2
Rus’, or Kievan Rus’, is a Slavic state that existed in NE Europe, on the present-day territories of Ukraine, Belorussia and Western Russia, between the 8th and the 14th centuries AC.
3
Targitai is a legendary hero and ancestor of Scythians (mentioned by Herodotus and Diodorus). Koloksai is a legendary prince of Scythia, son to Targitai.
4
The word
5
A legendary northern land described by Herodotus and many other ancient writers. The author identifies it with the territories once occupied by Kievan Rus’ and now belonging to Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia.
6
Justinian I the Great (483–565), Byzantine Emperor in 527–65. His Slavic origin implied by this book is rather a legend than a historical fact.
7
Old Russian name for Constantinople.
8
Scythia is an ancient region of SE Europe and Asia. The Scythian empire, which existed between the 8th and 2nd centuries BC, was centered on the northern shores of the Black Sea and extended from southern Russia to the borders of Persia.
9
An old Russian measure of weight (about 16.4 kg).
10
An old Russian measure of length (about 1.1 km)
11
Khazars are Turkic people who occupied a large part of southern Russia from the 6th to the 11th centuries and who converted to Judaism in the 9th century. The existence and ways of Hazars are entirely the author’s imagination.
12
In fact, Buddha was born in 563 BC and Mahomet in 570 AC.
13
A hint on the well-known in Russia saying by Otto Bismarck, “The Russian man harnesses the horse slowly but drives fast.”
14
The five-pointed star is considered to be a Masonic symbol. Later, it became the official symbol of Communists who put five-pointed stars on the tops of five towers of Moscow Kremlin in 1935-37. Those stars were removed in the 1990s.
15
Old Russian name for Byzantines.
