. A thousand years of Russian history. e nomads, even though perpetually at warwith them. The French authority on Russia, Leroy-Beaulieu, con-tends that of all Indo-European people the Russians arethe least Aryan, and that this is due to the admixture ofTurkish and Finnish elements. Though tliis may be trueethnographically, the Slavs, in spite of intermarriage wdththese semi-Oriental tribes, became a separate and distinctpeople—the Russians. They absorbed into themelves thesetribes of other races, but were never absorbed by most dominant and virile tribe of the eastern Slavs wasthat o
. A thousand years of Russian history. e nomads, even though perpetually at warwith them. The French authority on Russia, Leroy-Beaulieu, con-tends that of all Indo-European people the Russians arethe least Aryan, and that this is due to the admixture ofTurkish and Finnish elements. Though tliis may be trueethnographically, the Slavs, in spite of intermarriage wdththese semi-Oriental tribes, became a separate and distinctpeople—the Russians. They absorbed into themelves thesetribes of other races, but were never absorbed by most dominant and virile tribe of the eastern Slavs wasthat of the warrior-like Polyans, who settled on the land FROM RURIK TO ANDREI BOGOLYUBSKI 9 west of the Dnieper, where the forest-land ended and theSteppes began. Wherever the Slavs settled they lived in clans or com-munities, which in course of time developed into always retained their primitive democratic basis, andlater on developed into republics. Novgorod and Kievwere founded on this principle. Through these two cities,. Russia in the Ninth Century. Scandinavian and Norman merchants and warriors passed ontheir way south, more especially in travelling to records that the Russians sent a message tothe Varangians, whom they had come to know when the latterpassed from the North to Byzantium : Come, rule over us,for our country is vast and without any order in it, but itis much more likely that they either made a virtue of necessityor that these peaceable cities were forced to adopt militaryohiefs as protectors against external foes. 10 A THOUSAND YEARS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY In 851 Askold and Dir, two bold Scandinavian warriors,had made thtMiiselves niasttirs of Kiev on the Dnieper, whencethev made a successful raid on Byzantium. The chief oftliese Varangians was Rurik, who had settled in 862 on LakeLadoija. from whence he gradually extended his rule overvarious cities, chief among them Novgorod. After the deathof his two brothers,
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