Mysterious Ancient People of Rus

After the article's publication, I became acquainted with another on the same topic published at approximately the same time [SHCHAVELEV A.S. 2024]. There is nothing new in it about the origin of the people of Rus; the author only repeats well-known arguments in favor of their Swedish origin. I do not want to refute these arguments, which others have done more than once, but in my text I ignored one piece of evidence about the ethics of the Rus, considering it unimportant. We are talking about the opinion of Emperor Louis I. He first recognized the Rus as Swedes based on their language. The emperor was not such a great connoisseur of Germanic languages ​​as to distinguish their features at a time when they were still very similar. In the Viking Age, the naming of a suspicious wandering group of people by Swedes is easily explained. Then it remains unclear why the Swedes called themselves Ros. This could be explained by the fact that the Ruses were an ethnic minority among the Swedes, but there is no reliable evidence of the existence of such a minority, this is only an assumption.

Over time, many words lose their original sense and meaning. With the word rus this happened almost immediately after the appearance of the bearers of this name in the historical arena. In the Chronicle of Bygone Years, they are first defined as one of the foreign peoples collectively called Varangians. Still, soon the Varangians and the Rus begin to be identified, and then this name is appropriated by the Slavic tribe. At the same time, in historical legends the word rus and the similar reus “giant” become synonymous, and in general, the meaning of the name is less and less defined (VANBRABANT Luc. 2024: 7)

The first attempt to explain the origin of the word Rus was made on September 6, 1749, by the official Russian imperial historiographer and member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, Gerhard Müller, at the celebration of the anniversary of this academy. He began his talk entitled "Origines gentis et nominis Russorum" based on research published in 1736 by his elder compatriot Gottlieb Bayer, who introduced sources such as the Annales Bertiniani and the writings of Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus into Eastern European scholarship. Müller developed the theory on them that the ancient state of Kievan Rus was founded by the Scandinavians. It was just this theory he began to present in his speech, but was unable to complete it. There was a tumult among the Academy members of Russian origin, and one of the members insulted a German. As a result, Empress Elizabeth Petrovna appointed a special committee to investigate whether Müller's writings had harmed the interests and glory of the Russian Empire. One of the judges was the luminary of Russian science and literature Mikhail Lomonosov. His testimony was devastating: Müller was banned from continuing his activities, and research on the history of Ancient Rus' and his publications were confiscated. This is how Omelyan Pritsak described these events and continued:

It marks the birth of the belligerent Normanist versus Anti-Normanist controversy that has continued to this day. The Normanists believe (the word believe is used here to characterize the intellectual climate in question) in the Norse origin of the term Rus'. They consider the Norsemen-or, more exactly, the Swedes-as the chief organizers of political life, first on the banks of Lake Il'men and later on the shores of the Dnieper River. On the other hand, the Anti-Normanists embrace the doctrine that the Rus' were Slavs who lived to the south of Kyiv from prehistoric times, long before the Norsemen appeared on the European scene (PRITSAK OMELJAN. 1977: 249-250).

The original meaning of a word is determined depending on the context in the historical document. Anti-Normanists, in a dispute with Normanists, look for references to the Rus and geographical names to support their theories. However such test evidence turns out to be erroneous. Undoubtedly, for the first time real Rus are mentioned in Annales Bertiniani for the year 839.

According to the annals, the Rus were returning from Constantinople to their home but were detained by the German Emperor Louis I to clarify their origin. They identified themselves as representatives of the people ros (Rhos), but what they told the emperor about the purpose of their visit to Constantinople and how he understood them may be the subject of various speculations. More importantly, they were stopped literally at the house's doorstep, as can be understood from the work of Luc Vanbrabant. The emperor's headquarters was then located in Ingelheim on the right bank of the Rhine, very close to Flanders, where there are many place names containing the element rus, ros and the like. Vanbrabant connects the chronicle Rus with these words. Explaining its origin and meaning, Luke Vanbrabant writes:

The meaning always comes down to reed or rush. That is why I call the rus (ros, ros, ruis, reus, etc.) as people of the reeds, and ruskere as a reed dweller. (Reus [røs] has a homonym which means giant.) By extension, that name may also have been used for the activities those people performed from the reeds and even for some physical characteristics. In the tenth century, according to Dave De Ruysscher (see below), the name rus was a common name for a skipper and seafarer (VANBRABANT LUC. 2024: 4).

Vanbrabant repeats the idea of ​​Omelyan Pritsak about the Western European origin of the Rus people (PRITSAK OMELJANN. 1977) and clarifies that the language of this people was one of the dialects of Flemish. He gives a large list of place names and microtoponyms like rus/ros in Belgium and several in neighboring areas of France and the Netherlands. For ease of narration, I call all the ancestors of the Dutch Franks (see Germanic Tribes in Eastern Europe at the Bronze Age. The movement of the Franks from their ancestral home on the banks of the Western Bug should have left their traces in the toponymy of Poland and Germany, through which they moved to the places of their current residence. These traces have been preserved to this day in these countries, as well as in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Switzerland. They have been mapped onto Google My Maps (see below)

Топонимы типа rus/ros

The city of Ingelheim is marked with a red asterisk on the map. Blue asterisks indicate trade centers Birka, Hedeby, and Kaupang.

The following reliable historical evidence about the Rus was found in the work of Ibn Khurdadbakh, written between 850 and 885. This head of the Caliph's postal intelligence service in Baghdad reported on the various travel routes of a certain type of merchant known as the Ar-Rus/Rus. Allegedly, they delivered furs and Frankish swords to the Abbasid Caliphate through the Seversky Donets and Don, Khazaria and the Caspian Sea, and then on camels. Another key product that Rus supplied to the Islamic world was human cargo – slaves (KOVALEV ROMAN K., KAELIN ALEXIS C. 2007: 9-10, 12).

However, faith did not allow either Muslims or Christians to engage in slave trading by their adherents. A huge territory east of the Elbe and west and north of the Syra Darya became a reservoir of potential slaves. According to Ibn Khurdadbah, only two international trading companies were involved in the Eurasian slave trade: the Jewish Radhaniya and the non-Jewish Rūs. This Rus should not have been a tribe that had just emerged from obscurity, knowing neither geography, languages, nor trade law. International trade is closely associated with empires, which can protect the merchant and ensure its creditworthiness. Only the imperial political tradition could provide such conditions, and in the 8th-9th centuries there were only two: Roman and Arab. According to Pritsak, the Rus trading campaign was located in Roman Gaul, however, not in the northwest, but in central-southern France (PRITSAK OMELJAN. 1977: 263). This small inaccuracy does not significantly contradict the toponymic data, since there is a cluster of Flemish place names in Switzerland and neighboring regions of France. If Rus supplied furs from northeastern Russia, as Ibn Khurdadbakh wrote about elsewhere (KOVALEV ROMAN K., KAELIN ALEXIS C. 2007: 11), then the easiest way for merchants to travel from Flanders was by sea. This corresponds to the fact that the first settlement of Rus was Staraya (Old) Ladoga (now in the Volkhov district of the Leningrad Region). This name corresponds well to the ancient Frisian. lāde "path", "road" and gā "area". They correspond to the Old Dt. leiden “to lead” and Dt gouw "region, district". It can be assumed that Flemish closely related to Frisian, has better matches.

Muslims paid for the purchased goods in Kufic dirhams, found in large quantities in hoards in various European places. In European Russia, there are about 700 such hoards, although finds of several hundred and even thousands of coins occur. In the hoard found in Murom on the Oka, two copper jugs contained 11 thousand dirhams from the 8th-10th centuries with a total weight of about 42 kg (VEKSLER A.G. MEL'NIKOVA A.S. 1973: 18). The treasures themselves and their composition indicate the location of trade centers on the routes of movement of goods to the cities of the Abbasid Caliphate. Archaeological research can provide a more complete description of such centers. An example would be the Timerevo archaeological complex near Yaroslavl, briefly described as follows:

The concentration of the hoards of Arabic silver for the 9th-century finds of household items, weapons, and jewelry of imported origin, the large area of ​​the settlement, and the multi-ethnic composition of its population allow us to conclude that Timerevo was a key trade, craft and military-administrative point on the Baltic-Volga route. The beginning of the functioning of Timerevo dates back to the third quarter of the 9th century, as evidenced by treasures, the first burials of the burial ground, and early settlement complexes (SEDYKH V.N. 2007: 5).

Timerevo is located on the territory of settlement of the Anglo-Saxons in the Upper Volga region, who retreated from the steppes to the north after the Hun invasion (see Anglo-Saxons at Sources of Russian Power). The wealth of treasures found there suggests that the Anglo-Saxons also enriched themselves through trade, collaborating with the Rus. They delivered furs and slaves to the Rus, plundering the autochthonous population consisting of Finno-Ugric tribes. On the left bank of the Volga, there was Volga Bulgaria. The Rus's presence there was witnessed by Ibn Fadlan. He recorded the cooperation of the Rus in trade matters with the Bulgarish king. This gives reason to think that the Rus, in the interests of trade, cooperated with local authorities, the same thing happened in Sweden, which explains the confusion of the concepts of Rus and Varangians. Thus, both Anglo-Saxons and Swedes could take part in the enterprises of the Rus under their leadership.

The abundance of Arabic silver in Scandinavia suggests the cooperation between the Swedes and the Rus was very close. However, only the concentration of finds of coins in individual places, and not their circulation over a large territory, can speak about this in detail. Archaeological excavations show that Arab silver was mainly concentrated at Birka, where 92 graves contained coins or their fragments from the Muslim East, while coins from Western Europe were present in only 13 (SAWYER Peter>. 2002: 248). Birka is associated with the island of Björkö on Lake Mälaren near Stockholm, but its name is not of North Germanic origin (cf. Ic. björk "birch"), but of West Germanic (cf. Dt. berk, Ger. Birke, OSax birka all "the same"). Monk Ansagarius from the Corby monastery, located in France next to Flanders, visited Birka during missionary work in 830 and 850. This is reported in the “Life of St. Ansagarius” compiled by his disciple (ibid: 51) From the “Life” we can conclude that Birka’s Western contacts were very inferior to the Eastern ones. Thus, being a recognized trading center, Birka had more trade relations with the East than with the West. Other northern European trading centers were Hedeby and Kaupang. It is assumed that in reality they were not Scandinavian cities at all, but were founded by Western merchants (ibid., 268), that is the Ruses.

The Rus were a supplier of goods to the Islamic world from the first years of the tenth century (KOVALEV ROMAN K., KAELIN ALEXIS C. 2007: 11), and in 839 their agents were already returning from Constantinople. Their mission failed not because hostile nomads dominated the steppes but because Khazaria had already monopolized the Slavic slave trade. However, the idea of ​​concluding trade relations with Constantinople did not leave the Rus. The geographical position of Constantinople between the sources of slaves and their consumers made it the center of the slave trade. The largest slave market at that time was located in the city. A researcher on this topic paints the following picture:

Demand for slaves in the South-East answered the demand for hard currency in the North. Nevertheless, the merchants did not journey directly from North-West to South-East. Instead, they made long detours that bypassed the regions under Byzantine domination. In fact, Byzantium was in competition with the Arab world for slaves from the same sources. Byzantine government, therefore, manipulated international commercial in order to keep its economic hegemony by using its strategic geographic position (ROTMAN YOUVAL. 2009, Book Summary).).

The Slave Market, Constantinople.
William Allan. 1838. Scottish National Gallery

Wanting to eliminate the Khazars' control of their trade with the East, the Rus intended to establish a trade route to Constantinople along the Volga, and then along the Don, Azov, and Black Seas. In 860, they carried out this intention bypassing the Khazar fortress of Sarkel on the isthmus between the Don and Volga. To prevent further campaigns, the Khazars strengthened the fortress and reinforced it with a large garrison. This led to the aggravation of relations between the Rus and the Khazars. The chronicler Prince Oleg undertook a new attempt to penetrate the Constantinople market using the route along the Dnieper. However, this route was also under the control of the Khazars. At that time, Kyiv was part of the Khazar Kaganate, in which the ruling elite consisted of Anglo-Saxons (see Khazars). Two Anglo-Saxons ruled there following the Khazar tradition – Askold and Dir (cf. Dir – OE. dieren "to appreciate, praise", diere "dear, valuable, noble", Askold – OE. āscian "ask, demand", "call, elect" and eald, Eng. old), ealdor "prince, lord").

Who Oleg was by origin does not matter at all, because among the Rus there could be different people of German origin, and it was not origin that determined people’s behavior, but personal interests. Oleg is looking for an opportunity to establish himself in Kyiv, which will open the way for him to Constantinople. He criminally seized power in Kyiv and the aggravated relations between the Rus and Anglo-Saxons became hostile. The Swedes take the side of the Rus and the Anglo-Saxons call these like-minded people Varangians (Old Saxon warag “criminal”). The Slavs borrow this word, using it in different meanings.

The stubborn struggle for the market began and lasted about a hundred years, the Ruses won in it. At that time, the Pechenegs occupied the entire space between Khazaria and Byzantium, thus, the Lower Dnieper and the Dnieper rapids were under their control. They could prevent the Rus from communicating with Constantinople, but the Khazars supported trade with Constantinople by sea, so they did not use the Dnieper route. Most likely, the struggle for the Constantinople market between the Rus and the Khazars was more of a competitive nature. Having finally taken control of the route along the Dnieper after Prince Svyatoslav’s successful campaign against Khazaria in 965, Rus', already as a state, established close trade relations with Constantinople. A fleet of dougots loaded with goods arrived there every year. In Constantinople, the peculiarities of navigation along the Dnieper were well known, for Constantine Porphyrogenitus gave a detailed description of the Dnieper rapids and their non-Slavic names. The chronicle speaks allegorically about the slave trade with Constantinople, but Mikhail Pokrovsky describes it on several pages. From the message about the harem of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavich, you can learn about the reserves of “living goods that this largest Russian merchant of his time kept” (MIKHAIL POKROVSKY. 2002: 61). Saint Nicholas reported that “the Russian merchant was first and foremost a slave trader.” According to Byzantine sources, the Rus' fleet consisted of more than 1000 "ships", each of which could transport from 40 to 60 slaves, and the international market could "absorb any amount of living goods" (ibid: 59-61). Names of Rusian diplomatic representatives in Constantinople, mentioned in the chronicles, for the most part, can be deciphered using various Germanic languages, but among them, some can only be deciphered well using Dutch:

Stemid – Dt. stem "voice", eed "oath".

Tilen – Dt. tillen "to raise", a word that has no equivalent in other Germanic languages ​​of unknown origin (VEEN P.A.F. van, SIJS NICOLINE van der. 1997: 884).

Further events are described in historiography. The prestigious name of the Rus was adopted by the Slavs, who over time assimilated all the Germanic people. It remains to be explained why the Finns call the Swedes ruotsi. This word cannot come from the word русь. The similarity turns out to be coincidental. It was assumed that the Finns borrowed it from the Old Sw rōþs, etymologically related to the verb meaning “to row” (HÄKKINEN KAISA. 2007, 1073). However, this name for the Swedes could only arise if the Finns themselves did not engage in rowing and even had no word for such an activity, which is very doubtful. Realizing this, Häkkinen explains the Finnish name for the Swedes through the name of a small region in Sweden, which does not seem convincing. The Goths, who lived for some time in Sweden, called the red-bearded Swedes rauþs "red". From them, this word came to the Finns and they turned it into ruotsi.