Region · as at first light, 1 January 1200

The Baltic and Rus'

On the morning of 1 January 1200 the Atlas records 24 realms and principalities in The Baltic and Rus', with 74 lords and officers, 199 towns, ports and sites, 1 church lands and religious houses and 72 provinces, peoples and free lands.

The realms

  1. The EstoniansNone named for 1200Free peoples

    The Estonians are a free pagan people of farmers, fishermen and seafarers in a dozen lands between the Gulf of Finland, Lake Peipus and the Salaca.

  2. The LivsNo single leader on 1 January 1200Free peoples

    The Livs are a Finnic-speaking people (kin to the Estonians, not to the Baltic Latvians) who live along the lower Daugava, the lower Gauja and the coast north of it, in lands grouped round hillforts.

  3. The LatgaliansPeoples under their own princes

    The Latgalians (Henry's Letti or Lettigalli) are a Baltic people living east of the Livs, from the Gauja to the upper Daugava and the frontier of Pskov.

  4. The SeloniansNone named for 1200Free people

    The Selonians (Henry's Selones) are a Baltic people of the left bank of the Daugava, from about Jaunjelgava upstream past the later Daugavpils, and inland into what is now north-east Lithuania (Rokiškis, Zarasai).

  5. The SemigalliansNone named for 1200Free people

    The Semigallians (Henry's Semigalli, the Rus' Zimigola) are a Baltic people of the Lielupe (Aa) basin south of the Gulf of Riga, between the Livs and the Daugava to the north and east, the Curonians to the west and the Lithuanians and Samogitians to the south.

  6. The CuroniansNone named for 1200Free people

    The Curonians (Henry's Kurs, Latin Curones) hold Kursa, the western peninsula of Latvia with the coast south past Palanga and Klaipėda.

  7. The LithuaniansFree peoples under their dukes

    The Lithuanians on 1 January 1200 are a pagan Baltic people of the forests and river valleys between the Neman, the Neris (Vilia) and the lake country towards the Daugava.

  8. The SamogitiansFree people under their dukes

    Samogitia (Žemaitija, 'the lowland') is the western half of the Lithuanian-speaking world: the hills, forests and river valleys between the Nevėžis and the Curonian lands, and from the Semigallian plain to the Skalvian Neman.

  9. Gorodno and the Rus' towns of Black RutheniaRus' principality

    Black Ruthenia in 1200 is a string of Rus' fortified towns along the upper Neman and its tributaries, planted among Baltic (Yotvingian and Lithuanian) neighbours: Gorodno on its bluff above the Neman, with a stone-walled citadel and the stone churches of the G

  10. Principality of PolotskVladimirRus' principality

    The Polotsk land is the country of the Krivichi on the middle Daugava (Western Dvina) and the upper Berezina, Svisloch and Drut, ruled since the 10th century by the descendants of Izyaslav, son of Rogneda, and above all of Vseslav (died 1101).

  11. Principality of SmolenskMstislav RomanovichRus' principality

    Smolensk sits on the upper Dnieper at the hinge of the Rus' river roads: downstream to Kiev, by the Kasplya portage to the Daugava and the Germans, by Usvyat and Toropets to the Lovat and Novgorod, and by the Vyazma and Gzhat portages to the Volga.

  12. Novgorod the GreatSviatoslav VsevolodovichCity-state

    Novgorod the Great is the largest town of northern Rus' and a city-state in all but name.

  13. Grand principality of Vladimir-SuzdalVsevolod III Yuryevich, baptismal name Dmitry, called BigGrand principality

    The Rostov-Suzdal land, the forest country of the upper Volga and the Klyazma, is the strongest principality of Rus' on 1 January 1200.

  14. Principality of Ryazan with PronskRoman GlebovichRus' principality

    The land of the middle Oka and the Pronya, held by the sons and grandsons of Gleb Rostislavich, a branch of the Chernigov house that rules Ryazan and Pronsk by family division.

  15. Principality of MuromVladimir YuryevichRus' principality

    The old Rus' town of Murom on the lower Oka with its land, ruled by Vladimir Yuryevich and his brothers David and Igor, grandsons of the Murom line of the Chernigov house.

  16. Volga BulgariaEmirate

    A Muslim trading state of Turkic-speaking Bulgars on the left bank of the middle Volga and the lower Kama, with settled lands also on the right bank.

  17. The Mordvins and the Meshcheranone named for 1200Forest peoples

    The Finnic-speaking Mordvins live in two peoples: the Erzya in the north-east between the lower Oka, the Tesha and the Sura, and the Moksha to the south-west on the Moksha and the Tsna.

  18. The Chernigov land of the OlgovichiIgor SviatoslavichRus' principality

    The land of Chernigov, on the Desna, the Seim, the lower Sozh and the upper Oka, belongs to the Olgovichi, the descendants of Oleg Sviatoslavich (d.

  19. The Kiev land of Rurik RostislavichRurik Rostislavich, baptised VasilyRus' principality

    Kiev is still the senior seat of Rus' and the richest town of the south, but it is no longer the centre of power.

  20. The southern Pereyaslavl (Vsevolod III's)Vsevolod III YurievichRus' principality

    Pereyaslavl is the third of the old southern seats, the Monomashich patrimony on the left bank of the Dnieper between Kiev and the steppe, with a bishop's see and a stone cathedral of St Michael.

  21. Turov and PinskIvan Yurievich, as the Belarusian princely lists give himRus' principalities

    Turov and Pinsk lie in the Pripet marshes between Kiev, Volhynia, Polotsk's Minsk and the Lithuanians: forest, bog and river country, rich in fur, honey, wax and fish, crossed by the Pripet route that links the Dnieper with the Bug and Poland.

  22. Roman's Galicia and VolhyniaRoman MstislavichRus' principalities

    On the morning of 1 January 1200 Roman Mstislavich holds two lands that had never been ruled together: his father's Volhynia, ruled from Vladimir-Volynsky since 1170, and the rich principality of Galich on the Dniester and the San, which he seized in 1199 when

  23. The other Volhynian princes (Lutsk, Peresopnitsa, Belz)Ingvar Yaroslavich of Lutsk, his brother MstislavRus' principalities

    Not every Volhynian town is Roman's.

  24. The CumansNo khan rules all the CumansSteppe hordes

    The Cumans (to the Rus' Polovtsy, to the Greeks Kumanoi, to the Muslims Qipchaq) are pagan Turkic horse-herders who have held the steppe from the Danube to the Volga since the 1050s and 1060s.

Self-governing peoples and other lands

Records of this region that belong to no single realm page.

Primary sources for The Baltic and Rus'

  • Chronicle of the Poles, by Master Vincent (Wincenty Kadłubek), Wincenty Kadłubek (about 1190 to 1208). Book 4 is a contemporary's account of the fight for the senior throne of Kraków.
  • The Deeds of the Hungarians, by the Anonymous Notary of King Béla, Anonymus (P. magister) (about 1200 to 1210, the date disputed). Not a record of events but a picture of the kingdom's nobility and geography as a courtier of about 1200 wished to see it: the clans and their lands, the castles and counties, the Vlachs, Cumans and other peoples of the Carpathian basin, all projected back onto the conquest.
  • The law of the Gotlanders; The saga of the Gotlanders (Guta lag about 1220, Guta saga about 1220 to 1275; manuscript of about 1350). The law and the short history of the self-governing island.
  • The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas.
  • Charter book of Livonia, Estonia and Courland, volume 1, 1093 to 1300 (documents of 1093 to 1300, edited 1853). The documents of the Livonian mission: Innocent III's bull of 5 October 1199 calling for a crusade to protect the Livonian church, the privileges for Bishop Albert, Archbishop Hartwig of Bremen's acts for the see of Üxküll, and the later charters that settle who held what on the Düna.
  • The birch-bark letters (11th to 15th centuries). Excavated letters and notes on birch bark, dated by the layer they lie in.
  • The Chronicle of Novgorod (kept year by year; the Synodal manuscript written in the 13th and 14th centuries). Novgorod's own record, kept at St Sophia.
  • The Hypatian Chronicle (the Kievan Chronicle compiled about 1200 at the Vydubichi monastery; the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle in the 13th century). The southern record.
  • The Laurentian Chronicle (the Suzdal continuation kept in the late 12th and 13th centuries; manuscript 1377). The court record of Vsevolod III of Vladimir.
  • The Livonian Chronicle of Henry, Henry of Livonia (1225 to 1227). The chief source for the Baltic mission.
  • The Tale of Igor's Campaign (about 1187 to 1200 (disputed)). A poem on Igor Sviatoslavich's defeat by the Polovtsians in 1185 that addresses the princes of the day by name: Vsevolod of Vladimir, Rurik and David Rostislavich, Yaroslav of Galich, Roman of Volhynia and the Olgovichi of Chernigov, of whom Igor himself was prince from 1198.
  • Charter books of Lübeck and of Hamburg (documents to 1226 (Lübeck vol. 1) and to 1300 (Hamburg vol. 1)). The charters of the two north German towns and of the archbishops of Bremen and Hamburg.
  • Chronicle of the Slavs, by Arnold of Lübeck, Arnold of Lübeck (about 1209 to 1210). Arnold continues Helmold and writes from Lübeck, close to Danish, Welf and Baltic affairs.

The whole sources library

How these entries are made

Every entry describes one morning, 1 January 1200, and keeps later events in a dated "what the year holds" list with the conditions each depended on. Each entry names its sources, rates its confidence and says where the sources disagree. Published 4 November 2026. Corrections are welcome.