“The Scourge of God” - this is how the Vikings were called in Western Europe, drenched in blood and devastated by Varangian raids, horrified by the cruelty and greed of the northern barbarians. On the Slavic lands, the Normans tried to act in the same way - with fire and sword. But here I found a scythe on a stone. How did our princes Burivoy and Gostomysl beat the Varangians? Why was the robber Rurik able to seize power, and the uprising of Vadim the Brave was drowned in blood? How long did the Norman yoke last in Rus' and how did the Vikings disappear into the Slavic sea, turning from invaders into mercenaries in the service of the Russian princes? Answering the most difficult questions, this book proves: the Normans were not the “creators of the Russian state,” but bandits and enslavers, and the whole initial The history of Rus' is the history of the struggle against the Varangian Yoke, which ended in the complete victory of the Slavs!