How Kievan Rus was and how it split up into Several Different States.

During the Kievan Rus each Prince used a slightly different version of the emblem.

The state was centered on modern Kyiv in modern Ukraine, but also included Great Novgorod from modern Russia. Because of that both Russia and Ukraine claim to be rightful successor to this state, while ridiculing the other's claim to the same. Ukraine even uses a version of Tryzub of Vladimir the Great as its Coat of Arms to further emphasize this claim.

Kievan Rus was mostly running trading between Constantinople and the Baltic Sea. To that end their used rivers in the area. Valdai hills and Seliger Late is the source of reivers that flow to both Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. To Black Sea they used Dnipro that flows through Kyiv, Smolensk and some areas in Belarus. To the Baltic Sea they used Lovat River, the Ilmen Lake, then Ladoga Lake and Neva River. Along this path they build a number of outposts to rest, resupply and store things. These outposts later grew into modern cities.

Some Kievan Rus rulers such as Vladimir the Great had many male children. Only the eldest could inherit the Kyiv itself and rule there, so the youngest went to explore various areas around the rivers to find some suitable place to found their own cities and principalities. The more successful of these ended up founding their own principalities and dynasties: Chernigov, Pereslavl, Halych, Volyn and Podolia in modern Ukraine. Polotsk in modern Belarus. Ryazan and Rostov-Vladimir-Suzdal-Moscow in modern Russia. One such young princeling went northeast and eventually founded Rostov on Lake Nero in modern Yaroslavl oblast in Russia. From that town and that branch of Rurikids eventually grew a dynasty that ruled in Moscow and renamed itself Russia.