The era of the Vikings is certainly one of the most interesting periods of European history, and greatly popularized in recent times through media and entertainment. The Vikings were skilled sailors and navigators from Scandinavian lands who used their naval skills to explore new lands and trade across the seas and oceans, but also to wage war and vicious raiding and plundering. They dominated the early medieval period, known as the Viking Age, and were directly responsible for some of the key developments in that period, shaping the world as we know it today. From England and Ireland, to Normandy, Iceland, and Greenland too, these fierce Norsemen sailed the seas and waged war. But did you know that they also sailed to the lands of the Slavs, creating an early medieval state from which Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus would form in the modern age? That important Slavic state was the Rurik dynasty. And yes, you guessed it, they were of Viking origin!
The history of Norse presence in the territories of modern Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, begin quite early in the Viking Age. While their expeditions to the west, to England, the Faroe Islands , Ireland, and Normandy were largely military in nature, their penetration of eastern Europe was both militaristic and trade oriented.
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