Instilled ethnogenetic memory, or how the Rus people realized their Slavic nature

Background: The idea of the origin of the Slavic peoples from a single genetic root originated in the early Middle Ages and in all subsequent historical periods it served as a starting point for various mythologemes, ideologemes, theories and concepts. Even now, despite numerous attempts at deconstruction, they continue to function, producing “necessary” meanings and fueling established stereotypes. The later stages of their development are generally well studied, but the origin and initial establishment still remain a mystery. The greatest difficulty lies not so much in the small number and fragmentation of written reports on the early Slavs but in the absence of radically new, comprehensive interpretations. Purpose: The proposed investigation aims to initiate the filling of this gap by comprehensively considering the problem of forming the Slavic identity of Rus, through the prism not only of the original close interaction of Slavic peoples, but also the unique conditions and experience of their own Christian cultures, their remoteness, differences and alienations - perspectives still unexplored in the scientific literature. Results: Analysis of the episodes of the introductory part and Article dated 898 of the Tale of Bygone Years, which contain fragments of the oldest Slavic ethnogenetic ideas, shows their non-native origin. The image of the ancient Slavic community developed in the bosom of the Cyril and Methodius tradition. It penetrated Rus, apparently, in line with Western and South Slavic religious and cultural influences. At the same time, there was no single, more or less integral narrative. Rus chroniclers were forced to synthesize texts of different content and ideological direction and even genre, adapting them to their own historiographical concept. Although the term “Slavs” in Rus was actively used in the days before the writing of the Tale of Bygone Years, its functional potential was fully used only in the early XII century – thanks to the inculcation of the Rus identity – one of the pivotal and most deeply rooted structures of the collective historical consciousness. Key words: Rus, ethnogenetic notions, Slavic identity, The Tale of Bygone Years, Slavs, Cyril and Methodius tradition.