Prophetic Oleg in tradition and historiography

Prince Oleg the Prophet (869-912) is known as the founder of Kievan Rus. But his biography is far from as unambiguous as it may seem at first glance. This is due to the limited number of sources that tell about the life of this prince, and the essential differences between the views of modern historians.

Prophetic Oleg in the legend

According to the chronicle legend, the appearance of Oleg on the Slavic lands is connected with the "vocation of the Varangians". In one of the chronicles he is called Prince of Urman (Norman). In legend, Prophetic Oleg is called either the brother-in-law of Prince Igor, or nephew of Rurik. Chronicles say that when he died, Rurik made Oleg a regent with his son Igor.

Oleg began his reign in Novgorod. Chronicles tell us that he was engaged in town planning and conquered neighboring nations. In Novgorod, Oleg reigned from 869 to 872, after which he began to move to the south. First he conquered Smolensk, and then Lyubech. In these cities Oleg planted governors. The prince himself moved further to the south, until he reached Kiev, where at that time Askold and Dir were ruling . According to the chronicles, Oleg lured them out of the city and killed them. After that, he turned Kiev into a capital (882), dubbed him "the mother of Russian cities."

The board in Kiev Oleg began with the strengthening of the south-eastern border, where he built a number of towns and small towns. Then he began conquering lands east and west of the Dnieper. Conquering the Drevlyans, Radimichs, Northerners, Dulebes, Croats and Tivertians, Oleg significantly expanded the boundaries of Kievan Rus. And in 907 he went on a campaign to Constantinople. Chronicle of the story of this campaign raises the courage and cunning of the prince. The frightened Greeks concluded a peace agreement with Oleg. The prince, the victorious Greeks, began to be called the Prophet (wise, knowing). In 911 Oleg sent an embassy to Byzantium, which concluded a new treaty. According to legend, the prince dies in 912 from the bite of a poisonous snake.

Prophetic Oleg in Historiography

Some modern historians believe that Prophetic Oleg was a Norwegian, and some even identify him with Odd from the Norwegian sagas. In particular, there is an opinion that the name Oleg is a transcription of the word "Helgi", which denotes the native of Helgaland (Norway). Other scholars believe that "Helgi" is translated as "holy" or "prophetic." Historians never came to an agreement on who Oleg Veschy was. Biography calls him a prince, a boyar, then an ordinary Varangian druzhinnik.

Even more controversy is the sudden death of Oleg. Thus, part of the researchers, based on the Khazar document of the 10th century, believes that the Khazars defeated the Kiev prince and forced him to commit another attack on Tsargrad. But the campaign was unsuccessful, and Oleg fled to Persia, where he was soon killed. The scientists are sure that the Russian chroniclers did not know what happened to the prince, therefore they placed in their chronicles the poetic story of Oleg's death, connected with his beloved horse and snake. As for the opinions of individual historians, the Polish Slavic scholar G. Lovmiansky believed that Oleg's initial rule in Novgorod was doubtful, and the Ukrainian historian N. Kostomarov argued that this prince was a "fairy-tale person" and not a historical figure.