History channel - Engineering an Empire - Greek Byzantium 5/5

Relations with Kiev Rus Between 800 and 1100 the Empire developed a mixed relationship with the new state of Kiev Rus that emerged to the north across the Black Sea. Byzantine Empire quickly became a main trading and cultural partner for Kiev. After christianizing Rus Vladimir the Great employed many architects and artists to work on numerous cathedrals and churches around Rus, expanding the Byzantine influence even further. Kiev Princes were often married into the Byzantine imperial family and Constantinople often employed Princes' armies, most notably Vladimir the Great presented Byzantine with the famous Varangian Guard - an army of vicious Scandinavian mercenaries. Some believe that it was done in exchange for the marriage to Basil's sister Anna to Vladimir.[1] However, as Primary Chronicle states the marriage was in exchange for the Rus conversion to Orthodoxy, the Varangian Guard (although a signifficant one) was a by-product of this exchange. These relationships were not always friendly. During those three hundred years Constantinople and other Byzantine cities were attacked several times by the armies of Kiev Rus (see Rus'-Byzantine Wars). Kiev never went far enough to actually endanger the Empire, those wars were only a tool to force the Byzantine to sign increasingly favorable trade treaties, the texts of which are recorded in the Primary Chronicle (Rus'-Byzantine Treaty (907))[4] and other historical documents. Constantinople at the same time constantly played ...