RUS` IN THE INTERNATIONAL LIFE OF EUROPE IN VIII-X CENTURIES

Abstract

The article attempts to outline the main aspects of the situation of Rus` land in the international life of Europe in the VIII-X centuries. Vikings have long been known East Europe, and the first contacts began far away before the famous «Іnvitation of the Varangians» in the «Povist mynulykh lit». Old Ladoga became the center of a conglomerate of the surrounding Ugro-Finnish-Varyag-Slavic tribes, and is known in Arabic sources as «Slavia». Versions of Askold’s origin are also considered and the hypothesis that he probably belonged to the Scylding dynasty is supported. Askold pursued a very active foreign policy, in particular, he signed an agreement with the Byzantine Empire and was baptized. It is likely that he commissioned his own chronicle, the corrected version of which was included in the oldest Chronicle reports. As for Dyrr, the most likely assumption today is that Dyrr lived before Askold, and he was the first to try to get rid of dependence on the Khazars Khaganate, and information from the «Povist mynulykh lit» is an insert of chroniclers. The article analyzes information from the «Annales Bertiniani», which report on the famous embassy to the Frankish Emperor Louis the Pious from the Kagan of the Rus`. This message caused a heated discussion about the localization of the Rus` Khaganate. The assumption of Omelyan Pritsak, who claimed that the Rus` Khaganate was located not far from the Khazar Khaganate, and Kyiv was founded by the Khazars, does not have sufficient scientific arguments in its favor today. The localization of the Rus` Khaganate in the North-East Rus` is also unconvincing, because in the IX century the rulers of Aldeigyuborg did not make campaigns to the Byzantine Empire, and did not use the title of Khagan, but called themselves konungs. Based on a various sources, in particular using the Geographus Bavarus and archaeological research, the version of localization of the Rus` Khaganate in the Dnipro region with the center in Kyiv was supported.