Raffenberger K, The Kingdom of Rus. Ancient Rus through the Eyes of Western Historians

The first part of the book is an analysis of the latest Anglo-American literature on the problems of Ancient Rus statehood from the mid-IX to the early-XII century, which is little known not only to the general Russian reader but also to specialists in this field, as it has never been published in Russia. Russian historian A. V. Fedosov examines the most notable works of Anglo-American authors published from the early 1970s to the present. The directions of development of modern Russian studies and its scientific achievements are defined. The second part is a translation of the work "The Kingdom of Rus" by Professor Christian Raffenberger from Wittenberg University (USA) - one of the authoritative modern researchers of Ancient Rus. The main idea of the book is the thesis that Rus, at least until the XIII century, was an integral part of the common European socio-cultural and political community due to dynastic unions, cultural contacts, religious interactions, etc. The author's original view on the problem of the titulature of Ancient Rus rulers and its analogies with Western European titles is presented.