Slavs and Vikings: Medieval Russia and the Origins of the Kievan Rus 

Don't apologise. A new series from you guys is always welcome! I'm especially looking forward to more videos on the Japanese invasion of Korea. Edit: First! (Sorry, I had to.)

I don't know that any of us really minds to be honest. History (like your videos) isn't linear in the development of civilizations. So random videos are just loved in general lol. I particularly love the soundtracks y'all use. Who does the music? Where can I find MORE??

@Nom Nom, thanks! We use envato+epidemicsound.

@@KingsandGenerals thank you! Im going to look into them now :)

Wait, Devin has a game. COOL

still feel "weird" when talking about Slav by Napoleon himself but okay.. I guess

Kiev is literally build on top of the few hills! lol

"you were the choosen one" screams intensifies :D

Don't know that much about Eastern Slavs, but Western ones defenitelly built their settlements on the hills.

@@Vitalis94 hills yes, but we avoided mountains for long time.

Yeah, and the game looks really good tbf

@@HobRarrison It does. God I didn't want any distraction with my sem finals coming up. :\

@thunderstar86 :(

@@umiddey8714 I wish you look

"What a twist!" - M. Night Shyamalan

Dom? Just like classic Latin domus.

Гость в дом, бог в дом. Хоть где то с поляками сходство.

Same in Czech! Host do domu, bůh do domu

Same in India : Guest is like God.

Гость в дом, Бог в дом )

As a Slav I can confirm it ;)

Indeed it is.

Agree! When a guest is in the house, God is in the house.

I've much respect for the people that continue this noble and admirable practice - it's a law that the rest of the world should study and adopt 👍

Aye, and let it remain so

Its the same as Croatian :"Gost u domu, Bog u domu"

The same in Poland: Gość w dom, Bóg w dom

Here in Georgia 🇬🇪 too, we have saying "Every guest is gift from God".

This proves that the Western Slavs professed Islam.

Polish say this as well: Gość w domu, Bóg w domu

Can't believe about this man. Congrats!

honestly the Game Really interesting just by look of it.. just feel "original" or "old school" which is great thing for me looking forward to buy it

How to avoid being sponsored by bad companies? Sponsor thyself. If it happens that thyself is a bad company, then boi oh boi

I love u mens))

I was wondering who would be the narrator in your game 😆 Godspeed to your game Devin and to the channel, K&G

I don't want to be that guy but someone has to do it... *sure

@@Napoleonic_S he a pimp

Aleem Baksh and surprise

@@Napoleonic_S I think they could have done it for free for him :)

Hello there

NO!!!

Thank you :-)

IDK if the best, but it is in the top for sure.

@@emperorpalpatine5751 i love them all tbh, history marche, bazz battles, invicta, ww2 with indy naidel... im sure i forgot couple more but they make youtube best place for history fans

@@roflol100 The Armchair Historian also is great

Historia Civilis is my pick, but K&G is up there.

Thank you :-)

@@musicc5024 Ha ha yeah I should thought of something more creative I was half asleep when I sent it lol.

@@henrimourant9855 nothing to worry about that was kinda nice

​@Русс град Sarmats? Definitely Iranian.

Русс град Sarmatian were Iranian. What is your source?

that's not that hard though these days, is it? :-)

@Loredan i stopped watching tv like 10 years ago or something like that.

mejlaification if its not, can u do it?

@Muhammad Alghiffary so ???

Shia Iranians are somewhat based I think. They enforce the Hijab on both men and women,and keep sexual degeneracy at bay.

@Muhammad Alghiffary What does that even have to do with the original comment?

I know right? How do they even do these so quickly?

Muhammad Alghiffary Are you the wahabi police or what? Who cares what picture he has?

Glad you enjoyed it!

@Jim lastname I rather not, I don't want to wake up with a knife on my chest and a Rus man looting my room

I mean raids are pretty common back then soooooo..... yeah

Well...I've partied with bikers (1%rs). I imagine it would be a similar experience: have fun but be verrrry careful of what you say...

Inventing a time machine and goinng back into antiquity only to share some dope with nomadic tribes.. that's pure dedication if I've ever seen one.

Make me your Slav king and I will make it so, for the glory of Perun and Veles.

it's Kyiv though

yao199 In ukranian, yes. But I am not a ukranian

@@jojoslasthamon5120 Exactly my point. How the hell is it supposed to transliterate then if not from ukrainian

yao199 Who says anything about transliteration? In german their country is Deutschland. No one apart from them calls them like that.

@@Boyar300AV It's not enough for you to poison people all over the world with Novichok, so you try to poison them with russian pseudohistorical propaganda, or you are just not educated and don't know that originally it was written as Кыѥвъ - much closer to Kyiv that russian neologism.

@@PraiseworthyNobleman Well, I would like to know that too

Thank you!

And I am willing to go all the way 👍

Thanks!

Thanks for watching!

Also people tend to be taught that the Greeks invented democracy and the Romans brought it to the world. However, the British isles did not receive it's democratic roots from roman settlers who by that time were an empire. Scandinavians generally lived by the law that was decided by the thing, a collective gathering of the local peoples. Power came from bottom up, and it was later with influence from feudal societies in the south that vikings brought concentrated power invested in kings back to the north. Scandinavian settlers brought their tradition of public gatherings to the British which would eventually evolve into parliamentarism.

@@GeneralBlackNorway public or tribal gatherings was in almost all independent tribes in the whole world. this is not a special invention of anyone. all independent tribes who ruled a village had such a governmental system.

@@GeneralBlackNorway iirc Saxons had something like a precursor to parliament before the Danes had any major influence in England, but then our societies weren't so very different. I know the popular myth among liberals during the late middle ages and renaissance era was that we had ancient Saxon liberties before the Normans conquered us but of course popular myth are often not accurate.

That's because they never had such influence:) No one scandinavian saga mentions "great conquests" of vikings in eastern Europe. First contacts of scandinavians with Rus principalities according to sagas had happend after Vladimir the Great (end of 10th century), when some norsemen were hired by princes as a mercenaries. Earlier contacts are just pan-germanic fairy tales written in the last two centuries. As a proof, there are very tiny genetic traces of scandinavians in russian population including nobility in comparison with England and north-western Europe.

@@algo8082 the archaeological evidence of Scandinavian presence is vast in Eastern Europe. The sagas you mention were written by Icelandic monks hundreds of years after the actual events, the fact that they focus less on Eastern Europe is logical. And they do mention, mainly Swedish, influence in the East. But the influence wasn't as clear as it was in the west since the Swedes were not as christianized as their Danish contemporaries which means that the power wasn't segmented in the same way; it was more focus on controlling people(local leaders) rather than the land itself.

Thank you! Will do!

As a russian slavian who learn english and a huge fan of fantasy medieval stories I would love to read your novel so I could also practice my english reading skills, you can send me your work when its finished or even a part of it. I and my slavic bros who also learn english would be grateful for your work

Wow, it's cool. I would like to see your novel. Is it a book, comics, or game? What is it?

Let’s go man!

inspired by the witcher ?

@@user-cg2tw8pw7j it's Odin the Wanderer when he traveled the world of mortals and actually Loki is not his nephew. There are two most wide spread versions: 1)Odin adopted Loki after he killed his Jotun father; 2)Loki was a dark counterpart for Odin who was destined to be his main enemy.

Venäläiset.

@@noahdeist7434 Thanks for the correction.

Same for the Estonian name _vene_ .

And the Finnish word for Sweden is Ruotsi

Wends were the original Slavs.

Thank you very much!

Thanks for watching

Your country ?state? or oblast?

@@arunarya8131 Serbia Oblast : Šumadija(Шумадија) Шумадија means something like Woodland.

Thank you very much!

Oh yeah, that is a wild story, we finished the script yesterday.

@@KingsandGenerals Subscribed!

@@KingsandGenerals yeeees!!! My bachelor's degree subject was about the political and economic rise of the Kievean Rus in this period and i'm so happy to see an episode about this.

Hazard McGee Yes, and all Ukrainians.

@@williamgill_esq.6487 They would have been surprised to hear they were Ukrainians.

Thank you!

From what I have read, it was the mainstream, but I am open to being dissuaded. :-)

There is not much going to other theories, sadly.

@@KingsandGenerals M. Laser History did an analysis on the Venetic-Slav connection a while back. Would recommend to anyone interested.

I was also surprised, but the more you search, the more you find this to be most "universally" accepted theory.

@@ivayloyurukov6202 By sheer volume of work that is true but actually most 21st century books on the topic are starting to question the validity of the theory. In the end there's just not enough evidence to really prove the theory true or wrong as stated in my video but some very good facts have been presented against it recently.

My good sir , which edition of ibn's book did you read?

I remember this specific bit of history being suppressed by Russia/Soviet union for a long time for political reasons as they didn't want to associate their origin or name with scandinavia, their disputes could be why it's hardly ever mentioned. While it's been many years since i last heard about it, I think they still dispute it to this day. :)

@@oscardelafuente8649 audiobook the penguin classics

@@dairyskeptic7428 funny I've actually been trying to find a link to that online I want 2 c it

@@Ahris22 in fact, the dispute about the origin of the Varangians has been going on since the beginning of the 18th century. "Russian" historians argued about this with the authors of this hypothesis - invited German historians. The Soviet Union followed the Scandinavian theory.

And Kievan Rus wearing like Mongols 😂😂😂

@@fedorevdokimenko3978 I am from the Balkans, and I don't look like an Arab. Nor does anyone I know.

Byracrazir he was talking about the actors that played the rus warriors in the vikings tv show looked arab and wore mongol clothing, which is totally inaccurate

@@cmox1830 Which part of my reply gave rise to the idea I didn't understand what he said?

Exactly! Lol

🤡🤡🤡🤡

Muskowia is NOT a Slavic land at all, but a Mongolian & Ugrofinic one ! The Muskals are NOT slavs, but a Turanic : Ugro-finic one mixed 400 years with Turanic Mongols and Turanic Khazars ! Muskal language is the best example of this Turanic mix of populations!

Yes, that's the mostly accepted theory among historians that is supported by archeological findings. Modern Eastern Poland and Western Belarus.

And before that the Slavs passed through the Steppes region. And before that we all originated from Africa.

No, Vistula region isn't a homeland of slavs. Dniepr and Polesie are

@@vaevictis2789 all depends of sources which you are using .

@@WitcherDADnah, its just modern archeology, nothing more

Thank you!

Thanks! Indeed, the second episode is a bomb :-)

Нет в истории Киевской Руси

Thanks!

Novgorod pirates, Ushkuyniks, even in the 12th century destroyed the Swedish capital Sigtuna.

Danes were supposedly afraid of the Rugians, and as soon they saw their black sails, they begun their prayers. At some point southern Denmark was so depopulated, they had to bring more settlers in. Many of them Slavic, Lolland and Fyn islands had a sizeble Slavic minority, there are some Slavic sounding placenames to this day.

@@radziwill7193 Man, Sigtuna was destroyed so many times... Osselians did it too, supposedly.

@@Vitalis94 It is unlikely that there were Ossetians. This people is isolated in the mountains. If there is evidence, please show. Ushkuyniks made the first ruin of the city, after which he lost the status of the capital.

The ”slavs” raiding in scandinavia was the Jomsvikings from Jomsborg. Google it, they were scandinavian elite vikings that you could hire. Settled in nort Poland, very close to denmark and sweden. Which means it was vikings attacking other vikings, anything else is wishful thinking on your part. Also the ”ushkuyniks” were viking descendants. And there were no balt or slav vikings other than the ones from scandinavia. This is cope because you want to feel part of the viking heritage.

Thank you!

I am sure you have many good things going for you right now, but we are still grateful, thanks :-)

Thank you, good sir!

Thanks!

@@FuckGoogle2 The trading post in their land were in the major cities/towns/settlements along the major rivers.

Gardr means "enclosure". It both come to mean the enclosing of a homstead (gård, compare to English yard) and later synonym to the homestead it self, as well as a enclosed space containing cattle (gärde). It could be just a fence but it could also be a fortification. It do not need to mean a city or town, it is the enclosure that determine if it is a gardr or not. Riki means realm and is part of a political landscape that goes from aett (kinship) through byggd (local settled area) and herad (local district), land (land/state) up to tjod (people/tribe/nation equal to Latin -iones) and then you have allies to that "nation". Sweden for example was called Svitjod (the Svi-people). However the Rikki was all the subjects to a king of a tjod, but they did not need to be part of that said tjod. It also included peoples that more or less voluntarily swore fealty to the king, pay tribute and put up men in wartime. The Swedish word for Sweden, Sverige, originates from the work Sviariki, the realm of the Svi . The next step out was the valdi that included, beside the riki, areas that was controlled and subjugated by violence and that was regularly "taxed by fire" (yes that was a term) by the warriors of the riki, in a kind grand protection racket kind of scheme. If someone unfortunately was considered ti be part of two different valdi then they had to pay up twice or be burned down. This happened to Gotland and then therefor chose to go into confederation with the Swedes to get protection from the Danes, hence transitioned from being part of the "valdi" to become part of the "riki". Gardariki might therefore mean the "enclosed realm", "fenced off realm" or "realm of enclosures". However a closely related word that is very similar is rikr, meaning rich. That might give the meaning the "rich enclosures" or the land "rich in enclosures/fences" (as in having many of them).

Rather, it was meant-not the "land of cities", but the "land of fences" (posts, protective fences, villages).

@@vesy19791979 u guys r getting way to technical here.... What do u usually build a fence or fortification around? answers is :some sort off settlement. Judging by ur name u also speak Russian and u should know that translating word to word doesnt always make sense. Try to translate some off the Russian swear words word to word into English or most of other languages and u will realize that its not the best way of doing it.

@@johndoe-qj2kt It is possible to agree with the settlements. Because the first cities (in the full sense of the term) were formed in Russia under the rule of the Scandinavian elite on the trade route to the Dnieper River: Novgorod (Holmgarder), Kiev (Kienugarder), Ladoga (Aldegyuborg), Polotsk (Polteskya), Smolensk (Smoleskya), Suzdal (Surdalar), Murom (Moramar), Rostov (Rostofa).

Thank you!

Thanks :-)

Thanks!

More on the way!

@@KingsandGenerals I agree with them, you need to make sure that the Bulgarian monks,who christianized Russia,are mentioned.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks!

Not the first time in history when a ruling class was invited back to reign. King Charles II of Britain comes to mind.

@@stevenleslie8557 México had a Habsburg as a king.

@GoodGirlKate And what is to learn... ;)

Slavs: Go away you Norsemen! (Norsemen leaves) Slavs: Wait no

Slav prefer with Vikings than Mongols that's why Russian kick the Mongols out for a long time

Thanks!

Thanks for watching! More on the way!

Yeah, those are boring Vikings, less burn/pillage stuff and more politics :)

More on the way!