Kiev evolved into an empire that ruled most of European Russia for 200 years, then broke up into Ukraine,
Belarus, and Muscovy.
Muscovy's capital, Moscow, remained a small trading post until the 13th
century, when Mongol invasions in the south drove people to settle in Moscow.
In Muscovy, according to rumors, a great rebellion broke out,
and although the Tsar sent a letter to the rebels urging them to obey, they tore it up and burned it, and those who delivered it were hanged.".