The Last Tsar: The Life and Death of Nicholas II by Edward Radzinsky, Translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz.
NOTE: We have 75,000 books in our library, almost 10,000 different titles. Odds are we have other copies of this same title in varying conditions, some less expensive, some better condition. We might also have different editions as well (some paperback, some hardcover, oftentimes international editions). If you don’t see what you want, please contact us and ask. We’re happy to send you a summary of the differing conditions and prices we may have for the same title.
DESCRIPTION: Hardback with Dust Jacket: 462 pages. Publisher: Doubleday; (1992). Dimensions: 9¾ x 6¾ x 1½ inches; 2 poundsThe execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family at the hands of revolutionaries in 1918 is one of the pivotal events of the twentieth century, an event that brought the three-hundred-year rule of the house of Romanov to a brutal and tragic end and set the tone for the Stalinist atrocities that would follow. The truth behind these murders has long remained hidden, buried under more than seventy years of myth, legend, and speculation. Now, in a sensational biography that could not have been written before glasnost, noted Russian playwright and historian Edvard Radzinsky unearths solutions to many of the questions that have remained unanswered since the terrible events in Ekaterinburg on the night of July 16-17, 1918.
Mining sources long unavailable, including firsthand accounts of the slaying, he creates both a fascinating portrait of the monarchy and a minute-by-minute account of his terrifying last days. Included is documentation linking the order of execution directly to Lenin, as well as the suggestion that two family members may have survived the ordeal. Included, too, is the testimony of ordinary Russians who have at last felt free to contribute their own recollections, documents, and handed-down secrets. Radzinsky weaves together scores of firsthand accounts into a brilliant and hauntingly personal narrative that evokes the epic sweep of Tolstoy and the disturbing insights of Dostoevsky. The Last Tsar is an important and momentous work, one that will stand as the definitive account of the terrible last days of one of Europe's greatest dynasties.
CONDITION: NEW. New hardcover w/dustjacket. DoubleDay (1992) 462 pages. Unblemished and pristine in every respect. Pages are clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 30 days! #1406a.
PLEASE SEE IMAGES BELOW FOR JACKET DESCRIPTION(S) AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.
PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.
REVIEW: Travel back to the time of the last Tsar of Russia; to the most publicized mystery of the empire, the death of Nicholas and Alexandra; to the days of Lenin, revolution and murder. Edvard Radzinsky has painstakingly researched and compiled this narrative, weaving first-person narrative, historical documentation, and myth, all made available because of glasnöst.
REVIEW: Historians have long believed that Lenin personally ordered the murder of Czar Nicholas II and his family in July 1918. This contradicts the official Soviet version, in which Siberian Bolsheviks ordered the executions without Moscow's clearance. Radzinsky, a Russian playwright, adds many valuable pieces to the jigsaw puzzle in an hour-by-hour reconstruction of the slaying, based on royal diaries and newly uncovered eyewitness accounts from the executioners. The author unearthed the testimony of Lenin's bodyguard, who said that Lenin had ordered him to destroy a secret telegram (and its transmittal ribbon), which contained the top Bolshevik's order to carry out the executions.
Oral testimony by a soldier who participated in the killings, given decades later to an informant whom Radzinsky interviewed, alleges that two bodies were missing from the truck that took the executed royal family to an unmarked grave. This will fuel speculation that Anastasia and Alexei, heir to the throne, survived the fatal night. Using the diaries of Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, Radzinsky also presents a fragmentary account of Romanov’s family life, their kidnapping and the abortive plots to save them. Photos.
REVIEW: On July 17, 1918, Nicholas II, the last Tsar in the 300-year-old Romanov dynasty, and his wife, five children, family doctor, and three servants were executed in the storage room of a squalid house in a small Siberian city, their bodies burned, then buried in a mine shaft. From previously hidden royal diaries and letters, the testimony of the executioners, and the reminiscences of friends and descendants, Radzinsky, a popular Russian playwright, dramatizes the Romanovs' final, poignant days; the confusion, mystery, and waste.
Radzinsky begins by re-creating the personalities and events of happier times: Nicholas, doting, charming, ineffectual; "Little Wifey," as he called his empress, the half-mad, superstitious, demanding granddaughter of Queen Victoria; the four daughters, dressed in white; the hemophiliac son, beloved but bored; the demonic Rasputin; and the clutch of cousins and generals who secluded the royal family from the popular unrest, terrorism, and war that marked Nicholas's reign. Radzinsky's dramatic technique of weaving together scraps from the family's diaries and letters is particularly effective in the book's second half.
There, he follows the Romanovs through their final year after Nicholas's abdication, a year during which the family, waiting to be rescued by the tsar's English cousin, King George, or to seek refuge in a monastery, was dragged around the countryside by unlettered Bolshevik guards until Lenin himself, deciding on the "simple" and "ingenious" solution to the Romanovs' fate, gave the order for their execution, recounted here in brutal detail. Like James Blair Lovell in his 1991 “Anastasia”, Radzinsky incorporates into his story his own pursuit of historical truth, sharing his frustrations and fascinations; and he confirms what Lovell demonstrated; that the Romanovs tend to inspire exceptional writing, lyrical, precise, and intense. Fifty black and white photographs of historical significance.
REVIEW: A prominent Russian playwright has turned his talents to historical investigation and produced an account containing intriguing new details for the Western reader and revelations for the previously uninformed citizenry of the former Soviet Union. Long fascinated by the death of Nicholas II, his wife, and his children, Radzinsky gained access to long-closed national archives containing state documents, diaries of the Tsar and his family, and eyewitness accounts. To the well-known fact that the Bolsheviks who held the royal family executed them hastily out of fear that advancing White forces might recover the tsar, Radzinsky adds documentation of Lenin's approval of the local Reds' actions and full descriptions (from participant accounts) of the killings and disposal of the bodies. He also introduces evidence suggesting that two of the Romanovs survived. This book will attract attention.
REVIEW: Although I've studied Russian history, I have never been that fascinated by Nicholas II. However, I got this book as a gift and found it quite interesting. What makes this book special is not so much Radzinsky's account of Nicholas' last days but his access to Communist archives that let him reconstruct how and why the Bolshevik leadership decided on killing Nicholas as they did. Apparently this was done to thwart Trotsky, who wanted a public trial of Nicholas with himself as prosecutor. Also fascinating is Radzinsky's account of the subsequent careers of Nicholas' murderers, how they became minor league Communist celebrities, telling Komsomol (youth group) assemblies how they had shot the Tsar. This went on until Stalin decided they had become drunken embarrassments and kept them out of the public eye. If you would enjoy reading a book that looks at the last days of Nicholas from a broader perspective, this is the book to get.
REVIEW: This novel displayed great detective work by Radzinskii. It gives as much detail as possible about Tsar Nicholas II, his family and their last days. He searched archives that were previously closed to non-government personnel and he corresponded with those who were either witnesses or heard accounts (via second hand) from witnesses such as parents or grandparents. Tsar Nicholas II is shown as a Tsar not for power, but out of obligation. He is shown as a loving husband and caring father. The execution of this family is tragic.
REVIEW: A very interesting look into the fading dynasty of the Romanovs. "The Last Tsar" brings the incompetent rule of Nicholas II to light and the eccentric exploits of his wife and family and their eventual imprisonment and execution. At times the text drags on a bit, but over all I would recommend this book to any interested in the Romanovs and the fall of Imperial Russia. 
REVIEW: This book will teach you a lot of good information about tsarist Russia, in particular about Nicholas II's reign. The book is exhaustive in its research on the subject, and talks about Nicholas' relationship with Russian citizens, Rasputin's influence with Alexandra and the last days and death of the tsar and his family. This book is readable, informative and entertaining.
REVIEW: Radzinsky takes a very interesting perspective on the last of the Romanovs. He uses the diaries that Nicholas so carefully kept for much of his life time, but he doesn't try to rewrite them. He uses excerpts when appropriate, as well as incorporating information from those closest to the Tsar. It is the kind of book that becomes hard to put down once you pick it up, and is a must read for any one who is interested in this interesting but tragic chapter of history.
ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:
History of Russia (A Brief Overview): Prior to the current era (before 0 A.D.) the vast lands of South Russia were home to various Proto-Indo-European tribes such as the Scythians. Between the third and sixth centuries A.D., the steppes were overwhelmed by successive waves of nomadic invasions when swept through Europe, as was the case with Huns and Turkish Avars. A Turkic people, the Khazars, ruled South Russia through the 8th century. They were important allies of the Byzantine Empire and waged a series of successful wars against the Arab Califates. The Early East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia from the 7th century onwards and slowly assimilated the native Finno-Ugric tribes, such as the Merya, the Muromians and the Meshchera.
In the mid-9th century, a group of Scandinavians, the Varangians, assumed the role of a ruling elite at the Slavic capital of Novgorod. Although they were quickly assimilated by the predominantly Slavic population, the Varangian dynasty lasted several centuries, during which they affiliated with the Byzantine, or Orthodox church and moved the capital to Kiev in A.D. 882. In the 10th to 11th centuries this state of Kievan Rus became the largest in Europe and one of the most prosperous, due to diversified trade with both Europe and Asia. However the opening of new trade routes with the Orient at the time of the Crusades contributed to the decline and defragmentation of Kievan Rus by the end of the 12th century.
In the 11th and 12th centuries, the constant incursions of nomadic Turkic tribes, such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs, led to the massive migration of Slavic populations from the fertile south to the heavily forested regions of the north. The medieval states of Novgorod Republic and Vladimir-Suzdal emerged as successors to Kievan Rus, while the middle course of the Volga River came to be dominated by the Muslim state of Volga Bulgaria. Like many other parts of Eurasia, these territories were overrun by the Mongol invaders known as the “Golden Horde”, which would pillage Russia for over three centuries. Later known as the Tatars, they ruled the southern and central expanses of present-day Russia, while the territories of present-day Ukraine and Belarus were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, thus dividing the Russian people in the north from the Belarusians and Ukrainians in the west.
Nomadic rule retarded the country's economic and social development. However, the Novgorod Republic together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of the Mongol yoke and was largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Alexander Nevsky, the Novgorodians repelled the Germanic crusaders who attempted to colonize the region. While still under the domain of the Mongols the duchy of Moscow began to assert its influence in Western Russia in the early 14th century. Assisted by the Russian Orthodox Church Muscovy inflicted a defeat on the Mongols in the Battle of Kulikovo (1389). Ivan the Great (ruled 1456-1505) eventually tossed off the control of the invaders, consolidated surrounding areas under Moscow's dominion and first took the title "grand duke of all the Russias".
After the fall of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire in 1453 A.D., Muscovite Russia remained the only more or less functional Christian state on the Eastern European frontier, allowing it to claim succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. By the beginning of the 16th century the Russian state set the national goal to return all Russian territories lost as a result of the Mongolian invasion and to protect the southern borderland against attacks of Crimean Tatars and other Turkic peoples. In 1547, Ivan the Terrible was officially crowned the first Tsar of Russia. During his long reign, Ivan annexed the Muslim polities along the Volga River and transformed Russia into a multiethnic state.
By the end of the century, Russian Cossacks established the first settlements in Western Siberia. In the middle of the 17th century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia all the way to the Pacific coast, where the strait between North America and Asia was first sighted by a Russian explorer in 1648. Muscovite control of the nascent nation continued after the Polish intervention of 1605-1612 under the subsequent Romanov dynasty, beginning with Tsar Michael Romanov in 1613. Peter the Great (ruled in 1689-1725) defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War, forcing it to cede even more territory to Russia, including Ingria in which Peter founded a new capital, Saint Petersburg. Peter succeeded in bringing ideas and culture from Western Europe to a severely underdeveloped Russia. After his reforms, Russia emerged as a major European power.
Catherine the Great, ruling from 1762 to 1796, continued Peter’s efforts at establishing Russia as one of the great powers of Europe. Examples of its 18th-century European involvement include the War of Polish Succession and the Seven Years' War. In the wake of the Partitions of Poland, Russia had taken territories with the ethnic Belarusian and Ukrainian population, earlier parts of Kievan Rus. As a result of the victorious Russian-Turkish wars, Russia's borders expanded to the Black Sea and Russia set its goal on the protection of Balkan Christians against a Turkish yoke. In 1783 Russia and the Georgian Kingdom (which was almost totally devastated by Persian and Turkish invasions) signed the treaty of Georgievsk according to which Georgia received the protection of Russia.
In 1812, having gathered nearly half a million soldiers from France, as well as from all of its conquered states in Europe, Napoleon invaded Russia but, after taking Moscow, was forced to retreat back to Europe. The Russian armies ended their pursuit of the enemy by taking his capital, Paris. As a result of the Napoleonic wars Bessarabia, Finland, and Poland were incorporated into the Russian Empire. However the continuation of Russian serfdom impeded the development of Imperial Russia in the mid-19th century. As a result, the country was defeated in the Crimean War, 1853–1856, by an alliance of major European powers, including Britain, France, Ottoman Empire, and Piedmont-Sardinia. Nicholas's successor Alexander II (1855–1881) was forced to undertake a series of comprehensive reforms and issued a decree abolishing serfdom in 1861.
The Great Reforms of Alexander's reign spurred increasingly rapid capitalist development and attempts at industrialization. The Slavophile mood was on the rise, spearheaded by Russia's victory in the War of 1877-1878, which forced the Ottoman Empire to recognize the independence of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and autonomy of Bulgaria. However the failure of agrarian reforms and suppression of the growing liberal intelligentsia were continuing problems however. On the eve of World War I, the position of Tsar Nicholas II and his dynasty appeared precarious. Repeated devastating defeats of the Russian army in the Russo-Japanese War and World War I and the resultant deterioration of the economy led to widespread rioting in the major cities of the Russian Empire and to the overthrow in 1917 of the Romanovs. At the close of this Russian Revolution of 1917, a Marxist political faction called the Bolsheviks seized power in Petrograd and Moscow under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin.
The Bolsheviks changed their name to the Communist Party. A bloody civil war ensued, pitting the Bolsheviks' Red Army against a loose confederation of anti-socialist monarchist and bourgeois forces known as the White Army. The Red Army triumphed, and the Soviet Union was formed in 1922. The Soviet Union was meant to be a transnational worker's state free from nationalism. The concept of Russia as a separate national entity was therefore not emphasized in the early Soviet Union. Although Russian institutions and cities certainly remained dominant, many non-Russians participated in the new government at all levels.
One of these was a Georgian named Joseph Stalin. A brief power struggle ensued after Lenin's death in 1924. Stalin gradually eroded the various checks and balances which had been designed into the Soviet political system and assumed dictatorial power by the end of the decade. Leon Trotsky and almost all other Old Bolsheviks from the time of the Revolution were killed or exiled, and the ideals of communism died with them. As the 1930’s began, Stalin launched the Great Purges, a massive series of political repressions. Millions of people who Stalin and local authorities suspected of being a threat to their power were executed or exiled to Gulag labor camps in remote areas of Siberia. As bad as the Soviet was for Eastern Europe, it was equally bad for Russia. And though 27 million Russians perished in World War II, it would be difficult to determine in the end who killed more Russians, the Nazi’s or the Soviet Union itself under Stalin [AncientGifts].
The History of Russia: Nomadic pastoralism developed in the Pontic-Caspian steppe beginning in the Chalcolithic. In classical antiquity the Pontic Steppe was known as Scythia. Beginning in the 8th century BC ancient Greek traders introduced their culture and civilization to the trade emporiums in Tanais and Phanagoria. Ancient Greek explorers, most notably Pytheas, even went as far as modern day Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea. Romans settled on the western part of the Caspian Sea, where their empire stretched towards the east. In the 3rd to 4th centuries AD a semi-legendary Gothic kingdom of Oium existed in Southern Russia until it was overrun by Huns. Between the 3rd and 6th centuries AD the Bosporan Kingdom was a Hellenistic polity which succeeded the Greek colonies. The Bosphorus Kingdom was also overwhelmed by nomadic invasions led by warlike tribes. These included most notably the Huns and Eurasian Avars. A Turkic people known as the Khazars ruled the lower Volga basin steppes between the Caspian and Black Seas until the 10th century AD.
The ancestors of modern Russians are the Slavic tribes,. The original home of these Slavic tribes is thought by some scholars to have been the wooded areas of the Pinsk Marshes. The East Slavs gradually settled Western Russia in two waves. One moved from Kiev toward present-day Suzdal and Murom. The other moved from Polotsk toward Novgorod and Rostov. From the 7th century AD onwards the East Slavs constituted the bulk of the population in Western Russia. The Eastern Slavs assimilated the native Finno-Ugric peoples, including the Merya, the Muromians, and the Meshchera.
The establishment of the first East Slavic states in the 9th century coincided with the arrival of Varangians. These were a population of traders, warriors and settlers from the Baltic Sea region. Primarily they were Vikings of Scandinavian origin. The Varangians had ventured along the waterways extending from the eastern Baltic to the Black and Caspian Seas. According to the Primary Chronicle a Varangian from Rus' people named Rurik was elected ruler of Novgorod in 862. In 882 his son and successor Oleg ventured south and conquered Kiev. Prior to that time Kiev had been paying tribute to the Khazars. Oleg, his brother, Igor, and Igor's son Sviatoslav subsequently subdued all local East Slavic tribes to Kievan rule. They destroyed the Khazar khaganate and launched several military expeditions to Byzantium and Persia.
In the 10th to 11th centuries Kievan Rus' became one of the largest and most prosperous states in Europe.The reigns of Vladimir the Great and his son Yaroslav the Wise constitute the Golden Age of Kiev. The period encompassed Vladimir's reign from 980 to 1015 and Yaroslav's reign from 1019–1054. The Golden Age of Kiev saw the acceptance of Orthodox Christianity from Byzantium. The period also witnessed the creation of the first East Slavic written legal code, the “Russkaya Pravda”. In the succeeding 11th and 12th centuries constant incursions by nomadic Turkic tribes such as the Kipchaks and the Pechenegs. The consequences included a massive migration of Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north. They re-settled particularly into the area known as Zalesye.
The age of feudalism and decentralization was marked by constant in-fighting between members of the Rurik Dynasty. The Rurik Dynasty had ruled Kievan Rus' collectively. However the in-fighting resulted in the waning of Kiev's dominance. This benefitted Vladimir-Suzdal in the north-east, the Novgorod Republic in the north-west, and Galicia-Volhynia in the south-west. Ultimately Kievan Rus' disintegrated. The final blow to the Rurik Dynasty was the Mongol invasion of 1237–40. This resulted in the destruction of Kiev and the death of about half the population of Rus'. The invading Mongol elite together with their conquered Turkic subjects including Cumans, Kipchaks, and Bulgars became known as Tatars. Together they formed the state of the Golden Horde. Russian principalities were plundered by the Golden Horde. The Mongols ruled the Cuman-Kipchak confederation and Volga Bulgaria for over two centuries. The region they ruled included modern-day southern and central expanses of Russia.
Galicia-Volhynia was eventually assimilated by the Kingdom of Poland. The Mongol-dominated Vladimir-Suzdal and Novgorod Republic were two regions on the periphery of Kiev. Together they established the basis for the modern Russian nation. The Novgorod Republic together with Pskov retained some degree of autonomy during the time of Mongol rule. They were largely spared the atrocities that affected the rest of the country. Led by Prince Alexander Nevsky Novgorodians repelled invading Swedes in the “Battle of the Neva” in 1240. The Novgorodians then repelled Germanic crusaders in the “Battle of the Ice” in 1242. Thus put an end in Swedes and Germans attempting to colonize the Northern Rus'.
The most powerful state to eventually arise after the destruction of Kievan Rus' was the Grand Duchy of Moscow, also knwon as "Muscovy". Muscovy was initially a part of Vladimir-Suzdal. While still under the domain of the Mongol-Tatars and with their connivance, Moscovy began to assert its influence in the Central Rus' in the early 14th century. Muscovy gradually became the leading force in the process of the Rus' lands' reunification and expansion of Russia. Muscovy's last rival, the Novgorod Republic, prospered as the chief fur trade center and the easternmost port of the Hanseatic League.
Nonetheless conditions remained difficult. There were frequent Mongol-Tatar raids. Agriculture suffered from the beginning of the Little Ice Age. As in the rest of Europe, plague was a frequent occurrence between 1350 and 1490. However because of the lower population density and better hygiene the death rate from plague was not as severe as in Western Europe. The better hygiene was in no small part due to the widespread practicing of banya, a wet steam bath. Thus population rebounded more quickly thain Western Europe, with the population numbers recovering to pre-plague numbers by 1500. The united army of Russian principalities inflicted a milestone defeat on the Mongol-Tatars in the Battle of Kulikovo in 1380. The Russian army was led by Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscovy and aided by the Russian Orthodox Church. Muscovy gradually absorbed the surrounding principalities. These principalities included formerly strong rivals such as Tver and Novgorod.
Ivan III ("the Great") finally threw off the control of the Golden Horde and consolidated the whole of Central and Northern Rus' under Moscovy's dominion. He was also the first to take the title "Grand Duke of all the Russias". After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Moscow claimed succession to the legacy of the Eastern Roman Empire. Ivan III married Sophia Palaiologina, the niece of the last Byzantine emperor Constantine XI. Ivan made the Byzantine double-headed eagle his own, and eventually it was incorporated into Russia's coat-of-arms. Following the precept that Russia was the inheritor of the Roman/Byzantine Empire(s), in essense a “Third Rome”, the Grand Duke Ivan IV (the "Terrible") was officially crowned first Tsar ("Caesar") of Russia in 1547. Also known as “Ivan the Terrible” the Tsar promulgated a new code of laws known as Sudebnik of 1550. Ivan the Terrible also established the first Russian feudal representative body known as “Zemsky Sobor”. He also introduced limited local self-management into the rural regions
During his long reign Ivan the Terrible nearly doubled the already expansive Russian territory by annexing the three Tatar khanates. These were fragmentary remains of the disintegrated Golden Horde. They included Kazan and Astrakhan along the Volga River, and the Siberian Khanate in southwestern Siberia. By the end of the 16th century Russia had been thusly transformed into a multiethnic, multidenominational and transcontinental state. However the Tsardom was weakened by the long and unsuccessful Livonian War against the coalition of Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden. The war was fought over access to the Baltic coast and accompanying sea trade. At the same time the Tatars of the Crimean Khanate who were the only remaining successor to the Golden Horde continued to raid Southern Russia.
In an effort to restore the Volga Khanates, Crimeans and their Ottoman allies invaded central Russia. They even managed to burn down parts of Moscow in 1571. But in the next year the large invading army was thoroughly defeated by Russians in the Battle of Molodi. In achieving victory the Russian forever eliminated the threat of an Ottoman–Crimean expansion into Russia. The slave raids of Crimeans however did not cease until the late 17th century. By that time the construction of new fortification lines across Southern Russia constantly narrowed the area accessible to Crimean incursions. One example of such a fortified line was the Great Abatis Line. Kuzma Minin also appealed to the people of Nizhny, Novgorod to raise a volunteer army against the Polish invaders which had also threatened Russia.
The death of Ivan's sons marked the end of the ancient Rurik Dynasty in 1598. The end of the dynasty in combination with a terrible famine of 1601 to 1603 led to civil war. Pretenders to the throne ruled and foreign interventions were the prevailing themes during the “Time of Troubles” in the early 17th century.By that time the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied parts of Russia, including Moscow. In 1612 the Poles were forced to retreat by the Russian volunteer corps led by two national heroes, merchant Kuzma Minin and Prince Dmitry Pozharsky. The Romanov Dynasty acceded to the throne in 1613 by the decision of the Zemsky Sobor, and the country started its gradual recovery from the crisis.
Russia continued its territorial growth through the 17th century, which came to be known as the age of Cossacks. Cossacks were warriors organised into military communities. There was a loose resemblance to the pirates and pioneers of the New World. In 1648 the peasants of Ukraine joined the Zaporozhian Cossacks in rebellion against Poland-Lithuania during the Khmelnytsky Uprising. This was a reaction to the social and religious oppression they had been suffering under Polish rule. In 1654 Bohdan Khmelnytsky who was the Ukrainian leader offered to place Ukraine under the protection of the Russian Tsar, Aleksey I. Aleksey's acceptance of this offer led to another Russo-Polish War. Finally Ukraine was split along the Dnieper River. This left the western part, or right-bank Ukraine, under Polish rule. The eastern part, or left-bank Ukraine and Kiev were under Russian rule. Later in 1670–71 the Don Cossacks led by Stenka Razin initiated a major uprising in the Volga Region. However the Tsar's troops were successful in defeating the rebels.
In the east the rapid Russian exploration and colonization of the huge territories of Siberia was led mostly by Cossacks hunting for valuable furs and ivory. Russian explorers pushed eastward primarily along the Siberian River Routes. By the mid-17th century there were Russian settlements in Eastern Siberia, on the Chukchi Peninsula, along the Amur River, and on the Pacific coast. In 1648 the Bering Strait between Asia and North America was crossed for the first time. Under Peter the Great Russia was proclaimed an Empire in 1721 and became recognized as a world power. Ruling from 1682 to 1725 Peter defeated Sweden in the Great Northern War. Sweden's defeat for thme to cede West Karelia and Ingria. These were two regions the Russians lost earlier during the “Time of Troubles”. In addition Sweden ceded Estland and Livland. Gaining these regions secured Russia's access both to the sea as well as collary martime commerce. On the Baltic Sea Peter the Great founded a new capital called Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg later became known as Russia's "window to Europe". Peter the Great's reforms brought considerable Western European cultural influences to Russia.
The reign of Peter I's daughter Elizabeth in 1741 to 1762 saw Russia's participation in the Seven Years' War of 1756 to 1763. During this conflict Russia annexed East Prussia and even occupied Berlin. However upon Elizabeth's death all these conquests were returned to the Kingdom of Prussia by pro-Prussian Peter III of Russia. Catherine II ("the Great") who ruled from 1762 to 1796 presided over the “Age of Russian Enlightenment”. She extended Russian political control over the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Most of its territories were incorporated into Russia during the Partitions of Poland. This had the effect of pushing the Russian frontier westward into Central Europe. In the south after successful outcomes to wars against Ottoman Turkey Catherine advanced Russia's boundary to the Black Sea. There Russian forces defeated the Crimean Khanate. As a result of victories over Qajar Iran in Russia's Persian Wars by the first half of the 19th century Russia also made significant territorial gains in Transcaucasia and the North Caucasus. Russian victories forced the the defeated to cede what is present-day Georgia, Dagestan, Azerbaijan and Armenia to Russia.
Catherine's successor was her son Paul. Paul was unstable and focused predominantly on domestic issues. Following his short reign Catherine's strategy was continued with Alexander I, who ruled from 1801 through 1825. Alexander wrestled Finland from the weakened kingdom of Sweden in 1809, then Bessarabia from the Ottomans in 1812. At the same time Russians colonized Alaska and even founded settlements in California such as Fort Ross. In 1803 through 1806 the first Russian circumnavigation of the globe was made. These were subsequently followed up ny other notable Russian exploratory ocean voyages. In 1820 a Russian expedition discovered the continent of Antarctica. In alliances with various European countries Russia also fought against Napoleon's France. The French invasion of Russia at the height of Napoleon's power in 1812 reached Moscow. However Napoleon's forces eventually failed miserably in the face of obstinate Rusian resistance. That resistance in combination with the bitterly cold Russian winter led to a disastrous defeat of invaders. More than 95% of Napoleon's forces perished.
Led by Mikhail Kutuzov and Barclay de Tolly, the Russian army ousted Napoleon from the country. They then drove through Europe in the war of the Sixth Coalition, finally entering Paris. Alexander I headed Russia's delegation at the Congress of Vienna that defined the map of post-Napoleonic Europe. The Kazan Cathedral and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow were built to commemorate Napoleon's defeat. A monument to Mikhail Kutuzov was eventually erected in front of the Kazan Cathedral in Saint Petersburg. However the officers of the Napoleonic Wars brought ideas of liberalism back to Russia with them. They subsequently attempted to curtail the tsar's powers during the abortive Decembrist revolt of 1825. The conservative Tsar Nicolas I reigned from 1825 through 1855. His reign was the zenith period of Russia's power and influence in Europe. Russia's influence and power was disrupted by defeat in the Crimean War. This war was fought between 1853 and 1856 against a coalition of Ottoman, French, British, and Sardian troops. The war commenced after the Russians invaded a portion of the Balkans which is now part of modern day Romania. This was after the Russians had already lost over one million people between 1847 and 1851 due to an Asiatic cholera epidemic.
Nicholas's successor Alexander II ruled from 1855 through 1881. Alexander II enacted significant changes in the country, including the emancipation reform of 1861. These Great Reforms spurred industrialization and modernised the Russian army. The Russian army was fresh off of victories in the 1877 to 78 Russo-Turkish War. By the conclusion of this war Russia had successfully liberated Bulgaria from Ottoman rule. The late 19th century saw the rise of various socialist movements in Russia. Alexander II was killed in 1881 by revolutionary terrorists. His son and successor Alexander III reigned from 1881 through 94. His reign was less liberal but more peaceful.
The last Russian Emperor was Nicholas II, who reigned from 1894 through 1917. Nicholas II was unable to prevent the events of the Russian Revolution of 1905. The Russian Revolution was triggered by the unsuccessful Russo-Japanese War and the demonstration incident known as Bloody Sunday. The uprising was put down, but the government was forced to concede major reforms. These took the form of the Russian Constitution of 1906. The reforms included granting the freedoms of speech and assembly, the legalization of political parties, and the creation of an elected legislative body. The legislative body took the form of the State Duma of the Russian Empire. The Stolypin agrarian reform led to a massive peasant migration and settlement into Siberia. More than four million settlers arrived in that region between 1906 and 1914 [Wikipedia].
Medieval Kievan Rus: Kievan Rus was a medieval political federation which exited from 862 through 1242 AD. It was located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and part of Russia. In fact the name “Russia” is derived from the name for the “Rus”, a Scandinavian people. The name Kievan Rus is a modern-day naming convention which originated with 19th century AD historians. However the name “Kievan Rus” has the same meaning as `land of the Rus’. And this is how the region was referred to in the Middle Ages. The Rus ruled from the city of Kiev. So the name `Kievan Rus’ simply meant “the lands of the Rus of Kiev”. The Rus are first mentioned in the Annals of Saint-Bertin. The Annals record the presence of the Kievan Rus who were encountered by Saint Bertin during an 839 AD diplomatic mission from Constantinople. The mission called upon the court of Louis the Pious, who reigned from 814 through 840 AD. The annals claim they were Swedes, and this is possible. However their ethnicity has never been firmly established.
The story of the arrival of the Rus in the east is first told in the 12th century “Primary Chronicle”. The “Primary Chronicle” is also known as “Tale of Bygone Years of Russia”. This work relates how the people of the land invited the Rus to rule and maintain order in their country in the mid-9th century AD. The Rus were identified in the Primary Chronicle as being Scandinavian Vikings). Three brothers accepted the invitation. One of the brothers was name “Rurik”. Thus was founded the Rurik Dynasty. The Dynasty would last for over 700 years until the first Tsar of Russia, Ivan the Terrible who reigned from 1547 through 1584 AD. This version of events is supported in the present day by historians who are labeled “Normanists”. These are historians who accept a Norse origin for the Rurik Dynasty). However this version of history is challenged by so-called `Anti-Normanists’. These historians argue for a Slavic origin of Russia and the other states.
The Normanist claims are presently considered more historically valid. It is generally accepted by scholars that the Norse leader Rurik founded the dynasty and reigned from 862 through 879 AD. The historical facts support these events and this chronology. The historical evidence supports the fact that the Rurik Dynasty would endure in an unbroken line through the reign of Ivan IV. Ivan IV was the first Tsar of Russia. He was also known as “Ivan the Terrible” and reigned from 1547 to 1584 AD. The state of Kievan Rus fell to the Mongols between 1237 and 1242 AD. This fragmented the region of Kievan Rus into pieces. These fragments eventually developed into the modern states of Belarus, Russia, and the Ukraine.
The Russian Primary Chronicle was probably completed in around 1113 AD at Kiev. It was once attributed to the monk Nestor, who lived from approximately 1056 through 1114 AD. However the Primary Chronicle is not believed to be a compilation of earlier works, and were possibly edited by Nestor. The earliest surviving copy of the manuscript dates from 1377 AD. However this copy contains editorial notes substantiating the earlier date of the work. The Chronicle is regularly alluded to as historical narrative. However its “historocity” has been challenged as it clearly contains a number of mythic or legendary elements. Nonetheless archaeological evidence from the region supports most of the events it describes.
The work begins by claiming that after the biblical Great Flood, the sons of Noah divided the world between them. Noah's sons included Ham, Shem, and Japeth. Japeth received the region of Kievan Rus as part of his allotment. What Japeth did to establish order in his lands is not mentioned. However the Chronicle relates that the people fought with each other. Eventually the Chronicle records that they were subjugated by the Khazars of Central Asia (Turkey) and the Varangians (Vikings) of Scandinavia. The Slavs of the region were forced to pay tribute to the Khazars and the Varangians. The Chronicle claims that the Slavs eventually drove the Varangians out. but maintained the relationship with the Khazars. Afterwards however the Slavs found that they could not govern themselves and the tribute paid to the Khazars was too great. Even though they had been tired of paying the Varangians, they recognized that life may have been better under their protection.
The Chronicle states, “They said to themselves, 'Let us seek a prince who may rule over us and judge us according to the law'. They accordingly went overseas to the Varangian Russes; these particular Varangians were known as Russes, just as some are called Swedes, and others Normans, English, Gotlanders, for they were thus named.” The Slavic ambassadors arrived at the unspecified land of the Rus and invited them to come and rule their land as kings. Three noble brothers accepted the invitation and the Chronicle continues, “The oldest, Rurik, located himself at Novgorod; the second, Sineus, at Beloozero; and the third, Truvor, in Izborsk. On account of these Varangians, the district of Novgorod became known as the land of Rus. The present inhabitants of Novgorod are descended from the Varangian race, but aforetime they were Slavs.”
Corroboration for Scandinavian settlements in these areas comes from physical evidence unearthed in archaeological digs. In about 750 AD a settlement was established at Staraja Ladoga near the Volkhov River. This was the first Scandinavian village in the region. Archaeological evidence shows that Scandinavians lived in Ladoga from its inception. A set of Scandinavian-Baltic smithy tools, including a talisman with the face of Odin, was found in a stratum of the 750’s. The Scandinavians who visited Ladoga did not come to loot and raid. There were no other towns in the vicinity. Monasteries did not exist. The neighboring burial mounds of the local peoples were very modest in their contents. There was little of value to steal here. Ladoga was created to facilitate access to the interior of European Russia, with all its natural wealth.
The evidence further suggests that Ladoga later became a seasonal settlement later. Alternatively perhaps the population simply fluctuated significantly. This archaeological evidence is in line with the Chronicle’s narrative of the Slavs ejecting the Varangians and then inviting them back. Norse artifacts have also been found at Novgorod and the other sites mentioned in the Chronicle. Two years after their arrival, the two younger brothers died. Rurik took their regions as his own with his capital at Novgorod. Two men of Rurik’s group, Askold and Dir, asked him for permission to leave the land and seek their fortunes at Tsargrad, as Constantinople was known. The two were given permission to leave for Constantinople. On their way to Tsargrad they stopped at a city on a hill called Kiy, as Kiev was knwon. They conquered the city. And then began raiding the surrounding area in true Viking fashion. The Chronicle credits them with the famous attack on Constantinople involving 200 Viking ships around 860 AD. After much slaughter the attack was driven off. According to legend the Viking maarauders by a storm said to have been sent by God. The historical date of this raid and the archaeological record however does not fit with the rest of the narrative.
In Novgorod Rurik died of natural causes. He entrusted his young son Igor to the care of a kinsman. The kinsman was Oleg, who was also known as Oleg of Novgorod, and Oleg the Prophet. Oleg reigned from 879 to 912 AD, and assumed the role of Rurik's successor. Oleg began a series of military campaigns from Novgorod, conquering and consolidating the surrounding lands. He came at last to Kiev and saw how Askold and Dir were amassing enormous wealth through raids. Askold and Dir you'll recall had approached Rurik for permission to seek their fortunes in Constantinople. Oleg tricked them both into coming out of Kiev where they were safe. Oleg killed them both and took control of the region. Oleg even moved the captial from Novgorod to Kiev in about 882 AD. Through negotiations and military strength he convinced a number of tribes and settlements to stop paying tribute to the Khazars and pay him instead. By the time his reign ended Oleg had vastly expanded Rus’ control of the region and filled Kiev’s treasury.
It was foretold that Oleg would be killed by a beautiful horse he owned but which he never dared to ride because of the prophecy. Oleg was known as “Oleg the Prophet” due to this. “Oleg the Prophet” could also be translated as “Oleg the Priest”. Oleg ordered the horse sent away but provided that it would always be well fed and cared for. Oleg had conquered the surrounding regions and made lucrative treaties, particularly with Constantinople. Confident in his reign and enamored with his own power, Oleg scoffed at the prophecy. He asked his advisers what had ever happened to the horse that was supposed to kill him. He was told it had died. Oleg asked to be brought to the horse’s bones. Once there, he mocked the prophecy and stamped on the horse’s skull. In so doing Oleg startled a snake which had found a refure beneath the horse's skull. The serpent bit Oleg on the foot and killed him.
Oleg was succeeded by Igor of Kiev who reighed from 912 to 945 AD Igor was Rurik’s son, whom Oleg had raised after Rurik's death. Before he had come into power Igor was already married to a Varangian (Viking) woman named Olga. Olga later became “Saint Olga of Kiev”, living until about 969 AD. Like his adopted father Igor engaged in successful military campaigns. He exacted tribute from the lands he conquered. In time however he found that all the wealth he had amassed was simply not enough for him. Igor imposed ever heavier tributes on the subjugated people. He was finally assassinated by the tribe known as the Drevlians for his greed. His son Sviatoslav I was too young to take the throne and so Olga served as his regent between 945-963 AD. Sviatoslav eventually ruled on his own after Olga's abdiction. Sviatoslav reigned until 972 AD.
While regent, Olga’s first order of business was to punish the Drevlians for killing her husband. The Drevlians sent word they wanted her to marry their Prince Mai. Olga seemed to agree and requested emissaries. Olga killed the emissaries by tricking them into being carried in a boat. Olga had the boatload f men dumped into a pit where they were buried alive. Olga then entreated the wisest men of the Drevlians to come to her. Upn their arrived Olga invited the travel-weary men to bathe. Thereup Olga set the bath-houses on fire burning the wise men to death. Olga then instructed the Drevlians to prepare a funeral feast to honor Igor. At the feast after allowing all of the Drevlains to become drunk, Olga had her soldiers slaughter everyone there.
The surviving Drevlians took refuge in the city of Iskorosten, where Igor had been killed, and Olga lay siege to it. When she could not take it, she said she would impose the lightest terms of surrender on the city and asked only for three pigeons and three sparrows from each home. These were quickly given and she had her soldiers attach a piece of hot sulphur by a thread to the birds and then release them to return to their nests in the city. These nests in the eaves of houses, and coops, and elsewhere all caught fire at once and Iskorosten was consumed. Olga killed or sold into slavery most of the survivors but spared others so they could continue to pay tribute. The stories of Olga’s revenge are among the more mythical sections of the Primary Chronicle. However scholars of Russian history do believe that they point to actual historical events pertaining to the in the eradication of the Drevlians. These stories were later discounted by the church when Olga was sainted. Olga earned her sainthood for her reputed dedicated Christian missionary work in the region. Her sainthood in explicably oberlooks the fact that Kievan Rus remained predominantly pagan throughout her reign as well as the reigns of her son and his successor. It was not Olga but Vladimir the Great , who reigned from 980 through 1015 AD who would convert the region to Christianity. Olga abdicated in favor of Sviatoslav I in about 963 AD. She retired to Kiev to spend the rest of her life in domestic duties. Sviatoslav I quickly began a course of military campaigns even greater than those of Oleg and Igor. This is an effort to expand his territory and control trade routes. He conquered Khazaria first, which had long been a rival power. He went on to conquer the Volga Bulgars, the Alans, and the Danube Bulgars. By that time he had more than tripled his kingdom in size.
Sviatoslav was assassinated returning to Kiev from one such campaign. His three sons Yaropolk I, Oleg, and Vladimir fought for the crown. Oleg, the second brother was killed. Yaropolk I took power and reigned from 972 to 980 AD. When Yaopolk seized the throne, the third brother Vladimir had fled to Norway. He took refuge in the court of the reigning monarch of Haakon Sigurdsson. Sigurdsson who ruled in Norway from about 972 to 995 AD was related to Vladimir. While taking refuge in Norway Fladimir gathered a force of Varangians, biding his time until he felt ready to return and make an attempt to take back the kingdom. He defeated Yaropolk I’s armies and killed his brother in an ambush.
Vladimir followed the example of his father and granfather before him. He embarked on a number of military campaigns. These were either intended to expand the kingdom or secure certain areas. Throughout these marches and battles Vladimir had pagan shrines erected to honor local or national deities. At about this time, in about 987 AD, Basil II asked Vladimir for military aid . Basil II regined as Emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 976 to 1025 CE. He was asking for military aid to defend his throne from two challengers. One of those challengers, Bardas Phokas, had already declared himself emperor. Vladimir agreed to aid Basil but either asked for or was offered Basil II’s sister Anne in marriage. The marriage was approved on the condition that Vladimir convert to Christianity.
This pact resulted in the Christianization of Kievan Rus. It also led to the establishment of the Varangian Guard in the Byzantine Empire. Vladimir sent 6,000 Varangians to Basil II in Constantinople in about 988 AD. From that time forward into the 14th century AD the Varangian Guard would become the elite bodyguard of Byzantine emperors. They would also be used as a formidable body of shock troops in conjunction with the Byzantine army. An alternate version of Vladimir’s conversion claims that he had lost faith in his pagan gods. That after losing faith he sent emissaries to different nations to talk to the clergy about their religious beliefs and practices.
After researching Christianity, Islam, and Judaism he selected Eastern Orthodox Christianity. According to this version of his conversion Vladimir made this choice because of the beauty of the churches of Constantinople. Another influence on his decision was given as the fact that Eastern Orthodox Christianity held no prohibitions on alcohol or eating pork. This latter story was created at some point in the 11th century AD. Although it is impossible to complete discredit this later concoction, the tale was most likely spun so as to distance Vladimir’s conversion from be based on a simple marriage contract. Rather this accout of events emphasized Vladimir's independence from foreign influences.
Whatever the circumstances of Vladimir's conversion, it had far-reaching effects. The choice of Slavic and not Old Norse as the language of the Rus Orthodox Church made the process of assimilation irreversible. It also opened up Rus society to the profound and enduring influence of Byzantine culture. Although he may have initially agreed to convert simply to form an alliance, Vladimir quickly embraced Christianity’s best values. He made provision for the poor of his kingdom. He also made himself personally available to help anyone, no matter their social status. He founded schools to encourage literacy and improved the lives of his people in every respect. Trade flourished and the economy boomed under his rule. Vladimir also founded many new cities and built numerous churches.
Vladimir was succeeded by Sviatopolk I who reigned from 1015 to 1019 AD. Sviatopolk was also known as Sviatopolk “the Accursed”. This is due to the fact that after coming to power he murdered three of Vladimir’s sons. The murdered included Boris and Gleb, who were later made saints. Sviatopolk I may have been Vladimir’s eldest son but this is unclear. His reign was undistinguished and he was deposed by another of Vladimir’s sons, Yaroslav I. Yaroslav reigned from 1019 through 1054 AD, and was known as “Yaroslav the Wise”. Yaroslav I was the last great monarch of Kievan Rus. He married Ingegerd Olofsdotter, who lived from about 1001 to 1050 AD. Ingegerd was daughter of Olof Skotkonung, who was King of Sweden from about 995 to 1022 AD. Later in his life Yaroslav I forged important alliances through the marriages of his children to prominent personages of other nations. He also reformed the laws, brokered important treaties with Constantinople, and secured his borders from invasions by the nomadic Pechenegs of Turkey.
In keeping with the tradition of a Rus king as a warrior, Yaroslav led a number of successful military campaigns and elevated Kievan Rus to its cultural and economic apext. Around 1037 AD, he began construction of St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Novgorod. Teh cathedral is still among the most impressive medieval churches in the world. Its opulence is evidence of the grandeur of Yaroslav I’s reign. After Yaroslav's death Kievan Rus splintered as his sons fought each other for power. Simultaneously other cities and principalities rose in revolt. The succeeding monarchs at Kiev were not strong enough to hold the kingdom together. Separate, smaller polities developed. The Northern Crusades of the 12th century in particular toppled the Baltic region of the kingdom. With the sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade of the early 13th century AD the profitable trade relationship with Constantinople came to an end. This also cut off access to the traditional trade routes to Greece. By the time of the Mongol Invasion of 1237-1242 AD Kievan Rus was no longer even remotely a united federation anymore. The Mongols easily overan the remaining fragmented states.
The impact Viking raids and migration had on other cultures was considerable. Although the so-called Anti-Normanist historians continue to maintain that Norse influence in the Slavic regions was negligible, physical and literary evidence argues otherwise. The Varangian Rus who settled at Staraja Ladoga, Novgorod, and Kiev established one of the richest and most stable cultures of the time. The development of a national identity with a common religious faith under Rurikid monarchs like Vladimir the Great and Yaroslav I lay the foundation for the countries which would later emerge in the region [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
The Origin of the Slavs: The term "Slavs" designates an ethnic group of people who share a long-term cultural continuity. They also speak a set of related languages known as the Slavic languages. All these languages belong to the Indo-European language family. Little is known about the Slavs before they are mentioned in Byzantine records of the 6th century AD. Most of what we know about them prior to this time is mainly derived from archaeological and linguistic studies. The Byzantine authors refer to the Slavs as "Sclaveni". Taken together the Slavs are the least documented group among the so called "barbarian" enemies of Rome during late antiquity. Thus there is no scholarly consensus regarding their origin. Authors of the ancient world who wrote about the Slavs do not agree on their origin. Some wrote that the Slavs were nomads. Other ancient accounts claim the Salvs lived in permanent settlements located in forests and swamps. Some ancient some accounts record that they lived under the rule of a king. Other ancient accounts record that the Slavs embraced a form of democracy.
In addition to these contradictory ancient accounts we must also bear in mind that most of these accounts are filled with the bias of the Romans. The Romans perceived all barbarian peoples as primitive, uncivilized, and violent. However based on archaeological evidence we know that Proto-Slavic people were already active by 1,500 BC. Their domain stretched from western Poland to the Dnieper River in Belarus. Some contemporary scholars have in theory traced the origin of the Slavs back to indigenous Iron Age tribes living in the valleys of the Oder and Vistula rivers (around the 1st century AD. These locales are situated in present-day Poland and the Czech Republic. However this is still a matter of debate amongst historians and researchers. Rather than trying to establish a center of origin of the Slavic culture, it seems more reasonable to consider a wide territory in which a common cultural trait was shared by its inhabitants.
Linguistic evidence suggests that at some stage during their early times the territory of the Slavs reached into the western region of Russia and the southern Russian steppes. There they came into contact with Iranian speaking groups. This is contact is based on Slavic languages sharing a striking number of words with the Iranian languages. Linguistically this can only be accounted through diffusion from the Iranian into the Slavic languages. Later as the Slavs moved westward they came into contact with German tribes. Again they borrowed several additional terms from Germanic languages. Interestingly a Polish researcher noticed that in all Slavic languages the words for beech, larch, and yew are borrowed from foreign languages. This implies that during early times these type of trees were unknown to the Slavs. This is a fact that could be used as a clue to determine where the Slavic culture originated [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
Slavic Mythology: We have very little Slavic mythological material. Principally this is due to the fact that writing wasn't introduced into Slavic culture until the 9th and 10th centuries AD. The inroduction of wirting was an adjunct to the process of Christianisations. Nonetheless we do know that one of the more important pre-Christian, pagan gods of the Slavs was Perun. Perun seems related to the Baltic god Perkuno. Like the Norse god Thor, Perun was a thunder god. Perun was considered the supreme god by many Slavs. A corollary might be Thor, who was considered the most important god by many Germanic peoples. Other gods who ranked high in the Slavic Pantheon would include the male god of youth and spring. This god was know as Jarilo, or Iarilo. Any mention of Jarilo would also have to include his female counterpart, Lada, the goddess of love.
Both Jarilo and Lada were gods who died and were resurrected each year. Jarilo in particular might have had a connection with fertility motifs. During the rise of Christianity Jarilo played an important role, as he had some attributes in common with Jesus Christ. Several multiple-headed gods were also included in Slavic mythology. One such was Svantovit, also known as Svantevit. Svantovit was the god of war. He possessed four heads. Two of the heads were males and the other two females. The god Porevit had five heads, and was the god of Summer. The god Rujevit had seven faces and was the incarnation of autumn. Last was Triglav who displayed three heads and was simultaneously looking into the sky, the earth, and the underworld.
In the middle of the 5th century AD a political vacuum affected the entire region of the Balkans as a result of the fall of the Hunnic Empire. Attila's campaigns left large areas south of the Danube unsuitable for living and therefore empty. The borders of the Roman Empire's Balkans region were kept with difficulty. This was due to new groups moving within the devastated region. Among these new groups were the Slavs. Between 531 and 534 AD Roman (Byzantine) forces engaged in a series of military campaigns against the Slavs and other groups. During the 550's the Slavs advanced towards Thessalonica. They entered the region of the Hebrus River and the Thracian coast. The Slavs destroyed several Roman (Byzantine) fortified settlements. According to Roman/Byzantine sources the Slavs turned the captive women and children into slaves and killed all of the adult males. However the Slavs were unable to reach their intended target, Thessolanica.
Thessalonica was saved from disaster due to the presence of a Roman army under the command of Germanus. Later during the early 580's the Slavs combined with the Avars to overwhelm Greece, Thrace, and Thessaly. The Romans made a pact with the Avars. The Avars received an annual payment of 100,000 gold solidi in return for leaving the Roman borders untouched. The Slavs on the other hand did not take part in the agreement. The Slavs marched on to Constantinople in 585 but were driven off by the Byzantine defense forces. The Slavs nonetheless continued attacking other settlements. The Slavs ultimately established the first Slavic permanent settlements in Greece.
Early in the 600s the Byzantines organized a military campaign against the Slavs but achieved no positive results. The Slavs and the Avars joined together once again. They formed a massive force in 626 and aided by the Bulgars laid siege to Constantinople. The barbarian coalition almost accomplished its goal, but in the end the Bynzantines managed to repel the attack. After this event the Avar-Slav alliance came to an end. The Slav occupation of Greece lasted until the 9th century when the Byzantines finally expelled them. By that time the Slavs had a established a solid and long-lasting presence in the Balkans and other regions in central and eastern Europe.
By the early Middle Ages the Slavs occupied a large region. This encouraged the emergence of several independent Slav states. From the 10th century onwards the Slavs underwent a process of gradual cultural divergence. In the end it produced a set of closely related but mutually unintelligible languages classified as part of the Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Today a large number of Slavic languages are still spoken including Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Russian, and many others. The area in which these languages predominate stretches from central and eastern Europe down into Russia [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
The Avars: The Avars were a confederation of heterogeneous people consisting of Rouran, Hephthalites, and Turkic-Oghuric races. What they had in common was their migration into the region of the Pontic Grass Steppe from Central Asia . This migration occurred after the fall of the Asiatic Rouran Empire in 552 AD. The area they settled corresponds to modern-day Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan. They are considered by many historians to be the successors of the Huns in their way of life. This was particularly true with respect to their form of mounted warfare. They settled in the Huns' former territory and almost instantly set upon a course of conquest. They were hired by the Byzantine Empire to subdue other tribes. The Avar King Bayan I who reigned fro about 562 through 602 allied with the Lombard King Alboin who reigned from 560 to 572 CE. Together the Avars and Lombards defeated the Gepids of Pannonia. However the Avars then turned against their allies. The Avars took over the region forcing the Lombards to migrate to Italy.
The Avars eventually succeeded in establishing the geographically massive Avar Khaganate. This encompassed a territory corresponding roughly to modern-day Austria, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, and Bulgaria. It even extended down to and included parts of Turkey. The departure of the Lombards for Italy in 568 removed another hostile people from Pannonia. This enabled the Avar King Bayan I to expand his territories with relative ease. He founded an empire which lasted until 796 when the Avars were conquered by the Franks under Charlemagne. As is the case with the Huns the precise origin of the Avars is hotly debated by scholars. However many historians link them with the Rouran Khaganate of Mongolia, to the north of China.
The Ju-Juan tribe of Mongolia had allied themselves with the White Huns against the people known as the Toba, who were Turkish. Following numerous military engagements and established themselves as an empire in the Mongolian region around 394. This empire became known as the Rouran Khaganate. In turn the Rouran Khaganate was overthrown by the Gokturks in 552. The Rouran people led by the Xianbei Mongolians fled west to escape the Goturks. This occurred shortly before the Avars suddenly appear in history in the Steppe around 557. So it seems quite likely that the Avars were in fact Rouran refugees. This Avar origin seems the most likely given the historical chronolgy, but it is not a universally accepted theory all scholars.
The first mention of the Avars in Roman history comes from Priscus of Panium in 463 CE. Pricus was a Greco-Roman Historian who mentions the Avars in connection with a tribe known as the Sabirs. The Sabirs seem to have been a subset of the Huns. Priscus is one of the primary sources on the Huns. He was a Roman ambassador and met and dined with Attila (“the Hun”) in 448 or 449 AD while on a diplomatic mission. Pricus took note of the Avars and their activities following the death of Attila in 453 AD. By the time Pricus made his written descriptions in about 463 AD the Hunnic Empire which Attila had established was in the process of disintegrating. The distintegration had begun with the defeat of the Huns by Ardaric of the Gepids in 454 AD at the Battle of Nedao.
Following the Hun defeat at the Battle of Nedao other nations that had been subjugated by the Huns rose against them. By 469 AD the Hunnic Empire had disintegrated. Whether the Avars mentioned by Priscus are the same coalition as those who fled Mongolia in 552 is debated by scholars. Many of the so-called "barbarian" tribes mentioned by Roman writers such as the Alemanni for example changed in ethnic make-up between the time they are first mentioned and references later inm history. It is quite possible, perhaps even probably, that the latter peoples referred to as “the Avars” were a different group of the same name. The earlier Avars appear to be an established confederacy within the region. The latter Avars appear to have been refugees from Central Asia fleeing the Gokturks who it seems continued to pursue them.
According to one popular historical account the Avars were after the Huns the next major wave of originally nomadic horse warriors to sweep off the Great Eurasian Steppe and build an empire in central Europe. History knows more abaout these Avars than their predecessors the Huns. The Avars spoke a Turkic language and had previously starred as the dominant force behind a major nomadic confederation on the fringes of China. In the earlier sixth century they had lost this position to a rival force, the so-called Western Turks [Gokturks]. The Avars then arrived on the outskirts of Europe as political refugees. They announced their presence with an embassy that appeared at Justinian's court in 558 AD.
Byzantine Emperor Justinian I who reigned through 565 AD received the Avar embassy and agreed to hire them to fight against other troublesome tribes. The Avars performed their duties admirably and expected continued payment from the empire. They wanted their own homeland to settle where they could feel secure from the pursuing Turks. The Avar King Bayan I tried to lead his people south of the Danube River. However the Byzantines resisted his move. He then led the Avars north but encountered resistance from the Franks under their king Sigebert I. They continued as nomads in the service of Byzantium until the death of Justinian in 565 AD. Justinian's successor was Justin II who ruled until about 578 AD. Justin II canceled the arrangement with the Avars. When the Avar embassy asked for permission to cross the southern Danube, it was denied. They again sought to break through to the north but were repelled by Sigebert I's Frankish army. Bayan I then turned his attention to Pannonia. According to some sources he was invited to go there by Justin II to displace the Gepids.
The Lombards were already in Pannonia in conflict with the Gepids who controlled most of the region. As with the Avars, sources conflict on whether the Lombards migrated to Pannonia on their own or were invited by the Byzantine Army to drive out the Gepids. The Avar King Bayan I wanted to take the capital city of Sirmium. However he did not know the region and needed the help of those more familiar with it. He allied himself with the Lombards and in 567 CE the Avar and Lombard armies joined to crush the Gepids between them. The Vars had negotiated the terms of the alliance the Lombards Alboin before they went into battle against the Gepids. If they proved victorious the Avars would be given the Gepid lands, wealth, and people as slaves. The Lombards would be allowed to live in peace. Why the Lombards consented to this unequal agreement is unknown. However historical accounts clearly indicated that the Lombards had agreed to these termds. As with the Huns and their policies toward other nations, it is possible that Bayan the Avars threatened the Lombards with conquest if they did not acquiese to Avar terms.
The Lombard and Avar armies met in battle some distance from Sirmium. The Gepids under their king Cunimund were defeated. Sources differ on what happened in the aftermath. According to some accounts the Avar's King Bayan I killed Cunimund and had his skull turned into a wine cup. Bayan the presented the skull/wine cup to Alboin King of the Lombards as a gesture consistent with their status as comrades in arms. According to other historical sources it was instead the Lombard King Alboin killed the Gepid King Cunimund and then made the skull into a cup which he then wore on his belt. The Avar and Lombard armies then marched on Sirmium. However the Gepids had already called for help from the Byzantine Empire. The Gepids agreed to surrender the city of Sirmium to the Byzantine Empire. By the time the Avars and Lombards reached Sirmium it was heavily defended by Byzantine forces. The combined Lombard and Avar armies were driven back. Since neither army had been prepared for an extended siege the armies withdrew.
Although Sirmium remained untaken the Avars now controlled most of Pannonia. The Lombards on the other hand found that the deal they had brokered earlier with the Avars was an unfortunate one for them. King Alboin of the Lombards tried to form an alliance with the Gepids against the Avars by marrying Cunimund's daughter Rosamund. The Lombards had taken Rosamund after the battle. It was too late for the Lombards and and Gepids however. The Avars had simply become too powerful to challenge or resist. In 568 AD the Lombard King Alboin led his people out of Pannonia to Italy. There in 572 AD Alboin would be assassinated in a plot led by his wife Rosamond to avenge her father Cunimund, King of the Gepids.
The Avars under Bayan I set about building their empire on the plains of Pannonia. That there seems to have been a core "Avar" ethnicity among the larger Avar confederation is seen in some of Bayan I's military decisions and decrees. The ethnic composition of the Avar state was not homogeneous. Bayan was followed by 10,000 Kutrighur warrior subjects already at the time of the conquest of the Gepids. In 568 AD Bayan sent them to invade Dalmatia. Bayan argued that that the casualties the Kutrighurs may suffer while fighting against Byzantine Dalmatia would not hurt the Avars themselves. Under Bayan I's leadership the Avars expanded across Pannonia in every direction. Through conquest they significantly enlarged their empire. A number of Slavic people had followed the Avars into Pannonia and were now subjects of Avar rule. They were treated with the same lack of regard accorded the expendible Kutrighur soldiers.
The Avars established their headquarters near Attila's old capital of a hundred years before and fortified it. Bayan I oversaw the selection of the Avar base of operations in their new homeland and may have chosen it for its association with the Huns. It was now known as “The Ring”. Well established in Pannonia Bayan fought the Franks of Sigebert again and defeated them in 570. A dozen years later Bayan attacked Byzantine territory and seized the city of Sirmium on the Sava River. He followed this with further campaigns against the Byzantines. The Avars conquered Singidunum, modern-day Belgrade. The Avars ravaged Moesia until they were checked by a defeat at the hands of Byzantine forces near Adrianople in 587. To the Byzantines it must have seemed like a re-run of the Hunnic aggression of the fifth century.
Nonetheless with Sirmium taken, operating efficiently from The Ring, Bayan I continued his conquests. He drove his armies into the Balkans and demanded tribute from the Byzantine Empire. Together with the Slavs whom they Avars abused as a kind of 'cannon fodder' they invaded Greece in the 580's. The Avars utilized tactics in warfare similar to those used by the Huns a century before. Like the Huns, the Avars were expert horsemen. The iron stirrup had come to Europe with the invading Avars during the second half of the sixth century. The stirrup enabled riding in a squatting or almost standing position. This improved the rider's mobility thereby increasing the impact of an attacking cavalry. The stirrup greatly enhanced the already formidable Avar cavalry. It made them the most feared and invincible mounted military force since the Huns.
The Byzantine Emperor Maurice reigned from 582 through 602 AD. In his famous military handbook “Strategikon” he compared the Avars to the Huns. He aptly described the battle style of the Avars. “They prefer battles fought at long range, ambushes, encircling their adversaries, simulated retreats and sudden returns, and wedge-shaped formations...When they make their enemies take to flight, they are not content, as the Persians and the Romans, and other peoples, with pursuing them a reasonable distance and plundering their goods, but they do not let up at all until they have achieved the complete destruction of their enemies...If the battle turns out well, do not be hasty in pursuing the enemy or behave carelessly. For this nation [the steppe nomads] does not, as other do, give up the struggle when worsened in the first battle. But until their strength gives out, they try all sorts of ways to assail their enemies...”
Justin II had begun a war against the Sassanids in 572 AD. With Byzantine imperial forces drawn to the east, Bayan I had invaded further into Byzantine territories. He demanded higher and even higher tribute and defeated the imperial armies sent against him. It was the conclusion of the the Byzantine's war with the Sassanids in 592 AD that the emperor Maurice was able to send an army of adequate force against Bayan I. The Avars were driven from the Balkans and back into Pannonia by the imperial troops under the general Priscus. The Avars were driven backward until they were almost backed up to their capital. The Avars would most likely have been utterly destroyed were it not for the insurrection known as Phocas' Rebellion in 602 AD.
Byzantine Emperor Maurice refused to allow the army to stand down for winter. Instead he ordered them to winter in the Balkans in case the Avars should mount an unexpected attack. The soldiers rebelled. According to a historical account written almost two centuries later by the 9th century Byzantine monk and historian Theophanes, the rebellious troops chose the centurion Phocas (who lived from 547-610 AD) as their leader. According to Theopanes, “...the soldiers put Phocas at their head, and marched on Constantinople, where he was speedily crowned, and Maurice with his five sons executed. This was on the 27th of November, 602. The usurpation of Phocas was followed by an attack on the empire, both east and west, by the Persians on the one hand and the Avars on the other. But two years later the Khagan [King of the Avars] was induced to make peace by an increased annual stipend...”
At this same time (in 602 AD) a plague broke out in the Balkans and swept across the surrounding regions. It is likely that Bayan I was one of the many victims of the disease. Bayan I was succeeded by his son, who attempted to carry on his father's empire. In 626 AD he led a campaign against Constantinople. He was allied with the Sassanid Empire. The Avars and Sassanians coordinated a combined land and sea attack. The defensive walls enclosing Constantinople were built under the 408-450 AD reign of Theodosius II. These formidable defenses of repelled the land attack. The Byzantine fleet defeated the naval assault, sinking many of the Avar ships. The campaign was a complete failure and the surviving Avars returned home to Pannonia.
The Byzantine Emperor at this time was Heraclius, who reigned from 610 through 641 AD. The name of the son of Bayan I who ruled the Avars is unknown. But in any event the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius immediately stopped the payments to the Avars. This deprived the Avar Khaganateof their economic basis. ,The subsidiary Avar tribes and clans depended on regular distribution of goods funded by the Byzantine payments. When Bayan's son died in 630 the Bulgars of the region rose in revolt and civil war broke out between the Avars and the Bulgars. The Bulgars appealed to the Byzantine Empire for assistance. However the Byzantines were too busy fighting off an attack by the Arabs to help the Bulgars. Thus the Bulgars were forced to press on by themselves. Ultimately the Avars prevailed in this struggle. However the conflict with the Bulgars was costly, and subsequently the power of the Avars declined.
Archaeological research shows that Avar material culture changed significantly after 630 AD. In male graves the number of weapons as burial objects declined considerably. The economy of the Avar Empire ceased to be based on wars and raids, being gradually replaced by agriculture. Formerly horse-mounted warriors exchanged lance and armor for the plough. The former warriors now lived in houses with saddleback roofs which were dug into the ground. However just like the Huns who preceded them, the Avars lacked the governmental capacity to rule their large number of subject groups directly. The influence the Avars possessed was wielded indirectly through a series of intermediate leaders drawn in part from those subject groups" This system of government had worked well as long as Bayan I ruled. However after his demise, without his leadership, Avar influence degraded into disunity. When Charlemagne “the Great” of the Franks rose to power in 768 AD the Avars were in no position to challenge him.
Charlemagne conquered the neighboring Lombards in 774 AD. He then moved on the Avars but had to halt his campaign to deal with a revolt by the Saxons. However the Avars did not take advantage of this reprieve to strengthen their defenses and mobilize. Instead the Avars fought among themselves and the conflict finally broke into open civil war in 794 AD. During thye confliect the leaders of both Avar factions were killed. The subordinate authorities left in charge offered the remnants of the Avar Empire to Charlemagne. Charlemagne accepted, but then in 795 AD attacked anyway. Charlemagne's forces were eaily able to capture the Avar center, the “Ring”. Charlemagne and his forces sacked the city and carried off off the hoard of Avar treasure. The Avar Empire officially ended in 796 AD with the official surrender. After that date the Avars were ruled by the Franks. The Avars did mount a revolt in 799 CE, but were crushed by Frankish forced by 802 or 803 AD. Thereafter the Avars disintegrated and were absorbed, merging with other populations.
The Avar legacy however was to forever change the ethnic make-up of the regions they had conquered. There is every reason to suppose that the Avar Empire's system of government had the political effect of cementing the social power of chosen subordinates. This resulted in further pushing at least their Slavic subjects in the direction of political consolidation. This both prompted and enabled a wider Slavic diaspora as some Slavic groups moved further afield to escape the burden of Avar domination. As opposed to mere raiding large-scale Slavic settlement in the former east Roman Balkans only became possible when in combination with the Persian and then Arab conquests the Avar Empire destroyed Constantinople's military superiority in the region.
Like the Huns to whom they are often compared the Avars radically changed the world they inhabited. They displaced large numbers of people such as the Lombards and the Slavs. More significantly they broke the political and military power of the Byzantine Roman Empire. They were among the fiercest mounted warriors in history. However they were also herdsman and freebooters. With the possible exception of sword production they were also dependent on their neighbors and slaves for their handicrafts. Even their swords were linked to the Huns in that "Hunnic swords” are referred to by the Frank chroniclers. It's possible that these references are to Damascened blades. Such swords were found in large numbers in a boat at Nydam in Denmark, apparently dating from this period.
The legacy of the Avars is still recognized in the present day in the populations of the lands they conquered. They are so often compared with the Huns for good reason. Through their military campaigns the Avars significantly altered the demographics of the regions they raided. Avar expansions uprooted and displaced large numbers of people who then established their cultures elsewhere [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
The Mongol Invasions of Russia: The Mongol invasions of Russia and Eastern Europe occurred first with a brief sortie in 1223 AD and then again in a much larger campaign between 1237 and 1242 AD. The Mongols seemingly came from nowhere and quickly gaining a reputation as the “horsemen of the Devil”. Milotarily they achieved victory after victory, eventually as far west as the city of Wroclaw in Poland. Great cities like Tbilisi, Kiev and Vladimir fell. Reaching the Danube river the Mongols sacked the Hungarian cities of Buda, Pest, and Gran (Esztergom). Neither the Russians or the major European powers could organize themselves sufficiently to adequately meet the five-pronged attack the Mongols had launched. Likewise they were unable to counter the Mongols swift cavalry, incendiary-firing catapults and terror tactics. The rest of Eastern and Central Europe was only saved by the death of Ogedei Khan, who had ruled from 1229 to 1241 AD. His death caused the Mongols to retreat.
Despite the massive death and destruction there were some lasting cultural benefits to the invasion inasmuch as the two worlds of east and west finally met. Western travellers began to visit East Asia, a region that had hitherto been a legendary land of monsters. Reciprocally the Chinese had also held similar perceptions of Europe. With the Mongol invasion of Europe the world had become a lot more violent and just that bit smaller. Ogedei Khan had first become ruler of the Mongol Empire in 1229. He inherited the empre from his father Genghis Khan who had ruled from 1206 through 1227. The Mongol Empire comprised an impressive swathe of Asia.
As the new khan Ogedei was faced with two major problems at the outset of his reign. First the imperial treasury was empty and riches were badly needed to keep the Mongol army loyal. Second the Mongols had defeated many armies and deposed just as many rulers. However they had very little in the way of a state apparatus, bureaucracy or government. Without this they were unable to effectively rule these conquered territories. Ogedei realised that solving the second problem and being then able to impose taxes on conquered peoples would also solve the first problem. This is what transpired. Mongol ministers and officials were sent out to govern various regions and supervise local tax collectors.
A new capital was established at Karakorum in 1235 AD. With a more solid state apparatus in place and a steady income guaranteed, the khan could turn his attention to expanding his empire even further. The Mongols liked the hard plains amd frozen rivers that the Russian winter landscape presented., It was similar to the harsh grassland steppe they were used to. The Mongols had also always seen China as the richest and most prestigious territorial prize. The China of 1230 AD was divided into two large states. There was the Jurchen Jin state in the north and Song Dynasty China in the south. The Song Dynasty had existed since 960 AD and would continue in existence until 1279 AD. After Mongol campaigns from 1230 to 1234 CE the Jin state collapsed. However the Song Dynasty hung on against the Mongols and would survive for another 45 years. Thwarted by the Song, Ogedei turned to the west.
The armies of Genghis Khan had swept across western Asia. They had circled around the Caspian Sea and even defeated a Russian army at Kalka 1223 AD. However by the time Ogedei had taken over the reigns of the Kingdom from his father Genghis, many of the defeated states in the region were becoming obstinate. They were proving less than willing to pay the khan the tribute expected of them. Accordingly Ogedei sent an army to persuade them. The Khwarazm Empire bore the brunt of Ogedei’s fury throughout the 1230's. In 1235 northern Iraq was invaded. Victory followed victory. The Mongol armies pushed into Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia in 1238. They steadily wore down the fortified towns of the region. The Mongols sacked such cities as Tiflis (Tbilisi), extracting tribute from local princes.
From 1236 AD the Mongols also launched a multi-pronged and intercontinental assault on Eurasia and Eastern Europe. This army marched through Kazakhstan/Uzbekistan defeating the Bashkirs and Bulgars along the way. The Mongols then attacked the Russian principalities across the Volga River in the winter of 1237-8 AD. The Mongols liked the hard plains and frozen rivers that the Russian winter landscape presented. It was similar to the harsh grassland steppe they and their sturdy horses were used to. In 1237 the city of Ryazan (Riazan) was besieged between 16 and 21 December. The dreadful fate of the city was described in the Voskresensk Chronicle:
“...The Tartars took the town of Riazan…and burned it all. [They] killed its prince Yuri and his princess and seized the men, women and children, the monks, nuns and priests. Some they struck down with swords, while others they shot with arrows and flung into the flames. Still others they seized and bound, cut and disembowelled their bodies...” The horror of Ryazan would be repeated again and again as the Mongols showed no mercy. The Mongols were aided by the fact that the Russian princes were beset by long-standing rivalries. Consequently they could not work together even in this great emergency.
Next came Moscow’s turn to be torched. At the time Moscow was not the great city it would later become. The Mongols there sacked Suzdal in 1238 AD. Finally the Mongols besigned Vladimir, the fortified capital was besieged. Grand Duke Yuri II fled the city, leaving his wife and sons to face the attack. Gathering an an army together Grand Duke Yuri returned to try and relieve the city. However Vladimir had already fallen to the Mongol battering rams and catapults. Vladimir's cathedral had been torched. Engaging the Mongols nonetheless, the duke’s army was defeated. Grand Duke Yuri was himself was killed at the battle of Sit River. Disaster followed disaster. After prolonged resistance the city of Torshok fell in March of 1238 AD. Novgorod was saved from attack as spring arrived. The Mongol army finally turned around and withdrew back to north of the Black Sea.
A third wave of Mongols moved into the Ukraine in 1239 CE, defeating the Polovtsians and then capturing Kiev after a brief siege in December of 1240. The inhabitants of Kiev were put to the sword just as they had been elsewhere. Giovanni de Piano Carpini was an envoy of the Pope. He passed through the area six years later and reported, “...when we were journeying through that land we came across countless skulls and bones of dead men lying about on the ground. Kiev had been a very large and thickly populated town, but now it has been reduced to almost nothing...” From Kiev the Mongol army moved through Galicia and Podolia and on to Eastern Europe. One wing of the army moved northwest and attacked Poland. It then marched through Bohemia and Moravia, and then attacked Hungary.
The other wing of the Mongol army headed south and attacked Transylvania, Moldavia, and Walachia. Hungary was selected as a primary target because of its grasslands. The Mongols considered the Hungarian grasslands a perfect base for their horses. From Hungary the Mongols could then attack western Europe. In 1241 the Mongols moved into Poland. Polish towns were torched. Even the great city of Krakow was easily captured after it was abandoned by Prince Boleslaw the Chaste. True to course the fall of Karkow was followed with the now-familiar routine of mass-slaughter and looting. The trumpeter who had first sounded the alarm of the invaders’ arrival had been shot in the throat by a Mongol arrow. To this day the city of Krakowre-enacts this even on the city’s walls.
Breslau (Wroclaw) was the next city to be besieged by the Mongols. There however the inhabitants so feared what was to come will the fall of the city that they themselves torched the city. They then took refuge in its castle citadel. The city was reprieved when in 1241 the Mongol commanders received news that a large Polish army was gathering. The army was under the command of Henry the Pious, the Duke of Silesia from 1238 through 1241 AD. The army included Poles, Germans, and Teutonic knights amongst other heavy cavalry.
The Mongol army rode to meet the army of Henry the Pious near Liegnitz (Legnica). The Mongols promptly employed their tried-and-tested false retreat tactic. The Mongols then attacked again under a smoke cover provided by burning the reeds thereabouts. The Mongols once again obliterated the opposition. Henry was killed and his head paraded on a spike. The Battle of Liegnitz became a highpoint in the Mongol's invasion campaign. It was also the most westerly point of the Mongol's incursions into Europe. After the battle, the Mongol warriors were said to have filled nine sacks with their favourite trophy, the sliced-off ears of their victims.
At the same time as Poland was suffering, Hungary also found itself a Mongol target. A multi-pronged attack was launched in 1241 AD. One army moved through Moravia in the north. Three more Mongol armies went through and around the Carpathian mountains in the west. The westernmost Mongol army went deep into Moldavia and Wallachia. It then turned to attack Hungary from the south. The Hungarian King was Bela IV, who reigned from 1235 to 1270 AD. King Bela mobilised and led an army to meet the invaders in open terrain.
King Bela might have commanded one of the best armies in Europe. However he had many other issues troubling his reign besides the Mongols. He was handicapped by many of his disgruntled barons who were of questionable loyalty to the crown. Another problem was rampaging Polovtsians. These peoples had fled the Mongol onslaught further east. They were now raiding at will in Hungarian lands. Given the problems plaguing Hungary Bela’s army was roundly defeated at the Battle of Mohi (modern Muhi) on the Sajo River. The commander of the Mongol forces was Subutai. Subutai had his men cross a pontoon bridge and move through a swamp area to outflank the Hungarians. At the same time Mongol catapults bombarded the enemy from the opposite bank of the river. Following the Hungarian defeat Bela IV fled to the safety of Pressburg, modern-day Bratislava. Subsequently he fled even further afield into Croatia.
The Mongol armies meanwhile marched on relentlessly. They all met up on the Danube river in the first week of April, 1241 AD. Buda and Pest were both sacked and looted. Pest was sacked on Christmas Day. But the truly great prize was Gran, modern-day Esztergom. This was at the time the largest and richest city in the region. The Mongols employed 30 catapults in the subsequent siege which also began on Christmas Day, 1241 AD. The city fell shortly after. The invaders then followed the Danube westwards as far as Wiener Neustadt. However there the Mongols met army led by Duke Frederick II of Austria. Frederick II ruled Austria from 1230 through 1246 AD. When confronted by his army the Mongol army at least paused for consideration.
Meanwhile yet another Mongol army pursued Bela into Croatia. The Mongol army sacked Zagreb along the way. They then moved into Bosnia and Albania, finally heading towards the Caspian Sea and Sarai. Sarai would become the capital of what became known as the Golden Horde. The northern Mongol forces also about-turned. However this reprieve was likely not because of any enemy movements or threat. There was momentous news that had finally filtered across Asia from Mongolia. Ogedei Khan had died on 11 December 1241 AD. A new successor would now haveto be chosen. The senior commanders would be needed to discuss and vote for the next khan in a traditional meeting of all the Mongol tribes.
There may have been other reasons for ending the campaign in 1242 AD. One influence may have been because of the now overstretched communications from the Mongol capital at Karakorum. Another factor may have been because the grasslands of Hungary turned out to be not quite sufficient to maintain a large Mongol army indefinitely. There were also rivalries between the Mongol leaders. Now that Ogedei was dead no single commander could rely on the support of his fellows in a campaign so far from home. In any case the prize the Mongols desired most was still to the east not to the west. That prize was the Song Dynasty, which ruled China from 960 through 1279 AD. The Song Dysnaty ended when the Mongols attacked and conquered it during the reign of the next great Mongol ruler. That ruler's name echoes even into the present world, Kublai Khan, who reigned from from 1260 through 1294 AD.
Historians still ponder the questions pertaining to the overwhelmingly successful military exploits of the Mongol armies. The Mongol army had several advantages in their campaign against the Russians and Europeans. The first was that they were unknown. Despite the battle of Kalka in 1222, the Europeans still had no idea what they were dealing with and how to counter Mongolian military tactics. As the Novgorodian chronicler famously wrote: "They turned back from the river Dnieper, and we know not whence they came and whither they went." A decade and a half later, no further intelligence had been gained.
The Mongols were expert mounted archers using their long-range composite bows. They were also extremely tough soldiers. They routinely rode horseback for days on end with minimal food and water. Their stocky but nimble horses were a weapon in themselves, capable of surviving harsh temperatures. The Mongols had both light and heavy cavalry. Each rider typically had up to 16 spare horses. This gave the Mongol armies outstanding flexibility and range in their maneuvers. The Mongol army could move very fast over large areas of territory. In addition they created strict maneuvering schedules. Different divisions of an army would split up and engage the enemy in different places. They would then reunite at a specified location. It is for this reason that campaign maps prepared by modern historians to illustrate the Mongol invasions often resemble a plate of spaghetti in their depiction of multiple armies moveing in all directions.
On top of that the Mongols never turned down an opportunity to usurp, adopt and employ effective enemy tactics and technology. The Mongol armies employed ferocious mobility in their warfare techniques. Then on top of that thanks to their flexibility they quickly became adept at other types of battle too. These included siege warfare and the use of gunpowder missiles and catapults. All of the foregoing were normally far removed from traditional nomadic warfare tecniques. In their conquests the Mongols routinely came up against Europe's best knight. However these elite European troops actually seem to have been amongst the easiest enemies the Mongols had to deal with. The more agile Mongol cavalry simply did not stand its ground long enough for a group of knights to effectively charge them with their own heavy horse cavalry.
Another advantage the Mongols possessed was their ability to exploit internal divisions in the enemy. Their ability to stir up old rivalries could weaken alliances. The information necessary to accomplish this was often acquired by spies and merchants. Another successful weapon was psychological warfare. Genghis Khan had used the tactic to great effect. He created terror by slaughtering men, women and children from captured cities. Then he would deliberately deliberate release of a few prisoners who had witnessed the mass-slaughter of innocents. When these “escapees” returned home, their acounts of Mongol atrocities worked wonders on nearby settlements. The shear panic created amongst the civilian citizenry of nearby cities provided forceful persuasion for authorities to surrender to the Mongols lest the same fate befall them.
The Mongols under Ogedei continued the same tactics. Another utterly ruthless strategy was to use prisoners as human shields. This tactic was employed when Mongol troops advanced on a fortified city unwise enough to put up resistance. They would even to dress up prisoners as Mongol warriors. These were then marched them in the front ranks so that defenders wasted their precious arrows on killing their own compatriots. Another veyr sigificant fator in Mongol successes was that motivation was high amongst Mongol soldiers because Mongol warfare was designed for one purpose only: to gain booty. Finally the Mongols had one of the greatest military commanders of all time, Subutai Ba’adur. Subutai was already vastly experienced from his campaigns under Genghis Khan against the Xia and Jin states in East Asia.
The figurehead of the Mongol military was Batu, also known as “Bat-Qan”. Batu was the nephew of Ogedei Khan. However historical accounts claim that Batu was too fat and too heavy to be carried atop a single pony. So General Subutai was forced to accompany Batu traveling in a carriage. But the general was indisputably the supreme field commander of the forces which invaded western Asia and eastern Europe. Once in combat Subutai mounted his war pony and commanded his troops with aplomb. His intervention at the battle of Mohi being particularly decisive.
With the death of Ogedei Khan the Mongol armies may have done an about-face in 1242 AD. However the effects of their invasion far outlasted the relatively short military presence. First and foremost the death, destruction and forced displacement of peoples must rank high in any list of immediate consequences. Europe may have continued much as before in terms of power structures and rulers. However the invasions in Russia and huge parts of western Asia overturned the status quo. These regions of Eastern Europe and Western Asia remained under the ‘Tartar yoke’ for over a century.
To be fair however the demonization of the Mongols by Russian chroniclers and even later historians does not necessarily match reality. That reality included an invading force which sacked some cities but completely ignored others and which never established a new political structure of its own. Consequently many Russian princes were able to rule with a high degree of autonomy after the invasion. Alexander Nevsky, prince of Vladimir from 1221 through 1263 AD is just one example. His successful campaigns against Swedish and German knights in 1240 AD illustrate that Russia was far from being obliterated by the Mongol invasion.
There was a second wave of consequences. This may have been slower and more subtle. However it was nevertheless not inconsequential. Europe benefited from the spread of ideas that came with the Mongols. The Mongols had provided the crucial physical link between East and West. Gunpowder, paper, printing, and the compass all became familiar in Europe. Westerners in the form of ambassadors, Papal emissaries, missionaries all saw for themselves the world of East Asia. These ambassadors and missionaries were accompanied by travelers like Marco Polo. Together they brought back to Russia and Europe an equal mix of useful ideas and tall tales.
The world had in effect become a little smaller. However there were as well negative consequences too, to this increased contact. Most notably this too the form of the spread of the Black Death from 1347 through 1352 AD, which reverberated through Europe in successive waves for several centuries. The plaqgue was brought from a pocket of remote China to the Black Sea and from there to Venice and Europe. The devastating death toll would dwarf the casualties the Mongol hordes had caused a century before [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
Derbent, Russia: Derbent is an ancient city located along the Caspian Sea in what is present-day Russia. The area in and around Derbent has been continuously inhabited since at least the 8th century BC. However it was Shah Yazdegerd II of the Persian Sasanian Empire who founded Derbent in 438 AD. Shah Yazdegerd II who ruled from 438 to 457 AD founded Derbent as a fortress city to curb raids from Central Asian nomadic peoples into the Caucasus. Derbent can claim to be the oldest occupied city in Russia. It is Russia's southernmost city, situated only about 30 miles from the border with Azerbaijan.
Derbent is renown for its citadel known as “Naryn-Kala” or “Dagh Bary” in Persian. It is also renown for its imposing walls that date from the 6th century AD. Derbent prospered for over 1,500 years under Persian, Arab, Turkish, Azeri, Mongol, Timurid, and finally Russian rule due to its position on the Silk Road. The city possessed great geostrategic importance as the gateway to the Caucasus. UNESCO declared Derbent's citadel, ancient city, and defensive walls to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The city of Derbent is located in southern Russia in what is present-day Dagestan. The Dagestani capital city of Makhachkala is located 80 miles to Derbent's northwest. Derbent is situated quite close to the head of the Samur River, the Rubas River, and the Sukhodol River within the Caucasus Mountain range.
Blessed with a warm climate Derbent is concurrently Russia’s oldest and southernmost city. It is situated directly on the shors of the Caspian Sea. Derbent’s success as a city and importance in history is rooted in its special geographic location. The Caucasus Mountains near Derbent are less than wo miles from the shores of the Caspian Sea. The mountains almost extend directly to the seashore. Derbent thus was an essential area in the management of the flow of peoples moving to and from the Caucasus, a “chokepoint”. Throughout its ancient and medieval history Derbent was only one of two crossings through the Caucasus mountain range. The city attracted the attention of foreign merchants traversing the famed Silk Road as well as the notice of great military powers. In Persian, Derbent is formed from the compound of “dar,” meaning “gate,” and “band,” meaning “knot” or “barrier”.
The strategic importance of the area in and around Derbent has long been recognized. It was the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus who first mentioned Derbent's unusual geographical features in his writings about Scythian activities in the Near East. Archaeologists working in the 1970s have shown that the hilltop on which Derbent's citadel now rests has been settled since the 8th century BC. An even older fortress once existed there as well. That fortress was likely built by ancient peoples to withstand incursions from the Scythians. Alexander the Great has been traditionally associated with Derbent and its fortress. According to historical accounts Alexander is said to have ordered the construction of a fortress. The purpose was to defend his newly conquered lands in the south from the barbarians to the north. However historians and archaeologists are unable to substantiate this legend, it is generally regarded as foundationless myth.
A small town grew up around this ancient fortress in the 4th century BC. It is probable that the Roman general Pompey describes this same town and fortress in the accounts of his 65 BC campaign to the Caucasus. During the 1st and 2nd centuries BC the fort5ress and town were under the control of the Caucasian Kingdom of Albania. Albania served as a buffer state between the Romans and Persians. The Persian Sasanian Empire annexed the Caucasian Kingdom of Albania around 252 or 253 AD, rendering it little more than a vassal. Prior to that time the Caucasian Kingdom of Albania had also frequently been a vassal state to the Roman Empire.
The construction of the fortified walls enclosing the city of Derbent are attributed to Shah Yazdegerd II, who reigned from 438 to 457 AD. Derbent withstood numerous attacks over the next 300 years by the White Huns, Khazars, and other nomadic tribes that threatened the Persian heartlands. Construction of the current extant citadel, fortified walls, and city walls began about 570 AD. These were constructed during the 531 to 579 AD reign of Shah Khosrow I. Shah Khosrow I is widely remembered by Persians today as one of their greatest rulers. During the Third Persian-Turkic War of 627 to 629 AD the Khazars attacked and seized Derbent in 627 CE. The Khazars were allies of the Byzantine Empire under Emperor Heraclius, who ruled Byzantium from 610 to 641 AD. CE). A devastating description of the siege and Derbent’s fall is imparted by the 10th-century AD Armenian historian Movses Kaghankatvatsi in his “The History of the Country of Albania” Nonetheless the Khazars soon lost Derbent themselves to the Arabs around 643 AD.
The Arabs were impressed by Derbent's size and wealth. They greatly appreciated the citadel and the mighty walls of Derbent. They called the city “Bab al-Abwab” or the “Gate of Gates”. They associated the city with Surah Al-Kahf in the Qu'ran. This section of the Qu'ran which narrates Alexander the Great's efforts to construct a gigantic iron gate to keep people from the north out of Persia. Under Arab rule the city flourished as an entrepôt on the Silk Road. The Arabs consistently strengthened and reinforced Derbent’s walls and citadel during their rule of the city until the late 10th century AD. They also constructed the Juma Mosque in 734 AD over the remains of an old Christian basilica. The Juma Mosque is the oldest mosque in Russia.
Derbent's population swelled to about 50,000. The celebrated Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid who reigned from 786 to 809 AD even lived in Derbent for a short duration. Many Jews, Georgians, and Armenians came to settle in Derbent. The city thus possessed a cosmopolitan flavor in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era. Over the course of the next seven centuries Derbent remained relatively prosperous. This was true even as it changed hands from the Arabs to the Seljuk Turks to the Azeris to the Mongols and Timurids, and back to the Persians over the course of seven centuries.
Under Persian Safavid rule from 1501 to 1736 AD Derbent lay close to the frontier region with the Ottoman Empire and Russia. Derbent was taken once by the Ottoman Turks in 1583 following the Persian defeat at the Battle of Torches. This occurred during the Ottoman–Safavid War which ran from 1578 to 1590 AD. Except for that brief ocupation by the Ottoman Turks, Derbent remained in Persian hands until 1813. In that year the Russians occupied and annexed Derbent and Dagestan. Prior to that however there had been however a brief interlude wherein for 12 years the Russians had occupied Derbent.
Derbent’s ancient city, citadel, wall, and other constructions cover an area of around 25 acres. There was an additional 250 acres extending outward as a buffer zone. Derbent contains two walls that are located approximately 300 to 400 yards apart and extend nearly 2½ miles from the mountain citadel to the Caspian Sea. These walls also extend over 500 yards into the Caspian sea itself to protect Derbent’s harbor. During the wall’s construction in the late 6th century AD the Sasanians employed dry brickwork and made blocks on lime mortar. Originally 73 defense towers were constructed. Of those 46 were located in a portion of Derbent’s northern wall. A total of 9 out of Derbent's original 14 ancient gates survive. An impressive mountain wall acted as a line of defense. The mountain wall extended a remarkable 25 miles in a westward direction away from Derbent and through the Caucasus Mountains.
The citadel of Derbent is located upon a lofty enclosure of three slopes. It is protected by enormous walls. The walls are between 8 and 11 feet thick, 35 to 50 feet in height, and 2300 feet in length. The citadel contains a number of important archaeological remains, ancient and medieval structures, and even an Islamic bathhouse. Derbent’s present-day commercial districts lie close to the waterfront and thus between the parallel defense walls. The modern city center also grew near the seafront, and it expanded rapidly in the 20th century. Sadly one of the southern walls was destroyed in the late 19th century. Derbent’s old district contains mosques, elegant old homes, and the ruins of a medieval caravanserai [Ancient History Encyclopedia].
The Russian city of Moscow: The Russian city of Moscow (or as it is pronounced in Russian, “Moskva”) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia. It possesses a population estimated at 12.4 million within the city limits, over 17 million residents in the urban area, and over 20 million residents in the Moscow Metropolitan Area. The city covers an area of of almost 1,000 square miles, the entire urban area covers almost 2,300 square miles, while the entire metropolitan area covers over 10,000 square miles). Moscow is among the world's largest cities. It is the largest city entirely within Europe. It is also the largest urban area in Europe, the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and also the largest city by land area on the European continent.
Originally established in 1147, Moscow grew to become a prosperous and powerful city. It served as the capital of the Grand Duchy that bears its namesake. When the Grand Duchy of Moscow evolved into the Tsardom of Russia, Moscow still remained as the political and economic center for most of the Tsardom's history. When the Tsardom was reformed into the Russian Empire, the capital was moved from Moscow to Saint Petersburg. This greatly diminished the stature and of the city. The capital was then moved back to Moscow following the Russian Revolution. The city was restored as the political center of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union dissolved Moscow remained as the capital city of the contemporary and newly established Russian Federation.
Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity in the world. Its history dates back over eight centuries. Today Moscow is governed as a federal city that serves as the political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe. Moscow has one of the world's largest urban economies, and is one of the most expensive cities in which to live in the world. The city was until recently one of the fastest growing tourist destinations in the world, and was one of Europe's most visited cities. Moscow is home to the third-highest number of billionaires of any city in the world and has the highest number of billionaires of any city in Europe. The Moscow International Business Center is one of largest financial centers of Europe and the world, and features some of Europe's tallest skyscrapers.
The residents of Moscow enjoy greater access to digital services more than anywhere else in Europe,[19] and the best e-government services in the world. Moscow is also home to the tallest free-standing structure in Europe, the Ostankino Tower,. Moscow was also the host city of the 1980 Summer Olympics, and one of the host cities of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. As the historic core of Russia, Moscow serves as the home of numerous Russian artists, scientists, and sports figures. This is pricipally due to the presence of its various museums, theaters, and academic and political institutions. The city is home to several UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Moscow is well known for its display of Russian architecture. Particularly outstanding examples include Moscow's historic Red Square as well as buildings such as the Saint Basil's Cathedral and the Moscow Kremlin.
The Kremlin still serves as the seat of power of the Government of Russia. Moscow is home to many Russian companies in numerous industries. It is served by a comprehensive transit network. This includes four international airports, nine railway terminals, a tram system, a monorail system, and the largest trolley-bus fleet in Europe. Moscow also boasts the largest fleet of carsharing vehicles in the world. Most notable of the transit network is the Moscow Metro. This is the busiest metro system in Europe, and one of the largest rapid transit systems in the world. The city has over 40 percent of its territory covered by greenery, making it one of the greenest cities in Europe and the world.
The name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river. Finno-Ugric Merya and Muroma people , who were among the several pre-Slavic tribes which originally inhabited the area. It is believed that they called the river “Mustajoki”, or “Black River”. It has been suggested that the name of the city derives from this term. The most linguistically well-grounded and widely accepted theory is that the name originated from the Proto-Balto-Slavic root “muzg”, which in turn cames from the Proto-Indo-European “meu”, or "wet". Thus the name Moskva might signify a river at a wetland or a marsh. Words of similar origin include Russian “muzga”, which is a pool or puddle. Also the Lithuanian “mazgoti” and Latvian “mazgāt”, which means "to wash". In ancient languages there are also terms of similar origin. In Sanskrit “májjati” meant “to drown”, and in Latin the term “mergō” means "to dip, immerse".
In many Slavic countries Moskov is a surname. This is most common in Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and North Macedonia. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa. The name has undergone a morphological transformation at the early stage of the development of the language. One of the earliest names in recorded history was Moskovĭ. Such earlier renditions of the name have left some traces in many other languages. These would include for example English: “Moscow”, German: “Moskau”, French: “Moscou”, Latvian: “Maskava”, Ottoman Turkish: Moskov, Tatar “Mäskäw” and Kazakh: “Mäskew”. Similarly the Latin name Moscovia became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy and muscovite.
Archaeological digs show that the site of today's Moscow and the surrounding area have been inhabited since the most ancient times reaching well back into human prehistory. Among the earliest finds are relics of the Lyalovo culture. Experts assign the culture to the Neolithic period, the last phase of the Stone Age. They confirm that the first inhabitants of the area were hunters and gatherers. Around 950 AD two Slavic tribes, Vyatichi and Krivichi, settled in the area. Possibly the Vyatichi formed the core of Moscow's indigenous population.
Vladimir-Suzdal, a principality on the northeastern periphery of Kievan Rus', grew into the Grand Duchy of Moscow. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a meeting place of Yuri Dolgoruky and Sviatoslav Olgovich. At the time it was a minor town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality. In 1156, Knjaz Yury Dolgoruky fortified the town with a timber fence and a moat. In the course of the Mongol invasion of Rus, the Mongols under Batu Khan burned the city to the ground and killed its inhabitants. The timber fort "on the Moscow River" (“na Moskvě”) was inherited the youngest son of Alexander Nevsky, Daniel. At the time in the decade of the 1260's the fort was considered the least valuable of his father's possessions. Daniel was still a child at the time. The big fort was governed by deputies (“tiuns” ) appointed by Daniel's paternal uncle, Yaroslav of Tver.
Daniel came of age in the 1270s. He quickly became involved in the power struggles of the principality. He sided with his brother Dmitry in his successful bid for control of Novgorod. From 1283 onward Daniel acted as the ruler of an independent principality alongside Dmitry. Dimitry became Grand Duke of Vladimir. Daniel has been credited with founding the first Moscow monasteries, dedicated to the Lord's Epiphany and to Saint Daniel. Daniel ruled Moscow as Grand Duke until 1303. During his rule he established Moscow as a prosperous city that would eclipse its parent principality of Vladimir by the 1320s.
No later than in 1282 Daniel founded the first monastery with the wooden church of St. Daniel-Stylite. Now known as the Danilov Monastery it is situated on the right bank of the Moskva River, at a distance of five miles fom the Kremlin. Daniel died in 1303 at the age of 42. Before his death he had become a monk. According to the terms of his will he was buried in the cemetery of the St. Daniel Monastery. Moscow was quite stable and prosperous for many years and attracted a large number of refugees from across Russia. The Rurikids maintained large landholdings by practicing primogeniture. This dictated that all land was passed by a deceased father to the eldest sons. This was as opposed to dividing it up among all sons. By 1304 Yury of Moscow contested with Mikhail of Tver for the throne of the principality of Vladimir. Ivan I eventually defeated Tver to become the sole collector of taxes for the Mongol rulers. This made Moscow the capital of Vladimir-Suzdal. By paying high tribute Ivan won an important concession from the Khan.
The Khan of the Golden Horde initially attempted to limit Moscow's influence. However the growth of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania began to threaten all of Russia. To counterbalance Lithuanian the Khan strengthened Moscow. This allowed Moscow to become one of the most powerful cities in Russia. In 1380 Moscow turned the tables on the Khan. Prince Dmitry Donskoy of Moscow led a united Russian army to an important victory over the Mongols in the Battle of Kulikovo. Afterwards, Moscow took the leading role in liberating Russia from Mongol domination. By 1480 Ivan III had finally broken the Russians free from Tatar control. Moscow became the capital of an empire that would eventually encompass all of Russia and Siberia, and parts of many other lands.
In 1462 Ivan III,became Grand Prince of Moscow, which was at that time still part of the medieval Muscovy state. He began fighting the Tatars, enlarged the territory of Muscovy, and enriched his capital city. By 1500 Mscow had a population of 100,000 and was one of the largest cities in the world. He conquered the far larger principality of Novgorod to the north, which had been allied to the hostile Lithuanians. Thus he enlarged the territory sevenfold, from 170,000 to 1,080,000 square miles). He took control of the ancient "Novgorod Chronicle" and made it a propaganda vehicle for his regime.
The original Moscow Kremlin was built in the 14th century. It was reconstructed by Ivan. In the 1480s Ivan invited architects from Renaissance Italy such as Petrus Antonius Solarius who designed the new Kremlin wall and its towers. The Kremlin walls as they now appear are those designed by Solarius and were completed in 1495. Another Italian architect also designed the new palace for the prince. The Kremlin's Great Bell Tower was built in 1505 through 1508 and augmented to its present height in 1600. In 1508 to 1516 the Italian architect Aleviz Fryazin (Novy) arranged for the construction of a moat in front of the eastern wall. The moat would connect the Moskva and Neglinnaya and be filled in with water from Neglinnaya. Known as the Alevizov moat it possessed a length of 1,775 feet, a width of 118 feet, and a depth of 31 to 43 feet. The moat was lined with limestone . In 1533 the moat was fenced on both sides with low, 13 foot thick cogged-brick walls.
A “posad” or trading settlement grew up to the east of the Kremlin in the area known as Zaradye. Originally named the Hollow Field the Red Square appeared during the reigh of Ivan III. In the 16th and 17th centuries the three circular defences were built: Kitay-gorod, the White City, and the Earthen City. However in 1547 two fires destroyed much of the town. Then in 1571 the Crimean Tatars captured Moscow, burning everything except the Kremlin. The annals record that only 30,000 of 200,000 inhabitants survived. The Crimean Tatars attacked again in 1591. However but this time was held back by new defensive walls which had been built between 1584 and 1591.
In 1592 an outer earth rampart with 50 towers was erected around the city. This included an area on the right bank of the Moscow River. As an outermost line of defense, a chain of strongly fortified monasteries was established beyond the ramparts to the south and east. These principally included the Novodevichy Convent and Donskoy, Danilov, Simonov, Novospasskiy, and Andronikov monasteries. Most of these structures now house museums. From its ramparts the city became poetically known as Bielokamennaya, the "White-Walled". The limits of the city as marked by the ramparts built in 1592 are now marked by the Garden Ring.
Three square gates existed on the eastern side of the Kremlin wall. In the 17th century the three were known as Konstantino-Eleninsky, Spassky, Nikolsky. They were named after the icons of Constantine and Helen, the Saviour, and St. Nicholas that hung over them. The last two were directly opposite the Red Square. The Konstantino-Elenensky gate was located behind Saint Basil's Cathedral. The Russian famine of 1601 to 1603 killed perhaps 100,000 in Moscow. From 1610 through 1612, troops of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied Moscow. Its ruler Sigismund III tried to take the Russian throne. In 1612 the people of Nizhny Novgorod and other Russian cities conducted by prince Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin rose against the Polish occupants. They besieged the Kremlin, and expelled them. Moscow was destroyed by retreating Polish troops.
In 1613 the Zemsky sobor elected Michael Romanov tsar, establishing the Romanov dynasty. The 17th century was rich in popular risings. Of course this had started with the liberation of Moscow from the Polish–Lithuanian invaders in 1612. But this was followed with the Salt Riot in 1648, the Copper Riot of 1662, and the Moscow Uprising of 1682. Following the Russian famine of 1601 through 1603, the population of Moscow doubled from roughly 100,000 to 200,000 during the first half of the 17th century. Moscow expanded beyond its ramparts in the later 17th century. It is estimated that in the middle of the 17th century 20% of Moscow suburb's inhabitants were from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Virtually all of them had been driven from their homeland to Moscow by Muscovite invaders.
By 1682 there were 692 households established north of the ramparts. These were of Ukrainians and Belarusians abducted from their hometowns during the course of the 1654 through 1667 Russo-Polish War. These new outskirts of the city came to be known as the “Meshchanskaya sloboda”, after Ruthenian meshchane "town people". The term meshchane acquired pejorative connotations in 18th-century Russia. Today it connotes "petty bourgeois" or "narrow-minded philistine". The entire city of the late 17th century, are contained within what is today Moscow's Central Administrative Okrug. This includes the slobodas that grew up outside the city ramparts.
Numerous disasters befell the city during the late 16th through the mid 17th centuries. The plague epidemics known contemporaneously as “the Black Death” ravaged Moscow in three waves. First was 1570 and 1571. Then again in 1592. And finally in 1654 through 1656. According to many historical sources the third wave of the plague killed upwards of 80% of Moscow's population in 1654 through 1655. Fires burned out much of the wooden city in 1626 and 1648. In 1712 Peter the Great moved his government to the newly built Saint Petersburg on the Baltic coast. Except for a brief period from 1728 to 1732 under the influence of the Supreme Privy Council Moscow ceased to be Russia's capital.
After losing the status as the capital of the empire the population of Moscow at first decreased. Before the third wave of the plague from 1654 through 1656 the population of Moscow was estimated to be about 200,000. A century later in 1750 the population was about 130,000. After 1750 the population of Moscow started growing again, but then the 1770 to 1772 “Russian Plague” killed up to an estimated 100,000 Moscow residents. However between the end of the plague and 1915, the remaining duration of the Russian Empire, the population of Moscow grew to reach reach 1.8 million.
By 1700 the building of cobbled roads had begun within Moscow. In November 1730 the first permanent street light was introduced. By 1867 many streets had a gaslight. In 1883 near the Prechistinskiye Gates, arc lamps were installed. In 1741 Moscow was surrounded by a barricade 25 miles. Known as the Kamer-Kollezhskiy barrier it possessed 16 gates at which customs tolls were collected. Its line is traced today by a number of streets called val (“ramparts”). Moscow State University was established in 1755. The Moskovskiye Vedomosti newspaper appeared from 1756, originally in weekly intervals, and from 1859 as a daily newspaper. Petrovsky Palace was built in 1776 through 1780. Between 1781 and 1804 the Mytischinskiy water-pipe was constructed to bring potable water into the city. It was the first such system in Russia. The road connecting Moscow with St. Petersburg was completed in 1746. It is now the M10 highway. Its Moscow end followed the old Tver road which had existed since the 16th century. It became known as Peterburskoye Schosse after it was paved in the 1780s.
When Napoleon invaded Russia in 1812 the residents of Moscow were evacuated. It is suspected that the great Moscow fire was principally the effect of Russian sabotage so as to deny the French army with both provisions and shelter. Napoleon's Grande Armée was forced to retreat and was nearly annihilated by the devastating Russian winter and sporadic attacks by Russian military forces. As many as 400,000 of Napoleon's soldiers died during this time. A Commission for the Construction of the City of Moscow was established. This occurred in 1813 following the destruction of much of the city during the French occupation. The commission launched a great program of rebuilding Moscow. This included a partial replanning of the city-center.
Among many buildings constructed or reconstructed at this time was the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Kremlin Armoury, the Moscow University, the Moscow Manege (Riding School), and the Bolshoi Theatre. Moscow State University's main building which had burned in the fire was reconstructed. The Arbat Street dustrict had been in existence since at least the 15th century. It had developed into a prestigious area during the 18th century. Destroyed in the fire of 1812 it was rebuilt completely in the early 19th century. In the early 19th century the Arch of Konstantino-Elenensky gate was paved with bricks. However the Spassky Gate was the main front gate of the Kremlin and used for royal entrances. From this gate wooden bridges stretched across the moat. Following the 17th century improvements the bridges were in stone. Stone platforms were built nearby for guns. The Tsar Cannon was located on the platform of the Lobnoye mesto. Book merchants also hawked their goods from this bridge..
In the 1830s general Alexander Bashilov planned the first regular grid of Moscow city streets north from Petrovsky Palace. Khodynka field south of the highway was used for military training. Smolensky Rail station whih was the forerunner of present-day Belorussky Rail Terminal was inaugurated in 1870. Sokolniki Park was in the 18th century the home of the tsar's falconers well outside Moscow. However it became contiguous with the expanding city in the later 19th century. It was then developed into a public municipal park in 1878. In 1903 the enlarged Moskvoretskaya water-supply was completed. The suburban Savyolovsky Rail Terminal was built in 1902. In January 1905 the institution of the City Governor (or Mayor) was officially introduced in Moscow. Alexander Adrianov became Moscow's first official mayor.
When Catherine II came to power in 1762 Moscow was a filthy city characterized by a pervasive smell of sewage. The conditions were depicted by observers as symptomatic of the disorderly life styles of lower-class Russians recently arrived from the farms. Moscow's elites called for improved sanitation. These demands became part of Catherine's plans for increasing control over social life. National political and military successes from 1812 through 1855 calmed the critics and validated efforts to produce a more enlightened and stable society. There was less talk about the smell and the poor conditions of public health. However in the wake of Russia's failures in the Crimean War in 1855–56 confidence in the ability of the state to maintain order in the slums eroded. Demands for improved public health put filth back on the agenda [Wikipedia]. The Russian City of Saint Petersburg: Saint Petersburg was formerly known as Petrograd from 1914 through 1924, and then Leningrad from 1924 through 1991. The city is situated on the Neva River, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. It is the second-largest city in Russia with a population of roughly 5.4 million residents. It is the fourth-most populous city in Europe, the most-populous city on the Baltic Sea, as well as the world's northernmost city with over 1 million residents. As an important Russian port on the Baltic Sea, it is governed as a federal city. The city was founded by Tsar Peter the Great on May 27, 1703. The site was formerly that of a captured Swedish fortress. The city was named after apostle Saint Peter.
Saint Petersburg is historically and culturally associated with the birth of the Russian Empire and Russia's entry into modern history as a European great power. It served as a capital of the Tsardom of Russia and the subsequent Russian Empire from 1713 to 1918, though during the stretch of time it was briefly replaced by Moscow as Russia's capital city between 1728 and 1730. After the October Revolution in 1917 the Bolsheviks moved their government to Moscow, a move which has proved permanent.
Saint Petersburg is known as the "Cultural Capital of Russia". As such it is one of the most important tourism centers in the country. It is the second-largest city in Russia with a population of roughly 5.4 million residents. It is considered an important economic, scientific, and cultural center both with respect to the rest of Russia as well as Europe. The city received over 15 million tourists in 2018. In modern times, the city has the nickname of the "Northern Capital". It serves as a home to some federal government bodies such as the Constitutional Court of Russia and the Heraldic Council of the President of the Russian Federation. It is also a seat for the National Library of Russia and a planned location for the Supreme Court of Russia.
St. Petersburg has a place in Russia's military as well. It is home to the headquarters of the Russian Navy, and the Western Military District of the Russian Armed Forces. The Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Saint Petersburg is also home to the Hermitage, one of the largest art museums in the world. The Lakhta Center, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, is also situated in St. Petersburg.
Tsar Peter the Great who established the city was a proponent of “westernizing” Russia. Built on swamp and water St. Petersburg is often called the Venice of the North or Russian Venice due to its many water corridors. St. Petersburg has strongly Western European-inspired architecture and culture, which is intertwined with the city's Russian heritage. Another nickname of St. Petersburg is The City of White Nights because of a natural phenomenon which arises due to the closeness to the polar region and ensures that in summer the nights of the city do not get completely dark for a month.
The history of St. Petersburg actually starts with Swedish colonists. In 1611 the colonists built “Nyenskans”, a fortress at the mouth of the Neva River. The region was then called Ingermanland, which was inhabited by Finnic tribe of Ingrians. The small town of Nyen grew up around it. At the end of the 17th century Peter the Great wanted Russia to gain a seaport to trade with the rest of Europe. Peter was vitally interested in seafaring and maritime affairs. He recognized that Russia needed a better seaport. Russia's traditional seaport was Arkhangelsk. Arkhangelsk was on the White Sea in the far north and closed to shipping during the winter.
From 1700 to 1721 Russia became involved in military conflict in which Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony-Poland challenged the supremacy of Sweden in the Baltic area. The war resulted in the decline of Swedish influence and the emergence of Russia as a major power in that region. In 1703 during the Great Northern War Russian forces captured the Swedish fort of Nyenskans. It was replaced with the Peter and Paul Fortress. This was situated on Zayachy Island three miles inland from the water of the Gulf of Finland. The Peter and Paul Fortress became the first brick and stone building of the new city.
Under the supervision of Alexander Menshikov the city of Saint Petersburg was then built by a combination of Swedish prisoners of war and conscripted peasants from all over Russia. Tens of thousands of Russian peasant/serfs perished during the building of the city. Peter designated St. Petersburg the center of the Saint Petersburg Governorate. Peter officially moved the capital from Moscow to Saint Petersburg in 1712. This was 9 years before the Treaty of Nystad of 1721 which ended the Great Northern War. However Peter had been referring to Saint Petersburg as the capital or Russia's seat of government as early as 1704, long before the treaty ceded the land to Russia.
During its first few years the city developed around Trinity Square on the right bank of the Neva. This was in close proximity to the Peter and Paul Fortress. However according to plan Saint Petersburg soon started to be built outward. In 1716 Peter the Great appointed Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond as the chief architect of Saint Petersburg. By that year a project had been envisioned by the the Swiss-Italian Architect Domenico Trezzini whereby the city center would be on Vasilyevsky Island. It would be shaped by a rectangular grid of canals. Though the project was not completed it remains evident today in the layout of the streets.
What became known as the “Petrine Baroque” style of of Russian architecture was developed by Trezzini and other architects. The style gained prominence in the architecture of Saint Petersburg of the early 18th century. It is exemplified by such buildings as the Menshikov Palace, Kunstkamera, Peter and Paul Cathedral, Twelve Collegia. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences, University and Academic Gymnasium were established in Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. In 1725, Peter died at age fifty-two. Peter's endeavours to modernize Russia had met with opposition from the Russian nobility. This had resulted in several attempts on his life as well as a treason case involving his own son. Convicted of treason the son died in prison in 1718. At the time Peter the Great's grandson, who eventually ruled Russia as Peter II, was three years old.
In the intermediary Peter the Great was was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine I. Catherine I died in 1928, only three years after Peter the Great. After the death of Catherine Peter II succeeded to the throne as Russia's Tsar. In 1728 Peter II of Russia moved Russia's seat of government back to Moscow. However Peter II died in 1730 at only 15 years of age, he day before his planned wedding. Peter II was succeeded by Anna Ivanovna, daughter of Peter the Great's half-brother Ivan V. Two years later in 1732 Anna again (re)designated Saint Petersburg as the capital of the Russian Empire. St. Petersburg remained the seat of the Romanov dynasty and the Imperial Court of the Russian Tsars, as well as the seat of the Russian government, for another 186 years until the communist revolution of 1917.
In 1736 and 1737 the city of St. Petersburg suffered from catastrophic fires. To rebuild the damaged boroughs, a committee under Burkhard Christoph von Münnich commissioned a new plan in 1737. The city was divided into five boroughs. The city center was moved to the Admiralty borough, on the east bank between the Neva and Fontanka. Palace Square backed by the General staff arch and building became the main square of the Russian Empire. It was the setting of many events of historic significance.
St. Petersburg developed along three radial streets. These meet at the Admiralty building. They are now known as Nevsky Prospect, Gorokhovaya Street and Voznesensky Avenue. Nevsky Prospect is considered to be the main street of the city. Baroque architecture became dominant in the city during its first sixty years, culminating in the Elizabethan Baroque style. This style was utilized most notably by Italian Bartolomeo Rastrelli in such buildings as the Winter Palace. By the 1760s Elizabethan Baroque architecture was succeeded by neoclassical architecture.
Established in 1762 the Commission of Stone Buildings of Moscow and Saint Petersburg ruled no structure in the city can be higher than the Winter Palace and prohibited spacing between buildings. During the reign of Catherine the Great from the 1760s through the 1780s the banks of the Neva were lined with granite embankments. However it was not until 1850 that the Annunciation Bridge was allowed to open. It was the first permanent bridge across the Neva. Before that only pontoon bridges were allowed. The Obvodny Canal was dug in 1769 through 1833, and became the southern limit of the city.
The most prominent neoclassical and Empire-style architects in Saint Petersburg included Jean-Baptiste Vallin de la Mothe. He was responsible for designing the Imperial Academy of Arts, the Small Hermitage, Gostiny Dvor, the New Holland Arch, and the Catholic Church of St. Catherine. Antonio Rinaldi desogned the Marble Palace. Yury Felten designed the Old Hermitage and the Chesme Church. Giacomo Quarenghi was the architect for the Academy of Sciences, the Hermitage Theatre, and the Yusupov Palace. Andrey Voronikhin designed the Mining Institute and Kazan Cathedral. The architect responsible for the Admiralty building was Andreyan Zakharov. Jean-François Thomas de Thomon was responsible for the Spit of Vasilievsky Island, which constitutes a large portion of the city's historic center. The architect Carlo Rossi designed the Yelagin Palace, the Mikhailovsky Palace, Alexandrine Theatre, Senate and Synod Buildings, the General Staff Building, and also designed many streets and squares. Vasily Stasov designed the Moscow Triumphal Gate and Trinity Cathedral. Auguste de Montferrand was the architect responsible for Saint Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexander Column.
In 1810 Alexander I established the the Saint Petersburg Main military engineering school. This was the first institution of engineering sciences in Saint Petersburg There are many monuments within Saint Petersburg which commemorate the Russian victory over Napoleonic France in the Patriotic War of 1812. These include most prominently the Alexander Column erected in 1834, and the Narva Triumphal Arch. By the 1840s neoclassical architecture had given way to various romanticist styles. These styles dominated Saint Petersburg's architecture until the 1890s. The styles were represented by such architects as Andrei Stackenschneider, who designed the Mariinsky Palace, Beloselsky-Belozersky Palace, Nicholas Palace, New Michael Palace. Another prominent arhitect of the style was Konstantin Thon, who designed the Moskovsky railway station.
In 1825 the successfully suppressed Decembrist revolt against Nicholas I took place on the Senate Square. This occurred the day after Nicholas assumed the throne. The emancipation of the serfs was undertaken by Alexander II in 1861. That combined with the Industrial Revolution contributed to a great influx of former peasants into the capital. Poor boroughs spontaneously emerged on the outskirts of the city. Saint Petersburg surpassed Moscow in population and industrial growth. It developed as one of the largest industrial cities in Europe, with a major naval base (in Kronstadt), as well as river and sea ports. The Revolution of 1905 began in Saint Petersburg and spread rapidly into the provinces.
SHIPPING & RETURNS/REFUNDS: We always ship books domestically (within the USA) via USPS INSURED media mail (“book rate”). Most international orders cost an additional $17.99 to $48.99 for an insured shipment in a heavily padded mailer. There is also a discount program which can cut postage costs by 50% to 75% if you’re buying about half-a-dozen books or more (5 kilos+). Our postage charges are as reasonable as USPS rates allow. ADDITIONAL PURCHASES do receive a VERY LARGE discount, typically about $5 per book (for each additional book after the first) so as to reward you for the economies of combined shipping/insurance costs.
Your purchase will ordinarily be shipped within 48 hours of payment. We package as well as anyone in the business, with lots of protective padding and containers. All of our shipments are fully insured against loss, and our shipping rates include the cost of this coverage (through stamps.com, Shipsaver.com, the USPS, UPS, or Fed-Ex). International tracking is provided free by the USPS for certain countries, other countries are at additional cost.
We do offer U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, Registered Mail, and Express Mail for both international and domestic shipments, as well United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (Fed-Ex). Please ask for a rate quotation. Please note for international purchasers we will do everything we can to minimize your liability for VAT and/or duties. But we cannot assume any responsibility or liability for whatever taxes or duties may be levied on your purchase by the country of your residence. If you don’t like the tax and duty schemes your government imposes, please complain to them. We have no ability to influence or moderate your country’s tax/duty schemes.
If upon receipt of the item you are disappointed for any reason whatever, I offer a no questions asked 30-day return policy. Send it back, I will give you a complete refund of the purchase price; 1) less our original shipping/insurance costs, 2) less non-refundable eBay payment processing fees. Please note that eBay does NOT refund payment processing fees. Even if you “accidentally” purchase something and then cancel the purchase before it is shipped, eBay will not refund their processing fees. So all refunds for any reason, without exception, do not include eBay payment processing fees (typically between 5% and 15%) and shipping/insurance costs (if any). If you’re unhappy with eBay’s “no fee refund” policy, and we are EXTREMELY unhappy, please voice your displeasure by contacting eBay. We have no ability to influence, modify or waive eBay policies.
ABOUT US: Prior to our retirement we used to travel to Europe and Central Asia several times a year. Most of the items we offer came from acquisitions we made in Eastern Europe, India, and from the Levant (Eastern Mediterranean/Near East) during these years from various institutions and dealers. Much of what we generate on Etsy, Amazon and Ebay goes to support The Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as some other worthy institutions in Europe and Asia connected with Anthropology and Archaeology. Though we have a collection of ancient coins numbering in the tens of thousands, our primary interests are ancient jewelry and gemstones. Prior to our retirement we traveled to Russia every year seeking antique gemstones and jewelry from one of the globe’s most prolific gemstone producing and cutting centers, the area between Chelyabinsk and Yekaterinburg, Russia. From all corners of Siberia, as well as from India, Ceylon, Burma and Siam, gemstones have for centuries gone to Yekaterinburg where they have been cut and incorporated into the fabulous jewelry for which the Czars and the royal families of Europe were famous for.
My wife grew up and received a university education in the Southern Urals of Russia, just a few hours away from the mountains of Siberia, where alexandrite, diamond, emerald, sapphire, chrysoberyl, topaz, demantoid garnet, and many other rare and precious gemstones are produced. Though perhaps difficult to find in the USA, antique gemstones are commonly unmounted from old, broken settings – the gold reused – the gemstones recut and reset. Before these gorgeous antique gemstones are recut, we try to acquire the best of them in their original, antique, hand-finished state – most of them centuries old. We believe that the work created by these long-gone master artisans is worth protecting and preserving rather than destroying this heritage of antique gemstones by recutting the original work out of existence. That by preserving their work, in a sense, we are preserving their lives and the legacy they left for modern times. Far better to appreciate their craft than to destroy it with modern cutting.
Not everyone agrees – fully 95% or more of the antique gemstones which come into these marketplaces are recut, and the heritage of the past lost. But if you agree with us that the past is worth protecting, and that past lives and the produce of those lives still matters today, consider buying an antique, hand cut, natural gemstone rather than one of the mass-produced machine cut (often synthetic or “lab produced”) gemstones which dominate the market today. We can set most any antique gemstone you purchase from us in your choice of styles and metals ranging from rings to pendants to earrings and bracelets; in sterling silver, 14kt solid gold, and 14kt gold fill. When you purchase from us, you can count on quick shipping and careful, secure packaging. We would be happy to provide you with a certificate/guarantee of authenticity for any item you purchase from us. There is a $3 fee for mailing under separate cover. I will always respond to every inquiry whether via email or eBay message, so please feel free to write.
