<P> In the absence of a good map, locations will be given as approximately so many kilometers directly south of Moscow, and then so many kilometers east or west of that line . Thus, Kiev is about 600 south and 500 west, while Perekop at the head of the Crimean peninsula is 1100s and 250w . For contrast, France is not quite 1,000 kilometers from north to south and Moscow is about 1,000 kilometers south of the White Sea . Since these numbers are estimates, they should not be cited or copied . </P> <P> The Eurasian Steppe first appears in written history about 600 BC with the founding of Greek colonies along the north coast of the Black Sea . These cities traded Greek goods for Scythian grain . The Scythians were replaced as a ruling group by the Sarmatians, Goths, Avars, Petchenegs, Cumans and Khazars . At some point the dominant language changed from the Iranian language of the Scythians to Kipchak Turkic . About 860 A.D. Vikings entered what is now Russia and established trade routes to Persia and Byzantium . They adopted the local language and formed a state (Kievan Rus) which gradually broke up into a set of linked principalities . Around 1240 the whole area was conquered by the Mongols . Much of the Slavic population was driven north and west into the forested lands where they were relatively safe from Mongol raiding . As the Mongol Empire broke up, its western part became the Golden Horde with its capital on the lower Volga . These people adopted Islam about 1315 . By 1500, the Golden Horde was in the process of breaking up . </P> <P> The steppe nomads lived on the steppe north of the Black and Caspian Seas and raided north into the forest - steppe . It was their constant raiding that kept the southern lands free of peasants . With the end of the Great Horde in 1502 they were organized as the independent Nogais north of the Caspian and those north of the Black Sea who were more or less subjects of the Crimean Khan . </P> <P> The Cossacks: The Slavs who lived on the frontier became known as Cossacks . By about 1500 they had formed two military polities: the Ukrainian Zaparozhian Sich on the Dnieper bend and the Russian Don Cossacks on the Don River bend . There is a good reason why these two communities were so far from the settled lands . Many of the Cossacks on the upper Don had recently left the settled lands and were still in reach of the Russian government . Most of those on the lower Don had been on the steppe for generations, knew no other way of life and were out of reach of the government . The same applies to the Zaporozhians in respect to Poland . </P>

When did russia expand to the pacific ocean