Summary

     This work offers a hypothesis on the history of the ancient «Rus», which is seen as a military and trading body, a heir of the syncretistic Jewish-Hellenic religious brotherhoods that formed the military and administrative elite of the Bosporian kingdom. Its name, the «Rus», has originated from the Hebrew 
word « ,» applied to the Hellenized Jews since the time of 
Maccabees. 
     The «Rus» has founded the so called «Russian Kaganat» in Tmutarakan on the Taman peninsula. Its multicentury activity on trading routes of the Eastern Europe has enhanced the economical, cultural, and political conditions for the origin of the Kievan state. Having organized the new Slavic state, the Rus - «» (Russia) became its elite. 
     This hypothesis has the strong points of both the «Norman» and «Slavic» theories, is supported by the archaeological data, historical documents and toponymy, It allows to explain: 
     1. The origin of the term «Ros - Rus - Russia». 
    

2. The constant contrasting of the Rus and Slavs in all the written sources 
till the XI c. 
     3. The relationship between the terms: «Varangian» and «Rus». 
     4. The most ancient mentions of the «Rus» near the Black Sea. 
     5. A «squad-like» character of the Kievan state. 
     6. The vast experience of the Rus in seafaring and international trade. 
     7. Some obscure points in the ancient documents and Russian folklore 
(e. g. the idols of the «Vladimir's pantheon», the names of «Safed» or «Israi» given to the Dniper, and so on).