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Rostov principality

The early Rostov principality occupied a vast but sparsely populated territory in the northeast of Kievan Rus', approximately bounded by the Volga, Oka, and Northern Dvina rivers. According to the archaeologist Andrei Leontiev, who specializes in the history of the region, the Rostov land until the 10th century was already under the control of Rostov city, while Sarskoye Gorodishche was a tribal centre of the native Merya people. In the 10th century, an eparchy was established in Rostov. At that time Rostov was the major centre of the Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the region dominated mostly by paganism. Until the 11th century, Rostov was often associated with Novgorod.

The first known administrator in the Rostov region mentioned in the Primary Chronicle sub anno 988 was Yaroslav the Wise, appointed by his father Volodimer I of Kiev. In 1024, there was reportedly a famine in the area, and a revolt stoked up by pagan sorcerers was suppressed by Yaroslav personally. Upon his death in 1054, Vsevolod Yaroslavich received the Principality of Pereyaslavl including the lands of Rostov. Little is known about the region until the 1090s, except that the town of Yaroslavl had been founded upon the upper Volga by 1071, and that Vladimir Monomakh ordered a church to be built in Rostov.