Стаття присвячена проблемі етнічної історії Київської Русі.
Проблема этнической истории Киевской Руси постоянно привлекает внимание исследователей. Трудная сама по себе, тема эта нередко становится заложницей политических и национальных амбиций, попыток утвердить постулат неизменности этнической ситуации от раннего средневековья до наших дней. Осовременивание прошлого приводит к тому, что «украинские» Киев и Киевская Русь противопоставляются «русскому» Владимиру и Северо-Восточной Руси, или «белорусскому» Полоцку.
В результате исследования удалось придти к следующим выводам.
I. В пределах государственной территории Киевской Руси в течение IX—XII вв. сложилась относительно единая восточно-славянская этническая общность.
2. Ядром этой общности была Русь в узком значении этого слова, или «Внутренняя Русь», по терминологии иностранных источников. В позднем средневековье регион этот получил название «Малой Руси».
3. Народ, его государство и территория расселения в IX—XII вв. имели единое название «Русь».
Ethnic history of the Kiev Rus is a subject of incessant interest for researchers. Difficult as it is, this topic is often a hostage of political and national ambitions, of attempts to allege a postulate on invariability of ethnic situation from the early Middle Ages till the present. Modernization of the past leads to contraposition of the «Ukrainian» Kiev and Kiev Rus to «Russian» Vladimir and North—Eastern Rus or to «Byelorussian» Polotsk. An unprejudiced analysis of sources convincingly demonstrates that consolidation processes were typical of ethnic development of east Slavs already at the prestate period. Local distinctions being apparent, east Slavs of the 6th i—8th cent, were undoubtedly a single ethno-cultural massif that embraced about 15 unions of related tribes. F. Engels gave name «narodtsy» to Schwabes, langobards, aquitans and other tribal communities of West Europe which were approximately at the same stage of ethnopolitical development as east Slavs. The same ethnic determination may be given to east Slavonic groups of tribes.
When elucidating the level of ethnic community of east Slavs it is necessary to have in mind the following notes from chronicles:
1) some east Slavonic unions of tribes got their names according to the place of their settlement: «Prozvavsbasya imeny svoimi, gde sedsbe na kotorom meste» («they got their names according to the places where they lived»);
2) all of them had a single language which discriminated them from other peoples: «А se sut’ inii yazytsi» («And those are other languages»);
3) each group of east Slavs had its own specific ethnographic properties: ’Imyakhu bo obychai svoi: zakon otets svoikh i predaniya» (They had their own habits and tales and obey laws of their fathers»).
At the stage of formation of state «Rus» the process ot integration of east—Slavonic tribes has gained a considerable acceleration. Its typical property was dynamization of the internal migration. Archaeological and literature sources testify, in particular, to mutual penetration of polyane to the left Dnieper side iand severyane to the right side. The same with drevlyane and dregovichi in the Pripyat river basin and with dregovichi and volynyane in the West Bug territory. The Slavonic Novgorodshchina (the Novgorod territory) was colonized from southern lands of east Slavs, though western Slavs migrated there as well. An intensive flow of migrants from north to South Rus which involved also representatives of nonslavonic (Baltic and Ugroi—Finnish) population was observed in the 9th-10th cent. Tiurk-language tiurks, pechenegs, black klobuks integrated to the state structure of Rus on its south and south-east.
At the end of the 9th cent, and early 10th cent, the name «Rus» is affirmed for all east Slavs as a new one. It equally belonged to the country and to the people inhabited it. Texts of agreements between the Kiev Rus and Byzantine and of other papers contain such words as «Rus», «Russian Land», «Russian towns», «We are of the Russian origin», «Russian embassadors», «Russian peoples», «Rusin», that undoubtedly, confirms an active process of formation of the single Russian people. In the 11th-12th cent the name «Rus» is extended to all the territory of the east-slavonic state space and becomes the only ethno-determining one.
The study permits concluding the following:
1. Within the limits of the Kiev Rus state territory a relatively single east-slavonic ethnic community was formed during the 9th and 12th cent.
2. The core of this community was Rus, in a narrow meaning of this word, or «Internal Rus» as to terminology of foreign sources. In the late Middle Ages this region was given the name «Malaya Rus» («Small Rus»).
3. The people, state and territory that people inhabited in the 9th-12th cent, had a single name «Rus».
