When faced with allegations that the Ros called themselves by this name in honor of perhaps their beloved river Rosi or under the impression of the imported nickname Ruotsi from the Finns, which supposedly related to them, it is worth asking the question whether everything is so simple in the self-determination of tribes and peoples or is this a far-fetched simple explanation of the origin of the ethnonym. The version of building a state through the epic efforts of the Normans (or Varangians, or Vikings, or Swedes, or someone else) looks a little more complicated, but it does not eliminate questions, such as, for example, where did the northern state builders get the necessary skills, if their habitat does not take nature was taken into account, there was a village, a community and the corresponding culture. The book contains research, the purpose of which is to try to look at the generally accepted versions of ethnogenesis and history (a negligible part of it) of the Rus, using logic and common sense. This approach does not imply the use of known historical information to harmonize with some mathematical pattern. At the same time, the adopted approach stems from the understanding that sources and channels of information transmission cannot be flawless. To make it more attractive, controversial and therefore interesting to an inquisitive reader versions of episodes in the history of the Russian ethnic group were subjected to research. Episodes related to the origin of the language, name, worldview and state of the once united ethnic community of the ancestors of today's Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.