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Where did Russia come from, why is it so big, and what are the differences between it and its neighbors?
俄罗斯起源于哪里，为何幅员如此辽阔，它和其邻国有什么不同呢？
The answers lie in an epic story of seafaring warriors, nomadic invaders, and the rise and fall of a medieval state known as Kievan Rus.
答案就在航海战士、游牧入侵者以及被称为“基辅罗斯”的中世纪国家兴衰的史诗故事中。
In the first millennium, a large group of tribes spread through the dense woodlands of Eastern Europe.
公元后的第一个千年，一个庞大的游牧民族开始向东欧繁茂的森林扩张。
Because they had no writing system, much of what we know about them comes from three main sources: archaeological evidence, accounts from literate scholars of the Roman Empire and the Middle East, and, lastly, an epic history called the Primary Chronicle compiled in the 12th century by a monk named Nestor.
由于他们没有文字记载这段历史，我们主要通过三个途径了解它：考古学的佐证，当时罗马帝国和中东地区文学家的记述以及《往年纪事》(Primary Chronicle)，它是由一名叫涅斯托尔的游僧编篡的一部有时代意义的历史著作。
What they tell us is that these tribes who shared a common Slavic language and polytheistic religion had by the 7th century split into western, southern and eastern branches, the latter stretching from the Dniester River to the Volga and the Baltic Sea.
书中记述这些部落共用一套语言系统——斯拉夫语，共同信仰多神教，在公元七世纪，他们分裂成西部、南部和东部三个分支，东部分支从德涅斯特河伸展到伏尔加河、波罗的海等地。
As Nestor's story goes, after years of subjugation by Vikings from the north, who, by the way, did not wear horned helmets in battle, the region's tribes revolted and drove back the Northmen, but left to their own devices, they turned on each other.
在涅斯托尔记载的故事中，当地人在遭受了北边维京人的多年侵扰后(这里说的并不是带着牛角帽子的维京人)，奋起反抗并把他们驱赶了出去，但只剩他们自己的时候，又相互把矛头指向对方。
Such chaos ensued that, ironically, the tribes reached out to the foreigners they had just expelled, inviting them to return and establish order.
讽刺的是，这样的混乱促使他们寻求之前的敌人——维京人的帮助，邀请他们回来帮助建立秩序。
The Vikings accepted, sending a prince named Rurik and his two brothers to rule.
维京人欣然同意了，派遣来他们的王子留里克和他的两个兄弟回来统治。
With Rurik's son, Oleg, expanding his realm into the south, and moving the capitol to Kiev, a former outpost of the Khazar Empire, the Kievan Rus was born,
同时，留里克的儿子奥列格开始向南部扩张，他们的帝国不久后迁都到基辅，那是哈扎尔帝国从前的前哨，这意味着基辅罗斯帝国的诞生。
"Rus" most likely deriving from an old Norse word for "the men who row."
“罗斯”来自一个古老的挪威语，意思是 “划桨人”。
The new princedom had complex relations with its neighbors, alternating between alliance and warfare with the Khazar and Byzantine Empires, as well as neighboring tribes.
这个新成立的国家和他的邻国有着十分复杂的关系，它改变了哈扎尔和拜占庭帝国之间的利害关系，对其他的邻近部落也同样有些影响。
Religion played an important role in politics, and as the legend goes, in 987, the Rus prince Vladamir I decided it was time to abandon Slavic paganism, and sent emissaries to explore neighboring faiths.
宗教在当时的政治系统中有着重要的影响，随着故事的发展，在公元987年，罗斯的王子——弗拉基米尔一世决定是时候放弃斯拉夫的异教信仰了，他向邻国派去使者，让他们去研究当地的宗教。
Put off by Islam's prohibition on alcohol and Judaism's expulsion from its holy land, the ruler settled on Orthodox Christianity after hearing odd accounts of its ceremonies.
他无法忍受伊斯兰不喝酒的传统，接受不了犹太人被驱逐出圣地的凄惨，在听说了基督教的各式庆典后，他接受了正统基督教(东正教)。
