The medieval Russian worldview was based on ideas dating back to the Book of Genesis about the post-Flood division of the world among the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth (Gen. 10), which Rus’ adopted through Byzantine literature, particularly the ninth-century chronicle of George the Monk. The author of the Russian Primary Chronicle (Tale of Bygone Years), written in the 1110s, links this division (attributing it not to Noah’s grandsons but to his sons) to the cardinal directions: “To the lot of Shem fell the Orient. … To the lot of Ham fell the southern region. … To the lot of Japheth fell the northern and the western sections” (Cross & Sherbowitz-Wetzor, 1953: 51). He assigned Southern and Western Asia (excluding Asia Minor) to the East, North Africa and most of Asia Minor to the South, and Europe, the Caucasus, and the northeastern part of Asia Minor (Greater Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Galatia) to the North and West. The Slavs are identified as descendants of Japheth: “the Slavic race is derived from the line of Japheth, since they are the Noricians, who are identical with the Slavs” (Cross & Sherbowitz-Wetzor, 1953: 52). Thus, from the very beginning, the Russian Orthodox tradition associated Russians with Western and Northern “civilization,” rather than with the Eastern or Southern ones.