Wikinger und Slawen. Zur Fruhgeschichte der Ostseevolker. Berlin. Akademie-Verlag. 1982. 376 S. Vikings and Slavs. Early History of the Baltic Sea peoples Published by the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, the monograph was prepared by a group of 1 authors from the GDR, Poland, USSR, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark, headed by I. Herrmann. The problem indicated in the title, in pre-revolutionary Russian science, took the form of the antithesis "Varangians-Rus", which remains the cornerstone of Norman concepts in modern bourgeois science. The book under review offers a qualitatively new solution to the problem. Without going to the extremes of anti-Normanism, which is also genetically related to bourgeois historiography2, historians of socialist countries, and first of all I. Herrmann (who owns the main part of the text), oppose it and Normanism with the only correct approach: an objective and multidimensional study of Slavic-Scandinavian relations based on the analysis of an extensive set of data (primarily archaeological). Based on concrete historical material, the book reveals the patterns of transition from primitive communal to feudal life.- 1 Authors: V. Gensel, I. Herrmann, O. Klindt-Jensen, K. Libgot, E. Nielen, E. Roesdal, B. A. Rybakov, V. V. Sedov, V. Holmqvist, A. Erya-Esko. 2 Shaskolsky I. P. Normannskaya teoriya v sovremennoi bourzhuaznoi nauke [The Norman Theory in modern Bourgeois Science]. Antinormanism and its fates. In: Genesis and Development of feudalism in Russia, L. 1983. page 153 shga in interconnected regions of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. I. Herrmann gives a completely correct statement of the problem: "Slavs and Normans in the early history of the Baltic peoples". The word "Normans" in this case more accurately conveys the meaning of the German Wikinger - with a distinct ethnic coloring. Considering the genesis of early medieval pre-state communities and their cultures against a broad historical background, the a ... Read more