Bibliography of the history of the Early Slavs and Rus'

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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.

Works included are referenced positively 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, or have significant scholarly journal reviews. This list specifically excludes unpublished and self published works and works published without or with minimal editorial oversight.

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.

A limited number of English translations of significant primary sources are included along with references to larger archival collections.

This bibliography uses APA style citations.

General works[]

General works on Russian history which have significant content about pre-1917 history.

• Billington, J. (2010). The Icon and Axe: An Interpretative History of Russian Culture. New York: Vintage.^[1]
• Blum, J. (1971). Lord and Peasant in Russia from the Ninth to the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.^[2][3]
• Bogatyrev, S. (Ed.). (2004). Russia Takes Shape. Patterns of Integration from the Middle Ages to the Present. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.^[4][5]
• Bushkovitch, P. (2011). A Concise History of Russia (Illustrated edition). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[6][7]
• 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.^{[8][9][10][11]}
• Connolly, R. (2020). The Russian Economy: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Freeze, G. L. (2009). Russia: A History (Revised edition). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
• Forsyth, J. (1992). A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia’s North Asian Colony 1581–1990. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[12][13]
• Grousset, R. (1970). The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia (N. Walford, Trans.). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.^[14]
• Lieven, D., Perrie, M., & Suny, R. (Eds.). (2006). The Cambridge History of Russia (3 vols.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.^[a]
• Pipes, R. (1974). Russia Under the Old Regime. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.^{[15][16][17][18]}
• Riasanovsky, N. V. (2018). A History of Russia (9th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Shubin, D. H. (2005). A History of Russian Christianity (4 vols.). New York: Agathon Press
• Thompson, J. M., & Ward, C. J. (2017). Russia: A Historical Introduction from Kievan Rus’ to the Present (8th edition). London, UK: Routledge.

Period works (750–1223)[]

• Alef, G. (1983). Rulers and Nobles in 15th-Century Muscovy. London, UK: Variorum.
• Birnbaum, H., Flier, M. S., & Rowland, D. B. (1984). Medieval Russian Culture. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
• Black, J. (Ed.). (1999). The Development of Russian Military Power, 1453–1815. In European Warfare, 1453–1815. New York: Macmillan.
• Lohr, E. & Poe, M. (Eds.). (2002). The Military and Society in Russia 1450-1917: 1450-1917. Leiden: Brill.^{[19][20][21][22]}
• Martin, J. (2007). Medieval Russia, 980–1584. Cambridge University Press.^[23][24]
• Meyendorff, J. (1997). Byzantium and the Rise of Russia: A Study of Byzantino-Russian Relations in the Fourteenth Century. St Vladimirs Seminary Press.^[25][26]
• 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.^[27][28]
• Pelenski, J. (1998). The Contest for the Legacy of Kievan Rus’. New York, NY: East European Monographs, Columbia University.^[29][30]
• 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.^[31]

Early Slavs[]

• Barford, P. M. (2001). The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe (1st edition). New York, NY: Cornell University Press.^{[32][33][34][35]}
• 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.^[36][37][38]
• Curta, F. (2001). The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[39][40][41]
• Curta, F. (2006). Southeastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 500–1250. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[42][43][44]
• Dolukhanov, P. (1996). The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus. London, UK: Routledge.^[45][46]
• Dvornik, F. (1956). The Slavs: Their Early History and Civilization. Boston, MA: American Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[47][48]
• Garipzanov, I. H. (Ed.). (2008). Franks, Northmen, and Slavs: Identities and State Formation in Early Medieval Europe. Turnhout: Brepols.
• Geary, P. (2001). Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.^[49][50][51]
• Gimbutas, M. A. (1971). The Slavs. London, UK: Thames & Hudson.
• Halperin, C. (2010). National Identity in Premodern Rus'. Russian History, 37(3), 275–294.
• Noonan, T. F. (1998). The Islamic World, Russia and the Vikings, 750-900. Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing.^[52]
• Plokhy, S. (2010). The Origins of the Slavic Nations: Premodern Identities in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.^[53][54][55]
• 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.^[56][57]

Kievan Rus'[]

• Dimnik, M. (1981). Mikhail, Prince of Chernigov and GrandPrince of Kiev, 1224–1246. Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies.
• 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.
• 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.^[58][59][60]
• 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.
• 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.^[61]
• 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.
• 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.^[62][63]
• Raffensperger, C. (2012). Reimagining Europe: Kievan Rus’ in the Medieval World. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.^[64][65]
• 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[]

• 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.^[66]
• 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.^[67][68]
• 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.
• Shepard, J. (2017). The Expansion of Orthodox Europe: Byzantium, the Balkans and Russia. London, UK: Routledge.^[69][70]
• Shubin, D. H. (2005). A History of Russian Christianity (4 vols.). New York: Agathon Press.

Other topics[]

• Birnbaum, H. (1981). Lord Novgorod the Great: Essays in the history and culture of a medieval city-state. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers/Indian University.

Biographies[]

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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.
• 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.
• Katchanovski, I., 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.
• Millar, J. R. (Ed.). (2004). Encyclopedia of Russian History (4 vols.). New York: Macmillan Library Reference.

Academic journals[]

The list below contains journals referenced in this bibliography and which have substantial contributions about Russian history.

• Canadian-American Slavic Studies (1967–Present): Brill Online.
• Central Asian Survey (1982–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• Contemporary European History (1992-2014): JSTOR.
• East European Quarterly (1967-2008, 2015–Present): Central European University.
• Journal of Baltic Studies (1970–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography (2008–Present): Brill Online.
• Journal of Slavic Military Studies (1988–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• (1976-2012): Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
• Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (2000–Present): Georgetown University, Project Muse.
• The Polish Review (1942-1945, 1956-2019): The Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences of America, JSTOR.
• The Russian Review (1941–Present): Wiley Online, Wiley Online Library, JSTOR.
• Russian Studies in History (formerly Soviet Studies in History) (1962-1992, 1992–Present): Taylor Francis Online.
• Sibirica: Journal of Siberian Studies (2001-2019): Berghahn, Taylor Francis Online.
• The Slavic and East European Journal (1957–Present): American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, JSTOR.
• Slavic Review (1961–Present): University of Illinois, JSTOR.
• Slavonic and East European Review (1922-1927, 1928–Present): UCL School of Slavonic And East European Studies, JSTOR.

Further reading[]

Many of the above works contain bibliographies. Included below are a selection of works with large bibliographies related to Russian history.

• Langer, L. N. (2001). Bibliography. In Historical Dictionary of Medieval Russia. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.
• Perrie, M. (2006). Bibliography. (2006). In M. Perrie (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia (The Cambridge History of Russia, Vol. 1, pp. 663–721). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.^[c]

See also[]

• Bibliography of Russian history (1223–1613)
• Bibliography of Russian history (1613–1917)
• Bibliography of the Russo-Japanese War
• Bibliography of Russia during World War I
• Bibliography of the Soviet Union (disambiguation)

References[]

Notes[]

Citations[]

External links[]

• Everyday life and microhistory in Russia: A selected bibliography of critical studies. Indiana University, Bloomington.
• Janet Martin—Bibliography. (2015). Russian History, 42(1), 3–8.