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Varangians of Kiev

The most spectacular Viking gains were by the Varangians, known by the locals as the Rus. In 882, Oleg took control of Kiev and made it the capital of an Empire encompassing all the Rus settlements. The Varangian Rus Empire reached its greatest extent under Svyatoslav (945-72), but as his name betrays, by this time they were becoming integrated with the local Slavic population. By the early 11th century Varangian trade with the east dried up with the exhaustian of silver mines in Dar al-Islam. The Rus Empire persisted, but was now definitely Russian (Slavic speaking, land-based, and Orthodox Christian) rather than Nordic.

The name of Rus was first divulged to the West in the ninth century, by an embassy from Theophilus, emperor of the East, to the emperor of the West, Lewis, the son of Charlemagne. The Greeks were accompanied by the envoys of the great duke, or chagan, or czar of Rus. In their journey to Constantinople they had traversed many hostile nations, and they hoped to escape the dangers of their return by requesting the French monarch to transport them by sea to their native country.

A closer examination detected their origin: they were the brethren of the Swedes and Normans, whose name was already odious and formidable in France; and it might justly be apprehended that these Russian strangers were not the messengers of peace, but the emissaries of war. They were detained while the Greeks were dismissed ; and Lewis expected a more satisfactory account, that he might obey the laws of hospitality or prudence according to the interest of both empires.

The Scandinavian origin of the princes of Rus may be confirmed and illustrated by the national annals and the general history of the North. The Normans, who had been so long concealed by a veil of impenetrable darkness, suddenly burst forth in the spirit of naval and military enterprise. The vast, and as it is said, the populous, regions of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, were crowded with independent chieftains and desperate adventurers. Piracy was the exercise, the trade, the glory, and the virtue of the Scandinavian youth. Impatient of a bleak climate and narrow limits, they ascended their vessels and explored every coast that promised either spoil or settlement. The Baltic was the first scene of their naval achievements; they visited the eastern shores,the silent residence of Finnish and Slavonian tribes; and the primitive inhabitants of the lake Ladoga paid a tribute, the skins of white squirrels, to these strangers, whom they saluted with the title of Varangians, but whose national name was Russians. The name Varangians, a corruption of the Sclavonic Warjazi, is said to signify allies, and to come from the word wara, a compact or alliance.

Their superiority in arms, discipline, and renown, commanded the fear and reverence of the natives. In their wars against the more inland savages the Varangians condescended to serve as friends and auxiliaries, and gradually, by choice or conquest, obtained the dominion of a people whom they were qualified to protect. Their tyranny was expelled, their valour was again recalled, till at length Ruric, a Scandinavian chief (r 862-879), became the father of a dynasty which reigned above 700 years.

As long as the descendants of Ruric were considered as aliens and conquerors, they ruled by the sword of the Varangians, and supplied their numbers with fresh streams of adventurers from the Baltic coast. Amidst the darkness of early Russian history are discerned two principal states, one in the north of the country, of which Novogorod was the capital, and the other in the south on the Dnieper, of which Kiew was the chief town. The rule of the Varangian conquerors was at first confined to the northern state ; but their powei gradually increased, and Kiew was annexed to their dominions.

From an early period the two capitals were the center of an important trade. From the neighborhood of Novogorod the Russians descended the streams that fall into the Borysthenes; their canoes, of a single tree, were laden with slaves of every age, furs of every species, the spoil of their beehives, and the hides of their cattle ; and the whole produce of the North was collected and discharged in the magazines of Kiew. The month of June was the ordinary season of the departure of the fleet; the timber of the canoes was framed into the oars and benches of more solid and capacious boats ; and they proceeded down the Borysthenes to the Black Sea. If they steered along the coast, the Danube was accessible ; with a fair wind they could reach in 36 or 40 hours the opposite shores of Anatolia; and Constantinople admitted the annual visit of the strangers of the North. They returned at the stated season with a rich cargo of corn, wine, and oil, the manufactures of Greece, and the spices of India.

But the same communication which had been opened for the benefit, was soon abused for the injury of mankind. In a period of 190 years the Russians made four attempts to plunder the treasures of Constantinople; the event was various, but the motive, the means, and the object were the same in these naval expeditions. The Russian traders had seen the magnificence, and tasted the luxury, of the city of the Caesars. A marvellous tale, and a scanty supply, excited the desires of their savage countrymen : the Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure, and their bravest soldiers were drawn from the nations that dwelt in the northern isles of the ocean.

In their first enterprise (a.d. 865), under the princes of Kiew, they passed the Bosporus without opposition, and occupied the port of Constantinople, in the absence of the emperor Michael, the son of Theophilus. Through a crowd of perils he landed at the palace-stairs, and immediately repaired to a church of the Virgin .Mary. By the advice of the patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn from the sanctuary and dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, which determined the retreat of the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to the mother of God.

The silence of the Greeks may inspire some doubt of the truth, or at least of the importance, of the second attempt by Oleg, the guardian of the sons of Ruric (a.d. 904). A strong barrier of arms and fortifications defended the Bosporus; they were eluded by the usual expedient of drawing the boats over the isthmus; and this simple operation is described in the national chronicles as if the Russian fleet had sailed over dry land with a brisk and favorable gale.

The leader of the third armament (a.d. 941), Igor, the son of Ruric, had chosen a moment of weakness and decay, when the naval powers of the empire were employed against the Saracens. But if courage be not wanting, the instruments of defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken and decayed galleys were boldly launched againstthe enemy; but instead of the single tube of Greek fire usually planted on the prow, the sides and stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid combustible. The engineers were dexterous; the weather was propitious; many thousand Russians, who chose rather to be drowned than burnt, leaped into the sea; and those who escaped to the Thracian shore were inhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and soldiers. Yet one-third of the canoes escaped into shallow water; and the next spring Igor was again prepared to retrieve his disgrace and claim his revenge.

After a long peace, Jaroslaus, the great grand-son of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval invasion (a.d. 1043). A fleet, under the command of his son, was repulsed at the entrance of the Bosporus, by the same artificial flames. But in the rashness of pursuit the vanguard of the Greeks was encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; their provision of fire was probably exhausted; and 24 galleys were either taken, sunk, or destroyed.

The memory of these Arctic fleets, that seemed to descend from the polar circle, left a deep impression of terror on the Imperial city. By the vulgar of every rank it was asserted and believed that an equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should become masters of Constantinople.

When the Scandinavian chiefs had struck a deep and permanent root in the soil, they mingled with the Slavonic inhabitants in blood, religion, and language, and the first Waladimir [Vladimir the Great, r 980-1015] had the merit of delivering his country from these foreign mercenaries. They had seated him on the throne ; his riches were insufficient to satisfy their demands; but they listened to his pleasing advice, that they should seek, not a more grateful, but a more wealthy, master; that they should embark for Greece, where, instead of the skins of squirrels, silk and gold would be the recompense of their service. At the same time the Russian prince admonished his Byzantine ally to disperse and employ, to recompence and restrain, these impetuous children of the North.

Contemporary writers recorded the introduction, name, and character of the Varangians : each day they rose in confidence and esteem; the whole body was assembled at Constantinople to perform the duty of guards; and their strength was recruited by a numerous band of their countrymen from the island of Thule. On this occasion the vague appellation of Thule is applied to England ; and the new Varangians were a colony of English and Danes who fled from the yoke of the Norman conqueror. The habits of pilgrimage and piracy had approximated the countries of the earth ; these exiles were entertained in the Byzantine court; and they preserved, till the last age of the empire, the inheritance of spotless loyalty, and the use of the Danish or English tongue. With their broad and double-edged battle-axes on their shoulders, they attended the Greek emperor to the temple, the senate, and the hippodrome; he slept and feasted under their trusty guard; and the keys of the palace, the treasury, and the capital were held by the firm and faithful hands of the Varangians.