The Russian state began to take shape over a thousand years ago and several stages passed in its development. One of the most complex and dramatic of them is the time of feudal fragmentation. Its signs appeared already in the middle of the XI century. Historians identify several reasons for the emergence of feudal fragmentation in Russia.
Background feudal fragmentation
It is traditionally believed that the period of feudal fragmentation began in Kievan Rus in the first third of the XII century. But some signs of the political disunity of the Russian lands were visible long before that. In fact, Kievan Rus already at that time was a series of independent principalities. At first, Kiev was the country's most powerful center, but over the years its influence has weakened, and leadership has become only formal.
At the end of the XI century, there was already a steady increase in the population of cities, which contributed to the strengthening of urban settlements. Subsistence farming made individual princes completely independent large owners of estates. Small principalities could produce almost everything that was required for life, and depended little on commodity exchange with other lands.
Russia in those days did not have a strong, influential and charismatic ruler who could unite the country under his rule. To subjugate all the Russian lands, it required a sufficient authority and outstanding personal qualities. In addition, many princes in Russia were large families, which inevitably led to contention, the struggle for inheritance and the isolation of the descendants of the princes.
