Debate 'Adequately about everything in the world': the current state of the Norman question (28.11.2021)
A conversation between Vitaliy Dribnytsya and a Russian subscriber about historiography. The key passage concerns the current state of the Norman question: why the classical Normanism of the eighteenth century (the incapacity of the Slavs for state formation) has been rejected, how Slavic state formation unfolded from the sixth century, and why today’s debate has narrowed to the mere etymology of the word “Rus’.”
Key moments
- 10:01 Which Russian historians can be read; Froyanov and the city-state concept
- 11:26 The current state of the Norman question: classical Normanism rejected
- 11:38 The essence of 18th-c. Normanism: Bayer, Müller, Schlözer on the 'Slavs' incapacity'
- 11:56 Slavic state formation from the 6th century; the Normans as a 'catalyst'
- 12:17 The debate has narrowed to the origin of the word 'Rus''
- 13:00 The chiefdom as a model of pre-state tribal unions