Based on the systematization and analysis of materials of funerary monuments of the 9th-13th centuries, topical issues of the history of Kievan Rus are considered: socio-economic development, spiritual culture, ethnic composition of the population. Particular attention is paid to the reconstruction of the ways of nationalization of the South Russian territory, the main directions of the spread of Christianity and the opposition of pagan beliefs to it, as well as the mechanisms for the formation and specifics of ethnic formations in the Middle Ages on the lands of modern Ukraine.