History: The Rus

Novgorod, Northwest Russia, south-southeast of St. Petersburg- The Rus where a Viking people who ruled under Rurik in the Slavic settlement of Novgorod, 862 CE. The Rus eventually donated their name to "Russia" as it is known today. One of Rurik's followers, Oleg, 873- 913 CE, established an association of east Slavic territories in Kiev. Though the Slavs did have some Catholic Christian influence, they primarily tended to Eastern orthodoxy as existed in the Byzantine empire.