The article deals with initial stages of the emergence of ancient Russian statehood. The author supposes that the consolidation of Slavonic tribes in Eastern Europe in IX – X AD resulted in early statehood formation, which is defined by sources as 'Russian Land'. This term was applied till the middle of XII century as a designation of a state formation in Middle Dnepr, which emerged in the late X century. The author singles out general steps of the development of the Middle Dnepr statehood and draws a con-clusion that due to a series of objective historical reasons the 'Russian Land' stopped existing in the late 1130-s – early 1140-s as a whole political unit. It had disintegrated into Kiev, Chernigov, and Pereyaslavl princedom lands.