Principality of Smolensk

The Principality of Smolensk was the Russian principality of the upper Dnieper, lasting from 1010 to 1508. Smolensk sat where the river road from the Varangians to the Greeks portaged between watersheds, and its princes grew rich on transit dues between Novgorod, Kiev and the Baltic. The principality declared its independence in the twelfth century as Kievan Rus broke apart, and for two hundred years its Rostislavichi princes played Kiev, Polotsk and Novgorod against each other while trading wax, honey and furs down the Dvina. Lithuania's long shadow ended it: pressured from the east by Moscow and the west by Vilnius, Smolensk passed under Lithuanian rule in 1404, kept its princes a while as vassals, and was reorganised as a voivodeship in 1508. The city stayed what geography made it, the fortress guarding the road to Moscow. Its Dormition Cathedral still watches the Dnieper bend, and every Russian war since has knocked on its gates.