khanate · Poland, Lithuania and Russia
Rus' Khaganate
Origins
In 839 envoys of a people called the Rhos, whose ruler was styled chacanus, reached the court of Louis the Pious with a Byzantine embassy and turned out to be Swedes. Historians use the term Rus' Khaganate for this polity of Scandinavian traders and warriors in north-western Russia, but its location, perhaps Ladoga or the Novgorod region, is debated.
Rule and society
Arab geographers such as Ibn Rusta describe the Rus' as living on a marshy island under a khagan, collecting slaves and furs from the Slavs and selling them for silver. The title was borrowed from the Khazars and claimed equal rank with their ruler. The Rus' attack on Constantinople in 860 may have been launched from this state.
Decline and legacy
Its fate is unclear. The chronicle tradition of Rurik's arrival around 862 and Oleg's capture of Kiev in 882 describes the creation of Kievan Rus', into which the earlier khaganate was presumably absorbed. Later Kievan rulers such as Vladimir I were still occasionally called khagan.
Few sources survive for this state; details are uncertain.
Lineage
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Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Rus' Khaganate. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/rus-khaganate
- MLA
- “Rus' Khaganate.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/rus-khaganate. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Rus' Khaganate.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/rus-khaganate.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Rus' Khaganate’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/rus-khaganate (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻