«Здравствуйте, дорогие читатели» [Hello, dear readers]. Due to the holidays, I have not been able to post as often as I ought to, but I have returned to bring you «история Киева, часть вторая» [a history of Kiev, part two]. «История Киева, часть первая» [a history of Kiev, part one] can be read here. 

«В 1054 (тысяча пятьдесят четвёртом) году» [In the year 1054], the Eastern church split. This split is generally called «Великий раскол» [the Great Schism]. (Do you recognize the word «раскол» as the root of the name of the protagonist in «Преступление и наказание Достоевского» [Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment]? The protagonist’s name, if you’ll remember, is «Родион Романович Раскольников» [Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov].) The background and reasons for «Великий раскол» are extremely detailed and complicated, so I am not going to go into much depth, as I do not think I could explain it properly.

«После Великого раскола», Kiev did not fare well. «В 1203 (тысяча двести третьем) году Киев был захвачен и сожжён князем Рюриком Ростиславовичем» [In 1203 Kiev was captured and burned by Prince Rurik Rostislavovich]. And if that was not bad enough, «в 1240 (тысяча двести сороковом) году Киев был разрушен монголо-татарами» [in 1240 Kiev was destroyed by the Mongol-Tartars]. «Князь Михаил Всеволодович правил до 1243 (тысяча двести сорок третьего) года» [Prince Mikhail Vsevolodovich ruled until 1243].

In the autumn of 1362 was «Битва на Синих Водах» [the Battle of Blue Waters], after which the transfer of Kiev from «Золотая орда» [the Golden Horde] to «Речь Посполитая» [the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth]. «В пятнадцатом веке он получил городские права» [In the fifteenth century it received “city rights” (I’m not sure this is the best translation; basically it means that Kiev became more autonomous)].

In 1569, Kiev became a part of «Корона Королества Польского» [the Crown Kingdom of Poland] and everything was going pretty well… until the uprising of «Богдан Хмельницкий» in 1648, which I will tell you about in the next post.