Russian Coats of Arms in the 13th - 15th Centuries

The article is dedicated to earlier mentions of Russian coats of arms in foreign and Russian sources treated historicaly and systematically. Such sources, both Russian and foreign, at the time state that Russian land was thought of as a single country from its Hungarian and Polish borders to the upper Volga, inhabiatat by a single nation (rus') but subject to various or several rulers. Thus such rulers were percieved as Russian princes by Eastern Europeans and Russians themselves and their coats of arms appeared in foreign sources, often by mistake, as the arms of Russian land and the rus'. However concentration of power over Russian land by great princes and tsars of Rus' and then Russia, resided in Moscow and later in Saint-Petersbourgh, resulted in fixation of their arms - the two-headed eagle - as the arms of all Russia. Other coat of arms, that appeared in 14th - 15th centuries, became regional Russian arms.