Правящая верхушка Руси по русско-византийским договорам X в.

Труды Института российской истории РАН, Россия. 2013. № 11. С. 19–57.

Stefanovich P.

The author explores the evidence of the treaties of Rus’ with Byzantium of 911, 944 and 971 about the persons who officially represented Rus’ und were in fact its ruling class. These persons are named as “kniaz’ya” and “bo(l)yare” in the Church-Slavonic translations of the treaties (preserved in the “Tale of By-gone Years”). In the Greek originals of the treaties they were probably indicated with one word “arhon”. The author pays much attention to comparison of the evidence from the treaties with some data in the description of the embassy of Rus’ian princess Olga to Constantinople given by the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogentis (the embassy took place in 957). This data also gives some information on the Rus’ian “arhons”. The author comes to the conclusion that the ruling class of Rus’ consisted of 25 noble persons (“arhons” or “arhontisses”) each of whom ruled over some territory within Rus’ but who recognized the supreme power of Kievan princes (“arhons”). These persons represented different clans but the clan of the Kievan “arhons” was represented by several persons.

Keywords: Древняя Русь, правящая элита, Киевская Русь, Kievan Rus', ruling elite, Medieval Rus'