Varangian prince. Prince Rurik - the first prince

Arrange in chronological order the reigns of the first ancient Russian princes

Capital of the Old Russian state

Use the map to assign tribes to territories.

Specify an extra word

Eastern Slavs did not grow

It does not apply to the agricultural systems of the Eastern Slavs ..

The main occupation of the Eastern Slavs

Eastern Slavs settled Eastern Europe in ..

Balto-Slavic tribes separated from the Indo-European community

A people that does not belong to the Indo-Europeans.

B) the Germans;

B) Celts

D) Slavs

A) 6000 years ago

B) 4000 years ago

B) 2000 years ago

D) 1000 years ago

3. The Slavs separated from the Balts in ...

A) III - V centuries.

B) VI - IX centuries.

C) VIII - X centuries.

D) VIII - X centuries.

5. The people who created the Old Russian state ...

B) the Germans

B) Eastern Slavs

A) farming

B) cattle breeding

D) ore mining

A) slash and fire

B) shifting

B) irrigation

A) buckwheat

B) olives

B) Mokosh

D) Stribog

A) Vyatichi 1) Middle Dnieper

B) Northerners 2) Upper Oka

B) Radimichi 3) Desna

D) Drevlyans 4) Upper Dnieper

Tasks in a test form for the topic "Old Russian State"

1. Prince, who is considered the founder of the ruling dynasty of ancient Russian princes:

B) Askold

2. Varangian princes ruled in the East Slavic lands:

A) as a result of the conquest

B) by invitation

B) by inheritance

3. The main state centers of the Eastern Slavs do not include:

A) Novgorod

B) Smolensk

4. The formation of a single Old Russian state took place in:

5. The main reason for the formation of a single Old Russian state:

A) the need to resolve conflicts between the rich and the poor

B) protection of the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" and control over it

C) organization of construction of dams and canals.

A) Moscow

B) Novgorod

7. Christianity in Russia was introduced by the prince:

A) Svyatoslav

B) Vladimir

B) Ivan Kalita

8. The baptism of Russia took place in:

9. Russia adopted Christianity:

A) according to the Western European model

B) according to the Byzantine model.

A) Igor D) Oleg

B) Vladimir D) Olga

C) Rurik E) Svyatoslav

Tasks in a test form for the topic “Kievan Rus. The first Russian princes"

Choose one correct answer:

1. Year of formation of the Old Russian state:

A) Vladimir

D) Svyatoslav;

3. Kievan Rus existed for about 250 years, its collapse occurred in ...

B) 1120 g;
C) 1132

4. Name the formational stage of development of Kievan Rus:

A) Primitive communal;

B) slaveholding;

B) feudal

D) capitalist;

D) socialist.

5. The basis of public relations in Kievan Rus was ....

A) patrimony;

B) Manufactory;

B) Oprichnina.

6. Large owners paid for the use of land ...

C) feudal rent.

7. The first collection of laws of Kievan Rus was called ...

A) Sudebnik;

B) Russian Truth;

B) chronicle.

8. The compiler of the first collection of laws was ....

A) Yaroslav the Wise;

B) Vladimir Monomakh;

C) Yuri Dolgoruky.

9. Lessons are...

A) Certain places of tribute collection;

B) A fixed amount of tribute.

10 It was this prince who baptized Rus in 988…

B) Svyatoslav;

B) Vladimir.

Tasks in a test form for the topic "Feudal fragmentation of Russia"

Choose one correct answer:

1. The congress in Lyubech in 1097 recognized ....

A) Independence of princely patrimonial possessions;

B) Unification of the principalities into a single Russian state;

C) The beginning of the war with nomadic tribes.

2. The victory over the Polovtsy brought this prince to supreme power in 1113:

A) Yaroslav the Wise;

B) Vladimir Monomakh;

C) Yuri Dolgoruky.

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. The main occupation of the first became trade, 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 force them, to "torture" them to pay a certain tribute or dues to the city, as if in payment for the protection that it gives them. the city is in a moment of danger, hiding them behind its walls or fencing 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 wealthier or made them dependent on them for money. 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 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 into 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, they 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 cases when one of some Norman gangs, who ruled along one river of France, undertook to the Frankish king, for a certain fee, to drive out or kill the compatriots who were robbing along another river, attacked them, robbed and exterminated, or united with them and went together to rob further . The Normans were very 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, 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, but 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 fought on themselves.” And then everything northern tribes "deciding for 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 Russia, 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. They went along the Dnieper, on the way they saw a town on the mountain and asked: “What is this town e?” They explained that the town is nicknamed Kyiv and pays 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 Rosisteppe tributary of the Dnieper, and from east to west, from the confluence of the Klyazma into the Oka to the upper course 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 dangers, the service of the prince and his own benefits and the benefits of all the land subject to him. 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 a yadyash 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 crop, and the wind tore them apart, and the Slavs said: “Let's take up our canvases, the crop sails are not suitable for the Slavs” ... Oleg came to Kyiv and brought gold, curtains, vegetables, wines and all sorts of patterns. 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 fire”: 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 smashed 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 a 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 fall.
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 remarks: “so the Slovene language (people) spread like that, and the letter was nicknamed Slovenian 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. And 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, Russ, 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 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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The beginning of Russia is a great mystery

Stolypin Petr Arkadievich

Rurik's history is full of contradictions and inaccuracies. This is mainly due to the fact that there are practically no reliable written sources testifying to what Russia actually was before Prince Rurik. The main source of such knowledge can only be considered not numerous chronicles. The chief chronicler, Nester, wrote that the beginning of the reign of the first prince refers to 862. It was in this year that Prince Rurik (Varangian) occupied the princely throne in Novgorod. The total time of his reign is from 862 to 879. It should be noted that initially the reign was conducted not from Novgorod, but from Ladoga, it was in this city that Prince Rurik stopped, and it was from there that he ruled Novgorod. This fact did not overshadow the beginning of the reign, because the nominal city of Ladoga was a kind of gate in the famous sea route from the Varangians to the Greeks. Together with the first Varangian, his brothers also ruled: Sinius occupied the city of Beloozero, Trovor occupied the city of Izvorsk. After the death of Sinius and Trovor in 864, the ruler of Novgorod annexed their lands to his possession. It was from this time, according to the chronicler, that the Russian monarchy originated.

Country governance

Rurik's foreign policy at the time of his coming to power is reduced to strengthening statehood, seizing new territories and fighting internal enemies. So, the first two years, from 862 to 864, he annexed the cities of Murom, Rostov and Smolensk to his lands. Such a successful foreign policy was accompanied by growing discontent in Novgorod itself. The main culprit of these events was Vadim the Brave. The successful beginning of the reign of the Varangian did not give him rest. It was Vadim the Brave in 864, with the support of the Novgorod boyars, merchants and sorcerers, who raised a rebellion, which was brutally suppressed by Rurik. This is evidenced by Nester (chronicler) in his writings. Since 864, the foreign policy of Russia has not changed. This time, he moved south to the Dnieper steppes, where he plundered the local tribes. Thus, it was possible to reach Kyiv itself, in which Askold and Dir ruled.

Rurik's foreign policy

Foreign policy at that time demanded to secure its southern borders, in connection with which a peace treaty was concluded between Novgorod, ruled by Prince Rurik, and Kyiv, ruled by Askold and Dir. But this world was not destined to last long. Already in 866, Askold began a campaign to the north, to the lands that were part of the possession of Novgorod. This campaign continued until 870, but in the end, Prince Rurik defeated Askold's army. At the same time, in the development of events after this victory there are a number of oddities, as in other matters and in all the years of the reign of the first Varangian, the victorious army did not capture Kyiv. Rurik was limited only to ransom. What is the reason for such generosity of the prince, who never shunned the expansion of his possessions, is almost impossible to explain. The only reasonable explanation for this fact can only be considered that at the same time the Novgorod squad fought with the Khazars and constantly expected aggression from the Baltic. The reasonableness of this argument is confirmed by the fact that further rule was aimed at capturing Kyiv after all. Starting from 873 and up to its death, the main efforts of Novgorod were aimed at concluding an alliance with Western countries against Kyiv. But these plans were not destined to come true. The history of Rurik ended in 879. The further implementation of these plans was taken up by Prince Oleg, who was nicknamed the Prophet by the people.

Prince Rurik and his life is a success story. The story of how a simple man managed not only to seize power, but also to keep it and successfully rule his state. Of course, Russia existed until 862, but it was Prince Rurik who laid the foundation for that great camp, which Russia is to this day.

summary of other presentations

"The period of formation of the Old Russian state" - Merchants. The meadows paid tribute to the Khazars. Trade. Formation of state centers. Territories of northerners and Radimichi. The emergence of princely power. Formation of the Old Russian state. Settlements. Kings. Tribes. Prerequisites for the creation of the Old Russian state. Great Kyiv prince. Calling Rurik. Formation of the Old Russian state. State. The power of the Kyiv prince. Invited princes. Noble warriors of Rurik.

"History of the formation of the Old Russian state" - Kyiv. Conditions. Polyudie. State. Formation of the Old Russian state. The calling of the Varangians. Prerequisites for the creation of the state. Historians. Unification of North and South. Can the Varangians be called the creators of the Old Russian state. Prerequisites. Kyiv prince. Management of the Old Russian state.

"Economic development of the Old Russian state" - Economic development of the Old Russian state. Trade routes of Ancient Russia. Votchina. family and neighborhood communities. Feudalization of the land. Taxes in Ancient Russia. Trifield system. Kremlin. International trade. Ancient city. Economy of Kievan Rus. Money in Ancient Russia. Craft. Novgorod hryvnia. Occupations of the ancient Slavs. Causes of feudal fragmentation. Prince. The first Russian princes. Mongol-Tatar yoke.

"Rus 9-13 centuries" - The reasons for the formation of the state in Russia. State. Russia in the 9th - 13th centuries. Build a logical chain. Systematize. front poll. Historical workout. Yaroslav the Wise. A group of warriors. Independent work. Historical dictation. Characteristics of a historical personality. Problem definition. Get to know the historical figure.

"Old Russian State and Society" - Olga's Reform. Cathedral of Prince Vladimir. Old Russian state and society. The rural community is a "rope". Lesson goals. Prerequisites for the emergence of the state among the Slavs. Entrance to the Cathedral of Prince Vladimir. Polyudie. Oleg (879-912). Basic concepts. Igor was immoderate in his demands on the defeated tribes. Beginning of Russia. The main directions of domestic and foreign policy. Vladimir (980-1015). Polyudie of Russian princes in the 10th century.

"Formation of the state among the Eastern Slavs" - Polyudie. The state of Slavic society. Formation of Kievan Rus. Signs of the state in Russia. Formation of the state among the Eastern Slavs. What explains the rise of Kyiv. Varangians in Russia. State. Improvement of tools. Slavic society by the 9th century.

Rurik (862 - 879) - the first great Russian prince, one of the legendary figures in European history, the founder of the ancient Russian state. According to the chronicles, called from the Varangians by the Slavs, Krivichi, Chud and the whole in 862, Rurik first occupied Ladoga, and then moved to Novgorod. Ruled in Novgorod under an agreement concluded with the local nobility, who approved the right to collect income. Founder of the Rurik dynasty.

1148 years ago, according to the testimony of the chronicler Nestor in The Tale of Bygone Years, the head of the Varangian military detachment Rurik, who arrived along with the brothers Sineus and Truvor, was called to "rule and reign over the Eastern Slavs" on September 8, 862.

The chronicle tradition connects the beginning of Russia with the calling of the Varangians. So "The Tale of Bygone Years" tells that in 862 three Varangian brothers with their clans came to rule the Slavs, laying the city of Ladoga. But where did they come from and who were these Varangians by origin, who gave rise to Russian statehood? Indeed, in historiography they managed to visit both the Swedes, and the Danes, and the Scandinavians in general; some authors considered the Varangians to be Normans, others, on the contrary, to be Slavs. Again and again, inattention to the problem posed in the historical source itself was the reason for contradictory statements. For the ancient chronicler, the origin of the Varangians was obvious. He placed their lands on the south-Baltic coast up to "the land of Aglian", i.e. to the Angeln area in Holstein.

Today it is the North German state of Mecklenburg, whose population was not German in antiquity. What it was like - this is evidenced by the names of the settlements Varin, Russov, Rerik and many others that have survived to this day. However, despite all the clarity of the chronicle evidence, the question of the origin of the Varangians (and, therefore, the roots of Russian statehood) became debatable for posterity. The confusion was introduced by the version that appeared in political circles at the court of the Swedish king about the origin of Rurik from Sweden, which was subsequently picked up by some German historians. Objectively speaking, this version did not have the slightest historical basis, but it was completely politically conditioned. Even during the years of the Livonian War between Ivan the Terrible and the Swedish king Johan III, a sharp controversy flared up on the issue of titles. The Russian tsar considered the Swedish ruler to come from a "male family", to which he replied that the ancestors of the Russian dynasty itself allegedly came from Sweden. This idea finally took shape as a political concept on the eve of the Time of Troubles at the beginning of the 17th century, when the Swedes claimed the Novgorod lands, trying to justify their territorial claims with some kind of chronicle "calling". It was assumed that the Novgorodians were to send an embassy to the Swedish king and invite him to rule, as they had once allegedly called on the "Swedish" prince Rurik. The conclusion about the "Swedish" origin of the Varangians at that time was based only on the fact that they came to Russia "from across the sea", which means, most likely, from Sweden.

Subsequently, in the first half of the 18th century, German scientists from the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences turned to the Varangian theme, who, according to the same logic, sought to justify the German domination in Russia during the time of Biron's regency. They also formulated the so-called. "Norman theory", according to which the Varangians, the founders of the ancient Russian state, were recognized as immigrants from Sweden (that is, "Germans", as all foreigners were then called). Since then, this theory, dressed in a kind of scientific character, has become entrenched in Russian historiography. At the same time, many prominent historians, starting with M.V. Lomonosov, pointed out that the "Norman theory" does not correspond to real facts. For example, the Swedes could not create a state in Russia in the 9th century, if only because they themselves did not have statehood at that time. In the Russian language and in Russian culture, it was not possible to find Scandinavian borrowings. Finally, a careful reading of the chronicle itself does not allow us to confirm the fabrications of the Normanists. The chronicler distinguished the Varangians from the Swedes and other Scandinavian peoples, writing that "those Varangians were called - Rus, as others are called Swedes, others are Normans, Angles, other Goths." Therefore, when concluding peace treaties with Byzantium, the pagan warriors of princes Oleg and Igor (the very Varangians whom the Normans consider Swedish Vikings) took an oath in the names of Perun and Veles, and not Odin or Thor at all. A.G. Kuzmin noted that this fact alone could refute the entire "Norman theory". It is clear that in this form the "Norman theory" could not be viable in academic science. But she was again and again turned to when it was necessary to strike a blow at the idea of ​​Russian statehood. Today, this destructive theory has acquired a new form, and modern Normanists, supported by grants from numerous foreign foundations, speak not so much of the "Scandinavian origin of the Varangians" as of a kind of division of "spheres of influence" in the ancient Russian state.

According to the new version of Normanism, the power of the Vikings allegedly extended to the northern regions of Russia, and the Khazars to the southern ones (there was supposedly a certain agreement between them). Russians are not supposed to play any significant role in their own early history. However, the very development of the Russian state completely refutes all the conjectures of Russia's political enemies. Could ancient Russia have become a mighty Russian empire without the outstanding historical mission of the Russian people? A great history took place together with a great people descended from the Varangian origin. It is unfortunate that today more and more replicas are heard that the ancestors of the Russians were non-Russians. This is not true. Our ancestors were the Varangians, who were also Russians. The only thing to be clarified is that it is Russia that is our original family name, and the ancient Russian navigators were called the Varangians. Ambassador Sigismund Herberstein, who visited Moscow at the beginning of the 16th century, wrote that the homeland of the Varangians - Vagria - was located on the south Baltic coast and from them the Baltic was called the Varangian Sea. He expressed the broad opinion that prevailed in the enlightened circles of Europe at that time. With the development of scientific genealogy, works began to appear on the connections of the Russian royal dynasty with the ancient royal families of Mecklenburg. In North German Pomorye, the Varangians and their historical ties with Russia were remembered until the 19th century. To this day, many traces of the presence of the pre-German population remain in the Mecklenburg region. It is obvious that it became "German" only after the Varangians and their descendants were forced out to the east or Germanized by Catholic orders. The French traveler K. Marmier once wrote down a folk legend about Rurik and his brothers in Mecklenburg. In the VIII century, the Varangians were ruled by King Godlav, who had three sons - Rurik, Sivar and Truvor. Once they set off from the southern Baltic to the east and founded an ancient Russian principality with centers in Novgorod and Pskov.

After some time, Rurik became the head of the dynasty, which reigned until 1598. This legend from Northern Germany is completely consonant with the Tale of the calling of the Varangians from the annals. However, a careful analysis of the facts allows, to some extent, to correct the chronicle chronology, according to which Rurik and his brothers began to rule in Russia from 862. A. Kunik generally considered this date to be erroneous, leaving the inaccuracy on the conscience of the later scribes of the chronicle. It is obvious that the events briefly reported in the Russian chronicles receive historical content from German sources. The Germans themselves refuted the Norman fictions. The Mecklenburg jurist Johann Friedrich von Chemnitz referred to a legend according to which Rurik and his brothers were the sons of Prince Godlav, who died in 808 in a battle with the Danes. Given that the eldest of the sons was Rurik, it can be assumed that he was born no later than 806 (after him, before the death of his father in 808, two younger brothers who were not the same age should have been born). Of course, Rurik could have been born earlier, but we do not yet have reliable information about this. According to German sources, Rurik and his brothers were "summoned" around 840, which seems very plausible. Thus, the Varangian princes could appear in Russia at a mature and capable age, which looks completely logical. Indeed, according to the latest archaeological finds, it was possible to establish that the Rurik settlement near modern Novgorod, which is the ancient Rurik Novgorod, existed earlier than 862. On the other hand, while making a mistake in chronology, the chronicle points more precisely to the place of "calling". Most likely it was not Novgorod (as according to German data), but Ladoga, which was founded by the Varangians in the middle of the VIII century. And Novgorod (Rurik's settlement) Prince Rurik "cut down" later, uniting the lands of the brothers after their death, as evidenced by the name of the city.

The family tree of Rurik from the ancient Varangian kings was recognized by connoisseurs and researchers of genealogy. Mecklenburg historians wrote that his grandfather was King Wittslav, who was an equal ally of the Frankish king Charlemagne and participated in his campaigns against the Saxons. During one of these campaigns, Witslav was killed in an ambush while crossing a river. Some authors directly called him "the king of the Russians." The North German genealogies also indicate the relationship of Rurik with Gostomysl, who acts in the annalistic legend about the calling of the Varangians. But if the stingy lines of the chronicle tell almost nothing about him, then in the Frankish chronicles he is mentioned as an opponent of Emperor Louis the German. Why did Rurik and his brothers set off from the South Baltic coast to the East? The fact is that the Varangian kings had a "next" system of inheritance, according to which the eldest representative of the ruling family always received power. Later, such a system of inheritance of princely power became traditional in Russia. At the same time, the sons of the ruler who did not have time to take the royal throne did not receive any rights to the throne and remained outside the main "queue". Godlove was killed before his older brother and never became king during his lifetime. For this reason, Rurik and his brothers were forced to go to the peripheral Ladoga, where the glorious history of the Russian state began from that time. Prince Rurik was a full-fledged ruler of Russia and a native of the "Russian family", and not at all a foreign ruler, as those who wish to imagine the entire Russian history only under foreign domination.

When Rurik died, his son Igor was still small, and Igor's uncle, Oleg (Prophetic Oleg, that is, knowing the future, died in 912), became the prince, who moved the capital to the city of Kyiv. It is Prophetic Oleg who is credited with the formation of the Old Russian state - Kievan Rus, with its center in Kyiv. Oleg's nickname - "prophetic" - referred exclusively to his penchant for sorcery. In other words, Prince Oleg, as the supreme ruler and leader of the squad, also simultaneously performed the functions of a priest, sorcerer, sorcerer, sorcerer. According to legend, Prophetic Oleg died from a snake bite; this fact formed the basis of a number of songs, legends and traditions. Oleg became famous for his victory over Byzantium, as a sign of which he nailed his shield on the main gates (gates) of Constantinople. So the Russians called the capital of Byzantium - Constantinople. Byzantium was then the most powerful state in the world.

In 2009, the celebration of the 1150th anniversary of Veliky Novgorod took place. I would like to believe that this most important date in our history will become the starting point for a new study of the ancient Russian past. New facts and discoveries constantly enrich historical science and our knowledge. There is more and more evidence that Russian history began not with a myth invented by medieval politicians and scribes, but with the real Grand Duke Rurik, who was born into the royal dynasty in the Russian Baltic region one thousand two hundred years ago. God grant that the names of our ancestors and grandparents are not forgotten.