Pages: 335-343

Unexpectedly a sympathetic exposition of Antinormanist hypothesis of treating Varangiams in Rus’ as Western Slavs appeared in professional archaeological press. This hypothesis is based on three arguments: 1) a guess on Lekhite borrowings in the language of medieval Novgorod population; 2) finds of West-Slavic ceramics in North-Western Rus’, and 3) absolutely obsolete manipulations with the ethnonim “Rus’”. Objections: 1. The lingual borrowings are not substantiated, they are simply archaisms present in other languages, too. 2. The alien (in Rus’) ceramics is not domestic, but made by craftsmen, so it cannot testify the coming of Lechite Varangians. In addition it is absent on the south part of the road from Varangians to Greeks. 3. Even if southern and western etymologies of the term “Rus’” were more professionally made, they could not resist the degree to wich the term is ingrained into the northern system of ethnonims.

Keywords: North-Western Rus’, Novgorod, Antinormanism, Varangians, Northmen, Lekhite dialectisms, West-Slavic ceramics , ethnonim “Rus’” asingraved in the northern system of ethnonims

Information about author:

Leo S. Klejn (Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation). Doctor of Historical Sciences.
E-mail: [email protected]