Volodymyr was the son of Prince Sviatoslav I of Kyiv of the Rurik dynasty. After the death of his father in 972, Volodymyr moved to Scandinavia from Novgorod as his brother Yaropolk had murdered his other brothers in order to gain the power in Kyiv. In Sweden and Norway he gathered a Varangian army and took Novgorod from his brother Yaropolk. By 980, Volodymyr had consolidated the Kyiv kingdom from modern-day Ukraine, Belarus and minor parts of modern day Russia.