FOR YOU TO KNOW

In very early days, the most daring adventurers of Europe were the Normans, the people whom we know as Vikings. The Vikings who invaded England came from Norway and Denmark; those who invaded Russia came from Norway and Russians used to call them Varangians. They were pirate-merchants, and they carried their goods from the Baltic to the Black Sea, Constantinople and the Mediterranean lands. They traveled in “companies”, for it was too dangerous to make such a journey alone. There were many quarrels between the Russians and Varangians. After one quarrel the Russians drove the Varangians out of Novgorod but they knew the Varangians would come back. To be able to resist them the Novgorod residents needed a powerful leader. Old Nestor’s Chronicle says that they sent an invitation to a distant Varangian Prince Ruirick to come from overseas and govern them, “for Russia being vast and abundant, lacks order”.

Ruirick brought an army with him, and he governed Novgorod and made it strong. Two of his companions, Askold and Dir, went farther and became rulers of Kiev (another greatest city in the south). But later Ruirick’s son Oleg killed Ascold and Dir and became ruler of Kiev himself.

We can’t state that all that was strictly true: Ruirick may not have been invited to come, but came as a conqueror. What is true is that for almost 700 years nearly all the Russian rulers belonged to the family of Ruirick, and that it was in his time that the Russian lands were first called Rus.

Historians vary in their opinion about the origin of the name Russia. According to Nestor’s Chronicle, “Rus” was the name of one of Scandinavian tribes, and Ruirick belonged to this tribe. Scandinavian chronicles, however, mention no Russian tribes and we may only make guesses at the origin of the Russians. That’s why some historians doubt whether there had been Normans’ coming to Russia, and believe Ruirick to be a legendary character.

Thus many important questions go unanswered.

NOTES: Varangians – варяги;

Prince – князь;

conqueror – захватчик, завоеватель;

to vary – отличаться (зд. иметь различные точки зрения);

“for Russia being vast and abundant, lacks order” – хотя велика и обильна Россия, но нет в ней порядка.