According to some historians, the Old Russian people (, ) were a unified

ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, traditions, society, re ...

that emerged from

East Slavic tribes The following is a list of tribes which dwelled and states which existed on the territories of contemporary Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Overview Clan cultures of the Stone Age and Bronze Age, up to the Late Antiquity period of the tribal soc ...

of the

Kievan Rus Kievan Rus', also known as Kyivan Rus,. * was the first East Slavic state and later an amalgam of principalities in Eastern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of Russ ...

. The foundations for this theory were laid by Sergei Tokarev and further developed by

Boris Rybakov Boris Aleksandrovich Rybakov (; 3 June 1908, Moscow – 27 December 2001, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian archeologist and historian. He was one of the main proponents of anti-Normanist vision of Russian history. He is the father of Indologis ...

and . However, this theory is controversial among historians.

In favour of the theorized existence of the Old Russians

Proponents of this concept cite the historically disputed use of a common

Old Russian language Old East Slavic (traditionally also Old Russian) was a language (or a group of dialects) used by the East Slavs from the 7th or 8th century to the 13th or 14th century, until it diverged into the Russian and Ruthenian languages. Ruthenian even ...

, close regional political and economic ties, a common spiritual and material culture, a common

Russian Orthodox religion Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

, a shared system of law, customs, traditions, and warfare, a common struggle against external enemies and the awareness of the unity of the

Rus Rus or RUS may refer to: People * East Slavic historical peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus, a legendary eponymous ancestor, see Lech, Czech and Rus * Rus (surname), a surname found in Ro ...

depicted in the sources as characteristics of ethnic unity. The disappearance of old tribal names from sources starting in the middle of the 12th century onwards in favor of the term “Russian people” which is also used as an argument for ethnic unity. Last but not least, proponents of the concept of the Old Russian people point to comparative studies with other countries and regions of Europe such as

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, which demonstrate a greater sense of ethnic consciousness among the Rus during this period.

Against the theorized existence of the Old Russians

Opponents of the theory of a unified Old Russian people argue that within the relatively short period of two centuries before the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire, the Mongol Empire (1206–1368), which by 1260 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

, no unified ethnic group could have emerged over such a large area. Furthermore, the Kievan Rus was a relative loose federation of various principalities. The territory of Rus was also unevenly populated and the population consisted of

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

, Turkic and Finno-Ugric tribes. Furthermore, the commonality in language, religion and culture can only be confirmed among the rulers, but not for the population. There is no evidence for a supposed common

colloquial language Colloquialism (also called ''colloquial language'', ''colloquial speech'', ''everyday language'', or ''general parlance'') is the linguistic style used for casual and informal communication. It is the most common form of speech in conversation amo ...

in the Kievan Rus.

Volodymyr Rachka Volodymyr (, ; ) is a Ukrainian given name of Old East Slavic origin. The related Ancient Slavic, such as Czech, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, etc. form of the name is Володимѣръ ''Volodiměr'', which in other Slavic languages became Vladimi ...

and

Petro Tolochko Petro Petrovych Tolochko (; 21 February 1938 – 28 April 2024) was a Soviet and Ukrainian historian, archaeologist, and political activist. He was one of the leading specialists in history of the Kievan Rus (Old Rus) and one of leading research ...

therefore suggest using the term “Old Russian ethnocultural community”, which subsumes the various heterogeneous population groups in Kievan Rus.Юсова Н. М. Давньоруської народності концепція �рхівовано 27 березня 2013 у Wayback Machine.// Енциклопедія історії України: Т. 2: Г-Д / Редкол.: В. А. Смолій (голова) та ін. НАН України. Інститут історії України. — К.: В-во "Наукова думка", 2004. — 688 с.

Literature

* Третьяков, П.Н. У истоков древнерусской народности, «Наука», 1970 * Лебединский, М.Ю. К вопросу об истории древнерусской народности. Москва, 1997 * Седов, В.В. Древнерусская народность. М.: Языки русской культуры, 1999 * Толочко, П.П. Древнерусская народность: воображаемая или реальная. – СПб.: Алетейя, 2005

References

{{reflist East Slavic tribes History of the Rus' people Ancient Slavic peoples Origin hypotheses of ethnic groups

In favour of the theorized existence of the Old Russians

Against the theorized existence of the Old Russians

See also

Literature

References