The 'road from the Varangians to the Greeks' (former etruscan)

From: s.tarasovas@...
Message: 5516
Date: 2001-01-15

--- In cybalist@egroups.com, "Torsten Pedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:
> To test this scenario, does anyone of you (Sergei?) know of any
> sudden political change e.g. in Kievan Rus (new Slavonymic tsar?)
> taking place in 980?
>

The decade after the death of grand prince Svyatoslav [Old Russian
Sve,toslavU] was a period of high political instability in the
territory of the to-be Kievan Rus', 980 being the peak.

There were no state as an entity on that territory, we rather deal
with a political mosaic, the subjects of the game being:

- subethnos Rus' [Old Russian RusI], probably of North Germanic
origin (some Scandinavians named roTHs- 'oarsmen'? Rugi? Rosomoni?),
political backbone of the territory. Svyatoslav belonged to that
subethnos, which had lived in symbiosis with Slavs for centuries by
then and were on their way to total assimilation by Slavs, but still
kept in touch with related Scandinavian ethnoses. Their basic
occupation was war and trade. First mentioned in the territory north
of the Black Sea in the VI c (?, identification unreliable).

- variuos Slavic tribes (Polyane [Old Russian Pol'ane^], Drevlyane
[Derevl'ane^], Dregovichi [DrIgUvic^i], Ulichi [Ulic^i], Tivertsi
[TivIrci], Ilmen Slovene [Slove^ne^], Krivichi [Krivic^i], Severyane
[Se^ver'ane^], Radimichi [Radimic^i], Vyatichi [Ve,tic^i] as well as
nearly assimilated local Baltic (cheifly), Finno-Ugric and East
Iranian tribes. Their relations with Rus' and among themselves varied
from souvereign-homager to alien and enemy. Their main occupation was
farming and craft (esp. in towns), later trade; they often comprised
the bulk of an army lead by Rus' or Varangians.

- Varangians [Old Russian vare,zi] (branch, or, rather, another name
of Vikings), who tried to establish their influence in the territory
in the IX-X cc. Being ethnically close to Rus', they sometimes
cooperated with Rus' and the Slavs, sometimes conflicted with them.
Anyway, they never controlled all of the territory, only part of it
(chiefly in the northen part of it, near Novgorod and the east Baltic
cost in general) and only for a brief period of time.

- nomadic Pechenegs in the Pontic steppes, who could control the
mouths of Don and Dniester.

As Adriana noted, after the death of his father Svyatoslav in 972,
Vladimir [Old Russian Volodime^rI, propably a carbon copy of a
Germanic name akin to Valdemar], whose party expressed the interests
of chiefly Novgorod [Old Russian NovUgorodU] community, influenced by
Varangians and propagated militant paganism, come into conflict with
his brother Yaropolk [Old Russian JaropUlkU], whose party expressed
chiefly Kievan [Old Russian KyjIvU] and Polotskian [Old Russian
PolotIskU] interests, sympathized to the Byzantines and their branch
of christianity. Novgorod merchants invested, and a Varangian army
returned Vladimir to Kiev as the only grand prince (since both his
brothers were killed). Please refer to Adriana's posting for romantic
details :) .

Now the young prince makes an unexpected stroke of policy: realizing
the role of Kiev and its sattelite towns, as well as anticipating the
growth of highly undesirable Varangian influence, he got rid of the
Varangians by deceit, eluded the epayment for their service and drove
them to the Byzantine Empire, having sent a warning to the
authorities that they should be dispersed by small troops to avoid
danger. Now the Kievans were happy and accepted him as a great prince.
The relationships with Varangians were consiously make bad, and their
role in the territory was completely eliminated by the middle of the
XI c.
The first step in that direction could well be blocking of the trade
routs - that's what I would do if I were Vladimir. :)

Then, recognizing the necessity of a uniformed religious system,
Vladimir (or other political subjects) was not ready to to embrace
Christianity. An interesting bi-componental form of paganism was
approved as standard:
- the cult of some Iranian deities [Old Russian XUrsU, SimarIglU], a
curtsey swept to the tribes of the south and east (Kievan party).
- the cult of PerunU, or, rather, the branch of it developed by
Krivichy (one of the main tribes of Pskov [PlIskovU] and Novgorod)
and the Baltic Slavs and highly influenced by the Baltic and
Germano/Celtic substratum. This is somehow related to the great
rebellion of the Baltic Slavs in 983, which nearly eliminated
Christianity in the southern Baltic for a while. It need not
explanation that relations between, eg, the Danes and the Baltic
Slavs were far from friendly, and this is another reason why Vladimir
could bar trade routes for Vikings.

Last, the Byzantians were apparently not happy of their party defeat
and could well order Pechenegs to block mouths of Don and Dniester.

Taking into account all that, the scenario proposed by Torsten seemes
very plausible to me.

Sergei