Askold and Dir
"[5] According to Doctor of Historical Sciences, professor Igor Danilevsky, who is a specialist on the history of Kievan Rus, the Scandinavian origin of the name is certain and it has long been proved.
Other supporters of the theory of Slavic origin saw in the word the roots oskal (grin), sokol (falcon), kol (spike) and kolo (circle).
[5] Boris Rybakov expressed a conjecture that the appearance of the names of Askold and Dir in the annals is a consequence of an error of one of the early chroniclers.
A number of late medieval sources, among them the Kievan Synopsis (1674), report that Oskold was the last representative of the local dynasty of Prince Kyi.
Referring to these annalistic evidences, Aleksey Shakhmatov considered the fact of the Slavic origin of Prince Oskold beyond doubt.
The debate over this issue – futile, embittered, tendentious, doctrinaire – served to obscure the most serious and genuine historical problem which remains: the assimilation of these Viking Rus into the Slavic people among whom they lived.
[11] Some historians, based on late and unreliable sources, try to declare Askold and Dir to be direct heirs of the legendary Kyi, a representative of the dynasty of "Kievichi".
This message of Dlugosz was used in the works of Dmitry Ilovaysky (who treated the facts quite arbitrarily) and Mykhailo Hrushevsky (who strove to prove the existence of a distinct Ukrainian ethnos already in the 4th century); Aleksey Shakhmatov also referred to them in his historical reconstructions.
[12] Nestor the Chronicler is the undisputed author of the biographical work "The Narrative of the Life, Death and Miracles of the Holy and Blessed Martyrs Boris and Gleb" and a comparative study of two accounts presents no stylistic evidence that Nestor was in any way concerned with the composition or compilation of the Primary Chronicle, while the contradictions between the two narratives point rather in the opposite direction.
[13] A more likely candidate as author is Sylvester of Kiev, hegumen (abbot) of the St. Michael's Monastery in Vydubychi (a village near Kyiv), who may have compiled several sources in the year 1116.
[15] The Laurentian Codex of the Primary Chronicle relates that Askold and Dir were sanctioned by Rurik to go to Constantinople (Norse Miklagård, Slavic Tsargrad).
According to the Primary Chronicle,[16] Oleg set forth, taking with him many warriors from among the Varangians, the Chuds, the Slavs, the Meryans, the Ves', the Krivichians.
Oleg came to the foot of the Hungarian hill using trickery, he hid his warriors in the boats, left some others behind, and went forward himself bearing the child Igor’.
The translation may also have some inaccuracies or points that should be clarified A – The Old Slavonic text uses the word Весь while listing the tribes who participated with Oleg on his journey to Kiev from Novgorod.
Some historians go as far as suggesting that the author of Primary Chronicle wrote a politically biased work to legitimize the rule of the Rurikid dynasty and create a legend for them.
The sources that use the word "Russian" instead of the historical terms Russes, Rhos, Rusiches or Rus' when working with annals are politically biased.
Vasily Tatishchev, Boris Rybakov and some other Russian and Ukrainian historians interpreted the 882 coup d'état in Kiev as the reaction of the pagan Varangians to Askold's baptism.
Igor went on to impose tributes on various tribes, and brought himself a wife named Olga from Pleskov (Pskov), with whom he had a son called Sviatoslav.
[25] In the subsequent Rusʹ–Byzantine War (907) (absent in Byzantine sources), the Novgorod First Chronicle again narrates that it was Igor leading the attack (Old East Slavic: Посла князь Игорь на ГрЂкы вои В Русь скыдеи тысящь.
"[25]Б Написано на полях справа с выносным знаком тем же почерком и более светлыми чернилами.
The Rus' attack on Constantinople in June 860 took the Greeks by surprise, "like a thunderbolt from heaven," as it was put by Patriarch Photios in his famous oration written for the occasion.
Although the Slavonic chronicles tend to associate this expedition with the names of Askold and Dir (and to date it to 866), the connection remains tenuous.
While there may be some conceivable doubt whether Rurik and his relatives, and possibly Askold and Dir, were actual personages, Oleg and Igor are soundly attested, presumably with dates, by the treaties with the Greeks in which they are mentioned by name.
