Who founded Kiev?According to the 12th-century chronicle Povest vremennykh let (…

According to the 12th-century chronicle Povest vremennykh let (“Tale of Bygone Years,” also known as The Russian Primary Chronicle), Kyiv was founded by three brothers, Kyi (Kiy), Shchek, and Khoryv (Khoriv), leaders of the Polyanian tribe of the East Slavs. Each established his own settlement on a hill, and these settlements became the town of Kyiv, named for the eldest brother, Kyi; a small stream nearby was named for their sister Lybed (Lebid). Although the chronicle account is legendary, there are contemporary references to Kyiv in the writings of Byzantine, German, and Arab historians and geographers.

Kievan Rus in the 11th century

The Varangians (Vikings) seized Kyiv in the mid-9th century, and, as in Novgorod to the north, a Slavo-Varangian ruling elite developed. Kyiv, with its good defensive site on the high river bluffs and as the centre of a rich agricultural area and a group of early Slavic towns, began to gain importance. About 882 Oleg (Oleh), the ruler of Novgorod, captured Kyiv and made it his capital, the centre of the first East Slavic state, Kyivan (Kievan) Rus. The town flourished, chiefly through trade along the Dnieper going south to the Byzantine Empire and north over portages to the rivers flowing to the Baltic Sea—the so-called “road from the Varangians to the Greeks,” or “water road.” Trade also went to the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.

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