Lyubsha is an archaeological site situated on the right bank of the Volkhov

Volkhov

Volkhov is an industrial town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated east of St. Petersburg, on the Volkhov River. Population: -History:...

, about 1,500 metres downstream from Staraya Ladoga

Staraya Ladoga

Staraya Ladoga , or the Aldeigjuborg of Norse sagas, is a village in the Volkhovsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the Volkhov River near Lake Ladoga, 8 km north of the town of Volkhov. The village used to be a prosperous trading outpost in the 8th and 9th centuries...

. As was established by the 1993 excavations, Lyubsha is the site of the earliest Varangian fort in Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, established in the first half of the 8th century, thus predating Ladoga. Its layout and dimensions closely resemble the contemporaneous hill fort

Hill fort

A hill fort is a type of earthworks used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages. Some were used in the post-Roman period...

s of Great Moravia

Great Moravia

Great Moravia was a Slavic state that existed in Central Europe and lasted for nearly seventy years in the 9th century whose creators were the ancestors of the Czechs and Slovaks. It was a vassal state of the Germanic Frankish kingdom and paid an annual tribute to it. There is some controversy as...

.

The fortress was destroyed by fire towards the end of the 9th century. Constantine Zuckerman

Constantine Zuckerman

Constantine Zuckerman is a French-Jewish historian and Professor of Byzantine studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris.-Biography:...

 connects its destruction with a conflict (Vadim

Vadim the Bold

Vadim the Bold was a legendary chieftain of the Ilmen Slavs who led their struggle against Rurik and the Varangians in the 9th century.According to the Nikon Chronicle, an historic 16th century Russian chronicle that covered events of 859–1520 CE, the Novgorodians broke into rebellion against...

's uprising) that marked the downfall of the Rus' Khaganate

Rus' Khaganate

Rus' khaganate is a historiographical term for the formative phase of the Rus state in the 9th century AD....

. The Norse name of Lyubsha is unknown.

Immediately north of Lyubsha lies the village of Gorchakovshchina, which used to be a trading post at the head of navigation on the Volkhov, near its ancient entry into Lake Ladoga

Lake Ladoga

Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, not far from Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake in Europe, and the 14th largest lake by area in the world.-Geography:...

. Dmitry Machinsky

Dmitry Machinsky

Dmitry Alexeyevich Machinsky is a leading Russian archaeologist. He lives in Saint Petersburg and works in the Hermitage Museum. Machinsky is particularly well known for having excavated Lyubsha and other Viking settlements along the Volkhov River...

 ranks it, along with Ladoga and Alaborg

Alaborg

Álaborg or Áluborg is the name of a Varangian fort mentioned in the Norse sagas about Halfdan Eysteinsson and Hrolf Ganger. The first saga indicates that it was possible to sail from Aldeigjuborg to Alaborg northward by sea, but a more rapid and practicable way was by land eastward...

, among the most important centres of the khaganate.