The land was already settled by slavic and finnic tribes, whose experience of this is lost to us. The norse made their own settlements and assumed rule over the

The land was already settled by slavic and finnic tribes, whose experience of this is lost to us. The norse made their own settlements and assumed rule over the existing groups. Eventually the norse and finnic groups had more or less fully assimilated with each other and into the local slavic population forming the rus'.