As long as the Eastern Slavs have existed they have taken on the worst conquerors and best armies in the world and have mostly been successful. Whether it has been the Teutonic Order, Mongols, Crimean Horde, Swedes, Frenchmen or the men of the Wehrmacht; Russia has taken them on and won. We should at least honour these brave warriors of the Volga by having a brief....extremely brief rundown of their military exploits, triumphs and disasters.
The story of Russia begins when the Slavs hooked up with the Swedish Norsemen. What would possess Swedes to go to the shore of the Baltic and explore the inland rivers? Well, trade of course. After the Abbasid dynasty started the Islamic Golden age and made contacts with Charlemagne through Jewish traders, the Swedes wanted in on the action too. They pushed down these rivers and traded Amber, furs, gold and Slavic slaves to the Middle East. In fact, the world Slav is the route word for the English word "slave". It wasn't only the Swedes though, the Mediterrenean power of Venice would get into this trade too. Trade with the Byzantine Empire and Khazars (a Turkish-Jewish tribe..a story for later) was highly important to the Swedes as well. Back in these times, trade was everything and having a good trade network could really pay off. Ask the Arabs of Mecca pre-Muhammad for instance. Or the Byzantines who's control over the bottleneck of the Black Sea and the Mediterrenean allowed them to have access to silk before the Renaissance.
History is rather obscure about the exact details of how Russia developed but we can assume it was similiar to how Hinduism colonized South East Asia which occurred around the same time. A wandering Prince and his posse probably befriended some locals, killed others, married some, kidnapped a select few and became the boss of a nice riverbend and soon Novgorod was the home of a new Russian state called Rus by 850 AD. Soon there was trouble though. These Russians pushed south towards the Black Sea and the ancient Byzantine Empire was not amused by the fact it would have to share the Black Sea with these upstarts. In 866 the Russians sent a force of tens of thousands of men at a time where the Emperor and his army were off fighting Arabs, Bulgars or some Pechenegs. The Greeks paid off the Russians and good trade relations started after that.
As usual, the Russians grew too successful and the Byzantines allied with the Bulgars to pull a ruse in order to crush them. In 970 the Greeks offered to pay the Russians off (again) and asked how much money he needed. The Russian Prince Sviataslav said he had 20,000 troops. In response the Greeks sent 100,000 troops and destroyed the Russians. The Prince escaped but fell victim to Pechenegs who turned his skull into a winecup. Also around this time, the Byzantines managed to convert the Russians to their Orthodox Christianity in order to make them more pliable. Of course it failed, but you'd think they'd realize after first trying that tactic on the Bulgars! It's stuff like that which makes me love the Byzantines, or Greeks in general. I should probably make an update about them too but there's so much history to go over from the Achaean times all the way to some war over Cyprus...or a recent economic meltdown...
After such disasters, the Russians tried consolidating power at home and began conquering city-state after city-state...that is until they ran into the Mongols. The Mongols had a knack of doing things like that. Ending good streaks. They destroyed the Islamic Golden Age and killed the last Caliph. They ransacked Persia during it's Golden Age and caused desertification, not to mention wiping out millions of Chinese people. Compared to all of these examples, what they did to Europeans weren't that bad. Anyways, the Hungarians were the Europeans who suffered the most because of the Mongols anyways. It goes without saying that the Russians were swiftly conquered, their women raped, their princes crushed to death. Not only did Russian princes get crushed to death, but so did Arab Caliphs in Baghdad. He was rolled into a carpet and was crushed to death by horses. These Mongols really knew how to axe people.
During this time, heroes like Alexander Nevsky - Prince of Novgorod emerged..he just had to submit to the Mongols first BUT he did kill large number of Germanic Teutonic Knights in 1242.
Good fortune became available to the Russians when the Mongol Empire began to fracture and Batu Khan and his followers proclaimed the Golden Horde in it's place (yea?). They didn't rule Russia directly but they liked demanding tribute and if that tribute wasn't met they'd basically pillage your city-state. Fun times all around in the Volga. Also around this time, the Eastern Slavic ethnicities began having differing ethnogensis. The Belorussians formed now what is called Lithuania, the Ukranians formed under the Mongol yoke and the Slavs who lived around the Volga and intermarried with Finnish tribes became the Russians we know and love today.
During this tumultous time, the state of Moscow grew in importance and size. It resisted a Golden Horde attempt to "tax" it and the Mongols sent an army of 200,000 (huge in those times) but the Moscovites managed to ally with other city-states and brought a force close to that size against the Mongols. During a battle in 1378 at Kulikovo Pole the Russians managed to squeeze out a win. The Golden Horde started to collapse into a Civil War and then Tamerlane brought the killing blow to the Golden Horde as a significant power.
Moscow continued to grow, as it took Novogorod as it's prize even as Novogorod was starting to create the first attempts at Russian democracy. The Mongols left most of Russia alone but small Khanates like in the Crimea would continue to cause problems. Also, Moscow declared itself to be the Third Rome. After the defeat of the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453 and Prince Ivan III married the last niece of the Byzantine Emperor thus claiming fictious ancient lineage all the way to Caesar Augustus. Muscovy also started Russian serfdom with the Boyars controlling hundreds of peasants who'll never be able to pay back debts to their landlord.Some of these peasants fled this oppressive regime and migrated toward the Don and Dnieper rivers and became Cossacks and became nomadic hunter-warriors that future Czars would use to wage war against other powers.
Ivan the IV or Ivan the Terrible took the throne and terrible he was to his own subjects, especially rebellious Boyars...he was even worse towards Russia's enemies. He conquered the Khanate of Kazan and Astrakhan in the mid 1500's. The Cossacks even helped him conquer Mongol city-states too. The Crimean Khanate or Horde was tougher because it was backed by among the most powerful nations at the time; the Ottoman Empire. However, his rule ultimately destroyed the upper class in Russian society until he had no more enemies to worry or about or this his insanity wanted to think up.
After this death, Russia was messed up. Seriously messed up. Ivan the Terrible killed his only mentally competent son and the mentally retarded one took the throne. Boris Godunov, a Boyar was practically Czar. When Godunov eventually became Czar, everyone opposed him. Especially the politically powerful Romanov family. False pretenders to the throne emerged and one even took power due to Polish intervention. Sweden and Poland invaded Russia again and rebellions among the Cossacks and other peoples started. Russia was saved when a Romanov family member used Russian patriotism and the Orthodox Church to rally the people to chase the Poles out of Moscow. Which they did. Michael Romanov was named the new Czar of Russia in 1613.
The feudal system grew even worse as it became hereditary and serfs couldn't leave the land upon the pain of death but Russia expanded due to the help of Cossacks and fur traders all the way to the Pacific Ocean, in less time than it took the United States to do so. They expanded so far east that the Chinese attacked them in order to make sure Manchuria (where the ruling Manchu dynasty came from) wouldn't be threatened by the Russians. Russia also expanded West into Cossack territory and picked a fight with Poland which weakened them and killed thousands of members of their Jewish community. All this time, the rest of Europe knew very little about Russia or the immense consequences it would have on the future of the continent...
The story of Russia begins when the Slavs hooked up with the Swedish Norsemen. What would possess Swedes to go to the shore of the Baltic and explore the inland rivers? Well, trade of course. After the Abbasid dynasty started the Islamic Golden age and made contacts with Charlemagne through Jewish traders, the Swedes wanted in on the action too. They pushed down these rivers and traded Amber, furs, gold and Slavic slaves to the Middle East. In fact, the world Slav is the route word for the English word "slave". It wasn't only the Swedes though, the Mediterrenean power of Venice would get into this trade too. Trade with the Byzantine Empire and Khazars (a Turkish-Jewish tribe..a story for later) was highly important to the Swedes as well. Back in these times, trade was everything and having a good trade network could really pay off. Ask the Arabs of Mecca pre-Muhammad for instance. Or the Byzantines who's control over the bottleneck of the Black Sea and the Mediterrenean allowed them to have access to silk before the Renaissance.
History is rather obscure about the exact details of how Russia developed but we can assume it was similiar to how Hinduism colonized South East Asia which occurred around the same time. A wandering Prince and his posse probably befriended some locals, killed others, married some, kidnapped a select few and became the boss of a nice riverbend and soon Novgorod was the home of a new Russian state called Rus by 850 AD. Soon there was trouble though. These Russians pushed south towards the Black Sea and the ancient Byzantine Empire was not amused by the fact it would have to share the Black Sea with these upstarts. In 866 the Russians sent a force of tens of thousands of men at a time where the Emperor and his army were off fighting Arabs, Bulgars or some Pechenegs. The Greeks paid off the Russians and good trade relations started after that.
As usual, the Russians grew too successful and the Byzantines allied with the Bulgars to pull a ruse in order to crush them. In 970 the Greeks offered to pay the Russians off (again) and asked how much money he needed. The Russian Prince Sviataslav said he had 20,000 troops. In response the Greeks sent 100,000 troops and destroyed the Russians. The Prince escaped but fell victim to Pechenegs who turned his skull into a winecup. Also around this time, the Byzantines managed to convert the Russians to their Orthodox Christianity in order to make them more pliable. Of course it failed, but you'd think they'd realize after first trying that tactic on the Bulgars! It's stuff like that which makes me love the Byzantines, or Greeks in general. I should probably make an update about them too but there's so much history to go over from the Achaean times all the way to some war over Cyprus...or a recent economic meltdown...
After such disasters, the Russians tried consolidating power at home and began conquering city-state after city-state...that is until they ran into the Mongols. The Mongols had a knack of doing things like that. Ending good streaks. They destroyed the Islamic Golden Age and killed the last Caliph. They ransacked Persia during it's Golden Age and caused desertification, not to mention wiping out millions of Chinese people. Compared to all of these examples, what they did to Europeans weren't that bad. Anyways, the Hungarians were the Europeans who suffered the most because of the Mongols anyways. It goes without saying that the Russians were swiftly conquered, their women raped, their princes crushed to death. Not only did Russian princes get crushed to death, but so did Arab Caliphs in Baghdad. He was rolled into a carpet and was crushed to death by horses. These Mongols really knew how to axe people.
During this time, heroes like Alexander Nevsky - Prince of Novgorod emerged..he just had to submit to the Mongols first BUT he did kill large number of Germanic Teutonic Knights in 1242.
Good fortune became available to the Russians when the Mongol Empire began to fracture and Batu Khan and his followers proclaimed the Golden Horde in it's place (yea?). They didn't rule Russia directly but they liked demanding tribute and if that tribute wasn't met they'd basically pillage your city-state. Fun times all around in the Volga. Also around this time, the Eastern Slavic ethnicities began having differing ethnogensis. The Belorussians formed now what is called Lithuania, the Ukranians formed under the Mongol yoke and the Slavs who lived around the Volga and intermarried with Finnish tribes became the Russians we know and love today.
During this tumultous time, the state of Moscow grew in importance and size. It resisted a Golden Horde attempt to "tax" it and the Mongols sent an army of 200,000 (huge in those times) but the Moscovites managed to ally with other city-states and brought a force close to that size against the Mongols. During a battle in 1378 at Kulikovo Pole the Russians managed to squeeze out a win. The Golden Horde started to collapse into a Civil War and then Tamerlane brought the killing blow to the Golden Horde as a significant power.
Moscow continued to grow, as it took Novogorod as it's prize even as Novogorod was starting to create the first attempts at Russian democracy. The Mongols left most of Russia alone but small Khanates like in the Crimea would continue to cause problems. Also, Moscow declared itself to be the Third Rome. After the defeat of the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire when the Turks took Constantinople in 1453 and Prince Ivan III married the last niece of the Byzantine Emperor thus claiming fictious ancient lineage all the way to Caesar Augustus. Muscovy also started Russian serfdom with the Boyars controlling hundreds of peasants who'll never be able to pay back debts to their landlord.Some of these peasants fled this oppressive regime and migrated toward the Don and Dnieper rivers and became Cossacks and became nomadic hunter-warriors that future Czars would use to wage war against other powers.
Ivan the IV or Ivan the Terrible took the throne and terrible he was to his own subjects, especially rebellious Boyars...he was even worse towards Russia's enemies. He conquered the Khanate of Kazan and Astrakhan in the mid 1500's. The Cossacks even helped him conquer Mongol city-states too. The Crimean Khanate or Horde was tougher because it was backed by among the most powerful nations at the time; the Ottoman Empire. However, his rule ultimately destroyed the upper class in Russian society until he had no more enemies to worry or about or this his insanity wanted to think up.
After this death, Russia was messed up. Seriously messed up. Ivan the Terrible killed his only mentally competent son and the mentally retarded one took the throne. Boris Godunov, a Boyar was practically Czar. When Godunov eventually became Czar, everyone opposed him. Especially the politically powerful Romanov family. False pretenders to the throne emerged and one even took power due to Polish intervention. Sweden and Poland invaded Russia again and rebellions among the Cossacks and other peoples started. Russia was saved when a Romanov family member used Russian patriotism and the Orthodox Church to rally the people to chase the Poles out of Moscow. Which they did. Michael Romanov was named the new Czar of Russia in 1613.
The feudal system grew even worse as it became hereditary and serfs couldn't leave the land upon the pain of death but Russia expanded due to the help of Cossacks and fur traders all the way to the Pacific Ocean, in less time than it took the United States to do so. They expanded so far east that the Chinese attacked them in order to make sure Manchuria (where the ruling Manchu dynasty came from) wouldn't be threatened by the Russians. Russia also expanded West into Cossack territory and picked a fight with Poland which weakened them and killed thousands of members of their Jewish community. All this time, the rest of Europe knew very little about Russia or the immense consequences it would have on the future of the continent...
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment