Could the Rus Germanize the Eastern Slavs instead of being assimilate into them.
They are Germanic . I wasn't sure what ized to use.AFAIK, the "Rus" were supposedly Scandinavians (Swedes?), not Germans so how "Germanization" got into the picture.
AFAIK, the "Rus" were supposedly Scandinavians (Swedes?), not Germans so how "Germanization" got into the picture. As for the rest, these Scandinavians were neither numerous enough (and you'd need a LOT of them to make a demographic impact on territory that big) nor dominating (militarily/economically, etc.) enough to accomplish such a task. They did add something to the local culture but other than that their assimilation was inevitable.
For your purpose you need something like "Baltic Crusades" on the steroids in the terms of the numbers of the German-speakers moving into the area (controlled by the Swedish rulers so why would they need the Germans?), which simply was not realistic in IX - X centuries. Besides, the Rurikid dynasty did not have an absolute control over its "empire": a lot of power remained in the hands of the natives and even in Kiev "veche" (assembly of the citizens) was powerful enough to overthrow more than one ruler. In general, situation was closer to one in Bulgaria (the invaders made a pact with the local tribes) then to the Norman England ("perfect" conquest with the local resistance crushed).
BTW, a noticeable part of the native population of what became "Rus" were not Slavs, but the Finnish tribes, like Meria, Muroma, Meschera, Cheremisi, etc., colonized and assimilated with the Slavs within framework of the "Rurikid Empire".
In this context germanization come from Germanic rather than German. I also agree that it's extremely unlikely that it would happen. But it's not impossible.
The best way for it to happen is a you say increase the number of settlers. Away to do this would be if England fell earlier, which would mean Danish surplus population had to find a new target of settlement.
If it did happen it would have interesting consequence, Scandinavia would likely go Orthodox rather than Catholic,
Scandinavian culture would also end up dominated by the Rus in the long term, while Slavic culture would also be significant change without the Russian big brother.
For Russia a major benefit would also be when it began to expand eastward, it would be far more natural for Scandinavians to migrate to Russia than it was for the Western Slavs (it easier to go from Copenhagen to Caspian Sea than from Lesser Poland). Which means Russia would have access to a greater number of settlers.
I asked a similar question a while back, still ticked everyone focused exclusively on linguistic matters rather than what I actually asked.
Where there any Old Norse settlements that didn't assimilate to one degree or another?
England seems where they assimilated the least considering the effect they had on the language.