Kings or Princes? Why Do the Titles of Rusian Rulers Matter

As far as scholars in the Anglophone world are concerned, the proper translation of the Old East Slavic, and modern Ukrainian, kniaz’, is prince. This has been the case since at least the Russian revolution of 1917. Before that time it was typically translated as duke. Largely, this matter is of little concern to either academics or lay people. However, in the context of medieval Europe, the title of the ruler of Rus’, and the ruler of Kyiv in particular, matters greatly when Rus’ is placed into the scheme of larger medieval European history

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