Sviatoslav I of Kiev

Other Events:

• Name: Sviatoslav Igorevich
• Reference Number: 15910

Notes:

Sviatoslav I Igorevich (Old East Slavic: ?~??????? / ??a???????[1] ?????????, Sventoslavu / Svantoslavu Igorevici; Ukrainian: ????????? ????????, Svyatoslav Igorovic; Svetoslav; Russian: ????????? ????????, Svyatoslav Igorevic; Bulgarian: ?????????, Greek: Sfe?d?s???ß??, Sphendosthlabos; c. 942 - March 972), also spelled Svyatoslav, was a warrior prince of Kievan Rus'. The son of Igor of Kiev and Olga, Sviatoslav is famous for his incessant campaigns in the east and south, which precipitated the collapse of two great powers of Eastern Europe-Khazaria and the First Bulgarian Empire; he also subdued the Volga Bulgars, the Alans, and numerous East Slavic tribes, and at times was allied with the Pechenegs and Magyars. His decade-long reign over Rus' was marked by rapid expansion into the Volga River valley, the Pontic steppe and the Balkans. By the end of his short life, Sviatoslav carved out for himself the largest state in Europe, eventually moving his capital from Kiev to Pereyaslavets on the Danube in 969. In contrast with his mother's conversion to Christianity, Sviatoslav remained a staunch pagan all of his life. Due to his abrupt death in combat, Sviatoslav's conquests, for the most part, were not consolidated into a functioning empire, while his failure to establish a stable succession led to civil war among his successors.

Personality

The Kievan Rus' at the beginning of Sviatoslav's reign (in red), showing his sphere of influence to 972 (in orange)
Sviatoslav was the first true ruler of Kievan Rus' whose name is indisputably Slavic in origin (as opposed to his predecessors, whose names are ultimately derived from Old Norse). This name is not recorded in other medieval Slavic countries. Even in Rus', it was attested only among the members of the house of Rurik, as were the names of Sviatoslav's immediate successors: Vladimir, Yaroslav, Mstislav).[2] Some scholars speculate that the name of Sviatoslav, composed of the Slavic roots for "holy" and "glory", was an artificial derivation combining those of his predecessors Oleg and Rurik (they mean "holy" and "glorious" in Old Norse, respectively).[3]
Virtually nothing is known about his childhood and youth, which he spent reigning in Novgorod. Sviatoslav's father, Igor, was killed by the Drevlians around 942 and his mother, Olga, ruled as regent in Kiev until Sviatoslav's maturity (ca. 963).[4] His tutor was a Varangian named Asmud. "Quick as a leopard,"[5] Sviatoslav appears to have had little patience for administration. His life was spent with his druzhina (roughly, "troops") in permanent warfare against neighboring states. According to the Primary Chronicle:

Ship burial of Igor the Old in 945, depicted by Henryk Siemiradzki (1843-1902).
“ Upon his expeditions he carried with him neither wagons nor kettles, and boiled no meat, but cut off small strips of horseflesh, game or beef, and ate it after roasting it on the coals. Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him, and set his saddle under his head, and all his retinue did likewise.[6] ”
Sviatoslav was noted by Leo the Deacon to be of average height and build. He shaved his head and his beard (or possibly just had a wispy beard) but wore a bushy mustache and a one or two sidelocks as a sign of his nobility. He preferred to dress in white, and it was noted that his garments were much cleaner than those of his men. He wore a single large gold earring bearing a ruby and two pearls.[7][8]
His mother converted to Christianity at the court of Byzantine Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus in 945 or 957. However,[9] Sviatoslav continued to worship Perun, Veles, Svarog and the other gods and goddesses of the Slavic pantheon. He remained a pagan for all of his life; according to the Primary Chronicle, he believed that his warriors would lose respect for him and mock him if he became a Christian.[10] The allegiance of his warriors was of paramount importance in his conquest of an empire that stretched from the Volga to the Danube.
[edit]Family

Svjatoslav's mother, Olga, with her escort in Constantinople, a miniature from the late 11th-century chronicle of John Skylitzes.
Very little is known of Sviatoslav's family life. It is possible that Sviatoslav was not the only (and the eldest) son of his parents. The Russo-Byzantine treaty of 945 mentions a certain Predslava, Volodislav's wife, as the noblest of the Rus' women after Olga. George Vernadsky was among many historians to speculate that Volodislav was Igor's eldest son and heir who died at some point during Olga's regency. At the time of Igor's death, Sviatoslav was still a child and he was raised by his mother or at her instructions. Her influence, however, did not extend to his religious observance.
Sviatoslav, had several children, but the origin of his wives is not specified in the chronicle. By his wives, he had Yaropolk and Oleg.[11] By Malusha, a woman of indeterminate origins,[12] Sviatoslav had Vladimir, who would ultimately break with his father's paganism and convert Rus to Christianity. John Skylitzes reported that Vladimir had a brother named Sfengus; whether this Sfengus was a son of Sviatoslav, a son of Malusha by a prior or subsequent husband, or an unrelated Rus' nobleman is unclear.[13]
When Sviatoslav went on campaign he left his various relations as regents in the main cities of his realm: his mother Olga and later Yaropolk in Kiev, Vladimir in Novgorod, and Oleg over the Drevlians.
[edit]Cousins
The following people are mentioned as the Igor's nephews:
Sludy
Prasten Akun
[edit]Sons
Oleg
Yaropolk
Vladimir, a son of Malusha (supposedly slavanized version of Malfried)
[edit]Eastern campaigns

The site of the Khazar fortress at Sarkel, sacked by Sviatoslav c. 965 (aerial photo from excavations conducted by Mikhail Artamonov in the 1930s)
Shortly after his accession to the throne, Sviatoslav began campaigning to expand the Rus control over the Volga valley and the Pontic steppe region. His greatest success was the conquest of Khazaria, which for centuries had been one of the strongest states of Eastern Europe. The sources are not clear about the roots of the conflict between Khazaria and Rus', so several possibilities have been suggested. The Rus' had an interest in removing the Khazar hold on the Volga trade route because the Khazars collected duties from the goods transported by the Volga. Historians have suggested that the Byzantine Empire may have incited the Rus' against the Khazars, who fell out with the Byzantines after the persecutions of the Jews in the reign of Romanus I Lecapenus.[14]
Sviatoslav began by rallying the Khazars' East Slavic vassal tribes to his cause. Those who would not join him, such as the Vyatichs, were attacked and forced to pay tribute to the Kievan Rus' rather than the Khazars.[15] According to a legend recorded in the Primary Chronicle, Sviatoslav sent a message to the Vyatich rulers, consisting of a single phrase: "I want to come at you!" (Old East Slavic: "???? ?? ?? ???")[16] This phrase is used in modern Russian (usually misquoted as "??? ?? ??") to denote an unequivocal declaration of one's intentions. Proceeding by the Oka and Volga rivers, he invaded Volga Bulgaria and exacted tribute from the local population, thus bringing under Kievan control the upper Volga River. He employed Oghuz and Pecheneg mercenaries in this campaign, perhaps to counter the Khazars' and Bulgars' superior cavalry.[17]
Sviatoslav destroyed the Khazar city of Sarkel around 965, and possibly sacked (but did not occupy) the Khazar city of Kerch on the Crimea.[18] At Sarkel he established a Rus' settlement called Belaya Vyezha ("the white tower" or "the white fortress", the East Slavic translation for "Sarkel").[19] He subsequently (probably in 968 or 969) destroyed the Khazar capital of Atil.[20] A visitor to Atil wrote soon after Sviatoslav's campaign: "The Rus attacked, and no grape or raisin remained, not a leaf on a branch."[21] The exact chronology of his Khazar campaign is uncertain and disputed; for example, Mikhail Artamonov and David Christian proposed that the sack of Sarkel came after the destruction of Atil.[22]
Although Ibn Haukal reports Sviatoslav's sack of Samandar in modern-day Dagestan, the Rus' leader did not bother to occupy the Khazar heartlands north of the Caucasus Mountains permanently. On his way back to Kiev, Sviatoslav chose to strike against the Ossetians and force them into subservience.[23] Therefore, Khazar successor statelets continued their precarious existence in the region.[24] The destruction of Khazar imperial power paved the way for Kievan Rus' to dominate north-south trade routes through the steppe and across the Black Sea, routes that formerly had been a major source of revenue for the Khazars. Moreover, Sviatoslav's campaigns led to increased Slavic settlement in the region of the Saltovo-Mayaki culture, greatly changing the demographics and culture of the transitional area between the forest and the steppe.[25]
[edit]Campaigns in the Balkans

Pursuit of Sviatoslav's warriors by the Byzantine army, a miniature from 11th-century chronicles of John Skylitzes.

Siatoslav invading Bulgaria; Manasses Chronicle
The annihilation of Khazaria was undertaken against the background of the Rus'-Byzantine alliance, concluded in the wake of Igor's Byzantine campaign in 944.[26] Close military ties between the Rus' and Byzantium are illustrated by the fact, reported by John Skylitzes, that a Rus' detachment accompanied Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus Phocas in his victorious naval expedition to Crete.
In 967 or 968[27] Nicephorus sent to Sviatoslav his agent, Kalokyros, with the task of talking Sviatoslav into assisting him in a war against Bulgaria.[28] Sviatoslav was paid 15,000 pounds of gold and set sail with an army of 60,000 men, including thousands of Pecheneg mercenaries.[29][30]
Sviatoslav defeated the Bulgarian ruler Boris II[31] and proceeded to occupy the whole of northern Bulgaria. Meanwhile, the Byzantines bribed the Pechenegs to attack and besiege Kiev, where Olga stayed with Sviatoslav's son Vladimir. The siege was relieved by the druzhina of Pretich, and immediately following the Pecheneg retreat, Olga sent a reproachful letter to Sviatoslav. He promptly returned and defeated the Pechenegs, who continued to threaten Kiev.
[hide]
v • d • e
Rus'-Byzantine Wars
830s - 860 - 907 - 941 - 968-71 - 988 - 1024 - 1043

Boris Chorikov. Sviatoslav's Council of War.
Sviatoslav refused to turn his Balkan conquests over to the Byzantines, and the parties fell out as a result. To the chagrin of his boyars and mother (who died within three days after learning about his decision), Sviatoslav decided to move his capital to Pereyaslavets in the mouth of the Danube due to the great potential of that location as a commercial hub. In the Primary Chronicle record for 969, Sviatoslav explains that it is to Pereyaslavets, the centre of his lands, "all the riches flow: gold, silks, wine, and various fruits from Greece, silver and horses from Hungary and Bohemia, and from Rus furs, wax, honey, and slaves".
In summer 969, Sviatoslav left Rus' again, dividing his dominion into three parts, each under a nominal rule of one of his sons. At the head of an army that included Pecheneg and Magyar auxiliary troops, he invaded Bulgaria again, devastating Thrace, capturing the city of Philippopolis, and massacring its inhabitants. Niceforus responded by fortifying the defenses of Constantinople and raising new squadrons of armored cavalry. In the midst of his preparations, Niceforus was overthrown and killed by John Tzimiskes, who thus became the new Byzantine emperor.[32]
John Tzimiskes first attempted to persuade Sviatoslav into leaving Bulgaria, but was unsuccessful. Challenging the Byzantine authority, Sviatoslav crossed the Danube and laid siege to Adrianople, causing panic on the streets of Constantinople in summer 970.[33] Later that year, the Byzantines launched a counteroffensive. Being occupied with suppressing a revolt of Bardas Phocas in Asia Minor, John Tzimiskes sent his commander-in-chief, Bardas Sklerus, who defeated the coalition of Rus', Pechenegs, Magyars, and Bulgarians in the Battle of Arcadiopolis.[34] Meanwhile, John, having quelled the revolt of Bardas Phocas, came to the Balkans with a large army and promoting himself as the liberator of Bulgaria from Sviatoslav, penetrated the impracticable mountain passes and shortly thereafter captured Marcianopolis, where the Rus were holding a number of Bulgar princes hostage.

Siege of Durostorum in Manasses Chronicle
Sviatoslav retreated to Dorostol, which the Byzantine armies besieged for sixty-five days. Cut off and surrounded, Sviatoslav came to terms with John and agreed to abandon the Balkans, renounce his claims to the southern Crimea and return west of the Dnieper River. In return, the Byzantine emperor supplied the Rus' with food and safe passage home. Sviatoslav and his men set sail and landed on Berezan Island at the mouth of the Dnieper, where they made camp for the winter. Several months later, their camp was devastated by famine, so that even a horse's head could not be bought for less than a half-grivna, reports the Kievan chronicler of the Primary Chronicle.[35] While Sviatoslav's campaign brought no tangible results for the Rus', it weakened the Bulgarian statehood and left it vulnerable to the attacks of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer four decades later.
[edit]Death and aftermath

The Death of Sviatoslav by Boris Chorikov.
Fearing that the peace with Sviatoslav would not endure, the Byzantine emperor induced the Pecheneg khan Kurya to kill Sviatoslav before he reached Kiev. This was in line with the policy outlined by Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in De Administrando Imperio of fomenting strife between the Rus' and the Pechenegs.[36] According to the Slavic chronicle, Sveneld attempted to warn Sviatoslav to avoid the Dnieper cataracts, but the prince slighted his wise advice and was ambushed and slain by the Pechenegs when he tried to cross the cataracts near Khortitsa early in 972. The Primary Chronicle reports that his skull was made into a chalice by the Pecheneg khan, Kurya.[37]
Following Sviatoslav's death, tensions between his sons grew. A war broke out between Sviatoslav's legitimate sons, Oleg and Yaropolk, in 976, at the conclusion of which Oleg was killed. In 977 Vladimir fled Novgorod to escape Oleg's fate and went to Scandinavia, where he raised an army of Varangians and returned in 980. Yaropolk was killed and Vladimir became the sole ruler of Kievan Rus'.
[edit]In art and literature

Ivan Akimov. Sviatoslav's Return from the Danube to His Family in Kiev (1773)
Sviatoslav has long been a hero of Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian patriots due to his great military successes. His figure first attracted attention of Russian artists and poets during the Russo-Turkish War, 1768-1774, which provided obvious parallels with Sviatoslav's push towards Constaninople. Russia's southward expansion and Catherine II's imperialistic ventures in the Balkans seemed to have been legitimized by Sviatoslav's campaigns eight centuries earlier.
Among the works created during the war was Yakov Knyazhnin's tragedy Olga (1772). The Russian playwright chose to introduce Sviatoslav as his protagonist, although his active participation in the events following Igor's death is out of sync with the traditional chronology. Knyazhnin's rival Nikolai Nikolev (1758-1815) also wrote a play on the subject of Sviatoslav's life. Ivan Akimov's painting Sviatoslav's Return from the Danube to Kiev (1773) explores the conflict between military honour and family attachment. It is a vivid example of Poussinesque rendering of early medieval subject matter.

Eugene Lanceray, "Sviatoslav on the way to Tsargrad", (1886)
In the 19th century, interest in Sviatoslav's career waned. Klavdiy Lebedev depicted an episode of Sviatoslav's meeting with Emperor John in his well-known painting, while Eugene Lanceray sculpted an equestrian statue of Sviatoslav in the early 20th century.[38] Sviatoslav appears in the Slavophile poems of Velimir Khlebnikov as an epitome of militant Slavdom:
?????????? ??? ?????, Pouring the famed juice of the Danube
??????? ? ????? ?????, Into the depth of my head,
????? ???? ?, ????????? I shall drink and remember
??????? ????: "??? ?? ??!". The cry of the bright ones: "I come at you!"[39]

Controversial statue of Sviatoslav I trampling a Khazar warrior. The statue was designed by Vyacheslav Klykov.
He is the villain of Samuel Gordon's novel The Lost Kingdom, or the Passing of the Khazars,[40] a fictionalized account of the destruction of Khazaria by the Rus'. The Slavic warrior figures in a more positive context in the story "Chernye Strely Vyaticha" by Vadim Viktorovich Kargalov; the story is included in his book Istoricheskie povesti.[41]
In 2005, reports circulated that a village in the Belgorod region had erected a monument to Sviatoslav's victory over the Khazars by the Russian sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov. The reports described the 13-meter tall statue as depicting a Rus' cavalryman trampling a supine Khazar bearing a Star of David. This created an outcry within the Jewish community of Russia. The controversy was further exacerbated by Klykov's connections with Pamyat and other anti-Semitic organizations, as well as by his involvement in the "letter of 500", a controversial appeal to the Prosecutor General to review all Jewish organizations in Russia for extremism.[42] The Press Center of the Belgorod Regional Administration responded by stating that a planned monument to Sviatoslav had not yet been constructed, but would show "respect towards representatives of all nationalities and religions."[43] When the statue was unveiled, the shield bore a twelve-pointed star.

Sviatoslav — . [Group Sheet]

1. Vladimir I of Kiev was born 958; died 15 Jul 1015, Berestovo, Belgorod, Russia.

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 15911

Notes:

gor (Ukrainian: ????, Russian: ?????, Old Norse: Ingvar) was a Varangian ruler of Kievan Rus from 912 to 945.

Biography

Very little is known about him from the Primary Chronicle. It has been speculated that the chroniclers chose not to enlarge on his reign, as the region was dominated by Khazaria at that time.[citation needed] That he was Rurik's son is also questioned on chronological grounds.
He twice besieged Constantinople, in 941 and 944, and in spite of his fleet being destroyed by Greek fire, concluded with the Emperor a favourable treaty whose text is preserved in the chronicle. In 913 and 944, the Rus plundered the Arabs in the Caspian Sea during the Caspian expeditions of the Rus, but it's not clear whether Igor had anything to do with these campaigns.
Drastically revising the chronology of the Primary Chronicle, Constantine Zuckerman argues that Igor actually reigned for three years, between summer 941 and his death in early 945. He explains the epic 33-year span of his reign in the chronicle by its author's faulty interpretation of Byzantine sources.[1] Indeed, none of Igor's activity are recorded in the chronicle prior to 941.

Prince Igor Exacting Tribute from the Drevlyans, by Klavdiy Lebedev (1852-1916).
Igor was killed while collecting tribute from the Drevlians in 945 (Leo the Deacon describes how Igor met his death: "They had bent down two birch trees to the prince’s feet and tied them to his legs; then they let the trees straighten again, thus tearing the prince’s body apart."[2]) and avenged by his wife, Olga of Kiev. The Primary Chronicle blames his death on his own excessive greed, indicating that he was attempting to collect tribute a second time in a month. As a result, Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.

— Olga. was born 890; died 11 Jul 969, Kiev, Kyiv, Ukraine. [Group Sheet]

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 15912

Notes:

Saint Olga (Russian and Ukrainian: ?????, also called Olga Prekrasa (????? ????????), or Olga the Beauty, Old Norse: Helga; born c. 890 died July 11 969, Kiev) was a ruler of Kievan Rus as regent (945-c. 963) for her son, Svyatoslav.

Biography

Olga was a Pskov woman of Varangian extraction who married the future Igor of Kiev, arguably in 903. The Primary Chronicle gives 879 as her date of birth, which is rather unlikely, given the fact that her only son was probably born some 65 years after that date. After Igor's death, she ruled Kievan Rus as regent (945-c. 963) for their son, Svyatoslav.
At the start of her reign, Olga spent great effort to avenge her husband's death at the hands of the Drevlians, and succeeded in slaughtering many of them and interring some in a ship burial, while still alive. She is reputed to have scalded captives to death and another, probably apocryphal, story tells of how she destroyed a town hostile to her. She asked that each household present her with a dove as a gift, then tied burning papers to the legs of each dove which she then released to fly back to their homes. Each avian incendiary set fire to the thatched roof of their respective home and the town was destroyed. More importantly in the long term, Olga changed the system of tribute gathering (poliudie) in what may be regarded as the first legal reform recorded in Eastern Europe.
She was the first Rus ruler to convert to Christianity, either in 945 or in 957. The ceremonies of her formal reception in Constantinople were minutely described by Emperor Constantine VII in his book De Ceremoniis. Following her baptism she took the Christian name Yelena, after the reigning Empress Helena Lekapena. The Slavonic chronicles add apocryphal details to the account of her baptism, such as the story how she charmed and "outwitted" Constantine and how she spurned his matrimonial proposals. In truth, at the time of her baptism, Olga was an old woman, while Constantine had a wife.
Seven Latin sources document Olga's embassy to Emperor Otto I in 959. The continuation of Regino of Prüm mentions that the envoys requested the Emperor to appoint a bishop and priests for their nation. The chronicler accuses the envoys of lies, commenting that their trick was not exposed until later. Thietmar of Merseburg says that the first archbishop of Magdeburg, Saint Adalbert of Magdeburg, before being promoted to this high rank, was sent by Emperor Otto to the country of the Rus (Rusciae) as a simple bishop but was expelled by pagan allies of Svyatoslav I. The same data is duplicated in the annals of Quedlinburg and Hildesheim, among others.
Olga was one of the first people of Rus to be proclaimed a saint, for her efforts to spread the Christian religion in the country. Because of her proselytizing influence, the Orthodox Church calls St. Olga by the honorific Isapóstolos, "Equal to the Apostles". However, she failed to convert Svyatoslav, and it was left to her grandson and pupil Vladimir I to make Christianity the lasting state religion. During her son's prolonged military campaigns, she remained in charge of Kiev, residing in the castle of Vyshgorod together with her grandsons. She died soon after the city's siege by the Pechenegs in 969.

Other Events:

• Reference Number: 15913

Notes:

Rurik, or Riurik (Russian: ?????; pronounced ['r??r??k]; Old East Norse: Rørik, meaning "famous ruler"; c. 830 - c. 879), was a Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and then Galicia-Volhynia until the 14th and Muscovy until the 16th century.

Name

The runes ruRikr representing the Old Norse name Hrœrekr on the Viking Age runestone U 413 in the church of Norrsunda, Uppland, Sweden.
Main article: Roderick
Riurik is the Slavic rendering of the same Germanic name as the modern Anglo-Scots Roderick, the Welsh Rhydderch or Spanish and Portuguese Rodrigo. In old Germanic languages it had forms such as Hrodric (Old High German) and Hroðric (Old English). In Old Norse, Hrœrekr (Norway, Iceland) and RøRikR (Denmark, Sweden), from which Riurik is derived. The name also appears in Beowulf as Hréðrík.[1]
[edit]History

A monument in Novgorod celebrating the millennium of Rurik's arrival to Novgorod
There is a debate over how Rurik came to control Ladoga and Novgorod. The only information about him is contained in the 12th-century Russian Primary Chronicle, which states that Chuds, Slovene (one of the tribes of eastern Slavs), Merias, Veses and Krivichs (also a slavic tribe) "…drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them tribute, and set out to govern themselves". Afterwards the tribes started fighting each other and decided to invite Rurik to reestablish order.
Rurik remained in power until his death in 879. He married Efanda (Edvina Alfrind Ingrid) of Urman. His successors (the Rurik Dynasty), however, moved the capital to Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus, which persisted until 1240, the time of Mongol invasion. A number of extant princely families are patrilineally descended from Rurik, although the last Rurikid to rule Russia, Vasily IV, died in 1612.
There is a large 9th-century funerary barrow in Novgorod Oblast, intricately defended against looting.[clarification needed] It remains to be excavated. The local inhabitants refer to it as Rurik's Grave.
[edit]Disputed origin

Even though some historians emphasize folklore roots for the Rurik legend and consequently dismiss Rurik as a legendary figure, there is a controversy about his ethnic origins in Eastern Europe.
According to the Primary Chronicle Rurik was one of the Rus, a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, Angles, and Gotlanders. In the 20th century, archaeologists partly corroborated the chronicle's version of events. It was discovered that the settlement of Ladoga, whose foundation has been ascribed to Rurik, was actually established in the mid-8th century. Earthenware, household utensils, and types of buildings from the period of Rurik's foundation correspond to patterns then prevalent in Jutland.

Rurik and his brothers Truvor and Sineus arrive in Ladoga
Some Slavic historians (B.A. Rybakov and his followers among them) argue that the account of Rurik's invitation was borrowed by a pro-Scandinavian chronicler from a hypothetical Norse document. For instance, the Primary Chronicle states that Rurik arrived to Slavic lands with two brothers, Sineus and Truvor, and sent them to rule the towns of Beloozero and Izborsk, respectively. Instead of connecting Sineus to Signjotr and Truvor to Torvald, they suggest that the chronicler read a hypothetical Scandinavian document and misinterpreted the Norse words 'sine hus' (with house) and 'tru voring' (with loyal guard) as the names of Rurik's brothers: Sineus and Truvor.
There is another theory that Rurik, on account of common intermarriages between Varangians and Slavic women, was of mixed Slavic-Varangian descent. This theory is based on the information of the first modern historian of Russia, Vasily Tatishchev (a Rurikid himself), who claimed that Rurik was of Wendish extraction. He went so far as to name his mother, Umila; his maternal grandfather, Gostomysl; and a cousin, Vadim. Rurik's father were from Finland. Those who assume good faith on Tatishchev's part point out that he based his account on the lost Ioachim Chronicle.
Last there is a theory that identifies Rurik with the Danish Viking lord Rorik of Dorestad, who ruled the western coast from Jutland down to northern France.
[edit]Genetic research
A current DNA research project by Professor Andrzej Bajor of Poland, under the auspices of the Family Tree DNA Rurikid Dynasty Project, seeks to more accurately place Rurik within the light of history and out of the shadows of legend, while simultaneously trying to find his modern descendants. This project also seeks to study the DNA of male descendants of the medieval Lithuanian ruler Gediminas (Gedymin), whose line includes some of the highest princely families of Russia and Poland. The Gediminids intermarried with the Rurikids, and there is a possibility that they may even descend from Rurik, or at least from one of his ancestors within historical times - the project seeks to answer this question. So far, only two modern Rurikid princes have agreed to take this DNA test. Their results indicate that their male line originated in Uppland province in Sweden. So far, one Swede shares 11 of the prince's markers, and he believes that his own male line goes back to the 15th century in Roslagen. The DNA results of modern Rurikid princes indicate that Rurik was of Finno-Ugrian descent (haplogroup N3a1).[2] Further genetic studies seem to indicate the existence of two haplogroups among modern Rurikids: the descendants of Vladimir II Monomakh (Monomakhoviches) are of N3a1 group typical for Finno-Ugrian people, while the descendants of Oleg I of Chernigov (Olgoviches) are of R1a group typical for Slavic peoples. According to the Russian Newsweek magazine it indicates that the official genealogy is probably incorrect but leaves the ethnic origin of Rurik unclear.[3]
[edit]Hrörek of Dorestad

Main article: Rorik of Dorestad

Rorik of Dorestad, as conceived by H. W. Koekkoek
The only Hrörek described in Western chronicles was Rorik of Dorestad, a konung from the royal house of Hedeby. Since the 19th century, there have been attempts to identify him with the Viking prince Rurik of Russian chronicles.[4] Alexander Nazarenko objects to this identification.[5]
Roerik of Dorestad was born about 810/820 to Ali Anulo, 9th King of Hedeby. Frankish chroniclers mention that he received lands in Friesland from the Emperor Louis I. This was not enough for him, and he started to plunder neighbouring lands: he took Dorestad in 850, captured Hedeby in 857 and looted Bremen in 859. The Emperor was enraged and stripped him of all his possessions in 860. After that Roerik disappears from the Western sources for a considerable period of time. And at that very moment, in 862, the Rurik of Rus arrives in the Eastern Baltic, builds the fortress of Ladoga and later moves to Novgorod.
Rorik of Dorestad reappeared in Frankish chronicles in 870, when his Friesland demesne was returned to him by Charles the Bald; in 882 he is already mentioned as dead. The Russian chronicle places the death of Rurik of Novgorod at 879. According to Western sources, the ruler of Friesland was converted to Christianity by the Franks. This may have parallels with the Christianization of the Rus', as reported by Patriarch Photius in 867.
[edit]Rurikid descendants

Rurik dynasty went on to rule Kiev and its vast Empire. After the disintegration of Kievan Rus in the 13-14th centuries, the dynasty continued to rule two of the three successor states. One is Galicia-Volhynia until the deaths of Andrew and Lev II in 1323. Another being north-eastern principalities that would eventually gather around Moscow until 1598 when Fedor I died.
One descendant of the Rurikid Grand Prince of Tver was Catherine the Great, who married Peter III of the Romanov dynasty in 1745, uniting the two dynasties.
Historian Vasily Tatishchev and filmmaker Jacques Tati were descended from Rurik, as are many noble Russian families. Among these descendants of Rurik are the Volkonsky, Obolensky, Shuyski, Dolgorukov, Khilkoff, Repnin, Gorchakov, Gagarin, Wassilchikov, and Putyatin families, as well as Ruthenian families of Ostrogski, Wareg-Massalski, and Czetwertynski.
Through the Ukrainian-born wife of the twelfth-century King Henry I of France, many Western Europeans, noble and commoner alike, can claim descent from Rurik. Henry's queen had been born Anne of Kiev, daughter of Yaroslav the Wise, probably a great-great-great-grandson of Rurik.