PreRussia

"The map of the placement of the West Slavic tribal unions of the Bodrichs (Obodrits) and Lyutichs (Velets) in the VIII—X centuries", by Vladislav Matveev (p.n. Trevbus) taken from the website https://commons.wikimedia.org under CC license.

As we see, the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", the Joachim Chronicle and the "Legend of Slovene and Rus" overlap with each other. According to each of them, Russia as a state entity (at least at the level of individual principalities) was actually formed centuries before the arrival of Rurik in 862. Also, all three sources agree that a certain Rurik was invited from across the sea. By origin Rurik is either a Varangian (Viking) or a Prussian, or a Western Slav.

If we suppose that Rurik came from the island of Rujan, then the inconsistencies between the three sources are significantly smoothed out since in this case Rurik is at the same time a Varangian from across the sea and a Slav living near Prussia. Some historians are inclined to this version. In this scenario Eastern Russia simply invited a Varangian (Viking) ruler from Western Russia. Understandably he became "legitimate" in both parts of Russia and therefore was able to unite the Eastern Slavic principalities with some Western ones into a single state.

Примечания