After Kiev

The period of time after the break-up of the Kievan state, as the Russian population generally shifted to the northeast, has often been called, "appanage Russia." This is because of the political de-centralization that characterized the time and because the system of granting out lands -- which then became inheritable--that developed within the royal families to allow the support of younger sons and relatives vaguely resembled the feudal system of Western Europe, especially what occurred in medieval France. In this course, we are not going to really address the question of whether or not Russia ever really experienced a "feudal" period, but let's just say that many of the socio-politico-economic practices extant in Russia through the Middle Ages could be viewed within the broad dimensions of the feudal experience.
See the very nice website of the Троице-Сергиева Лавра (The Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Sergei in Sergiev Posad northeast of Moscow, founded in the fourteenth century).