Russia today is the largest on earth, and
one of the most influential in human history. Despite this, the earliest origins of this
massive nation are often neglected. This is certainly not for lack of interesting
stories, as the cast of people that feature in early Russian history are nothing short
of colourful. Welcome to the first video in our series on
the history of Russia, where we will cover the ancient origins of this most enigmatic
land. By the way a quick aside, I am Devin, the
voice of Kings and Generals, pleased to meet you and this time the video is sponsored by
me. I actually made a turn-based tactics video
game called Godless Tactics and it is out now on Steam. You can explore an exotic future scenario,
pick your own path through an open world of strategic choices and use a team work focused
tactical battle system to resolve your fight. If you are into strategic thinking, do me
a favor and go check it out – link in the description or search “Godless Tactics”
on Steam. Search it on Youtube to find a walkthrough
and see all the details first if you like! For millennia, the grassy plains of the Ukraine
and Southern Russia - the Ponto-Caspian Steppe had been inhabited by a diverse cast of hardy
nomadic people thriving along the Don, Dnieper and Volga rivers. The first written accounts of this land dates
back to classical antiquity of the 7th century BC. During this time, the Steppe was dominated
by various tribes of Iranian origin, the most prominent being the Scythians and Sarmatians. The Ancient Greeks, who had a smattering of
cities along the shore of the Black Sea, recorded stories about the nomads lived to the north. Herodotus relates a tale that the Scythians
were born of a union of the demigod Hercules and a Serpent-Woman. Meanwhile, the Sarmatians were known for the
legendary strength of their women, and therefore were considered a product of a mixing between
the Scythians and mythical Amazonian warriors. More historically reliable accounts describe
these Iranic pastoralists as a sturdy people, who lived and died upon the backs of their
steeds, subsisting on horse milk and meat, while enjoying the pleasures of psychoactive
herbs and undiluted wines. For centuries, their domination of the steppe
would be near unchallenged, but further to the north, a young and ambitious tribe was
finding its bearings. These, of course, were the Slavs. The true origins of the Slavs are shrouded
in mystery. The earliest written accounts of their existence
come from Roman sources. In the first century AD, the Senator and Historian
Tacitus described a tribe he called the “Venedi”, a people who lived primarily along the Vistula
river. Tacitus noted that they built homes, carried
shields, and fought unmounted, distinguishing them from their nomadic Sarmatian neighbours. Dismissed as yet another barbarian people
by the classical civilizations, the Venedi were most likely the progenitors of all of
today’s Slavic nations. For centuries these Proto-Slavs were hemmed
in by their powerful Celtic and Germanic neighbours to the West, and Scytho-Sarmatians to the
South. This changed between the 4th and 6th centuries
as great migration took place, with the Huns and various Germanic peoples migrating into
the borders of the collapsing Western Roman Empire. Broadly speaking, this enormous shift migration
allowed the early Slavs to expand beyond their original homeland in all directions. By then the Venedi had diffused into numerous
distinct branching tribes. Some tribes crossed the Danube into Eastern
Roman territory, seizing lands for themselves in the Balkans and becoming the forebears
of the South Slavs. Some tribes ventured westward into the domain
of the Avars. There they carved a home for themselves and
became the eventual predecessors of the Western Slavs. Most important to our story are the tribes
whose went eastwards into modern Ukraine. The Scythians and Sarmatians, who for centuries
had dominated the steppe, were weakened by centuries of war with the Goths, Romans and
Huns. The Proto-Slavs sunk their roots into this
unstable region, eventually assimilating the last remnants of these ancient peoples. While we know little of this eastern migration,
it is evident that in the following decades, Slavic peoples would continue to expand across
much of modern Ukraine, Belarus and central-western Russia, intermixing with various clans of
indigenous Finno-Ugrics and Baltic peoples, the ancestral cousins of Lithuanians, Latvians,
Estonians and Finns. By 750AD, the Eastern Slavs occupied land
from Lake Ladoga in the North, to the coast of the Black Sea. While they shared a common language and culture,
the Eastern Slavs were not politically united, divided into many tribes that operated on
complex kinship ties. They tended to avoid the high ground, settling
along rivers and lakes where water was abundant. There they built Strongholds with enclosed
earth and timber ramparts, wooden walls and an external ditch. These bastions were often surrounded by various
peripheral villages which provided grain and livestock. Not much is known about the native religion
of the early Slavs, other than that they held to a pantheon of Gods resembling those of
their Indo-European cousins. The most well attested to of these is Perun,
their God supreme, wielder of thunder and lord of the sky. His eternal foe was Veles, ruler of the underworld,
associated with magic, shamanism and sorcery. There were of course many other deities, embodying
fertility, fire, and the passing seasons, among other things. Pagan Slavs saw their Gods as tied intrinsically
with the untamed wilderness in which they lived, and built their shrines in Oaken groves. It should be noted that early Slavic society
is reconstructed primarily through later Christian writers, who looked upon their pagan forebears
with disdain. Nevertheless, some information can be parsed
from the sources available to us. For example, the law of hospitality was the
most sacred of rites to tribal Slavs. All guests were cherished without exception,
and any tribe who mistreated an itinerant traveler would be attacked by neighbouring
tribes for their dishonour. War was not uncommon, both with the Balts
and Finns and amongst the Slavs. They avoided pitched battles, instead fighting
in dense woodlands with ample cover, while using short iron spears, heavy wooden shields,
and bows nocked with poison-tipped arrows. The lives of the early eastern Slavs was decentralized
and chaotic, yet there was order and harmony through the shared customs. Nonetheless, things were soon to change, as
new arrivals came from the north, on the decks of dragon-headed longboats. At the turn of the 9th century, the Scandinavian
peninsula had a burgeoning population. In a cold, mountainous climate, good farmland
was a rarity. This pushed the Norsemen to sail from their
homes seeking new lands. Generally speaking, the Danes went westwards,
where they became known to the English and French as Vikings. The Swedes, however, ventured to the east,
where they quickly discovered the mighty rivers spanning down the continental mainland. By sailing down the crucial waterways of Eastern
Europe, the Norsemen became deeply engaged in the trade networks that had existed in
the region for centuries. At the confluence of the Kama and Volga they
encountered Bulgars, with whom they traded furs, wax and honey in exchange for silver. Occasionally they rowed further upriver and
traded with the Khazars, whose control over the steppe had granted them rule over an incredibly
wealthy land of diverse peoples, including many Slavic tribes. Meanwhile, those who sailed up the Dnieper
soon found themselves in the Black Sea, and before long, the Eastern Roman capital of
Constantinople. They called this splendorous place “Miklagard”,
literally meaning “the Great City”. According to Roman sources, the Norsemen laid
siege to the Imperial capital in 860, striking “like a lightning bolt from heaven”, before
ultimately being forced to retreat after a storm destroyed their fleet. With that said, the Romans were made to accept
the Varangians as partners in commerce, making them wealthy with silks and wine. War and trade helped the Norsemen prosper,
and that wealth meant they were there to stay. Of course, plying down the great rivers meant
that the Norsemen inevitably passed through the Slavic territory. The Slavs called them “Varangians” or
“Rus”, terms likely derived from the old Norse words meaning “pledged companions”
and “the people who row”. Initial interactions between them were hostile,
as the Norsemen often raided Slavic villages, exacting tribute and taking slaves to trade
in southern markets. Within a few decades, the Scandinavians dominated
not only the Slavs, but Finns and Balts as well. It would be this intersection of cultures
that would give rise to the first united ruling dynasty in Russian History, the Rurikids. Before we explain the rise of the Rurikids,
we should note that much of early Russian history is known through The Primary Chronicle,
written in the year 1113 AD by a monk Nestor. While his works are considered the most valuable
source of knowledge on this era, the legitimacy of his work is often called into question
by modern historians. Still, the Primary Chronicle presents the
only complete story moving forward, and its tale will be the one presented by us. According to Nestor, the Slavs, Finns and
Balts revolted against their Scandinavian masters at some point before 860AD, driving
them back across the northern sea. Evidently, the Norsemen had been something
of a stabilizing force in the region, for once they had been expelled, the Slavic tribes
quickly devolved back into habitual warfare with themselves and their neighbours. The chronicle had this to say: “There was
no law among them, but tribe rose against tribe. Discord thus ensued among them, and they began
to war against one another. They said to themselves: ‘let us seek a
prince who may rule over us and judge us according to the law’. They went overseas to the Varangian Russes,
and said to the people of Rus: ‘Our whole land is great and rich, but there is no order
in it. Come to reign and rule over us.” The Prince invited by the Slavs was named
Rurik. Promptly accepting their offer, he settled
amongst his new people in 862. Rurik established his capital on the Volkhov
river, likely on the site of an older Slavic stronghold. His city soon grew to become a prosperous
hub of river-bound trade, and became known to the Slavs as Novgorod. For seventeen years, Prince Rurik worked to
stabilize his realm, establishing laws and formal tributary rulership over the many native
tribes of the region. He died in 879, leaving his realm to his kinsman
Oleg. By all accounts, Oleg was the classic embodiment
of a Viking warrior, an ambitious Prince who sought to expand his lands through conquest. To that end, he turned his gaze upon the great
Khaganate to the south. Ruling the crossroads of an international
trading hub, the Khazars were naturally tolerant of the many tribes and religions in their
domain. In one of history’s more peculiar twists,
the Turkic rulers had even converted to Judaism. Among their tributary subjects were the majority
of the Eastern Slavic tribes in the South. For centuries the Khazars prospered in their
steppe land. Oleg, however, was not a foe to be trifled
with. He had all the tribes of the north united
under him, and commanded a vast army comprised of Norse, Finnic and Slavic warriors. According to Nestor, Oleg sailed his army
up the Dnieper river in 882, seizing the towns of Smolensk and Lyubech en route. Before long, they arrived upon the wooded
hills of Kiev, an ancient outpost most likely founded by Eastern Slavic migrants as early
as the 5th century. By the time of Oleg’s arrival, Kiev was
a vassal of the Khazars, and ruled by the Norse Warlords Askold and Dir, who evidently
were the ones behind the Varangian attack on Byzantium back in 860. Oleg is said to have confronted his fellow
Norse rulers, decrying them boldly, saying “You are not princes, nor even of princely
stock, but I am of princely birth!” Askold and Dir were promptly slain, and Oleg
took firm control of Kiev. He was quick to see the value of this town,
Kiev was surrounded by fertile soil, and its position along the Dnieper River gave it the
potential to be a heart of trade and commerce. Oleg declared himself the Prince of Kiev,
and decided it would be from there he would rule the rest of his realm. Soon he ventured on, wresting more Slavic
tribes from Khazar control. By 885, the Prince had united the vast majority
of the Eastern Slavs under his rule. It is here that the Kievan Rus was born, a
nation that would survive for three centuries and grow to become among the most prosperous
in Medieval Europe. Kiev was its grand capital, from which the
descendants of Rurik and Oleg ruled as Princes of the Rurikid dynasty. While ‘Rus’ originally referred to the
nation’s ruling Scandinavian elite, in time, all the tribes of the Kievan realm, whether
Slavic or Nordic, simply came to be known as people of the Rus. Through fate and conquest, the Rurikid Princes
had given their names to the land, which Russia, the land of the Rus, retains to this day. Of course, the work of the Rurikids was far
from done and there are many stories still to be told, so make sure you are subscribed
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merchandise via the link in the description. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and
we will catch you on the next one.
Uhg. I cant find it, but somewhere in my playlists I have a really good documentary about the first travels from the Baltic down the Volga. They trace the path and show how Vikings had to carry their boat at a certain point.
Also, the funeral pyre story
The video was titled something about the ancient jewelry that was found.
In the mean time, heres an indepth interview with a pro on the matter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AajO-7uk1Tg
The Vikings documentary: Eastern Promise Viking Rus Varangian Guard https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjnHm-o2Hgs
Vikings Of The East: Igor & The Kievan Rus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvPSa8XoHDI
yeah I cant find that doc. Im really bummed out
I wasn't the biggest fan of Kings & Generals because I noticed their videos sometimes have errors such as calling Elamites Proto-Iranian or associating the Hephthalites with the classic Huns and insinuating that they were Turkic, but holy shit the production value on these videos has really gone up!