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Ruryk |
The birth of the Russian Empire falls in the period when the Scandinavian Vikings were at the zenith of their power. Just as these hardy rovers sailed over the Baltic, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, until they reached Iceland and North America, and in their small forty oared galleys went up from the mouths of the Elbe, the Weser, the Rhine, the Maas and the Seine far into the interior, striking terror into the inhabitants, so, too, in the east of Europe they followed the course of the rivers and discovered the way to the Black Sea and Constantinople. The route which led up the Dwina and then down the Dnieper to Byzantium was called the Varagian way; even the rapids of the Dnieper bore, so it is said, Scandinavian names. The Norsemen, who had founded here and there independent empires in the west of Europe, could do so still more easily in the east.
.....The Book of History, Vol. VIII, pg. 3285 (London, 1914)
Rurik, the Viking leader who is traditionally credited with founding the Russian state, was born in Friesland, a region in present-day Holland, which his father controlled. After leading raids in France, England, and Germany, Rurik gained control of a large tract of land in Jutland. However, he soon abandoned his claim under pressure from rival chieftains.
In the 850s, Rurik and his brothers Sineus and Truvor led a band of Vikings into northwestern Russia where they established a settlement near Lake Ladoga in what is now northeastern Russia very near the border with Finland. Rurik soon moved part of the settlement to nearby Novgorod, according to legend, at the invitation of the local Slavs. There he established the seat of his power and built a fortress from which he could rule the Russian lands. His rule extended as far south as Kiev where his successors founded the powerful Kievan state, which lasted until the 1200s.
From Rurik came the house of Rurikovitch which ruled Russia until the end of the 16th century.
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