THE  MINISTRY   OF  FOREIGN   AFFAIRS.
The Chancery has moreover a special section for affairs relating to family disagreements.
L INTEKNATIONAL KELATIONS.
(The Ministry of Foreign Affairs.)
To write the history of Russia's international relations would necessitate the writing of the greater part of the general history of Russia, and that, of course, could not be done in this book. We shall, therefore, restrict ourselves to a few remarks only on the most prominent features of the subject. Thus it is well known, that even prior to the Tartar invasion (XIII century) Russia of the Kief period was apparently in the most active relations with both the East and the West. Kief was a town with a flourishing trade and foreigners flocked to it from all parts. The treaties of the Grand dukes Oleg and Igor with the Greeks (X century) have descended to us as undoubtable proofs of the fact. Vladimir, subsequently canonized, was visited by envoys from Germany, Byzantium and the Caliphate with the purpose of inducing him to embrace their faith, and Anna, the daughter of Yaroslaf the Wise, married the French King Henry I (io48). Russia's martial fame had spread far and wide, and Oleg, gaining a famous victory over the Greeks, even nailed his shield to the gates of Constantinople (907).
Such was the state of things in the south, in Kief; Novgorod,  the northern centre of trade and commerce,.
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