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52 Bussia’s People and Their Neighbors
"And three brothers were chosen with their escort and they took
with them all Rus and they came. And the eldest Ruric settled in
Novgorod, and the second Sineus in White-Lake and the third Truvor
in Izborsk (south of Peipus Lake), and the head city of Rus, namely
Novgorod got its name after these Varingians."
Thus both archaeology, historic records and thS very language spoken
by the Slavs prove that the early rulers of Rus were Scandinavian
Vikings. The escort of Ruric were all of that stock, and the very
people whom Nestor in his manuscript calls "Rus" were the crews of
Viking vessels, those whom Prof. Thomsen of Copenhagen records as
the old Rothsmen, that is, "rowing men," a name by which the Finns
still designate the Swedes.
Thus we see that the Russ people sprung up from this Scandivanian
nucleus that had gathered around it the Slavic tribes and founded a
state among them. The early Russ people spoke the language of the
Vikings and after two or three generations they exchanged their old
Norse tongue for the speech of the Slavs with whom they had cast
their lot. The word Rossia, now used for Russia, is a very queer word
of recent date. It was introduced by the Moscow Czars in their official
titles in the seventeenth century and can be traced to Greek influence.
This connection of the Russ with the Scandinavian is not an incidental
and ephemeral factor, but it has left deep and abiding roots in the
Russian soul. Thus the Russians are in many ways akin to their
northern ancestors on the one side, and on the other side they are
related to the rest of the family, the Serbians, the Bohemians, Poles
and others, as children of one common Slavic mother.
Ruric’s descendant, Vladimir, embraced Christianity and compelled
his people to be baptized. This prince was called Vladimir the Great
by the people and his name has been woven into the folklore. Although
the title "Kniaz," which these rulers bore is translated in English as
"prince," we are entitled to interpret it as "king," as it is practically
derived from the Scandinavian title konung (koenig or king).
One of Valdimar’s descendants, worthy of the name of king, was
Yaroslav the Wise (1116-1154). He ordered a code of law to be pub-
lished, called the Russian Law. Capital, punishment, death by refine-
ments of cruelty, torture, even a public prison were unknown. These
humane laws were purely Scandinavian in character. This Yaroslav
the Wise was related to different European kings and was respected by
all as a powerful ruler.
The Mongolian Invasion
With a succession of wise descendants of Ruric and in contact with
all the nations of Europe, Russia would have marched on with Western
progress, had it not been for a severe trial which God’s destiny re-
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