The efforts of Kievan ruler Olga to bring Christianity to Russia are resisted by her son Sviatoslav, grand prince of Kiev from 945, who, after coming of age around 963, had begun a series of bold military expeditions, leaving his mother to manage the internal affairs of the Kievan state.

Sviatoslav is the son of Grand Prince Igor, who was himself probably the grandson of Rurik, prince of Novgorod.

Virtually nothing is known about his childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod.

Sviatoslav's father, Igor, had been killed by the Drevlyans around 942.

The Russian Primary Chronicle says that Sviatoslav “sent messengers to the other lands announcing his intention to attack them.” Shortly after his accession to the throne, Sviatoslav had begun campaigning to expand the Rus' control over the Volga valley and the Pontic steppe region.

Between 963 and 965, he has attacked the Ossetes and Circassians in the northern Caucasus; …