Walter K. Hanak, Ph.D. (1973), Indiana University, Bloomington, is Professor of History, Emeritus, Shepherd University. He has expertise in the fields of Byzantine, Medieval Slavic, and Medieval Islamic History. He has published monographs and articles on Byzantine and Medieval Slavic topics. His most recent monograph, a major study of sources, with Marios Philippides, is The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography, and Military Studies (Ashgate, 2011).

"Through this review of problematic sources, at once panoramic and focused on specific questions, [Hanak] has opened up an important new approach to the enigmas of early Rus ... The markers he has set out for further investigations will surely stand."Jonathan Shepard, University of Oxford, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 24, no. 3, 2016

• Abbreviations ... ixPreface ... xiAcknowledgments ... xvMaps ... xvii1 The Nature and the Early Rus’ Image of Kievan Princely Power ... 12 Byzantine Imperial Thought in Theory and Practice in Vladimirian-Jaroslavian Rus’ ... 713 The Decline of the Varangians ... 1074 The Khazars in the Shadows of Kievan Political Thought ... 1355 The Eastern Slavic Political and Social Structure ... 1496 Some Conclusions ... 167Bibliography ... 171Index

Walter K. Hanak, Ph.D. (1973), Indiana University, Bloomington, is Professor of History, Emeritus, Shepherd University. He has expertise in the fields of Byzantine, Medieval Slavic, and Medieval Islamic History. He has published monographs and articles on Byzantine and Medieval Slavic topics. His most recent monograph, a major study of sources, with Marios Philippides, is The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography, and Military Studies (Ashgate, 2011).

"Through this review of problematic sources, at once panoramic and focused on specific questions, [Hanak] has opened up an important new approach to the enigmas of early Rus ... The markers he has set out for further investigations will surely stand."Jonathan Shepard, University of Oxford, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 24, no. 3, 2016

• Abbreviations ... ixPreface ... xiAcknowledgments ... xvMaps ... xvii1 The Nature and the Early Rus’ Image of Kievan Princely Power ... 12 Byzantine Imperial Thought in Theory and Practice in Vladimirian-Jaroslavian Rus’ ... 713 The Decline of the Varangians ... 1074 The Khazars in the Shadows of Kievan Political Thought ... 1355 The Eastern Slavic Political and Social Structure ... 1496 Some Conclusions ... 167Bibliography ... 171Index

Walter K. Hanak, Ph.D. (1973), Indiana University, Bloomington, is Professor of History, Emeritus, Shepherd University. He has expertise in the fields of Byzantine, Medieval Slavic, and Medieval Islamic History. He has published monographs and articles on Byzantine and Medieval Slavic topics. His most recent monograph, a major study of sources, with Marios Philippides, is The Siege and the Fall of Constantinople in 1453: Historiography, Topography, and Military Studies (Ashgate, 2011).

"Through this review of problematic sources, at once panoramic and focused on specific questions, [Hanak] has opened up an important new approach to the enigmas of early Rus ... The markers he has set out for further investigations will surely stand."Jonathan Shepard, University of Oxford, Early Medieval Europe, Vol. 24, no. 3, 2016

• Abbreviations ... ixPreface ... xiAcknowledgments ... xvMaps ... xvii1 The Nature and the Early Rus’ Image of Kievan Princely Power ... 12 Byzantine Imperial Thought in Theory and Practice in Vladimirian-Jaroslavian Rus’ ... 713 The Decline of the Varangians ... 1074 The Khazars in the Shadows of Kievan Political Thought ... 1355 The Eastern Slavic Political and Social Structure ... 1496 Some Conclusions ... 167Bibliography ... 171Index