S. (2001). Pre-Mongol Rus': New Sources, New Perspectives? The Russian Review, 60 (4), 465–473.
• Franklin, S. (2006). Kievan Rus' (1015–1125). In M. Perrie (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia (The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol.1, pp. 73–97). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Franklin, S., & Shepard, J. (1996). The Emergence of Rus: 750-1200. London, UK: Routledge.^{[134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142]}
• Hraundal, T. (2014). New Perspectives on Eastern Vikings/Rus in Arabic Sources. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, 10, 65–98.
• Korpela, J. (2001). Prince, Saint and Apostle: Prince Vladimir Svjatoslavic of Kiev, His Posthumous Life, and the Religious Legitimization of the Russian Great Power. Otto Harrassowitz.^[143]
• Kovalev, R. (2015). Reimagining Kievan Rus' in Unimagined Europe. Russian History, 42 (2), 158–187.
• Maiorov, A. (2015). The Alliance between Byzantium and Rus' Before the Conquest of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. Russian History, 42(3), 272–303.
• Marinich, V. G. (1976). Revitalization Movements in Kievan Russia. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 15 (1), 61-68.
• Miller, D. (1992). The Many Frontiers of Pre-Mongol Rus'. Russian History, 19(1/4), 231–260.
• Pelenski, J. (1977). The Origins of the Official Muscovite Claims to the "Kievan Inheritance". Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 1 (1), 29–52.
• Pelenski, J. (1987). The Sack of Kiev of 1169: Its Significance for the Succession to Kievan Rus'. Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 11 (3/4), 303–316.
• Pelenski, J. (1988). The Contest for the "Kievan Succession" (1155-1175): The Religious-Ecclesiastical Dimension. Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 12/13, 761–780.
• Pelenski, J. (1998). The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus'. New York, NY: East European Monographs, Columbia University Press.^[144][145]
• Raffensperger, C. (2012). Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus' in the Medieval World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.^[146][147]
• Raffensperger, C. (2016). Ties of Kinship: Genealogy and Dynastic Marriage in Kyivan Rus´ (Harvard Series In Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.^[148]
• Raffensperger, Christian; Ostrowski, Donald (2023). The Ruling Families of Rus: Clan, Family and Kingdom. London: Reaktion Books. p. 309. ISBN 978-1-78914-745-2. (e-book)
• Rappoport P. A. (1995). Building the Churches of Kievan Russia. London: Routledge.
• Stefanovich, P. (2016). The Political Organization of Rus' in the 10th Century. Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 64(4), neue folge, 529–544.
• Vernadsky, G. (1973). Kievan Russia (A History of Russia, Vol.2). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Religion and beliefs

• Bremer, T. (2013). Cross and Kremlin: A Brief History of the Orthodox Church in Russia (E. W. Gritsch, Trans.; Translation edition). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.^[149]
• Challis, N., & Dewey, H. (1987). Basil The Blessed, Holy Fool Of Moscow. Russian History, 14(1/4), 47–59.
• Clucas, L. (Ed.). (1988). The Byzantine Legacy in Eastern Europe Boulder, CO: East European Monographs.^[150][151]
• Fennell, J. L. (2015). A History of the Russian Church to 1488. London: Routledge.
• Franklin, S. (2002). Byzantium-Rus-Russia: Studies in the translation of Christian culture. Ashgate/Variorum.
• Kivelson, V. A., & Worobec, C. D. (Eds.). (2020). Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000–1900: A Sourcebook (NIU Series in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies). DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press.
• Kulik, A. (2023). Jews in Old Rus´: A Documentary History (Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
• Shepard, J. (2017). The Expansion of Orthodox Europe: Byzantium, the Balkans and Russia. London, UK: Routledge.^[152][153]
• Shubin, D. H. (2005). A History of Russian Christianity (4 vols.). New York: Agathon Press.

Law

• Feldbrugge, F. J. M. (2009). Law in Medieval Russia. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers (Law in Eastern Europe, Vol. 59).^[154][155]
• Kaiser D. H. (1980). The Growth of the Law in Medieval Russia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.^[156][157]
• Kleimola, A. M. (1975). Justice in Medieval Russia: Muscovite Judgment Charters (Pravye Gramoty) of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries // Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series, Vol. 65, Part 6. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.^[158][159]

Other topics

• Bell, J. (2023). Slavic Seiðr? Reconsidering the Volkhvy of Northern Rus´. Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 24(2), 245-268.
• Birnbaum, H. (1981). Lord Novgorod the Great: Essays in the History and Culture of a Medieval City-state. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers/Indian University.
• Hartley, J. M. (2021). The Volga: A History. New Haven: Yale University Press.^[160]
• Koloda, V., & Gorbanenko, S. (2020). Agriculture in the Forest-Steppe Region of Khazaria (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450, Vol. 60). Leiden: Brill.^[161]
• Pritsak, O. (1998). The Origins of the Old Rus' Weights and Monetary Systems: Two Studies in Western Eurasian Metrology and Numismatics in the Seventh to Eleventh Centuries (Harvard Series In Ukrainian Studies). Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.^[162][163]

Biographies

See also: List of Russian monarchs

• Isoaho, M. (2006). The image of Aleksandr Nevskiy in Medieval Russia: Warrior and Saint. Leiden; Boston: Brill.^[164]
• Luciw, J. (1986). Sviatoslav the Conqueror: Creator of a Great Kyivian Rusʹ Empire. State College, Penn.: Slavia Library.^[165]

Historiography

• Confino, M. (2009). The New Russian Historiography, and the Old—Some Considerations. History and Memory, 21(2), 7-33.
• Karpovich, M. (1943). Klyuchevski and Recent Trends in Russian Historiography. Slavonic and East European Review. American Series, 2(1), 31–39.
• Mazour, A. (1937). Modern Russian Historiography. The Journal of Modern History, 9(2), 169–202.
• Miller, D. (1986). The Kievan Principality in the Century before the Mongol Invasion: An Inquiry into Recent Research and Interpretation. Harvard Ukrainian Studies, 10(1/2), 215–240.
• Pelenski, J. (1998). The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus'. New York, NY: East European Monographs, Columbia University.^[166][167]
• Vernadsky, G., & Pushkarev, S. G. (1978). Russian Historiography: A History. Belmont, MA: Nordland Publishing.

Primary sources

A limited number of English language translated primary sources referred to in the above works.^[b]

• Cross, S. H. (2012). The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text (O. P. Sherbowitz-Wetzor, Ed.). Cambridge, MA: Medieval Academy of America.
• Kaiser, D. H., & Marker, G. (1994). Reinterpreting Russian History: Readings, 860—1860s (First Edition). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Zenkovsky, S. A. (Ed.). (1963). Medieval Russia's Epics, Chronicles, and Tales (First edition). New York, NY: E. P. Dutton.

Reference works

• Kievan Rus. (2016). Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Auty, R., Obelensky, D., et al. (2010). Companion to Russian Studies (Vol. 1, An Introduction to Russian History; Vol.2, Russian Language and Literature; Vol. 3, An Introduction to Russian Art and Architecture). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Barnes, I., & Lieven, D. (2015). Restless Empire: A Historical Atlas of Russia (Illustrated edition). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.
• Brown, A. et al. (1982). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Russia and the Soviet Union. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Channon, J., & Hudson, R. (1995). The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia. New York: Penguin.
• Gilbert, M. (2007). The Routledge Atlas of Russian History (4th edition). London: Routledge.
• Ivan Katchanovski, Kohut, Z. E., Nebesio, B. Y., & Yurkevich, M. (2013). Historical Dictionary of Ukraine. (Second edition). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
• Langer, L. N. (2001). Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.
• Lerski, H. (1996). Historical Dictionary of Poland, 966-1945. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing.
• Magocsi, P. R. (2017). Carpathian Rus': A Historical Atlas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.^[168]
• Millar, J. R. (Ed.). (2004). Encyclopedia of Russian History (4 vols.). New York: Macmillan Library Reference.
• Wieczynski, Joseph L. et all. (Ed.). The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (1976–...). Academic International Press.

Academic journals

Main article: List of Slavic studies journals

See also

• Bibliography of Russian history (1223–1613)
• Bibliography of Russian history (1613–1917)
• Bibliography of Ukrainian history
• Bibliography of the history of Belarus and Byelorussia