The Rus' Squad: Varangians, the Steppe, and a Warrior Who Fought with a Spear
The early warriors are often thought of as either Varangian or Slavic, and the warrior a swordsman on horseback. Let's try to understand who he really was and why the conventional image is misleading.
Take dozens of 10th-century swords from Russian burials and examine their edges. Most have few or no serrations. Meanwhile, spears from the same period are worn: the sockets are deformed, the shafts have been repaired and replaced. A few simple observations overturn the conventional wisdom: the warrior fought less often than we think, and used his spear primarily. And behind weapons A bigger question arises: what was the squad of early Rus and who did it consist of?
Whose squad was it?
The debate over the origins of the druzhina is usually divided into two camps. Some insist it was a Varangian army that came from the north. Others see it as a primordial Slavic militia, growing out of the tribal nobility. How the Slavs fought before the emergence of Rus' — is the subject of the first article in the series; here we will discuss what replaced it.
A. A. Gorsky in his monograph "Old Russian squad" The historical record shows that princely bands of the 9th and 10th centuries were of mixed Scandinavian and Slavic composition. Burial mounds from this period reveal a noticeable Scandinavian component in the form of weapons, jewelry, and burial rites. However, this same component gradually faded into the Slavic milieu. Gorsky dates the appearance of Scandinavian artifacts in the Upper Dnieper region to the late 9th century, and in the Middle Dnieper region to the early 10th. The picture then changes: by the 11th and 12th centuries, the proportion of Slavs in the bands increased, and the number of foreigners became insignificant.
It's worth immediately dismissing the notion of armies of thousands. Estimates of the size of a squad vary widely, from a hundred to three thousand men, but researchers most often lean toward a core of approximately 100–300 professional warriors. This isn't much. By the standards of the era, such a core constituted about one to three percent of the population of a small town of eight to fifteen thousand residents. But each squad member drew servants, clients, and dependents, and around this core, when needed, a militia would form. Compared to the entire population, it was a mere drop. However, trained and equipped fighters were few in the city, and this professional hundred outweighed any militia in training and equipment: it was they who decided the outcome.
V. Ya. Petrukhin in the book "The beginning of ethnocultural stories Rus' of the 9th–11th centuries" adds an important twist to this. According to one influential version, the name itself "Rus" Initially, the term was applied to Scandinavian groups operating in Eastern Europe, and the local Slavic population was gradually incorporated into this military-trading contingent. The origin of the ethnonym remains a subject of debate, but the logic of its inclusion remains valid regardless of how the dispute is resolved. "The Russian race" was not a matter of blood or language. Rather, it was a matter of one's place in the military-trading enterprise: it wasn't one's mother's dialect that made one a member or an outsider, but one's position within this system. It is with this framework in mind that we must move forward.
Scandinavian traces: guards, burial mounds, names of ambassadors
The Scandinavian presence in the future Russian lands is not a romantic fantasy. It can be discerned from specific monuments. Staraya Ladoga on the Volkhov River, at the outlet of the Baltic Sea into the Eastern European river system, is one of the earliest points of Varangian arrival. Excavations here have revealed longhouses of the northern type, craft workshops, and rich burials containing weapons and northern artifacts.
Archaeological excavations at the Gnezdovo Archaeological Complex in the Smolensk Region. Photo: proshloe.com
Gnezdovo near Smolensk is the largest 10th-century burial mound and settlement complex in all of Eastern Europe. Among hundreds of burial mounds, some have a distinctly northern appearance: swords, brooches, composite belts, and the remains of boat burials. The Scandinavians called such fortified trade and craft centers guards (Old Norse garðr — "courtyard, fortification"); hence the northern name of Rus' — Gardariki, "country of cities." They stood on the roads "from the Varangians to the Greeks" и "from the Varangians to the Arabs"But alongside Scandinavian artifacts in Gnezdovo lies Slavic pottery, and local wooden structures are also found. The northern and Slavic layers are right there, in the same burial mounds. The same is true at Shestovytsia near Chernigov, where warrior burials yield both northern swords with brooches and boat rivets.
Written sources confirm this picture and clarify it. The treaty between Rus' and Byzantium in 911 was concluded after Prince Oleg's retinue's campaign against Constantinople. In its general political section, it repeated the provisions of the agreement dated in the chronicle to 907, but went a step further: it clarified the legal status of Russian merchants, warriors, and prisoners. For us, something else is more interesting. I. S. Manyukhin draws attention to the list of ambassadors: fifteen names without titles, all attributed the same origin. "We are of Russian descent"The forms of these names are overwhelmingly Scandinavian: Karl, Ingigeld, Farlov, Veremud, Ruald.
The legendary campaign of Prince Oleg against Constantinople in 907. Artist B. Olshansky
The Byzantine side adds the same nuance. Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, the 10th-century scribe emperor, left a service manual for his heir— On the Governance of an Empire, which examines neighboring peoples, trade routes, and military practices. He describes Rus' from the perspective of the court. And he calls Russian rulers in his own way: Igor as Ingvar, Olga as Helga. The familiar Oleg, Igor, and Olga are East Slavic forms of Scandinavian names.
It would seem the conclusion is obvious: the Varangian army. But the same treaty of 911 describes the Russian side as a single political body— "the Grand Duke, his princes and boyars", whereas the Greek text speaks of the consent of the emperors and all Greeks. That is, Rus' already conceived of itself as a political entity, consisting of a prince, his kin, and the senior retinue. The ambassadors' names were still predominantly northern, and the institution they represented was already local and mixed. And here's where the Varangian camp stumbles: the retinue wasn't "purely Varangian" even at the beginning of the 10th century. But the Slavic camp is also wrong: the Scandinavian element in it is too noticeable to be dismissed.
A warrior is a spearman, not a swordsman.
Now about the warrior himself. Movies and book covers have conditioned us to the image of a swordsman. The reality is more prosaic, but all the more intriguing.
The basis of 10th-century tactics remained the dense infantry formation of the Scandinavian type: broad round shields, long spears, and closed ranks. Cavalry developed, but the warrior's primary weapon was the shield and spear. A. N. Kirpichnikov in his work "Old Russian weapons" He developed a typology of spearheads. He associates the lancet-shaped spearheads of the first type with the Scandinavian tradition and dates them primarily to the 10th century; they are well suited for battle in formation. The third type of spearheads, elongated and triangular, derive from Slavic prototypes and are versatile, suitable for both combat and hunting. The same warrior could carry a heavy formation spear, light javelins, and a versatile spearhead.
Let's return to swords without serrations. Kirpichnikov and other weapons researchers attribute this to function, not the frugality of their owners. The sword was a support weapon and a status marker: it was used in hand-to-hand combat after a break in a line or for finishing off a foe, and otherwise served as a sign of military rank. The spear, on the other hand, was constantly worn out because it was used for warfare.
Carolingian-type long swords. Viking Museum (Danish: Vikingermuseum), Hedeby, Germany. Modern reconstructions of the swords are on the right.
Let's talk separately about the term "Carolingian sword," which describes the majority of Russian blades from the 10th century. It refers not to the Carolingian dynasty, but to the weaponry of the era of Charlemagne and his successors. This type of blade and guard: a wide, relatively short blade with a fuller, a massive three-part pommel, and a short, straight crossguard. Essentially, we are dealing with Frankish swords of the early Middle Ages—a term of typology, not political history. Such swords were distinguished by their high technological sophistication: a combination of soft and hard iron, and a patterned surface, which was also prized in the East. The Arab author al-Kindi described such Frankish blades as high-quality products.
Archaeology reveals almost no evidence of blade production in Rus' at that time. Crafting a good blade requires a complex chain of events: ore, processing, large forges, annealing baths, and specialized tools. There are virtually no traces of such complexes in ancient Russian strata from the 10th to 11th centuries. There are workshops for assembling and finishing: handles, scabbards, and composite belts. Blades were largely imported via trade routes and were themselves a valuable commodity. A sword in the hands of a warrior signified access to long-distance trade and resources, and thus became a symbol.
The same imported character is evident in the shield. It served not only as a defense but also as a tactical element: a large round shield with a fist grip and a central boss. Its appearance can only be judged by its metal parts; wood and leather do not survive in the ground. According to the State Historical Museum, hemispherical bosses are typical of the 10th century, while sphero-conical bosses appeared at the turn of the 11th century. Reconstructions of shields from Gnezdovo and other sites yield the following characteristics:
- diameter from 80 to 100 centimeters;
- the thickness of the wooden base is 6–8 millimeters, with a thickening in the center;
- covered with leather or thick glued fabric on both sides;
- edges with metal fittings, folded in half and secured with rivets.
The shield was lightweight for military use and strong enough to withstand several blows and protect against arrows. Reenactors compare it to a modern armor plate in a bulletproof vest: it's designed not to withstand an infinite number of hits, but a few, after which it's repaired using the surviving parts. And the museum description clearly states the origin of this design:
"The undoubted identity of Scandinavian shields with shields found in ancient Russian monuments allowed researchers to assert that this type of defensive weaponry penetrated the territory of Ancient Rus' from Scandinavia."
The summary of this section is as follows. A 10th-century warrior was, first and foremost, a spearman in the ranks. He carried a sword as a sign of status, held a Scandinavian-style shield, and the best blade he wielded was imported.
The steppe is included in the arsenal: pikes, lamellars, helmets
While the retinue remained on foot, another military culture flourished on the southern borders. The Khazars, Pechenegs, and later the Polovtsians waged war on horseback, carrying pikes for charging while riding. A foot force was no match for such cavalry. So the retinue began to adopt steppe weaponry and, with it, horseback.
Kirpichnikov identifies a fifth type of spearhead in his typology: the pike-shaped spearhead, of Eastern origin. The blade is narrow, elongated, diamond-shaped or square in cross-section. It has a small impact area, but great penetrating power: such a spearhead tears armor and inflicts a deep piercing wound. It is ideal for ramming from horseback: the short spearhead is easier to extract from the target than a long lancet-shaped spearhead, meaning there is less risk of shoulder injury while riding. The appearance of these spearheads in Russian squads coincides with their adoption of the saddle.
Lamellar armor—a composite cuirass made of numerous small plates, bound with cords or sewn onto a base—came from the steppe and the East. The concept of composite plate armor is very ancient in the East: it is already illustrated by the cuirasses of the terracotta warriors of the Qin, although a direct connection to later Eurasian lamellar armor is difficult to establish. In any case, by the 10th century, such armor is widely represented in Byzantine depictions. Lamellar armor had a practical advantage: when the body flexed, the rows of plates overlapped each other. The result was an overlap, and with it a double, sometimes triple, covering, comfortable for the rider.
It was long believed that plate armor was uncommon in Rus'. This notion was refuted in the mid-20th century by A.F. Medvedev, who demonstrated through archaeological evidence the widespread use of plate armor among Eastern European warriors. It turned out that the Slavic population of the western lands became familiar with plate armor no later than the second half of the 7th century. However, for the period under consideration, a caveat regarding origin is important. Finds of lamellar armor from the 9th–11th centuries are few: armor from Gnezdovo, Sarskoye Settlement, Donetsk Settlement, and Novgorod—these were most likely brought from the East, like the armor from Birka. Plate armor became widespread later, in the 11th–13th centuries, and by the end of this period, it was noticeably supplanted by chainmail. The presence of lamellar armor in the burial of a 10th-century warrior indicated the wearer's involvement in trans-Eurasian exchanges.
The Eastern influence is most evident in helmets. Kirpichnikov demonstrates that Russian helmets of the 10th–13th centuries are predominantly of Asian origin. The predominant type was the socketed spheroconical helmet, common in the Middle East throughout the Middle Ages: a conical crown, a nasal, and sometimes a half mask. This style came to Rus' through contact with the steppe and Byzantium. A helmet from the 10th-century Gulbishche burial mound is assembled from four triangular plates, the front and back resting on the side plates—an Eastern-style design. Chernigov helmets are pointed, with nasal plates and gilded overlays.
This dispels two common misconceptions. The 10th-century retinue was not yet a mounted force: cavalry was only just gaining momentum under the pressure of the steppe. And its equipment was gathered from all directions: Scandinavian shields, Frankish blades, Eastern helmets and lamellars, and steppe pikes.
Syncretism in one burial
All this confusion easily sounds abstract until you see it gathered in one place. Such a place exists—the Black Grave burial mound near Chernigov, the burial site of the military elite on the eve of Christianization.
Let's begin with the ritual. The assemblage contains boat rivets, and their presence allows us to classify the burial as a "boat burial," a purely Scandinavian tradition. The helmets are pointed, with nasals, rich embossing, silver and gold fittings, and mask-like elements. The artistic craftsmanship already harks back to Byzantine and Eastern influences.
Binding of a large rhyton. Illustration from V.A. Prokhorov's book "Materials on the History of Russian Clothing and the Environment of Folk Life." Issue 1, 1881.
The most striking object here is the silver mount of a bull's horn. A. V. Chernetsov, in a dedicated study, suggests reading its subject as a scene from the Scandinavian myth of the death of the gods, Ragnarok: the wolf Fenrir breaks the chains that bind him, human figures flee—a scene representing the end of the world. This is the researcher's interpretation, not the definitive reading, but it is revealing: the northern theme is surrounded by ornamentation characteristic of Byzantine art and the steppe tradition. North and east converge in a single object, and none of his contemporaries found this disconcerting. On the contrary, the breadth of connections elevated his status: a warrior whose horn was decorated in both Scandinavian and Byzantine styles demonstrated his involvement in the wider world. For the warrior elite, such a hodgepodge was commonplace.
The Druzhina as a state apparatus
There remains one last and, perhaps, the most underestimated point. The druzhina is usually seen only as an army. Yet, it was also the working mechanism of the early state.
The word itself speaks of the nature of the institute: "squad" Related to the meaning of "comradeship, companions, togetherness." The warriors were not simply subordinates, but people with whom the prince shared board and shelter. The eldest of them lived in the gridnitsa, a room in front of the prince's chambers where feasts, receptions, and discussions took place. Here, the warriors functioned as an advisory body. The word "ognishche" meant hearth, home; the prince's ognishchans were the oldest warriors, members of the prince's hearth.
The internal structure of the druzhina is the subject of considerable ambiguity in the sources, and it is more honest to reveal it than to conceal it. Gorsky divides the druzhina into the senior (boyars in the south, ognishchane in the north) and the junior (otroki in the south and gridi in the north). The popularizer Sergei Tsvetkov, whose constructions are more liberal than the academic works of Gorsky and Petrukhin, constructs it differently: he assigns gridi and ognishchane to the senior rank, and otroki to the junior rank, and names the highest rank of the 10th century not boyar, but voivode; the term "boyar" is consolidated later. The terminology of strata in 10th-century sources is unstable, and different authors interpret it differently. What is indisputable is the very division into upper and lower ranks. Otroki, the junior members of the druzhina, served the prince's needs, went on embassies, and collected tribute; sometimes they were underage captives included in the prince's entourage.
This hierarchy is also evident in burials. A sword, a rich belt, and expensive jewelry in a burial place place the deceased in the senior retinue; a modest set with a spear and shield—in the junior. The social ladder described in the texts can literally be unearthed.
Now about the functions for which the state maintained this power.
- Tribute collection. Once a year, the prince and his retinue would go on a polyudye, a winter tour of their subject lands, where tribute collection, judgment, a show of force, and the distribution of "favors"—patronage to local nobles and communities—all converged.
- Control of the routes. The routes "from the Varangians to the Greeks" and "from the Bulgars to the Germans" (from Volga Bulgaria to Central Europe) were vital arteries of exchange. The druzhina protected caravans, collected duties, and adjudicated trade disputes.
- Internal security. Suppression of rebellions, protection of princely interests in cities and towns.
- Diplomacy and Law. Russo-Byzantine treaties contain clauses on assistance to merchants, trade, ransoming captives, and liability for debt.
Petrukhin fits this into a broader picture. According to his reconstruction, the Varangian and Khazar tributes were mirror models of control: the Varangian-Russian retinue collected tribute in the north and along the route to the Baltic, while the Khazar Khaganate did the same in the south and east. Thus, the retinue was integrated into Eurasian politics and functioned not only as a military force but also as a fiscal and administrative force.
This dual nature had a downside. The prince had to constantly keep his retinue—his family—loyal—with gifts, shares of the spoils, and land. When this "favor" dried up, his inner circle could turn against him. An example from a later era is the assassination of Andrei Bogolyubsky in 1174. There's no direct parallel with the 10th century, but the mechanism itself is revealing: the service men who made up the inner circle rose up against their lord, believing their interests had been violated. The very same people who kept the prince in power also killed him when the opportunity presented itself. He had no other inner circle.
What follows from this
Let's summarize our observations. The druzhina of the 10th to early 11th centuries is a multi-ethnic blend. The Scandinavian layer is noticeable early on, in the names of princes and ambassadors, in the types of weapons, and in the burial rite on a boat, and gradually dissolves into the Slavic milieu. The steppe adds pikes, lamellar armor, oriental helmets, and an impetus for the development of cavalry. Byzantium adds artistic craftsmanship and legal forms. And the tactical core, for the time being, remains the infantry formation with shield and spear.
A spearman in formation—that's the warrior of this era. The swordsman-on-horse remains on the covers. The sword and helmet conveyed a sense of status and connection to the larger world more than combat loads. And the warrior squad itself was not only an army but also a service organism, from which the boyars and nobility would later emerge.
Having figured out who the warrior was and where his equipment came from, it makes sense to move on to the equipment itself: to the typology of spears, swords, axes, shields and armor of the 10th–11th centuries. More on that next time.
Literature
- Gorsky A.A. Old Russian squad.
- Kirpichnikov A.N. Old Russian weapons. Issue 2. Spears, javelins, battle axes, maces, flails of the 9th–13th centuries.
- Kirpichnikov A.N. Old Russian weapons. Issue 3. Armor, a set of combat weapons of the 9th–13th centuries.
- Petrukhin V.Ya. The beginning of the ethnocultural history of Rus' in the 9th–11th centuries.
- Manyukhin I.S. Treaties of Byzantium and Rus' of the 10th century as a source of ancient Russian statehood.
- Chernetsov A.V. The Turiy Horn from the Black Grave (an attempt at interpreting narrative images).
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