text: Anti-Normanism A direction in Russian pre-Soviet, Soviet and post-Soviet historiography, whose supporters deny the role of the Scandinavians in the creation of the Rus' state or deny at all any participation of the Scandinavians (Normans) in the socio-political life of Rus'; reject and seek to refute the "Norman theory" of the creation of the Kievan Rus'. Anti-Normanist historians denied the Scandinavian (Old Norse) origin of the name Askold. Anti-Normanism includes a wide range of concepts and hypotheses, the common features of which are the denial of the essentiality of the influence of the Scandinavians on the political and economic processes of the formation of ancient Rus' and the advancement of alternative Norman hypotheses.
  A number of late medieval sources, among them the Kievan Synopsis (1674), report that Oskold was the last representative of the local dynasty of Prince Kyi. Referring to these annalistic evidences, Aleksey Shakhmatov considered the fact of the Slavic origin of Prince Oskold beyond doubt. Among the researchers of the 20th century this idea was shared by professor Mikhail Tikhomirov, and professor Rybakov, in confirmation of the Slavic origin of the prince, the name Oskold derived from the name of the river Oskil, and therefore in his opinion it would be correct to use not "Askold", but exactly "Oskold", as it is found in the Old Rus' chronicles (or "Oskolod" – as indicated in the Nikiforov Chronicle of the 15th century, Suprasl Chronicle of the 16th century or medieval Polish chronicle of Maciej Stryjkowski). But these conclusions are biased as they are part of the Anti-Normanism sentiment.
  Historian F. Donald Logan wrote:
  According to the historian and archaeologist L. S. Klein, the "Norman theory", "Normanism" never existed as a scientific concept, while Anti-Normanism exists, but is primarily an ideological platform based on an inferiority complex. Anti-Normanism is distinctive for Russia.
  Origins of Askold and Dir