The Visage of Empire

By Leonard

At the end of the 9th century, the large bearded warriors disembarked on the shores of the northern lake of Ladoga at 61:00N and 31:30E. The Viking warriors came from Sweden on the invitation by the aboriginals, asking, Come and rule us and bring the order and peace to our land. The order came indeed. The Viking sword subdued the fighting factions in a short time, and Kievan Rus Empire was established with its capital city Kiev on the high hills of the Dnieper River. The peace was short and turned into the almost unstoppable internecine warfare of the ruling princes, inhabitants and everybody against anybody. The local tribal culture had just one dimension a war. Kievan Empire was sundered in two pieces. The southeast became Ukraine and the northeast became Russia, which name was borrowed from the first warriors-settles of Sweden, called Ros-Rus. Ukraine moved towards more peaceful life, while Russia continued its aggressive faculties for many centuries. The coming grand princes and then the tsars embarked on their militaristic agenda, invading, taking the territories and subduing the nations and peoples all around. The largest empire of the world has been being built. In the 19th century, it extended from Western Europe to the Pacific Ocean, for 11,000km and from the Asian desert to the Icy Ocean for 5,000km. And a very modest addition to the Empire was Alaska (sold to USA in 1867.) The Russian tsars had disappeared in the 20th century, but not the Russian imperialism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504987981

Leonard

Leonard Chepel was born in Ukraine; marine biologist-ichthyologist; PhD. Took part in research voyages throughout Arctic and Atlantic Ocean from Greenland-Labrador to Antarctica. Served an Executive Secretary of North-West Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) in Halifax, NS, Canada, 1991-2002. Published professional articles in English and Russian; the most recent publications in English: “The Way in Ocean”, ISBN 978-1-4567-8837-7; (USA, AuthorHouse) “Purdy’s Wharf” ISBN 978-1-4678-7798-5; (USA, AuthorHouse) “The Diamond Triangle”, ISBN 978-1-4678-9651-1. (USA, AuthorHouse) “Two Colours”, ISBN 978-1-4772-2722-0; 978-1-4772-2721-3; (USA, AuthorHouse) in Russian (with English annotation): “? ???????? ?????? – In the Ocean Deep'', ISBN 978-1-4817-8086-5; (USA, AthorHouse)

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© 2015 Leonard. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse 09/15/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8796-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8797-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-8798-1 (e)

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Introduction

Part One

Kievan Rus’

1     Revelations of forgotten history

2     The trail of the Vikings

3     The Eastviking Empire

4     The Christian cross

5     The Curse is on

6     The Wise Prince of chaos

7     Monomach’s glorious Way to demise

8     The Russian East against the Kievan West

9     The mortal agony of Kievan Rus

10   The final blow

11   At the turn of history

12   Turmoil at the Russian East

13   The painful delivery of Russia

14   Faked Russian glory

15   On the Eve of calamity

16   The last free Rus princes

Part Two

The Servitude

1     The First encounter

2     Destruction of Russia

3     The Tragedy of Kiev

4     Glory of slaves

5     The Slaves and Masters

6     The Yoke and Salvation

7     Feast in the Time of Plague

8     The Alienated Kievan Rus

9     The Russian unsettling life

10   Gathering of Russian lands

11   Violent, meek Russian princes

12   To win to become the slaves

13   Moscow in flames

14   The cruel prince-serf

15   Between the Devil and the Baltic Sea

16   The sheep tearing by wolves

17   Blind Princes of violent Times

Part Three

The Empire of Serfdom

1     The Tsars-Conquerors

2     The Russians fled, but won

3     The terrible empire of Ivan the Terrible

4     The Time of Troubles

5     The tsars yearning for the west

6     The Great Peter’s expansion

7     The Great Peter’s aftermath

8     The German vestige

9     Disruption of Europe

Part Four

The Drama of Dynasty

Act One:   The lonely Dreamer

Act Two:   Burning Moscow

Act Three: The Crimean Blunder

Act Four:   Liberation

Act Five:   Peacemaking

Act Six:     The Martyrdom

Conclusion

The front cover illustration done by the Ilya Repin's motif of Ivan the Terrible & his son.

FOREWORD

"The troops of the Moscow’s Grand Prince came,

And the terrible devastation had started.

The army entered the Novgorod principality.

On the way, they were exterminating everything,

Slaughtering the people by sword and fire.

Smoke, fires and rivers of blood were all around.

Moans and cries were coming from the east and west.

The Russians showed their cruelty unimaginable.

And they were even worse than the Mongols-Tatars.

They didn’t spare the destitute peasants and women.

The people ran demented away from the invaders,

They saw the merciless enemies everywhere.

The people shouted Moscow! Moscow! Moscow!!!"

(Ancient chronicles, 15th century; N.M. Karamzin, 1815)

INTRODUCTION

From the ancient times, this parkland on the high spectacular green hills was called the Pecherskay Lavra or the Kiev Monastery of the Caves. In hot July, the temperature in the caves was cool and nice and the air felt a little damp, but fresh and healthy. The underground monastery was dug in the yellow clay, called loess, which was the prime reason and the source of the life power, generated out of the earth’s depth and the lifeless clay. The soil of this country protected those once living here because they were "the salt of the earth…" of Kievan Rus. The centuries old saints’ bodies were well preserved and naturally mummified shrank two times of their original size. The millennium old history has been preserved under the surface at 10-20m depths and turned into a museum for the visitors, coming here and experiencing subconsciously the mystery of their ancient past. And I was one of those spectators, feeling that mystery and wishing to say something about it.

The circumstances of the Kievan Rus history reached us owing to the steadfast monks, who dwelt in the caves hollowed out of the high hills on the right shores of the Dnieper River. One of the dwellers, called Nestor, was a monk of the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev (1056-1114.) He was named Saint Nestor the Chronicler, who penned the most trustful and earliest account of Kievan Rus history, The Tale of Bygone Years or Primary Chronicle. Many others came after, but not such distinct prominence. Later on, closer to the modern times, the distinguished Russian historian and writer, N.M. Karamzin (1766-1826), was remarkable, writing his numerous books about Kievan Rus and Russian history. Those two were the best sources of my narrative along with the other old scripts. Nestor was first, who left the most trusted, objective accounts of the past. His chronicle begins with the Deluge. Only later on and most recently I had realized the major sense of that Nestor’s beginning - it was the end.

Today, I returned back into that past, striving to understand and find out more about the land of my ancestors. The ancient monk, Nestor, had not only compiled his Rus Bible, but, as I believed, he saw the future, the same as the true Bible did. So, I had embarked on a long literary journey, struggling to generalize the events worth of a million written pages and compressing the millennium long history into a couple of hundred pages. It wasn’t easy or even prudent to generalize about such a complex theme. The scope of historical events was so immense that I had to apply my arbitrary judgment of selection too often, retaining or neglecting the events, the years and the names. To my perception, I managed the most important details, which could reveal the true heroes or expose the worst culprits. I had high hopes that I had grasped the essence of that fascinating history hidden behind the screen of human intentional or/and non-intentional falsehood.

In the 9th century, the most important historical events in this part of the world took place on the shores of the large Dnieper River and the city of Kiev. The new country, the Eastviking Empire or Kievan Rus’ (in the local dialect Rus’ pronounces with the distinct soft consonant "ь at the end) was born. It assumed the name of Scandinavian warriors-settlers of Roslagen, who called Rus-Ros-Ruotsi. This country sustained as the largest and strongest in the eastern part of Europe through the 10-12th centuries. Then, the critical destruction came from inside and outside. The northern and eastern territories of Kievan Rus were sundered from the west and formed the other country under the name of Russia, which was borrowed from the Swedish-Varangian Rus. The Mongols, arriving on the scene from the southeastern steppes of Asia at the beginning of the 13th century, had finalized this process of estrangement. The people called it the Mongol Yoke." It continued for nearly three centuries and was especially intense and violent along the Volga River, in the first major Russian provinces of Vladimir-Suzdal-Moscow. The Russian cities were razed and the people killed, ravished and enslaved.

The Mongol yoke, after the Batu Khan had wracked Kiev in 1240, wasn’t extremely violent on the prime territory of Kievan Rus, which today is modern Ukraine. The major threat and violence were coming only from the aggressive northeastern Russian rulers-princes, often invading into Kiev and other western countries of Lithuania and Poland and along the Baltic Sea, into Latvia, Estonia and Finland. The belligerent Russian grand princes of the Vladimir-Suzdal-Moscow Grand Duchy and then the Russian tsars, marching from the desolate forestland and out of their main stronghold of the Kremlin, were looking for expansion and rich booty from the raided western civilizations. The hostile attitude towards the neighbors on the west and frequent internecine warfare had delayed the socioeconomic development of the people, called collectively as East Slavs or Russians. The line along the southeastern borders of Kievan Rus-Ukraine became forevermore the borderline between the two different worlds – the West and the East. The boundary line was thin, but the human worlds were sundered the ages apart.

Leonard

"Let us seek a prince, who may rule

And judge us according to custom,

And who could bring peace to us…"

(Kievan Rus Chronicles; 9th century)

PART ONE

KIEVAN RUS’

1

REVELATIONS OF FORGOTTEN HISTORY

The exposition of the Kievan Rus ancient history in the modern days was based mostly on the publications and interpretations of the Russian authors. The renowned historian and writer, N.M. Karamzin, had compiled one of the best and detailed anthologies of Kievan Rus and Russia in his numerous books, written in the 19th century. The author mixed up together a number of tribes, which inhabited the vast territories between the Volga River at the east and the Carpathian Mountains in the west, into one social cluster of the East Slavs with a detailed description of their social life, bravery and cruelty. The historians very often tended to call them as the Russians well before the true Rus people arrived in that isolated world from the west and across the Baltic Sea, from Scandinavia.

The Rus-Swedish tough warriors had sailed across the Baltic Sea in the early centuries and met the aboriginal people undaunted in the battles and savage at their homes. The belligerent lifestyle among feral beasts and aggressive neighbors had cultivated such brutal, violent principles. They were revengeful, following the vindictive tribal rules, revenging the felony and killings of the relatives, taking the blood for the blood. In primeval times, these forest humanoids would also kill their own children by the hands of their mothers. They would kill their children in the case a family didn’t have enough food. Those killed would be mostly the infant girls and old parents who couldn’t work or fight. Only the sons, as potential warriors, were untouchables.

Very different humans occupied the territories to the south and the west, inhabiting the boundless steppes of rich black soil along the Dnieper River, towards the Black Sea. These peoples belonged to the distinct civilization, which called the Polans (Ukrainian: Поляни). In fact, there were two separate Slavic tribes with the name of Polans. The eastern one inhabited the territory of Ukraine, and the other westernmost occupied the territory of modern Poland. The name of Polans derives from the basic Slavic word of pole (Ukrainian: полe), with the meaning of a flat land, e.g. - fields or steppes. The Polans preferred to reside in the open fields and were engaged in farming and breeding domestic animals.

In the 9-10th centuries, the Polans had achieved and developed an effective arable land farming and cattle breeding. They were proficient in various craftworks related to blacksmithing, casting, and pottery. The Thousands of kurgans (high earthen mounds), discovered by archaeologists in that region and mostly in the southern Ukrainian steppes, indicated that the land had a relatively high population density. They lived with large families in loamy-made houses and wore rude homemade-spun clothes. As N. M. Karamzin wrote in his books (The history of the Russian state.), "The Polans were much better educated than the others. They were patient, calm by their habit. The Polans wives were diffident, as their modesty was their virtue. The matrimony was sacred in the Polans society. As well, the peace and chastity prevailed in a family." The chronicles had repeatedly emphasized that socioeconomic relations of the Polans communities were more advanced comparably to the populace of the remote northeastern territories of Kievan Rus, at the upper springs of the Volga River.

The unremitting tribal fights besmirched the life of the people, residing in the territories to the east and north of the Dnieper River and in the upper springs of the Volga River. They were the numerous forest dwellers called themselves by the names, which were different from the Slavic-Polans names and well reflected their prime living environment - Drevlyans, Drehovians and Severians, which were synonymous with the woods, forest and the north. These extremely aggressive inhabitants were looking for the fights against their neighbors, who possessed rich lands abundant with tempting spoils. The lucrative trade route called The Road from the Varangians to the Greeks passed through Kiev, the territory of the Polans. It connected the northern European countries via the Dnieper River with the Black Sea and the Byzantine Empire. This route brought a lot of riches to Kievan Rus and, of course, appealed to the other strangers to come from the desolate northeastern forests and fight for it.

N. M. Karamzin wrote the following: "The Drevlyans had wild habits, similar to animals, which were around there in the dark forests. They ate all kinds of filthy stuff; they killed each other in simple arguments: they didn’t know about marriage, which would be based on mutual agreement, but simply stole the girls. The others – Drehovians, Severians and the all other similar in these forests were no different. The young people would just come with each other in the play. They were in fact the polygamy people."

2

THE TRAIL OF THE VIKINGS

The ancient chronicler wrote that once upon a time, the old sages of the northern territories of the remote part of Eastern Europe became tired and frustrated of constant fights against each other. Nobody could stop it. Then, they came together and decided to find somebody helping them to end the fights and bring the order to their land. The wise old people of the city of Veliky Novgorod (at 58:31N latitude and 31:16E longitude) assembled on the central square and said, Our land is rich, but there is no order in the land. The oldest sage of this land was living on the shores of the Ladoga Lake for almost 100 years. He saw many battles and many bad events. At the gathering, he took the floor and told a story about the strong warriors, residing far to the west and across the sea.

The story was, as the man narrated it: ‘some time ago the big bearded warriors came to the Ladoga shores from the west and fought with the locals. The strangers fought strongly and courageously, but lost and retreated.’ The other clever oldies sneered at the storyteller, asking, Why would we consider those who lost to us? The man replied, We had two hundred, and they had twenty warriors. We lost one hundred, and they lost five. No further arguments were needed, and the wise guys announced their decision, Let’s seek the big warriors and find their prince who may rule over us and judge us according to custom and bring peace to us.

Soon the strongest and bravest warriors-messengers had been selected. The way was expected long and dangerous. Three fearless local fighters and six rowing men left the northern city of Veliky Novgorod in summer 862. They reached the Ladoga Lake on the north, drifting and paddling by the rivers and rivulets. Crossing the lake, their boat-lad’ya (Russian: ладья) entered a swift river, streaming directly westward, to the Baltic Sea. The river carried them into a wide-open body of water. It was the Finland Gulf. It took almost three days to reach across the gulf. They traveled only at the nighttime, which wasn’t a completely dark time at these high latitudes, famous with the so-called white nights. The travelers kept the boat closer to the southern shores, which shielded from the strong southwestern winds. In the daytime, they hid in the shore’s greenery. This place was famous for the sea raiders, coming from the Baltic coastal communities. On the 15th day of the journey, the group reached the final destination on the southeastern coast of Sweden.

There was the territory of three brothers, settled in the province along the Baltic Sea shore. The messengers were looking specifically only for one man - the older brother, Rurik (Old Norse: Hrorekr.) He was a chieftain of this coastal territory called Roslagen. The Viking population of Scandinavia was organized in a chieftain-clan society. In early centuries, several chieftains or lords ruled the separate regions or konungrs. Each chieftain possessed his individual domain without any control or influence of a central government. All inhabitants of this southeastern Swedish province were called Rospiggs, the inhabitants of Ros or Rus. The neighbors, Finns and Estonians, called the southern Sweeds - Ruotsi and Rootsi, which meaning derived from an Old Norse term for the rowing men. The rowing was the main way of travel by navigating the rivers and the sea along and around the Swedish coastal area.

The Rus people under the chieftain Rurik and his two brothers, Truvor and Sineus, controlled the whole southern area of the Baltic Sea. They had attempted a couple of successful forays to the east, across the sea, some time ago. But it was too far and hardly rewarding; the land was uncivilized and wild. Rurik and the brothers didn’t like it. They would be much happier, as they wished to be the men rowing the stormy northern seas. These seas were further westward across the mountains of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Scandinavian men of those days were dreaming and looking that way, as they used to say, to go on a viking. But this was forbidden to them. The other powerful Norse chieftains from the neighboring Norway, who were even stronger Vikings, had already filled up that vacancy at the raiding activity and piracy in the North Sea and the North Atlantic.

The end of the 9th century was epochal in the Vikings expansion to the north, towards the Faroese Islands, Iceland and Greenland. The first Viking ships appeared in Iceland, and the first Scandinavian settlements were established on this large Arctic island. Ahead was the Norse’s colonization of the icy territories of the North Atlantic, Greenland, by Erik the Red (Erik Thorvaldsson) and the exciting saga of his son, Leif Eriksson, in the North America, on the Canadian coast of Newfoundland (Vinland.) But for Rurik and his brothers from the eastern part of Scandinavia a very different saga had been predestined. They were going in the opposite direction, towards and deep into the inhospitable northeast of the European continent. And the dense, moisture-laden forests in the east were not less dangerous than the huge Atlantic waves at the west.

The Swedish Prince Rurik had clearly realized the westward way and the Atlantic high seas were prohibited from to going viking, and he accepted it. The strong Norwegian chieftains had ironed out the complete command of all areas of the North Sea and the North Atlantic, moving to Greenland and Labrador. The drastic changes were going on in Norway. The King Harald ‘Fair-haired’ had overpowered the warring chieftains and made them recognize him as the undisputed Norwegian sovereign-king. The first centralized government in this Scandinavian country had been established and consolidated as a monarchical power by Olaf Tryggvason (995 to 1000). The Swedes were reluctant to accept the monarchic rule, which would come to them almost two centuries later. The Swedish Vikings, controlling the north and the east of the Baltic Sea, declined to bow to and recognize any king. Rurik saw his freedom and his realistic chance at the east, across the Baltic Sea. He wanted to conquer something on his own. The messengers from the east appeared exactly at that crucial moment.

The first squad of the strongest Viking warriors was assembled. Each warrior got fully armored with an iron helmet, full-length military tunic or hauberk, double-edged sword, shield, spear and a large, heavy Danish Axe. Each warrior carried a bow with arrows and a knife seax. It was best of the best of the fighting arsenal in the world of that time. But the most important weapon was the Viking’s special fighting tactics of the sudden attacks, quick retreats for the main reason only - to appear unannounced from the other unexpected side and strike with violent force, yelling inhumanely loud - Skoll!

Rurik and his warriors knew something about the habits and conditions of the primitive life of the eastern tribes. The main notion was that they didn’t trust the natives. Therefore, the Swedes assembled the best fighters in the first reconnaissance squad, which was worthy and able to withstand against of 400-500 aboriginal troops. The Scandinavians didn’t have any illusions about the reality and the extremely violent culture of this land. The forest dwellers could set up a trap and retaliate for any reason or without any reason. These guys just liked to fight. Therefore, behind the vanguard was coming the main force of 500 warriors with ten longships (a Viking’s universal type of ship used for commerce and warfare.)

Two Viking longships slowly approached the open shores. It was a special Rurik’s request, and they selected this low-shore spot void of forests. These types of Viking longships, called the snekkja or snekke (In the old Russian-Pomor’s language: шняка), which in the Scandinavian meant ‘thin and projecting’, were used mostly in warfare and could carry 40-50 fighters each. Rurik brought only 50 fighters and 40 rowers to get enough space for the extra weapons and provision. The Vikings approached the shores on full alert with the warriors standing and holding their huge shields high along the boards and shielding from an accidental arrow attack.

To their surprise and relief, the aboriginals were friendly and met the guests with open hands. Only a couple of guards-warriors were standing at a distance. The old man, the leader of the tribe, extended his hands as a welcome sign to the strangers. By the ancient tradition, the gifts-donations were thrown on the ground before the coming ruling prince and his brothers. No tricks were expected at the moment. The new era of the people, inhabiting the immense territories of Eastern Europe, was set in motion on the shores of the Ladoga Lake. Rurik, pushed by his western Scandinavian rivals to the east, was standing on the threshold of the unparalleled historical achievements, which were more grandeur than the Viking attainments throughout the North Atlantic. The Scandinavian strangers to this land became in fact the Rus Eastvikings, who came to change the continent and the destiny of these people and even donated them their own name. The Rus became the Russians with time.

The local chieftains sought Rurik’s leadership and protection for the sake of peaceful life. They wished to get more help from the Scandinavian warriors to become better organized, looking for their own wars against the neighbors. Rurik and his brothers, Truvor and Sineus, called by the locals the Rus, had settled around the town of Holmgård (Russian: Великий Новгород - Veliky Novgorod), but in different areas, spreading the forces and controlling the large territory. Rurik built his stronghold in Veliky Novgorod (58:31N degree and 31:16E degree). Sineus settled in Beloozero (northeast of Novgorod), and Truvor took Izborsk (west of Novgorod.) The Viking warriors resided in separate fortified bastions. They have never trusted the people around them and watched them with a sneaking suspicion all the time.

Therefore, the Rurik’s first residence was located outside of Veliky Novgorod, in Ladoga, as stated in the Hypatian Chronicle (The Hypatian Chronicle-Codex is a compilation of the Nestor’s Primary Chronicle and the other two Ukrainian chronicles - Kiev and Galician-Volhynian.) Some time later, after enhancing the power and with new enforcement arriving from Sweden, he moved his seat on the outskirts of Veliky Novgorod. A fort was built not far from the wellspring of the Volkhov River. (Historical: It’s still there - the 9th century funerary burrow near Upper-Veliky Novgorod, similar of the hills at Old Uppsala, Sweden, which is called in Russia - Shum Gora. The local Russians refer to the alleged burial spot as the Rurik’s Grave. However, and most likely, Rurik wasn’t buried there.)

His two brothers did the same, residing in the remote fortified castles behind high walls-mounds. The ancient scripts didn’t specify the causes of deaths of two Rurik’s brothers, who died soon after the arrival. Most likely it wasn’t a violent cause and only because the drastic change of the style of life and climate. Rurik became the sole ruler of the territory and the progenitor of the Rurik Dynasty in this part of the world for next seven centuries. The last Russian ruling men of the Rurik’s dynasty were the notorious tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1533 – 1584) and his son Fyodor I (1584 – 1598).

3

THE EASTVIKING EMPIRE

What the Vikings did best in their west they had occupied their business not less efficiently on the estranged east. The ancient Russian literature romanticized the picture of the Scandinavian princes, as the noble warriors. That picture wasn’t true and probably very much insulting to the real rugged warriors. The true Viking’s legacy was attested and reconfirmed in their resolute, vicious actions. They came to the right place and at the right time. These boundless territories bountiful with dense forests, lakes and rivers, settled by untamed tribes, were more appealing to newcomers than the western countries, occupied by more organized civilized nations less susceptible to colonization and subversion.

The Rurik’s warriors fought, robbed and killed without remorse and restrictions. They had done very quickly and without any haste about what the local sages asked them to do, bringing the order. The bloody tribal conflicts were stopped by a very simple strategy, by killing mercilessly those, who was at the bases of the disputes and all others around. The Vikings defended nobody in this land, but themselves. They were well organized and equipped to be successful, and they had quickly dispersed and subdued the belligerent native fighters, which were more savage than organized.

Very soon the neighboring clans and their chieftains understood the name of this ruthless game and submitted under duress of the higher military power and intellect. The new rulers were wise rulers. They punished according to the established and agreed with the local chieftains regulation, which called by one unknown word in this country - a justice. First time, it had appeared in this heathen world, but had never been at home, and only a sword continued to be a supreme ruler, identifying the present and foretelling the future of this country.

The man, who brought the Viking’s justice to these territories, Rurik, couldn’t sustain for a long time in this estranged land, which took his brothers. The local habit and culture were primitive and too violent even for the Vikings, who rarely fought with each other, but only against all others. The primitive aboriginal people around them didn’t like to toil hard, and their life was akin to the primeval cave dwellers, collecting berries, mushrooms and boiling soup from the wild produce of uncultivated vegetables and trees. The cold murky country covered with dense gloomy forests with the roaming amidst belligerent people surrounded the Vikings.

The old warrior, Rurik, became homesick, dreaming about his more civilized country and his farms. Over there, overseas, his countrymen lived on farms in nice houses and used iron tools for farming and cultivating. They grew oats, barley and wheat and ground the grain to make fine wheat powder and oatmeal. And the men liked the Scandinavian type ale. They grew green vegetables - onions, beans and cabbages and breed a variety of animals. It was a very different life over there in the native west, across the Baltic Sea. The Scandinavian national culture was advanced for many centuries against these northeastern inhabitants, which were still a primitive tribal dispersed population, but not a society and very far from the point in time to become a nation.

Rurik was yearning for his farmland in Friesland. At one moment, he summoned his comrade, Viking warrior Oleg (Old Norse: Helgi), and asked him to look after his young son Igor (Old Norse: Ingvar) and assume the command of the Eastviking troops. The history didn’t explain why Rurik didn’t take the son with him and left in this estranged world. The great Scandinavian warrior probably envisaged the future and thought about the future of his dynasty in this land. So, his vision was extended onward for seven centuries. Rurik bequeathed this eastern realm and his son, as he was very young, to Helgi, who belonged to his kin.

Helgi was an ambitious warrior, and he didn’t mind. He was always dreaming to get such an unlimited power over this land. He had already imagined his way to go viking throughout the enormous space of the land, which Rurik called the Rus. The name was transformed in the coming centuries and spelled in the more acceptable lingo of the local population, extending this short word of Rus by the peculiar omnipresent in the ancient and modern Russian language sound "ss-sh". So, it was transformed into the word Russia. As some researchers noted, the sound sh was born out of the style of life of the Russian forebears in the forests. The inhabitants of forests imitated the sound of the wind in the leaves of the trees, and they spoke, communicated in the same way. The history left in obscurity the definite facts about the Rurik’s future life. Most likely he had returned to the peaceful life in his loving Rosland- Friesland to grow vegetables, brew ale and nurture his farm animals (ca. 873). He had planted the Viking Tree, and his countrymen were left in this inhospitable dangerous country to look after and grow the tree and make a new history.

*     *     *

A stronghold-bastion, encircled with a high wooden fence of heavy logs with sharp ends facing up, stood in the dense woods. The bastion and its structural elements were built from large tree trunks. The deep-water trenches girdled the whole perimeter around of the settlement. A narrow wooden bridge was positioned at the front of the fortress, facing the wide clearing. One more secret wooden overpass was set up at the back, by which the warriors could sneak unnoticed into the thick underbrush. It has been the best fighting tactic of the warriors to get out, sneaking behind the attackers. 18-20 log-wooden low sitting shacks called longhouses were constructed inside the fortress. The longest building was just huge, probably up to 70-80m long and 6-7m wide. It served the important function here as the main quarters. It’s called the Chieftain Hall or the main Longhouse.

That was the place where a chieftain lived and where everyone gathered to practice their communal cult. The entrance led the way to the main hall, a large room with a high-beamed ceiling. The Long wooden benches were installed along the walls. They served the sleeping spots at night and seats by day. An adobe-covered hearthstone was erected near the center of the room. A fire burned all day at wintertime and even in summer in this dark humid cold country. The firewood was unlimited here. The hall was a meeting place of the warriors for military councils, feasts, accommodation and for defense in case of enemy attacks. This place could easily accommodate 70-80 and more people. The log-wooden walls were constructed at the front and at the back of this building, assigned to training the skills in the axe throwing at the targets.

Traditionally and practically, a main Longhouse functioned as a center of life in a settlement. The villagers would come here to relax with their games, music, dance and talk and listen to each other, telling their ballads about the gods and the heroes from the past. It was the ancient prototype of a modern community center of western countries today, notably in Canada. However, the main hall was instrumental in one more indispensable social occasion - the raving, jovial festivity of the rowdy residents-warriors. Around of the main building, 20 log-wooden longhouses of smaller size were built in a circular position and in two ellipsoidal rings with an earth mound between the houses. In fact, the houses formed two lines of internal defense. The settlement was shaped as a labyrinth and in the best traditions of these people in this new and not too friendly land for them. For the native people, the defense handled by the special defenders was absolutely impenetrable. A Viking warrior could deal with 10-15 native fighters.

Each house accommodated up to six-seven families. Life in the houses was centered on a hearth. If the fire had been extinguished, it would have been the sign that the hot summer arrived or the most dwellers had ventured out of the residence, what they would do in the case of a war. The residents maintained the old traditions, placing the oldest and the highest-ranking members of the families close to the fireplace. The houses were not furnished with beds. The people, usually wrapped in pelts, were sleeping on the benches positioned along the walls of the dwelling. As in the case of the main Longhouse, these benches were used for seating during the daytime or as working spots to do all kinds of the household needs.

The residents of the stronghold composed the main fighting regiment of their leader Helgi (Oleg). He selected only the strongest and the best. These guys were really huge, bearded, fair-haired warriors. They had arrived to this land with the main mission - to fight. It has been their countrymen’s distinguished expertise for the last couple of centuries. Therefore, a special house was built near the main Longhouse on its northern side - the smith house, which was closely synonymous with the other word - a sword. Their fathers, grandfathers and all forebears prayed to heaven for their mighty god Odin (Old Norse: Óðinn - The Furious One), which was associated with wars, battles, victories and deaths. While on the land, they prayed to the sea, to a longship and to a sword. The sea was their main harvesting field, and a longship was their main tool of unstoppable victorious movement throughout the North Atlantic and European waterways. And today, Oleg and his warriors brought it to the wild European East. The sword has been the Viking’s most honorable and indispensable professional instrument.

The Viking sword was the best distinction of a warrior more than anything else. They were not easy to manufacture and therefore precious like gold and even more. A sword was the most cherished items that a Viking man owned. Swords belonged to Viking families for generations. They were given personal, individual names of heroic merit and passed from grandfathers to fathers and sons. The loss of a sword, even in a heroic battle, was considered a tragedy for the warrior and his family. In the Norse Laxdæla saga, the value of a sword was described in a dialog between a warrior (Geirmund) and a sword stealer (Þuríðr):

‘He called across the water to Þuríðr, begging her to return with the sword,

"Take your daughter and whatever wealth you want."

"Do you mind the loss of your sword so much?"

"I’d have to lose a great deal of money before I minded as much the loss of that sword."

Since that time of the 8-12th centuries, the Viking swords were manufactured as the best such killing blades in the world. They were forged from the special light steel and were typically double-edged - both edges of the blade were sharp. Swords were operated and controlled in the battle single-handedly, unless the sword handler wished to halve his victim from the head to its bottom. But usually the other hand was busy holding the shield. Blades ranged from 60 to 90cm long, although 70-80cm was the most typical size. In 12-13th centuries, the blades became as long as 100-110cm. The blade was an average of 4-6cm wide. The hilt and pommel provided the needed weight to balance the blade, with the total weight of the sword ranging from 1-2 kg, depending upon the strength of the fighter.

These detailed emphases on the Viking sword were important because only a sword was going to create this country and the future largest empire on the planet. Oleg’s group of warriors was a very special one primed for its outstanding mission. Oleg said to them, It’s time to leave the forest and go to the southern plains. The warriors knew about the plains and they were impatient to reach the lands down south. They all came from the Swedish cultured farmlands, and, therefore, hated this moisture-laden dark forest. The best weapons were made. The warriors were armed with precious swords, axes and large, wooden shields. The shields were impressive, designed not only to protect, but also to scare the enemies by the size and conspicuous red and white paintings on the front.

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In the spring of 882, Oleg gathered a company in the main Longhouse for a traditional military council and final drink before the long and dangerous road ahead. The chieftain didn’t hide any secret from his fighting comrades. They, all-Viking 200-men strong troops, should know absolutely everything about the upcoming military campaign. It was a time when no cowardice or arguments should happen inside the Viking troops. Oleg explained the Rurik’s plan to his men and told the story about a special land to the south at the distance of fifteen-twenty doegr (Norse: days) of sailing from the north. The Vikings by the names of Askold and Dir had sailed over there some time ago and found a lovely rich city on the shores of a huge wide river. They had settled in the city and became rich. But they forgot to pay their dues to the Rurik’s Viking House. And Oleg told the warriors that they should go there and remind the estranged princes about it.

Some warriors, sitting at the table, knew about