Warfare, Trade or Colonisation? Some General Remarks on the Eastern Expansion of the Scandinavians in the Viking Period

Статья // The Rural Viking in Russia and Sweden. Conference 19–20 october 1996 in the Manor of Karlslund, Örebro, Sweden. — Ed. by P. Hansson (Örebro, 1997), p. 9–64.The legend about the creation of the Russian kingdom has led to a long and lively debate called the Normanist controversy, which started in the 18th century and still attracts interest, although it has left the agenda of serious research. The creation of a state is a complex process which cannot only be ascribed to foreign warriors. Most scholars agree that the Scandinavians played a significant role in the early history of Rus’, besides the Slavic, Baltic and Finnic inhabitants of the area, and that their role diminished at the end of the Viking Age, when southern - Byzantine and steppe nomadic - influences grew. The question is what, more exactly, were their activities in Eastern Europe and what was their role in the various circles of society.