Many people are talking about the Ukrainian war, and a lot of what they are talking about includes Crimea. Who should Crimea belong to? Ukraine, or Russia? Well, technically, Norway is the rightful owner!
Sometime in the 9th century, Norwegian chieftain Rurik, became one of the personal guards of emperor Basil I of Macedonia, that ruled the Byzantine Empire and became one of the so-called Varangians. Rurik got bored, so he moved up river and took control of the area around Staraja Ladoga (Старая Ладога), later built a fortified settlement of Holmgard near Veliky Novgorod, in the 860s, and established a power base there. His nephew, Oleg, moved the centre of the realm to modern day Kyiv, after massacring the ruling class there, that were also probably of Scandinavian descent, in 882. Then, Oleg's son, Sviatoslav I Igorevich, united most of the factions around Kyiv, and in 962 he conquered the Crimean city of Kerch, and took control of Crimea, except for a tiny part around modern day Sevastopol, which was given to Byzantine in exchange for cooperation regarding supplies, called Cherson. Everything went good until the year of 1238, when Mongolian tyrant Batu Khan of the Golden Horde, purged Crimea.
Now we want it back. We must reunite our historical territory and once again merge with our ancestral homeland.