The most complete and logical account of the beginning of Russian statehood is contained in the so-called "Tale of Bygone Years" (hereinafter – PBL), an all-Russian chronicle compilation compiled in Kiev at the beginning of the 12th century. It incorporated chronicle and other records (both Novgorodian and Kievan) from the late 10th–11th centuries, as well as oral traditions of both northern (Ladoga-Novgorodian) and southern (Kievan) origin. The PBL has been preserved in many copies, seven of which are recognized as the most reliable and are used to reconstruct the original text of the PBL. The three oldest copies of the PBL date from 1377–1425.
In five of the seven copies, the first city where the invited prince Rurik "settled," that is, the capital, is named Ladoga. (These are the Radziwiłł, Moscow Academic, Hypatian, Khlebnikov, and Peryaslavl-Suzdal Chronicler copies).
In none of the seven copies (in their original ancient texts) is Novgorod or any other location named as the first capital. In two copies, the name of the city where Rurik "settled" is deliberately omitted. In one of these two, the Trinity copy, the name "Novgod" was later written above Rurik’s name in a different handwriting.
In the now-lost ancient copies of the PBL, which the first Russian historian Tatishchev used in his "Russian History," only Ladoga was mentioned as the first capital.
Even the omission of the name Ladoga in two copies supports the idea that in the chronicles from which these copies were copied, the name Ladoga was present. It is likely that the scribes of 1377 and later were already familiar with the local Novgorodian legend about Rurik’s initial arrival in Novgorod and, encountering the little-known name Ladoga in the chronicle, omitted it.
Let us present the most complete text of the tale about the beginning of Russian statehood according to the Hypatian copy (circa 1420), highlighting chronologically sequential blocks of events.
"In the year 6370 (862). And the Varangians were driven beyond the sea, and they did not give them tribute, and they began to rule themselves. And there was no justice among them. And clan rose against clan, and there were feuds among them, and they began to fight among themselves.
And they said: 'Let us seek a prince among ourselves, one who would rule us and arrange us according to order, according to law.' And they went overseas to the Varangians, to the Rus. For thus these Varangians were called Rus, as these friends are called Svear, friends also Urmanians, Angles, Ines, and Goths, so too these. The Rus, Chud, Slavs, Krivichs, and all said: 'Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and govern us.'
And three brothers were chosen with their clans and went through all the Rus, and first came to the Slavs, and built the city of Ladoga. And the eldest, Rurik, sat in Ladoga, the second, Sineus, on White Lake, and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. And from these Varangians the Russian land was named.
After two years, Sineus died and his brother Truvor. And Rurik took all power alone, and coming to Ilmen, built a city on the Volkhov, and it was called Novgorod, and he sat there to rule."
Before us is clearly a record of an epic legend, transmitted orally and possessing internal logic, proportion, and rhythm.
The subsequent PBL account of Rurik ends with the report of his death in 879 and the transfer of the principality to his relative Oleg, under whose protection he entrusts his young son Igor.
The fact that Rurik initially "sat" in Ladoga means that in Ladoga he "sat on the throne," that is, on that special princely seat (a prototype of the throne), from which the word "capital" derives. It is important that the fortress in Ladoga in the land of the "Slavs" was built not only by Rurik but by all three brothers "with their clans" and with "all the Rus," meaning it was created as the central fortress of the entire emerging early state formation. At the same time, it is said that Rurik gave the town by Ilmen the name "Novgorod," but it is not said that he gave the name Ladoga. It creates the impression that the settlement Ladoga existed under this name even before Rurik, and he only built (or restored) the fortress there. This assumption is confirmed by a variant reading in the chronicles used by Tatishchev: "and they strengthened the city of Ladoga," that is, "fortified the city of Ladoga."
Note that in five of the seven most reliable copies of the PBL (including the three oldest), the first among the ethnic groups inviting the overseas "all Rus" is named a certain local "Rus," clearly (like Ladoga) existing before Rurik. This understanding is confirmed by the words "let us seek a prince among ourselves," which indicate that the overseas "all Rus" was not foreign to the East European ethnic groups led by their local "Rus" and possibly "Slavs."
The capital status of Ladoga, as well as other data contained in the PBL text, find confirmation in foreign sources and archaeology. Three Scandinavian "sagas of the earliest times," narrating events of the 9th – early 10th centuries and largely related to the oldest legends briefly presented by the chronicler, always name the residence of the konung (that is, the capital of Gardarike (Rus)) as Aldeigjuborg (Ladoga), not Holmgard ("island court" – as the Scandinavians called "Rurik’s settlement," and later the actual Novgorod). Moreover, in the "Saga of Hrolf the Walker" (whose hero was the famous Rollo, founder of the Duchy of Normandy), there is a story of his long struggle for possession of the konung’s capital Aldeigjuborg, and in the end, it is reported that he himself "sat on the throne" in Holmgardborg. Thus, the general tendency outlined by the chronicle to move the capital deeper into the country, away from Viking raids, from Ladoga to the Novgorod area, and then to Kiev, is confirmed. The events underlying this saga date to the turn of the 9th–10th centuries. The saga contains a term translated as "the main place of the konung’s seat," that is, the place where, according to the chronicle, the prince "sat on the throne" – in other words, the capital. Undoubtedly, Rurik, "sitting" in Ladoga, only continued a tradition that existed long before him, reflected in the Scandinavian sagas.
There are serious grounds to believe that the head of the Volkhov-Ilmen Rus already a generation before Rurik claimed a title higher than prince or konung. The Frankish "Annals of the Vertin" report that in 839, envoys from Constantinople of the "khagan" of the people "Rhos" arrived at Emperor Louis the Pious along with envoys of Byzantine Emperor Theophilus, who were identified ethnically as "Svear" (Swedes). The "khagan’s" embassy left Rus no later than 838 and returned via the Rhine, on the route leading to the "Varangian Sea," that is, to northern Rus. As all archaeological sources show, there was no other sufficiently large military-trading center besides Ladoga, where in the 830s Scandinavians already formed a significant part of the social elite, on the territory of Rus. In particular, in the 830s, the only serious competitor to Ladoga for the title of the first capital of Rus – "Rurik’s settlement" at the sources of the Volkhov – did not yet exist. Therefore, the residence of the "khagan of the Rhos people" in the 830s could only be in the area of modern Ladoga. The title "khagan" indicates the orientation of the "Rhos people" toward the Volga-Don trade routes controlled by the Khazar khaganate, leading to the countries of the Arab Caliphate, as well as the emergence of vague "imperial ambitions" among the Rus already in the first third of the 9th century, since this title, from the time of the Turkic Khaganate of the 6th–7th centuries, was hierarchically comparable to the title "emperor." Later, the title "khagan" was used by Metropolitan Hilarion in the 11th century to refer to both Vladimir and Yaroslav the Wise.
About the same time dates the report of the Arabic-speaking writer Ibn Khordadbeh that the Rus "from the remotest lands of the Slavs" brought the best furs and swords to Baghdad through Khazar lands and traded there, pretending to be Christians.
The "Life of Saint Ansgar" (the baptizer of Sweden) tells of a campaign and attack in 851–852 by Danish troops near the city of Birka (central Sweden) on a "distant city within the Slavs," which, considering the existence of a traditional trade-military route between Birka and Ladoga, naturally is identified as the latter (hypothesis by A. N. Kirpichnikov).
All these direct and indirect testimonies of written sources about events in the Volkhov region find convincing confirmation in archaeological data. According to them, Ladoga with its surrounding towns and peculiar cult-burial structures – "mounds" located along the Volkhov and Syas – was already in the first half of the 9th century the center of an early state polyethnic organism with a peculiar pagan religion. In the 850s–860s, a significant number of hoards were buried and not retrieved in the Volkhov region, indicating destabilization. In Ladoga in the 850s, a fire occurred, after which a new strengthening of the "Scandinavian tradition" is felt in its material culture. Somewhere between 863 and 870, an even stronger fire destroyed horizon E-2 in Ladoga, after which archaeological evidence shows continued life at the settlement in horizon E-1, followed by some weakening of its intensity. Also, in the last third of the 9th century, on the opposite bank of the Volkhov from Ladoga, a purely Scandinavian cemetery with boat burials appeared, existing there during the first half of the 10th century. In one of the female graves of the necropolis, fragments of two Frisian jugs decorated with silver foil with a clear image of a cross were found. It is believed that such jugs were used in liturgy, and their presence in female graves in Sweden indicates the results of Saint Ansgar’s Christianizing activity.
The richest burial in the cemetery (presumably of the leader of the Scandinavian retinue) in a wooden chamber with remains of a burnt boat above the grave belongs to a man about 60 years old, buried around 890–895.
Finally, starting from the 870s, there is continuous intense life and construction at the military-trading fortified settlement "Rurik’s settlement," whose study is credited to E. N. Nosov, who convincingly proved that it is the oldest "Novgorod" of the PBL, located by "Ilmen" and "above the Volkhov," that is, Rurik’s second residence and the second capital of the emerging Rus, probably originally called by the Finno-Scandinavian name "Nevogard" ("swamp court" – that is, a residence on a hill among the swampy floodplain) and the Scandinavian "Holmgard." The highest hill at the sources of the Volkhov was probably long used for short stops on the water route. However, some few finds at "Rurik’s settlement" allow only conditionally to speak of the beginning of life there from the 850s, and the entire rich mass of material culture, in particular well-dated beads and combs, belongs to no earlier than horizon E-1 of Ladoga, that is, from the 870s and later.
In Great Novgorod itself, no layers reliably dated by preserved logs earlier than the 950s have been found. The thin cultural layer under the oldest wooden buildings allows the date of the beginning of continuous life in Novgorod to be placed no earlier than the 930s. Therefore, all the anniversaries celebrated by the country and Novgorod for the birth of Rus and Novgorod in the 9th century should primarily be related to Ladoga and "Rurik’s settlement."
In connection with the above, let us turn to the second, conditionally "Novgorodian," version of the origin of Russian statehood and the emergence of the first capital of Rus. This version is especially well represented and developed in the copies of the Novgorodian chronicle tradition, the oldest of which is the Commission copy of the Novgorod First Chronicle, younger recension, created around 1450.
According to this version, the invited Rurik immediately "sat... in Novgorod." But the entire chronicle account bears clear signs of abbreviation, disrupting the logic of the epic legend. For example, in this version, neither Rus among the ethnic groups inviting Rurik with his brothers, nor "all Rus" brought by the brothers, is mentioned. The latter is replaced by "a great and wondrous retinue" – the latter epithet exudes fairy-tale quality. Instead, the "Novgorodian people" are put in the first place. As a result, the almost verbatim coinciding phrase at the end: "And from those Varangians... Rus was named" becomes hardly understandable.
And the subsequent account of Rurik is shortened so much that the chronicle version simply lacks mention of Rurik’s death and the kinship ties between Rurik and Oleg.
The "Novgorodian" version clearly glorifies the role of Novgorod and the Novgorodians and diminishes or ignores the role of the local "Rus" and Ladoga, the overseas "all Rus," and Rurik.
However, having established Novgorod as the first and only capital under Rurik, the chronicle inadvertently acknowledges the special and important role of Ladoga in the system of the emerging Russian state. Retelling the legend of Oleg’s campaign to Tsargrad (which actually took place in 907), the chronicle reports that after the victorious campaign, Oleg, having passed through Kiev and Novgorod, returns precisely to Ladoga, where he is buried. It creates the impression that the main residence of the Rurikid family and the main place of their burial at the beginning of the 10th century was Ladoga and its surroundings. This is confirmed by the fact that neither the first nor the second versions of the "legend of the invitation" preserved any memory of Rurik’s grave, which would have been impossible if he had been buried near Novgorod. It is likely that Oleg was buried in Ladoga because his famous relative was buried there. Attention should be drawn to the report of a 1492 compilation from chronicle data, preserved in a late and defective copy: "...Rurik died in war in Korol...". It is easier to transport the leader’s body from the Karelian Isthmus to Ladoga than to "Rurik’s settlement."
These data and the assumptions based on them find confirmation in archaeological material. It was near Ladoga, in the Plakun tract, that a Scandinavian cemetery of the last third of the 9th – first half of the 10th century existed, where noble graves were found. At the same time, no reliable traces of a retinue cemetery have yet been found in the vicinity of "Rurik’s settlement" and Great Novgorod.
Without touching here on the problem of the origin of the ethnonym "Rus-Ros," which gave its name to the state, let us dwell on its content according to written sources and archaeology. In the first half of the 9th century, this word designated the dominant ethno-socium in the Volkhov region and adjacent territories, a fusion of Scandinavians and Slavs, possibly including Balts and Finns, which occupied a leading position among other Slavo-Balto-Finnic ethnic groups of the Northwest in trade operations, tribute collection, military, and diplomatic actions. The head of this ethno-socium "sat" in Ladoga/Aldeigja and insisted that on the "international arena" he be called not konung nor prince, but by the Turkic title "khagan." In the 850s, a new wave of Scandinavians invaded the Volkhov region, disrupting the established situation and apparently destroying the male part of the ruling dynasty – echoes of these events are found both in the Scandinavian sagas about the konungs of Aldeigja and in the chronicle account of the attack of overseas Varangians. Some part of northern Rus undertook a campaign down the Dnieper to Constantinople in 860, which ended unsuccessfully, followed by the settlement of part of the Rus in Kiev (according to foreign sources and chronicles). As a result, to restore the destroyed system of tributes and trade along the Volga-Baltic route, it was necessary to invite on contractual terms an authoritative noble leader from Scandinavia, initially settling in the ancient capital – Ladoga (probably in the mid-860s – early 870s). All these events strengthened the Scandinavian component in the composition of the "Rus," but the subsequent transfer of the capital to the sources of the Volkhov, to the lands of the "Slavs," and then to Kiev, to the Polans, led to a new and ultimately complete Slavicization of the "Rus," which gave its name to the state.
The idea of three successive capitals of Rus – Ladoga, Novgorod (Rurik’s settlement), and Kiev – is equally based on the oral epic legend recorded by the chronicle. However, it is precisely in the case of Ladoga that the chronicle data about it as a settlement existing before Rurik and becoming his first capital find full confirmation in archaeological and foreign written sources, allowing us to assert that Ladoga was the capital of a certain proto-state headed by the ethno-socium Rus/Ros even before Rurik’s arrival.
The idea of Ladoga as the first capital of Rus was fully shared by the great Russian historians V. N. Tatishchev, S. M. Solovyov, and V. O. Klyuchevsky.
Ladoga was both the capital of Rus in the first period of its formation as a state and its first "gateway to Europe and from Europe" (sea vessels in the 8th–10th centuries easily reached Ladoga). Later, the capital of Rus-Russia moved deeper into the Eurasian expanses (Rurik’s settlement, Kiev, Vladimir, Moscow), and the country itself reached the Pacific Ocean and the Amur in the east. Only after that did the capital of Russia return practically to its original point – only considering changes in the water regime and draft depth of vessels, somewhat closer to the sea – to the Neva instead of the Volkhov. And Saint Petersburg arose, by the exact word of A. S. Pushkin, as a "window to Europe."
