Wikipedia: Rus' Khaganate

Kälvesten Runestone 

"The Rus' Khaganate was a polity that flourished during a poorly documented period in the history of Eastern Europe, roughly the late 8th and early-to-mid-9th centuries AD. A predecessor to the Rurik Dynasty and the Kievan Rus', the Rus' Khaganate was a state, or a cluster of city-states, set up by a people called Rus', who might have been Norsemen in what is today northern Russia. The region's population at that time was composed of Baltic, Slavic, Finnic, Turkic and Norse peoples. The region was also a place of operations for Varangians, eastern Scandinavian adventurers, merchants and pirates."
Read the full Wikipedia article.

Vikings – the Rus – Varangians

Courtesy Medievalists.net:
"The Viking age in Scandinavia is usually dated from the end of the eighth century to the mid-11th century. Those who came from Scandinavia were called Rus and Varangians by peoples in Eastern Europe. French and Anglo-Saxon chroniclers sometimes divide the Vikings into ‘Danes’, ‘Swedes’ (Svear) and ‘Norsemen’ (Norwegians). In their turn, Arab scribes distinguished between Scandinavians, inhabiting Western Eurorpe, calling them ‘magus’ or al-urmania, and peoples in the east, which they called al-rus." A PDF of the full article, originally published in Historiska nyheter (2004), may be accessed at Academia.edu.

Kvass (Russian Fermented Rye Bread Drink)

"Kvass (kvas, quass) is probably a bit of unusual drink to this part of the globe.

Indeed, if you read ingredients list: dried rye bread, water, sugar and yeast – it probably will not strike you as something delicious. However this is one of soft drinks which is, according to Wikipedia, popular in Eastern Europe countries, especially Russia, since ancient times."

A full recipe, with step-by-step instructions for preparing this traditional Russian drink, may be found here.

The Snow Queen

This story by Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen contains elements very reminiscent of the old sagas and legends. The title character, particularly as portrayed in the 1957 Soviet animated film, shares many characteristics with the Frost Etins. Also, the heroine's name, Gerda, is a variation of Gerd. Gerda ventures to the land of the Snow Queen to free her love Kay from the queen's icy palace. In the original story, Kay has his mind enchanted by splinters from a troll's mirror. In the animated film, his heart is turned icy by splinters from the snow queen's ice mirror, and Gerda hopes to rekindle his love and warm his heart. This is something of a turnabout on the story of Frey striving and succeeding in winning the heart of Gerd, the daughter of a Frost Giant.

Here is a clip from the first cinematic adpatation of the Andersen fairy tale, Snezhnaya koroleva, produced in the USSR in 1957. Per Wikipedia,  it was "later dubbed by Universal Studios with the voices of Sandra Dee as Gerda, Tommy Kirk as Kay and introduced by Art Linkletter. In the 1990s, the film was redubbed again, this time featuring the voices of Kathleen Turner, Mickey Rooney, Kirsten Dunst and Laura San Giacomo." This clip is in the original Russian.