The origins of Russia - Summary on a Map 

Shooting the ashes of the false Tsar out of a cannon in the direction of the country that supported him is one of the most Russian things imaginable 😄

"so it's all trade routes?" "Always have been"

It was never called "Kievan Rus" until 18th century. Russian historians retroactively named it that.

Recommended after putin interview

I love seeing borders moving. Ps: ok it is really moving now...

i find the history of eastern europe and the baltic area very interesting, because it's something we never learn in school in italy

Some people fail to understand that Kievan Rus was a mix of modern day Russia, Ukraine and Belarus TOGETHER.

Fun Fact: It was Russia who saved The Union during the American Civil War as they sent their Navy to San Francisco and New York when England and France were just about to enter the war on the side of the Confederates since London created the Confederates. France was already in Mexico making a spear head movement to resupply the Confederates and to open up a Pacific Theatre and to create a port in California. England already amassed 11,000 troops and growing stationed at their Northern Confederacies border now called Canada ready to open a Northern Theatre to divert Union troops away from their Southern Confederacy then to attack The Unions naval blockade. The Union would have been completely destroyed and annexed by those two great powers leaving the Confederates to exist as a puppet state of London. London was already courting (threatening/bribing) other countries to get involved like Spain while Russia was in talks with Prussia to ally with incase London was to intervene. Seeing all of this Tsar Alexander II wrote a letter to Queen Victoria saying “If you enter in this war it will be a casus belli for all out war with the Russian Empire”. The stage was set for the 1st World War and Russia stopped it. There is also a memorial in San Francisco for the hundreds of Russian sailors who came off their Asiatic fleet ships that died while helping the city put out a fire that threatened to lay waste to it during the War.

Rurik not founded Novgorod,Novgorod already was by that time.Rurik was invited to rule on Novgorod

One thing to note is that the map shows some bodies of water that did not exist until 20th century. Rybinsk Reservoir is an example. It might be worth trying to find older digitized maps for future presentations if those are available.

And, dear Ukrainians, whether you like it or not, the official date of the founding of Novgorod is considered to be 859, according to the first mention of the city in the late Nikon Chronicle (XVI century). In the Tale of Bygone Years, created in the 12th century, the city was first mentioned in 862. This is exactly the case in all official sources. Yes, the Novgorod that we see now was rebuilt later, according to various historical research. But again, it is known that before this there was a settlement on the Rurik Settlement, a little upstream of the Volkhov and closer to Lake Ilmen. Also, there is a theory that there was a settlement in the Peryn area, as evidenced by various archaeological finds from 5-8 centuries from different cultures, which suggests that even then trade was carried out on these lands

Oleg didn't 'found the Kievan Rus'. Kievan Rus isn't a historical term, it's one created by 18th-century Russian historians to refer to the part of Russia's history that was centred around Kiev. In its day, Kievan Rus' were just called "the lands of Rus", which means "the lands of Russia" - "Russia" is the Latin phrasing of Rus. And what's retroactively called "Kievan Rus" didn't originate and wasn't founded in Kiev, but began in Novgorod, which was the first capital of "Kievan Rus". When Oleg conquered Kiev, he expanded the lands of Rus to include Kiev, and then he moved Rus' captial from Novgorod to Kiev. The conquering and capitalising of Kiev wasn't the founding of Oleg's kingdom or a historical state, it was the expanding of one that already existed.

East slavic tribes -Kryvich, vyatich, drevlyane existed long before Ryurik. They had their own Kings, localized fights between each other , eventually mingled and united starting Russian nation. Ryurik was invited by people of Novgorod.

So this is what the Meet Arnold guy is doing now?

As an American we never learned about this. In school we learn about fifty states and history for half of our school career.

One thing to note, Rurik is a leader, who has been invited. Every single country forms itself trough thousands of years of developing.

Me : "Oh nice a new video" *"The impostor"* Me : "Oh"

It is amazing how many times people of this region have fought, merged, divided, turned on allies, became friendly with past enemies and done it over and over again. Up to and including the year 2022.

There was a fierce stubborn resistance of the Russian Slavs to the Mongol hordes. A lot of examples, incl a town of Koselsk (near modern Ryazan), that had been called The Fierce Town by the Mongols with all of its people incl women fighting to the end. But the forces were clearly unequal. It was a giant Horde and if not for the total Russian resistance that had depleted its initial punch, all of the Europe would have been conquered. You can see it from the sheer size of the Mongol empire set up by Genghis Khan who had subdued the China in the first place

"He was assassinated and his ashes were then shot out from a cannon towards Poland" 😂

12:28 no natural obstacles or resistance? Are you kidding? It was almost impossible to get to Siberia, they had to drag their ships through mountains,set a stay and live through the winter with almost no food and equipment and then conquer the Siberian tribes while Moscow almost didn’t care about them thus no more people or weapons, keep in mind that it was an unfriendly places with severe weather and they was just a group of Cossacks

I took a Russian history class in undergrad about 20 years ago, and I really, REALLY wish that they would have used the map visuals that you did, because holy shiz this was WAY more interesting now than reading it in text and listening to lectures back then. A monk became tsar by bullshitting...unreal.

There were many principalities in Rus', and in different periods different principalities had greater influence. First, Novgorod was the most influential, then Kiev became the most influential. then Rus' fell into decline, after which Kiev lost all influence as it was plundered and burned, and the Grand Duchy of Vladimir became the new center of influence in Rus' for objective reasons, then the Grand Duchy of Vladimir turned into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, again simply because on the territory In the most influential Principality of Rus', a new most influential city appeared, which, for objective reasons, like Kiev and Novgorod earlier, began to attract wealth and people, Moscow became the most important trading center of Rus'. And after that, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, having depleted most of the free Rus', Turns into Tsardom of Russia and later into the Russian Empire. Not one historian in the world has no doubts about this. Only among Ukrainians, whose entire Wikipedia is full of both pseudo-history and lies, moreover, closed from editing? How is it that the Ukrainian wiki is 80% different from wikis in any other languages of the world where everything converges into the same facts. What are you afraid of closing articles from editing? What would real historians and scientists not be able to correct this nonsense? And yes, at what point in history, except in your imagination, did the name Muscovy exist as real name of the state?

Lol at the comments that saying "kievan RUS are not actually RUS"

Plot twist: russians are vikings who didn't like boats

"And his ashes are fired from a cannon in the direction of Poland" Metal.

Very well done, thank you!

Poland: Damn i could've rule the half of the Asia

Ivan Turgenev once wrote: "Nature creates while destroying, and doesn't care whether it creates or destroys as long as life isn't extinguished, as long as death doesn't lose its rights"

2:52 "yaroslav the wise" a wise king! nice can't wait for all his great reforms 3:28 "yaroslav devides the Kievan Rus among his sons" (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ DAMN IT YAROSLAV

Interesting how there is one story but many interpretations. Different country, different story for the same event. ;)

Tucker: Putin i wanna know why you invaded Ukraine Putin:

The only forces better then the winter: - Mongol - Poland

6:42 It's unfear to say that there was no resistance to mongols. But yes, most of the cities fell and were burned and sacked.

Sometimes i am puzzled by what Russia was capable of. Why is it we never learnt about these great conquest of land and only learnt about the Roman Empire?

That is very interesting! Good and Fast explanation!

One thing to notice: there were no such thing as Kievan Rus. It was all just Rus, with different knyazhestva as administrative units. "Kievan rus" is modern term created to depict the time period (Same as "ancient greece" or "ancient egypt").

FYI: The Rus' people never called their lands Kievan Rus'. First of all, it was a loose confederacy, and it was either referred by an individual city-state name in different areas, or in general as land of Rus', something like that. The "Kievan" was added to the name much later by historians to distinguish between periods of Russian state.

Yaroslav diving his empire among his sons reminds me of Charlemagne who did something similar.

Kievan Rus' is a not a country, it's a term invented in 19th century to describe a time period.

I would like to say that Rurik didn't found principality of Novgorod, Novgorodish people invited him to be their king

Kievan Rus it’s period until lands were divide between princes. This term was introduced in the 20th century to define a period of time when the capital was in Kyiv.

I have to say the narration is exciting and the history fascinating! -Subscribed!

Awesome work.

To those who debate on whether the Kievan Rus was Russian or Ukrainian, I challenge you to provide an answer to the question of whether Charlemagne's empire was French or German as it is a similar question to the one you are trying to answer.

As a Bulgarian - thank you for mentioning the Bulgarian Empire and Volga Bulgaria, not a lot of people are familiar with the history. 🇧🇬❤🇧🇬

At 8:50 , there was a misunderstanding. Jadwiga of Anjou was a King of Poland, not a queen, so he obtained the hand of Polish king

Tatar, also spelled Tartar, any member of several Turkic-speaking peoples that collectively numbered more than 5 million in the late 20th century and lived mainly in west-central Russia along the central course of the Volga River and its tributary, the Kama, and thence east to the Ural Mountains. The Tatars are also settled in Kazakhstan and, to a lesser extent, in western Siberia.

GeoHistory: uploads Me: *My happiness is unmeasurable and my day is improved*

I used to feel sleepy during history classes but with such great way of story telling and visualizations , history becomes quite interesting .

What an amazing information tool it should be instilled in every school for a number of different cultures I find it hard to believe that nobody has ever suggested this or that this is not something that is attempted to be implemented in the school systems. Although I do actually know why that would not be the case it's just a shame that it is what it is.

The Vikings also lived on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea on the Polish side. The daughter of Mieszko I Świętosław (Sygryda Storrada, born in 968) was the wife of the Viking king, Eric the Victorious (1 son), and her second husband was Sweyn Forkbeard. By him she had 2 sons, Harald (King of Denmark) and Cnut the Great, one invaded England and the other remained on the throne after his father. The language and runic writing of the Vikings/Etruscans is the Slavic language, the so-called runes Polish researcher, archaeologist Tadeusz Wolański 1785-1865 read inscriptions on Etruscan monuments. After writing the book, he received the protection of the tsar - a battalion of the Russian army (Poland was under partition), who did not leave him any step so that he would not die for reading and translating Etruscan inscriptions.

Your maps are THE BEST backdrop to your script . . . EVER. It makes so many connections for my understanding. Thanks!!

This is interesting. I feel the question on the "Origin of Things", especially life is pointless, and with history is challenging as we don't know but tend to speculate, especially further back we go. What is useful are the ruins that people built with might and power, way more then us. However, they got ruined because they wrong themselves. We are no invincible as they decay is obvious. Man learned anything form history? Yes, but never heed!

Russian textbooks give the year 1147 and say Moscow was founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky. Sure as hell, there is a Yuri Dolgoruky statue in Moscow. In reality the year 1147 is the first mention of Moscow in Russian chronicles. Yuri Dolgoruky, Prince of Vladimir and Suzdal, invited his ally Svyatoslav, Prince of Novgorod-Seversk, to come visit him in Moscow. “Come to me, my brother, to Moskov” - Yuri wrote him. What can we infer from this phrase? Evidently, Moscow was important enough to be known to Svyatoslav without further indications and to serve as a meeting place for two important allies. We can be quite sure it was founded before 1147. Unfortunately, we will probably never know who did it (Yuri or one of his predecessors) and when exactly. But we can say what was the role of Moscow in 12th century. In 12th century, Rus’ disintegrated into a number of principalities. The princes started to fight each other for the control of Kiev, because the Prince of Kiev was considered the overlord. As a result, Kiev was regularly devastated by various Russian princes. Four centres of power emerged: Galich, Chernigov, Smolensk and Vladimir-Suzdal . The bloody war of 1146-1154 opposed two alliances. Yuri Dolgoruky was the leader of one of them. Yuri’s allies are (Vladimir-Suzdal, Novgorod-Seversk, Galich, Old Prussians and Polovtsi). His enemies are (Smolensk, Chernigov, Ryazan, Volhynia, Poland and Hungary).Moscow was a strategic fortress on the border of Yuri Dolgoruky’s lands facing three enemy principalities at the same time. No wonder he choose Moscow to welcome his ally. No one, of course, could imagine the future of this border fortress. Yuri Dolgoruky would laugh a lot if they told him that the posterity remembers him almost exclusively as the founder of Moscow.

You should definitely do a video about the Frankish empire/francia. Its such an interesting topic and era and I would love to see a video from this channel made about this!

Please can you make one about the 100 years war? Love your video, it's pleasant to watch them all and also helps remind things forgotten

When someone says "Kievan Rus" he can turn his diploma back to McDonalds. This term appeared in XX century and refers to historical period, it was never a name of country.

@GEO HISTORY I have a great concept for another video like this one. Could you help me with that maybe? Maybe we can discuss it?

5:36 i always love this moment in geo history when an unknown boss battle is about to come

I love how these videos show that human history is the history of civilizations rising and falling… conquering and being conquered…

The story is very simplified, which even sometimes causes outrage.

It would be interesting to see the "pedigree" chart of Apostle Paul's missionary journeys...and how that intertwines w/ everything else mentioned

There are such a good scenario in this it could be used for a 8 seasons TV show like Game of thrones :) Joke apart, this is truly interesting... and complex history !

Love this...thank you!

Very simplistic approach

Can’t wait for part 2 Romanov expansion into Siberia, Alaska and more battles with Sweden

"The divided principalities did not resist the Mongols"... What an utterly incompetent thing to say. It took almost 5 years to conquer almost all of Rus. Look up the siege of Kozelsk, named the "wicked city" by the Mongols.

Well done, short and to the point.

In the eighth century the Khazars subjugated the Slavic tribes living near the steppe . This fact opened for these Slavic groups trade routes to Black Sea and Caspian markets .

Im still affected by the new voiceover.

interesting, giving a good overview of the major developments taking place! I look forward to the next chapters

very complicated-but interesting. ty

All I get from this is that Ukraine is not a real country and is rightful Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian clay

You should continue with the timeline, I felt I’m missing part 2

Интересно что Рыбинское водохранилище было уже в древние времена

Забавно наблюдать на карте Рыбинское водохранилище на реке Волге, а также водохранилища на реке Днепр1000лет назад.

Many slaves from Eastern Europe rose to high office as slave officials in Byzantium and in the Ottoman empire . Others became soldiers , workers and artisans . Many Slavic women became concubines . Nomads from Central Asia regularly raided Slavic areas for slaves until states developed .

I heard a story that Ivan the terrible’s son was pushing his old man… saying something along the lines of “Lol, what are you gonna do? kill me?”

The title of Ivan IV itself was deliberately distorted in English in order to emphasize the alleged bloodthirstiness of this ruler. In Russian, the title of Ivan IV sounds like formidable (Грозный), not terrible (Ужасный). In this way it is also translated into languages ​​other than English. Formidable means both instilling fear in enemies and respect, and not horror from a bloodthirsty monster. During the life and reign of Ivan IV in the Western states, there were enough bloodthirsty and cruel rulers who more deserved the name terrible. In comparison to them Ivan IV is innocent child. For example, the Good Queen Bess - Elizabeth I, beheaded Mary Stuart, because she was convicted of betrayal. And she was not named Terrible Queen Bess, despite the fact that she, according to some reports, executed another 89 thousand of her citizens. By the way, in France, just during the reign of Ivan the so-called Terrible, in just two weeks, zealous (and barbaric) Catholics slaughtered about 30 thousand Huguenots. Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II looked at this fact through his fingers. Finally, with regard to the introduction of the oprichnina in Russia. Its conduct was justified by betrayal among the elites. The mere betrayal of the boyars is worth something, they killed the mother of Ivan IV and opposed him throughout his life. After the death of Grozny and Godunov, it was the traitors of the boyars who placed Polish puppets on the Russian throne. In the same list, the Novgorod conspiracy against Ivan IV. Documents remained about the Novgorod conspiracy, from which it follows that it was not a secret conspiracy of a small group of representatives of the nobility, but a large-scale conspiracy. And these were not jokes, because both the command administration, which ruled the Novgorod land, and the social elites were involved in it. “Archbishop Pimin wanted to give them Novgorod and Pskov to the Lithuanian king, and they wanted to kill the tsar and Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich of all Russia with malicious intent, and put Prince Vladimir Andreevich in the state,” the document says. That is, we are talking about a coup d'etat and the assassination of the king, in fact, and not about the fantasies of helpless and innocent souls who suffered for nothing (although, probably, the mob did not suspect this).

So Russians were of Viking ancestory, so were the Irish. You mean to tell me that Khabib vs Connor was just East Vikings vs West Vikings?

Ivan IV was such a tyrant that he killed a thousand times fewer people than his contemporary King Henri IV of France. What irony))

начинать историю с миграции викингов немного странно, учитывая, что вигинки (позднее варяги) приехали уже самоорганизованные поселения, где был был очень даже хорошо налажен

Hungarian capital became a global city after the unification of Buda, Óbuda and Pest on 17 November 1873, with the name 'Budapest'. So no mongol conquerors could do anything about Budapest at the time - for it didn't exist. If it's history then let's take it seriously ;)

just as Putin described in the tucker interview

Rurik was invited to an already existing city

This is an impressive video the way you include so much information in such an accessible way. I love the year-counter at the top. Like a calendar.

Wow good piece

Another problem on this video is that Estonian "colony" only lasted about 30 years, and there were just random besiege&sack conflicts after 1060, when estonians expelled the colonizers from Eastern Estonia. There was no settled Russian colony/conquest before 1710

1610: Imagine what could happen if polish king didn't want to convert Russia into catholicism and he became Tsar. History would be totally different with Polish-Lithuanian-Russian Empire.

Its crazy how bulgaria started in russia and moved their terriotory to the balkans

Guys, remember, Muscovy never existed, the true name is Rus "Русь", historians also divide it into periods of different capitals, Kievan Rus, Novgorod Rus, etc., but this is only for the period in books and Rus have been never called like this. There is no name of Muscovy in any chronicle or in any original source besides of foreign. Since 862 to time of Empire it was anything but Rus.

Very Funny... The Moment Ivan III star regain back the say "annexed" 😂😂😂

This is so interesting and makes you think about the politics of Russia and the immense historical data accessible to them to study in depth civilizations, conflicts, and human nature revealed over centuries. The same thing can be said of china.

I miss the original voiceover guy. His accent was very soothing.

On video the false history of origin of Russia is presented. Inhabitants of Ladoga have invited Rurik who with great probability was Russ on roots, but lived in area of Scandinavia as there are even evidences that on Germanic Lands lived settlements with Russ that is confirmed by archeological finds. Now about other facts: 1. The state "Kievan Rus" never existed. This fictitious name has been entered into the use by the Soviet historians within the limits of policy of derusification of Russian history. Rus (Russia) only according to Byzantine sources existed already in the 9th century, but Kiev at that time worked for the Khazars. 2. The first capital of Russia Ladoga was founded by Slovenes ca. 700 г. 3. In the conclusion of the contract with Rurik participated Slavic tribes Slovene and Krivichi and Finnish tribes Chud and Merja (according to the Novgorod I Chronicle) or all (according to the Tale of Bygone Years). 4 From cities of initial, Rurik's, Russia (Ladoga, Novgorod, Izborsk, Beloozero, Rostov, Murom, Polotsk) 6 are in Russia, 1 - in Byelorussia, in Ukraine - none. 5. Askold, Dir, Oleg, Igor, Svyatoslav, Vladimir and Yaroslav came from Ladoga or Novgorod and conquered Kiev by force. There were no cases of conquest in the opposite direction. 6. Before the conquest of Russia, Kiev was a Khazar city. Its earliest documentary mention is in the "Kiev Jewish letter" of the beginning of the tenth century in the expression "kagal of Kiev". 7. The words "Se budi mati city Russkymi", which the annals attribute to Oleg, mean the proclamation of Kiev as the main city of Rus, and not the origin of Rus from Kiev. 8. Kiev had a Turkic name - Mankerman. 9.Kiev was on southern border of Russia with Turkic lands.The geographical center of Russia was between Smolensk and Moscow. 10.The army of Prince Oleg, with which he conquered Kiev, included Varangians, Slovenes, Krivichi, Chud, Merja and all.After conquering Kiev, Oleg imposed a tribute on its population in favor of the Slovenes, Krivichi and Meri.

Kiev* not kyiv

How about a series of videos about the conquests of Rome or Alexander the Great? This will provide a huge number of views.

This was great! It's truly amazing how much humans willingly fight over the same but of land over and over and over again. As if it's the very first time each time.

Amazing stuff man, which software do you use?