Editing Askold and Dir (section)

==Facts and records==
The [[Rus'–Byzantine War (860)|Rus' attack on Constantinople]] in June 860 took the Greeks by surprise, "like a thunderbolt from heaven," as it was put by [[Photios I of Constantinople|Patriarch Photios]] in his famous oration written for the occasion. Although the Slavonic chronicles tend to associate this expedition with the names of Askold and Dir (and to date it to 866), the connection remains tenuous. Despite Photius' own assertion that he sent a bishop to the land of Rus' [[First Christianization of Rus'|which became Christianized]] and friendly to Byzantium, most historians discard the idea of Askold's subsequent conversion as apocryphal.[[File:Аскольдова могила.jpg|thumb|[[Askold Grave Church|Church of St. Nicholas]] in the [[Askold's Grave]] park in Kyiv (skretch by [[Taras Shevchenko]], 1846)]]
We may suppose that the names of Rurik and his kin, of Askold and Dir, and of Oleg and Igor' survived in popular legend at Kiev in somewhat the same fashion as the heroes of the later [[Bylina|bÿlinÿ]]. The problem for the author of the Primary Chronicle was to extract from these fragmentary survivals the semblance of an historical account. While there may be some conceivable doubt whether Rurik and his relatives, and possibly Askold and Dir, were actual personages, Oleg and Igor are soundly attested, presumably with dates, by the treaties with the Greeks in which they are mentioned by name.{{Sfn|Nestor|Cross|Sherbowitz-Wetzor|1953|p=34}} So the existence of Askold and Dir should be taken with a pinch of salt, as these two rulers were semi-legendary personalities, and the existence of Rurik should be taken with an even bigger pinch of salt, as he was a legendary personality in history.

A Kievan legend identifies Askold's [[kurgan|burial mound]] with Uhorska Hora (Hungarian hill), where [[Olga of Kiev]] later built two churches, devoted to [[Saint Nicholas]] and to [[Irene of Thessalonica|Saint Irene]]. Today this place on the steep bank of the Dnieper is marked by a monument called [[Askold's Grave]].