Scandinavian colonists, having settled Aldeigja (Ladoga) in the 750s, have played an important role in the early ethnogenesis of the Rus' people and in the formation of the Rus' Khaganate, the origins of which are unclear.
The first Norse settlers of the region had arrived in the lower basin of the Volkhov River in the mid-eighth century.
The country comprising the present-day Saint-Petersburg, Novgorod, Tver, Yaroslavl, and Smolensk regions becomes known in Old Norse sources as "Garðaríki", the land of forts.
Dendrochronology suggests that Staraya Ladoga, a trading post located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, eight kilometers north of the present own of Volkhov, was founded in 753.
Old (staraya means "old") Ladoga's inhabitants are Norsemen, Finns, and Slavs, hence different names for the city.
The original Finnish name, Alode-joki (i.e., "lowland river"), is rendered as "Aldeigja" in Norse language and as "Ladoga" in Old East Slavic.
A multiethnic settlement, it is dominated by Scandinavians who are called by the name of Rus and for this reason it is sometimes called the first capital of Russia.
