Scandinavian origin of Rurik confirmed

**Token** · 05-26-2019, 11:01 AM

Genetic study of the Rurik Dynasty
Volkov V.G., Seslavin A.N.
Tomsk State Pedagogical University, Tomsk, Russia

The Rurikids are one of the oldest dynasties of Europe and presently living descendants of Rurik can be found in various locations across the globe. In 2006 and initiated by a group of historians and genetic genealogists the “Rurikid Genome” project was started with candidates being sellected (based on their documented genealogy as being descendants of Rurik) to undergo DNA testing. From 2006 until 2017 over 40 DNA samples were obtained from living members of the Rurikid Dynasty and processed, the results grouped the participants into 3 haplogroups (N1c1, R1a1, and I2a1). The group that had the highest frequency and was also the most interrelated was the group belonging to subclade N-Y4339 (40%) represented by the following genealogical lines (Massalsky, Puzyna, Lobanov-Rostovsky, Khilkov, Gagarins, Putyatin, Rzhevsky, Tatishchev, Kropotkin, and Shakhovsky).
The DNA samples of these genealogical lines of Rurikid underwent extensive sequencing of the Y chromosome (BigY test) in the laboratories of Family Tree DNA in Houston (USA), and the eventual results establishing the degree of paternal kinship.
Within the haplogroup N-Y4339 there is a common SNP shared by all the Rurikid group, that being Y10931 and while the presences of certain SNP’s convincingly show that at the Rurikid group N-Y10931 is divided into three branches. One is determined by SNPs VL15, VL16, VL17 and VL18 (princes Massalsky and Puzyna), the second - VL11 (princes Lobanov-Rostovsky, Gagarin and Putiatin) and the third - VL12 (princes Kropotkin and Shakhovski, Rzhevsky and Tatishchev).
The extensively sequenced data clearly shows an extremely accurate correlation between the distribution of distinctive mutations within the different groups of Rurik’s descendants and the traditional documented pedigree of Rurikid. It testifies that the documentary genealogy of Rurikid as a whole truly reflects the real interreleted genetic structure of the participants within the study.
A separate issue for consideration is the genetic origin of the whole group of Rurikid N-Y10931, i.e. connection to a common ancestor of this group with certain geographic regions. The genetic lineage of N-Y10931 is derived from the subclade N-Y4339, and distrubition of this subclade is primarily found in Sweden (52%) followed by Finland (14%) Russia (10%), Britain (10%) with a smaller frequency in Norway (5%) and Ukraine (5%).
The phylogenetic tree convincingly shows that the origin of the lineage N-Y4339 is in the territory of Sweden, and that the closest to Rurikid are the representatives of the lineage N-Y85136, whose ancestors lived in the Uppsala region of Sweden.
In general, the genetic data indicates that the most likely region of residence of the closest paternal ancestors of Rurik to be in the territory of Sweden.
Thus, the genetic data fully confirms the historical accounts of the early Russian chronicles about the Scandinavian origin of Rurik.