Detailed Biographies of the Royal Ancestors of the Obolensky Family Rurik - 862 to 879 - First Ruler of Russia

Rurik, also known in Scandinavian historical chronicles as Roerich, was a native of the southern part of the Jutland peninsula, an area known as "Roestringen" or "Rustringen". While the personality of Rurik himself is not legendary, most of the history of his ancestor s is lost in antiquity and has survived to our days only in the form of Swedish historical legends. What emerges from these legends that appears to be authentic is that the peoples who inhabited present-day Sweden, Norway and Denmark were known as Scandinavians, that they spoke a language understood by all of them, and that they were ruled by a number of kings or "Konungs" who belonged to certain illustrious families, among which were the "Skjoeldungs" and "Inglings".

These families all feuded among themselves. Rurik appears to have belonged to the "Ingling" family which, in the year 780 AD, was defeated and ousted from the Jutland peninsula by the Swedish king, Ivar Videradm, head of the "Skjoeldungs", who then became king of both Sweden and Denmark. The chief of the Inglings at that time was Rurik's father, Halfdan, who two years later, in the year 782 AD, pledged allegiance to the Holy Roman emperor Charlemagne and received from him the fief of Friesland in present-day northern Germany.

In the year 823, upon the death of Halfdan, his eldest son Harald took over the reins of power. Rurik, who was born around the year 810, was then a boy 13 years old. Charlemagne, who died in 814, had been succeeded in the meantime by Louis, his third son, who inherited the throne of the Holy Roman Empire, and who also became King Louis I of France, known as "Le Debonnaire". On Louis' insistence the pagan Harold became converted to Christianity together with his younger brother, Rurik. Upon the death of Harald in 837, Rurik, at the age of 27, became the sole ruler of Friesland. Some time later, Rurik's Clef was invaded once again by the Skjoeldungs and, despite help from King Louis, Rurik was ousted from his land. By 843 Friesland was reconquered by Louis' successor, Lothaire, but for some reason Rurik was not reinstated in his land which was annexed by Lothaire and made part of the Holy Roman Empire.

Furious, Rurik renounced Christianity and, at the head of the Inglings who had remained loyal to him, became a roving warrior. He led his hosts in many raids along the coasts of present-day Germany, France and Eng-land looting and devastating large areas. For many years his name struck terror into people's hearts, and he was referred to as the infamous 'Tel Christiantatis" - the "Gall of Christendom". For decades thereafter churches in France and Germany resounded to the prayer: "A furore Normanum libere nos Domine - "From the fury of the Normans liberate us, Oh Lord."' By the year 850, or thereabouts, Rurik appears to have been appeased by Lothaire who gave Friesland back to him. But a return to a sedentary life of inaction apparently did not suit Rurik.

For some years various Scandinavian tribes had been conducting raids along the Eastern coast of the Baltic sea. Some had penetrated far inland into the lands of the roaming Slavic tribes seeking the rich furs that the Slavs were willing to sell or barter for Scandinavian iron and textiles. Rurik, too, became interested in this trade and turned his eyes towards the East. Unlike the other Scandinavian leaders whose warlike behavior made them unwelcome guests among the Slavs, however, Rurik, whose ambitions went well beyond a simple chance to obtain valuable furs, entered the land of the Slavs in a peaceful manner. Some time in the late 850's Rurik dispatched one of his generals, a certain Ragnar--Bjork with a party of warriors to the West by sea. Bjork was expected to travel south through the straits between England and France, around Spain and East on the Mediter-ranean sea to Constantinople, the rich and bountiful land of the Greeks. Rurik himself was to enter the land of the Slavs from the Baltic sea and, sailing down over lake Ilmen and south along the great Dnieper river and the Black sea, meet with Bjork and his men in Constantinople, thus accomplishing an enormous and very ambitious pincer operation.

The entire project, which probably germinated in Rurik's mind as a result of his raids along the coasts of France and England where he must have encountered goods that originated in the rich land of the Greeks, was an ambitious search for a water route from Scandinavia to Greece. In Russian history, in which the Scandinavians are referred to as the Varanguians, and the Baltic sea as the Varanguian sea, the route down the Dnieper river is known as the "Road from the Varanguians to the Greeks."

This remarkable undertaking stamps Rurik as a truly great statesman. That it did not succeed so far as Rurik is concerned (we do not know what happened to his envoy Ragnar-Bjork), is due entirely to a circumstance that Rurik could not foresee, and that was due largely to his decision to treat the Slavic tribes in a peaceful manner. For some years the Slavs had been victims of the warlike behavior of most other Scandinavian tribes. Moreover, even in those times, some 300 years before the great invasion of Russia by the hordes of Ghengiz Khan, some of the Slavic tribes on the eastern borders of the land began experiencing the growing menace of the raids by the savage mounted Mongol warriors from Asia. The Slavs were a peaceful people. There is no evidence that any of them maintained any organized armed forces to defend their territories against outside enemies. Rurik, who had penetrated the land of the Slavs as far inland as the cities of Ladoga and Novgorod, must have impressed them both by his peaceful behavior and statesmanlike stature.

In the year 862 AD the Slavs asked Rurik to remain with them. "Our land is great and abundant, but there is no order in it. Come and rule over us." Such are the words by which, according to the Chronicles, the Slavic tribes requested Rurik to become their first ruler. Rurik accepted, setting himself up as Grand Prince, first in the city of Ladoga on the lake of the same name; later he moved to Novgorod and set up princes and nobles of either Scandinavian or Slavic descent in other populated centers of his newly acquired realm.

The Chronicles referred to Rurik and his warriors either as Varanguians, the old Russian word for Scandinavians, or the "Rus". The latter is probably a contraction of the word "Rustringen", the name of Rurik's original fief in Jutland.

Up until a few years ago, Rurik, in Russian history, was usually identified as the first Grand Prince of Kiev, ruler of Kievan Rus. Unquestionably, "Rus" is the origin of the name of the country, Russia. While Rurik certainly appears to have been the first ruler of Russia as an organized state, recent historical research seems to have established rather conclusively that he never went to Kiev. That city, which is still known as the mother of Russian cities, and Russia's first capital, appears to have been founded by two of his emissaries, Varanguians named Askold and Dir, barons at Rurik's court in Novgorod, whom he dispatched to the south to link up with Bjork in Constantinople. The Hypathian Chronicles relate as follows: "Askold and Dir sailed down the Dnieper river and saw a small town on a hill, and asked, 'Whose town is this?' and the townspeople said, 'There were three brothers--Kiy, Shchok, and Khoriv, and their sister, Lybed. Kiy founded this city, and we now live in it and pay tribute to the Khazars.' Askold and Dir stayed in the town and named it Kiev after its founder and assembled many Varanguians in it, and began ruling over the land in the name of the Grand Prince Rurik."

While this really marked the beginning of Kievan Rus as a separate nation, it did not really assert itself on the international scene until after the death of Rurik in 879, when his brother-in-law, Oleg, came down from Novgorod, slew Askold and Dir, and established the city as the residence of the new Grand Prince of the Rus--Igor, the son of Rurik, for whom Oleg ruled as regent.

IGOR - 912 to 945 Rurik's son, Igor, was only four years old when Rurik died, so Oleg, one of the barons at Rurik's court and the brother of his wife, Envinda, assumed the regency.

Oleg was an ambitious warrior and initiated a policy of expansion of the new state. In the year 882, according to the Hypathan Chronicles, "Oleg set forth from Novgorod down the river Dnieper, taking with him many warriors from among the Varanguians and the Slavs, the latter including the Chud, the Merians, the yes, and the Krivichans." He announced his arrival before Kiev as a trade caravan, concealing his troops in the tall reeds on the banks of the river. Askold and Dir in Kiev, believing that they were having to do with traders who usually came down the river bearing rich furs from the north, opened the city gates and came out to greet Oleg. The latter promptly had them slain and proceeded to occupy the town. He gradually brought most of the surrounding Slavic tribes under his rule which lasted well beyond the time when Igor came of age.

Oleg is glorified in Russian history as a wise ruler and is known as "Veshchiy" which means "farsighted" or wise. He, rather than Punk, took the first steps to "de facto" create the new nation, Kievan Rus. Oleg is the subject of many colorful legends in Russian history.

One of these concerns his death. It is said that Oleg once asked his court magician to predict the manner of his death. He was told that this would come to him through his favorite horse. Reluctantly, Oleg had the animal slain and buried in a specially erected mound outside Kiev. Some years later, Oleg rode out to the site of the burial and, placing his foot on the skull of his beloved steed, started to berate the magician for his false prophecy. Just then, according to the legend, a poisonous snake crawled out from the skull and sunk its fang into Oleg's leg, causing his death. This was in the year 912, and Igor, who was then 37 years old, became ruler in his own right as Grand Prince of Kiev.

Igor's reign was beset by unrest and revolts among the various Slavic tribes whom Oleg had subjugated and who were now obliged to pay tribute to the Kiev Grand Prince. Igor conducted several wars against the Greeks of Byzanthium and was probably the first ruler of any European nation to use flame-throwers in battle. His fleet would start out from the mouth of the Dnieper on the Black sea and sail down its west coast to "Tsar City", as Constantinople was referred to in early Russian historical chronicles. At one time he decimated the Greek fleet in the Bosphorus by having his warriors throw spears dipped in phosphorus against the Greek ships. Periodically, Igor would stage expeditions among the Slavic tribes to collect tribute. This was known as the custom of "polyudye", meaning that the Grand Prince was going "po lyudi"-- "to the people". In the course of one such expedition against a tribe known as the Drevlyanye (from the word "derevo" meaning "tree"), who lived in the forests north of Kiev, the irate tribesmen slew the Grand Prince at the age of 70.

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