‘Invitation to the Varangians’, by Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov (1848–1926). It shows that leading men of the Slavic peoples of the southeast Baltic region — northwest Russia today — meeting with the Viking warlord Rurik and his two brothers beside Lake Ladoga at what is now Staraya Ladoga. Rurik eventually settled some 100 miles south of here near what became the city of Great Novgorod, on a site by Lake Ilmen now known as Rurikovo Gorodische. From here, he wielded authority over much of what is now northwest Russia. Meanwhile, two captains of his army named Askold and Dir (not relatives of Rurik’s, we are told) set off south towards Constantinople, but on the way they turned aside and founded Kiev.
AT that time [859], as the southern Slavonians paid tribute to the Kozars,* so the Novgorodian Slavonians suffered from the attacks of the Variags.* For some time the Variags extracted tribute from the Novgorodian Slavonians and the neighbouring Finns; then the conquered tribes, by uniting their forces, drove out the foreigners. But among the Slavonians arose strong internal dissensions; the clans rose against each other.
Then, for the creation of order and safety, they resolved to call in princes from a foreign land. In the year 862 Slavonic legates went away beyond the sea to the Variag tribe called Rus, and said, ‘Our land is great and fruitful, but there is no order in it; come and reign and rule over us.’ Three brothers accepted this invitation, and appeared with their armed followers. The eldest of these, Rurik, settled in Novgorod;* the second, Sineus, at Byelo-ozero;* and the third, Truvor, in Isborsk.* From them our land is called Rus. After two years the brothers of Rurik died. He alone began to rule over the Novgorod district, and confided to his men the administration of the principal towns.
* The Khazars, a Turkic people that from roughly 650 to 965 controlled a vast Khanate in what is now Ukraine, southeast Russia and Kazakhstan, and extorted tribute from regions further north.
* Translator Sir Donald Mackenzie Wallace has Englished a Russian plural Варяги (varyági), that is, Varangians or Vikings, inhabitants of the coasts of the Baltic Sea and the North Sea from lands that are now Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The word comes from Old Norse Væringjar, meaning ‘sworn companions’.
* Rurik (?830-879). Rurik and the Rus appear to have come from southern Sweden.
* That is, Veliky (Great) Novgorod, about 100 miles south and a little east of St Petersburg, and 300 miles northwest of Moscow. It should not be confused with Nizhny Novgorod, which lies east of Moscow and around 500 miles southeast of Veliky Novgorod. Rurik’s settlement was not made where Great Novgorod now stands, but a short distance up the River Volkhov by Lake Ilmen, at what is now an archaeological site known as Rurikovo Gorodische.
* Byelo-ozero means ‘white lake’ and is the old name for Belozersk in Belozersky District, Vologda Oblast, Russia. The town lies about 250 miles northeast of Veliky Novgorod, and 300 miles north of Moscow, on the southern shores of Lake Beloye.
* Isborsk (Izborsk) is a village in Pechorsky District of Pskov Oblast, Russia, about 140 miles west-southwest of Veliky Novgorod.
Précis
In 862, the squabbling Slavic clans of the southeastern Baltic decided to ask a Viking warlord, Rurik, to come and bring order to their land, knowing from experience how ruthless these Vikings could be. Rurik and two brothers duly left Rus in Scandinavia and settled at Novgorod, and it is from them that the land of Russia takes its name. (59 / 60 words)
