The Legend of Sloven and Rus

Lore & Background

The Legend recalls stories from the times of Herodotus and Diodorus of Sicily about the origin of the Scythian people. The ancestors of the Russian people are named to be the princes Slovene and Rus – the descendants of Prince Skif. According to this legend, in 3099 from the creation of the world (2409 BC), Slovene and Rus along with their families left their lands on the shores of the Black Sea in search of new ones, and after 14 years, they came to Lake Moisko (Ilmen), where Slovene established the city of Slovensk (modern Veliky Novgorod), and Rusa – the city of Rus (modern Staraya Russa).

The Legend gives explanations for hydronyms and place names in the Novgorod region from the names of the relatives of Slovene and Rus, mentions the resettlement of the Slavs at that time to the White Sea and the Urals, and military campaigns against Egypt, Greece and other 'barbarian' countries. It also narrates various mythical or legendary episodes about the history of Slavs, including negotiations of Russian princes with Alexander the Great, the visit to Russia by the Apostle Andrew, wars with Ugrians and Bulgarians, the reign of Prince Gostomysl, and the calling of the Varangians. The Legend repeats the popular legend of the origin of Rurik from the Roman emperor Augustus, and says he was invited to rule from the territory of Prussia.

Reader's Guide

The Legend of Sloven and Rus was widely spread in the Moscow state in the 17th to 18th centuries, with its retelling or similar information contained in the Ioachim Chronicle, the works of P. N. Krekshin, M. V. Lomonosov, V. N. Tatishchev and others. Historians including N. M. Karamzin, N. I. Kostomarov and other domestic historians commented on the legend. The plot was used in the tale of V. A. Lyovshin, The Story of the Bogatyr (1780–1783).

Up to now, more than 100 transcriptions of The Legend have been discovered, dated mainly in the second half of the 17th century, including in the annals of Patriarch Nikon of 1652–1658, the Chronograph of 1679, the Novgorod Third Chronicle, the Mazurinsky Chronicle of Isidor Snazin, and the Novgorod Zabelinska and Pogodinsky Annals. Historians A. Lavrentev and E. S. Galkina suggest that The Legend was compiled by the founder of the Siberian chronicle, Metropolitan Cyprian (1626–1634), although versions about the migrations of Slovene and Rus were known long before the 17th century. Arab-Persian authors from the 12th century cited tales of Rus and Slavs using the eponyms Rus and Slav, and the Byzantine author Simeon Logofet mentions Rus as the ancestor of the Russian people in the 10th century.

Did You Know?

• More than 100 transcriptions of The Legend have been discovered, mainly from the second half of the 17th century.
• The Legend names Slovene and Rus as descendants of Prince Skif, linking them to Scythian origins.
• The plot of The Legend was used in V. A. Lyovshin's tale The Story of the Bogatyr (1780–1783).
• Historians A. Lavrentev and E. S. Galkina suggest the legend was compiled by Metropolitan Cyprian (circa 1626–1634), though the identity and dates of this Cyprian remain uncertain.

Authorship & Textual History

This late chronicle legend surfaced in more than a hundred transcriptions, the vast majority dating to the latter half of the seventeenth century. The text appears across a remarkable spread of sources: the annals compiled under Patriarch Nikon between 1652 and 1658, the Chronograph of 1679, the Novgorod Third Chronicle, the Mazurinsky Chronicle of Isidor Snazin, the Novgorod Zabelinska, and the Pogodinsky Annals. Contemporary scholarly editions most often draw on the 1679 Chronograph list. As for who actually put the legend together, historians A. Lavrentev and E. S. Galkina point to Metropolitan Cyprian, who served from 1626 to 1634 and is credited as the founder of the Siberian chronicle. Yet the core migration tales involving Slovene and Rus circulated well before Cyprian's time, meaning the seventeenth-century manuscripts represent a crystallization of much older oral and written traditions rather than an original invention.

Narrative Architecture & Mythological Roots

The legend deliberately anchors itself in the classical world, invoking the accounts of Herodotus and Diodorus of Sicily regarding the Scythian people. Within this framework, the ancestors of the Russian people are identified as two princes, Slovene and Rus, both descended from a figure named Prince Skif. The narrative places their departure in the year 3099 by the creation-of-the-world reckoning, which corresponds to 2409 BC. After a fourteen-year journey, the two brothers and their families arrive at Lake Moisko, identified with Ilmen. Slovene founds the city of Slovensk, equated with modern Veliky Novgorod, while his brother Rusa establishes the city of Rus, linked to present-day Staraya Russa. Beyond this founding episode, the text offers etymological explanations for local hydronyms and place names in the Novgorod region, attributing them to relatives of the two princes. It also describes Slavic resettlement reaching as far as the White Sea and the Urals, and records military campaigns directed against Egypt, Greece, and other lands the text labels barbarian.

Predecessor Traditions & Cross-Cultural Echoes

Although the legend reached its most complete written form in the seventeenth century, the eponymous pairing of Rus and Slav has deep roots stretching across multiple cultures and centuries. Arab-Persian writers as early as the twelfth century referenced tales about Rus and Slavs using the very eponyms Rus and Slav. In the West Slavic sphere, the Czech epic tradition from the fourteenth century features a parallel triad of Lech, Czech, and Rus (Mech), suggesting a shared mythological grammar. The Byzantine chronicler Simeon Logofet, writing in the tenth century, already named Rus as the ancestor of the Russian people. Medieval authors in various periods also retroactively connected the Rus to earlier historical events, sometimes reaching back to the fourteenth century. These scattered references demonstrate that the Slovene-and-Rus narrative was not an isolated invention but part of a broad, multilingual tradition of origin mythology that predated and fed into the Russian chronicle tradition.

Legacy & Cultural Afterlife

The legend's influence extended well beyond its original chronicle context. Throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it circulated widely within the Moscow state, with its plot or closely related material appearing in the Ioachim Chronicle and in the works of several prominent intellectuals, including P. N. Krekshin, M. V. Lomonosov, and V. N. Tatishchev. Major historians of the Russian tradition, such as N. M. Karamzin and N. I. Kostomarov, devoted commentary to the text, treating it as a significant source for understanding early Slavic self-conception. In the realm of literary creation, the legend's narrative was adapted into V. A. Lyovshin's tale The Story of the Bogatyr, published between 1780 and 1783, demonstrating how the founding myth could be reshaped for a popular readership. The sheer breadth of its reception, from ecclesiastical annals to Enlightenment scholarship to folk-tale literature, testifies to the legend's enduring role as a foundational story for Russian historical imagination.