This video is an excerpt
from the Soviet-funded film "Ivan the Terrible".
For a brief historical walkthrough,
what can be called "Russia" existed since the early
10th century, centered at Kiev, and is thus often called "Kievan
Rus" (Kiev of the Rus[sians]). The state was firstly
founded by Viking invaders from Sweden, though the native
Slavs would quickly create for themselves a massive empire
stretching from the White Sea to the Black. In the 11th century,
Wladimir the Great adopted Orthodox Christendom from the Greeks
(though in a uniquely Slavic form), thus forcibly converting
all Russians and Ukrainians to Orthodoxy. This state gradually
fell into disrepair until it was completely abolished and
obliterated by the Mongol hordes in the 13th century. The
Mongols primarily used the valiant Turkic tribes they encountered
in their conquests of Central Asia as mercenaries for their
conquest of the world. This changed the face of Asia forever,
giving Turks, who were mostly Muslim, control of most of Asia
and nearly all of the Russians. After more than 300 years
of Turkic rule over much of what is today part of Russia,
the Slavs united in the face of a common enemy. Whereas Ivan
the Great (not the Terrible) led the unification and uprising
effort initially, it was Ivan the Terrible (IV) who truly
accomplished the creation of a pan-Slavic empire in the 15th
century. Crippling the power of the aristocratic Boyars, removing
all competitors, and demanding forced conscription, Ivan crowned
himself universal emperor of all Russians and Ukrainians,
head of Orthodoxy, and the emperor of the Third Rome, as the
First Rome had fallen to the Germans in the 5th century, and
the Second Rome (Constantinople) had recently been abolished
by the Islamic Jihad of the Ottomans just preceding his crowning.
Ivan led to the unification of most Russian states under the
new center of Muskowy (Moscow), expelled the Muslims from
Kazan (today's Tatarstan), Astrakhan, and much of the bulk
of modern Russia. Russia would never since be conquered in
war by a foreign invader, and would instead follow the path
of expansion to ultimately become the largest nation on earth
still today.
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ABOUT
THE AUTHOR:
James Mayfield is the owner
and Chairman of the European Heritage Library. I am working
for a doctorate in history, with a specific emphasis on Islamic
and European histories. I am well versed in all world cultures,
ethnicities, religions, languages, politics, and historical
evolution in relation to and against each other.
BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES
USED:
The film "Ivan the Terrible",
produced during the Soviet period at the behest of Stalin
himself. Directed by Sergei Eisenstein. Copyright expired
due to age.
Copyright 2008, European Heritage
Library®. www.euroheritage.net.
All Rights Reserved. The European Heritage Library is a non-profit academic
organization owned by Chairman James
Mayfield.
No email addresses or personal information is redistributed. No articles
or content on this site may be redistributed without approval or a full
citation and credit to the EHL as the original source.
