Russian tradition places the beginning of Russia as Kievan Rus' in 862 AD. Oral traditions, and the Russian Primary Chronicle tells the story of Russia's emergence as a nation and how the house of Riurik became the rulers. This story tells how the Slavs, after driving out the Varangians and forcing them to return to Scandinavia, were faced with such disorder that they requested the return of the Varangians to rule them. At this request, three brothers returned, Riurik, Sineus and Truvor. Each took a different city to rule. Riurik became the prince of Novgorod and when the other two died he gained control of their cities also. When Riurik died, his son, Prince Igor, was recognized as the heir. However, he was too young to rule and a man named Oleg was chosen to rule instead until Prince Igor was old enough to rule. Oleg greatly expanded the borders of the fledgling country. One of the cities he conquered was Kiev, which became the control center. With this, Kievan Rus' began.

Prince Igor succeeded Oleg and continued to build up Kievan Rus'. His wife Olga succeeded him to the throne after he was murdered. She sought to avenge her husband's death and on three occasions slaughtered numerous Derevlians (the group responsible for his death). Olga converted to Christianity in about 954, although her son and successor Sviatoslav remained pagan. As the first Russian ruler to do so, she helped bring about the tradition of Christianity in Russia. Thirty years later in 988, under the rule of Vladimir, Christianity became the official state religion, and the Russians became tied to Byzantine and Constantinople. These ties were furthered by Vladimir's marriage to the Byzantine emperor's sister. One of the results of this was that the Russians adopted the Cyrillic alphabet rather than the alphabet used by the rest of Europe. These religious ties helped separate Russia from the rest of Europe. The rivers that ran through Kievan Rus' led the Russians to still maintain contact with Europe. The Dnieper River, along with Kiev was an important trade route. The importance of this trade route is also one of the reasons that Kiev was chosen as the center for control.

Kievan Rus' continued to grow until, at its peak, it reached from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains to the Oka river. At this time, Prince Iaroslav the Wise was the ruler. Iaroslav expanded economic relations with Europe and Asia, built schools and libraries and encouraged scholars and artists. He also implemented the first Russian laws, called The Russian Justice. However, the end of Iaroslav's reign brought disunity to Kievan Rus' as he divided the country among his sons, telling them to obey the eldest as the Grand Prince of Kiev. This did not work and political unity was weakened.

Following Iaroslav's reign, wars between the princes were common. An agreement among the princes to acknowledge the boundaries of each one's area coexisted with an agreement to unite in the face of outside invasion. This agreement indicated that the people thought of themselves as a nation but the plan didn't always work and Kievan Rus' was weakened by wars between the princes and raids from neighbors. Kievan Rus' was further weakend by Andrei Bogolyubsky's attack of Kiev in 1169. He plundered the city and assumed the title of Grand Prince. However, he did not rule from there. Kiev lost its position as capital. These events brought about the end of Kievan Rus'. With the loss of their capital, and weakened by wars between the princes, Kievan Rus was highly vulnerable to outside attack. They were threatened by many groups, and were finally overcome by the Tatars.