"Where did the Russian land come from?" - from this question, asked by the first Russian chronicler, the acquisition of history began in our country. According to the "Tale of Bygone Years", the Slavic tribes living in Priilmenye and on the shores of Ladoga suffered from civil strife. To end the conflicts, they decided to invite the whole world to reign from the outside - Rurik. With a small retinue, he arrived on boats from the other side of the sea. Many researchers believe that Russian storytellers called Lake Ladoga that sea. And they met the Varangians, most likely, where the Volkhov River flows into Ladoga.
The first
This event is traditionally considered the beginning of Russian statehood, which has not been interrupted since then. The Volkhov Bank in those years was not a densely populated land, and the fate of the future great state was predetermined by the community, in which there were not even a thousand people …
According to the chronicles, Rurik began to reign in Novgorod. However, archaeological evidence rather indicates that the first capital of the principality was the current Staraya Ladoga. Rurik's brothers, Sineus and Truvor, according to the chronicler, began to reign, respectively, in Beloozero and Izborsk, but soon died. The warlike Rurik united a significant territory under his rule and became the founder of a dynasty of the first rulers of our state. Warrior, adventurer, statesman, he became the first collector of the Russian land.
The discussion about the origin of our first prince, about the tribal roots of the Varangian leader Rurik continues to this day. This dispute is insoluble, because in the "genes" of the original Rus there are Slavic, Norman, Baltic, and even Finnish lines. And among the Varangians one could find both a Scandinavian and a Slav …
Blood and water
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But where did it come from and what does the concept of "Rus" mean, which determined the fate of our country? There are many versions, here are just a few of them. Some scholars argue that the name came from the Ros river, which flows into the Dnieper near Kiev. At first, the name "Ros" (Rus) was given to the inhabitants living on its banks, and then it was entrenched in the rest of the Slavic tribes. This version was promoted by the outstanding historian of the XX century Boris Rybakov.
The 19th century historian S. Gedeonov has his own "linguistic" theory: our ancestors lived mainly near water, near rivers and lakes, which were transport arteries, reliable communication routes. And this is not surprising: only along the rivers it was possible to move, since all around were dense forests, swamps, off-road. River, ru-ch, rus-lo (rivers and streams), ru-kav (channel in the river). Who lives in the water? Mermaid. This "river" root became the basis, and people living along the rivers were called Rus.
S. Gedeonov put forward another version, which was supported by prominent historians - Georgy Vernadsky and Valentin Sedov. There was such an Iranian-speaking tribe - the Roksolans (Ros-Alans), which means "light" or "royal". These are the ancestors of modern Ossetians and, according to Gedeonov, our ancestors, since there is a lot of Scythian-Sarmatian-Alanian blood in Russian blood. For more than 1000 years they lived in the south of Russia and, of course, did not go anywhere, but gradually assimilated, dissolved in the Slavs, starting with the Antsky Union. No wonder there are so many Iranian influences in Slavic paganism, and in the Russian language too. The same Kiy, the legendary founder of Kiev, bore a Scythian name, the Rosalans passed on the name to the descendants of the Slavs, and we became dews (Rus).
People from the bay
There is a version that the Rus are a Norman tribe. Researchers refer to a quote from the Vertinsky annals, which tells how Byzantine ambassadors come to the court of the Frankish emperor, and with them some Rus: they asked to let them go home through the possessions of the Frankish emperor. The emperor's men recognized them as Svei (Normans) and took them for scouts.
And here the question arises: who are the Normans and how do they differ from the Slavs?
The so-called Scandinavian countries are located in the northwest of Europe: Norway, Sweden and Denmark. Their inhabitants in the Middle Ages were called Normans, or Vikings. Literally, a Norman is a northern man. These tribes lived much to the north of the Greeks and Romans, who told the world about them in their annals. The Normans spoke Old Norse, which formed around the 8th century and lasted until the 14th century. They called themselves "Vikings" - this word is firmly entrenched in history. And it comes from the ancient Norwegian "man from the bay". The life and glory of the Vikings is truly inextricably linked with sea travel.
Already in the VIII century, a united and strong state existed in Uplanda (future Sweden), which, due to its location, became the center of colonial and commercial expansion. The natural direction for trade relations for the Normans was the southeast and east of the Baltic Sea and the river network of its basin. Balts and Slavs lived there …
The way of life of the Normans in those years is primarily predatory attacks, piracy and long military campaigns, as well as merchant trade trips, closely intertwined with piracy and robbery. The Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Saxons and Bavarians recalled with horror the raids of the Vikings - invincible and surprisingly hardy savages who were not afraid of pain or cold, from childhood they were brought up in extremely harsh conditions, therefore they were a threat to more civilized peoples. True, the Norman troops were relatively small in number (100-200 people) and did not strive to create empires.
Thanks to Jutland amber, the Norman tribes living on the territory of modern Denmark, early established trade contacts with the Celtic and Mediterranean world. The Normans have learned to superbly craft ships - both river and sea. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote in the 1st century that the Normans “in addition to warriors and weapons … are also strong in the navy. Their ships are notable for the fact that they can approach the berth with either of their extremities, since both have the shape of a nose. " And one more feature of the Normans was noted by Tacitus: “They tend to respect power or one-man command. The king (leader) commands without any restrictions."
Ancient trail
Archaeological data indicate that along the entire route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" and "from the Varangians to the Arabs" in the most ancient Russian cities (Staraya Ladoga, Novgorod, Izborsk, Smolensk, Rostov, Murom), 5-10% of the population were Normans and Finns, living next to the Slavs. Researchers have found in these settlements many weapons, household items and religious rituals characteristic of the Normans, for example, Thor's hammers, a symbol of the Norman deity.
Persian and Greek chroniclers testify to the Normans as people who have neither land nor a permanent home, living on ships, engaged in plunder and trade. At first, the chroniclers did not mix the Slavs and the Normans. But over time, they merged into a single concept, into a single people - Russia.
There is a deep meaning in this story. Even in the initial times, Russia was a fusion of different nationalities. They worked together, built cities together, defended their land together, and traveled to distant countries, opening new trade routes. And time has shown that this alloy of tribes turned out to be durable.
Nestor's theory
There is another well-known version: at the request of the Slavs, the Varangians came to our land, who were called Rus, or Varyagorians. "As other Varangians are nicknamed Svei, Urmane, Goths, Anglyans." The chronicler distinguishes the Varyagorians from the Swedes, Normans, the British and the inhabitants of the island of Jutland, which is located in the Baltic Sea. And the tribesmen of Rurik lived on the southern coast of the Baltic and on the island of Rügen (the Slavic name is Ruyan, he is also the island of Buyan from Russian fairy tales) and they came from the Western Slavs. They came in 862 to their former colony (trading post) Ladoga, founded by them back in 753 and becoming a rich trading city over 100 years, to guard against other robbers, the Varangians. And they came at the request of the local townspeople. Rurik guarded, guarded and seized power over the fortress and the tribe. Thus,the name Rus was passed on to the local population and spread to the entire state of the Rurikovichs. This is approximately how our first chronicler, the legendary author of The Tale of Bygone Years, monk Nestor expounds this plot.
Magazine: All the mysteries of the world №22. Author: Gennady Zhigarev, Arseny Zamostyanov