The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians, the traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they were Vikings of Scandinavian origin, who ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According to the Primary Chronicle, a Varangian from Rus' people, named Rurik, was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882, his successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev, which had been previously paying tribute to the Khazars. Oleg, Rurik's son Igor and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule, destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.

In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe. The reigns of Vladimir the Great (980–1015) and his son Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054) constitute the Golden Age of Kiev, which saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium and the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the Russkaya Pravda.

In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, caused a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north, particularly to the area known as Zalesye.

In June 1991, Boris Yeltsin became the first directly elected president in Russian history when he was elected President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, which became the independent Russian Federation in December of that year. The economic and political collapse of the USSR led to a deep and prolonged depression, characterised by a 50% decline in both GDP and industrial output between 1990 and 1995, although some of the recorded declines may have been a result of an upward bias in Soviet-era economic data. During and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, wide-ranging reforms including privatization and market and trade liberalization were undertaken, including radical changes along the lines of "shock therapy" as recommended by the United States and the International Monetary Fund.

The privatization largely shifted control of enterprises from state agencies to individuals with inside connections in the government. Many of the newly rich moved billions in cash and assets outside of the country in an enormous capital flight. The depression of the economy led to the collapse of social services; the birth rate plummeted while the death rate skyrocketed. Millions plunged into poverty, from a level of 1.5% in the late Soviet era to 39–49% by mid-1993. The 1990s saw extreme corruption and lawlessness, the rise of criminal gangs and violent crime.

In late 1993, tensions between Yeltsin and the Russian parliament culminated in a constitutional crisis which ended after military force. Yeltsin found himself increasingly in conflict with the parliament, which resisted his policies, and on 21 September, he signed a decree dissolving the parliament and setting elections for a new bicameral legislature, overstepping his authority. Legislators barricaded themselves in the parliament building and voted to impeach Yeltsin. Clashes between anti-Yeltsin protesters and police broke out and armed demonstrators stormed the Moscow mayoral office and Ostankino Tower leading to Yeltsin to declare a state of emergency and to deploy the army on 4 October to attack the parliament building, where tanks fired rounds at the parliament building. The resistance leaders were then arrested and Yeltsin prevailed. During the crisis, Yeltsin was backed by Western governments and over 100 people were killed. In December, a constitutional referendum was held and approved which introduced a new constitution, giving the president enormous powers. Political scientist Hans-Henning Schröder argued that the day the new constitution was voted in was "the birthdate of a 'guided democracy' in Russia".

The 1990s were plagued by armed conflicts in the North Caucasus, both local ethnic skirmishes and separatist Islamist insurrections. From the time Chechen separatists declared independence in the early 1990s, an intermittent guerrilla war has been fought between the rebel groups and the Russian military. Terrorist attacks against civilians carried out by separatists, most notably the Moscow theater hostage crisis and Beslan school siege, caused hundreds of deaths and drew worldwide attention.

Russia took up the responsibility for settling the USSR's external debts, even though its population made up just half of the population of the USSR at the time of its dissolution. In 1992, most consumer price controls were eliminated, causing extreme inflation and significantly devaluing the Ruble. With a devalued Ruble, the Russian government struggled to pay back its debts to internal debtors, as well as international institutions like the International Monetary Fund. Despite significant attempts at economic restructuring, Russia's debt outpaced GDP growth. High budget deficits coupled with increasing capital flight and inability to pay back debts caused the 1998 Russian financial crisis and resulted in a further GDP decline.

On 31 December 1999, President Yeltsin unexpectedly resigned, handing the post to the recently appointed Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin. Yeltsin left office widely unpopular, with an approval rating as low as 2% by some estimates. Putin then won the 2000 presidential election and suppressed the Chechen insurgency although sporadic violence still occurs throughout the Northern Caucasus. High oil prices and the initially weak currency followed by increasing domestic demand, consumption, and investments helped the economy grow at an average of 7% per year from 1998 to 2008, improving the standard of living and increasing Russia's influence on the world stage. Putin went on to win a second presidential term in 2004. Following the world economic crisis of 2008 and a subsequent drop in oil prices, Russia's economy stagnated and poverty again started to rise until 2017 when, after the prolonged recession, Russia's economy began to grow again, supported by stronger global growth, higher oil prices, and solid macro fundamentals. While many reforms made during the Putin presidency have been generally criticised by Western nations as undemocratic, Putin's leadership over the return of order, stability, and progress has won him widespread admiration in Russia.

On 2 March 2008, Dmitry Medvedev was elected President of Russia while Putin became Prime Minister. The Constitution of Russia prohibited Putin from serving a third consecutive presidential term. Putin returned to the presidency following the 2012 presidential elections, and Medvedev was appointed Prime Minister. This quick succession in leadership change was coined "tandemocracy" by outside media. Some critics claimed that the leadership change was superficial, and that Putin remained as the decision making force in the Russian government, while other political analysts viewed it as truly tandem. Alleged fraud in the 2011 parliamentary elections and Putin's return to the presidency in 2012 sparked mass protests.

In 2014, after President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine fled as a result of a revolution, Putin requested and received authorization from the Russian parliament to deploy Russian troops to Ukraine, leading to the takeover of Crimea. Following a Crimean referendum in which separation was favoured by a large majority of voters, the Russian leadership announced the accession of Crimea into the Russian Federation, though this and the referendum that preceded it were not accepted internationally. The annexation of Crimea led to sanctions by Western countries, in which the Russian government responded with its own against a number of countries.

In September 2015, Russia started military intervention in the Syrian Civil War in support of the Syrian government, consisting of air strikes against militant groups of the Islamic State, al-Nusra Front (al-Qaeda in the Levant), the Army of Conquest and other rebel groups.

In 2018, Putin was elected for a fourth presidential term overall. In January 2020, substantial amendments to the Constitution of Russia were proposed and took effect in July following a national vote, allowing Putin to run for two more six-year presidential terms after his current term ends. The vote was originally scheduled for April, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. As of November 2020, over 2 million cases were confirmed.