leg. After Oleg seized Kiev, he defeated several enemy East Slavic tribes and imposed a tribute among them. The Primary Chronicle depicts him as a successful warrior, shrewd diplomat, and a wise ruler. In 907 he initiated an attack on Constantinople with his 2,000 ships. After plundering the outskirts of Constantinople, Byzantium granted Oleg a treaty which admitted Russian merchants into the city. The next rulers of Russia had goals of expanding Russia, which they accomplished by moving their borders from a few miles away from Kiev all the way down to the Black Sea in the late 900s. The biggest accomplishment before the year 1000 was in 988 when Vladmir I, ruler of Russia, converted him and his people to Orthodox Christianity. This choice helped set Russia apart from the surrounding tribes of the east and west, while helping the relationship between Russia and Byzantium, and which led the Russian Empire in the right direction for the new millennium.The origins of Russia is truly not as distinguished as moments such as Vladimir’s conversion, or the rule of Peter the Great, yet its impact on Russia is undoubtedly much more important. If not for the year 862, Russia might have been a group of tribes, waiting to be conquered by a western nation. This date is unarguably the single most important year in Russian history....
