The international exhibition Kyivan Rus’. Origins explores the history of this early medieval Eastern European state to which modern-day Ukraine traces its founding. This was a multicultural entity that thrived from the 9th to the 13th centuries, born out of need to engage in trade and shaped by the profound influence of Scandinavian Vikings, steppe nomads, and Byzantium.
The exhibition will present the nearly 300-year history of the emergence and flourishing of Kyivan Rus’, as well as the issues that have changed the established perception of the region’s history, including: the origin story influenced by external (Scandinavian, Baltic, Finnish) and internal (Slavic) forces; links with Scandinavia and the Viking ruling tradition; connections to the lands of the present-day Baltic countries; and the state’s collapse and echoes of its enduring traditions in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The story of this exhibition will shed light on the rich history of multicultural Kyivan Rus’, but most importantly, it will seek to answer the question of who established the Kyivan Rus’ state and continued its traditions after its dissolution.

This exhibition is an important step in an effort to understand the early history of all of Eastern Europe, which is little known in Lithuania and Europe. The lands of Kyivan Rus’ are a cradle from which other Slavic states later emerged and pursued different paths of development. As early as the 18th century the Russian Empire began denying this fact and actively manipulating a history of a common Slavic state founded by the Russians and that state’s unassailable unity. Such assertions were and continue to be exploited to reinforce the notion of Moscow’s claim to the legacy of Kyivan Rus’, despite the fact that Kyivan Rus’ emerged and flourished much earlier than the emergence of the Principality of Moscow – the historical origin of today’s Russia.
Clearly, the fabrication and interpretation of history is becoming a dangerous weapon to legitimize even military action against another country. Our efforts to learn and understand more about a history based on reliable sources can help prevent this and refute the introduction of a false narrative that Ukraine is not part of Western civilization.

The history of Kyivan Rus’ is recounted here based on authentic archaeological findings dating back more than one thousand years, assembled from Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden, Norway, and Lithuania. These examples of material culture will give visitors a better idea of the life, beliefs, and customs of the people who lived in this important historical period.
The exhibition will open at the House of Histories on 18th September 2024 and run until 30th March 2025.

The exhibition is under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda.