The matter of placing Russia in a cultural and historical context has ever since Peter the Great´s reforms in the 17th century permeated the country´s philosophical and historiographical evolution. Nowhere has this been as clear cut and caustic as the question of Norse influence in Viking-age Russia. In tandem with every major historiographical and political transition in Russia, archaeologists, philosophers and politicians alike have been forced to reassess the role of the Norse seafarers, Varangians, in the wider cultural and political development of the Russian state. Previous research has in this regard predominantly focused on the archaeology of the Varangians without considering the consequences of Russia´s political upheavals and its direct impact on the archaeological research itself. Thus, rooted in the ambition to examine the reciprocity between archaeology and politics, this essay explores how Russia´s political history has influenced the archaeological research regarding the Varangians. What his essay has tried to demonstrate, by investigating Russia's political development from the late 17th century to the modern-day in conjunction with the politically entrenched archaeology, is thus the occurrence of an ever-shifting archaeological attitude towards the Varangians.