Prince Rurik - how it all began ...
The full-flowing river begins with the source. Life from birth, and history - from the starting point, which everyone recognized as the "initial zero". The half-legendary character of our history - Prince Rurik, can be called a sign embodying the beginning of the history of Russia.
The lands without margins inhabited by poorly inhabited tribes in the 8th and 9th centuries are similar to primitive chaos, in comparison with more or less civilized on the wreckage of the Roman Empire by barbarians, who by that time were already getting used to stuffing a toga from brocade.
The Slavs who lived in the ilmensky expanses were not at all militant. Not that the tribes of the Baltic Varangians. A well-known chronicler Nestor numbered Varangians: Swedes, Normans, Gotlanders, and those who were called "Rus". Guys professionally robbed, as distant countries, and often doing leisurely crafts in the bins of their peace-loving neighbors. Someone else liked to mess around on the gift of a darling, that they were trying to "milk the obedient cow" as long as possible.
Periodically Varangians perched on the neck of Krivichi, Radimichi, Ilmen Slovaks and other mild-mannered inhabitants of the fertile land. And for every time, sprawled freeloaders, had to be pushed into the neck. And so it continued to go around, until the middle of the 9th century, when another gang of Varangian vagabonds came who, according to Nikolai Karamzin's own suggestion, did not "overdo the stick" with tribute and did not repair serious grievances.
I would hate to endure them, but the local elite (elders, leaders and prominent boyars), considering the lost profit, outraged the nation, and roamed the robbers as they could crushing their sides. And everything would be fine, but the way between the Slavs (read the elites) has dried up and they have sworn at each other. The sick to the last, but the respected elder from Novgorod, Gostomysl, would fight, according to tradition he put forward an alternative to fratricide for discussion. The idea was that the eternal dispute among the Slavs among themselves, the invited person from outside decided. That of the noble was, yes the power supported his team.
The old man was not a blunder, not only that he "breathed on" incense, and turned the business. "Arbitration judge", probably without alternative suggested the son of his daughter Umila and according to information, the reliability is not shiny (as well as the rest) - the son of the godrich Prince Godlava. That is quite logical, I attached my grandson to a warm place in a cold country.
The Slovenes of Novgorod, the Krivichi, the whole and the Chud were gathered and the ambassadors sent from the petition to the candidate, there is no order in the great and plentiful land, take power and rule over us.
Well, who would refuse such an offer? Rurik could not resist. He collected the belongings, the family in an armful, the team of the detachment, the march-march forward and with the song. New lands, new adventures, promising real prosperity and even more than what else a romantic Varangian still want.
Logically, the ambassadors were supposed to invite one prince, and they all crouched together, the good of the brothers, for good, then you need one. There is a version that Sineus and Truvor are not brothers at all, but in translation from Old Swedish: sine hus is a kindred, and thru varing is a loyal squad, therefore Rurik could come alone as a prince, but with a family and a squad of loyal fighters. So at least GZ claimed. Bayer and B.A. Fishermen.
A beautiful theory, but everything that is connected with Umiloy and Godlove is falling apart, then the great chess move of Gostomysl loses its logic. There is a call anyhow, the first counter-cross, who he is and what does not matter in his mind. Does our ancestors come to pass - the fools are uncanny? Perhaps, after all, there are many such and always, but I do not believe that they took important decisions for everyone.
Therefore, most likely came by one invitation card to Rurik, the three of us, so it was not boring. Places enough for all. Moreover, "Sineus" is not a Lithuanian, but probably a "blue mustache", probably a womanizer. After all, the French had a legendary "blue beard". We, too, "do not eat bread with bast shoes," we have a blue mustache. " But "Truvor" is possible "the third by birth." So puzzles sort of converge.
Confirms the legend of their peaceful entry into the Slavic world, which is most likely due to the commonality of ethnic roots. The guys from the tribe Rus arrived to the lands of the Slavs and settled down: Sineus in Beloozero, on the lands of the "weight", Truvor in Izborsk, but with Ryurik of the order. Some argue that the oldest of the brothers did not come to Novgorod, but to the town of Ladoga, which is a hundred kilometers to the north, since the cities of Novgorod, they say, had not yet been built, and Prince Rurik himself started building