The initial history of Rus' is full of mysteries that still have no answers. Did the legendary Rurik exist, and was Igor the Old his son? And who then was the famous Prophetic Oleg, the conqueror of the Khazars and Bulgarians? Where did the Russians actually come from in the Dnieper region - from the north or from the south? And is it possible to put an equal sign between them and the Varangians? How and by whom was the Russian state created? The author believes that the answers to these questions, as well as the origins of the modern Russian state, must be sought during the time of the Prophetic Oleg and his successors - the Kyiv princes Igor and Svyatoslav.