Thus started the history of Russia

Even the history of Russia is covered with mists, what to say about prehistory? As a reminder, period of time covered with written sources is considered a history, time before that is prehistory.

There are written documents covering about a thousand years of Russian history. Before that Western historical science has a sort of vacuum of facts describing what was going on there. For most Western historians it was a place populated by barbarians who were not worth any attention. Something like a big white spot on a map with an inscription, "Here the dragons live." The facts about the territory of Russia before the tenth century are vague and sometimes even more mysterious than a complete absence of facts would be.

One of the closest neighbors of Russia on the northwest were Vikings. Vikings knew the places around. They had seen Britain, France, Italy. Actually, they founded royal families there. They practiced military tourism all across the Europe and beyond it. One country they knew especially well, mostly as a poor choice of place for military tourism. They called it "Gardarika" - "The land of large cities". Not Britain. Not France. Not Italy. That was one of the first historical records of Russia as a country. Definitely barbarians... Really, who else would want to live in large cities? Sure, Americans. See my point?

Thus started the recorded history of Russia. Barbarians, dragons, large cities...