“The one who successfully explains the name of Rus' will master the key to solving the beginnings of its history,” once said Academician O. N. Trubachev, the greatest researcher in the field of Slavic studies, who devoted most of his life to solving this particular problem. What is the etymology of the word Rus? Are Rus and fair-haired words the same root?
Etymology (from the Greek ετυμος (the real meaning of the word) and λόγος (science) is a branch of linguistics that studies the origin of words, as well as the very origin of a word. The science of the true (or original) meaning of words. Etymology, like any other science, satisfies our natural inclination to know the truth.
Who are we Russians? For some reason, people think little about their national name. Meanwhile, at some point every nation chooses a name for itself. Choice of national name - crucial point self-determination of the people in its historical existence. In the national name, the people express something important for themselves and in themselves. This name is born in the depths of the people's consciousness and defines a certain new community of people, often still in the depths of the former tribal, or tribal, or even state existence.
Why did some tribes once have the name Slavs, and then some of them were called Russians, while others, for example, Poles? Having named itself by this or that name, each nation, in essence, already determines its future historical opportunities and prospects.
So, it turns out that the Slavs in ancient times were defined as Slovenians; science associates this naming with the concept of "word". Obviously, the definition of oneself through the concept of "word" indicates deep requests folk soul who chose such a meaningful name for herself. Once upon a time, some Western scholars tried to connect the ethnonym "Slavs" with the ancient Roman "sclavi", which means "slaves". Such an obviously unfounded, unscientific opinion is expressed by an obvious desire to humiliate the Slavs, to present them as people of the “second class”. This shows how important it is to correctly understand your own folk name.
Our ancestors, the Slavs, came from Asia to Europe in ancient times. First they settled along the lower reaches of the Danube and occupied the lands north of it to the Carpathian Mountains. It was free to live on the Danube: the climate here is warm, the lands are fertile, and the vegetation is rich. The Slavs would not leave here of their own free will, but other peoples began to push them. The Slavic tribe had to split up and move to other lands.
One part of them still remained on the Danube. Serbs and Bulgarians originate from these Slavs.
Another part of the Slavs went further north. Czechs, Moravians, Slovaks and Poles descended from them. And those Slavs who settled along the Elbe River and along the coast of the Baltic Sea, over time, got lost among the strong German tribes, merged with them into one people - became Germanic.
The third part of the Slavs went to the northeast, settled along the Dnieper and its tributaries and along the Ilmen and Volkhov. These Slavs were our ancestors, the Russian people originate from them.
The Slavs who settled in the fields along the middle course of the Dnieper were called glades. The land here gave rich harvests, could feed a lot of people. People settled in large groups and began to engage in agriculture. They had the city of Kyiv. Those who settled in the forests along the Pripyat River - the Drevlyans - lived scattered, in small villages, hunted more. They had the city of Iskorosten. Dregovichi lived between Pripyat and Dvina. On the Dvina - Polochans, on behalf of the Polota river, which flows into the Dvina. Some of the Slavs were called northerners. They lived to the northeast of the glades, along the Desna. They had the cities of Lyubech and Chernigov. The Krivichi lived north of the meadows along the upper reaches of the Dnieper and the Western Dvina. The cities of Izborsk and Smolensk stood in the Krivskaya land. Radimichi and Vyatichi lived to the east of the Krivichi. They were engaged in agriculture, hunting and fishing. Near Lake Ilmen lived the Ilmen Slavs, they had a city - Novgorod.
Since the ninth century, numerous East Slavic tribes- glades, drevlyans, dregovichi, dulebs, northerners, slovenes and others - began to use a new name that united them - "rus".
Clarifying the issue of the etymology of the name "Rus" is complicated by the lack of written sources of the 8th-10th centuries. in Rus'. As well as the extreme scarcity of information borrowed from written sources of other peoples, sometimes with different interpretations. In this connection, all existing etymologies are based on the involvement of information from later (up to the 12th century) sources, as well as - indirectly - materials from archaeological research.
1. Slavic versions of the origin of the ethnonym "Rus"
For many decades of studying the etymology of the word "Rus" many hypotheses have been formulated. Slavic, Old Russian, Gothic, Swedish, Iranian and other variants were supposed. My work presents several historically grounded and linguistically researched theories.
1. 1. Origin from the name of a particular river
There are studies deriving the name "Rus" from the name of the Ros River. For example, B. A. Rybakov describes it this way in his book “Where did the Russian land come from”:
“In the old agricultural region of the forest-steppe on the banks of the river. Rosi existed (II-IV centuries), the tribe grew, or Rus, this tribe was Slavic. The center of the tribe was the city of Roden at the mouth of the Ros.
In the VI century. When a formidable enemy, the Obras (Avars), appeared on the steppes, the tribes of the forest-steppe rallied into a large union under the hegemony of the most southern, close to the steppes, Dnieper tribe of the Ross, or Russ. Union of tribes VI - VII centuries. received the name of Rus', or the Russian land. The core of the union was the land along the river. Rosi with the city of Rodny
Somewhat later, the dominant position in the union of the tribes of the Dnieper region passed to the northern neighbor of the Rus - to the Polyany, with a center in Kiev, in the very north of the forest-steppe zone. But the Polyany did not transfer their name to other tribes; the union of tribes, which grew into a feudal state, still bore the name of Rus'.
Professor F. I. Knauer in his work “On the origin of the name of the people of Rus'” notes that in the ancient Indian hymns of the “Rigveda” (X century BC) the mythical river “Rasa”, “great mother”, flowing in the far northwest, in the old homeland. In "Avesta" (7th-8th centuries BC), holy book ancient Persians, attributed to Zarathustra (Zarathushtra) himself, speaks of the Ranha River, where people live without leaders, where winter reigns and the earth is covered with snow; later, among the Persians, it is the Raha River, which separates Europe from Asia.
F. I. Knauer proves the etymological identity of these names with the ancient name of the Volga - "Ra", which later acquired such forms as Ros among the Greeks and Arabs, and Ros, Rus, Rosa, Rusa - among the Slavs. The author believes that ". the name of the people Rus is of purely Slavic-Russian origin and in the exact rendering of the word means nothing more than the Volga people.
1. 2. Origin by place of settlement
A great many tribes and peoples on earth were named after the place of their predominant habitat. The self-name of the Primorsky Chukchi is an kalyn ("sea dwellers"), the Bedouins are "desert dwellers", the Selkups are shesh kul ("taiga people"), the Seneca Indians are nunda-ve-o-no (" great people hills").
Our distant ancestors deified the river and the first evidence of the veneration of rivers and water by the Slavs. The chronicler Nestor also wrote that in the pagan era, the Slavs, in addition to the gods, also revered rivers, lakes, and springs.
Slovak linguist and ethnographer Pavel Szafranek (1795-1860): “In the Proto-Slavic language, the river was called Rusa (rusa). This root Slavic word, as a common noun, has already remained in use only among Russians in the word channel, denoting a hollow, riverbed, depth, vir; but as a proper name for rivers, cities and villages, more or less lying near them, is used by almost all Slavs.
Vladimir Chivilikhin (“Memory”, Book 2, chapter 28): “The most ancient settlements of the Eastern Slavs, from which the first Russian cities later formed, all, without a single exception, settled on rivers. The river to a large extent ensured the livelihoods of our ancestors: it provided water for cooking and housekeeping, supplied fish and water birds, provided an easy, ideally smooth path through the water in summer, over ice in winter; the river also formed a natural defense on steep banks cut by tributaries.
Thus, if: "Rusa" is a river - the eternal place of settlements of our ancestors, with which their way of life and beliefs have always been so closely connected (for example, Rus - was the name of a now half-forgotten, mythical Dnieper deity), then: generalized the ethnonym "Rus" or "Russy" - from ancient times meant "living on the rivers", "river dwellers", "river people".
1. 3. Origin according to the legends and the first written references
The first mention of "Rus" and "Rugs" takes us deep into the centuries - many years before our era.
Exploring the Vlesov (Velesov) book, S. Paramonov (“History of the Russians according to the Vlesov book”) read on its tablets the legend about Bohumir, his wife Slavunya, daughters - Dreve, Skreva, Polev and sons - Sev and Rus: “The legend tells that Bugomir had no husbands for his daughters. On the advice of his wife, he went in search of suitors. Toward evening he stood in the field by the oak and built a fire. Then he saw three horsemen rushing towards him. They drove up and said: “Hello, wake up! What are searching for?". Bogumir spoke about his need. They replied that they were looking for wives. Bogumir returned to his steppes, leading three husbands to his daughters. Further, several lines are destroyed. Then it is said that three glorious clans originated from here - the Drevlyans, the Krivichi and the glade. The northerners and Ruses descended from the sons. The legend of Bohumir also attracts by the fact that at the end of it there are interesting details about the place and time - the circumstance is also very original in relation to the legend ”According to these details, it turns out that these clans were created 1000 years BC. e.
The chronicler Nestor begins his historical work on the origin of the state of Rus' with the legend of the construction of Kiev: in the land of the “wise and meaningful” glades, Prince Kiy and his two brothers, Shchek and Khoriv, built a city on the high bank of the Dnieper and named it Kiev in honor of their elder brother. In some regions of Russia, where ancient birch bark letters, the legendary brothers Kiy, Schek and Khoriv are named by other names that sound like Chekh (Chek), Lech (Khoriv) and Russ (Kiy). Perhaps the word "Kiy" did not mean the name of one of the brothers, but his profession - a blacksmith, and the name sounded exactly like Russ.
The very name of the tribes "Rus" is mentioned in written sources long before the 9th century, and the word "Rus" was spread far beyond the Russian plains.
Mavro Orbini tells in “The Historiography of the Slavic People” (1606) (Dalmatian historian, was a monk of the Benedictine monastery on the island of Mljet, then an abbot, author of the book “Slavic Kingdom”, in which he tried to give a history of all Slavic peoples): “Ancient writers called them differently. Aelius Spartian and the Capitolia in the "Biography of Pius" and Flavius Vopiscus in the "Biography of Aurelian" called them Roxolani (IV century AD), Pliny (I century AD) called them Toxolani, Ptolemy (II century AD) ) - troxolans, Strabo (I century BC) - rasnals and roxans, Raphael Volateransky and many others called them rutens.
Now it is customary to call them Russians, that is, scattered, since in Russian or in Slavonic Rossey means nothing more than dispersion. And not without reason they were nicknamed Russ or scattered, because their colonies are scattered from the Arctic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and the Adriatic Gulf, from the Great Sea to the Baltic Ocean. For the same reason, the Greek writers, as Procopius of Caesarea reports, called them disputes, that is, scattered people.
Historical evidence records the ethnonym Ross at least since the 6th century, and it is the ethnonym, since almost all of the reports cited do not refer to a country or a state, but only to a people referred to as hros (hrus), dew (Rus), rodi. This people, living somewhere near the Crimea (Caucasus), as well as in the Northern Black Sea region, is awarded the following characteristics: barbaric, cruel and nomadic; brave and victorious, making his raids only on ships; merchant, not disdainful of the slave trade; not eminent, humiliated and poor, but having reached a brilliant height and untold wealth. Sometimes the characteristics look contradictory, for example, the Ross do not have villages and real estate, but at the same time there are many cities. Did this people, awarded with such bright, albeit contradictory, characteristics, did not have their own state? It turns out that he had, but in the distant past. Moreover, the state of this unusual people during its heyday could be considered a great power, with which arrogant Rome itself reckoned. But none of the witnesses whose works have been preserved, including the earliest of them, have already found this state.
The Slavs waged a constant struggle with the nomads who lived in the Black Sea steppes and often plundered the Slavic lands. The most dangerous enemy was the Khazar nomads, who created in the 7th-8th centuries. a large state in the lower reaches of the Volga and Don rivers. During this period, the Eastern Slavs began to be called Russ or Ross, as is believed, from the name of one of the tribes - the Rus, who lived on the border with Khazaria, between the Dnieper and the Don.
1. 4. The origin of the root base "rus"
The root basis of the word "Rus" has been heard on our land since time immemorial. "Rus" is the Proto-Slavic root that formed such big nest words only in Russian.
The tradition of understanding the meaning of Rus' "bright side" was preserved for a very long time, for example, in the dictionary Dal Rus - "(white) light" (Dal IV, 114).
V. I. Dal recorded in his dictionary a lot of Russian words derived from the same original root “rus”: Ruslen is a shed overboard, for which shrouds are attached; ruslina - rapid, rod; rust - "water is rustling", which means it goes in a stream, a stream; own name Rus - "a fabulous monster of the Dnieper rapids"; male name Ruslan, commemorative by Pushkin's poem
The word “mermaid” is formed from the same Proto-Slavic root “rus”, many pagan beliefs and pagan rites of mermaid are associated with its ancient cult.
According to the book of A. I. Asov “Russian Vedas”: “ROS is a mermaid, the daughter of the Dnieper, according to the mythology of the Slavs, she gave birth to Dazh-god from Perun. Ancestor of Russian people. Russians - that is, the descendants of Rus'. She was the goddess of the river Ra (Volga)."
The root of the word "rus" goes back to the Sanskrit "ros", which means "kind", "parent". In general, in the lands inhabited by the Slavs, there are a great many proper names from the ancient basis “ros”, “rus”. In the area of Lake Peipus there is the Roson River. Near Narva - an island - Rusiny. The Russian River flows near Ilmen Lake, near Novgorod - the Porus River, then - the city Staraya Russa, and between the Oka and the Don is the Ryasskoye field. It is not difficult to add the well-known cities of Ryasno and Rostov.
The main guiding word for linguists who adhere to this version remains the “channel”, inherent only in the Russian language and formed from the root “rus”.
So, the word "Rus" came from the root "ros" - "genus". It was originally associated with water, with the magic of water, with its life-giving power. Hence the legend of the mermaid - the goddess of water, who gave birth to the Russian people from Perun - the god of thunder, the god of the sky.
2. Versions of the origin of the ethnonym "Rus" from foreign words
There are many hypotheses deriving the name "Rus" from foreign sources.
Linguists note that the word-formation structure of the ethnonym "Rus" is identical to the structure of collective ethnonyms ending in a softened final consonant (graphically rendered by the final -b): kors, lib, chud, all, Rus, yam, sum, etc. However, all these names are connected with non-Slavic (Baltic and Finno-Ugric) peoples, which is proof of the non-Slavic origin of "Rus".
2. 1. Scandinavian etymology
The Slavs were in constant communication with the Varangians, who were called Normans in the West. These were warlike natives of Scandinavia, who made endless campaigns of conquest and raids throughout Europe. Often they served as mercenaries, in particular, in Byzantium. "Varyags" is a Greek word for mercenary warriors. "Normans" is a Western term translated as "Northern people". But there was another name for these northern warriors. The Finns, who lived in the neighborhood and interspersed with the Eastern Slavs, used the word "ruotsi" in their language, meaning "army", which sounded like "Rus" among the Slavs. The semantic basis of this term was the concept of "oar people", "rowing warriors".
According to legend, Gostomysl, a semi-degendary leader of the Novogorodsk Slavs, before his death, wishing to save the Novogorodtsy from strife and anarchy, bequeathed to call one of the Varangian leaders as the ruler of the Novogorodsk lands.
Here is how A. Ishimova tells about this (“The Big Illustrated Encyclopedia of the History of Russia for Children”): “They heard that in one kind of Varangian, which was called Rus, there are three princes who judge truthfully, and good warriors, so subjects will be able to force to obey, and they will not be allowed to offend anyone. These brothers were called: Rurik, Sineus and Truvor. So the Slavs sent ambassadors to them. The envoys came, bowed to these princes and said: “Our land is great and plentiful, but there is no order in it, come reign and rule over us.” These princes agreed to their request and came to them with all their family and squad Rurik and his brothers came to the Slavic land and brought with them all of their Russian family, which is why the land where they began to reign was called Rus.
2. 3. On behalf of the Ruta tribe
In the II-III centuries AD. e. between the Balts, Slavs and Germans lived some kind of ruts (rugs). Rugs were recorded on the Middle Danube (about 450 g), even Tacitus called them "reudignii", perhaps this ethnonym means "forest uprooters", which means that the Rugs were engaged in agriculture. There are hypotheses that the ethnonym RUS, Rutes, Rutens is formed from the ethnonym Rugi. Perhaps Rugs are Slavs from the island of Rügen (Rugin / Ruyan). It is possible that Rugi is a generalizing name for the Slavs (it formed the late Latin name medieval Rus'- Ruthenia) and Goths (2nd century AD), who recently left Scandinavia.
2. 4. From the Western European word "bear"
There are proposals for another original concept that formed the ethnonym "Rus" - the word "bear" (for example, Latin "ursus"), which in many Western European languages \u200b\u200bis has a common root "urs". The myth of the Bear - the owner of the forest and a powerful deity - has been preserved in Russian fairy tales. For a long time, the bear was revered as a sacred animal. The true name of this beast-deity was so sacred that it was not spoken aloud. The Greek and Latin names for the bear - arctos and ursus - have taken root in the languages of many peoples. Our ancestors were not satisfied with the old bear name common with other languages. It seemed to ancient people that the name of any creature is connected with it by a mysterious and wonderful thread. The name is a part of a person, an animal, an object; moreover, perhaps the most important part of them. Therefore, you can not call the name of the creature in vain - you will call him himself. Well, how can it be? And instead of the real name, create a conditional one. They replaced the terrible name arktos with the pseudonym honey badger (honey-o-o-o-d, bear).
In the East Slavic languages, the initial proximity of the self-name of the Rus and the names of some animals and plants that they especially revered has been preserved. All of them were considered related, sacred, first of all, because they had a golden-red or pink-brown color - they were “fair-haired”: these are the names “lynx”, “wolverine”, “leopard”, “badger”, and also “bear ", whose forbidden name can be determined on the basis of the Latin name of the bear "ursus" in the form of the stem "rus".
No wonder in the West Russia is still called the “Bear Country”.
2. 5. From Latin word"rus"
Some researchers deduce the name "Rus" from the Latin word "rus", meaning countryside, arable land.
In more ancient times, the ancestors of Russians scattered across Europe were referred to as Russ, Ruthenians, Rusnyaks, dews, races, rutens, rugs. So the races that inhabited the northern half of Italy even "before the founding of Rome" called their rural communities "rus" - Rus. From this root word, the Latins called the Rasen "Etruscans".
3. Version of the origin of the word "Rus" from the term that defines a social group
The word "Rus" was not considered by the authors of some ancient Russian sources as an ethnonym. This argument formed the basis of the hypothesis that "Rus" is a term referring not to an ethnic, but to a social group of Eastern Slavs. If it denoted some social group, then it could refer to representatives of various ethnic groups: Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Finns, Eastern Slavs and Eastern Baltic Slavs. But what social functions could unite these people?
The term "polyudye" means the collection of tribute, according to this hypothesis, "people" are those who were forced to pay tribute, and "Rus" are those who collected this tribute. There were many Viking warriors among the tribute collectors, so the social term was also transferred to the ethnic name of the Scandinavians.
Indeed, the Finno-Ugric peoples for a long time used names dating back to the root “rus-” to denote different peoples who took tribute from them, while the word "people" even became the self-name of one of the Finno-Ugric peoples (Ljudi).
Then “Rus” can be associated with the Varangians in some texts (if they are part of the social elite that collects tribute), and in others it can differ from them (if we are talking about mercenary detachments of Scandinavians invited for a while).
Conclusion
The theme of the emergence of the Russian state and the origin of the very word "Rus" has more than one century.
The word "Russian" began to be used much later. It appeared in the 9th century and spread in the 10th-12th centuries from the “tribal” word “Rus”, probably by decree of 882 Prophetic Oleg- "Grand Duke of Russia". This was done for the same designation of 12 tribes of the Eastern Slavs, who were part of a huge federal power - the great "Russian Land". The logic of the decree is simple: in Rus', all Slavs should be called "Russians", since "the Slovenian language and Russian are one" (Nestor the chronicler).
Etymology owes much to data from other areas of knowledge. However, this connection is reversible: etymological studies of words dating back to ancient times make it possible to restore many aspects of the life, culture, and economy of ancient peoples, enriching history, ethnography and other sciences.
As L. Uspensky wrote in his book “The Word about Words”: “The word lives because the people who created it live; lives - changes, grows, develops the language to which it belongs. No one - not a single individual, no matter how great his talents, mind, and power - can, without the consent and approval of the whole people, give life to even the smallest word, although each of us is capable of inventing hundreds of excellent sonorous words in half an hour.
in the discipline "History"
on the topic: "The emergence of Ancient Rus'"
Introduction
The European peoples of our country, including the Eastern Slavs, went to the creation of statehood in their own special way. In the second half of the 1st millennium, they created political formations of a transitional nature - states of the period of the formation of feudalism. These were primitive, poorly organized systems, but they prepared the foundation for the creation of other more advanced states. In this paper, the process of the emergence of the Old Russian state will be analyzed.
The history of the Slavs goes back into the depths of time, and the first information about them is recorded in the oldest written sources. All of them, with reference to a certain territory, fix the Slavs only from the middle of the 1st millennium AD. e. (most often from the 6th century), that is, when they appear on the historical arena of Europe as a numerous ethnic community.
The places of residence of the ancient Slavs, called "ancestral homes", are determined ambiguously.
The first who tried to answer the questions: where, how and when the Slavs appeared, was the chronicler Nestor, the author of The Tale of Bygone Years. He defined the territory of the Slavs along the lower reaches of the Danube and Pannonia. The process of resettlement of the Slavs began from the Danube, that is, we are talking about their migration. The Kiev chronicler was the founder of the migration theory of the origin of the Slavs, known as the "Danubian" or "Balkan" one. The Danube "ancestral home" of the Slavs was recognized by S.M. Solovyov, V.O. Klyuchevsky and others. According to V.O. Klyuchevsky, the Slavs moved from the Danube to the Carpathians. It was here, according to the historian, that an extensive military alliance was formed, headed by the Dulebo-Volhynians. From here, the Eastern Slavs settled to the east and northeast to Ilmen Lake in the 7th-8th centuries.
The origin of another migration theory of the origin of the Slavs, the "Scythian-Sarmatian", dates back to the Middle Ages. According to their ideas, the ancestors of the Slavs moved from Western Asia along the Black Sea coast to the north and settled under the ethnonyms "Scythians", "Sarmatians", "Alans" and "Roksolans".
The third option, close to the Scythian-Sarmatian theory, was proposed by Academician A.I. Sobolevsky. In his opinion, the names of rivers, lakes, mountains within the location of the ancient settlements of the Slavs allegedly show that they received these names from another people who were here earlier. Such a predecessor of the Slavs, according to Sobolevsky, was a group of tribes of Iranian origin (Scythian root).
The fourth version of the migration theory was given by Academician A.A. Chess. In his opinion, the basin of the Western Dvina and the Lower Neman in the Baltic region was the first ancestral home of the Slavs.
In contrast to migration theories, the autochthonous - local origin of the Slavs is recognized. According to the autochthonous theory, the Slavs formed on a vast territory, which included not only the territory of modern Poland, but also a significant part of modern Ukraine and Belarus.
In the VIII-IX centuries. the period is coming Slavic history, the formation of unions, the formation of states.
The first state in the lands of the Eastern Slavs was called "Rus". By the name of its capital - the city of Kyiv, scientists subsequently began to call it Kievan Rus, although it itself never called itself that.
The first mention of the name "Rus" dates back to the same time as the information about the Ants, Slavs, Wends, i.e. to the V-VII centuries. Describing the tribes that lived between the Dnieper and the Dniester, the Greeks call them Acts, Scythians, Sarmatians, Gothic historians - Rosomani (blond, bright people), and Arabs - Rus. But it is clear that they were talking about the same people. Years pass, the name "Rus" is increasingly becoming collective for all the tribes that lived in the vast expanses between the Baltic and the Black Sea, the Oka-Volga interfluve and the Polish borderlands.
However, it should be noted that the word "Rus" is used ambiguously. This gave grounds for the researchers to divide into two groups. Some believe that “Rus” was originally a social concept, others that this term had an ethnic connotation from the very beginning.
Most researchers are inclined to the point of view about the ethnic origin of the term "Rus", as well as about its ethnic meaning in the times of Kievan Rus. It should be said that the supporters of the first concept do not deny that over time, the social sound of the term turned into an ethnic one. The whole question is whether the word "Rus" was ever a term denoting a social group.
Supporters of the ethnic origin of the word "Rus" in turn make up several groups. In pre-revolutionary literature, an opinion arose that Rus should be understood as the Varangians. This concept, in various modifications, is being promoted in the West in our time. In the latest literature, it can be found in the works of the American professor R. Pipes and in the book of the Cambridge teacher X. Davidson.
Modern researchers usually derive the term "Rus" from the name of the river Ros, a tributary of the Dnieper, which flowed in the land of the meadows. According to the name of this river, they say, first the clearing, and then the inhabitants of the entire Kyiv state, began to be called Rus. However, several more rivers are called within our land, which bore similar names, including the Volga, also called Ros. There was also the city of Rosiya at the mouth of the Don. Hence the reverse thought: all this toponymy came from the name of the Rus people, which is a self-name.
Western and eastern sources note in the VI and even IV century. the presence of strong leaders among the Eastern Slavs, reminiscent of monarchs. The presence of the unity of laws, that is, a certain legal order, is also noted. In the 8th century sources speak of the existence of three East Slavic associations: Kuyavia, Slavia, Artania. The first was located in the area of Kyiv land, the second - in the area of Lake Ilmen, the location of the third is debatable. Some identify Artania with Tmutarakan, located on the Taman Peninsula, while other researchers place it on the Volga.
Of course, the statehood of the Eastern Slavs during the formation of feudalism was very primitive. However, it created the foundation for the emergence of the Old Russian feudal state.
According to The Tale of Bygone Years (beginning of the 12th century), the creation of a powerful Russian state in Eastern Europe began from the north. For 859 in the chronicle there is a message that the tribes of the Slavs in the south paid tribute to the Khazars, and in the north the Slavs and Finno-Ugric peoples paid tribute to the Varangians. The chronicle reports that in 862 the Novgorodians expelled the Varangians across the sea, but among the multilingual tribes, and even in Novgorod itself, there was no peace and it was necessary to invite the prince, "... who would rule and judge by right." And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Rus' and invited the three brothers Rurik, Sineus and Truvor. Rurik began to reign in Novgorod, Sineus - on Beloozero, and Truvor - in Izborsk.
After the death of the brothers, Rurik began to reign alone, and distributed Polotsk, Rostov, Beloozero to his warriors. When Rurik died (879), governor Oleg, together with Rurik's young son Igor, raised the peoples along the trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" on a big campaign to the south. Scandinavians, northern Slavs and Finno-Ugric peoples took part in the campaign; in 882 they captured Kyiv. Thus, the unification of the northern and southern lands took place, a state was formed with a center in Kyiv. This is the so-called Norman theory of state formation.
This interpretation raises at least two objections. Firstly, the actual material cited in The Tale of Bygone Years does not give grounds for the conclusion that the Russian state was created by calling the Varangians. On the contrary, like other sources that have come down to us, she says that the statehood of the Eastern Slavs existed even before the Varangians. Secondly, modern science cannot agree with such a primitive explanation of the complex process of formation of any state. The state cannot organize one person or several even the most prominent men. The state is the product of a complex and long development of the social structure of society. Nevertheless, the annalistic mention was adopted as early as the 18th century. a certain group of historians who developed the Varangian version of the formation of the Russian state. At this time in Russian Academy sciences, a group of German historians worked, who interpreted the annalistic tradition in a certain sense. Thus was born the notorious Norman theory of the origin of the Old Russian state.
Already at that time, Normanism met with objections from leading Russian scientists, among whom was M.V. Lomonosov. Since then, all historians dealing with Ancient Russia have been divided into two camps - Normanists and anti-Normanists.
Modern domestic scientists mostly reject Norman theory. The largest researchers of the Slavic countries also join them. However, a certain part of foreign authors still preach this theory, although not in such a primitive form as it was done before.
The main refutation of the Norman theory is enough high level social and political development Eastern Slavs in the 9th century. Old Russian state was prepared by the centuries-old development of the Eastern Slavs. In terms of their economic and political level, the Slavs stood above the Varangians, so they could not even borrow state experience from the newcomers.
The chronicle story contains, of course, elements of truth. It is possible that the Slavs invited several princes with their retinues as military specialists, as was done in later times in Rus', and in Western Europe. It is authentically known that the Russian principalities invited squads not only of the Varangians, but also of their steppe neighbors - the Pechenegs, Karakalpaks, Torks. However, it was not the Varangian princes who organized the Old Russian state, but the already existing state gave them the corresponding state posts. However, some authors, starting with M.V. Lomonosov, doubt the Varangian origin of Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, believing that they could also be representatives of some Slavic tribes. In any case, there are practically no traces of the Varangian culture in the history of our Motherland. Researchers, for example, calculated that for 10 thousand square meters. km of the territory of Rus', you can find only 5 Scandinavian geographical names, while in England, which the Normans conquered, this number reaches 150.
We do not know exactly when and how exactly the first principalities of the Eastern Slavs arose, preceding the formation of the Old Russian state, but, in any case, they already existed before 862, before the notorious "calling of the Varangians." In the German chronicle, already from 839, the Russian princes were called Khakans - kings.
But the moment of the unification of the East Slavic lands into one state is known for certain. In 882 prince of novgorod Oleg captured Kyiv and united these two most important groups of Russian lands; then he managed to annex the rest of the Russian lands, creating a huge state for those times.
Russian Orthodox Church tries to link the emergence of statehood in Rus' with the introduction of Christianity. Of course, the introduction of Christianity had great importance to strengthen the feudal state, the church sanctified the subordination of the Orthodox to the exploiting state. However, the baptism of Rus' took place no less than a century after the formation of the Kievan state, not to mention the earlier East Slavic states.
In addition to the Slavs, some neighboring Finnish and Baltic tribes entered the Old Russian Kiev state. This state, therefore, from the very beginning was ethnically heterogeneous. However, it was based on the ancient Russian nationality, which is the cradle of three Slavic peoples - Russians (Great Russians), Ukrainians and Belarusians. It cannot be identified with any of these peoples in isolation. Bourgeois Ukrainian nationalists, even before the revolution, tried to portray the Old Russian state as Ukrainian. This idea has been taken up in our time in nationalist circles, which are trying to quarrel the three fraternal Slavic peoples. Meanwhile, the Old Russian state neither in territory nor in population coincided with modern Ukraine, they only had a common capital - the city of Kyiv. In the 9th and even in the 12th century. it is still impossible to talk about specifically Ukrainian culture, language, etc. All this will appear later, when, due to objective historical processes Old Russian nationality breaks up into three independent branches.
The moment of the emergence of the Old Russian state cannot be determined with sufficient accuracy. Obviously, there was a gradual outgrowth of the existing political entities into the feudal state of the Eastern Slavs - the Old Russian Kiev state. In the literature, different historians date this event in different ways. However, most authors agree that the emergence of the Old Russian state should be attributed to the 9th century.
The question of how the Old Russian state was formed is not entirely clear either. The oldest chronicle code "The Tale of Bygone Years" suggests that in the 9th century. The Old Russian state was created by the Varangians, although it does not directly mention this. We are only talking about the fact that three Varangian princes came to Rus' and sat on the thrones in 862: Rurik - in Novgorod, Truvor - in Izborsk (not far from Pskov), Sineus - in Beloozero. This chronicle reference was adopted as early as the 18th century. a group of German historians who worked at the Russian Academy of Sciences and developed the Varangian version of the formation of the Russian state.
Already at that time, Normanism met with objections from leading Russian scientists, among whom was M.V. Lomonosov. Modern domestic scientists and major researchers of the Slavic countries mainly reject the Norman theory. However, a certain part of foreign authors still preach this theory, although not in such a primitive form as it was done before.
The main refutation of the Norman theory is the rather high level of social and political development of the Eastern Slavs in the 9th century. The ancient Russian state was prepared by the centuries-old development of the Eastern Slavs.
1. Gordienko NS. "Baptism of Rus'": facts against legends and myths. L., 1986.
2. Grekov B. D. Kievan Rus. M., 1953.
3. Lovmyansky H. Rus' and the Normans. M., 1985.
4. Mavrodina R.M. Kievan Rus and nomads (Pechenegs, Torks, Cumans). L., 1983.
Scientists cannot say exactly when the Old Russian state appeared even in our time. Different groups of historians talk about many dates, but most of them agree on one thing: the appearance of Ancient Rus' can be dated to the 9th century. That is why various theories of the origin of the ancient Russian state are widespread, each of which tries to prove its own version of the emergence of a great state.
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The emergence of the ancient Russian state briefly
As it is written in the world-famous Tale of Bygone Years, Rurik and his brothers were called to reign in Novgorod in 862. This date for many became the beginning of the countdown of the statehood of Ancient Rus'. Varangian princes sat on thrones in Novgorod (Rurik), Izborsk (Truvor), in Belozero (Sineus). After some time, Rurik managed to unite the presented lands under a single authority.
Oleg, a prince from Novgorod, in 882 captured Kyiv to unite the most important groups of lands, and then annexed the rest of the territories. It was from that period that the lands of the Eastern Slavs united into a large state. In other words, the formation of the ancient Russian state dates back to the 9th century, according to most scientists.
The most common theories of the origin of the ancient Russian state
Norman theory 
The Norman theory tells that the Varangians, who at one time were called to the throne, were able to organize the state. We are talking about the brothers that were mentioned above. It is worth noting that this theory originates in The Tale of Bygone Years. Why were the Varangians able to organize the state? The thing is that the Slavs allegedly quarreled among themselves, unable to come to a common decision. Representatives of the Norman theory say that the Russian rulers turned to foreign princes for help. It was in this way that the Vikings established the state system in Rus'.
Anti-Norman theory
The anti-Norman theory says that the state of Ancient Rus' appeared for other, more objective reasons. Many historical sources say that the statehood of the Eastern Slavs took place before the Varangians. For that period historical development the Normans were below the Slavs in terms of political development. In addition, the state cannot arise in one day thanks to one person, it is the result of a long social phenomenon. Autochthonous (in other words, the Slavic theory) was developed thanks to its followers - N. Kostomarov, M. Grushevsky. The founder of this theory is the scientist M. Lomonosov.
Other notable theories
In addition to these most common theories, there are several more. Let's consider them in more detail.
THE IRANO-SLAVIC THEORY of the emergence of the state suggests that there were 2 certain types Russ - residents of Rügen (Rus-encouraged), as well as the Black Sea Rus. Some Ilmenian Slovenes invited Russ-encouragers. The rapprochement of the Russ occurred precisely after the unification of the tribes into one state.
COMPROMISE theory in other words is called Slavic-Varangian. One of the first adopters of this approach to the formation of the Russian state was the historical figure Klyuchevsky. The historian singled out a certain urban area - an early local political form. We are talking about a trading district, which was ruled by a fortified city. He called the Varangian principalities the second local political form. After the unification of the Varangian principalities and the preservation of the independence of the city regions, another political form emerged, called the Grand Duchy of Kyiv.
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In addition, there is a theory called the Indo-Iranian. This theory is based on the opinion that Ros and Rus are completely different nationalities that arose in different time.
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The moment of the emergence of the state cannot be accurately dated, since there was a gradual development of political formations into a feudal state. Most historians agree that the emergence of the state should be attributed to the 9th century: 862- year of calling Rurik or 882- the year of the unification of Kyiv and Novgorod. Although it is not known when and how the first principalities arose, but, in any case, they already existed before 862. In some German chronicles, already from 839, Russian princes are called kagans. This means that it was not the Varangian leaders who organized Russian state, and the already existing state gave them government posts.
1. Theory of conquest.
The strongest and largest tribes of the Eastern Slavs sought to expand their territory (judging by the annals, the Eastern Slavs were a warlike people). As a result of military campaigns, the Slavs received booty, which led to property stratification (at the same time, government bodies are formed - a prince and a squad are needed for campaigns). Gradually, during the conquest, political associations are formed. TO 8th century formed - Slavia, Ortania, Kuyavia.
Thus, the most powerful tribe imposes tribute on other tribes, this leads to the need to rule, as a result, a state arises. The process of conquering new territories was carried out with the help of military campaigns, as a result of which the tribes strengthened and expanded their territories. In 882 Prince Oleg captured Kiev, and united it with Novgorod, then conquered the Krivichi, Murom, Polochan, in 883 - the Drevlyans, in 884 - the northerners, in 886 - the Radimichi, Croats, Tivertsy, Dulebs. The prince imposed tribute on the conquered tribes - an intrastate tax.
2. Contract theory.
The state arose not by conquest, but by concluding agreements between the prince and the veche, when the prince was invited to reign for protection. The prince formed the apparatus, the squad, led the campaigns. Rurik became the first prince to conclude an agreement with Veche .
3. Tax theory.
The presence of a tax system is an integral feature of the state (if there is no tax system, then there is no state). The establishment of the tax system occurred after the conquests of neighboring tribes by the first Kyiv princes, they taxed the occupied territories with tribute, but tribute collections were not systematized. In 945 Igor was killed by the Drevlyans while trying to collect tribute a second time. After his death Olga reformed the taxation system, which contributed to the strengthening of the power of the prince. Some scholars consider Olga's transformations to be tax reform, because the boundaries of the territories of the tribes from which tribute was collected, officials were determined, the procedure for collecting tribute (polyudye or wagon), and the size were regulated. Thus, the state arises in the tenth century.
4. Urban theory (trading).
Normanists are unanimous on 2 fundamental issues: the Normans achieved dominance over the Slavs by military seizure or invitation to reign; the word "Rus" Norman origin(the name of the tribe where Rurik was from).
Against this theory in the 18th century Mikhail Lomonosov(also A.I. Herzen, V.G. Belinsky, N.G. Chernyshevsky), Lomonosov claimed that Rurik was from Prussia, and Prussia is “in Russian”, Russians are Slavs). Since then, the struggle between Normanists and anti-Normanists has not subsided.
chief a refutation of the Norman theory is that in terms of the level of development in the 9th century, the Slavs were higher than the Varangians, so they could not borrow the experience of state building from them. The state cannot organize one or several even the most prominent men. The state is a product of the development of society. In addition, it is known that the Russian principalities, for various reasons and at different times, invited squads not only of the Varangians, but also of the steppes. Anti-Normanists believe that the term "Rus" is of pre-Varangian origin. There are places in the PVL that contradict the legend about the calling of 3 brothers to reign. For the year 852 there is an indication that during the reign of Michael in Byzantium there was already Russian land. In the Laurentian and Ipatiev Chronicles, it is said that all the northern tribes, including Rus', invited the Varangians to reign.
B. Rybakov: “Historians have long paid attention to the anecdotal nature of the “brothers” of Rurik, who himself, however, (possibly) was a historical person, and the “brothers” turned out to be a Russian translation of Swedish words. About Rurik it is said that he came with "his birth" ("sine hus" - "one's kind" - Sineus) and faithful squad ("thru waring" - "faithful squad" - Truvor). In other words, a retelling of some Scandinavian legend about the activities of Rurik got into the annals, and the author of the annals, who did not know Swedish well, mistook the mention in the oral saga of the prince's traditional entourage for the names of his brothers.
There are almost no traces of the Varangian influence: on 10 thousand km 2 of the territory of Rus' - 5 Scandinavian geographical names, and in England, subjected to the Norman invasion -150
PVL was compiled at the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries, did not reach us in the original. Known List contains many contradictions. The chronicler, fulfilling the order, could admit that the version of the origin of the princes from the Varangians would exalt the princely power (the Varangians in the XI-XII centuries played a prominent role in Europe). Another challenge Nestor there could also be a desire to show the supra-class nature of the state and the prince in order to stop civil strife and social conflicts.
Soviet researchers Tikhomirov, Likhachev believe that the entry about the calling of the Varangians appeared in the annals later in order to oppose Rus' and Byzantium. For this, the author needed to indicate the foreign origin of the dynasty. Shakhmatov believed that the Varangian squads began to be called Rus after they moved south. And in Scandinavia it is impossible to learn about the Rus tribe.
Both concepts proved to be dead ends. In addition, there are also other opinions. Mokshin proves the Greek origin of the name "Rus". About the existence of Rus' as the Tmutarakan principality in the ΙX century, writes A.N. Nasonov, M.V. Levchenko. A.T. Fomenko, S.I. Valyansky believe that the whole story with the calling of the Varangians is a late insertion made for political reasons, and in support of this version they provide evidence of falsification of the numbering of chronicles.
Scientific results of bicentenary discussions consist in the fact that none of the schools can explain what "Rus" is; if it is an ethnos, then where it was localized, for what reasons it intensified and where it subsequently disappeared. However, the Norman theory does not explain the reasons for the emergence of the state. The Norman element could not and did not introduce the state idea into the Slavic world. The Old Russian state arose as a result of the socio-economic processes of the transition of society from the primitive communal to the feudal system.
Rus' was not the first state formation among the Slavs. The Slavs have come a long way of state development. The formation of the Novgorod and Kyiv principalities was prepared by the development of many state formations Slavs during the period of decomposition of the primitive communal system and the formation of feudalism.
NORMANN (VARIAZH) THEORY
Historically, the first theory explaining the phenomenon of the emergence of the state among the Eastern Slavs was the so-called Norman theory. Her "godfathers" were German scientists G.3. Bayer (1694--1738) and G.F. Miller (1705-1783), who claimed that the Old Russian state was founded by immigrants from Scandinavia - the Normans, who in Rus' were called the Varangians. At the same time, scientists referred to the data of the oldest Russian chronicle - "The Tale of Bygone Years" by the monk Nestor, in which, under 862, the myth of the calling of the Varangians to the lands of the Chud, Slovenes, Krivichi and Vesi is indeed placed. From the Varangians, according to The Tale of Bygone Years, the name of Rus' also came about. senate reign state old russian
“They [Chud, Slovenes, Krivichi and all] went across the sea to the Varangians, to Rus',” reports Nestor the Chronicler. - For that is how they called those Varangians - Rus ... The Chuds, Slovenes, Krivichi and the whole Rus said: “Our land is great and generous, but there is no order in it. Come reign and rule over us."
“And three brothers got out with their families, and they took all of Rus' with them. And they first came to the Slovenes, and set up the city of Ladoga. And the oldest Rurik sat in Ladoga, and the second, Sineus, on the White Lake, and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. And from those Varangians the Russian land got its name.
Then the chronicler unfolds before our eyes a genealogical legend about the successors of Rurik. After the death of the “founding father,” he says, power passed to his relative Oleg, who in 882 seized Kyiv by deceit and united northern and southern Rus' into one state with Kiev as its capital. When Oleg "accepted death from his horse" (912), Igor, who was named the son of Rurik by the chronicler, became the prince. And when Igor was killed by the Drevlyans (945), his widow Olga began to rule. As you can see, all the first rulers of Rus' have Varangian names.
The main arguments of the Normanists are as follows:
- 1. Rus' got its name from the Finnish word "ruotsi", which in the middle of the 9th century. called Swedes.
- 2. The oldest chronicle includes the Rus among other Varangian peoples - Swedes, Urmans (Norwegians), Angles and Goths.
- 3. Most of the names of "Russian" ambassadors recorded in treaties with Byzantium (911, 944) are clearly of Scandinavian origin (Karl, Inegeld, Farlof, Veremud).
- 4. All the first rulers of Rus' have Scandinavian names (Rurik, Oleg, Igor, Olga).
- 5. In the Western European "Bertin Annals" it is noted that around 839 the Byzantine emperor sent an embassy to the Frankish emperor Louis I the Pious, which included representatives of the "people grew"; Louis decided that these "dews" were Swedes.
- 6. The Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in his book “On the Administration of the Empire” (c. 950) cites both Slavic and “Russian” names for the Dnieper rapids. Most of the "Russian" names are clearly of Old Norman origin.
- 7. Islamic geographers and travelers of the IX-X centuries. always clearly separated the "Rus" from the "Sakaliba" (Slavs).
Among the prominent Ukrainian historians of the “old school”, D. Doroshenko firmly stood on the positions of Normanism. In his opinion, the newcomers-Varangians played "the role of the ovary, the role of cement", holding together the scattered Russian tribes into one whole, uniting them "into one political system, into one power."
SLAVIC (AUTOCHTHONIC) THEORY
Well-known Ukrainian historians of the "old school" - N. Kostomarov, V. Antonovich, M. Grushevsky, D. Bagaliy - adhered to the Slavic theory of the origin of Rus' and firmly stood on the positions of anti-Normanism. The founder of the Slavic (or autochthonous, anti-Norman) theory of the origin of the Old Russian state was the Russian scientist M. Lomonosov (1711 - 1762). In the Varangian version, he saw a blasphemous allusion to the "inferiority" of the Slavs, to their inability to independently organize a state on their lands.
The main arguments of the anti-Normanists are as follows:
- 1. The name "Rus" is etymologically connected not with Veliky Novgorod or Ladoga in the north, but with Ukraine (Middle Dnieper). The toponymic proof of this statement is the presence in this area of the rivers with the names Ros, Rusa, Rostavitsa. In addition, in the Syrian "Church History" of Pseudo-Zacharia Rhetor (555), long before the arrival of the Normans in Eastern Europe, the people Hros or "Rus", who lived south of Kiev, are mentioned.
- 2. Tribes or people with the name "Rus" did not live in Scandinavia; they are not mentioned in the Scandinavian sagas.
- 3. The Norman names of the Byzantine ambassadors to the emperor of the Franks (839) and the Russian ambassadors to Byzantium (911) do not at all prove that the Rus were Swedes. The Norman diplomats merely represented the Slavic-Russian princes.
- 4. The Islamic writer Ibn Khordadbeg, who wrote between 840 and 880, unequivocally calls the Rus a Slavic tribe.
- 5. Archaeological material from Eastern Europe gives very few items of Varangian origin.
- 6. The Normans could not "export" the idea of statehood and state structures to Eastern Europe, since in Scandinavia itself in that era the process of decomposition of primitive communal relations had not yet completed and there were no more advanced political institutions than those of the Eastern Slavs.
According to Academician B. Rybakov, Normanism arose when “both German and Russian science were still in their infancy, when historians had very vague ideas about the complex centuries-old process of the birth of statehood. Neither the system of the Slavic economy nor the long evolution of social relations were known to scientists. The "export" of statehood from another country, carried out by two or three militant detachments, seemed then a natural form of the birth of the state.
In The Tale of Bygone Years, the process of the birth of the state is compressed to several decades of the 9th century, and the millennium of creating the prerequisites for such a birth fit into the life of one hero - the founder of the state. This is explained by the mythological thinking of the chronicler and the medieval habit of replacing the whole with a part, a symbol (for example, in the drawings, the city was replaced by the image of one tower, and the army - by one horseman). The state, in this case, was replaced by the symbolic personality of Prince Oleg.
IRANO-SLAVIC THEORY
According to this theory, there are two types of Rus - Russ-encouragement or Rugs, residents of Rügen (Baltic Slavs), and Black Sea Ruses, descendants of Slavic and Iranian tribes. The Ilmenian Slovenes invited the Russians-encouraging. With the unification of the East Slavic tribes into a single state - Rus', there is a convergence of two types of Rus.
Narrative and linguistic sources prove the ancient origin of the ethnonym Rus in the form "ros" in the Northern Black Sea region. The Iranian origin, in the form "rus", was pointed out at one time by A.I. Rogov and B.N. Florya. In the "Getica" of Jordanes, a Gothic historian of the 6th century, there is a mention of the Rosomon tribe. The form "ros" in M. Fasmer is identified with the ancient Iranian word auruљa, which means "white", as well as in the Ossetian vors. A.G. Kuzmin deciphered the name of the tribe "Roxalans" as light or white Alans. So, the form "ros" has an identity with the Iranian languages (from the word "rohs"). From the time of the Scythian domination in the Northern Black Sea region, Iranian-speaking peoples had influence on non-Iranian tribes. Among these non-Iranian tribes were the Slavic tribes (Antes) that lived between the Dnieper and Dontsov region in the early Middle Ages, and who had relations with the Iranian tribes.
The Ant language had its own peculiarities. According to V.V. Sedov, the Ant dialect stood out among other Proto-Slavic dialects. a large number Iranianisms. F.P. Filin pointed to the existence of Iranian-Slavic lexical connections. In addition to the language, the name of the Ants expressively testifies to the influence of the Iranian-speaking peoples. According to B.A. Rybakov, the ethnonym "Antes" was of Iranian origin. Researchers F.P. Filin and O.B. Bubenok developed this assumption in more detail. According to their thought, the word "anti" is consonant with the ancient Iranian words antas (end, edge), antyas (what is on the edge) and Ossetian attiiya (back, behind). Based on this meaning, the word "anti" can be translated as "living in Ukraine, border resident." Before that, we can only add that the ethnonym "Antes" is not a self-name of the Slavs, but only a nickname for their location. In addition to Ants and Rus, some other Slavic ethnonyms also have Iranian origin - Serbs, Croats. According to this, it can be assumed that the Slavic tribes Antes and Russ got their names from the Iranian tribes.
CELTO-SLAVIC THEORY
According to Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine V.G. Sklyarenko, the Novgorodians turned for help to the Varangians-Slavs (Baltic Slavs), who were called Rutens or Russ. The name Rutens (Rus) comes from one of the Celtic tribes, since the Ruthenian Celts took part in the ethnic formation of the Slavs of the island of Rügen. In addition to them, there were still the Azov-Black Sea Ruses - the descendants of the Antes and the Ruthenian Celts, known even before the Novgorodians invited the Varangians-Slavs. Both the Azov-Black Sea Russ and the Varangians-Russ are of Slavic-Celtic origin, only the first ones are East Slavic-Celtic, and the second ones are of West Slavic-Celtic origin. A Zaporozhye Cossacks were descendants of the Azov-Black Sea Rus.
COMPROMISE (SLAVIC-VARANGIAN) THEORY
One of the first attempts to connect the Norman theory with the ideas of anti-Normanists about the local, Slavic roots of the Old Russian state was made by the famous Russian historian V. Klyuchevsky. He considered the earliest local political form, formed in Rus' around the middle of the 9th century, to be “a city region, that is, a trading district controlled by a fortified city, which at the same time served as an industrial (handicraft) center for this district.” The second local political form, in his opinion, was the "Varangian principalities". From the combination of the Varangian principalities and the city regions that retained their independence, a third political form emerged - the Grand Duchy of Kiev, which became "the grain of that union of Slavic and neighboring Finnish tribes, which can be recognized as the original form of the Russian state."
Ukrainian historians A. Efimenko and I. Krypyakevich also had a similar compromise point of view.
INDO-IRANIAN THEORY
The Indo-Iranian hypothesis insists that the ethnonym "Ros" has a different origin than "Rus", being much more ancient. Proponents of this opinion, also originating from M.V. Lomonosov, note that the people "growing up" were first mentioned back in the 6th century in "Church History" by Zakhary Rhetor, where they are placed next to the peoples of "dog people" and Amazons, which many authors interpret as the Northern Black Sea region. From this point of view, he is erected to the Iranian-speaking (Sarmatian) tribes of the Roxalans or Rosomones, mentioned by ancient authors. Most fully substantiated by O. N. Trubachev (*ruksi "white, light" > *rutsi > *russi > Rus).
A variant of this theory was developed by G.V. Vernadsky, who placed the original territory of the Rus in the Kuban Delta and believed that they learned their name from the Roxalans (“bright Alans”), who, in his opinion, were part of the Antes. At the same time, he considered the Rus to be ethnic Scandinavians.
In the 60s. In the 20th century, the Ukrainian archaeologist D. T. Berezovets proposed to identify the Alanian population of the Don region, known from the monuments of the Saltov-Mayak culture, with the Rus. Currently, this hypothesis is being developed by E. S. Galkina, who identifies the Don region with the central part of the Russian Khaganate, mentioned in Muslim, Byzantine and Western sources in the 9th century. She believes that after the defeat of this association by the tribes of the Hungarians in the con. IX century, the name "Rus" from the Iranian-speaking Rus-Alans (Roksolans) passed to the Slavic population of the Middle Dnieper region (glade, northerners). As one of the arguments, Galkin cites the Alanian (based on Ossetian language) etymologization of all other than the Slavic "Russian" names of the Dnieper rapids from the work of Konstantin Porphyrogenitus.
THE KHAZAR THEORY
According to Professor of Harvard University (USA) O. Pritsak, the author of the six-volume study "The Origin of Rus'", the Old Russian state was not founded by either the Varangians or the Slavs. It was a multi-ethnic and multilingual trade union, which, in the process of establishing its control over the trade routes between the Baltic, Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, created a political association in Eastern Europe called Rus. In other words, "Rus" was originally called not an ethnic community (not a tribe or people), but a special mobile social group(corporation), which consisted of professional soldiers-merchants. The synthesis of the corporation of sea and river nomads (Vikings, Varangians) with the steppe nomads (Khazars) contributed, according to Pritsak, to the appearance in the IX-X centuries. Volga-Russian Khaganate.
Many modern Ukrainian historians opposed O. Pritsak's concept. One of the main opponents of the American professor was, in particular, Academician P. Tolochko. Among the weakest arguments of Pritsak, he attributed his thesis about the “export” of statehood to the Slavic lands from neighboring countries (not only by another people, as was the case with the Normanists, but by a mythical multinational trade union), as well as the assertion that Kiev was originally a Khazar city.
