Where did the Russian Land come from

Relevance of the topic is conditioned by the fact that the origin of the Russian land is of crucial importance for comprehension of the genesis of the Russian statehood and Russian ethnos. Knowledge of the origins allows a deeper understanding of the further course of the historical development of the country. Despite the extensive historiography of the issue, there is still no unambiguous answer to the question of the origin of the East Slavic tribes and the territory of Russia. This indicates the complexity and multidimensionality of the problem. The interest of researchers and the public to the topic is also due to the fact that in modern conditions, in the era of globalisation, the issues of national identity and historical memory are aggravated. The study of the origins of Russian statehood acquires special significance in the context of these challenges of modernity. Active discussions around the origin of Ancient Russia in the scientific and near-scientific environment also testify to the relevance of the problems.

Object of the study. Historical processes of the formation of the Old Russian state and ethnogenesis of the East Slavs in the I millennium AD.

Subject of the study. Origin of the territory and population of Ancient Russia, the origins of Russian statehood.

Purpose of the work. Analyse the known scientific hypotheses about the origin of the Russian land and East Slavic tribes; identify the most reasoned concept.

Objectives of the work:

-      analyse the main scientific hypotheses of the origin of the East Slavs and the formation of the Russian land;

-      on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of sources and scientific literature to identify the most argued version of the ethnogenesis of the East Slavs and the formation of the Old Russian state;

-      to trace the process of political genesis of Russia in the context of the development of the Slavic world and Europe as a whole in the early Middle Ages;

-      to determine the peculiarities of the emergence of the Russian land, which influenced the course of its further historical development.

Degree of development. In the literature the present topic of the work was studied in the works of such scientists as: Bredikhin A.L., Dobronravova U.V., Kitaev R.S., Korennaya A.B., Kotyshev D.M., Nikolaev V.G., Nikolenko A.A., Perevezentsev S.V., Pisareva A.V., Raimov M.M., Sverdlov M.B., Teslya A.A., Tikhomirov N.V.

Scientific novelty. The paper attempts to comprehensively analyse various hypotheses of the origin of the Russian land using an interdisciplinary approach.

Methodological basis. The principles of historicism and scientific objectivity are used. Comparative-historical, retrospective, cartographic and statistical methods are used.

Theoretical basis. The works of such scientists as: Bekasova E.N., Ionaitis O.B.

Theoretical and practical significance. The work generalises the accumulated knowledge on the topic, contributes to the study of the problem. The materials can be used in the preparation of generalising works, textbooks.

Structure of the work. The work consists of an introduction, theoretical part, conclusion and list of used sources.

Introduction 3

Where did the russian land come from? 5

Conclusion 11

References 12

Appendix 14