ELENA, QUEEN OF RUGII". ABOUT THE RIDDLES OF THE BIOGRAPHY OF PRINCESS OLGA
The article examines the mysterious and controversial issues related to the biography of the Kiev princess Olga / Elena: her place of birth, the status of the family from which she could come, the role of the princess in the political history of Russia and the spread of Christianity. Consideration of the totality of Russian, Byzantine and Western European sources shows that the most probable hypothesis is the origin of the princess from a noble (probably tsarist) Bulgarian family. It is also possible that the memory of two different wives of Igor was reflected in the chronicle image of Olga / Elena.