VIKINGS AND SLAVS IN WEST FINNISH LANDS

The far-ranging trade routes set up by Vikings, linking northem and central Europe with

remote lands in the South and the East, ran across the lands inhabited by West Finns, Balts and
Slavs. Profits from this trade, although evidently accruing for the large part to the Vikings were
shared by others. Apparently, until at least 850 AD the Viking supremacy over the vast tracts
of eastem Europe was unquestioned. The struggle for power and control of the route was
initiated by Slavs who settled for good in the south of Europe and the middle reaches of the
Dnieper. It is not easy to reconstruct the process which caused the Slavs to seize control over
the southern section of the Dnieper route and what drew their attention to the Baltic. Vague
information in Ruthenian chronicles suggests that the banishment of "the Varangians across the
sea" must have been preceded by an alliance between the Finns and the leaders of armed
Slavonic troops. Presumably, somewhat earlier the Krivichi developed their territorial - and
political organization in the basin of lake Pihkva (Pskovskoye) and in the upper and middle
basin of the Daugava, encompassing indigenous West Finn and Balt communities. The Slavs
had a similar population structure. A consolidation of the settlement groups of Livs, Estonians
and Ladoga Finns imaginably occured at this time, who joined the Slavs in a league against
Scandinavians.
Probably the main reason for the call to the Varangian withdraw was the lackening of trade.
Improvised alliances struck up between the leaders of Finnish and Slavonic armed bands
contributed to the instability and the deterioration of economic situation. On the basis of scant
written information and the growing body of archaeological evidence it would seem that the
arrival of Rurik and his clan followed the agreement between Varangian, Slavonic and Finnish
chieftains. Only the Finns had support from local population, not a weighty factor in the
contemporary social situation. The position of Slavonic chiefs was bolstered by a purposeful
and concentrated Slavonic colonisation on the southern reaches of West Finnish lands which
took place at the tum of the 9th and lOth century. Rurik and his brothers were not successful in
this respect, although there are some indications of an attempt to establish Varangian enclaves
near their domain in the region of lake Ladoga and Belozero. In fact, the Varangians always
showed a tendency to fully adapt to the local environment and to a rapid cultural and linguistic
assimilation at a rate directły proportional to the size ofthe territory. Rurik's successful
expedition on Kiev at the head of a troop primarily madę up of Slavonic and Finnish warriors
sealed the later fate of Varangians who were assimilated by the largely Slavonic population on
the middle Dnieper.

The West Finnish populations remained on the northern periphery of the newly formed

Ruthenian state, free, on the whole, to develop their own political structures. This freedom was
restricted by oniy slightly investigated dependence of Finnish leaders from Ruthenian rulers
and internal social conditions carying from one settiement territory to the next.