Inter-Princely Vicissitudes of Rus and the Hungarians: Problems and Approaches (Regarding the Book: M.K. Yurasov “Hungary and Russian Principalities in the 12th Century”. St. Petersburg: Petroglyph, Centerfor Humanitarian Initiatives, 2019. 496 p.)

Abstract

The foreign policy of Ancient Rus has rarely attracted the attention of domestic researchers, both of the Soviet and Post-Soviet eras. After the publication of V.T. Pashuto's monograph "Foreign Policy of Ancient Rus'", some of his students paid attention to this topic, but M.K. Yurasov, scientist of the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, approached its Hungarian direction with the greatest care and scrupulousness. The article examines, first of all, his scientific approaches and methodology, which allow questioning and refuting the approaches and concepts of Hungarian scientists who are specialists in this problem. Using Russian-language sources and archaeological data, M.K. Yurasov clearly showed how in the middle of the 12th century there was a gradual devaluation of the foreign policy goals that the Hungarian kings set for themselves regarding Rus. He also pays attention to the history of the ancestors of modern Subcarpathian Rusyns. In his opinion (which is not shared by his Hungarian colleagues), the Eastern Slavs lived on the territory of modern Hungary even before the Magyars themselves settled there. M.K. Yurasov's monograph is currently the most detailed study of Russian-Hungarian relations in the 12th century.