This week on Gladio Free Europe, we head back to medieval times to discuss the origins and early history of the so-called Kievan Rus’. The term itself is a modern historiographical invention, but it refers to the state supposedly founded by a Norseman named Riurik, if the Rus’ Primary Chronicle is to be believed. In this episode we look at the origins of the Slavic peoples, as well as the context under which the Rus’ state emerged, possible precursor states, and early historical sources which attest to their existence. We also discuss some of the most exciting stories to emerge from this period.

This history continues to be a fraught topic to this day for a number of reasons, among them the question of which nation has a right to claim to be the successors to the Rus’. For centuries, Russian imperial historiography assumed that naturally they were the heirs to the legacy of the Rus’, but Belarusian and especially Ukrainian historians dispute this heavily, with hardline nationalists claiming that they alone are the legitimate descendants and more reasoned opponents seeing the Rus’ as the core from which several peoples emerged. But this is far from the only problem plaguing the historiography of the region, nor is it the oldest. Indeed, the oldest question goes all the way back to the 18th century and deals with the so-called Normanist question.

Although there is no evidence for Riurik’s existence outside of a few sentences in the Rus’ Primary Chronicle, there is lots of evidence which shows that there was a Norse presence in early Rus’, and the Rus’ ruling family was descended to a large degree from the Vikings. But the Normanist question is larger than that, dealing with the extent to which the Norse formed the foundation upon which the Rus’ state was built. Anti-Normanists (most of whom do not deny the Norse element) say that the Norse were but one element in a great number of peoples who created the foundations of the institutions of the Rus’ state and that the Slavs already had complex institutions before the Viking arrival. Normanists on the other hand argue that the Norse formed the core of the Rus’ state. This question has a number of implications (advanced Germanic people vs. primitive Slavs being chief among them) and has remained the topic of heated debate for centuries.

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