The name of Rurik was borne by the first Russian prince known to history. Biographical information about him in the chronicles is rather scarce.
The oldest chronicles (Lavrentievskaya and Ipatievskaya) first mention Rurik in the story for 862 about the uprising of the northern tribes, conquered by the Varangians and subjected to tribute, against their enslavers - an uprising that ended in the expulsion of the Varangians. The liberated tribes began to govern themselves, but "there was no truth in them," "kind to clan stood up, and there was strife in them." Then they decided to look for a prince for themselves - and “went across the sea to the Varangians-Rus; for those Varangians were called Rus, as others are called Swedes (Swedes), Urmans (Normans), Angles (Englishmen), Goths. The Russians said Chud, Slavs (Ilmen) and krivichi and all: our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it; Come reign and rule over us." The Novgorod chronicle gives a story about the expulsion of the Varangians and the embassy to them, along with other news of 854, with an indefinite addition that these events occurred during the reign in Kyiv Kiya, Cheek and Khoriva. The Novgorod First Chronicle also lacks an explanation of the tribal name of the Varangians - Rus.
Overseas guests (Varangians). Artist Nicholas Roerich, 1901
In response to the offer of an embassy sent to the Varangians (calling the Varangians), three brothers from the Varangian tribe Rus - Rurik, Sineus and Truvor - set off with their relatives. Chronicles speak differently about the place where these Varangian princes arrived, and about where Rurik, the eldest of them, stopped. The Ipatiev Chronicle and some lists of the Lavrentiev Chronicle tell that Rurik founded the city of Ladoga and sat down to reign there, while Sineus established himself in Beloozero, and Truvor in Izborsk. "And from those Varangians-Rus received the name Russian land." However, according to the Trinity List of the Laurentian Chronicle, Rurik sat down to reign in Novgorod. The Novgorod First Chronicle tells that all three brothers first came to Novgorod with a strong retinue. Those vaults that believe that Rurik first settled in Ladoga tell: two years later, both of his brothers died, and he, going to Lake Ilmen, cut down a city over the Volkhov River, calling it Novgorod.
Early chronicles give very little information about the later life and work of Rurik. It is only known that Rurik distributed volosts and cities (Polotsk, Rostov, Beloozero, Murom) to his warriors. Two of his "husbands" - Askold and Dir with their own detachments moved, with the consent of Rurik, to Kyiv, and from there to Tsargrad (Constantinople). Rurik had a son, Igor, who was still very small in the year of his death (879). For this reason, Rurik instructed to conduct princely affairs, before Igor grows up, to his relative (nephew?) Oleg.
Arrival of Rurik in Ladoga. Artist V. Vasnetsov
These meager data about Rurik are supplemented by later chronicles with new details. According to the Gustynskaya and Resurrection chronicles, the advice to send for a wise husband to the Prussian land was given to the Novgorodians by the elder Gostomysl. They went to the Prussian land, found there Prince Rurik, who allegedly descended from the family of the Roman emperor Augustus, and begged him to go reign to them. The origin of Rurik from Octavian Augustus is the basis of a number of ancient princely genealogies. According to the Nikon Chronicle, the Ilmen Slavs (Novgorodians), Merya and Krivichi did not immediately send for the prince to the Varangians. At first they thought to elect him from among their own or to call him from the Khazars, glades, from the Danube. When the messengers came to the Varangians, at first they did not want to go to reign to them, “being afraid of their bestial customs and disposition,” but then Rurik and his two brothers nevertheless agreed to this. Two years after Rurik sat in Novgorod (6372 according to the old calendar, 864 according to the new), the Novgorodians who called him rebelled and, having suffered a lot from him, began to say that they did not want to continue to be slaves of the Varangians. Rurik, according to the same Nikon chronicle, brutally cracked down on the disaffected, killing their leader Vadim and many of his supporters. Tranquility did not return even after the death of the childless Sineus and Truvor. According to the Nikon chronicle, in 867 many Novgorodians fled from Rurik to Kyiv.
Prince Rurik at the Millennium of Russia monument in Veliky Novgorod
Some later chronicles (for example, Voskresensky) say that Rurik was not peaceful towards his neighbors either. Having barely established himself in Novgorod, he "began to fight everywhere." In one late chronicle collection there is a story about Rurik sending the governor Valet in 866 to conquer Karelia, and Rurik himself allegedly died 13 years later in this war. According to most chronicles, Rurik died in 879, but one of the lists (Yermolinsky) dates his death ten years earlier.
The legend of the chronicle about the first Russian princes and about Rurik gave rise in Russian historical science to the so-called "Varangian" question. The controversy surrounding it continues to this day. There are many theories that explain the beginning of the "Russian Land" in different ways, but none of them has so far completely prevailed over the others.
They say, "scratch a Russian - you will find a Tatar." With the same confidence we can say: "scratch a Russian - you will find a Varangian."
Scratch the Viking...
Vikings are not a nationality, but a vocation. "People from the bay" - this is how this warlike word is translated from the Old Norse language - brought a lot of trouble to the civilized world at the turn of the second millennium. Sea nomads kept Europe at bay - from the British Isles to Sicily. In Russia, in many ways, thanks to the Vikings, statehood appeared.
Among the Vikings, the Scandinavians-Germans prevailed. Notoriety about them went from the Caspian to the Mediterranean Sea. In addition, the Pomor Slavs and the Curonian Balts were Vikings, who kept the entire Baltic in tension in the 8th-9th centuries.
According to the Roewer genetic laboratory, published in 2008, up to 18% of Russians are descendants of people from Northern Europe. These are the owners of haplogroup I1, common for Norway and Sweden, but atypical for Russia. "Descendants of the Vikings" are found not only in the northern, but also in the southern cities.
In Russia, the Scandinavians were known as Varangians, Russ and kolbyagov. At that time, in the West, only the name was in use. Normans -"northern people"
Russ
According to one hypothesis, the Rus were a Swedish tribe. The Finns still remember this and call them ruotsi, and the Estonians rootsi. Ruothi call themselves the Swedish Sami. Komi and the eastern Finno-Ugric tribes already call the Russians themselves - rot's, roots. This word in both Finnish and European languages \u200b\u200bgoes back to the designation of red or red.
We say "Rus", we mean "Swedes". In this form, they are mentioned in the documents of Byzantium and European states. "Russian names" in documents and treaties of the 9th-10th centuries turned out to be Scandinavian. The customs and appearance of the Rus were described in detail by Arab historians and are suspiciously similar to the lifestyle and appearance of the Swedish Vikings.
For the “people from the bay”, the Russian lands did not offer wide scope for sea voyages. And yet the wealth of the Eastern worlds attracted the most adventurous. The settlements of the Rus spread along the main waterways - the Volga, the Dnieper, the Western Dvina and Ladoga.
Ladoga is the first Scandinavian city in Russia. Legends mention it as the Aldeigyuborg fortress. It was built around 753 and sits opposite a successful trading stronghold of the Slavs. Here the Russians mastered the Arab technology of making money. These were eye beads, the first Russian money for which you could buy a slave or a slave.
The main occupations of the Rus were the slave trade, robbery of local tribes and attacks on merchants. A century after the founding of Ladoga, the tricks of the Rus were learned in the Arab Caliphate and Europe. The Khazars were the first to complain. The raids of the Russians harmed their traditional craft - with the help of extortions and duties, they "skim the cream" from trade between the west and the east. In the 9th century, the Rus were the most hated tribe. They overcame the Byzantines on the Black Sea and threatened to make a "desert storm" against the Arabs.
Varangians
The Varangians are mentioned in Russian chronicles, first of all, not as a people, but as a military class of "overseas" origin. Under the name "Varangi" (or "Veringi") they served Byzantium and helped protect its borders from the raids of their own tribesmen - the Rus.
"The Calling of the Varangians" is a vivid example of effective management. The overseas prince no longer served the interests of clans, tribes and clans, pursuing an independent policy. Chud, Slovene, Krivichi and the whole were able to “pause” constant strife and occupy the Vikings with affairs of national importance.
The Varangians adopted Christianity when it had not yet become mainstream in Russia. Pectoral crosses accompanied the burials of warriors as early as the 9th century. If we understand the "baptism of Russia" literally, then it happened a century earlier - in 867. After another unsuccessful campaign against Constantinople, the Russians, having changed tactics, decided to atone for their sins and sent an embassy to Byzantium in order to be baptized. Where these Russ ended up later is unknown, but half a century later Helg visited the Romans, who, by misunderstanding, turned out to be a pagan.
Gardar and Biarmland
In the Scandinavian sagas, Russia was called Garar, literally - "fence", the outskirts of the world of people, behind which monsters were located. The place is not the most attractive, for an amateur. According to another version, this word denoted "guards" - the fortified bases of the Vikings in Russia. In later texts (XIV century), the name was reinterpreted as Garariki- "a country of cities", which more reflected reality.
The cities of Gardariki according to the sagas were: Surnes, Palteschia, Holmgard, Kenugard, Rostof, Surdalar, Moramar. Without the gift of providence, one can recognize in them the cities of Ancient Russia familiar to us: Smolensk (or Chernigov), Polotsk, Novgorod, Kyiv, Rostov, Murom. Smolensk and Chernigov can argue for the name "Syurnes" quite legally: not far from both cities, archaeologists have found the largest Scandinavian settlements.
Arab writers knew a lot about the Rus. They mentioned their main cities - Arsu, Cuiaba and Salau. Unfortunately, poetic Arabic does not convey the names well. If Cuiaba can be translated as "Kyiv", and Salau as the legendary city of "Slovensk", then nothing can be said about Arsa at all. In Ars, all foreigners were killed and nothing was reported about their trade. Some see Rostov, Rusa or Ryazan in Ars, but the mystery is far from being solved.
A dark history with Biarmia, which Scandinavian legends placed in the northeast. Finnish tribes and mysterious Biarms lived there. They spoke a language similar to Finnish, and mysteriously disappeared in the 13th century, by the time the Novgorodians came to these lands. These lands, according to the descriptions, resemble Russian Pomorie. The Scandinavians left few traces here: in the vicinity of Arkhangelsk they found only weapons and decorations of the 10th-12th centuries.
First princes
Historians trust chronicles, but they do not believe and they like to find fault with words. Confuses the "blank spot" in the evidence of the first Varangian princes. The texts say that Oleg reigned in Novgorod and took tribute from him, which is a contradiction. This gave rise to a version of the "first capital" of Russia near Smolensk, where there was the largest Scandinavian settlement. At the same time, Ukrainian scientists are adding fuel to the fire. They claim to have found the grave of a "Varangian prince" near Chernigov.
According to the documents, the names of the first Russian princes sounded differently than in The Tale of Bygone Years. If there is almost no news about Rurik, then Igor “according to his passport” was Inger, Oleg and Olga were Helg and Helga, and Svyatoslav was Sfendoslav. The Scandinavians were the first princes of Kyiv - Askold and Dir. The names of the princes of Turov and Polotsk - Tur, Rogneda and Rogvolod - are also attributed to Scandinavian roots. In the 11th century, Russian rulers became so “glorified” that Scandinavian princely names were rather a rare exception.
The fate of the Varangians
By X-XII, the state of Rurikovich became very rich, and could simply afford to “buy” the Varangians needed for service. They were left in the city garrisons and squads. Viking attacks on Russian cities would have been pointless. It was easier to get a good salary for the service.
In the cities, ordinary people often did not get along with the Vikings - there were skirmishes. Soon the situation began to get out of control and Yaroslav Vladimirovich had to introduce "concepts" - Russian truth. Thus, the first legal document in the history of Russia appeared.
The Viking Age ends in the 12th century. In Russia, references to the Varangians disappear from the annals by the 13th century, and the Rus are dissolved in the Slavic Russian people.
The appearance of trading cities with suburbs drawn to them violated the former division of the Eastern Slavs into tribes. Trading cities arose where it was more convenient for merchants and industrialists: on a large river, close to the Dnieper, in an area where it was convenient to bring their booty to families and friends of various tribes. And this led to the fact that individual families of various tribes lagged behind their own, united with strangers and got used to such a connection.
By the 11th century, the old tribal names are almost forgotten - Drevlyans, Polyans, Krivichi, Severyans, and the Slavs begin to call themselves by the cities they go to trade: Kievans, Smolnyans, Novgorodians, Polochans ...
The whole country of the Eastern Slavs thus began to disintegrate not into tribal lands, but into urban areas, or volosts. At the head of each was a large city. Small towns located in the volost of a large one were called suburbs and in everything depended on the “great”, ancient cities, the richest and most powerful. Not all the lands of the Slavic tribes simultaneously formed urban volosts. Their emergence happened gradually; while in some parts of the country inhabited by the Slavs large cities appeared and formed volosts around themselves, gathering people for trade interest and profit, in other parts the Slavs continued to live, as before, divided into small communities, near their small towns, "plowing their own fields ". .
The emergence of cities and the formation of urban volosts in the country of the Slavs marked the beginning of the division of the Slavs into townspeople and villagers gili smerds, as farmers were then called. Trade became the main occupation of the former, while the smerds were engaged in forestry and agriculture, delivering, so to speak, the material, the goods that the townspeople traded with foreigners.
It was, of course, very important for a large trading city that as many goods as possible be delivered to its market. Therefore, the inhabitants of cities have long sought to attract the population of their neighborhood with caress and arms, so that it would only bring to their city and bring the fruits of their labors for sale. Not content with the natural gravitation of the district population towards the city, as a place for the sale of goods obtained in the forest and on arable land, the townspeople begin to force the smerds to be forced, to "torture" them to pay a certain tribute or dues to the city, as if in payment for the protection that gives them the city is in a moment of danger, hiding them behind its walls or enclosing them with a sword, and for the benefit that the city provides to the smerds, giving them the opportunity to sell everything that they get in their forest lands.
In order to best protect the main occupation of the inhabitants - trade and crafts, the whole city was arranged as a fortified trading warehouse, and its inhabitants were the savers and defenders of this warehouse camp.
At the head of a large city, and consequently of its entire environs, was a veche, i.e. a gathering of all adult citizens who decided all matters of management. At the veche, they also elected the entire city foreman, “the elders of the city,” as the chronicle calls them. Trade, dividing people into rich and poor, gave the poor to the service of the more affluent or placed them in monetary dependence on them. Therefore, those who were richer, the richest, used the most importance in the city and at the veche. They held the entire meeting in their hands, all the authorities of the city were chosen from among them, they turned around the city affairs as they wished. These were the "city elders", the elders of the city, the richest and most powerful citizens ..
Departing in a trade caravan to distant lands, the merchants of those times equipped themselves as if on a military campaign, formed a whole military partnership-artel, or team, and went on a campaign under the command of a chosen leader, some experienced warrior-merchant., They willingly joined the trade caravan of Slavic merchants large and small parties of northern merchants - warriors of the Varangians, or Normans, who were heading to Byzantium. Military assistance and cooperation of the Varangians became especially important for Slavic cities from the beginning of the 9th century, when the Khazars, unable to cope with the Ugrians, and then with the Pechenegs, had to let them through their possessions to the Black Sea steppes. The steppe dwellers settled along trade routes: along the Dnieper below Kyiv, along the Black Sea coast from the Dnieper mouths to the Danube, and with their attacks made the path “to the Greeks” unsafe.
The Varangians were residents of the Scandinavian region, present-day Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The harsh land forced the Vikings early to look for means of living on the side. First of all, they turned to the sea and engaged in fishing and robbery of the Pomeranians. On light ships, accustomed from childhood to fighting storms and the hardships of naval life, the Varangians boldly flew on the coasts of the Baltic and German Seas.
As early as the 6th century they plundered the shores of Gaul. Charlemagne could not cope with the brave pirates; under his weak descendants, the Normans kept all of Europe in fear and siege. Since the beginning of the 9th century, not a year has passed without Norman campaigns in Europe. On hundreds of ships, rivers flowing into the German Sea and the Atlantic Ocean - the Elbe, the Rhine, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne - the Danes, as the Normans were also called in Europe, made their way into the depths of a particular country, devastating everything around, more than once burned Cologne, Trier, Bordeaux, Paris, penetrated into Burgundy and Auvergne; they knew the way even in Switzerland, they plundered Andalusia, took possession of Sicily, devastated the coasts of Italy and the Peloponnese.
In 911, the Normans took possession of the northwestern part of France and forced the French king to recognize this region of his state as his possession, the duchy; this part of France is still known as Normandy. In 1066 the Norman Duke William conquered England. Separate squads of the Normans took possession of Iceland, and from there penetrated even to the shores of North America.
On light sailing and rowing ships, they climbed into the mouths of large rivers and sailed up as long as possible. In different places they landed on land and brutally robbed the coastal inhabitants. On shallows, rifts, rapids, they pulled their ships ashore and dragged them on dry land until they passed the obstacle. From large rivers they invaded smaller ones and, moving from river to river, climbed far into the interior of the country, everywhere bringing death, fires, and robbery with them. At the mouths of large rivers, they usually occupied islands and “fortified them. These were their winter apartments, they drove captives here, and all the stolen goods were demolished here. In such fortified places, they sometimes settled for many years and plundered the surrounding country, but more often, taking as much as they wanted from the vanquished, they went with fire and sword to another country, pouring blood and destroying everything in their path with fire. There are known cases when one of the Norman gang, who ruled along one river of France, undertook to the Frankish king, for a certain payment, to drive out or kill the compatriots who were robbing along another river, attacked them, robbed and exterminated, or joined with them and went together to rob further . The Normans were much feared in Western Europe, because they moved unusually fast and fought so bravely that it seemed impossible to resist their swift onslaughts. On their way, they spared nothing and no one. In all the churches of Western Europe, then one prayer was raised to God: “Deliver us from the ferocity of the Normans, Lord!”
Mostly the Normans, inhabitants of Denmark and Norway, went to the west. The Normans of Sweden attacked mainly on the coast of the Baltic Sea. Through the mouths of the Western Dvina and the Gulf of Finland they penetrated into the country of the Eastern Slavs, the Neva they sailed to Lake Ladoga and from there the Volkhov and Ilmen reached Novgorod, which they called Golmgard, that is, an island city, perhaps, according to the island that forms Volkhov at the exit from Ilmen-lake. From Novgorod, using the great waterway, the Normans made their way to Kyiv. They knew Polotsk and Ladoga well, and the names of these cities are found in their legends - sagas. Sagas are also mentioned about distant Perm, the Perm region. That the Normans often and in large detachments penetrated into the country of the Slavs is also said by tombstones found in the southeastern provinces of Sweden and belonging to the 10th and 11th centuries. On these monuments, in ancient Norman writing, in runes, there are inscriptions stating that the deceased fell “in the battle in the East”, “in the country of Gardar”, or “in Golmgard”.
Getting to the upper Volga, the Normans went down the river, traded and fought with the Kama Bulgars and reached the Caspian Sea. Apa6cke writers first noted their appearance in the Caspian Sea in 880. In 913, the Normans appeared here in a whole fleet, as if in 500 ships, with a hundred soldiers on each.
According to the testimony of the Arabs, who called the Normans Russ, they were an extremely active, tireless and insanely brave people: they rush in spite of dangers and obstacles to the distant countries of the East and are now peaceful merchants, now bloodthirsty warriors, attack by surprise, with the speed of lightning, rob, kill and take captives away.
Unlike other warlike tribes, the Russians never moved by land - but always by water in boats. They got to the Volga and from the Black or Azov seas, rising along the Don; near the present Kalach, they dragged their ships to the Volga and sailed along the Caspian. “The Russians raid the Slavs,” says the Arab writer Ibn-Dasta, “they drive up to their settlements in boats, land, take the Slavs prisoner and take the captives to the Khazars and Bulgarians and sell them there ... they don’t have arable land, but eat only that that are brought from the land of the Slavs. When a son is born to one of them, the father takes a naked sword, places it in front of the newborn and says: “I will not leave you any property as an inheritance, but you will have only what you yourself will get by this!”
Varangian boat
The Varangians are slender as palm trees; they are red; do not wear jackets or coats; men put on a coarse cloth, which is thrown over from one side, and one hand is released from under it. Each of them always has a sword, knife and ax with him. Their swords are wide, wavy, with blades of Frankish work; on one side of them, from the point to the handle, trees and various figures are depicted "...
Arab writers depict the Normans for us with the same features as European chronicles, i.e. as river and sea warriors who live by what they earn with the sword.
Along the Dnieper, the Normans descended into the Black Sea and attacked Byzantium. “In 865,” the chronicler reports, “the Normans dared to attack Constantinople on 360 ships, but, being able to harm the most invincible city, they bravely fought its suburbs, killed the people as much as they could, and then returned home in triumph ".
The Bishop of Cremona visited Constantinople in 950 and 968. In his account of the Greek Empire, he also mentions the Normans, who not long before him made a major attack on Constantinople. “In the north,” he says, “he lives. the people that the Greeks call Rus, we are the Normans. The king of this people was Inger (Igor), who came to Constantinople with more than a thousand ships.
In the Slavic lands, along the Volkhov and along the Dnieper, the Normans - the Varangians first appeared, so to speak, in passing; here, at first, they stagnated little, and were more directed along the great waterway to the rich southern countries, mainly in Greece, where they not only traded, but also served for a good reward.
With their warlike character and piratical inclinations, the Varangians, as they accumulated more and more in the Slavic cities, of course, began to definitely tend to become masters of the Slavic cities and master the great waterway. The Arab Al-Bekri wrote about the middle of the 10th century that "the tribes of the north took possession of some of the Slavs and still live among them, even learned their language, mixing with them." It was then that the event occurred, which is mentioned by our chronicle before the story of the calling of princes.
“In the summer of 6367 (859), the Imakh paid tribute to the Varangians from overseas on the Chuds and the Slovenes, on the Mary and the Vesakhs and on the Krivichs,” i.e., from the Novgorod Slavs and their closest neighbors, Slavs and Finns. Established, then, at the northern end of the great waterway. At the same time, the Khazars took tribute from the meadows, northerners and Vyatichi, that is, from the inhabitants of the southern end of the waterway.
The Novgorod Slavs could not stand it even two years later, as we read in the chronicle, "they drove the Varangians across the sea and did not give them tribute, more often in themselves Volodya." But then quarrels and strife began in the country because of dominion, and “there was no truth in them and a hundred generations,” we read in the annals, “and there were strife in them and more often they would fight on themselves.” And then everything northern tribes "deciding in themselves: a prince to themselves, who would rule over us and judge by right. And go across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia: the Varangians are called Rus, as friends are called Svei (Swedes), friends are Urmans ( Norwegians), Anglians (British), Druzi Te (Goths), Tacos and Si". Sent from the Slavs, Chuds, Krivichs and Vess, they told the Varangians of Russia: “Our land is great and plentiful, but there is no dress in it; but, despite such a call, “as soon as three brothers from their generations came out of their brothers, they took the whole of Russia with them and came” (862). They were three brother-kings, so the princes were called in Varangian, Rurik, Sineus and Truvor.
The brothers-princes, having arrived in the country, began to “cut down cities and fight everywhere”, that is, they began to defend the Slavs from their enemies, for which they erected fortified towns everywhere and often went on campaigns. The princes settled along the edges of the country: Rurik - in Ladoga, Sineus - on Beloozero, and Truvor - in Izborsk.A little time later, the brothers died.
Norman Rurik decided to move to live in Novgorod. There was even a conspiracy among the Novgorodians with the aim of driving Rurik and his Vikings back across the sea. But Rurik killed the leader of this conspiracy, "brave Vadim", and killed many Novgorodians. This event dramatically changed the mutual relationship between Rurik and the Novgorodians. Novgorodians paid him the agreed tribute. He lived on the border of the Novgorod region, in Ladoga; after the victory over the rebels, Rurik moved to live in Novgorod. Now Novgorod became his military prey. Rurik reigned in Novgorod "strongly", as a conquering prince, demanded tribute as much as he wanted, and many Novgorodians fled from him to the south.
And in the south, in Kyiv, the Varangians also established themselves at that time. As you might think, at the same time as Rurik, many of these newcomers from the north flooded into the Slavic lands. Perhaps, imitating Rurik, they strove to establish themselves more firmly in the Slavic cities. Rogvolod then reigned in Polotsk, and among the tribes that lived along the Pripyat, a principality of a certain Tura, or Tor, was formed.
Our chronicle tells about the occupation of the southern end of the waterway by the Varangians: “Rurik had two husbands, not of his tribe, but of a boyar; and they asked to go to the Tsar-city with their kind. We went along the Dnieper, on the way we saw a town on the mountain and asked: “What is this town e?” They explained that the town was nicknamed Kyiv and paid tribute to the Khazars. Askold and Dir, that was the name of these Rurik boyars, offered the people of Kiev to free them from the Khazars. They agreed , and Askold and Dir remained in Kyiv to reign: "Many Varangians gathered and began to own the Polyan land. Rurik reigned in Novgorod."
In the second half of the 9th century, principalities arose at both ends of the great waterway. The Varangian princes - Rurik in the north, Askold and Dir in the south - are busy building fortresses, protecting the land. Before the arrival of Askold and Dir in Kyiv, the people of Kiev were offended by the Drevlyans and other tribes. Askold and Dir, having established themselves in Kyiv, undertook a fight against the Drevlyans and saved Kyiv from them. When the Greeks offended the Slavic merchants, Askold and Dir raided the Greek land. All this, of course, aroused the sympathy of the population and contributed to the approval of the princes in the cities they occupied.
But both ends of the great waterway were in the hands of different princes. Considerable inconveniences could result from this, and sooner or later a struggle between the northern princes and the southern princes for possession of the great waterway had to flare up.
It was very inconvenient for the northern princes and townspeople that the original end of the great waterway, Kyiv, was not in their hands. Kyiv stood almost on the border of the Slavic lands, and to the south of it the kingdom of the steppe began. Overland routes went through Kyiv from the West to the East and to Tauris. Not a single large tributary flowing through a populated country flows into the Dnieper south of Kyiv. All large rivers flowing through populated areas flow into it north of Kyiv. From Kyiv began a direct road to the sea. K. Kyiv, therefore, along countless rivers and streams, tributaries of the Dnieper itself and tributaries of its tributaries, the wealth of the Slavic lands was fused. The inhabitants of all the cities lying along the northern tributaries of the Dnieper, sending their goods to Byzantium, had to sail past Kyiv. Consequently, whoever owned Kyiv, in his hands was also the main gate of foreign Russian trade of that time, and whoever held in his hands the trade of Slavic cities - their main occupation, he, naturally, owned the entire Slavic country. It was necessary to delay merchant boats from the north near Kyiv, and all the cities from Lyubech to Novgorod and Ladoga suffered huge losses. Thus, the center and crossroads of land and river trade routes, which was Kyiv, naturally had to become the political center of the country, united by the Varangian princes. This significance of Kyiv, as the center of state life, grew out of its significance as the center of national economic life, which was drawn to Kyiv and only from Kyiv had access to the breadth and expanse of international deceit.
Rurik did not have to break through to Kyiv. Rurik's kinsman and successor, Oleg, took possession of Kyiv. From Novgorod, along the beaten path, along the Volkhov, Ilmen and Lovat, he descended to the upper reaches of the Dnieper and captured here, in the country of the Krivichi, the city of Smolensk. He reached Lyubech along the Dnieper and captured this city. Having sailed to Kyiv, he lured Askold and Dir out of the city and killed them, while he himself remained in Kyiv - “the mother of Russian cities”, as he, according to legend, called this city. Having established himself here, Oleg continued the work of Askold and Dir; built new fortress towns around Kyiv to protect the Kyiv region from raids from the steppe, went on campaigns against the Khazars and other neighbors of Kyiv. Having united under his hand the militia of all the Slavic cities occupied by him, Oleg went to Constantinople and, according to legend, nailed his shield on the gates of the great city as a sign of victory over the Greeks.
The princes following Oleg - Igor, his widow Olga, Igor's son Svyatoslav - successfully continued the unification of Slavic cities and regions. Oleg captured the entire country of the Drevlyans, northerners and Radimichi; Igor continued to capture Oleg and took the entire middle Dnieper under his arm; Olga finally "tormented" the Drevlyans, Svyatoslav captured the Vyatichi.
By the middle of the 10th century, most of the Slavic tribes and cities had gathered around Kyiv and the Kyiv prince.
The land of the Kyiv princes occupies a vast space by this time. From north to south, the land subject to them then stretched from Lake Ladoga to the mouths of the Rosi-steppe tributary of the Dnieper, and from east to west, from the confluence of the Klyazma into the Oka to the upper reaches of the Western Bug. All the tribes of the Eastern Slavs and some Finnish tribes lived in this vast region: the Baltic Chud, the entire Belozerskaya, the Rostov Merya, and along the middle Oka and the Murom. Among these tribes, the princes built fortified towns in order to keep foreigners in obedience from the walls of these towns with an armed hand and collect faithful tribute from them.
In old and new cities, the princes imprisoned their governors, "posadniks" Even after Rurik, after "assuming power", "distributed by his husband his cities - Polotesk, Rostov, another Beloozero". Posadniks were supposed to judge people on behalf of the prince , collect tribute in favor of the prince and to feed himself, protect the land, protect it from enemy attacks, and keep the local population in obedience to his prince. and lessons", appointing new tributes and the order of their collection.
Local residents were obliged to bring the next with. tribute to them at certain times in the once for all established locality. It was called a haul. So, “in the summer of 6455 (947), Olga went to Novgorod and set up settlements and tributes according to Meta,” we read in the annals.
The prince usually went to the polyudye in late autumn, when frosts would set in and the impenetrable dirt of the paths would be hardened with ice. The whole winter passed on the road from city to city, from graveyard to graveyard. It was a difficult journey full of dangers. In the dense wild forests there was no "straight road", one had to make his way along the hunting paths covered with snowdrifts, with difficulty making out the "signs and places" with which the hunters indicated the direction of their paths. I had to fight off a wild beast, and the forest dwellers did not always greet the prince and his squad with humility and greetings.
Tribute often had to be “forced out, that is, to take by force, and violence met with an armed rebuff, and not always the prince and his well-armed and fairly numerous squad managed to achieve their goal, especially when the prince allowed any injustice in the collection, he wanted to take more than he or his predecessor ordered.
Rurik's son, Igor, had to pay dearly for his greed for tribute. In 945, when “autumn arrived”, the usual time for polyudya, Igor, as we read in the annals, “began to think in terms of the Drevlyans, although think of a big tribute.” By the way, Igor's squad pointed out to him that there was little tribute, that even Sveneld's servants, Igor's governors, walked more elegantly than the prince's combatants.
“Svenelzha’s children made their weapons and ports, and we are Nazis,” Igor’s warriors complained, “go to the prince with us in tribute, and you will get us too.” Igor listened to his warriors and went to the land of the Drevlyans; collecting tribute from them, he "primyshlyashe to the first tribute", that is, he took more than the established. The warriors also did not lose their own and extorted tribute from the Drevlyans. After collecting the tribute, we went home. Dear Igor, “on reflection, he said to his retinue: go with tribute to the house, and I will return, I look like it again. With a small retinue, Igor returned to the Drevlyans, “wishing more property.” The Drevlyans, having heard about Igor’s return, gathered at a veche and decided: “if a wolf in a sheep wads, then he takes out the whole herd, if they don’t kill him; so this one. If we don’t kill him, then we will all be destroyed.” And Igor was sent to say: “After you go again, you caught all the tribute!” Igor did not listen to the Drevlyans. The Drevlyans attacked the prince and "killed Igor and his squad: there were not enough of them."
The tribute collected at the polyudye and delivered from the churchyards, brought there by tributaries, entered the prince's treasury. Tribute was collected mainly in kind, various forest products, which were mined by the inhabitants of the forests. This tribute, collected in very large quantities, made the prince the richest supplier of forest products to the then international market. The prince was therefore the most important and richest participant in trade with Byzantium, with the European West and the Asian East. In exchange for his goods and slaves, which he captured in the struggle with his closest neighbors, the prince received in Byzantium and in the eastern markets precious metals, lush fabrics, wine, weapons, jewelry, silver, fabrics and weapons from the West.
In pursuit of prey, the prince sought to subjugate the lands of his closest neighbors and imposed tribute on them. Interested in the speedy and safe delivery of his wealth to foreign markets, the prince took care of the protection of the routes, vigilantly watched that the steppe nomads and their robbers did not "clog" trade routes, protected bridges and transportations, arranged new ones. Thus, the prince's trading activities were closely intertwined with the military and both together widely and far spread the power and importance of the Varangian-Slavic prince, who owned Kyiv and the entire great waterway from the Varangians to the Greeks. It was a harsh, full of deprivation and danger, the service of the prince and his own benefits and the benefits of all the land subject to him. About the prince Svyatoslav the chronicler tells that this prince "walks easily like a pardus of war, doing many things. Walking around on his own, he does not carry, neither a boiler, nor cooking meat, but he baked an uncle for a thin piece of horsemeat, beast or beef on coals; not a name tent, but he laid a saddle in his head under the treasure; so did his other howl all the way "... Svyatoslav laid down his head in a battle with the Pechenegs at the rapids of the Dnieper.
Having united the Slavic land under their sword, taking an active part in trade, the main occupation of this country, the Varangian princes, on behalf of the whole land, defend trade interests when they are in danger from foreigners, and, relying on their sword and the combined strength of the tribes subject to them, they are able to special treaties to ensure the benefits of trade and the interests of their merchants in a foreign land.
Noteworthy are the campaigns of the Varangian princes against Byzantium and the treaties they concluded with the Greeks. During the period from the 9th to the 11th centuries, six such large campaigns are known: the campaign of Askold and Dir, the campaign of Oleg, two campaigns of Igor, one of Svyatoslav and one of Vladimir, the son of Yaroslav the Wise. Folk tradition, recorded in the annals, especially remembered Oleg's campaign and embellished it with legendary tales. “In the summer of 907,” we read in the annals, “Oleg went to the Greeks, leaving Igor in Kyiv. He took with him a multitude of Varangians, Slavs, Chuds, Krivichi, Meri, Drevlyans, Radimichi, Polans, Northerners, Vyatichi, Croats, Dulebs and Tivertsy, “all of them,” the chronicler remarks, “should be called Great Skuf from the Greek.”
Oleg went with them all on horseback and on ships; the number of ships reached 2,000. When Oleg approached the Tsar-city, the Greeks blocked access to the capital from the sea, and they themselves took refuge behind the walls. Oleg, having landed on the shore, began to fight; many Greeks were killed, many chambers were destroyed, churches were burned, some of those taken into captivity were cut down, others were tortured, others were shot, others were thrown into the sea, and many other evils were caused by the Russian Greeks, “how much they do armies.” And Oleg ordered his soldiers to make wheels and put ships on them. A fair wind blew the sails from the field, and the ships moved towards the city. Seeing this, the Greeks were frightened and sent to tell Oleg: “Do not destroy the city, we will give you whatever tribute you want.” Oleg stopped his soldiers, and the Greeks brought him food and wine, but Oleg did not accept the treat, “because it was arranged with poison.”
And the Greeks were afraid and said: “This is not Oleg, but Saint Demetrius was sent to us from God.” And Oleg ordered the Greeks to give tribute to 2,000 ships at 12 hryvnia per person, and there were 40 people in the ship. The Greeks agreed to this and began to ask for peace so that Oleg does not fight the Greek land. Oleg, retreating a little from the city, "beginning to create peace with the king of the Greeks with Leon and Alexander, sent Karl, Farlof, Velmud, Rulav and Stemid to them in the city, saying:" imshte we pay tribute." The Greeks asked: "What do you want, ladies?"
And Oleg prescribed his peace conditions to the Greeks, demanding not only a ransom for the soldiers, but also tribute to Russian cities: “the first to Kyiv, also to Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, Polotsk, Rostov, Lyubech and other cities, for those the city of sedyahu the great princes near the Olga exist."
Then the terms of trade of the Slavic-Russian merchants in Byzantium were established. The peace treaty was sealed by a mutual oath. The Greek kings kissed the cross for loyalty to the treaty, and Oleg and his men swore, according to Russian law, their weapons and Perun their god and Hair the cattle god. When the peace was approved, Oleg said: “Sew sails from pavolok (silk) Russ, and for the Slavs, kropinny (thin linen).”
So they did. Oleg hung his shield on the gates, as a sign of victory, and went from Constantinople. Russia raised the sails from the curtains, and the Slavs were the cropped ones, and the wind tore them apart, and the Slavs said: “Let's take up our canvases, the cropped sails are not suitable for the Slavs” ... Oleg came to Kyiv and brought gold, curtains, vegetables, wines and all sorts of ornaments. And Oleg was nicknamed the Prophet, for the people were filthy (pagans) and ignorant."
In 941, Prince Igor attacked the Asia Minor coast of the Black Sea and plundered the entire country because the Greeks offended Russian merchants. But the Greeks gathered enough troops and pushed back Igor's soldiers. Russia retreated to her boats and headed to the sea. But here Igor's ships were met by the Greek fleet; the Greeks “put fire on the Russian boats with trumpets.” It was the famous Greek fire. Almost the entire fleet of Igor died, and a few soldiers returned home to tell “about the former fires”: behold, letting go zhezhagahu us; For this reason we will not overcome them.”
In 944, Igor, wanting to avenge the defeat, "collecting the howl of many" again moved to Byzantium. The Greeks, having learned about this, offered Igor peace and tribute, which Oleg took. Igor's team persuaded the prince to agree, pointing out that it was better to take tribute without a battle, “when someone knows who will prevail, whether we, whether they are with the sea, who advises us not to walk on the ground, but in the depths of the sea; obcha death to all." The prince obeyed the squad, took tribute from the Greeks and concluded a profitable trade agreement with them.
Russia undertook the last campaign against Byzantium in 1043. Prince Yaroslav sent his son Vladimir and governor Vyshata against the Greeks. The Russian boats reached the Danube safely. But when they moved on, there was a storm “and smash the Russian ships and the prince’s ship broke the wind and took the prince into the ship Ivan Tvorimirich, voivode Yaroslavl”; 6,000 Russian soldiers were washed ashore by the storm. These warriors were supposed to return home, but none of the governors wanted to lead them. Then Vyshata said: “I will go with them and sit out of the ship to them and say: If I live with them, if I run away, then with the squad.” The Greeks, having learned that the Russian fleet was defeated by a storm, sent a strong squadron, which forced Vladimir to retreat. The Greeks took Vyshata and his entire detachment prisoner, brought them to Constantinople, and blinded all the captives there.Three years later, they only released the blind governor with the blinded army home.
The military campaigns of the Varangian princes in Byzantium ended with peace treaties. Four treaties between the Russians and the Greeks have come down to us: two treaties of the Olegovs, one of Igorev and one of Svyatoslav.
According to the Olegov agreements of 907 and 911, the Greeks were obliged to:
- 1) pay tribute to each of the older cities
- 2) to give food to those Russians who come to Tsar-grad, and to Russian merchants a monthly allowance, and a free bath was also supposed.
From Russia, the Greeks demanded:
- 1) “for the Russians to stop in the Tsaregrad suburb near the monastery of St. Mammoth,
- 2) that the Russians enter the city only through certain gates and accompanied by a Greek official;
According to the Igor Treaty, the Greeks, who were very afraid of the Russians, achieved some restrictions in their favor. Let Russia come to Constantinople, - say the articles of Igor's treaty, - but if they come without a purchase, then they do not receive a month; may the prince forbid with his word, so that the coming Russia does not do dirty tricks in our villages; no more than fifty people are allowed to enter the city at a time; all those who come to Greece from Russia must have a special letter from the Kyiv prince, truly certifying that the Russians came with "peace"; those who came to trade had no right to stay for the winter and had to go home in the autumn.
The treaties between the Varangian princes and the Greeks are important and interesting in that they are our oldest record of laws and judicial customs; they testify to the leading position that the princes and their Varangian squad occupied in the then society; then treaties are very important in that they retained the features of commercial relations and international relations; further, in them we have the most ancient evidence of the spread of Christianity; finally, the contracts retain the features of everyday meaning when I am described; for example, an oath, or talk about the conditions of the trial of the thieves of someone else's property.
For the same trading purposes, the first princes went to war against the Khazars and the Kama Bulgarians. Trade with these peoples was also significant. In 1006, St. Vladimir, having defeated the Kama Bulgarians, concluded an agreement with them, in which he negotiated for the Russians the right of free passage to Bulgarian cities with seals for certification from their posadniks and allowed Bulgarian merchants to travel to Russia and sell their goods, but only in cities and not in the villages.
With their sword, concern for external security and the organization of the inner world, participation in the main life activity of the country and protection of its trade interests, the Varangian princes quite firmly united the separate Slavic volosts and tribes that were drawn to the Dnieper into one state. This new state got its name from the tribal nickname of the Varangian princes - Rus.
In treaties, as well as in other places in the chronicle, which tells about the time of the first Varangian princes, "Rus" is almost always opposed to the name "Slovenia"; for the chronicler, this is not the same thing.
The very word “Rus” is of mysterious origin. The closest neighbors of the Ilmenian Slovenes and the Krivichi-Baltic Finns called the Normans ruotsi. From them, one might think, the Slavs began to call the Norman finders Rus. When the Varangian kings established themselves in the Slavic cities, the Slavs called the squad of princes Rus; Since the time of Oleg, the Varangian princes established themselves in Kiev and from here they kept the whole land, Kyiv region, the former land of the glades, began to be called Rus.
Describing the resettlement of the Slavs, the chronicler notes: “so the Slovene language (people) spread like that, and the letter was nicknamed Slovene with the same.” doubts, he says: “But the Slovene language and Russian are one, from the Varangians they are more nicknamed Rus, and the first Besha Slovene.”
Armament of the Varangian combatants
But there was “a time when they knew how to distinguish between both languages. The difference between them was still very noticeable in the X century. Both in the annals and in other monuments of our ancient writing, Slavic names alternate with "Russian" and differ, like words of a language alien to one another. Notes the Slavic and Russian names of the Dnieper rapids in his description of Russian trade and Konstantin Porphyrogenitus. Among the names of the first princes and their combatants there are about 90 names of Scandinavian origin; Rurik, Sineus, Truvor, Askold, Dir, Oleg, Igor, Olga - these are all Scandinavian, i.e. Varangian or Norman names: Hroerekr, Signiutr, Torwardt, Hoskuldr, Dyri, Helgi, Ingvar, Helga.
The princes themselves and their squad that came with them quickly became glorified. The Arab writer Ibrahim calls the "people of the north", that is, the Normans, Russes, distinguishes them from the Slavs, but at the same time notices that these "people of the north", who have taken possession of the Slavic country, "speak Slavic, because they have mixed with them ". The grandson of Rurik, Svyatoslav - a true Varangian in all his actions and habits, bears a pure Slavic name.
The Varangians who came to the country of the Eastern Slavs, one might say, melted in the Slavic sea, merged into one tribe with the Slavs, among whom they settled, and disappeared, leaving behind insignificant traces in the language of the Slavs. So, the following words were preserved from the Varangians in the Slavic-Russian language: grid (junior warrior), whip, chest, shop, banner, banner, yabednik (judicial official), tiun (butler from serfs), anchor, luda (cloak), knight (Viking), prince (king) and some others.
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We know who the first princes in Russia were from the writings of the chroniclers - Nestor, who lived at the turn of the 11th-12th centuries, his contemporary Sylvester and the semi-legendary Joachim, whose reality historians cannot assert with all certainty. It is from their pages that the “deeds of bygone years” come to life before us, the memory of which is kept only in the depths of silent steppe mounds and in folk legends.
First prince of ancient Russia
The chronicler Nestor was canonized, therefore, during his lifetime he did not lie, and therefore we will believe everything that he wrote, especially since we have no choice, to be honest. So, in the middle of the 9th century, the Novgorodians, together with the Krivichi, the Chud and the whole, invited three Varangian brothers to rule themselves - Rurik, Sineus and Truvor. The chronicler explains such a strange desire - to voluntarily give himself under the rule of strangers - by the fact that our ancestors lost hope of independently restoring order in their vast lands, and therefore decided to turn to the Varangians for help.
By the way, at all times there were skeptics among historians. In their opinion, the warlike Scandinavians simply seized the Russian lands and began to manage them, and the legend of voluntary vocation was composed only to please the trampled national pride. However, this version has also not been proven and is based only on idle reasoning and conjecture, and therefore, it is not worth talking about it. In the generally accepted view, the first prince of Kievan Rus was an invited guest here.
Reigning on the banks of the Volkhov
Rurik was the first Varangian prince in Russia. He settled in Novgorod in 862. Then his younger brothers began to rule in the estates assigned to them - Sineus on Beloozero, and Truvor in Izborsk. It is curious that Smolensk and Polotsk did not allow foreigners to visit them - either the order in the cities was exemplary without them, or the Vikings simply did not have the strength to break their resistance. Two years later, Sineus and Truvor die at the same time, as they say now, "under unclear circumstances", and their lands join the possessions of their elder brother Rurik. This became the basis for the subsequent creation of the Russian monarchy.
The chroniclers mentioned above attribute another important event to this period. Two Varangian princes, Askold and Dir, accompanied by a retinue, went on a campaign against Constantinople, but before reaching the Byzantine capital, they captured the small Dnieper city of Kyiv, which later became the capital of Ancient Russia. The campaign they conceived in Byzantium did not bring glory, but as the first Kyiv princes Askold and Dir forever entered our history. And although Rurik was the first Varangian prince in Russia, they also played an important role in the formation of the state.
Treacherous capture of Kyiv
When in 879, after fifteen years of sole reign, Rurik died, he left his young son Igor as the heir to the princely throne, and until he came of age appointed his relative Oleg, the one whom descendants would call the Prophet, the ruler. The new ruler from the first days showed himself to be a man of power, warlike and devoid of excessive morality. Oleg conquers Smolensk and Lyubech, everywhere covering up his actions in the name of the young prince Igor, in whose interests he allegedly acts. Having begun the conquest of the Dnieper lands, he seized Kyiv by cunning and, having killed Askold and Dir, became its ruler. It is to him that the chroniclers attribute the words that Kyiv is the mother of Russian cities.
Conqueror and conqueror of the lands
At the end of the 9th century, Russian lands were still very scattered, and significant territories inhabited by foreigners stretched between Novgorod and Kyiv. Oleg, with his large retinue, conquered many peoples who until then had retained their independence. These were the Ilmen Slavs, the tribes of Chud, Vesi, Drevlyans and many other inhabitants of the forests and steppes. Having united them under his rule, he gathered the lands of Novgorod and Kyiv into a single powerful state.
His campaigns put an end to the dominance of the Khazar Khaganate, which had controlled the southern territories for many years. Oleg became famous for his successful campaign against Byzantium, during which, as a sign of victory, he nailed his famous shield to the gates of Constantinople, sung by both Pushkin and Vysotsky. He returned home with rich booty. The prince died at a ripe old age, satiated with life and glory. Whether the snake biting him, crawling out of a horse's skull, was the cause of death, or is it just fiction - it is not known, but the prince's life itself was brighter and more amazing than any legend.
Mass influx of Scandinavians to Russia
As can be seen from the above, the first princes in Russia, immigrants from the Scandinavian peoples, saw their main task in conquering new lands and creating a single state capable of resisting those numerous enemies who continuously encroached on its integrity.
During these years, seeing the success of their fellow tribesmen in Russia, Scandinavians rushed to the Novgorod and Kyiv lands in large numbers, wanting to snatch their piece, but, finding themselves among a large and resilient people, they inevitably assimilated in it and soon became part of it. The activities of the first princes of Russia, of course, relied on their support, but over time, foreigners gave way to the indigenous people.
Igor's reign
With the death of Oleg, his successor appeared on the historical stage, the son of Rurik, who had matured by that time, the young prince Igor. All his life he tried to achieve the same fame that Oleg got, but fate was not favorable to him. Having undertaken two campaigns against Byzantium, Igor became famous not so much for his military success as for his incredible cruelty towards the civilians of the countries through which his army was moving.
However, he did not return home empty-handed, bringing abundant booty from campaigns. His actions against the steppe robbers-Pechenegs, whom he managed to drive away to Bessarabia, were also successful. By nature, ambitious and ambitious, the prince ended his life very ingloriously. Once again collecting tribute from the Drevlyans subject to him, with his indefatigable greed, he brought them to the extreme, and they, having rebelled and interrupted the squad, betrayed him to a fierce death. His actions expressed the whole policy of the first princes of Russia - the search for fame and fortune at any cost. Not burdened by any moral norms, they considered all paths leading to the achievement of the goal acceptable.
Princess, canonized saints
After the death of Igor, power passed to his widow, Princess Olga, whom the prince married in 903. Starting her reign, she brutally dealt with the Drevlyans - the murderers of her husband, sparing neither the elderly nor the children. The princess went on a campaign with her young son Svyatoslav, wanting to accustom him to swearing from an early age.
According to most historians, Olga - as a ruler - deserves praise, and this is due primarily to wise decisions and good deeds. This woman managed to adequately represent Russia in the world. Her special merit is that she was the first to bring the light of Orthodoxy to the Russian land. For this, the church canonized her as a saint. While still a pagan, in 957 she led an embassy to Byzantium. Olga understood that outside of Christianity it was impossible to strengthen the prestige of the state and the ruling dynasty.
Newly Baptized Servant of God Elena
The sacrament of Baptism was performed over her in the church of St. Sophia personally by the patriarch, and the emperor himself acted as a godfather. The princess came out of the holy font with the new name Elena. Unfortunately, having returned to Kyiv, she could not persuade her son Svyatoslav to accept the Christian faith, like all the first princes in Russia, who worshiped Perun. Remained in the darkness of paganism and all boundless Russia, which was to be enlightened by the rays of true faith to her grandson, the future prince of Kyiv Vladimir.
Prince-conqueror Svyatoslav
Princess Olga died in 969 and was buried according to Christian custom. A characteristic feature of her reign was that she limited her activities only to the concerns of state government, leaving the male princes to wage wars and assert her power with the sword. Even Svyatoslav, having matured and received all the princely powers, busy with campaigns, boldly left the state in the care of his mother.
Having inherited power from his mother, Prince Svyatoslav devoted himself entirely to military campaigns, wishing to revive the glory of Russia, which shone so brightly in the time of Prince Oleg. By the way, he was almost the first to follow the laws of knightly honor. The prince, for example, considered it unworthy to attack the enemy by surprise, and it was he who owns the famous phrase "I'm coming at you!"
Possessing an iron will, a clear mind and a talent for generalship, Svyatoslav managed to annex many lands to Russia during the years of his reign, significantly expanding its territories. Like all the first princes in Russia, he was a conqueror, one of those who conquered a sixth of the land for the future Russian state with his sword.
The struggle for power and the victory of Prince Vladimir
The death of Svyatoslav was the beginning of a struggle for power between his three sons - Yaropolk, Oleg and Vladimir, each of whom, having his own rightful inheritance, sought to seize the brothers' territories by deceit and force. After several years of mutual enmity and intrigue, Vladimir won, becoming the sole and full ruler.
He, like his father, showed outstanding military leadership skills, subduing the rebellions of the peoples subject to him and conquering new ones. However, the main merit that truly immortalized his name was the Baptism of Russia, which took place in 988 and put the young state on a par with European countries, which long before that accepted the light of the Christian faith.
The end of the life of the holy prince
But at the end of his life, the Baptist of Russia was destined to go through many bitter moments. The passion for lust for power ate away the soul of his son Yaroslav, who ruled in Novgorod, and he revolted against his own father. To pacify him, Vladimir was forced to send a squad under the command of his other son Boris to the rebellious city. This inflicted severe psychological trauma on the prince, from which he could not recover and died on July 15, 1015.
For his services to the state and the Russian Orthodox Church, Prince Vladimir entered the history of our country with the addition of the epithet Great or Holy to his name. A special proof of the people's love for this outstanding man is the trace that he left in the folk epic, which mentioned him in epics about Ilya Muromets, Dobryn Novgorodsky and many other Russian heroes.
Ancient Russia: the first princes
This is how the formation of Russia took place, rising from the darkness of paganism and eventually becoming a powerful power, one of the legislators of European politics. But since Russia, during the reign of the first princes, stood out from among other peoples, asserting its superiority over them, it had a long and difficult path ahead, which included the process of evolution of state power. It continued throughout the entire period of Russian autocracy.
The concept of "the first Russian prince in Russia" can be considered very conditional. The whole family of the Rurik princes, which originated from the legendary Varangian, who came to the banks of the Volkhov in 862, and ended with the death of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich, carries Scandinavian blood, and it is hardly fair to call its members purely Russian. Numerous specific princes, who were not directly related to this dynasty, also mostly have either Tatar or Western European roots.
But who is the first prince of all Russia, we can say with some accuracy. It is known from the annals that for the first time the title, which emphasized that its owner was not just the Grand Duke, but the ruler of "all Russia", was awarded to Mikhail Yaroslavovich of Tverskoy, who ruled at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. The first Moscow prince of all Russia is also authentically known. It was Ivan Kalita. The same title was worn by his followers, up to the first Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible. The main line of their foreign policy was the expansion of the borders of the Russian state and the annexation of new lands to it. The internal policy was reduced to the all-round strengthening of the centralized princely power.
The question of who was the first prince of Varangian origin remains relevant today. The Tale of Bygone Years, written by a famous chronicler, can serve as an answer.
According to the data of the historical monument, a military leader named Rurik, together with his younger brothers, volunteered to rule the numerous eastern tribes of the Slavs around 862.
Varangians in historiography were credited with Danish, Swedish and even Scandinavian roots. The chronicler, classifying Rurik among the Varangians, had in mind the territories south of the Baltic Sea, bordering on the regions of Angeln and Holstein.
Today it is a region in northern Germany, Mecklenburg, whose peoples in ancient times were not German in origin. To whom they were related can be judged by the following names - Russov, Varin, etc.
The version about Rurik's belonging to Swedish roots, which is especially popular among European researchers, is polemical. However, such a hypothesis is political in nature and has no scientific justification.
This concept received a new round of development during the Livonian War between Russia and Sweden. According to Ivan IV, Johan III did not belong to blue blood. In response, the foreign ruler appealed to the aforementioned version of the origin of the ancient Russian princely dynasty from Swedish roots.
This concept received its final approval at the beginning of the seventeenth century with another attempt by the Swedes to claim their rights to the lands of Novgorod, then they again relied on the data of the historical monument, indicating the Varangian origin of Rurik.
The idea was expressed that supposedly the peoples inhabiting these territories should send messengers to Sweden, as was the case many centuries ago. The term "Varangians" in those days meant everyone who crossed the Baltic Sea. These lands were associated in most cases with the state of Johan III.
"Norman Theory"
In the first half of the 18th century, this scientific research was transformed into the "Norman theory".
Academics from St. Petersburg of German blood, trying to ratify the semblance of certain stereotypes, recognized the Varangians, who led the East Slavic tribes, to be of German origin.
Originally from Sweden, they, of course, were positioned as "foreigners", that is, according to the ideas of that historical period - like Germans. Thus, a well-known theory was entrenched in science.
Origins of anti-Norman theory
Naturally, such a scientific justification caused controversy in Russian science. In particular, Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov did not find any historical realities corresponding to the "Norman theory".
In his opinion, representatives of the Swedish nationalities were not able to organize any signs of statehood in Russia, since they themselves had no idea about this form of public education. Also, no Scandinavian reflections were observed in the history of the Russian language and culture.
After repeatedly reading the Tale, it becomes obvious that the chronicler clearly differentiated such ethnic definitions as the Varangians, Swedes, Normans, Angles and other Goths.
As a result, when concluding various kinds of agreements with the future Constantinople, the squad of ancient Russian princes, whose Varangian origin, according to the Normans, goes back to Swedish, glorified and honored Perun and Veles, and not the Scandinavian Odin and Thor at all.
Varangian origin of Rurik in folk legends
There are a number of other versions and concepts, in most cases untested and existing at the level of legends and tales.
So, a traveler from France, K. Marmier, connected the Varangian roots of Rurik and his bloodline Sineus and Truvor with King Godlav.
Three brothers who crossed the Baltic Sea were called to the east and laid the foundation for a well-known state with the cities of Pskov and Novgorod. Undoubtedly, this legend is not much different from the generally accepted "Norman theory".
Old Russian chronicles and German sources about the first prince
This historical concept is not recognized as reliable by the Germans themselves, but it is impossible to completely deny the continuity between the brief information about the first prince in the historical work of Nestor and the records in German sources.
A lawyer from Mecklenburg, Johann von Chemnitz, appealed to a historical legend, according to which the first Russian prince was a descendant of the aforementioned ruler Godlav, who died in the war with the Danes in 808. It is logical to think that Rurik was born no later than 806, because. He had two more junior bloodlines.
According to German historical materials, the Varangians were called up from the South Baltic lands in 840. From this we can conclude that in ancient Russia already experienced, experienced princes appeared.
The same facts are evidenced by the discovery of Rurik's settlement, which was located in close proximity to modern Novgorod, and was the historical center of the state, and also took place already before 862.
Allowing themselves some chronological inaccuracies, the authors of the German sources more accurately determine the place of arrival than the Russians. Most likely, it was not Novgorod (as assumed in the above-mentioned historical documents), but Ladoga, founded by the Varangians in the middle of the 8th century, that was meant.
As such, Novgorod, that is, Rurik’s settlement, the ancient Russian prince united later, including the territories that belonged to the dead brothers. This demonstrates the naming of the city.
Genealogical tree of the ancestor of the Russian princely dynasty
Mecklenburg researchers attributed to the family tree of the Varangian prince kinship with King Witslav, the main military ally of the leader of the Franks, Charlemagne in the fight against the Saxons.
Rurik's family ties also go back to the legendary elder of the Ilmenian Slavs, Gostomysl, as evidenced by North German genealogies and historical documents, in which the latter is mentioned as an enemy of Louis the German.
Reasons for the migration of the Varangians to the east
The following logical question arises: what are the reasons behind the migration of the prince of the Varangian with his brothers to the east? In fact, the whole problem lay in the traditional system of inheritance, which was later adopted by ancient Russia.
All rights to the throne passed only to the eldest representative of the glorious family. At the same time, all the younger offspring were left with nothing. As a result of such a priority queue for the elders, Rurik and his brothers had no choice but to leave the South Baltic coast and follow east.
Thus, it is very difficult to imagine the first Varangian prince as a foreign ruler, whom everyone who positions the history of Russia under foreign domination wants to see.
To date, there are many medieval myths about the German roots of the Grand Duke, supported by European pseudo-researchers and analysts.
But there are even more historical facts about the real ruler Rurik, who was born in the famous and influential dynasty in the Russian Baltic states 1200 years ago.
