Early East Slavic History

As far as I know, the whole "Vladimir rejected islam because of the ban on drinking" is mostly a legend, Vladimir's main motivation appears to be the growing closeness of the Kievan Rus' to Byzantine Empire, which was their most important trade partner and biggest, most developed regional power. Building ties with them really made the most sense.

Rurik's first town was indeed Staraya Ladoga later pictured in your map, not Novgorod. Novgorod was founded a century/century and a half later, more or less

Thx for map on preview

Velikiy Novgorod first mentioned in 859 AD in its own town's Chronicles.
By the way there is the town of Staraya Ladoga witch is connected with Novgorod region and Orik (Rurik) dynasty as well, and it was founded in at least in 750 by slav tribes.
So actually historic Rurik's Novgorod can be also "Rurikovo gorodische" that is located few kilometers otside of Velikiy Novgorod (The Varangian name of the city Holmgård or Holmgard (Holmgarðr or Holmgarðir) is mentioned in Norse Sagas as existing at a yet earlier stage, but the correlation of this reference with the actual city is uncertain. Originally, Holmgård referred to the stronghold, now only 2 km (1.2 miles) to the south of the center of the present-day city, Rurikovo Gorodische.)

Dont rus come from the finnish name for the Swedish

Kyiv. It's just Kyiv.

The amount of bots fighting in the comments is pretty funny. Kyiv was the center of Rus' case and point. Kyiv is in Ukraine, not Russia.

Slavic tribe never settled on Volga River region.There are ugro-finnish settlements, their descendants are russians

I wonder what script and language russians spoke before 8th century

Hi, thanks for a very clear explanation. Can you cite your sources for this video? I don't mean primary sources necessarily

why must have they had to migrate to the land of the uralic people? why must have they assimilated them? how tragic it is, what culture and languages we have lost to time. russians shouldve left well enough alone!

It just saddens me that the history of this geography was destroyed like 3 times in some sort of purging. Like when they go from paganism to christianity, when Piotr I decided that his country should be more like Europe, when Russian Empire was replaced with Soviets, when Soviets was replaced with current countries... There is not that much cohesive left. Only with chronicles from the outside or rare allowed internal chronicles.

“Vladimir killed Olga’s father and forced her to marry him, anyway.” Sounds like another Vladimir’s tactic of choice

I knew that Ivan the Terrible’s hijinks would come up!

Awesome video, thanks for your work.

if there was a "new gorod" then it must be old too and it was. It name is Ladoga. the first kind of capital.

My girlfriend is Belarusian. Now I know why she lives in a hut and hibernates during the winter. Thank you.

I'll write down the list of Rus' monarchs mentioned in this video and their deeds because writing helps memorizing. Maybe someone will find this helpful:

Rurik (862 - 869) - conquered one of the northern Slavic chiefdoms and established himself as the ruler there. Died.
Oleg (879 - 940 ) - Rurik's kin. Acted as a regent for Rurik's son Igor. Did a lot of conquest including Kyiv, which became the realm's new capital. Lost a war against Igor over the throne.
Igor ( 912 - 945) - Rurik's son. Won a war against Oleg over the throne. Fought Byzantines and Khazars. Was brutally killed by his subjects from the Drevlia tribe for demanding too much tribute.

Olga (945 - 960) - Igor's wife. Sviatoslav's mother and regent. Avenged her husband by burning down the Drevlian capital. Centralized power. Enacted law reforms. Adopted Christianity.
Sviatoslav (960 - 972) - Was pagan. Fought the bordering nomadic tribes. Lost a battle to the Byzantines. Was ambushed and killed by their allies - nomadic Pechenegs.
Yaropolk (972 - 978) - Sviatoslav's son. Defeated his brothers Oleg (killed) and Vladimir (fled) in a succession crisis. Lost all the conquests of his dad. Was killed by Vladimir.
Vladimir (978 - 1015) - Sviatoslav's bastard son. Was defeated by his brother Yaropolk in a succession crisis and fled to Norway. Gathered an army there and retook the throne. Reconquered some of his dad's conquests. Converted the country to Orthodox Christianity.

Russia no Slavis

Cringe

Volodymyr made a mistake, honestly, Orthodoxy is a joke

Damn russians

Your videos are extremely good and I love watching them.

Busy pwning each other in the 21st Century...

You make very impressive videos. Keep it up!

The way the Slavs adopted the Rus’ name is interesting. It’s similar to the Romano-Celtic people of Gaul becoming the “French”, isn’t it?

We need more stuff on central and Eastern Europe. It’s stuff we don’t get in school. Generally if it’s not about England or classical stuff it’s like it never happened. So good work 😀

Saint Olga, patron saint of mass arson

I love how every ruler becomes a saint after their conversion to christianity :D
Again great video, I don't think I've ever learned about a huge slavic empire in the east, that's pretty interesting!

One thing tho
The vikings success in the slavik lands happened only due to them mixing in with slavs something that history got wrong but archeology shows to be true that Rurik and Rus didn’t just rule slavs but mixed in with slavs creating Rus thus even slavs proudly called them self Rus

North-east sloveny from Ladoga and Novgorod were north-west slavs, colonising the trade from Baltic Sea to the south by settling on the north part of Volga river enter. As well as south East Slavs as Radimichi and Vyatichi did the same thing on Oka river (middle part to enter Volga). There were no much differences in slavs tribes and there languages or whatever, but they practiced different types of social hierarchy (Dnipro was more patriarchal clans, east was more independent communities).

Do you have any explanation for the connection between the Slavic culture and the Vedic culture? There is some solid indication that these two are very much related.

I am from Slovakia so I am West Slav. Pozdravujem!

I'd love a video about the balts

I hate history.

"Drinking is the joy of all Rus..."
This, gentlemen, is why nowadays we don't have a chechnya in the size of Russia

This is the best video you ever made !

Very nice!

Princess of Polotsk: I won't marry you, you bastard!
Vladimir: well see about that.

And then he did the only sensible thing.

Muslim delegates presenting Islam to Vladimir I
- So if you join Islam you will not only obtain the Truth of Allah, but you will be also become a part of the greater Ummah community, also you can marry many women!
- Nice!
- You'll get the access to rich Arabic literature and latest scientific achievements
- awesome!
- you society will be guided by strict moral and juridical norms called "sharia", thus guaranteeing peace and stability
- cool!
- also, sharia enforces abstinence from alcohol
- hmm what's that?
- that means drinking is prohibited, isn't that awesome?
- oh yes, please, continue! *whispers to his servants*: - call the guards.

Excellent video! Thank you!

Why the Rus convert to Orthodox.
Simple, VODKA
No Vodka No Russki.

what about volga bulgaria?

I heard that varangians weren't really Vikings but more brutal slavs

imagine a muslim Russia....

"Drinking is the joy of all the Rus'." Classic.