Princely Era

Early ships of Kievan Rus

     Since Ukraine has many rivers, various kind of vessels had been used since the Ancient Times.  One of the types of boats used by early Slavs was made from the whole trunk of the tree, with the inside burned and chisseld out to fit the people.  Some of these were even up to 15 meters long.  From the Greek Chronicle of the 10th Century we discover that:" Slavs submitted by Rus, which are called Kryvychi and Lychany and other Slavs cut down the trees... which they send down the river to Kiev and sell them to Rus.  And Rus buys them and builds their own ships, adding oars and other needed equipment".

    Vikings (Varangians) had the gretest influence on Rus/Ukraine shipbuilding.  Their longboats called Drakkars were long and flat, which made them stable and allowed them to travel up the rivers to plunder deep inside the continent.  Similar types of ships were built by Rus, who used them to plunder the Black Sea coast.  When going into the battle a number of shields was added to protect the rowers.  The longboats in Ukrainian were called Lod' (Laddia) or Sud (Sudno) and were the most expensive ships.  A law from 

example of a varangian ship used by Rus

Ruska Pravda (Medieval Law Code used in Ukraine) states that if someone steels a Lod' they are forced to pay 3 silver hryvnias (one hr. = 30 kuns' one kun = a set of 40 furs). The longboat could take in up to 40 people and Oleg's (Helgis) ships during the raid in Caspian Sea took as many as 100 people.  After Rus came into contact with Byzantium, they began to copy some details from Byzantine ships.  Thus from Primary Rys Chronicle we discover that:"1151 - Isiaslav  for defence of Dnipro lined up his ships.  Strangely were Isiaslavs ships built, for the rowers could not be seen, only the oars were sticking out and people could not be seen, for the ships were covered with planks; and woriors and archers stood on top of the planks, and the ships had two steering oars, one at the front and one at the back, sho the ship could move wherever they wanted it to move".  From this passage we know that some boats were bulit as Byzantine dromons.

Naval Campains

    Rus ships began to appear in the Black Sea coast around 8th century.  Around 800 a.d. Prince (Konung) Bravlyn attacked the Greek colonies in Crimea, sacking such cities as Khersones and Surozh.  Greek chronicle gives us an discription of such raids:"Barbarians had attacked.  They are Rus, people which are knows

Rus Laddia

for their cruelty  and are merciless to their enemies.  Looking like a beats they are unhuman in their deeds and are bloodthursty by nature, knowing nothing but bloodshed...butchering everyone young and old killing everyone...destroing churches and robing them, plundering the holy reics." 

In year 860 a creat campain was undertaken by Kievan princes Askold and Dir against the Byzantins.  The great fleet of 360 longboats plundered the shores of Empire and even besieged Constantinople burning the subburbs.  Upon hearing that the Emperor was returning from Asia, the siege was broken off and the fleet returned to Kiev. 

In 907 prince Oleg (Helgi) again besieged Konstantinople.  Tale of Bygone Years tells us that Oleg came with 200 ships and his army also inclued scandinavians and Croats.  According to the chronicle, he attached weels to his ships and had them rolled all the way to the city gates.

Greeks seeing this kind of tactic immediatelly sued for peace.

In 941 prince Igor (Ingvar) planned another attack on
Konstantinople and contemporary sources state he had as many as 1000 ships.  This time part of his fleet was destroyed by Byzantines who used Greek Fire to burn his ships.  The remaining parts escaped and began to plunder the coasts of Western Asia, mainly Bitinia and Paflagonia.  Upon his return he was attacked by the Bizantine fleet once more and this time only ten ships had returned.

In 943 Igor planned another campain, inviting the varangians to come along but this time the Greeks signed a peace treaty which gave better  rights to the Rus merchants; "if a Rus ship curshes on a Christian (Byzantine) soil it was to be returned to Rus land". 

Eventually more peace treaties were conducted and naval campaigns become less and less important.  The last major sea campaign of Kievan Rus occured in 1043 by Yaroslav the Wise.  He himself led his force composed of 400 ships.  Unfortunatelly the combination of storm and Greek fire almost destroyed half of Yaroslv's fleet.  The retreating fleet was chased by the Greek Fleet but at the last moment Rus ships suddenly charged the enemy.  This caught the Greeks of guard and many of their galleys were either sunk or captured by Yaroslavs forces.  The prizoners were either killed or trown in the waters of the Black Sea. 

Raids in Caspian Sea
The Caspian Sea was rich with merchants from the East and there for became the gate trough which the Rus wikings could attack the Estern counties, mainly Persia.  The earliest raids began in the 9th century, most major ones in 860, 880 and 909 a.d.  In 913 Oleg with 500 ships was allowed a passage trough Khazarian Kaganate and plundered the lands of Tabaristan and Ajzerbadzhan.  A major campain occured in 943 when Igor burned down the rich city of Berdaiu and plundered the Caucasian countries. 

Naval combat, note the ship's carved head

Galician Berladnyky (pirates) 12th C.
       These were organized by Yaroslav's of Galicia renegade cousin Ivanko, who gathered a small army ofRus and Varangians captured the city of Berlad' on Danube.  Making Berlad' his base, Ivanko Berladnyk organized a series of pirate raids across the Black Sea hunting down the merchant ships.

      In the eleventh century and towards the twelvth the role of navy began to diminish.  As Kievan Rus was faced with a more serious threat from the East - the nomadic hordes, navy was used on lesser skale.  The navy at the end of Princely Era began to play a different role.  The longships and boats were mainly used to transport troops  and assumed the role of auxiliry.  The memory of Rus raids in the Black Sea lived for a long time, and even the name of the Sea was changed from Greek Pontus Evxinus to Ruske More - The Sea of Rus.