BIOGRAPHY
Rurik (also known as Riurik or Rörek) was born about 835. He was a Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Ryurik dynasty which ruled Kievan Rus and then Russia until the 16th century. According to the 12th-century Russian _Primary Chronicle,_ Ryurik was one of the Rus, a Varangian tribe likened by the chronicler to Danes, Swedes, English and Gotlanders. In the 20th century, archaeologists partly corroborated the chronicler's version of events. It was discovered that the settlement of Ladoga, whose foundation has been ascribed to Ryurik, was actually established in the mid-8th century. Earthenware, household utensils, and types of buildings from the period of Ryurik's rule correspond to patterns then prevalent in Jutland.

There is a debate over how Ryurik came to control Ladoga and Novgorod. The only information about him is contained in the _Primary Chronicle,_ which stated that Chuds, Slavs, Merias, Veses and Krivichs '... drove the Varangians back beyond the sea, refused to pay them tribute, and set out to govern themselves'. Afterwards the tribes started fighting each other and decided to invite Ryurik to re-establish order.

Some Slavic historians argue that the account of Ryurik's invitation was borrowed by a pro-Scandinavian chronicler from a hypothetical Norse document. For instance, the _Primary Chronicle_ states that Ryurik arrived to Slavic lands with his two brothers, Sineus and Truvor, and sent them to rule the towns of Beloozero and Izborsk, respectively. Instead of connecting Sineus to Signjotr and Truvor to Torvald, they suggest that the chronicler had read a hypothetical Scandinavian document and misinterpreted the Norse words 'sine hus' (with house) and 'tru voring' (with loyal guard) as the names of Ryurik's brothers (hence 'Sineus' and 'Truvor').

There is another theory that Ryurik, on account of common intermarriages between Varangians and Slavic women, was of mixed Slavic-Varangian descent. This theory is based on the information of the first modern historian of Russia, Vassily Tatishchev, who claimed that Ryurik was of Wendish extraction.

Ryurik remained in power until his death in 879. His successors (the Ryurik dynasty) moved the capital to Kiev and founded the state of Kievan Rus, which lasted until 1240, the time of Mongol invasion. A number of princely families are patrilineally descended from Ryurik, although the last descendant to rule Russia, Vassili IV, died in 1612.