The treaty thus made with the emperor, and which is preserved in full in the Russian annals, shows that the Russians were no longer savages, but that they had so far emerged from that gloomy state as to be able to appreciate the sacredness of law, the claims of honor and the authority of treaties.  It is observable that no signatures are attached to this treaty but those of the Norman princes, which indicates that the original Sclavonic race were in subjection as the vassals of the Normans.  Oleg appears to have placed in posts of authority only his own countrymen.

Oleg now, as old age was advancing, passed many years in quietude.  Surrounded by an invincible army, and with renown which pervaded the most distant regions, no tribes ventured to disturb his repose.  His distance from southern Europe protected him from annoyance from the powerful nations which were forming there.  His latter years seem to have been devoted to the arts of peace, for he secured to an unusual degree the love, as well as the admiration, of his subjects.  Ancient annalists record that all Russia moaned and wept when he died.  He is regarded, as more prominently than any other man, the founder of the Russian empire.  He united, though by treachery and blood, the northern and southern kingdoms under one monarch.  He then, by conquest, extended his empire over vast realms of barbarians, bringing them all under the simple yet effective government of feudal lords.  He consolidated this empire, and by sagacious measures, encouraging arts and commerce, he led his barbarous people onward in the paths of civilization.  He gave Russia a name and renown, so that it assumed a position among the nations of the globe, notwithstanding its remote position amidst the wilds of the North.  His usurpation, history can not condemn.  In those days any man had the right to govern who had the genius of command.  Genius was the only legitimacy.  But he was an assassin, and can never be washed clean from that crime.  He died after a reign of thirty-three years, and was buried, with all the displays of pomp which that dark age could furnish, upon one of the mountains in the vicinity of Kief, which mountain for many generations was called the Tomb of Oleg.

Igor now assumed the reins of government.  He had lived in Kief a quiet, almost an effeminate life, with his beautiful bride Olga.  A very powerful tribe, the Drevolians, which had been rather restive, even under the rigorous sway of Oleg, thought this a favorable opportunity to regain their independence.  They raised the standard of revolt.  Igor crushed the insurrection with energy which astonished all who knew him, and which spread his fame far and wide through all the wilds of Russia, as a monarch thoroughly capable of maintaining his command.