According to the widespread version, the foundations of the state in Russia were laid by the Varangian squad of Rurik, called by the Slavic tribes to reign. However, the Norman theory has always had many opponents.
Background
It is believed that the Norman theory was formulated in the 18th century by a German scientist at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Gottlieb Bayer. However, a century earlier, it was first voiced by the Swedish historian Peter Petrei. In the future, this theory was followed by many major Russian historians, starting with Nikolai Karamzin.
The Norman theory was most convincingly and fully presented by the Danish linguist and historian Wilhelm Thomsen in his work The Beginning of the Russian State (1891), after which the Scandinavian origins of Russian statehood were considered factually proven.
In the first years of Soviet power, the Norman theory was established on the wave of the growth of the ideas of internationalism, but the war with Nazi Germany turned the vector of the theory of the origin of the Russian state from Normanism to the Slavic concept.
Moderate Norman theory prevails today, to which Soviet historiography returned in the 1960s. It recognizes the limited nature of the influence of the Varangian dynasty on the emergence of the Old Russian state and focuses on the role of the peoples living southeast of the Baltic Sea.
Two ethnonyms
The key terms used by the "Normanists" are "Varangians" and "Rus". They are found in many chronicle sources, including the Tale of Bygone Years:
"And they said to themselves [Chud, Slovene and Krivichi]:" Let's look for a prince who would rule over us and judge by right "And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia."
The word "Rus" for supporters of the Norman version is etymologically connected with the Finnish term "ruotsi", which traditionally denoted the Scandinavians. So, the linguist Georgy Khaburgaev writes that the name "Rus" can be formed from "Ruotsi" purely philologically.
Norman philologists do not pass by other similar-sounding Scandinavian words - "Rhodes" (Swedish for "rowers") and "Roslagen" (the name of a Swedish province). In the Slavic vowel, in their opinion, "Rhodes" could well turn into "Rus".
However, there are other opinions. For example, the historian Georgy Vernadsky disputed the Scandinavian etymology of the word "Rus", insisting that it comes from the word "Rukhs" - the name of one of the Sarmatian-Alanian tribes, which is known as "Roksolani".
"Varangians" (another scan. "Væringjar") "Normanists" also identified with the Scandinavian peoples, emphasizing either the social or the professional status of this word. According to Byzantine sources, the Varangians are, first of all, hired warriors without an exact localization of their place of residence and a specific ethnicity.
Sigismund Herberstein in Notes on Muscovy (1549) was one of the first to draw a parallel between the word "Varangian" and the name of the tribe of the Baltic Slavs - "Vargs", who, in his opinion, had a common language, customs and faith with the Russians. Mikhail Lomonosov argued that the Varangians "consisted of different tribes and languages."
chronicle evidence
One of the main sources that conveyed to us the idea of "calling the Varangians to reign" is The Tale of Bygone Years. But not all researchers are inclined to unconditionally trust the events described in it.
Thus, the historian Dmitry Ilovaisky established that the Legend of the Calling of the Varangians was a later insertion into the Tale.
Moreover, being a collection of various chronicles, The Tale of Bygone Years offers us three different references to the Varangians, and two versions of the origin of Russia.
In the "Novgorod Chronicle", which absorbed the previous Tale "Initial Code" of the end of the 11th century, there is no comparison of the Varangians with the Scandinavians. The chronicler points to the participation of Rurik in the foundation of Novgorod, and then explains that "the essence of the people of Novgorod is from the Varangian clan."
In the “Joachim Chronicle” compiled by Vasily Tatishchev, new information appears, in particular, about the origin of Rurik. In it, the founder of the Russian state turned out to be the son of an unnamed Varangian prince and Umila, the daughter of the Slavic elder Gostomysl.
Linguistic evidence
Now it is precisely established that a number of words of the Old Russian language are of Scandinavian origin. These are both terms of trade and maritime vocabulary, as well as words found in everyday life - anchor, banner, whip, pud, yabednik, Varangian, tiun (princely manager). A number of names also passed from Old Norse into Russian - Gleb, Olga, Rogneda, Igor.
An important argument in defense of the Norman theory is the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus "On the management of the empire" (949), which gives the names of the Dnieper rapids in Slavic and "Russian" languages.
Each "Russian" name has a Scandinavian etymology: for example, "Varuforos" ("Big backwater") clearly echoes the Old Norse "Barufors".
Opponents of the Norman theory, although they agree with the presence of Scandinavian words in the Russian language, note their small number.
archaeological evidence
Numerous archaeological excavations carried out in Staraya Ladoga, Gnezdovo, on the Rurik settlement, as well as in other places in the north-east of Russia, indicate traces of the presence of the Scandinavians there.
In 2008, at the Zemlyanoy settlement of Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists discovered objects depicting a falling falcon, which later became the coat of arms of the Rurikids.
Interestingly, a similar image of a falcon was minted on the coins of the Danish king Anlaf Gutfritsson dating back to the middle of the 10th century.
It is known that in 992 the Arab traveler Ibn Fadlan described in detail the rite of burial of a noble Rus with the burning of a boat and the erection of a barrow. Russian archaeologists have discovered graves of this type near Ladoga and in Gnezdovo. It is assumed that this method of burial was adopted from immigrants from Sweden and spread up to the territories of the future Kievan Rus.
However, the historian Artemy Artsikhovsky noted that, despite the Scandinavian items in the funerary monuments of North-Eastern Russia, the burials were carried out not according to the Scandinavian, but according to the local rite.
Alternative view
Following the Norman theory, Vasily Tatishchev and Mikhail Lomonosov formulated another theory - about the Slavic origin of Russian statehood. In particular, Lomonosov believed that the state on the territory of Russia existed long before the calling of the Varangians - in the form of tribal unions of northern and southern Slavs.
Scientists build their hypothesis on another fragment of The Tale of Bygone Years: “after all, they were nicknamed Rus from the Varangians, and before that there were Slavs; although they were called glades, but the speech was Slavic. The Arab geographer Ibn Khordadbeh wrote about this, noting that the Rus are a Slavic people.
The Slavic theory was developed by 19th-century historians Stepan Gedeonov and Dmitry Ilovaisky.
The first ranked the Russians among the Baltic Slavs - encouragers, and the second emphasized their southern origin, starting from the ethnonym "blond".
Rusov and Slavs were identified by the historian and archaeologist Boris Rybakov, placing the ancient Slavic state in the forest-steppe of the Middle Dnieper.
A continuation of the criticism of Normanism was the theory of the "Russian Khaganate", put forward by a number of researchers. But if Anatoly Novoseltsev leaned towards the northern location of the kaganate, then Valentin Sedov insisted that the state of the Rus was located between the Dnieper and the Don. The ethnonym "Rus" according to this hypothesis appeared long before Rurik and has Iranian roots.
What does genetics say?
Genetics could answer the question about the ethnicity of the founders of the Old Russian state. Such studies have been carried out, but they have generated a lot of controversy.
In 2007, Newsweek published the results of a study of the genome of living representatives of the Rurik dynasty. It was noted there that the results of DNA analyzes of Shakhovsky, Gagarin and Lobanov-Rostovsky (the Monomashich clan) rather indicate the Scandinavian origin of the dynasty. Boris Malyarchuk, head of the genetics laboratory at the Institute of Biological Problems of the North, notes that such a haplotype is often present in Norway, Sweden and Finland.
Anatoly Klyosov, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Moscow and Harvard Universities, does not agree with such conclusions, noting that "there are no Swedish haplotypes." He defines belonging to Rurikovich by two haplogroups - R1a and N1c1. The common ancestor of the carriers of these haplogroups, according to Klenov's research, could indeed live in the 9th century, but his Scandinavian origin is being questioned.
“The Rurikoviches are either carriers of the R1a haplogroup, Slavs, or carriers of the South Baltic, Slavic branch of the N1c1 haplogroup,” the scientist concludes.
Professor of the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences Elena Melnikova is trying to reconcile two polar opinions, arguing that even before the arrival of Rurik, the Scandinavians were well integrated into the Slavic community. According to the scientist, the analysis of DNA samples from Scandinavian burials, of which there are many in the north of Russia, can clarify the situation.
Norman theory
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Norman theory (Normanism) - direction to historiography, developing the concept that the people-tribe rus comes from Scandinavia expansion period Vikings, which in Western Europe were called Normans.
Proponents of Normanism Normans (Varangians Scandinavian origin) to the founders of the first states of the Eastern Slavs - Novgorod, and then Kievan Rus. In fact, this is following historiographic concepts Tales of Bygone Years(Start 12th century), supplemented by the identification annalistic Varangians like Scandinavians-Normans. Around ethnic identification flared up major disputes, sometimes reinforced by political ideologization.
The history of development
For the first time the thesis about the origin of the Varangians from Sweden was put forward by the king Johan III in diplomatic correspondence with Ivan the Terrible . I tried to develop this idea in 1615 Swedish diplomat Piotr Petreius de Yerlezunda in his book Regin Muschowitici Sciographia. His initiative was supported by 1671 royal historiographer Johan Widekind in "Thet svenska i Ryssland tijo åhrs krijgs historie". The History of the Swedish State had a great influence on subsequent Normanists. Olaf Dalin .
The Norman theory became widely known in Russia in the first half of XVIII century thanks to the activities of German historians in the Russian Academy of Sciences Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer(1694-1738), later Gerard Friedrich Miller, Strube de Pyrmont and August Ludwig Schlözer.
Against the Norman theory, seeing in it the thesis about the backwardness of the Slavs and their unpreparedness for the formation of a state , actively spoke M. V. Lomonosov, suggesting a different, non-Scandinavian identification of the Varangians. Lomonosov, in particular, claimed that Rurik was from the Polabian Slavs, who had dynastic ties with the princes of the Ilmen Slovenes (this was the reason for his invitation to reign). One of the first Russian historians of the middle of the 18th century V. N. Tatishchev, having studied the "Varangian question", did not come to a definite conclusion regarding the ethnicity of the Varangians called to Russia, but made an attempt to unite opposing views. In his opinion, based on Joachim Chronicle”, the Varangian Rurik came from a Norman prince ruling in Finland, and the daughter of a Slavic elder Gostomysl.
Norman version accepted N. M. Karamzin, followed by almost all the major Russian historians of the 19th century. The two most prominent representatives of the anti-Normanist trend were S. A. Gedeonov and D. I. Ilovaisky. The first considered the Rus to be Baltic Slavs - encouraging, the second, on the contrary, emphasized their southern origin.
Soviet historiography, after a break in the first years after revolution, returned to the Norman problem at the state level. The main argument was the thesis of one of the founders of Marxism Friedrich Engels that the state cannot be imposed from outside, supplemented by the pseudoscientific autochthonic linguist's theory N. Y. Marra who denied migration and explaining the evolution of language and ethnogenesis from a class point of view. The ideological setting for Soviet historians was to prove the thesis about the Slavic ethnicity of the Rus tribe. Characteristic excerpts from the public lecture of the Doctor of Historical Sciences Mavrodina read in 1949, reflect the state of affairs in the Soviet historiography of the Stalin period:
“It is natural that the “scientists” servants of world capital strive at all costs to discredit, denigrate the historical past of the Russian people, to belittle the significance of Russian culture at all stages of its development. They “deny” the Russian people the initiative to create their own state.[…]
These examples are quite enough to come to the conclusion that a thousand-year-old legend about the “calling of the Varangians” by Rurik, Sineus and Truvor “from across the sea”, which should have been archived a long time ago along with the legend about Adam, Eve and serpent tempter, global flood, noah and his sons, is being revived by foreign bourgeois historians in order to serve as a tool in the struggle of reactionary circles with our worldview, our ideology.[...] Soviet historical science, following the instructions of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, based on the remarks of Stalin's comrades, Kirov and Zhdanov on the “Synopsis of a textbook on the history of the USSR”, developed a theory about the pre-feudal period, as the period of the birth of feudalism, and about the barbarian state that arose at that time, and applied this theory to specific materials in the history of the Russian state. Thus, already in the theoretical constructions of the founders of Marxism-Leninism there is no and cannot be a place for the Normans as the creators of the state among the “wild” East Slavic tribes.
Historian and archaeologist B. A. Rybakov for many years he represented Soviet anti-Normanism. From the 1940s, he identified the Rus and the Slavs, placing the first ancient Slavic state, the predecessor of Kievan Rus, in the forest-steppe of the Middle Dnieper.
AT 1960s years, the "Normanists" regained their positions, recognizing the existence of a Slavic proto-state headed by Rus before joining Rurik. I. L. Tikhonov names one of the reasons why many became Normanists in the 1960s:
... a departure from scientific officialdom was also perceived as a kind of " scientific dissidence”, the Fronde, and this could not but attract young people whose political dissidence was limited to reading Gumilyov and Brodsky, singing songs of Galich, and anecdotes about Brezhnev [...] Some opposition quite suited us and created a certain halo around the participants of the Varangian Seminar
The subject of the discussion was the localization of the association of the Rus with the kagan at the head, which received the conditional name Russian Khaganate. Orientalist A. P. Novoseltsev leaned towards the northern location of the Russian Khaganate, while archaeologists ( M. I. Artamonov, V. V. Sedov) placed the kaganate in the south, in the area from the Middle Dnieper to the Don. Without denying the influence of the Normans in the north, they nevertheless deduce the ethnonym Russia from Iranian roots .
Normanist Arguments
Old Russian chronicles
AT 862 g. to end the strife of the tribes Eastern Slavs (krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes) and Finno-Ugric (the whole and chud) turned to the Varangians-Rus with a proposal to take the princely throne (see article The calling of the Varangians, Russia (people) and Rurik). Where the Varangians were called from, the chronicles do not report. It is possible to roughly localize the place of residence of Rus on the coast of the Baltic Sea (“from across the sea”, “the path to the Varangians along Dvina"). In addition, the Varangians-Rus are put on a par with the Scandinavian peoples: Swedes, Normans (Norwegians), Angles (Danes) and Goths (the inhabitants of Gotland are modern Swedes):
"And they said to themselves Slovenia: "Let's look for a prince who would rule over us and judge by law." And they went across the sea to the Varangians, to Russia. Those Varangians were called Rus, as others are called Swedes, and others are Normans and Angles, and still others are Gotlanders - like these.
Later chronicles replace the term Varangians pseudo-ethnonym "Germans", uniting the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples.
The chronicles left in the Old Russian transcription a list of the names of the Varangians-Rus (before 944 years), most distinct Old Germanic or Scandinavian etymology. AT annals the following princes and ambassadors to Byzantium are mentioned in 912: Rurik (Rorik) Askold , Deer , Oleg (Helgi) Igor (Ingwar) Karla, Inegeld, Farlaf, Veremud, Rulav, Hoods, Ruald, Karn, Frelav, Ruar,Aktev, Trouan, Lidul, Fost, Stemid. Prince's names Igor and his wife Olga in Greek transcription according to synchronous Byzantine sources (works Constantine Porphyrogenitus) are phonetically close to the Scandinavian sound (Ingor, Helga).
The first names with Slavic or other roots appear only in the list agreements 944 years, although the leaders of the West Slavic tribes from the beginning 9th century known by distinctly Slavic names.
Written testimonies of contemporaries
Written testimonies of contemporaries about Russia are listed in the article Russia (people). Western European and Byzantine authors of the 9th-10th centuries identify Russia as Swedes , Normans or francs . With rare exceptions, Arab-Persian authors describe the Rus separately from the Slavs, placing the former near or among the Slavs.
The most important argument of the Norman theory is the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus « On the management of the empire» ( 949 d.), where the names are given Dnieper thresholds in two languages: Russian and Slavic, and the interpretation of names in Greek.
Table of threshold names:
|
Slavic name |
Translation into Greek |
Slavic etymology |
Russian name |
Scandinavian etymology |
Name in the 19th century |
|
1. Nessupi 2. Give in (ledges) |
1. - 2. OE Stupi: waterfall |
Staro-Kaydatsky |
|||
|
Islanduniprah |
Threshold islet |
Island Prague |
Ulvorsi |
other sw. Holmfors: island threshold |
Lokhansky and Sursky rapids |
|
Gelandri |
Noise Threshold |
other sw. Gaellandi: loud, ringing |
Zvonets, 5 km from Lokhansky |
||
|
Pelican nest |
Don't eat |
Aiphor |
other sw. Aei(d)fors: waterfall on the portage |
insatiate |
|
|
Vulniprah |
Big backwater |
International Prague |
Varouforos |
other-isl. Barufors: threshold with waves |
Volnisskiy |
|
boiling water |
Vruchii (boiling) |
Leandi |
other sw. Le(i)andi: laughing |
Not localized |
|
|
small threshold |
On the line (on the line) |
Strukun |
other-isl. Strukum: narrow part of a river channel |
Superfluous or Free |
|
At the same time, Constantine reports that the Slavs are tributaries (paktiots) rosov.
archaeological evidence
Ibn Fadlan described in detail the rite of burial of a noble Rus by burning in a boat, followed by the erection of a barrow. This event refers to 922 when, according to ancient Russian chronicles Russians were still separated from the Slavs subject to them. Graves of this type were found near Ladoga and later in Gnezdovo. The method of burial probably originated among immigrants from Sweden on Åland Islands and later, with the beginning of the Viking Age, it spread to Sweden, Norway, the coast of Finland and penetrated into the territory of the future Kievan Rus.
AT 2008 on the Zemlyanoy settlement of Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists discovered objects from the era of the first Rurikovichs with the image of a falcon, possibly later becoming a symbolic trident - coat of arms of Rurikovich. A similar image of a falcon was minted on the English coins of the Danish king Anlaf Gutfritsson (939-941).
During archaeological studies of the layers of the IX-X centuries in Rurik settlement a significant number of finds of military equipment and clothing of the Vikings were discovered, items of the Scandinavian type were found (iron torcs with Thor's hammers, bronze pendants with runic inscriptions, a silver figurine of a Valkyrie, etc.) , which indicates the presence of immigrants from Scandinavia in the Novgorod lands at the time of the birth of Russian statehood.
Possible linguistic evidence
A number of words in Russian are considered Germanisms, Scandinavianisms, and although there are relatively few of them in the Russian language, most of them belong to the ancient period. It is significant that not only words of trade vocabulary penetrated, but also maritime terms, everyday words and terms of power and control, proper names. So there were own names Igor, Oleg, Olga,Rogneda, Rurik, the words :herring, chest, pud, hook, anchor, sneak, please, whip, mast and others. It is also important that the very name of the ruler in the East Slavic languages \u200b\u200bis - knѧs and knѧgyni [ knɛ̃dzɪ] and [ knɛ̃gɯnɪ] is also probably a word of Germanic, most likely Scandinavian origin from konungR as well as such an old Russian word as tiun (tivun) comes from other-isl. þjónn (servant).This name existed until the 17th century inclusive, including in Commonwealth(in its then constituent part - Lithuania) There are suggestions about the Scandinavian origin of the word " boyar" (whence the Russian master and young lady from the colloquial "bare" - "boyars"). However, other Germanisms of the same sphere of the sphere - wash, armor, sword, buy, helmet - are most likely considered earlier - from Gothic
The history of development
For the first time, the thesis about the origin of the Varangians from Sweden was put forward by King Johan III in diplomatic correspondence with Ivan the Terrible. In 1615, the Swedish diplomat Piotr Petreus de Yerlesunda tried to develop this idea in his book Regin Muschowitici Sciographia. His initiative was supported in 1671 by the royal historian Johan Widekind in Thet svenska i Ryssland tijo åhrs krijgs historie. A great influence on subsequent Normanists was Olaf Dalin's History of the Swedish State.
Norman theory became widely known in Russia in the 1st half of the 18th century thanks to the activities of German historians in the Russian Academy of Sciences Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer (1694-1738), later Gerard Friedrich Miller, Strube de Pyrmont and August Ludwig Schlozer.
Against the Norman theory, seeing in it the thesis about the backwardness of the Slavs and their unpreparedness for the formation of a state, M. V. Lomonosov actively spoke out, proposing a different, non-Scandinavian identification of the Varangians. Lomonosov, in particular, claimed that Rurik was from the Polabian Slavs, who had dynastic ties with the princes of the Ilmen Slovenes (this was the reason for his invitation to reign). One of the first Russian historians of the middle of the 18th century, V. N. Tatishchev, having studied the “Varangian question”, did not come to a definite conclusion regarding the ethnicity of the Varangians called to Russia, but made an attempt to combine opposing views. In his opinion, based on the "Joachim Chronicle", the Varangian Rurik descended from the Norman prince ruling in Finland and the daughter of the Slavic elder Gostomysl.
The subject of discussion was the localization of the unification of the Rus with a kagan at the head, which received the conditional name Russian Khaganate. Orientalist A.P. Novoseltsev leaned towards the northern location of the Russian Kaganate, while archaeologists (M.I. Artamonov, V.V. Sedov) placed the Kaganate in the south, in the area from the Middle Dnieper to the Don. Without denying the influence of the Normans in the north, they nevertheless deduce the ethnonym Russia from Iranian roots.
Normanist Arguments
Old Russian chronicles
Later chronicles replace the term Varangians with the pseudo-ethnonym "Germans", which unites the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples.
The chronicles left in the Old Russian transcription a list of the names of the Varangians-Rus (until 944), most of the distinct Old Germanic or Scandinavian etymology. The chronicle mentions the following princes and ambassadors to Byzantium in 912: Rurik(Rorik) Askold, Deer, Oleg(Helgi) Igor(Ingwar) Karla, Inegeld, Farlaf, Veremud, Rulav, Hoods, Ruald, Karn, Frelav, Ruar, Aktev, Trouan, Lidul, Fost, Stemid. The names of Prince Igor and his wife Olga in Greek transcription according to synchronous Byzantine sources (compositions of Constantine Porphyrogenitus) are phonetically close to the Scandinavian sound (Ingor, Helga).
The first names with Slavic or other roots appear only in the list of the treaty of 944, although the leaders of the West Slavic tribes from the beginning of the 9th century are known under distinctly Slavic names.
Written testimonies of contemporaries
Written testimonies of contemporaries about Russia are listed in the article Rus (people). Western European and Byzantine authors of the 9th-10th centuries identify Rus' as Swedes, Normans, or Franks. With rare exceptions, Arab-Persian authors describe the Rus separately from the Slavs, placing the former near or among the Slavs.
The most important argument of the Norman theory is the work of the Byzantine emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus "On the management of the empire" (g.), where the names of the Dnieper rapids are given in two languages: Russian and Slavic, and the interpretation of names in Greek.
Table of threshold names:
| Slavic title |
Translation in Greek |
Slavic etymology |
Rosskoe title |
Scandinavian etymology |
Name in the 19th century |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essupi | Do not sleep | 1. Nessupi (don't sleep) 2. Give in (ledges) |
- | 1. - 2. other-Sw. Stupi: waterfall (dat.p.) |
Staro-Kaydatsky |
| Islanduniprah | Threshold islet | Island Prague | Ulvorsi | other sw. Holmfors : island threshold (dat.p.) |
Lokhansky and Sursky rapids |
| Gelandri | Noise Threshold | - | - | other sw. Gaellandi : loud, ringing |
Zvonets, 5 km from Lokhansky |
| Neasit | Pelican nest | Neasyt (pelican) | Aiphor | other sw. Aidfors : waterfall on the water |
insatiate |
| Vulniprah | Big backwater | International Prague | Varouforos | other-isl. Barufors : threshold with waves |
Volnisskiy |
| Verucci | boiling water | Vruchii (boiling) |
Leandi | other sw. Le(i)andi : laughing |
Not localized |
| Directly | small threshold | 1. On the string (on the string) 2. Empty, in vain |
Strukun | other-isl. Strukum : narrow part of the riverbed (dat.p.) |
Superfluous or Free |
At the same time, Constantine reports that the Slavs are "tributaries" (paktiots - from lat. pactio"contract") rosov.
archaeological evidence
In 2008, archaeologists discovered objects from the era of the first Rurikids with the image of a falcon on the Zemlyanoy settlement of Staraya Ladoga, possibly later becoming a symbolic trident - the coat of arms of the Rurikids. A similar image of a falcon was minted on the English coins of the Danish king Anlaf Gutfritsson (939-941).
Archaeological studies of the layers of the 9th-10th centuries in the Rurik settlement revealed a significant number of finds of military equipment and Viking clothing, Scandinavian-type items were found (iron hryvnias with Thor's hammers, bronze pendants with runic inscriptions, a silver figurine of a Valkyrie, etc.), which indicates the presence immigrants from Scandinavia in the Novgorod lands at the time of the birth of Russian statehood.
Possible linguistic evidence
A number of words in Russian are considered Germanisms, Scandinavianisms, and although there are relatively few of them in the Russian language, most of them belong to the ancient period. It is significant that not only words of trade vocabulary penetrated, but also maritime terms, everyday words and terms of power and control, proper names. So, according to a number of linguists, proper names appeared Igor, Oleg, Olga, Rogneda, Rurik, the words
Formation and development of community life
The main form of settlement of the Eastern Slavs was a small village of 2-3 yards.
- Yard
a) in each yard there lived a large family of complex composition, including several generations, headed by a householder - a highway.
Several villages were united in a community, which in the southern regions was called the verv, and in the northern regions - the world.
Since communal life prevailed and the villagers united in communities according to economic interests, tribal way of life quickly disintegrated and was replaced by a volost - territorial-neighborly.
As they settled over large areas, the ties between the clans weakened, and the clans themselves disintegrated. This led to common tribal property was replaced by family property.
The community began to include communities of different clans and even tribes. This mixing process was especially intensive where the territories of different tribes bordered (river, portage or watershed) or where there was a joint colonization of new lands by different tribes.
- The development of feudal relations proper took place already on the basis of the community..
With the advent of cities in Russia, in which there were many trading foreigners and military squads, the tribal system began to undergo even greater transformation.
- In cities, people from different places, clans, tribes united for joint military and trade affairs.
Procurement for sale and the accumulation of income from the goods sold led to the formation of capital. So natural economy gradually begins to be replaced by money.
Old Russian state formed in 882 r. as a result of the unification under the rule of Kiev of the two largest Slavic states - Kiev and Novgorod. Later, other Slavic tribes, the Drevlyans, Northerners, Radimichi, Ulichi, Tivertsy, Vyatichi and Polyany, submitted to the Kievan prince. The ancient Russian (Kiev) state in its form was an early feudal monarchy.
It lasted until the middle of the twelfth century. In the second half of the XI - the beginning of the XII century. semi-state principalities began to form on its territory:
Kyiv
Chernihiv
Pereyaslavskoye.
Answer: Norman theory (Normanism)- a direction in historiography that develops the concept that Russia comes from Scandinavia during the expansion of the Vikings, who were called Normans in Western Europe.
The Norman theory was formulated:
In the 1st half of the 18th century, under Anna Ioannovna, the German historian in the Russian Academy of Sciences G. Bayer (1694-1738)
Later by G. Miller and A. L. Schlozer.
The version was accepted by N. M. Karamzin, followed by M. P. Pogodin and other Russian historians of the 19th century.
According to Norman theory the emergence of the Old Russian state:
The state of the Eastern Slavs was created by the Varangians (Normans).
There is a legend about the calling of the Varangians to rule the Slavs. In this regard, it is believed that the Slavs were at a low level of development and were not able to create a state. The Slavs were conquered by the Varangians, and the latter created state power.
Supporters of Normanism attribute the Normans (Varangians of Scandinavian origin) to the founders of the first states of the Eastern Slavs - Novgorod, and then Kievan Rus.
Old Russian chronicles say:
In 862, in order to end the civil strife, the tribes of the Eastern Slavs and Finno-Ugric peoples turned to the Varangians-Rus with a proposal to take the princely throne. Where the Varangians were called from, the chronicles do not report. You can roughly localize the place of residence of Russia on the coast of the Baltic Sea. In addition, the Varangians-Rus are put on a par with the Scandinavian peoples: Swedes, Normans (Norwegians), Angles (Danes) and Goths (residents of Gotland - modern Swedes)
However, sources indicate that by the time the Varangians appeared in Novgorod the state has already taken shape there. The Slavs had a high level of both socio-economic and political development, which served as the basis for the formation of the state.
More specifically, the Norman theory should be understood as a direction in historiography, which tends to the fact that the Varangians and Scandinavians (Normans) became the founders of Kievan Rus, that is, the first East Slavic state.
This Norman theory of the origin of the ancient Russian state became widespread in the 18th century, during the so-called "Bironism". During that period of historical development, most of the posts at the court were occupied by German nobles. It is important to note the fact that the composition of the Academy of Sciences also included a significant number of German scientists. The founder of such a theory about the origin of Russia can be called the scientists I. Bayer and G. Miller.
As it turned out later, this theory became especially popular under political phenomena. Also, this theory was later developed by the scientist Schletzer. In order to state their statement, scientists took as a basis the message from the famous chronicle called "The Tale of Bygone Years". As far back as the 12th century, a Russian chronicler included in the chronicle a certain story-legend that told about the calling of the princes of the Varangian brothers - Sineus, Rurik and Truvor.
Scientists tried in every possible way to prove the fact that the statehood of the Eastern Slavs is the merit only of the Normans. Also, such scientists spoke about the backwardness of the Slavic people.
So, the Norman theory of the origin of the ancient Russian state contains well-known points. First of all, the Normanists believe that the Varangians who came to power are the Scandinavians who created the state. Scientists say that the local people were not able to do this act. It was also the Vikings who had a great cultural influence on the Slavs. That is, the Scandinavians are the creators of the Russian people, who gave it not only statehood, but also culture.
Anti-Norman theory
Naturally, this theory, like many others, immediately found opponents. Russian scientists opposed such a statement. M. Lomonosov became one of the brightest scientists who spoke about disagreement with the Norman theory. It is he who is called the initiator of the controversy between the Normanists and the opponents of this trend - the anti-Normanists. It is worth noting that the anti-Norman theory of the origin of the ancient Russian state suggests that the state arose due to the fact that this was accompanied by more objective reasons at that time.
Many sources say that the statehood of the Eastern Slavs existed long before the Varangians appeared on the territory. The Normans were at a lower level of political and economic development, unlike the Slavs.
Also an important argument is that a new state cannot arise overnight. This is a long process of social development of a society. The anti-Norman statement is called by some as the Slavic theory of the origin of the ancient Russian state. It is worth noting the fact that Lomonosov in the Varangian theory of the origin of the ancient Slavs noticed the so-called blasphemous allusion to the fact that “inferiority” was attributed to one hundred Slavs, their inability to organize a state on their own lands.
According to which theory the ancient Russian state was formed is a question that worries many scientists, but there is no doubt that each of the statements has its right to exist.
In Russia, patriotic forces have always opposed the Norman theory of the origin of domestic statehood, since its appearance. M.V. Lomonosov was its first critic. Subsequently, not only many Russian scientists, but also historians of other Slavic countries joined him. The main refutation of the Norman theory, they pointed out, is the rather high level of social and political development of the Eastern Slavs in the 9th century. In terms of their level of development, the Slavs stood above the Varangians, so they could not borrow the experience of state building from them. The state cannot be organized by one person (in this case, Rurik) or several even the most prominent men. The state is the product of a complex and long development of the social structure 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 their steppe neighbors - the Pechenegs, Karakalpaks, Torks. We do not know exactly when and how the first Russian principalities arose, but in any case they already existed before 862, before the notorious "calling of the Varangians." (In some German chronicles, since 839, Russian princes are called Khakans, i.e. kings). This means that it was not the Varangian military leaders who organized the Old Russian state, but the already existing state gave them the corresponding state posts. By the way, there are practically no traces of Varangian influence in Russian history. Researchers, for example, calculated that for 10 thousand square meters. km of the territory of Russia, only 5 Scandinavian geographical names can be found, while in England, subjected to the Norman invasion, this number reaches 150.
