The article examines an important and urgent issue: place of Kievan Rus in history. 'Kievan Rus' is a conventional name for the first centuries of the East Slavic history (9th-13th centuries), which after the collapse of the USSR has been a bone of contention between scientists from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Whose history? It is the basis of what sort of state? What is its nature? These and many other questions still remain unanswered. Considering historiographical and historical discourses, the author proposes a solution to this problem, the option most appropriate to historical reality and reconciling all parties. Refs 60.