Rota system

The rota (or rotation) system or the lestvitsa system (from the Old Church Slavonic word for "ladder" or "staircase") was a system of collateral succession practiced (though imperfectly) in Kievan Rus', later appanages, and early the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In this system, the throne passed not linearly from father to son (agnatic primogeniture), but laterally from brother to brother (usually to the fourth brother) and then to the eldest son of the eldest brother who had held the throne. The system was rationalised by Yaroslav the Wise, who assigned each of his sons a principality based on seniority, though it predates his reign and was also used among the Norse of Great Britain and Ireland.

Scholars have debated the nature and existence of the rota system, with some claiming that no formal system of succession existed in the Kievian Rus'. No sources from the period describe such a system.