Vladimir-Suzdal in the context of "Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia"

The Grand Principality of Moscow, or Muscovy, known as the Principality of Moscow before 1389, was a late medieval Russian monarchy. Its capital was the city of Moscow. Originally established as an appanage principality in the 13th century, the grand principality was transformed into a centralized Russian state in the late 15th century.

Moscow became a separate principality when Daniel (r. 1263–1303), the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, received the city and surrounding area as an appanage. By the end of the 13th century, Moscow had become one of the leading principalities within the Vladimir grand principality, alongside Tver. A struggle between the princes of Moscow and Tver began after Mikhail of Tver became grand prince in 1304. Yury (r. 1303–1325) contested the title and was later made grand prince in 1318 by the khan of the Golden Horde, who held suzerainty over the princes. However, Yury would lose the title four years later.

The Mongol Empire invaded and conquered much of the Kievan Rus' in the mid-13th century, sacking numerous cities such as Ryazan, Yaroslavl, Pereyaslavl and Vladimir, including the largest: Kiev (50,000 inhabitants) and Chernigov (30,000 inhabitants). The siege of Kiev in 1240 by the Mongols is generally held to mark the end of the state of Kievan Rus', which had already been undergoing fragmentation. Many other principalities and urban centres in the northwest and southwest escaped complete destruction or suffered little to no damage from the Mongol invasion, including Galicia–Volhynia, Pskov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Vitebsk, and probably Rostov and Uglich.

The Mongol campaign was heralded by the Battle of the Kalka River on 31 May 1223, which resulted in a Mongol victory over the forces of several principalities as well as the remnants of the Cumans under Köten. The Mongols retreated, having gathered their intelligence, which was the purpose of the reconnaissance-in-force. A full-scale invasion by Batu Khan followed, with most of Kievan Rus' overrun in 1236–1238. The Mongols captured Kiev in 1240 and moved west into Hungary and Poland. The heavy losses suffered by the Mongols during the invasion period significantly weakened subsequent campaigns, preventing the ruin of the Holy Roman Empire and more western countries.

The word Rus' or Rus referred initially to a group of Scandinavian Vikings, also known as Varangians, who founded the medieval state of Kievan Rus' in Eastern Europe in the 10th century. The term gradually acquired the meaning of the aforementioned dynastic polity itself, and also the geographic region of its heartlands Kiev, Pereiaslavl' and Chernihiv. Russia is a Hellenized rendering of the same word, and Ruthenia is its Latinized form.

Following the decline of Kievan Rus' in the 12th century, its territory fragmented into multiple polities. The northeastern principality of Vladimir-Suzdal played a crucial role in the eventual rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, which, by the 14th to 16th centuries, had consolidated power over most of northeastern Rus'. The name Russia began to appear in official documents during this time, alongside the older term Rus'. By the 15th century, Muscovite rulers adopted the title "Grand Prince of all Rus'," signaling their claim over the legacy of Kievan Rus'. The term Russia gradually replaced Rus', and by the 16th century, under Ivan IV, the state officially became the Tsardom of Russia. Despite this, the term Muscovy persisted in Europe, especially in Latin Catholic regions, but Russia was increasingly recognized across Northern Europe and the courts of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Prince of Vladimir, from the 1186 Grand Prince of Vladimir (Russian: Великий князь Владимирский), also translated as Grand Duke of Vladimir, was the title of the monarch of Vladimir-Suzdal. The title was passed to the prince of Moscow in 1389.

A palladium or palladion (plural palladia) is an image or other object of great antiquity on which the safety of a city or nation is said to depend. The word is a generalization from the name of the original Trojan Palladium, a wooden statue (xoanon) of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy. It was supposedly later taken to the future site of Rome by Aeneas, where it remained until perhaps transferred to Constantinople and was lost after the Empire converted to Christianity.

In English, since around 1600, the word "palladium" has been used figuratively to mean anything believed to provide protection or safety, and in particular in Christian contexts a sacred relic or icon believed to have a protective role in military contexts for a whole city, people or nation. Such beliefs first become prominent in the Eastern Churches in the period after the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, and later spread to the Western church. Palladia were processed around the walls of besieged cities and sometimes carried into battle. In this more offensive role they may also be referred to as "vexilla" (singular vexillum, Latin for "battle standard").

The Grand Prince of Moscow (Russian: великий князь Московский, romanized: velikiy knyaz Moskovskiy), known as the Prince of Moscow until 1389, was the ruler of the Grand Principality of Moscow. The Moscow principality was initially established in the 13th century as an appanage within the Vladimir-Suzdal grand principality. By the late 14th century, the grand principality became a family possession of the princes of Moscow; the monarch bore the title of grand prince of Vladimir and Moscow and later the title of grand prince of Vladimir, Moscow and all Russia.