Rhosia and the Circum-Russian Politosphere of the 10th Century

Abstract

This review considers the concept of the Rurikid polity of the tenth century proposed by Aleksei S. Shchavelev, Senior Researcher at the Center for Eastern Europe in the Ancient and Medieval World, Department of the History of Byzantium and Eastern Europe, Institute of General History, Russian Academy of Sciences. Also, the reviewer examines its chronology and spatial structure, the genealogy of the early Rurikids, and the dynamics of their territorial power. The concept of “polity” replaces the previous notions of “Ancient Russia”, “Kievan Rus’”, and “Ancient Russian State” irrelevant for pre-Christian Times. The basis for the reconstruction of the Rurikid polity in the tenth century was not so much The Primary Chronicle whose chronology is being criticized more and more harshly, as The Tactica by Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise (866–912), the treatise De Administrando Imperio by Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905–959), letters from Hasdai ibn Shaprut (905–975), advisor to the Caliph of Cordoba, etc. This polity emerged following stochastic fluctuations in ethno-social, event, and personal history.