Rurik (862): The Varangian Prince and the Founding of Rus

Rurik is the legendary Varangian prince said to have been invited to rule Novgorod in 862, an event that later Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian tradition treated as the founding of Rus. The story comes from the Primary Chronicle, compiled in Kyiv about 250 years later, and its accuracy has been debated for nearly three centuries. Whatever the truth about Rurik himself, the dynasty that claimed descent from him ruled the lands of Rus until 1598.

Background: the Varangians in Eastern Europe

From the mid-8th century Scandinavians, mostly from what is now Sweden, travelled along the rivers of Eastern Europe in search of furs, slaves and silver. The Slavs called them Varangians, and the people they led became known as the Rus. Their first known base was Staraya Ladoga, near Lake Ladoga, where tree-ring dating shows settlement from the 750s.

The Rus had trading links with towns in the Baltic such as Birka and with the Islamic world, whose silver coins are found in large hoards across Russia and Scandinavia. In 839 the Frankish Annals of Saint-Bertin record envoys calling themselves Rhos who, on investigation, proved to be Swedes.

The calling of the Varangians

The Primary Chronicle, also called the Tale of Bygone Years, was compiled in Kyiv in the early 12th century. Under the year 6370 in the Byzantine calendar, equal to 862, it says that the tribes of the north, the Chud, Slovenes, Krivichi and Ves, drove the Varangians out and refused to pay them tribute. They then fell into feuding among themselves.

Seeking a prince to rule them by law, they sent overseas to the Varangian Rus. In the well-known translation by Cross and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, they said: “Our whole land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us.” Three brothers accepted. Rurik settled in Novgorod, Sineus at Beloozero and Truvor at Izborsk.

According to the chronicle, Sineus and Truvor died two years later and Rurik took sole power, granting towns to his followers. He died in 879, leaving his young son Igor in the care of a kinsman, Oleg.

How reliable is the story?

The account was written down long after the events by monks working for the princes of Kyiv, who had reasons to stress the legitimacy of the ruling family. The pattern of three brothers invited from overseas resembles other origin stories, such as the arrival of Hengist and Horsa in Britain. Some scholars have argued that Sineus and Truvor are not real people at all but misunderstandings of Old Norse phrases.

No contemporary source mentions Rurik. Some historians have identified him with Rorik of Dorestad, a Danish chieftain who held lands in Frisia in the mid-9th century, but there is no firm evidence for this. The chronicle’s dates for the 9th century are widely regarded as approximate reconstructions.

The Normanist controversy

In the 18th century German scholars at the Russian Academy of Sciences, including Gottlieb Siegfried Bayer and Gerhard Friedrich Müller, argued that the Rus state was founded by Scandinavians. Mikhail Lomonosov and others objected strongly, seeing this as an insult to the Slavs. The resulting quarrel between “Normanists” and “anti-Normanists” lasted into the 20th century and was heavily politicised in the Soviet period, when the Slavic origin of the state was officially favoured.

Today most historians accept clear evidence of a Scandinavian ruling element among the early Rus. The names of Rus envoys in the treaty of 911 with Byzantium are mostly Norse, Byzantine writers distinguish Rus from Slavic names for the Dnieper rapids, and the Finnish word for Sweden, Ruotsi, is probably related to the name Rus. At the same time, scholars stress that the Rus quickly mixed with Slavic, Finnic and Baltic peoples, and that the state grew from trade, local politics and contact with Byzantium and the Khazars, not from a single invitation.

Archaeology of early Rus

Excavations support a strong Scandinavian presence in the 9th and 10th centuries. Staraya Ladoga has yielded Scandinavian-style buildings, tools and graves. Rurikovo Gorodishche, a fortified site just south of modern Novgorod, flourished in the 9th century and contains Scandinavian ornaments and weapons. Its name, meaning “Rurik’s hillfort”, was given much later.

Novgorod itself, whose name means “new town”, has timber streets that tree-ring dating places from the 930s onward, later than the chronicle’s date for Rurik. Large cemeteries at Gnezdovo near Smolensk and Timerevo near Yaroslavl show mixed Scandinavian, Slavic and Finnic burial customs.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Rurik founded Russia. The Rus of the 9th and 10th centuries were not a nation in the modern sense, and the later states of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus all trace their roots to Kievan Rus. The chronicle presents Rurik as founder of a ruling dynasty, not of a modern country.
• Myth: the Slavs had no political order before the Varangians. The chronicle’s phrase about “no order” is a literary device. Archaeology shows organised communities, trade and fortified settlements among Slavic and Finnic peoples before the 860s.
• Myth: Rurik founded Novgorod. The chronicle says he settled there, but excavated Novgorod dates mostly from the 10th century. The earlier centre nearby was the site now called Rurikovo Gorodishche.
• Fact: the dynastic name is largely a later label. The term “Rurikids” was popularised by later genealogists and historians, although the rulers of Muscovy in the 16th century did stress their descent from Rurik to support their prestige.

Legacy

The Rurikid dynasty, named after Rurik, provided the princes of Kyiv, Novgorod, Vladimir and Moscow for over seven centuries. Rurik’s successor Oleg moved the centre of power south to Kyiv, as described in Oleg of Novgorod. Novgorod itself later developed its own institutions as the Novgorod Republic.

The chronicle names Igor as Rurik’s son and Oleg’s successor. Igor ruled in Kyiv until he was killed by the Drevlians in 945, after which his widow Olga governed for their son Sviatoslav. Sviatoslav’s son Vladimir accepted Christianity in 988, and Vladimir’s descendants divided the Rus lands among many branches of the family. Through all these generations, the princes regarded descent from the house of Igor, and through him from Rurik, as the basis of their right to rule.

In 1862 the Russian Empire celebrated the thousandth anniversary of the calling of the Varangians with the Millennium of Russia monument in Novgorod, where Rurik appears among the founding figures. Rurik remains a symbol of the beginnings of statehood in the East Slavic world.

Timeline

• c. 753: Earliest tree-ring dates for the settlement at Staraya Ladoga.
• 839: Rus envoys, identified as Swedes, reach the court of Louis the Pious.
• 860: Rus raid on Constantinople.
• 862: Traditional date of the calling of the Varangians and Rurik’s arrival.
• 864: Death of Sineus and Truvor, according to the chronicle.
• 879: Death of Rurik; Oleg becomes regent for Igor.
• 882: Oleg takes Kyiv.
• 1598: Death of Feodor I, last tsar of the main Rurikid line.

Why it matters

The story of Rurik shaped how the peoples of Eastern Europe understood the origins of their states. It also raises a lasting historical question about how the Rus emerged from contacts between Scandinavians, Slavs and their neighbours, a question still investigated through archaeology, coins and the careful reading of texts. The raid recorded two years before Rurik’s arrival is covered in Rus attack on Constantinople.