Rurik

Rurik (died 879) was the Varangian chieftain whom Rus' tradition credits with founding the dynasty that ruled Kievan Rus'. The Primary Chronicle records that East Slavic and Finnic tribes drove the Varangians across the sea but then fell into conflict, and in 862 invited Rurik and his brothers to restore order.

Chronicle manuscripts place his first settlement at Novgorod or Ladoga. After his brothers died he absorbed their lands. On his deathbed he entrusted his young son Igor and his realm to his kinsman Oleg, who later seized Kiev and established Kievan Rus'.