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The Rurik dynasty Рю́риковичи one of Europe's oldest royal houses with numerous existing cadet branches, was a dynasty founded by the Varangian prince Rurik, who established himself in Novgorod around the year 862 AD. The Rurikids were the ruling dynasty of Kievan Rus' (after 862), the successor principalities of Galicia-Volhynia (after 1199), Chernigov, Vladimir-Suzdal, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow, and the founders of the Tsardom of Russia. They ruled until 1598 and the Time of Troubles, following which they were succeeded by the Romanovs.
Russian and Ukrainian historians have debated for many years about the legacy of the Rurikid dynasty. The Russian view, "resting largely on religious-ecclesiastical and historical-ideological claims and on political-juridical theories [was] formulated in Moscow between the 1330's and the late 1850's," and views the Principality of Moscow as the sole heir to the Kievan Rus' civilization.
The Ukrainian nationalist view came into being somewhat later "between the 1840's and the end of the 1930's, and views the Ukrainian descendants of the Rurikid dynasty as its only true successors. The Soviet theory "allotted equal rights to the Kievan inheritance to the Three Slavic peoples, that is the Russians, the Ukrainians, and the Belorussians. . . . continued
from Medlands
The earliest generations of the so-called Rurikid family are reconstructed solely on the basis of the sparse information in the Povest' vremennykh let or 'Tale of the Years of Time', better known as the Primary Chronicle and also sometimes known as Nestor´s Chronicle[1]. As pointed out by Franklin & Shepard[2], the extant manuscripts of the Primary Chronicle which date from the 12th century should not be taken at face value as they must have been compiled from patchy sources of information. It is likely that the compilers exaggerated the role of Rurik's family in the 9th and 10th centuries, in order to establish a lengthy, credible history for the Russian principalities which were flourishing by the 12th century. In particular, the alleged establishment by "Oleg" in 882 of the principality of Kiev should be treated with caution. Nevertheless, the historical existence of Rurik´s supposed son Igor, and Igor´s son Sviatoslav, is corroborated by the De Administrando Imperio of Emperor Konstantinos VII Porphyrogennetos[3], written in the mid-10th century and therefore contemporary with Sviatoslav´s reign.