Milestones in the Life of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich: Towards the Reconstruction of the Chronography of Events in the Rurikid Polity of the 930s — early 970s

The paper proposes a reconstruction of the chronological list of internal political events in the chiefdom of the Rurikid lineage in the 930s — 970s and the main milestones in the life of Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich. The study is based on available synchronous documentary and narrative Greek and Latin texts. As an additional source, the texts of old Russian chronicles, written in the mid-11th — early 12th centuries, and respectively late for the history of the 10th century, are used. These records are critically assessed for transformation in historical memory and intentional ideologically motivated distortions. A comparison of these two sets of diverse data allows us to create a basis for interpreting in our own way the most significant segment of the political history of the Rurikid polity. As a result, it turns out that Prince Svyatoslav Igorevich ruled the Rurikid polity for no more than five to seven years, he made two military campaigns — against the Vyatichi and the Bulgarians. No other domestic or foreign policy actions of this leader of Rus’are known; accordingly, any speculation on these topics remains nothing more than guesswork of varying degrees of originality.