Norman theory
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Norman theory (Normanism) - direction in historiography, developing the concept that a people is a tribe Rus comes from Scandinavia expansion period Vikings, which in Western Europe called Normans.
Supporters of Normanism attribute 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 historiographical concepts Tales of Bygone Years(Start 12th century), supplemented by identification chronicles Varangians like the Scandinavian-Normans. Around ethnic identification flared up basic disputes, at times reinforced by political ideologization.
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 Peter Petreus of Erlesund 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". “History” had a great influence on subsequent Normanists. Swedish state» Olaf Dalina .
The Norman theory became widely known in Russia in the 1st half 18th century thanks to the activities of German historians in Russian Academy 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 to form a state , actively spoke M. V. Lomonosov, proposing a different, non-Scandinavian identification of the Varangians. Lomonosov, in particular, argued 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 mid-18th century century V. N. Tatishchev, having studied the “Varangian question”, did not come to a definite conclusion regarding ethnic background Varangians called to Rus', but made an attempt to unite opposing views. In his opinion, based on “ Joachim Chronicle", the Varangian Rurik was descended from a Norman prince ruling in Finland and the daughter of a Slavic elder Gostomysl.
The Norman version was accepted N. M. Karamzin, and behind him almost all the major Russians historians of the XIX 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 - encouragement, the second, on the contrary, emphasized their southern origin.
Soviet historiography, after some break in the first years after revolution, returned to the Norman problem on state level. The main argument was recognized as the thesis of one of the founders of Marxism Friedrich Engels that the state cannot be imposed from the outside, supplemented by the pseudoscientific officially propagated at that time autochthonist linguist theory N. Ya. Marra, who denied migration and explaining the evolution of language and ethnogenesis from a class point of view. Ideological setting for Soviet historians became proof of the thesis about the Slavic ethnicity of the “Rus” tribe. Characteristic excerpts from a public lecture by a Doctor of Historical Sciences Mavrodina, read in 1949, reflect the state of affairs in Soviet historiography of the Stalinist period:
“It is natural that the “scientific” servants of world capital strive at all costs to discredit and denigrate the historical past of the Russian people, to belittle the importance 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 the thousand-year-old legend about the “calling of the Varangians” Rurik, Sineus and Truvor “from across the sea,” which long ago should have been archived 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 weapon 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 Zhdanova on the “Summary 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 this time, and applied this theory to specific materials on the history of the Russian state. Thus already in theoretical constructions“There is no and there cannot be a place for the founders of Marxism-Leninism 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. Since the 1940s, he identified the Rus and the Slavs, placing the first Old Slavic state, the predecessor of Kievan Rus, in the forest-steppe of the Middle Dnieper region.
IN 1960s years, the “Normanists” regained their position, recognizing the existence of a Slavic proto-state led by Russia before arrival Rurik. I. L. Tikhonov names one of the reasons why in the 1960s many became Normanists:
...the departure from scientific officialdom was also perceived as a kind of “ scientific dissidence”, Frond, and this could not help but attract young people, whose political dissidence was limited to reading Gumilyov and Brodsky, singing Galich’s songs, and anecdotes about Brezhnev […] Some opposition suited us well and created a certain halo around the participants of the “Varangian Seminar”
The subject of discussion was the localization of the unification of the Rus with the Kagan at their head, who received code name Russian Kaganate. Orientalist A. P. Novoseltsev leaned towards the northern location of the Russian Kaganate, while archaeologists ( M. I. Artamonov, V. V. Sedov) placed the Khaganate in the south, in the area from the Middle Dnieper to the Don. Without denying the influence of the Normans in the north, they still derive the ethnonym Rus from Iranian roots .
Normanist arguments
Old Russian chronicles
IN 862 d. to stop tribal strife Eastern Slavs (Krivichi And Ilmen Slovenes) And Finno-Ugrians (all And Chud) turned to the Varangians-Rus with a proposal to take the princely throne (see article Calling of the Varangians, Rus' (people) And Rurik). The chronicles do not say where the Varangians were called from. It is possible to roughly localize the residence of Rus' on the coast Baltic Sea(“from across the sea”, “the path to the Varangians along Dvina"). In addition, the Varangians-Rus are placed on a par with the Scandinavian peoples: Swedes, Normans (Norwegians), Angles (Danes) and Goths (residents of the island of Gotland - modern Swedes):
"And they said to themselves Slovenia: “Let’s look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us by right.” And they went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Those Varangians were called Rus, just as others are called Swedes, and some Normans and Angles, and still others Gotlanders, so are these.”
Later chronicles replace the term Varangians pseudo-ethnonym “Germans”, uniting the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples.
The chronicles left in Old Russian transcription a list of the names of the Varangians of Rus' (before 944 years), most distinctly Old Germanic or Scandinavian etymology. IN chronicles The following princes and ambassadors to Byzantium are mentioned in 912: Rurik (Rorik) Askold , Dir , Oleg (Helgi) Igor (Ingwar), Karla, Inegeld, Farlaf, Veremud, Rulav, Goods, Ruald, Karn, Frelove, Ruar,Aktev, Truan, Lidul, Fost, Stemid. Prince names Igor and his wife Olga V 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 agreement 944 years, although the leaders of the Western Slavic tribes from the beginning 9th century known by distinctly Slavic names.
Written evidence from contemporaries
Written evidence from contemporaries about Rus' is listed in the article Rus' (people). Western European and Byzantine authors of the 9th-10th centuries identify Rus' 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 essay Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus « About managing an empire» ( 949 g.), where the names are given Dnieper thresholds in two languages: Russian and Slavic, and 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. Yedgi (ledges) |
1. - 2. other sw. Stupi: waterfall |
Staro-Kaidatsky |
|||
|
Islanduniprakh |
threshold island |
Ostrovny Prague |
Ulworthy |
other sw. Holmfors: island threshold |
Lokhansky and Sursky rapids |
|
Gelandri |
Threshold noise |
other sw. Gaellandi: loud, ringing |
Zvonets, 5 km from Lokhansky |
||
|
Pelican nesting area |
Unsatisfied |
Aifor |
other sw. Aei(d)force: waterfall on a portage |
Nenasytetsky |
|
|
Wulniprah |
Big backwater |
Volny Prague |
Varouforos |
Other-Islamic Barufors: threshold with waves |
Volnissky |
|
Boiling water |
Vrucii (boiling) |
Leandi |
other sw. Le(i)andi: laughing |
Not localized |
|
|
Small threshold |
On the line (on the line) |
Strukun |
Other-Islamic Strukum: narrow part of a river bed |
Extra or Free |
|
At the same time, Constantine reports that the Slavs are tributaries (Paktiots) Rosov.
Archaeological evidence
Ibn Fadlan described in detail the ritual of burying a noble Russian by burning in a boat, followed by the construction of a mound. This event refers to 922, when according to ancient Russian chronicles Russians were still separated from the Slavs under their control. Graves of this type were discovered near Ladoga and later ones in Gnezdovo. The burial method probably originated among immigrants from Sweden on Åland Islands and later, with the beginning of the Viking Age, spread to Sweden, Norway, the coast of Finland and penetrated into the territory of the future Kievan Rus.
IN 2008 At the Zemlyanoy settlement of Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists discovered objects from the era of the first Rurikovichs with the image of a falcon, which perhaps later became a symbolic trident - coat of arms of Rurikovich. A similar image of a falcon is minted on English coins Danish king Anlaf Guthfritsson (939-941).
During archaeological studies of layers of the 9th-10th centuries in Rurik settlement a significant number of finds of military equipment and Viking clothing were discovered, objects of the Scandinavian type were discovered (iron torcs with Thor's hammers, bronze pendants with runic inscriptions, a silver figurine of a Valkyrie, etc.) , which indicates the presence of people from Scandinavia in the Novgorod lands at the time of the birth of Russian statehood.
Possible linguistic evidence
A whole series of words in Russian are considered Germanisms, Scandinavianisms, and although there are relatively few of them in the Russian language, most of them belong specifically 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 management, proper names. This is how proper names appeared Igor, Oleg, Olga,Rogneda, Rurik, words :herring, stall, pood, hook, anchor, sneak, please, whip, mast etc. It is also important that the very name of the ruler in the East Slavic languages is kънѧsь and кънѧгыні [ knɛ̃dzɪ] And [ knɛ̃gɯnɪ] is also probably a word of Germanic, most likely Scandinavian origin from konungR like this Old Russian word as tiun (tivun) comes from Old Norse. Jonn (servant). This name existed until the 17th century inclusive, including in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth(in its then constituent part - Lithuania) There are suggestions about the Scandinavian origin of the word " boyar" (from where the Russian master and young lady from the colloquial “bar” - “boyars”). However, other Germanisms of the same sphere of the sphere - myt, armor, sword, buy, helmet - are most likely considered earlier - from Gothic language
Norman theory(Normanism) is a direction in historiography that develops the concept that the people-tribe of Rus' comes from Scandinavia during the period of expansion of the Vikings, who were called Normans in Western Europe.
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. The Swedish diplomat Peter Petrei de Erlesund tried to develop this idea in 1615 in his book “Regin Muschowitici Sciographia”. His initiative was supported in 1671 by the royal historiographer Johan Widekind in “Thet svenska i Ryssland tijo åhrs krijgs historie”. Olaf Dahlin's History of the Swedish State had a great influence on subsequent Normanists.
The 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 Schlözer.
M.V. Lomonosov actively opposed the Norman theory, seeing in it a thesis about the backwardness of the Slavs and their unpreparedness to form a state, proposing a different, non-Scandinavian identification of the Varangians. Lomonosov, in particular, argued 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 mid-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 Rus', but made an attempt to unite opposing views. In his opinion, based on the “Joachim Chronicle,” the Varangian Rurik was descended from a Norman prince ruling in Finland and the daughter of the Slavic elder Gostomysl.
The Norman version was accepted by N.M. Karamzin, followed by almost all major Russian historians of the 19th century. The two most prominent representatives of the anti-Normanist movement were S. A. Gedeonov and D. I. Ilovaisky. The first considered the Rus to be Baltic Slavs - obodrites, the second, on the contrary, emphasized their southern origin.
Soviet historiography, after a short break in the first years after the revolution, returned to the Norman problem at the state level. The main argument was recognized as the thesis of one of the founders of Marxism, Friedrich Engels, that the state cannot be imposed from the outside, supplemented by the pseudoscientific autochthonist theory of the linguist N. Ya. Marr, officially promoted at that time, which denied migration and explained the evolution of language and ethnogenesis from a class point of view . The ideological setting for Soviet historians was the proof of the thesis about the Slavic ethnicity of the “Rus” tribe. Representative excerpts from public lecture Doctor of Historical Sciences Mavrodin, read in 1949, reflect the state of affairs in Soviet historiography of the Stalin period:
“It is natural that the “scientific” servants of world capital strive at all costs to discredit and denigrate the historical past of the Russian people, to belittle the importance 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 the thousand-year-old legend about the “calling of the Varangians” Rurik, Sineus and Truvor “from beyond the sea,” which long ago should have been archived along with the legend about Adam, Eve and the serpent, tempter global flood, Noe and his sons, is being revived by foreign bourgeois historians in order to serve as a weapon 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 comments of comrades Stalin, 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 emerging at this time, and applied this theory to specific materials from the history of the Russian state. Thus, in the theoretical constructions of the founders of Marxism-Leninism, there is and cannot be a place for the Normans as the creators of the state among the “wild” East Slavic tribes.”
The historian and archaeologist B. A. Rybakov represented Soviet anti-Normanism for many years. Since the 1940s, he identified the Rus and the Slavs, placing the first Old Slavic state, the predecessor of Kievan Rus, in the forest-steppe of the Middle Dnieper region.
In the 1960s, the “Normanists” regained their position, recognizing the existence of a Slavic proto-state led by Russia before the arrival of Rurik. I. L. Tikhonov names one of the reasons why in the 1960s many became Normanists:
...the departure from scientific officialdom was also perceived as a kind of “scientific dissidence,” Frond, and this could not help but attract young people, whose political dissidence was limited to reading Gumilyov and Brodsky, singing Galich’s songs, and anecdotes about Brezhnev... Some oppositionism suited us well and created a certain halo around the participants of the “Varangian Seminar”.
The subject of discussion was the localization of the unification of the Rus with the Kagan at its head, which received the code name Russian Kaganate. Orientalist A.P. Novoseltsev was inclined to 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 still derive the ethnonym Rus' from Iranian roots.
In 862, to stop civil strife, the tribes of the Eastern Slavs (Krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes) and Finno-Ugrians (Ves and Chud) turned to the Varangians-Rus with a proposal to take the princely throne. The chronicles do not say where the Varangians were called from. It is possible to roughly localize the place of residence of Rus' on the coast of the Baltic Sea (“from beyond the sea”, “the path to the Varangians along the Dvina”). In addition, the Varangians-Rus are placed on a par with the Scandinavian peoples: Swedes, Normans (Norwegians), Angles (Danes) and Goths (residents of the island of Gotland - modern Swedes):
“And the Slovenians said to themselves: “Let’s look for a prince who would rule over us and judge us by right.” And they went overseas to the Varangians, to Rus'. Those Varangians were called Rus, just as others are called Swedes, and some Normans and Angles, and still others Gotlanders, so are these.”
Later chronicles replace the term Varangians with the pseudo-ethnonym “Germans,” uniting the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples.
The chronicles left in Old Russian transcription a list of the names of the Varangians of Rus' (until 944), most of them with a distinct Old Germanic or Scandinavian etymology. The chronicle mentions the following princes and ambassadors to Byzantium in 912: Rurik (Rorik), Askold, Dir, Oleg (Helgi), Igor (Ingwar), Karla, Inegeld, Farlaf, Veremud, Rulav, Gudy, Ruald, Karn, Frelav, Ruar, Aktevu, Truan, Lidul, Fost, Stemid. The names of Prince Igor and his wife Olga in Greek transcription according to synchronous Byzantine sources (the works 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 evidence from contemporaries about Rus' is 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 essay of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus “On the Administration of the Empire” (949), which gives the names of the Dnieper rapids in two languages: Russian and Slavic, and an interpretation of the names in Greek. At the same time, Konstantin reports that the Slavs are “tributaries” (pactiots - from the Latin pactio “agreement”) of the Ros.
Ibn Fadlan described in detail the ritual of burying a noble Rus by burning in a boat, followed by the construction of a mound. This event dates back to 922, when according to ancient Russian chronicles The Rus were still separated from the Slavs under their control. Graves of this type were discovered near Ladoga and later ones in Gnezdovo. The burial method probably originated among immigrants from Sweden on the Åland Islands and later, with the beginning of the Viking Age, spread to Sweden, Norway, the coast of Finland and penetrated into the territory of the future Kievan Rus.
In 2008, at the Zemlyanoy settlement of Staraya Ladoga, archaeologists discovered objects from the era of the first Rurikovichs with the image of a falcon, which may later become a symbolic trident - the coat of arms of the Rurikovichs. A similar image of a falcon was minted on English coins of the Danish king Anlaf Guthfritsson (939-941).
During archaeological studies of the layers of the 9th-10th centuries in the Rurik settlement, a significant number of finds of military equipment and clothing of the Vikings were discovered, objects of the Scandinavian type were discovered (iron hryvnias with Thor hammers, bronze pendants with runic inscriptions, a silver figurine of a Valkyrie, etc.), which indicates the presence immigrants from Scandinavia Novgorod lands during the birth of Russian statehood.
A whole series of words in Russian are considered Germanisms, Scandinavianisms, and although there are relatively few of them in the Russian language, most of them belong specifically 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, the proper names Igor, Oleg, Olga, Rogneda, Rurik, the words: tiun, pud, anchor (from the 11th century), sneak, whip (from the 13th century) appeared.
Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia
Concept in historical science, according to which the Varangians (Rus), called around 862 by a coalition of the Ilmen Slovenes, Krivichi, Chud and Meri to reign and gave rise to the Old Russian princely dynasty(Rurik dynasty), were Scandinavians (Normans). This thesis was often supplemented by the thesis about the significance of the role of the Scandinavians in the history of the Old Russian state. And at the end XVIII - XIX centuries it was sometimes accompanied by a statement about the inability of the Eastern Slavs to build a state and about the creation of an East Slavic (future Russian) statehood by the Scandinavians.
Since the twentieth century. the views of supporters of this concept are called Normanism (and their supporters - Normanists), while the views of its opponents are called anti-Normanism (and their supporters - anti-Normanists).
The Norman theory was based on the story of the “calling of the Varangians,” placed in the “Tale of Bygone Years” (beginning of the 12th century) under 862. As is clear from it, the term “Varangians” was a collective name for Germanic, mainly Scandinavian, ethnic groups. According to the Tale, a coalition of East Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribal unions- Slovenes (Ilmen), Krivichi, Chud and all, - concerned about, that there was “no order” in their lands, turned to the Varangian tribe “Rus” with the words “Come to reign and rule over us.” The brothers Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, who responded to the call, reigned, respectively, in Novgorod, Beloozero and Izborsk, and in 864 the possessions of the deceased Sineus and Truvor passed to Rurik. The state, eventually headed by the representative of “Rus” Rurik, received the name of the Russian Land (“and from those Varangians it was nicknamed the Russian Land”). Around 882, as a result of the capture of Kyiv by Rurik's successor Oleg the Prophet, it turned into big state, called in science Old Russian. At least since the 930s. (according to the Tale of Bygone Years - from 912) it was ruled by princes who, according to the Tale of Bygone Years, were descendants of Rurik (Rurik dynasty).
The Norman theory first received scientific formalization in the work of G.Z. Bayer “On the Varangians” (1735), the main provisions of which were then developed by G.F. Miller in his essay “The Origin of the People and the Russian Name” (1749). In the works of A.L. Shdötzer’s “Experience in the analysis of Russian chronicles (concerning Nestor and Russian history)” (1768) and “Nestor” (1802 - 1809), the thesis about the Scandinavian origin of the Old Russian princely dynasty was for the first time supplemented by the thesis that before the arrival of the Scandinavians, the Eastern Slavs did not know statehood at all. However, the Norman theory received its classical embodiment in the articles of the Danish historian and linguist V. Thomsen “Relations Ancient Rus' and Scandinavia and the origin of the Russian state" (1876). Noting that “laying the first foundations of the Russian political system is the work of the Scandinavians,” Thomsen emphasized that the “gigantic building” on this “foundation” was erected by “natural Slavs.” In general, Schlözer’s thesis that only the Scandinavians were introduced to the very concept of “statehood” by the Eastern Slavs is a thesis that Soviet historical science of the 1940s - 1980s. represented the quintessence of the Norman theory - was not shared by serious scientists already in the 19th century.
Anti-Normanism arose already in 1750 as a reaction to Miller's work. One of its manifestations was the desire to prove the Slavic origin of the Varangians and/or the Varangian tribe “Rus”, called up around 862. So, M.V. Lomonosov in his “Ancient Russian history" (1766) proclaimed the Varangians - "Rus" a tribe related to the Prussians (whom he mistakenly considered Slavs). After the publication in 1876 of the work of S.A. Gedeonov’s “Varangians and Rus'”, the identification of the Varangians-“Rus” with the Western Slavs who lived on the southern coast of the Baltic (first proposed back in the 16th century by S. Herberstein and modified in the early 1970s by A.G. Kuzmin, who believed Varangians by Slavicized Celts).
Another manifestation of anti-Normanism - which found its most complete embodiment in the works of D.S. Likhachev and B.A. Rybakov 1940s - 1960s. - attempts began to prove the legendary nature of the story about the calling of the Varangians.
At present, the Scandinavian origin of the Varangians - “Rus” and the Old Russian princely dynasty can be considered proven. Linguists confirm the Scandinavian (and not West Slavic) origin of the “Varangian” names (including “Rurik”, “Sineus” and “Truvor”). Archaeological excavations on the Rurik settlement (the residence of Rurik near present-day Novgorod the Great), the fact of arrival there around the middle of the 9th century was established. large number Scandinavians (not Western Slavs), and in general, a lot of Scandinavian artifacts were found on the territory of Ancient Rus' (and much more than West Slavic ones).
Literature
- Lebedev G.S. Viking Age Northern Europe and in Rus'. St. Petersburg, 2005.
- Melnikova E.A., Petrukhin V.Ya. The name “Rus” in the ethnocultural history of the Old Russian state (IX - X centuries) // Questions of history. 1989. No. 8.
- Nosov E.N. Novgorod (Rurik settlement). L., 1990.
- Petrukhin V. Ya. Rus' in the 9th-10th centuries. From the calling of the Varangians to the choice of faith M., 2014.
- Pchelov E.V. Rurik. M., 2010.
Russian the University of Economics named after G.V. Plekhanov
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Department of Russian and World History
in the discipline "History"
Completed by: Shashkina D.M.
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Checked by: Sokolov M.V.
Moscow - 2013
Norman theory- a direction in historiography, whose supporters consider the Normans (Varangians) to be the founders of the Slavic state.
The concept of the Scandinavian origin of the state among the Slavs is associated with a fragment from The Tale of Bygone Years, which reported that in 862, in order to stop civil strife, the Slavs turned to the Varangians with a proposal to take the princely throne. Chronicles report that initially the Varangians took tribute from the Novgorodians, then they were expelled, but between the tribes (according to Novgorod Chronicle- between cities) civil strife began: “And they began to fight more and more.” After which the Slovenes, Krivichi, Chud and Merya turned to the Varangians with the words: “Our land is great and abundant, but there is no outfit in it. May you come and reign over us.” As a result, Rurik sat down to reign in Novgorod, Sineus in Beloozero and Truvor in Izborsk. The first researchers who analyzed Nestor's narrative about the calling of the Varangians almost all generally recognized its authenticity, seeing the Varangian-Russians as immigrants from Scandinavia. The "Norman theory" was put forward in the 18th century. German historians G. Bayer and G. Miller, invited by Peter I to work in Petersburg Academy Sci. They tried to scientifically prove that the Old Russian state was created by the Varangians. In the 19th century the Norman theory acquired in official Russian historiography of the 18th-19th centuries. the nature of the main version of the origin of the Russian state. An extreme manifestation of this concept is the assertion that the Slavs, due to their unpreparedness, could not create a state, and then, without foreign leadership, were unable to govern it. In their opinion, statehood was brought to the Slavs from the outside.
Norman theory denies origin ancient Russian state as a result of internal socio-economic development. Normanists associate the beginning of statehood in Rus' with the moment the Varangians were called to reign in Novgorod and their conquest of the Slavic tribes in the Dnieper basin. They believed that the Varangians themselves of whom Rurik and his brothers were, were not of Slavic tribe or language... they were Scandinavians, that is, Swedes.
CM. Solovyov considers the Varangians a key element in the early government agencies Rus', and moreover, he considers them the founders of these structures. The historian writes: “...what is the significance of Rurik’s calling in our history? The calling of the first princes is of great importance in our history, it is an all-Russian event, and Russian history rightly begins with it. The main, initial phenomenon in the founding of a state is the unification of disparate tribes through the emergence among them of a concentrating principle, power. The northern tribes, Slavic and Finnish, united and called upon this concentrating principle, this power. Here, in the concentration of several northern tribes, the beginning of the concentration of all other tribes was laid, because the called principle uses the power of the first concentrated tribes, so that through them to concentrate other forces, united for the first time, begin to act.”
N.M. Karamzin considered the Varangians to be the founders of the “Russian monarchy,” the boundaries of which “reached to the East to the present Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod Province, and to the South to the Western Dvina; Already Merya, Murom and Polotsk depended on Rurik: for he, having accepted autocracy, gave control to his famous fellow citizens, except for Belaozer, Polotsk, Rostov and Murom, conquered by him or his brothers, as one might think. Thus, along with the supreme princely power, it seems that the Feudal, Local, or Appanage system was established in Russia. former foundation new civil societies in Scandinavia and throughout Europe, where the Germanic peoples dominated.”
N.M. Karamzin wrote: “The names of the three Varangian princes - Rurik, Sineus, Truvor - called by the Slavs and the Chud, are indisputably Norman: thus, in the Frankish chronicles around 850 - which is worthy of note - three Roriks are mentioned: one is called the Leader of the Danes, the other the King ( Rex) Norman, the third is simply Norman." V.N. Tatishchev believed that Rurik was from Finland, since only from there could the Varangians come to Rus' so often. Platonov and Klyuchevsky completely agree with their colleagues, in particular Klyuchevsky writes: “Finally, the names of the first Russian Varangian princes and their warriors are almost all of Scandinavian origin; we meet the same names in Scandinavian sagas: Rurik in the form of Hrorek, Truvor - Thorvardr, Oleg according to the ancient Kiev accent on o - Helgi, Olga - Helga, in Konstantin Porphyrogenitus - ????,Igor - Ingvarr, Oskold - Hoskuldr, Dir Dyri, Frelaf - Frilleifr, Svenald - Sveinaldr, etc.”
The origin of the ethnonym “Rus” is traced back to the Old Icelandic word Roþsmenn or Roþskarlar - “rowers, sailors” and to the word “ruotsi/rootsi” among the Finns and Estonians, meaning Sweden in their languages, and which, according to some linguists, should have turned into “Rus” when this word was borrowed into the Slavic languages.
The most important arguments of the Norman theory are the following:
· Byzantine and Western European written sources(in which contemporaries identified Rus' as Swedes or Normans.
· Scandinavian names of the founder of the Russian princely dynasty - Rurik, his “brothers” Sineus and Truvor, and all the first Russian princes before Svyatoslav. In foreign sources, their names are also given in a form close to the Scandinavian sound. Prince Oleg is called X-l-g (Khazar letter), Princess Olga - Helga, Prince Igor - Inger (Byzantine sources).
· Scandinavian names of most of the ambassadors of the "Russian family" listed in Russian-Byzantine treaty 912
· The work of Konstantin Porphyrogenitus “On the Administration of the Empire” (c. 949), which gives the names of the Dnieper rapids in two languages: “Russian” and Slavic, where a Scandinavian etymology can be proposed for most “Russian” names.
Additional arguments are archaeological evidence, recording the presence of Scandinavians in the north East Slavic territory, including finds of the 9th-11th centuries at the excavations of the Rurik settlement, burials in Staraya Ladoga (from the middle of the 8th century) and Gnezdovo. In settlements founded before the 10th century, Scandinavian artifacts date specifically to the period of the “calling of the Varangians,” while in the most ancient cultural layers
Points of view on the origin of the Old Russian state. Norman theories:
Norman Scandinavian Old Russian state
Disputes around the Norman version at times took on an ideological character in the context of the question of whether the Slavs could have created a state on their own, without the Norman Varangians. IN Stalin's time Normanism in the USSR was rejected at the state level, but in the 1960s, Soviet historiography returned to the moderate Norman hypothesis with the simultaneous study alternative versions origin of Rus'.
Foreign historians for the most part consider the Norman version as the main one.
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NORMAN THEORY- a direction in the study of the Russian past, whose supporters consider the Scandinavians, Vikings, and Normans to be the founders of the Russian state. The thesis about the “calling of the Varangians”, which formed the basis of the theory, like itself, has been used for more than three centuries in scientific and political disputes as an ideological justification for the concept of the inability of the Slavs and, above all, Russians to be independent. state creativity and development in general without the cultural and intellectual assistance of the West.
The Norman theory was first formulated by German scientists who worked in Russia at the invitation of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences during the reign of Anna Ivanovna (second quarter of the 18th century) - G.Z. Bayer, G.F. Miller and A.L., who came to St. Petersburg a little later. Schletzer. Describing the history of the creation of the Russian state, they were based on the legendary story of a chronicler from Tales of Bygone Years about the calling by the Slavs to Rus' of the Varangian king Rurik, who gave the name to the first Russian princely dynasty (Rurikovich, 9–16 centuries). Under the pen of these German historians, the Normans (northwestern tribes of the Varangians, Swedish Vikings) were the creators ancient Russian statehood, their representatives formed the basis ruling class ancient Russian society(princes, boyars, elite command staff their squads in the “times of military democracy”). M.V. Lomonosov, a contemporary of Bayer, Miller and Schletser, saw in the theory they put forward hostile to Russia political meaning and pointed out its scientific inconsistency. He did not deny the authenticity of the chronicle story, but believed that the “Varangians” (Normans) should be understood as the tribes of the Goths, Lithuanians, Khazars and many other peoples, and not just the Swedish Vikings.
In the 19th century the Norman theory acquired in the official Russian historiography of the 18th–19th centuries. the nature of the main version of the origin of the Russian state. The Normanists were N.M. Karamzin and many others. other historians of his time. S.M. Soloviev, without denying the calling of the Varangian princes to Rus', did not see in this legend any basis for thinking about the infringement of national dignity.
By the 30–50s of the 19th century. the struggle between “Normanists” and “anti-Normanists” was at the same time a struggle between “Westerners” and “Slavophiles”. It especially worsened in the 60s of the 19th century. in connection with the celebration of the millennium of Russia in 1862. Opponents of the theory were then D.I. Ilovaisky, N.I. Kostomarov, S.A. Gedeonov (who was the first to try to prove the West Slavic origin of the Varangians), V.G. Vasilievsky. They drew attention to the fact that the thesis about the calling of the Varangians was first turned into a theory precisely during the “Bironovschina” (when many senior positions at the court were occupied by German nobles who sought to justify the cultural role of the West for “backward” Russia). At the same time, over the previous six centuries (12th–18th centuries), the legend of Rurik’s calling was included in all works on the history of Russia, but was never the basis for recognizing the backwardness of Rus' and the highly developed state of its neighbors. And yet, the argumentation of the “anti-Normanists” was weak even by the beginning of the 20th century. the victory of “Normanism” in Russian historiography seemed obvious. Even the outstanding Russian specialist in ancient Russian chronicle textology and archeography A.A. Shakhmatov, having established the late and unreliable nature of the story about the calling of the Varangian princes, was still inclined to the idea “ of decisive importance» Scandinavian tribes in progress state building in Rus'. He even derived the very name of the ancient Russian state from the Finnish lexeme “ruotsi” - a designation for the Swedes and Sweden.
In Soviet historical science, the question of how the ancient Russian state was created and the truth or falsity of the Norman theory became obvious. political significance. Historians who have studied ancient period Russian statehood (B.D. Grekov, B.A. Rybakov, M.N. Tikhomirov, V.V. Mavrodin) were faced with the need to give “a fierce rebuff to the reactionary bourgeoisie, trying to denigrate the distant past of the Russian people, to undermine the feeling of deep respect for him on the part of all progressive humanity." Together with fellow archaeologists, they sought to find justification high degree the decomposition of the communal system among the Slavs by the beginning - mid-9th century, since only this could confirm the presence internal prerequisites emergence of the state.
However, the “Normanists”, especially those who worked on studying the history of the ancient Russian state in foreign universities, did not give up their positions. Finding Norman elements in the organization of administrative and political governance, social life, cultures, Normanists tried to emphasize that they were decisive in determining the character of one or another social phenomenon. By the early 1960s, the Normanists had become advocates of at least one of four concepts:
1) “The concept of conquest”, leaning towards the idea of the conquest of Russian land by the Normans (shared by the majority of Russian historians)
2) “The concept of colonization” (T. Arne) – the seizure of Russian territory by the Normans by creating Scandinavian colonies.
3) “Concept political cooperation"between the Swedish kingdom and Russia. At first, the role of the Varangians in Rus' was that of merchants who knew foreign countries well, and later - of warriors, navigators, and sailors.
4) “The concept of a foreign elite” – creation upper class in Rus' by the Varangians (A. Stender-Petersen).
Their anti-Normanist opponents drew attention to the following points in their argumentation.
1) Representatives of the South Baltic Pomeranian Slavs, who were part of large tribal confederations of tribes, in the 8th–10th centuries. dominated the southern shores Baltic and determined a lot in the history, religion, culture of this region, influencing the destinies and development of the Eastern Slavs, especially their northwestern region, where the first centers of Russian statehood arose - Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod. But these were not Varangians, but Pomeranian Slavs.
2) Ancient connections of the Pomeranian Slavs with East Slavic lands were reflected in the linguistic community of the South Baltic and Novgorod (Ilmen) Slavs. The Tale of Bygone Years also says that Slavic language and the Varangian-Russian language “the essence is one.” The chronicle found confirmation that - in the opinion of its author - there were Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and there were “Varangians - Rus'”, and the chronicler distinguished separately the Scandinavian and separately the Varangian-Russian ethnic community.
3) The existence of some ancient Russian princes Varangian origin (Oleg, Igor, etc.) and Norman-Varangians in princely squads does not contradict the fact that the state in Ancient Rus' was formed on an internal socio-economic basis. The Varangians left almost no traces in the rich material and spiritual culture of Ancient Rus', because those of them that lived in Rus' were assimilated (glorified).
4) The Normans themselves (Varangians) recognized high level development of Gardariki - “the country of cities”, as they called Rus'.
5) Foreign origin ruling dynasty typical for the Middle Ages; the legend about the calling of the Varangians to Rus' is no exception ( German dynasties originate from the Roman, British - from the Anglo-Saxon).
Today, the question of the origin of the Russian state has not been completely clarified. The debate between Normanists and anti-Normanists is renewed from time to time, but due to lack of data many modern researchers began to lean toward a compromise option, and a moderate-Normanist theory arose. According to it, the Varangians had a serious influence on the ancient Slavs, but being small in number, they quickly adopted the Slavic language and culture of their neighbors.
Lev Pushkarev, Natalya Pushkareva