There is an old, forgotten Russian word, kolbyag, used in Ancient Rus' to denote foreigners

There is an old, forgotten Russian word, kolbyag, used in Ancient Rus' to denote foreigners. Which foreigners exactly is not entirely clear: according to one version, the kolbyagi were predominantly of eastern origin.

Such too are the foreigners named in the Russkaya Pravda "Varangians" (Western Europeans) and "kolbyagi" (eastern aliens); in the procedural defence of their rights they even enjoy certain advantages over citizens

writes Vladimirsky-Budanov in his "Survey of Russian Law". Ilovaysky, in "The Beginning of Rus'", remarks:

I allow myself to see here a great misunderstanding: the Yatvingians were surrounded by Slavs and adjoined Lithuania on one side, so their name was by no means invented by the Germans; and by kolbyagi, as can now be said with certainty, were meant the nomadic or semi-nomadic aliens of southern Rus'.

But three other versions point northwards and say that they were either some professional group of Varangians or, in Tatishchev's opinion, representatives of the northern Slavs who came to the Novgorod land, probably from the Pomeranian town of Kolberg. The view that the kolbyagi were merchants of Karelian-Finnish origin also sounds convincing; in that case "kolbyag" may derive from the Scandinavian Kylfingr: kylfa means a club, and Karelia, then Kirjland, the land of the Karelians, may be connected with Kylfingaland, the country of the Kylfings, named after the club. Academician Veselovsky examined this in detail.

In short, like a Varangian, only a kolbyag. There are a great many foreigners in the Russian land now, and there will be still more, so it is time to diversify the vocabulary too.

I propose that authors writing on the subject, and simply anyone who wishes to enrich their lexicon, gradually return this word to circulation. Let us begin to delve into the varieties of kolbyagi: in time it will come in useful.

An engraving of a Chinese escort from the journey of the French naturalist Pierre Sonnerat to China in the late eighteenth century: simply to catch the eye, and to share a beauty on my favourite theme of wanderings.