Eric Dollopac Kievan Rus to Yuan Dynasty 10/16/13 Two civilizations which existed together for a short time were the Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty. The Kievan Rus was the first East Slavic State to form on the East European plains. The state came to be from the invasion of the city Kiev. The city of Kiev, which became the capital of the Kievan Rus, was founded officially in 482 A.D. Eventually, Scandinavian warriors and merchants, known as Varangians, invaded the area around Kiev and the Kievan Rus rose to become a power in Eastern Europe, because it controlled the trade route from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. The state developed a political system which the state used until its decline in the thirteenth century. The state also developed a unique society during its existence. The Yuan dynasty was the dynasty in China to arise after the fall of the Song Dynasty. The Yuan dynasty was founded after the defeat of the Northern and Southern Song dynasty from the Mongols, by the Mongols. Kublai Khan became the ruler of this dynasty, which only lasted for about 100 years. The dynasty, because it was not ruled by the Chinese, was governed differently from older dynasties. The empire also developed a unique blend of cultures. While both the Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty were similar politically and socially, they were also unique from each other in political and social terms. (Curtis, Art 12, 13, 14) The Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty both existed during a time when monarchs ruled the land. Both the Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty had monarchs which ruled. The Kievan Rus and the Yuan dynasty also had governments in the form of a bureaucracy. The Kievan Rus had a monarchy known as the Grand Prince. The Grand Prince ruled the entire state and had control over the other princes in the bureaucracy. However, the Grand Prince lived a leisurely life and let the lower princes do most of the ruling while he watched and monitored the state. Each of the lowly princes was somehow related to the grand prince by blood, which left one ruling family to control everything in the state. The lowly princes would rule certain districts in the state, rather than certain departments in the state. This gave each prince more power over their district because they controlled each department that existed within the district. The Yuan dynasty’s monarch was actually not Chinese, but rather a Mongolian. A Mongolian ruled the Yuan dynasty because the previous Song Dynasty had been defeated, and the Mongolian’s had become the new rulers of China. The new Mongolian Emperor created a new government in China where there was one ruler and then several other government officials who ruled. These new governmental officials were not Chinese though, but rather people placed into their position by the Mongols. The new officials were put into their new positions depending on their status, if they were related to another official already in office, and other hereditary means. Each new official had a part in the bureaucracy which they ruled, which allowed to the government to rule efficiently and effectively during its time. This shows how the political structure and the ways of getting government positions in both the Kievan Rus and Yuan Dynasty were similar. (Curtis, “Dynasties of Asia”) The Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty also had similar social structures. Both the Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty had societies based on the people’s jobs and reelation with their kin. For example, in both the Kievan Rus state and the Yuan Dynasty, the upper class was made up of the wealthy and educated aristocrats while slaves and peasants would make up the lower classes. In the Kievan Rus state, beneath the princes who ruled each district were the people known as boyars. These people were the upper class wealthy and educated aristocrats. The boyars met in councils in each district where they had the power to check the prince’s power. However, each city and region in the state had different councils with different amounts of power. In one city, known as Novgorod, the council obtained so much power that it basically became a republic. Underneath the boyars were the middle class, known as the liudi. This word means “people”, today in Russia. This word testifies to the fact that there were a large amount of towns, villages, and cities which existed in the Kievan Rus state. These people had various jobs such as being traders, merchants, teachers, and more. Finally, the largest class in the Kievan Rus society was the free peasant farmers. Their job in society was to farm the food necessary for the rest of the people to eat and trade with. The social classes in the Yuan dynasty were also set by a person’s job and relation with their kin. The Yuan Dynasty’s social structure was set by the Mongols in order to try and keep the power in their hands and to have the Chinese people lose much of their power. Because of this policy, the highest class in the Yuan Dynasty was made up of the Mongol people. The next class after the Mongols was the few other outsiders who lived in China and the few Chinese people who had government jobs, which were obtained by taking difficult tests. Finally, the lowest class of people was the Chinese people without government jobs. These people may not have even had jobs that were considered lower class positions in other cultures. Many people were merchants, poets and musicians- positions that would have been considered middle class in other cultures. This shows how society in the Kievan Rus state and the Yuan Dynasty were similar. (Kort, “Dynasties of Asia”) The political structures in the Kievan Rus state and Yuan Dynasty were also unique from each other. One difference is that in the Kievan Rus state, the government was set up with one Great Prince and multiple lowly princes related to the Great Prince. Meanwhile, in the Yuan Dynasty, the Emperor ruled with the only people allowed in his government was other Mongols in the Mongolian social class. Another difference in the political structure between the Kievan Rus and Yuan Dynasty was how the Kievan Rus princes were checked by a council of upper class aristocrats. This was different from the Yuan Dynasty, whose officials were not checked because of the massive split between the Mongolian and outside upper classes and the Chinese lower classes. The Chinese classes were not allowed and say in their government affairs concerning the empire. Finally, the Yuan Dynasty’s officials ruled different departments such as civil, military, and censorial offices. This was different from the Kievan Rus princes, who each ruled their own districts and everything political in them. This shows how the political structures between the Kievan Rus and Yuan Dynasty were different from each other. (Kort, Art 50, 51) The social structures between the Kievan Rus state and Yuan Dynasty were also unique from each other. One difference between the two is how the classes in the Yuan Dynasty were set up by outsiders. In the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols set up the social classes based on a person’s ethnicity. On the other hand, the Kievan Rus set up their social classes based on a person’s wealth and income. Another difference between the Kievan Rus state and the Yuan Dynasty was the religion the people believed in. In the Kievan Rus state, because of close contact with Constantinople, the home of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the Kievan Rus state developed its own sect of Christianity known as Slavic Paganism Orthodox Christianity. Meanwhile, the Yuan Dynasty had a society with a mix of cultures ranging from Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Christianity, and Islam. Finally, in the Kievan Rus state, social classes could be traversed, meaning people could become part of the upper classes. However, in the Yuan Dynasty, social classes could not be traversed because of their dependence on ethnicity over daily occupation. This shows how the social structures between the Kievan Rus and Yuan Dynasty were different from each other. (Curtis, Art 89) Two civilizations which existed together for twelve years were the Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty. While both the Kievan Rus and the Yuan Dynasty were similar politically and socially, they were also unique from each other in political and social terms.
Works Cited
Art, Suzanne Strauss. China's Later Dynasties. United States of America: Pemblewick Press, 2002.
Curtis, Glenn E. “Kievan Rus and Mongol Periods” Washington, DC: Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress, 1996 http://www.shsu.edu/~his_ncp/Kievan.html “Dynasties of Asia, Yuan Dynasty” http://www.dynastiesofasia.com/asian-history-references/yuan-dynasty-period-in-chinese-history.htm Kort, Michael. A Brief History of Russia Boston University, 2008