Platonova, Nadezhda Igorevna. Old Russian Ladoga in the context of the Varangian legend: revision of sources and interpretations

Platonova, Nadezhda Igorevna — Dr. Sc. in History, Leading Researcher, Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St.-Petersburg, Russia, Orc ID 0000-0003-1432-720X, Scopus ID 56511560400, SPIN-code 7744-3372; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

This publication was prepared within the framework of a grant from Russian Science Foundation the № 23-18-00515 «Forming of the early urban structure and cultural landscape of Northern Rus’ on the material of the Staraya Ladoga archaeological complex».

The Chronicles contain limited information about Ladoga in the 9^th–10^th centuries. Epic and toponymic legends are visible in these news. The first news is found under the year 862 in the copies of the «Povest’ vremennykh let» of the Ipatiev tradition. It belongs to the text of the Varangian legend from the «Ladoga» version. The second news about Ladoga is discovered in 922. This year, the First Novgorod Chronicle reports the death of Prince Oleg the Prophet and his grave, preserved in Ladoga. The political relevance of both news in the historical context of the 11^th – early 12^th centuries can be clearly seen. An article by N. I. Platonova deals with the problems of sources, meanings, genre and chronology of various versions of the Varangian legend in the Primary Chronicle. The types of oral sources, which became the basis of the earliest texts, and the cultural mechanisms for the preservation and transmission of information about the past in the Old Russian society are briefly characterized. The author supports the N. Lopatin’s hypothesis about the emergence of the «Novgorod» version in the early 11^th century and its historical context. Particular attention is paid to the chronology of the «Ladoga» version and the political situation that gave rise to it, as well as the problem of the existence of a princely residence in Ladoga in the 9^th–10^th centuries. The article demonstrates that both the original and editorial versions of the Varangian legend are, first of all, sources for studying the history of the period when they were created. It is impossible to consider any of them — as a direct reflection of the 9^th century events. Nevertheless, this text contains indirectly important information about the early stage of Old Russian history, which can be extracted analytically.

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