Hii... I'm back with an update on the history of the ancient and medieval world and we will continue with the events that transpired with the Vikings in the East.

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Unlike the Danish and Norwegian Vikings, who went south and west, the Swedish Vikings travelled eastward over the Baltic Sea, into areas that provided them access to eastern Europe's rivers. Swedish Vikings began raiding the region in the early ninth century CE, extracting payments from Slavic nobility and enslaving vast numbers of common people. They then constructed a trading route from their homelands across eastern Europe and into the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia's Byzantine, Arab, and Turkish realms. The discovery of over a thousand Arab silver coins buried on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea in 2006 CE attested to the profitability of this trade artery.

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The Slavic tribes of the eastern Baltic coast were progressively taken over by Swedish traders and pirates. Rurik, a semi-legendary leader, established himself in Novgorod (a city in modern Russia). Askold and Dit, two more Viking kings, continued south down the Dnieper River to Kiev, some 600 miles (960 kilometres) away. Later, Kiev became an important stop on the lucrative trade route connecting Scandinavia and Constantinople. A Viking fleet of 200 longships performed a foray up the whole length of the Dnieper River in 860 CE, arriving in Constantinople. After realising they wouldn't be able to seize the city, the Vikings raided the neighbouring villages and monasteries, murdering the residents mercilessly. They sailed away with a cargo of loot.

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The monarchs of Kiev, Askold and Dir, were the expedition's commanders. After Rurik's death, Oleg, who had risen to power in Novgorod, quickly realised that the region's continuous split of power was unsatisfactory. He summoned Askold and Dir to a conference, pretending that he wanted to establish common plans for the future, but when they came, he had them both assassinated. Oleg became the new state's paramount monarch, known as Kievan Rus. Another Viking expedition set sail for Constantinople about 907 CE, according to a 12th-century chronicle. It was a large army, with 80,000 troops and 2,000 ships under Oleg's leadership. The Byzantine emperor, who was already fighting the Bulgars in the Balkans, consented to negotiate conditions with the Vikings. He paid a hefty tribute and, more importantly, approved a trade deal that permitted the Vikings to trade in the city.

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Oleg now had control of a highly profitable trade route stretching from Constantinople to the Baltic Sea, but he remained unsatisfied. The Khazars' territory, located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, were invaded by the Vikings. The Khazars agreed to let the Vikings sail up their rivers on their route to loot Arab regions beyond the Caspian Sea in exchange for half of the revenues. The Khazars, on the other hand, overestimated the Viking attacks' savagery.

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This is where I bring my story to an end. I will be coming your way soon with the sequel of this story.

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Thank You For Reading