The fundamental work "Varangians and Rus" by the remarkable Russian historian and figure of Russian culture Stepan Alexandrovich Gedeonov (1816-1877) was an epoch-making event in the development of the Varangian-Russian question, which until now has no equal in the number of sources attracted and the breadth of coverage of the material. The appearance of this work in 1876 was an event in Russian historical science, it received rave reviews from both like-minded scientists and his Normanist opponents (who abandoned many of their provisions after their criticism by Gedeonov).