The monograph is devoted to the problem of the formation of the Russian state in the geopolitical context of political and ethnocultural processes that took place in Eurasia at the end of the 1st millennium AD. e., starting with the settlement of the Slavs. Particular importance is attached to the study of the historical foundations of the chronicle news about the first Russian princes, starting with the legend of Kie and the calling of the Varangians. The formation of the main phenomena of the initial Russian statehood - cities, state law and cult, art - is considered taking into account the interaction of different ethnocultural traditions in Eastern Europe. The final plot of the book is the choice of faith, the characteristics of initial Russian Christianity and rejected paganism.