Abstract. This article explores the identity of the ancient Russian gods Khors and Dazhdbog. Based on an analysis of written and ethnographic sources, it substantiates the division of these deities into independent pantheon members, offering a «reading» of Khors as a solar deity and identifying his chthonic hypostasis–the night sun (the sun of the dead). The interpretation of Dazhdbog as a solar deity is questioned, and a view is advanced of Khors and Dazhdbog as a pair of deities characteristic of Indo-European beliefs, in which one deity embodies the sun itself, and the other the spring-summer cycle and light. Based on these premises, the Khors-Dazhdbog pair is defined as a phenomenon of the pre-Christian theological system of Ancient Rus' and the Eastern Slavs in general, which, in turn, determines the interpretation of the so-called «Vladimir pantheon» as a reflection of natural religious beliefs.

Key words. Khors, Dazhdbog, paganism, Vladimir`s pantheon, Ancient Rus, Easten Slavs.