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Where did Russia come from, why is it so big, and what are the differences between it and its neighbors?
俄羅斯起源于哪里，為何幅員如此遼闊，它和其鄰國有什么不同呢？
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.
答案就在航海戰士、游牧入侵者以及被稱為“基輔羅斯”的中世紀國家興衰的史詩故事中。
In the first millennium, a large group of tribes spread through the dense woodlands of Eastern Europe.
公元后的第一個千年，一個龐大的游牧民族開始向東歐繁茂的森林擴張。
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.
由于他們沒有文字記載這段歷史，我們主要通過三個途徑了解它：考古學的佐證，當時羅馬帝國和中東地區文學家的記述以及《往年紀事》(Primary Chronicle)，它是由一名叫涅斯托爾的游僧編篡的一部有時代意義的歷史著作。
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.
書中記述這些部落共用一套語言系統——斯拉夫語，共同信仰多神教，在公元七世紀，他們分裂成西部、南部和東部三個分支，東部分支從德涅斯特河伸展到伏爾加河、波羅的海等地。
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.
在涅斯托爾記載的故事中，當地人在遭受了北邊維京人的多年侵擾后(這里說的并不是帶著牛角帽子的維京人)，奮起反抗并把他們驅趕了出去，但只剩他們自己的時候，又相互把矛頭指向對方。
Such chaos ensued that, ironically, the tribes reached out to the foreigners they had just expelled, inviting them to return and establish order.
諷刺的是，這樣的混亂促使他們尋求之前的敵人——維京人的幫助，邀請他們回來幫助建立秩序。
The Vikings accepted, sending a prince named Rurik and his two brothers to rule.
維京人欣然同意了，派遣來他們的王子留里克和他的兩個兄弟回來統治。
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,
同時，留里克的兒子奧列格開始向南部擴張，他們的帝國不久后遷都到基輔，那是哈扎爾帝國從前的前哨，這意味著基輔羅斯帝國的誕生。
"Rus" most likely deriving from an old Norse word for "the men who row."
“羅斯”來自一個古老的挪威語，意思是 “劃槳人”。
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.
這個新成立的國家和他的鄰國有著十分復雜的關系，它改變了哈扎爾和拜占庭帝國之間的利害關系，對其他的鄰近部落也同樣有些影響。
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.
宗教在當時的政治系統中有著重要的影響，隨著故事的發展，在公元987年，羅斯的王子——弗拉基米爾一世決定是時候放棄斯拉夫的異教信仰了，他向鄰國派去使者，讓他們去研究當地的宗教。
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.
他無法忍受伊斯蘭不喝酒的傳統，接受不了猶太人被驅逐出圣地的凄慘，在聽說了基督教的各式慶典后，他接受了正統基督教(東正教)。
