https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspian_expeditions_of_the_Rus'
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Constantinople_(860)
Were the people participating in these raids mostly swedish or mostly russian?
Basically all were Slavs;
"Leaving Igor in Kiev, Oleg attacked the Greeks. He took with him a multitude of Varangians, Chuds, Krivichians, Merians, Polianians, Severians, Derevlians, Radimichians, Croats, Dulebians, and Tivercians, who are Tors. All these tribes are known as Great Scythia by the Greeks. With this entire force, Oleg sallied forth by horse and by ship, and the number of his vessels was two thousand." - Rus Primary Chronicle
>>2444365
>mostly russian
Ethnically - let alone nationally - there was no such thing as Russians during this time period. The raiders involved would have been the indecipherable mishmash of Nordic, Turkic, and Balto-Slavic people that composed the pre-Novgorodian khaganates. It's somewhat likely that the people in charge would have been Varangians or at least able to trace their progeniture to the same, however.
>>2444485
Varangians were scandinavians though
>>2444539
> Varangians were scandinavians though
Well, not all of them, as basically all Rus with any Scandinavian ancestry would be counted in them, also they would probably be quite outnumbered by the other listed Slavic soldiers.
>>2444577
> It's also a tricky period for the Croats, because they would have still been in a state of transition from primarily Scythic to primarily Slavic.
Yeah, Croats are quite a weird bunch, they are mentioned everywhere from Ukraine to Germany and then southwards to modern day Croatia and even Greece.
A lot of historians believe that they were some kind of Slavic ruling class of horselords that migrated along however they saw fit.
Heck, the first mention of them in the Roman chroniclers describes them as slaughtering the Avars and even subjugating them. DAI states that even in the mid 10th century, there are subjugated Avars living in Croatia under Croat domination.
White Croatia was most probably a real thing and it quite mysterious;
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/hr/9/9f/Velika_Bijela_Hrvatska_9_st.jpg
In fact, the same Rus Chronicle even mentions the Rus having to go to war with them at one point in what they call the "Croatian war".
Shame the written sources are so few.
>>2445243
This was an relatively early raid though, Rurik and scandinavians were mostly unassimilated by that point
>>2445335
Even so, the Varangians are mentioned among a dozen other peoples.
>>2445243
>Shame the written sources are so few.
Welp, that's what you get for writing everything down on untreated pieces of bark and not bothering to bind it with any sort of more resilient material.
I was in Velikiy Novgorod a few years back, and this archaeologist was practically tearing up just talking about it.
>>2445358
Fair enough, but i seriously don't believe they were outnumbered 100 to 1, i think it would be logical for them being comparatively large in numbers (although not the majority)