Rurik
the founder of the Russian monarchy; flourished in the 9th century; he is generally considered to have been a Varangian of Scandinavian origin, and to have led a successful invasion against the Slavs of Novgorod about 862. He was assisted by his brothers, to whose territories he afterward succeeded. He died in 879, and his family reigned in Russia till the death, in 1598, of Feodor, son of Ivan the Terrible, when it was succeeded by the house of Romanoff.
Many Russian families still claim a direct descent from Rurik. antlers,