"Russian Land." Slavs, Varangians, Normans, and Rus'
Vasnetsov A. M. Ancient Veliky Novgorod
In previous articles, we noted that a number of medieval authors clearly distinguished the contemporary Rus' (Russes) from the Slavs. Typically, the Rus' are portrayed as people similar to the Scandinavians, and are sometimes even directly identified with the Normans. Their place of residence is identified as the banks of the Dnieper River and the northern Black Sea region, where they appeared long before Rurik's "calling." The famous Icelander Snorri Sturluson was also convinced of this, writing in one of the "royal sagas" of the collection "The Circle of the Earth":
North of the Black Sea lies Great, or Cold, Sweden... (On many Scandinavian maps of the time, the south-north direction does not coincide with the modern one, but is rotated 45 degrees and points northeast). From the north, from the mountains beyond the inhabited areas, a river flows through Sweden, the correct name of which is Tanais (Don)... It flows into the Black Sea. The area at its mouth was then called the land of the Vanir. This river divides thirds of the world. The one to the east is called Asia... The country in Asia east of Tanais is called the Land of the Aesir or the home of the Aesir, and the capital of the country was called Asgard. The ruler there was one called Odin...
And this is an excerpt from the Younger Edda (a textbook of skaldic poetry) that he wrote:
Odin and his wife received a prophecy, revealing that his name would be exalted in the northern part of the world and revered above all kings. So he set out on a journey... Odin and his people were celebrated and considered gods...
According to Sturlson, after Odin's death, Njord of Noatun became the ruler of "Little Sweden" (i.e., the state on the territory of modern-day Sweden)—not an Aesir, but a hostage from the Vanir clan, whom many researchers tend to see as the familiar Wends. Note that the Scandinavians are completely at ease with the idea that the mythical ancestor of their Yngling kings was a Slav, and don't even think of harboring any complexes about it.
Njord's great-grandson, Sveigdir, vowed to find the old Odin's home, Asgard, and traveled to Greater Sweden, where he met many relatives. This journey, according to the Ynglinga Saga, lasted five years. It also states that Odin's great-grandson, Froddi, ruled the country later called Denmark, during the reign of Emperor Augustus. It states: "Then Christ was born."
Thus, Sturlson argues that, firstly, the ancestors of the Scandinavians lived in the Northern Black Sea region, and, secondly, that at the beginning of the new era, tribes related to the Scandinavians lived there.
It's worth noting that one of the oldest Scandinavian runic inscriptions known to science was discovered near Kovel (in modern-day Ukraine). It was inscribed on a spearhead and dates back to the 3rd–4th centuries AD.
A number of historians believe that the ethnonyms and names of the Rus' people indicate their Germanic origins. A striking example, they argue, is the names of the Dnieper rapids, which the Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, in his 10th-century work "On State Administration," cites both "in Russian" (Essup, Ulvoren, Gelandri, Eufar, Varouforos, Leanty, Struvun) and "in Slavic" (Ostrovuniprakh, Neyasit, Vulniprakh, Verutsi, Naprezi). In the 19th century, M.P. Pogodin called two of these rapids—Gelandri and Varouforos—"two pillars that will always support Normanism and withstand any axe." His opponent, N.A. Dobrolyubov, wrote about this in the ironic poem "Two Pillars":
Gelandri and Varuforos - these are my two pillars!
They put my theory on fate.
Thresholds this name so Leberg explained
From the Norman language, there is no way to argue.
Of course, the Greek author could have distorted them,
But he could, contrary to custom, write correctly.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gelandri and Varouforos are, so to speak, the bulls,
Oh koby you beat in vain fists.
They put my theory on fate.
Thresholds this name so Leberg explained
From the Norman language, there is no way to argue.
Of course, the Greek author could have distorted them,
But he could, contrary to custom, write correctly.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Gelandri and Varouforos are, so to speak, the bulls,
Oh koby you beat in vain fists.
Currently, it has been possible to translate the names of all the rapids into modern Russian, but to save time, I will provide the translations of the names of two rapids mentioned in Dobrolyubov's poem: Gelandri (giallandi) - "Noise of the Rapid"; Varuforos - baruforos ("Strong Wave") or varuforos ("High Cliff"). Another rapid, Eufor (eifors - "Eternally Furious," "Eternally Noisy"), is interesting because its name appears in a runic inscription on the Pilgard Stone (Gotland).
It's known that there were differences between the Rus' and the Slavs at the everyday level as well: the Rus' washed in a communal basin, shaved their heads, leaving a tuft of hair on the crown, lived in military settlements, and "fed" themselves off the spoils of war. The Slavs, on the other hand, washed under running water, cut their hair in a circle, and engaged in agriculture and livestock breeding. Incidentally, Olga's son, Prince Svyatoslav, according to Byzantine descriptions, was indeed a Rus': "he had a single tuft of hair on his head as a sign of his noble birth."
This is how Svyatoslav is depicted on a monument in the village of Kholki in the Belgorod region.
It should be noted that the Scandinavians themselves knew nothing of the "people of Rus": they called themselves Swedes, Danes, Normans, and referred to Kievan Rus' as "Gardariki" ("Country of Cities"). The Slavs also didn't call themselves Rus' at that time: Kyiv was inhabited by Poles, Smolensk, Polotsk, and Pskov by Krivichi, Novgorod by Slovenes, and so on. Only at the beginning of the 12th century does the author of the "Tale of Bygone Years" identify the Poles with the Rus': "Poles, who are called Rus'." We see that by that time the Rus' and the Kievan Slavs had already become thoroughly intermingled. But differences still remained, and the German chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg, drawing on accounts from Poles who visited Rus' in 1177, writes of Kyiv:
In the large city, which was the capital of this state, there were more than 400 churches, 8 market places and an extraordinary concentration of people, which, like the whole region, consisted of runaway slaves who had flocked here from everywhere, and very nimble Danes.
In this case, the Danes refer to all people who speak the "northern language"; in Western Europe, the words "Danes" and "Normans" were often used as synonyms.
The same can be said about Novgorod – the author of The Tale of Bygone Years directly states that its residents “became varnished” due to the appearance here of a large number of “overseas” settlers:
The Novgorodians are people from the Varangian clan, but before that they were Slavs.
That is, we can speak of close interaction between the Slavs and Scandinavians on the territory of the Russian principalities and active mutual influence.
Russian land
In the earliest sources of that time—both ancient Russian and foreign—we see how authors carefully distinguish between the Slavs, Rus', and Varangians, while chroniclers also identify individual Slavic tribes. For example, the entry for the year 944 reads:
Igor gathered together many warriors: Varangians, Rus, Polyans, and Slavs.
That is, the Varangians and the Rus turn out to be different people.
And from some chronicles, we learn with surprise that the borders of the "Russian land" initially do not coincide with the borders of the Old Russian state. One chronicle states that the Russian land is located on the route "from the Varangians to the Greeks," as well as "to the Bulgars and Khvalisy," and "along the Dvina to the Varangians." That is, exclusively along the most important waterways.
S. Ivanov. "Trading in the Land of the Eastern Slavs" – here we see the area along the route "to Khvalisy." On the left are an Arab and Khazar merchant, as well as merchants from Central Asia; on the right are a Slav, a Rus' man with "a single lock of hair on his head as a sign of his noble origin," and a representative of the Finno-Ugric tribes; in the center is a slave for sale.
The chronicles also report that to the north of the Russian land there is the “Varangian Sea” (Baltic), and to the south – the “Russian” (Black).
B. Rybakov offers the following version of the evolution of the concept of "Russian land": initially, it included Kyiv and Porosye, then Kyiv, Porosye, Chernigov, Pereyaslavl, the Seversk land, Kursk, possibly the eastern part of Volyn, and finally, all the East Slavic lands. But during the period of feudal fragmentation, separate lands emerged—Suzdal, Smolensk, Seversk, Novgorod, and so on. And the "Russian land" gradually became a territory inhabited by Orthodox Christians, who were contrasted with pagans, Catholics, and Muslims. And in a number of sources, expressions such as:
To defend one's fatherland and for the holy churches and for the orthodox Christian faith and for the entire Russian land.
Modern versions of the origin of the word "Rus"
Currently, there are two main theories about the origin of this word. According to the "northern" theory, it is of Finnish origin – from the word Ruotsi, which in turn is borrowed from Old Norse (rodsmen – "rower") and means "people (or warriors) in boats." In modern Finnish, Ruotsi is... Sweden (!). The Finns call Russia Venaja, and the Estonians call it Venemaa – clearly referring to the Slavic union of the Wends. The fact is that the Finns and Estonians' neighbors, the Novgorodians, unlike the Kyivans, traced their descent from the Western Slavs, the Wends, and not from the Eastern Slavs, the Antes. In Latvia, Russia is called Krievija, where we hear the name of the Krivichi tribe.
Proponents of this theory believe that in the East, the Scandinavians called themselves Rus' (rowers) because they couldn't use their traditional "long ships" and were forced to use so-called "odnoderevkas." Since they came from the Estonians and Finns, Novgorodians who first saw them might have asked their neighbors: "Who are these?" And they heard the very word Ruotsi, which was transformed into "Rus'." Thus, in the famous phrase from The Tale of Bygone Years, "the Varangian tribe Rus," the chronicler may have simply been explaining to his readers the Varangians' occupation. However, later readers decided that this was the name of a specific Varangian tribe.
In their work "The Normans in Rus' before Vladimir the Saint," B. Bogoyavlensky and K. Mitrofanov concluded that the "Rus" mentioned in the Tale of Bygone Years were people of Scandinavian origin who settled in the area of today's Staraya Ladoga no later than the early 9th century. There, they founded the city of Aldeigaborg, which was later claimed as a vienna by Ingigerd, the Swedish wife of Yaroslav the Wise. They rested there and transferred from large seagoing vessels to small riverboats. Moreover, the main trade route was not the Dnieper, but the Volga: the Dnieper was primarily used not by merchants, but by warriors seeking to enter the service of the Kievan prince or even the emperor of Constantinople.
The latest archaeological research has shown that the Normans appeared not only on the shores of Lake Ladoga, but also on Lake Beloye and the Upper Volga approximately a hundred years earlier than the Slavs.
Many believe that in the quoted passage about Igor's warriors ("Igor, gathering many warriors. Varangians and Rus', and Polyans, and Slavs"), the chronicler refers to the inhabitants of Ladoga and the surrounding region as Rus', and to the members of organized Norman retinues, specially hired by the prince for the campaign against Constantinople, as Varangians. The Swedish historian A. Strinnholm wrote on this matter:
The name of the Varangians is most simply and naturally derived from the word vaeria, found in ancient Swedish laws – to protect, defend, or from varda – to guard, to protect; from this varda, or, according to another pronunciation, garda, probably comes the word Gardingi, which in ancient Visigothic laws meant the royal bodyguards, hence Garde – guard.
Returning to the mysterious "Rus," it's logical to assume that the Byzantines originally referred to the warriors of the Kievan princes as "ros" ("boat warriors"), regardless of their nationality. Incidentally, this is explicitly stated in the work of the 10th-century Arab geographer Shams al-Din al-Muqaddasi al-Bashshari:
An army from Rum, which is called Rus.
Later, the term "Rus" came to refer to the entire population of the country, regardless of occupation or tribal affiliation. The Arab merchant Abu al-Qasim ibn Hawqal al-Nisibi, mentioned in previous articles, clearly stated this as early as the mid-10th century:
Rus, Khazar and Sarir are the names of states and regions, not people and clans.
Already at the beginning of the 11th century, Yahya ibn Sa'id of Antioch (years of life: about 980 – about 1066) speaks of Vladimir Svyatoslavich as the “king of the Rus”:
The Rus' king married Basil the Bulgar-Slayer's sister after he stipulated that he and all his people—a great nation—be baptized. Basil subsequently sent metropolitans and bishops to him, and they baptized the king and all those within his lands. He also sent his sister to him, who built many churches in the Rus' land. When the marriage was decided between them, the Rus' army also arrived and joined with Basil's Greek forces, and they all set out to fight Bardas Phocas by sea and land at Chrysopolis. They defeated Phocas.
But another Arab author, al-Mas'udi, who lived in the 10th century, calls Dir not a Russian, but a Slavic king:
The first of the Slavic kings is ad-Dir. He has vast cities and numerous lands.
Although Russian chronicles consider Askold and Dir to be Varangians from Rurik’s army, whom Oleg, who was clearly familiar to them, later accused of “insufficient legitimacy.”
Supporters of the "southern" version believe that the word "Rus" comes from an Iranian root meaning "light", "white" (in comparison with the dark-skinned Iranian-speaking population of the northern Black Sea region - the Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans).
There's a good chance that there were two words that sounded roughly the same ("rus," "ros," etc.) but meant different things, i.e., were homonyms. The similarity in sound between these words led to their actualization and merging.
A modern look at the Norman problem
In his modern commentary on A. Strynnholm's seminal work, "Viking Campaigns," Russian historian A. Khlevov makes the following observations:
In domestic stories The question of the participation of Scandinavian warriors in the genesis of the Old Russian state acquired a painful and extremely politicized, emotionally charged form of the so-called Norman problem... The end of the discussion was put by the recognition of the facts that:
a). The settlement of Slavs and Scandinavians among the autochthonous Finns and Balts unfolded almost simultaneously, in opposite directions and had, in principle, the same character (extortion of tribute from the local population with a predominance of the colonization-settlement principle among the Slavs);
b) The state matured quite naturally, without needing any cultural “impetuses”, and initially arose as a mechanism for regulating the tributary-power balance and as a means of organizing transit trade along the Volga route and the Route from the Varangians to the Greeks;
c). The Scandinavians made an important contribution to the development of Ancient Rus' precisely as highly professional warriors, imparting distinctiveness and character to the emerging state and successfully harmonizing with the spiritual component that came from Byzantium.
a). The settlement of Slavs and Scandinavians among the autochthonous Finns and Balts unfolded almost simultaneously, in opposite directions and had, in principle, the same character (extortion of tribute from the local population with a predominance of the colonization-settlement principle among the Slavs);
b) The state matured quite naturally, without needing any cultural “impetuses”, and initially arose as a mechanism for regulating the tributary-power balance and as a means of organizing transit trade along the Volga route and the Route from the Varangians to the Greeks;
c). The Scandinavians made an important contribution to the development of Ancient Rus' precisely as highly professional warriors, imparting distinctiveness and character to the emerging state and successfully harmonizing with the spiritual component that came from Byzantium.
Academician D.S. Likhachev, by the way, even proposed the term “Scandobyzantium”.
Thus, it can be assumed that people of Scandinavian descent could have been neighbors of the Slavs not only in the north (Ladoga and its environs), but also in the south (the Northern Black Sea region). However, the natural course of events gradually led to their complete assimilation by the more numerous Slavs and the formation of a state entity on this basis, which 19th-century historians gave the conventional (though never actually existing) name "Kievan Rus."
Information