According to the widespread version, the foundations of the state in Russia were laid by the Varangian squad of Rurik, called by the Slavic tribes to reign. However, Norman theory has always had many opponents.
History of the issue
It is believed that the Norman theory was formulated in the 18th century by a German scientist at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Gottlieb Bayer. However, a century earlier, it was first voiced by the Swedish historian Peter Petrei. In the future, many major Russian historians adhered to this theory, starting with Nikolai Karamzin.
The most convincing and complete Norman theory was set forth by the Danish linguist and historian Wilhelm Thomsen in his work "The Beginning of the Russian State" (1891), after which the Scandinavian origins of Russian statehood were considered factually proven.
In the first years of Soviet power, the Norman theory took root in the wake of the growth of ideas of internationalism, but the war with Nazi Germany turned the vector of the theory of the origin of the Russian state from Normanism to the Slavic concept.
A moderate Norman theory prevails today, to which Soviet historiography returned in the 1960s. It recognizes the limited nature of the influence of the Varangian dynasty on the emergence of the Old Russian state and focuses on the role of the peoples living southeast of the Baltic Sea.
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Two ethnonyms
The key terms used by the "Normanists" are "Varangians" and "Rus". They are found in many chronicle sources, including the "Tale of Bygone Years":
"And they said to themselves [the Chud, Slovenian and Krivichi]:" Let us look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us by right "And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia."
The word "rus" for supporters of the Norman version is etymologically related to the Finnish term "ruotsi", which traditionally denoted the Scandinavians. So, the linguist Georgy Khaburgaev writes that from "Ruotsi" the name "Rus" can be formed purely philologically.
Philologists-Normanists do not pass by other Scandinavian words similar in sound - "rods" (Swedish for "rowers") and "Roslagen" (the name of the Swedish province). In the Slavic vowel, in their opinion, the "Rods" could well have turned into "Rus".
However, there are other opinions as well. For example, the historian Georgy Vernadsky disputed the Scandinavian etymology of the word "rus", insisting that it comes from the word "rukhs" - the name of one of the Sarmatian-Alanian tribes, which is known as "roxolans".
"Varyagov" (Old Scan. "Væringjar") "Normanists" also identified with the Scandinavian peoples, focusing on the social, then on the professional status of the word. According to Byzantine sources, the Varangians are, first of all, hired soldiers without exact localization of their place of residence and specific ethnicity.
Sigismund Herberstein, in his Notes on Muscovy (1549), was one of the first to draw a parallel between the word "Varangian" and the name of the tribe of the Baltic Slavs - "Vargs", which, in his opinion, had a common language, customs and faith with the Russians. Mikhail Lomonosov argued that the Varangians "consisted of different tribes and languages."
Chronicle evidence
One of the main sources that brought to us the idea of "calling the Varangians to reign" is the Tale of Bygone Years. But not all researchers are inclined to unconditionally trust the events described in it.
So, the historian Dmitry Ilovaisky established that the Legend of the vocation of the Varangians was a later insertion into the Tale.
Moreover, being a collection of different chronicles, "The Tale of Bygone Years" offers us three different references to the Varangians, and two versions of the origin of Russia.
In the "Novgorod Chronicle", which has absorbed the "Primary Code", which preceded the Tale, at the end of the 11th century, there is no longer a comparison of the Varangians with the Scandinavians. The chronicler points to Rurik's participation in the laying of Novgorod, and then explains that "the essence of the people of Novgorod from the Varangian clan."
In the "Joachim Chronicle" compiled by Vasily Tatishchev, new information appears, in particular, about the origin of Rurik. In it, the founder of the Russian state turned out to be the son of an unnamed Varangian prince and Umila, the daughter of the Slavic elder Gostomysl.
Linguistic evidence
It has now been precisely established that a number of words of the Old Russian language are of Scandinavian origin. These are both terms of trade and marine vocabulary, and words that are found in everyday life - anchor, banner, whip, pood, sneak, Varangian, tiun (princely manager). A number of names have also passed from Old Norse to Russian - Gleb, Olga, Rogneda, Igor.
An important argument in defense of the Norman theory is the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus "On the Administration of the Empire" (949), which gives the names of the Dnieper rapids in Slavic and "Russian" languages.
Each "Russian" name has a Scandinavian etymology: for example, "Varuforos" ("Big Creek") clearly echoes the Old Icelandic "Barufors".
Opponents of the Norman theory, although they agree with the presence of Scandinavian words in the Russian language, note their insignificant number.
Archaeological evidence
Numerous archaeological excavations carried out in Staraya Ladoga, Gnezdovo, at the Rurik settlement, as well as in other places in northeastern Russia, indicate traces of the presence of Scandinavians there.
In 2008, at the Zemlyanoy settlement of Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists discovered objects depicting a falling falcon, which later became the coat of arms of the Rurikovichs.
Interestingly, a similar image of a falcon was minted on the coins of the Danish king Anlaf Gutfritson, dating back to the middle of the 10th century.
It is known that in 992 the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described in detail the burial ceremony of a noble Rus with the burning of a boat and the erection of a mound. Russian archaeologists have discovered this type of grave near Ladoga and in Gnezdovo. It is assumed that this method of burial was adopted from immigrants from Sweden and spread all the way to the territories of the future Kievan Rus.
However, the historian Artemy Artsikhovsky noted that, despite the Scandinavian objects in the funerary monuments of North-Eastern Russia, burials were made not according to the Scandinavian, but according to the local rite.
Alternative view
Following the Norman theory, Vasily Tatishchev and Mikhail Lomonosov formulated another theory - about the Slavic origin of Russian statehood. In particular, Lomonosov believed that the state on the territory of Russia existed long before the call of the Varangians - in the form of tribal alliances of the northern and southern Slavs.
Scientists build their hypothesis on another fragment of the "Tale of Bygone Years": "from the Varangians they called themselves Rus, and before there were Slavs; although they were called glades, the speech was Slavic. " The Arab geographer Ibn Khordadbeh wrote about this, noting that the Rus are a Slavic people.
The Slavic theory was developed by historians of the 19th century Stepan Gedeonov and Dmitry Ilovaisky.
The first ranked the Russians among the Baltic Slavs - encouraging, and the second emphasized their southern origin, starting from the ethnonym "fair-haired".
The Rus and the Slavs were identified by the historian and archaeologist Boris Rybakov, placing the ancient Slavic state in the forest-steppe of the Middle Dnieper region.
The continuation of the criticism of Normanism was the theory of the "Russian Khaganate", put forward by a number of researchers. But if Anatoly Novoseltsev was inclined to the northern location of the kaganate, then Valentin Sedov insisted that the state of the Russians was located between the Dnieper and the Don. According to this hypothesis, the ethnonym "rus" appeared long before Rurik and has Iranian roots.
What genetics says
Genetics could answer the question about the ethnicity of the founders of the Old Russian state. Such studies have been carried out, but they have generated a lot of controversy.
In 2007, "Newsweek" published the results of studies of the genome of the living representatives of the house of Rurikovich. It was noted there that the results of DNA analyzes of Shakhovsky, Gagarin and Lobanov-Rostovsky (the Monomashich family) rather indicate the Scandinavian origin of the dynasty. Boris Malyarchuk, head of the genetics laboratory at the Institute for Biological Problems of the North, notes that such a haplotype is often present in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Anatoly Klyosov, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Moscow and Harvard Universities, disagrees with such conclusions, noting that "there are no Swedish haplotypes." He defines belonging to Rurikovich by two haplogroups - R1a and N1c1. The common ancestor of the carriers of these haplogroups, according to Klenov's research, could indeed live in the 9th century, but its Scandinavian origin is being questioned.
"Rurik are either carriers of haplogroup R1a, Slavs, or carriers of the South Baltic, Slavic branch of haplogroup N1c1," the scientist concludes.
Elena Melnikova, a professor at the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is trying to reconcile two polar opinions, arguing that even before the arrival of Rurik, the Scandinavians integrated well into the Slavic community. According to the scientist, the analysis of DNA samples from Scandinavian burials, of which there are many in the north of Russia, can clarify the situation.