Rus' (people)

Rus’ (Русь, ) are an ancient people whose name survives in the cognates ', ', and , and who are viewed by the modern, , and as the predecessors of the respective peoples.

Etymology
The origin of the name is matter of considerable dispute. In general, the hypothesis of E. Kunik and has met with the widest acceptance. According to them this appellation derives from the. The name of Sweden is in Ruotsi; in :Rootsi. This name is commonly held to be derived from, the coastal areas of province in Sweden. The Danish scholar T.E. Karsten has pointed out that the territory now occupying by the areas of Uppland, Sodermanland and East Gotland in ancient times were known as Rođer or rođin. Thomson accordingly has suggested that Rođer has probably been derived from rođsmenn or rođskarlar, meaning seafarers or rowers.

However, it is also suggested that the name Rus originates from the Iranian name of (by F.Knauer Moscow 1901), as well as from the Rosh of. Prof has suggested that the name derives from the  or from the  term ronsa (moisture, water), the recurrence of river names like  in Eastern Europe.

Slavic sources
According to the earliest East Slavic record, the, the Rus' was a group of s among others like Swedes and Gotlanders who lived on the other side of the , in Scandinavia and as far as the land of the English and the French. The Varangians were first expelled, then invited to rule the warring and  tribes of :

"The four tribes who had been forced to pay tribute to the Varangians — s,,, and drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them further tribute, and set out to govern themselves. But there was no law among them, and tribe rose against tribe. Discord thus ensued among them, and they began to war one against the other. They said to themselves, "Let us seek a prince who may rule over us, and judge us according to custom. Thus they went overseas to the Varangians, to the Rus. These particular Varangians were known as Rus, just as some are called, and others and , and still others ers, for they were thus named. The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichs and the then said to the Rus, "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come reign as princes, rule over us". Three brothers, with their kinfolk, were selected. They brought with them all the Rus and migrated."

Later, the Primary Chronicle tells us, they conquered and created the state of  (which, as most historians agree, was preceded by the ). The territory they conquered was named after them as were, eventually, the local people (see for further details).

Islamic sources
and two other Arabian sources (as well as, who would follow them later) distinguish three groups of the Rus: Kuyavia, Slavia, and Arcania. In the mainstream Russian-Soviet historiography (as represented by ), these were tentatively identified with the "tribal centres" at, and.

The Muslim traveller,, who visited in , described the Rus (Rusiyyah) in the terms strongly suggestive of the Norsemen:

"I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the . I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear neither tunics nor caftans, but the men wear a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves a hand free. Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort. Each woman wears on either breast a box of iron, silver, copper, or gold; the value of the box indicates the wealth of the husband. Each box has a ring from which depends a knife. The women wear neck-rings of gold and silver. Their most prized ornaments are green glass beads. They string them as necklaces for their women."

Apart from Ibn Fadlan's account, the Normanist theory draws heavily on the evidence of the n traveler who allegedly visited  (or, according to ) and described how the Rus' exploited the Slavs.

"As for the Rus, they live on an island ... that takes three days to walk round and is covered with thick undergrowth and forests; it is most unhealthy.... They harry the Slavs, using ships to reach them; they carry them off as slaves and…sell them. They have no fields but simply live on what they get from the Slav's lands.... When a son is born, the father will go up to the newborn baby, sword in hand; throwing it down, he says, "I shall not leave you with any property: You have only what you can provide with this weapon.""

In 's account, the Rus are described as "a kind of the ", a term usually used to refer to Slavs, and anti-Normanist scholars have interpreted this passage as indicative of the Rus being Slavs rather than Scandinavians. In the interpretation of the Normanist scholars, the word Saqaliba was also frequently applied to all fair-haired, ruddy-complexioned population of Central, Eastern, and Northeastern Europe, indicating that the Muslim authors did not distinguish sharply between the Slavs and the Rus.

Greek sources
When the Varangians first appeared in, the Byzantines seem to have perceived the Rhos (: Ρως) as a different people from the Slavs. At least they are never said to be part of the Slavic race. Characteristically, pseudo- refers to the Ros as Δρομΐται, a word related to the Greek word meaning "a run", suggesting the.

In his treatise , describes the Rhos as the neighbours of  who buy from the latter cows, horses, and sheep "because neither of these animals may be found in Rosia". His description represents the Rus as a warlike northern tribe. Constantine also enumerates the names of the cataracts in both Rhos and in Slavic languages. The Rhos names have distinct Germanic etymology:


 * Essoupi ( vesuppi, "do not sleep")
 * Oulvorsi (Old Norse holmfors, "island rapid")
 * Gelandri (Old Norse gjallandi, "yelling, loudly ringing")
 * Aeifor (Old Norse eiforr, "ever fierce")
 * Varouforos (Old Norse varufors, "cliff rapid" or barufors, "wave rapid")
 * Leanti (Old Norse leandi, "seething", or hlaejandi, "laughing")
 * Stroukoun (Old Norse strukum, "rapid current").

Western European sources
The first Western European source to mention the Rus is the which relate that Emperor ' court in,  (the same year as the first appearance of s in ), was visited by a delegation from the. In this delegation there were two men who called themselves Rhos (Rhos vocari dicebant). Louis enquired about their origins and learnt that they were. Fearing that they were spies for their brothers, the, he incarcerated them. Subsequently, in the 10th and 11th centuries, Latin sources routinely confused the Rus with the extinct East Germanic tribe of. , for instance, was designated in one manuscript as a Rugian queen (regina Rugorum).

Normanist theory
The "Normanist" theory suggests that may have been named after its Scandinavian ruling elite, much as was the case with.

The proponents of this theory claim that the name Rus, like the Finnish name for, is derived from an term for "the men who row" (rods-) as rowing was the main method of navigating the Russian rivers, and that it is linked to the Swedish coastal area of  (Rus-law) or Roden, from where the s came from according to the Russian. The name Rus would then have the same origin as the and  names for Sweden: Ruotsi and Rootsi.

It has been suggested that the Vikings had some enduring influence in Rus, as testified by loan words, such as yabeda "complaining person" (from aembaetti "office"), skot "cattle" (from skattr "tax") and (from knutr, "a knotty wood"). Moreover three Nordic names of the first Varangian rulers also became popular among the later Rurikids and then among the East Slavic people in general: (Helgi),  (Helga) and  (Ingvar).

The Normanist theory was first elaborated by the German historian (1705-1783), who was invited to work in the  in. At the beginning of his notorious speech from, Müller declared that the "glorious Scandinavians conquered all the Russian lands with their victorious arms". As the rest of the speech represented a lengthy list of Russian defeats by the Germans and Swedes, Müller was forced to curtail his lecture by shouts from the audience. The scathing criticism from, , and other academicians led to Müller being forced to suspend his work on the issue until Lomonosov's death. Although the printed text of the original lecture was destroyed, Miller managed to rework it and had it reprinted as Origines Rossicae in.

Other notable proponents of the "Normanist theory" of the Russian state — including (1766–1826) and his disciple  (1800–75) — gave credit to the claims of the Primary Chronicle that the Varangians were invited by East Slavs to rule over them and bring order. The theory was not without political implications. In Karamzin's writing the Normanist theory formed the basis and justification for Russian autocracy (as opposed to anarchy of the pre-Rurikid period), and Pogodin used the theory to advance his view that Russia was immune to social upheavals and revolutions, because the Russian state originated from a voluntary treaty between the people of and  rulers.

Antinormanist theories
Starting with, scholars from have criticised the Normanist theory. During the imperial period, Karamzin's and Pogodin's official views were disputed by the more liberal sectors of Russian society and by some historians. In the early 20th century, the traditional anti-Normanist doctrine (as articulated by ) seemed to have lost currency. However, the Normanist rhetoric was abused by during the  and, in the eyes of the Soviet authorities, the theory was discredited forever. The war over, the anti-Normanist arguments were revived and adopted in official Soviet historiography. ranks among those who attempted to reconcile both theories by hypothesizing that the Kievan state united the southern Rus (of Slavic stock) and the northern Rus (of Germanic stock) into a single nation.

The staunchest advocate of the anti-Normanist views in the post-WWII period was, who argued that the cultural level of the Varangians could not have warranted an invitation from the culturally advanced Slavs. This conclusion leads Slavicists to deny or reinterpret the Primary Chronicle, which claims that the Varangian Rus' were "invited". Rybakov assumes that, putative author of the Chronicle, was biased against the pro-Greek party of and supported the pro-Scandinavian party of the ruling prince. He cites Nestor's factual inaccuracies as pro-Scandinavian manipulations and compares his account of Rurik's invitation with numerous similar stories found in folklore around the world.

Quite a few alternative, non-Normanist origins for the word Rus have been postulated by, Ilovaisky, Rybakov, and others, although none was endorsed in the academic mainstream:


 * From the Old Slavic name that meant "river-people" (tribes of fishermen and ploughmen who settled near the rivers, , and  and were known to navigate them).  The rus root is preserved in the modern Slavic and Russian  words "ruslo" (river-bed), "" , etc.
 * From one of two rivers in (near  and ),    and  Rusna, whose names are derived from a postulated Slavic term for water, akin to rosa (dew) (related to the above theory).
 * A Slavic word rusy (refers only to hair color — from dark ash-blond to light-brown), cognate with ryzhy (red-haired) and English red.
 * A postulated proto-Slavic word for, cognate with Greek arctos and Latin ursus.
 * The Iranian tribe of the  (from the, rokhs  ‘light’; R русые волосы /rusyje volosy/ "light-brown hair"; cf. 's dictionary definition of Русь /rus/: Русь ж. в знач. мир, белсвет. Rus, fig. world, universe [белсвет: lit. "white world", "white light"]).
 * The modern Finnish word "Ruotsi" means and refers to the Swedish people ("Ruotsalainen") which in turn is very similar to the Slavic word "Rus" and could be historically connected.

According to F. Donald Logan (The Vikings in History, cit. Montgomery, p. 24), "in, the Rus' were . In , the Rus' were ." The Scandinavians were completely absorbed and, unlike their brethren in and in, they left little cultural heritage in Eastern Europe. This almost complete absence of cultural traces (besides several names, as discussed above, and arguably the -system of, comparable to in Scandinavia), is remarkable, and the Slavicists therefore call the s "cultural chameleons", who came, ruled and then disappeared, leaving little cultural trace in Eastern Europe. This seems to suggest that these Rus' were a small group, less than a people in the nation sense of the word; less than an.

References and further reading

 * The Annals of Saint-Bertin, transl. Janet L. Nelson, Ninth-Century Histories 1 (Manchester and New York, 1991).
 * .  New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
 * Christian, David. A History of Russia, Mongolia, and Central Asia. Blackwell, 1999.
 * Dolukhanov, Pavel M. The Early Slavs: Eastern Europe from the Initial Settlement to the Kievan Rus. New York: Longman, 1996.
 * Duczko, Wladyslaw. Viking Rus: Studies on the Presence of Scandinavians in Eastern Europe (The Northern World; 12). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 90-04-13874-9).
 * Goehrke, C. Frühzeit des Ostslaven. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1992.
 * Magocsi, Paul R. A History of Ukraine. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996.
 * . The Origin of Rus'. Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991.
 * Stang, Hakon. The Naming of Russia. Oslo: Middelelser, 1996.
 * Gerard Miller as the author of the Normanist theory