Calling of the Varangians

[12][10] To resolve this situation, the tribes agreed to seek a prince to reign over them and restore order, and for that they went across the sea to the Varangians and invited the three brothers Rurik, Sineus and Truvor to do so.

[15] According to Cross & Sherbowitz-Wetzor (translators of the 1930/1953 English editions of the Laurentian Codex), the invitation of the Varangians 'has inspired a larger volume of controversial literature than any other disputed point in Russian history.

[16] In a broader sense, Normanism held that Scandinavians established the Kievan state, while Anti-Normanists argued that 'Kievan Rus' [was] essentially the creation of East Slavs who may simply have hired a Varangian military retinue to serve them.

[c] Nicholas V. Riasanovsky (1947) stated: '...no Kievan sources anterior to the Primary Chronicle (early twelfth century), knew of Riurik.

[31] Over time, these relationships of tribute for protection evolved into more permanent political structures: the Rus' lords became princes and the Slavic populace their subjects.

[32] Scholars such as Paul Magocsi (2010) place more emphasis on the role later played by Oleg the Wise than that of the supposedly 'invited' Varangians Rurik and his brothers: 'Regardless of the uncertainties surrounding the origin of Rus', with Helgi/Oleh (reigned 878–912) we have a known historical figure credited with building the foundations of a Kievan state.

(...) With Oleh's invasion of Kiev and the assassination of Askol'd and Dir in 882, the consolidation of the East Slavic and Finnic tribes under the authority of the Varangian Rus' had begun.

'[35] As a 'starting point', the legendary Varangian invitation is favoured over more obscure narratives such as the possible mention of a "Rus' Khaganate" in the Annales Bertiniani, which has been a similar source of perpetual disagreement.