#1 Kyvian Rus
Sometime in the 9th century, a group of nomadic Norsemen who called themselves Rus (pronounces “roos”) managed to get control over some of the East Slavic communities of what is now known as Northwest Russia. From there, they went down the Dnieper River to the city of Kyiv, in what is now known as Ukraine, managing to take control of that whole region.
The Norse population assimilated with the local Slavic population and started to call themselves the people of Rus, and had the heart of their state in central Ukraine; Moscow was established later, in the 12th century, after a long war at the frontier. They all spoke and read a myriad of East Slavic dialects that later evolved into the languages that we know today as Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian.
The loosely held together federation of Rus principalities was then easily conquered by the Mongol empire by the middle of the 13th century. Despite this, both Ukraine and Russia claim the legacy of medieval Rus, trying to stake claim over it.
