History of Russia

"Nothing like it had ever been seen before or after…It was a powerful cry that arose no one knows whence and that called living souls to the great work of redeeming the Fatherland and the human race. And the living souls, when they heard this cry, arose, overflowing with grief and indignation for their past. And they gave up their homes, their riches, honours and families…It was not yet a political movement. Rather it was like a religious movement, with all the infectious nature of such movements. Men were trying not just to reach a certain practical end, but also to satisfy a deeply felt duty, an aspiration for moral perfection."

"I can speak Belarusian, although my brain operates in Russian due to circumstances. There is no practice, because our language has been purposefully destroyed since the mid-1990s."

"This language <Belarusian> is only ours. No other country has this language. And this is how our language was committed by our government, this is a crime. I believe this crime will still need to be investigated."

"At the Cabinet meeting this morning Zbig [Brzezinski] made an interesting comment that under Lenin the Soviet Union was like a religious revival, under Stalin like a prison, under Khrushchev like a circus, and under Brezhnev like the U.S. Post Office."

"For more than five hundred years the cardinal problem in defining Europe has centred on the inclusion or exclusion of Russia."

"Historians usually focus their attention on the past of countries that still exist, writing hundreds and thousands of books on British history, French history, German history, Russian history, American history, Chinese history, Indian history, Brazilian history or whatever. Whether consciously or not, they are seeking the roots of the present, thereby putting themselves in danger of reading history backwards. As soon as great powers arise, whether the United States in the twentieth century or China in the twenty-first, the call goes out for offerings on American History or Chinese History, and siren voices sing that today’s important countries are also those whose past is most deserving of examination, that a more comprehensive spectrum of historical knowledge can be safely ignored."

"Russian history is the conflation of the Russian state with a personal ruler. Instead of getting the strong state that they want, to manage the gulf with the West and push and force Russia up to the highest level, they instead get a personalist regime. They get a dictatorship, which usually becomes a despotism. They’ve been in this bind for a while because they cannot relinquish that sense of exceptionalism, that aspiration to be the greatest power, but they cannot match that in reality."

"Throughout its history, Russia has been a special case. It arrived late on the European scene—well after France and Great Britain had been consolidated— and none of the traditional principles of European diplomacy seemed to apply to it. Bordering on three different cultural spheres—Europe, Asia, and the Muslim world—Russia contained populations of each, and hence was never a national state in the European sense. Constantly changing shape as its rulers annexed contiguous territories, Russia was an empire out of scale in comparison with any of the European countries. Moreover, with every new conquest, the character of the state changed as it incorporated another brand-new, restive, non-Russian ethnic group. This was one of the reasons Russia felt obliged to maintain huge armies whose size was unrelated to any plausible threat to its external security. Torn between obsessive insecurity and proselytizing zeal, between the requirements of Europe and the temptations of Asia, the Russian Empire always had a role in the European equilibrium but was never emotionally a part of it. The requirements of conquest and of security became merged in the minds of Russian leaders. Since the Congress of Vienna, the Russian Empire has placed its military forces on foreign soil more often than any other major power. Analysts frequently explain Russian expansionism as stemming from a sense of insecurity. But Russian writers have far more often justified Russia’s outward thrust as a messianic vocation. Russia on the march rarely showed a sense of limits; thwarted, it tended to withdraw into sullen resentment. For most of its history, Russia has been a cause looking for opportunity."

"Few countries in history have started more wars or caused more turmoil than Russia in its eternal quest for security and status. It is also true, however, that at critical junctures Russia has saved the world’s equilibrium from forces that sought to overwhelm it: from the Mongols in the 16th century, from Sweden in the 18th century, from Napoleon in the 19th century, and from Hitler in the 20th century. In the contemporary period, Russia will be important in overcoming radical Islam, partly because it is home to some 20 million Muslims, particularly in the Caucasus and along Russia’s southern border. Russia will also be a factor in the equilibrium of Asia."

"In Russia, where the transition from one form of government to another was much more abrupt, post-Soviet governments have been grappling, with limited success, to make a new identity for Russia by using history. “These days,” the Russians say, “we live in a country with an unpredictable past.” While the new order clearly does not want to celebrate the November 7 anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, it does not want to alienate the citizenry by getting rid of what has been a two-day holiday. When Boris Yeltsin was in power, he kept the holiday but renamed it the Day of Accord and Reconciliation. The public remained largely in ignorance of the change. In 2005, Putin moved the holiday a couple of days forward, to November 4, and christened it the Day of National Unity. The change in date is to commemorate Russian success in driving out Polish invaders in 1612. The public, apart from the radical nationalists, still has no idea of what the holiday is supposed to be celebrating. What present-day Russia has shown little interest in remembering, at least so far, is the horrors of the Stalinist period. There are few official museums or sites to mark the Gulag or the thousands upon thousands who died in Stalin's prisons, and few memorials to those brave individuals, like Andrei Sakharov, who opposed the Soviet state."

"One man’s monster is another man’s hero and such debates remain relevant today. Lenin benefited from one of the great whitewashes of history and is still revered by many misguided and ignorant people in Russia and the West: he remains honoured in his Mausoleum in Moscow’s Red Square. Stalin was denounced in 1956 but the Kremlin recently presented an official textbook for history teachers that acclaimed Stalin as ‘the most successful Russian leader of the 20th century’, a state-builder and triumphant warlord who ranks with ‘Bismarck and Peter the Great’."

"Studying Russian history from the West European perspective, one also becomes conscious of the effect that the absence of feudalism had on Russia. Feudalism had created in the West networks of economic and political institutions that served the central state, once it replaced the feudal system, as a source of social support and relative stability. Russia knew no feudalism in the traditional sense of the word, since, after the emergence of the Muscovite monarchy in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, all landowners were tenants-in-chief of the Crown, and subinfeudation was unknown. As a result, all power was concentrated in the Crown."

"​Солдатушки​, бравы ребятушки, А кто вашъ родимый? – Нашъ родимый – Царь непобѣдимый, Вотъ кто нашъ родимый. Солдатушки​, бравы ребятушки, ​Есть​ у васъ родная? ​– Есть​ родная, мать намъ дорогая, Наша Русь святая. ​Солдатушки​, бравы ребятушки, Гдѣ же ваша слава? – Наша слава — Русская держава, Вотъ гдѣ наша слава. ​Солдатушки​, бравы ребятушки, Гдѣ же ваши дѣды? – Наши дѣды — ​славные​ побѣды, Вотъ гдѣ наши дѣды."

"​Little soldiers, brave little guys, And who is your esteemed? – Our esteemed, the invincible Tsar That's who our esteemed is. Little soldiers, brave little guys, Do you have a darling? – There's a darling, our dear mother, Our Holy Rus'. Little soldiers, brave little guys, Where is your glory? – Our glory is the Russian state – That's where our glory is. Soldiers, brave little guys, Where are your grandfathers? – Our grandfathers are [the] glorious victories, That's where our grandfathers are.'"

"C’est du Nord aujourd’hui que nous vient la lumiére."

"It is from the North nowadays that we get our light."

"Le despotisme temperé par l’assassinat, c’est notre Magna Charta."

"Absolutism tempered by assassination is our Magna Carta."

"L’ordre règne à Varsovie."

"Order reigns at Warsaw."

"Grattez le Russe et vous trouverez le Cosaque (ou le Tartare)."

"Scratch the Russian and you will find the Cossack (or the Tartar)."

"On lui trouve de la bonté, de l’amabilité; mais, en frottant un peu, cela sent le cosaque."

"A kind and amiable man enough; but rub a little more closely, and you become aware of the Cossack within."

"Less clear is whether all Indo-European languages derive from this group, or whether just a subset do, says Paul Heggarty, a linguist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. He suspects that the Yamnaya spoke a language that later developed into Slavic, Germanic and other northern European tongues, but he doubts that they imported the predecessor of southern European languages such as ancient Greek, or those of eastern Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit."

"Between 5000 and 4000 years ago, the Yamnaya and their descendants colonised swathes of Europe, leaving a genetic legacy that persists to this day. ... “I’ve become increasingly convinced there must have been a kind of genocide,” says Kristian Kristiansen at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden."

"The genetic analysis showed that the Britons who built Stonehenge all-but disappeared within a few generations of the Yamnaya’s arrival."

"The Steppe hypothesis posits that Indo-European spread out of the Pontic- Caspian Steppe, no earlier than 6500 years before present (yr B.P.), and mostly with horse- based pastoralism from ~5000 yr B.P. (Fig. 1B). The farming hypothesis claims that Indo- European dispersed with agriculture out of parts of the Fertile Crescent, beginning as early as ~9500 to 8500 yr B.P.. Linguistic reconstructions of some PIE lex- icon, and ancient contacts with early stages of the Uralic language family, have been widely interpreted as supporting the Steppe hypoth- esis, but the interpretation of these data is controversial."

"Human ancient DNA (aDNA) is now also re- shaping the debate. Results support a sub- stantial influx of genetic ancestry from the Eurasian Steppe ~5000 yr B.P., which could have carried several of the main branches of Indo-European into Europe. However, this ancestry signal is less evident in aDNA from Mycenaean Greece , the Balkans, and Anatolia , casting doubt on wheth- er the Steppe hypothesis can explain the spread of all branches of the family, especially in the eastern Mediterranean and Asia. This fuller aDNA picture “does not support a classical way of looking at the steppe hypothesis”."

"Indo-European origins have remained unresolved because all methods have left scope for interpretation and dispute and have failed to bring consensus on the tree topology, chronology, or homeland."

"Our results re- veal that these expansions from ~5000 yr B.P. onward also came too late for the language chronology of Indo-European divergence. They are consistent, however, with an ultimate homeland south of the Caucasus and a sub- sequent branch northward onto the steppe, as a secondary homeland for some branches of Indo-European entering Europe with the later Corded Ware–associated expansions."

"Core Yamna was essentially an incoming population: 80% of its ancestry originated further south, and most of that ultimately from the Caucasus/Zagros region."

"The United States also condemns Russia’s decision to grant expedited Russian citizenship to Ukrainians living in the Russia-controlled Donbas. Through this highly provocative action, Russia is clearly intensifying its assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Mr. President, Donbas is Ukraine, and the people there are Ukrainian—regardless of which language they prefer to speak. Conferring citizenship en masse to the citizens of another state undermines and violates the principle of sovereignty. Russia’s actions subvert the principles on which the Minsk agreements are based: that the Donbas is an integral part of Ukraine and the Ukrainian government must reestablish its control over this territory."

"Russia signed the Minsk agreements in 2014 and 2015, and President Poroshenko and President-elect Zelenskyy have reaffirmed that these agreements are the best vehicle for ending the conflict in eastern Ukraine. It is unacceptable that Russia would take steps to stymie the peace process just four days after Ukraine’s presidential elections. We welcome President-elect Zelenskyy’s expressed commitment to implement the Minsk agreements and redouble efforts to support Ukrainian citizens living in territories controlled by Russia."

"Mr. President, this council was convened today to discuss the implementation of the Minsk Agreements, a goal that we all share, despite Russia’s persistent violations. These agreements, which were negotiated in 2014 and 2015 and signed by Russia, remain the basis for the peace process to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine. This council’s primary responsibility – the very reason for its creation – is the preservation of peace and security. As we meet today, the most immediate threat to peace and security is Russia’s looming aggression against Ukraine."

"The ongoing war in the Donbas region in southeastern Ukraine was supposed to stop when the Minsk agreements were signed in 2014 and 2015 by the members of the Trilateral Contact Group—consisting of Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and representatives of the self-proclaimed republics. Indeed, even heads of state Angela Merkel, François Hollande, and Vladimir Putin gave the final version a high-profile public blessing."

"As we know, peace did not ensue after Minsk. In spite of the agreements, the military operations conducted in eastern Ukraine continued with variable intensity. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for their non-implementation. Why did the agreements fail? Now that nominal efforts are underway to discuss a possible peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, it’s important to understand the myriad ways in which the Minsk agreements were inadequate and improbable, so that lessons can be learned from its failures. Perhaps the biggest failure of all was context. As the saying goes, possession is nine-tenths of the law. Indeed, diplomacy can only go so far if one party maintains possession of a territory and the military force to hold it."

"Putin’s control of the media is becoming more and more comprehensive. What is left over, that ownership does not ensure, self-censorship increasingly neuters. The Gleichschaltung of parliament and political parties is, if anything, even more impressive. The presidential party, United Russia, and its assorted allies, with no more specific programme than unconditional support for Putin, command some 70 per cent of the seats in the Duma, enough to rewrite the constitution if that were required. But a one-party state is not in the offing. On the contrary, mindful of the rules of any self-respecting democracy, the Kremlin’s political technicians are now putting together an opposition party designed to clear the bedraggled remnants of Communism — liberalism has already been expunged — from the political scene, and provide a decorative pendant to the governing party in the next parliament."

"I think the idea people had after 1991 that there would be a quick transition is clearly wrong... A lot of it has to do with relationships with economic growth because I think in really high-growth countries with a large middle class, with lots of educated people, there is a tendency to demand greater political participation... I think what you are seeing with the rise of Putinism in Russia and in parts of Eastern Europe is in a way the failure of that kind of modernization to produce a really broad middle-class society... His model is based on a narrow energy-dependent economic model which right now is falling apart... I think what is happening in Russia right now as global commodity prices have fallen is the exposure of the hollowness of this and we will see after another decade of economic failure whether Russians really think this is such a great alternative to the kind of both freedom and prosperity that is seen in Western Europe."

"In 1999 the ailing Yeltsin anointed a former Leningrad KGB boss, Vladimir Putin, as his successor. The contrast was total. Putin was the epitome of a tough, communist-era apparatchik. The ex-intelligence officer had no time for the niceties of democracy, but a keen sense of the need to restore Russian pride. He would issue pictures of himself hunting and bare-chested on horseback. His court of oligarchs made sure he secured as much overseas wealth as they had. Putin’s politics, endorsed at increasingly rigged elections, made no mention of civil rights or market economics. He was a populist and a nationalist, his pledge merely to restore Russia’s integrity and self-confidence. Opponents were bribed, imprisoned or killed. The west might have felt able to humour and torment Yeltsin. It now faced the pastiche tsar of a macho state. That Russia’s economy was debilitated was irrelevant. Dictatorship thrives on poverty."

"The predominance of the intelligence services and mentality is a core feature of Putin’s Russia that marks a major and critical discontinuity from not only the 1990s but all of Soviet and Russian history. During the Soviet period, the Communist Party provided the glue holding the system together. During the 1990s, there was no central organizing institution or ideology. Now, with Putin, it is “former” KGB professionals who dominate the Russian ruling elite. This is a special kind of brotherhood, a mafia-like culture in which only a few can be trusted. The working culture is secretive and nontransparent."

"We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial - whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit."

"History shows that the process of modernization leads societies to form liberal democracies with market systems. Yet some leaders insist on trying to create alternative models, even though those models are unstable and retrograde. Putin's authoritarian effort to create a managed democracy in Russia offers a good example... After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 many people expected Russia to make a rapid transition from communism to democracy... However, what followed in Russia was a period of experimentation with relatively greater liberalism under President Boris Yeltsin that led not to democracy, but the rise of Putin and an authoritarian system... Putin's authoritarian system does not mean that he has built a successful alternative to liberal democracy. Instead, the system owes its existence in part to the slow development of a middle class in Russia that normally would demand a share of power. That slow development, in turn, is largely thanks to the state's monopolization of the country's most lucrative business activities: the export of energy and other natural resources."

"Moscow scholars continue to ignore Novgorod’s creation of a truly effective Russian democratic state preferring instead to draw their models of such a system from antiquity or Western Europe, thus failing to make clear that Russians can build a democracy because they already have, Viktor Sbitnev says. By their silence, they implicitly accept the Muscovite view that the only kind of Russian state possible is a highly centralized and authoritarian one, despite the fact that in Novgorod the Great for more than 500 years there was more liberalism “than in Ancient Greece and the Venetian Republic taken together,” the Literaturnaya Rossiya commentator continues."

"When an Avar made a journey, he did not cause either a horse or a steer to be harnessed, but gave command instead that three of four or five women should be yoked to his cart and be made to draw him. Even thus they harassed the Dulebians. The Avars were large of stature and proud of spirit, and God destroyed them. They all perished, and not one Avar survived. There is to this day a proverb in Rus' which runs, "They perished like the Avars.""

"The Varangians from beyond the sea imposed tribute upon the Chuds, the Slavs, the Merians, the Ves', and the Krivichians. But the Khazars imposed it upon the Polyanians, the Severians, and the Vyatichians, and collected a white squirrel-skin from each hearth. The tributaries of the Varangians drove them back beyond the sea and, refusing them further tribute, set out to govern themselves. There was no law among them, but tribe rose against tribe. Discord thus ensued among them, and they began to war one against another. 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, and Gotlanders, for they were thus named. The Chuds, the Slavs, the Krivichians, and the Ves' then said to the people of Rus', "Our land is great and rich, but there is no order in it. Come to rule and reign over us." They thus selected three brothers, with their kinsfolk, who took with them all the Russes and migrated. The oldest, Rurik, located himself in 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."

"Vladimir was visited by Bulgars of Mohammedan faith, who said, "Though you are a wise and prudent prince, you have no religion. Adopt our faith, and revere Mahomet." Vladimir inquired what was the nature of their religion. They replied that they believed in God, and that Mahomet instructed them to practice circumcision, to eat no pork, to drink no wine, and, after death, promised them complete fulfillment of their carnal desires. "Mahomet," they asserted, "will give each man seventy fair women. He may choose one fair one, and upon that woman will Mahomet confer the charms of them all, and she shall be his wife. Mahomet promises that one may then satisfy every desire, but whoever is poor in this world will be no different in the next." They also spoke other false things which out of modesty may not be written down. Vladimir listened to them, for he was fond of women and indulgence, regarding which he heard with pleasure. But circumcision and abstinence from pork and wine were disagreeable to him. "Drinking," said he, "is the joy of the Russes. We cannot exist without that pleasure.""

"Vladimir...announced the return of the envoys who had been sent out, and suggested that their report be heard. He thus commanded them to speak out before his retinue. The envoys reported, "When we journeyed among the Bulgars, we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The Bulgar bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no happiness among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful stench. Their religion is not good. Then we went among the Germans, and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no glory there. Then we went to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. Every man, after tasting something sweet, is afterward unwilling to accept that which is bitter, and therefore we cannot dwell longer here.""

"Yaroslav...assembled many scribes, and translated from Greek into Slavic. He wrote and collected many books through which true believers are instructed and enjoy religious education. For as one man plows the land, and another sows, and still others reap and eat food in abundance, so did this prince. His father Vladimir plowed and harrowed the soil when he enlightened Rus' through baptism, while this prince sowed the hearts of the faithful with the written word, and we in turn reap the harvest by receiving the teaching of books. For great is the profit from book-learning. Through the medium of books, we are shown and taught the way of repentance, for we gain wisdom and continence from the written word. Books are like rivers that water the whole earth; they are the springs of wisdom. For books have an immeasurable depth."

"Only at the end of the 4th millennium BCE did the wagon of the pre-Caucasian Steppe enter the burial practices of the Yamnaya and the Novotitarovskaya cultures."

"Aleksander Gej points out that the Novotitarovskaja culture certainly liked its wagons, indeed, the number of graves with wagons increased exponentially relative to the Maikop culture from a handful to several hundred. This culture nevertheless pro- duced the same model of 4-wheeled vehicle until the Catacomb Grave culture of the 2nd millennium BCE, with Gej pointing out that there was no evidence for a steering mechanism even at this late stage. This seems to me to be a fatal flaw in Anthony’s theory, since, as Burmeister points out, an unsteerable wagon would have been confined to a steppe envi- ronment. As soon as it attempted to expand into a densely forested area, it would have collided with the nearest tree. Anthony’s steppe dwellers may thus have had plenty of wagons, but none of them were fit for the grand purpose of spreading Indo-European languages and instead were probably popular more as mobile homes suitable only for the Steppe itself... The above suggests that his bronze age riders only shaped the modern world in that they were the ancestors of the trailer park, johnny-come-latelys to a Eurasia through which key vehicle and other technologies had already disseminated for the simple reason that it had already been networked to lesser or greater degrees for millennia."

"Better is it to be hewn to pieces than to be captive!"

"I wish to lay down my head and to drink of the Don in my helmet!"

"Wizard Boyán, scion of Véles."

"The trumpets blare at Nóvgorod, the banners stand fast at Putívl."

"Div arose crying calls on the tree-top."

"But the Pólovtsy on trackless roads ran to the mighty Don."

"There have been the ages of Troyán; the years of Yarosláv have declined. There have been the armies of Olég, Olég Svyatoslávic̆. That Olég with his sword forged rebellion, and sowed arrows over the earth."

"Then, in the time of Olég, Boris wrought for evil: feuds were sown and grew apace, the life of [Russia] the scion of Dážbog [the Sun-god] was wasted in the factions of the princes and the generations of mankind were shortened."

"From early moon until the evening, from the evening until the day-light, tempered arrows fly, the sabres thunder about the helmets, the lances crack in the foreign country, amid the land of the Pólovtsy."

"They fought one day, they fought another; on the third day, close on noon, the standards of Ígoŕ fell."

"Now already, brothers a weary time arose."

"The discord of the princes ruined them against the Pagans. For, brother spake to brother;—"This is mine, and that is also mine.""

"Ígoŕ's brave host will rise no more!"

"There the Germans and the Wends, there the Greeks and Moravians sing the fame of Svyatosláv."

"Ígoŕ dismounted from his golden saddle into a slave's saddle."

"The fair maidens of the Goths sang on the shore of the blue sea, tinkling in Russian gold. They sing the time of Bus [or Blus]."

"Shoot, my liege, the heathen Končák the slave, for the sake of the Russian land, for the sake of the wounds of Ígoŕ."

"Neither the crafty man nor the experienced, nor a bird nor a minstrel can escape God's judgments."

"Yaroslávna wails early at Putívl' on the rampart."

"Oh Dnepr Slovútič, thou hast pierced the stone mountains through the land of the Pólovtsy."

"God manifests the road to Prince Ígoŕ from the Polovsk land to the Russian land, to his fathers' golden throne."

"Though it be heavy to thee, the head, parted from the shoulders; ill is to thee, body, parted from the head:—to the Russian land without Ígoŕ!"