Preacher Double Feature -- Freedom Today and Real Russian History:

Do we need a warning for this message? What is, is what is, and what wants to be what it is! And some of it is so foul and vile that only Appropriate Language can describe it, which wants to be, what it is. So if any thing that wants to be so awful wants to read this it should already expect Appropriate Language. And sheep cannot read anyway.

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PART ONE

Goodbye Ugly Windows -- Here Comes Mr. Sledgehammer!

WHAMM! BANG! SMASH! ALL GONE!

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Oh what a relief it is -- fast -- fast -- fast ...

And I knew it had to happen when I bought a new laptop computer last year.

It came with a horrendous program called 'Windows 11'. What hideous creeping crawling clinging grabbing possessing TRASH!!!!

As bad as the TV Turd Terrorists!

As soon as I started the laptop the Ugly Windows program tried to possess my life. The Ugly Windows program would not let me use my new laptop unless I OBEYED MICROSOFT COMMANDS TO ALLOW MY LIFE TO BE RULED BY MICROSOFT.

But, all I wanted to do was to use the laptop. THAT WAS NOT ALLOWED BY MICROPIMP.

I was forced to create an 'account' at micropimp before I could use my own laptop computer.

That is completely unheard of.

Total dictatorship. I could not believe that technology had become so POISONED BY DEVIATES that you cannot buy and use a laptop computer without being possessed by MICROSKUNK.

Fortunately, for now, there is a way around it.

1. Create the putrid account at the putrid microstink, seething with swarms of deviates.

2. Create a second account in the same laptop using your own name.

3. Destroy the account at putrid microstank. Erase everything about it in the laptop.

4. Now the laptop computer is yours as it was supposed to be, and all possession of your life by MICROSTUNK is ended -- as far as that laptop is concerned.

So .... I did this and I used the laptop for about five months and then it totally malfunctioned. It stopped restarting. It could not repair itself. It kept getting caught in a loop with some filth called 'Bitlocker'. It could not repair itself. I tried many suggestions from people on the Internet, but it turned out that since micropimp deliberately changes the Ugly Windows program too often, no advice is current enough to actually work on this laptop.

I suffered for many hours trying to get the poisoned machine to work again, to no avail.

AND THEN !!!!

TO MY SURPRISE AND AMAZEMENT !!!!

MR. SLEDGEHAMMER BURST INTO THE ROOM -- WITH CAPE AND STEEL HEAD AND SHINING PROMISES OF A FAR BETTER LIFE !!!!

He took one look at my predicament and shouted ....

“WHAMM! BANG! SMASH! ALL GONE!”

oh thank god -- plop plop fizz fizz oh what a relief it is -- fast fast fast

UGLY WINDOWS WILL BE DEAD !!!!

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I will be out a laptop computer, but look at the flip side. Now I will never buy an Ugly Windows machine again. Hurray!

And! There are plenty of other operating systems out there just waiting for a Windows Refugee Like Me.

A Windows Refugee Like Me.

A Windows Refugee Like Me.

A Windows Refugee Like Me.

****Important Point****

I will try to explain by an example just how despicable and terrible the Ugly MicroPimp Monster is.

Let us say that due to some unfortunate results of an awful history in general you are forced to live in a society where your everyday existence and health depends upon daily injections. You cannot work and you cannot not work without those injections every day. Every day you must get your injections, and there is only one place where you can get it – MICROPIMP.

Now MicroPimp is a scam, a racket, a business based upon addiction, a business based upon monopoly, a business based upon death – yours. Your daily injections can only come from MicroPimp. MicroPimp has made your entire life and environment addicted to its crap, injected daily. There is no other source. No other source is allowed. It has control of all associated factors. It controls the entire environment in which you suffer daily. Just to exist, you must have permission and approval from MicroPimp. The very idea of 'other sources' is forbidden.

Then, to make their control over you even more permanent, they change the flavor and the effects of the injection every three years. This is to make them richer and to make you more hopeless. Each time they change the flavor and their controls over you they always succeed; because they also control many other aspects of your miserable existence. Against your Free Will they use companies and parties and groups of jackals that are paid by them to force you to take the MicroPimp injections every day. The entire 'bladder' in which you exist is owned and operated by MicroPimp. And all of it wants to bleed you to death, and then cremate the remains. Nothing else matters to those vermin. It is business. You are the victims. That is all.

Any attempt by you to complain or reject their daily injections is highly frowned upon by MicroPimp; and to prevent that from happening MicroPimp owns and operate Queer Medias to keep you brainwashed and mentally fornicated and forever addicted to their brand of Insanity and Slavery.

You live in their World. You are a slave. You must do as ordered.

You are not even allowed to know that you are a slave and miserable. In fact, you should not be allowed enough functioning brain cells to see yourself with. Just obey their orders and exist for their business.

That, is 'Monopoly' with Slavery.

And now, MicroPimp is so certain that it owns your lives in every way, they think they can do anything they want to. To you. Including forcing you into open and obvious slavery and obedience to the PPPP(-) whenever you buy a new computer that is poisoned by the so-called 'Windows 11'. (Proudless Prideless Pervert Pretenders (minus the many Humans they have already killed))

Those monsters will do the same thing to you where their 'AI' is concerned. They will force their 'Artificial Intelligence' upon you as a requirement. No arguments. You will have to accept their control. AI will be your Superior. You will serve AI, which will serve MicroPimp. You will have nothing to say about it, except to “Baaahh”.

As their obedient slaves, you will be so fooled and fornicated that you will think it is all a bed of roses made just for you. They will use their Queer Medias to make you think that you are really flowers that have been waiting for the Artificial Garden to arrive. Being pissed on daily is your one and best fate, and always has been.

Don't Worry. Be Happy.

Oh look. You are too old and here comes the Mobile Crematorium.

Or would you rather the Compost Heap?

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Historically, MicroPimp ranks at the lowest levels of debauchery and corruption and possession by Evil; alongside Dr. Mengele, the Femi-Nazis, Whoopie GoldDung, the Marquis de Sade, Forrid, Nazi Pelosi, Charles Manson, Hobama the Magnificent Anal-Bleeder, Joe the Walking-Dead and the 'Little Charlie TV Dictators' of Boston.

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So ... there I was ...

I was feeling hopeless, as I was supposed to feel if I use MicroPimp products. Hopeless and a slave and nothing I can do about it.

Then! Mr. Sledgehammer burst into the room. After shouting his battle cry, Mr. Sledgehammer began to descend upon my poisoned laptop and I expected the pieces to fly all over the room ...

when all of a sudden Mr. Sledgehammer stopped in midair and said “Is that a Lenovo laptop computer?”

“Well, as a matter of fact -- I think it is.” I replied meekly.

“WELL THEN! THIS COMPUTER CAN BE SAVED!”

My amazement was mixed with regret, because I really wanted to see hundreds of poisoned laptop pieces flying all over the room.

“Why My Boy, All You Have To Do Is To Boot This Computer By USB With A Real Operating System! Then, Make The New (Human) Operating System Annihilate The Poisoned MicroDrug Program And Take Over!”

joy

angels sing with angel's wings from on high and all is well with the world again

It took about four hours. By then Mr. Sledgehammer was gone to save someone else from the microdrug scourge.

In four hours I ...

A. Downloaded a new (Human) operating system from a website onto a USB drive.

B. Used the broken windows junk screens to turn off 'secure boot' in the laptop BIOS (which should always be off in a dirty windows machine anyway).

C. Turned the laptop off, plugged in the new USB drive, turned it back on.

D. Saw a new screen that asked which boot I wanted to use (Poison or Human).

E. I chose Human, and the new operating system began to load into the laptop. It asked if I wanted to run the new system from the USB drive or install it in the laptop? I said install.

F. It said do I want to save the microdrug program? I said no. It annihilated the Ugly Windows. It completely wiped out all traces of MicroPimp and now it controls the entire hard drive -- as I told it to do so.

G. That way, there are no lingering spies from MicroPimp left in this computer!

Now -- this laptop works perfectly with a Real Human operating system.

MARVELOUS!!!!

NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY ANYTHING WITH A MICROPIMP PRODUCT IN IT.

Done.

Over.

Extinct.

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Here is a picture showing a variety of Human Operating Systems that will work fine on many of your poisoned machines ...

Comparison of Operating Systems--04-2024

Some of these systems come with 'Graphic User Interfaces' (GUI) that have on screen characteristics like the Poisoned Windows, only they work better of course. That is so the former slaves (addicts) of the microdrug can use them quickly.

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When you do this and save your computers, you will be entering a new world of greater control (by yourself) over your programs. THAT, will require that you exercise the controls. THAT, will require that you learn how to exercise the controls. THAT, will require that you learn how to give 'line commands' to a computer. You will have a GUI to help you, but you will still have to learn how to change many things yourself from now on. Once you have arranged any application to serve you personally it will run better than Ugly Windows ever could.

There is another advantage to this. I was raised on programming, not GUI's like Ugly Windows. With programming you can get much closer to the kernel of any computer, allowing greater control by you. Combined with today's GUI's, that allow you to enter line commands from any screen or window, you can literally make the computer obey your commands manually. And, change how it obeys you in many ways. This allows fine tuning like you never saw before.

It is Anti-Artificial Intelligence Intelligence. You controlling the machine, not it controlling you.

I have made a simple diagram to help you understand what this is all about ...

Levels of control over your Computer--Final--As Is

This diagram displays how things are now -- with your computers controlled by MicroPimp and the PPPP(-).

Levels of control over your Computer--Final--Your Choice

This diagram shows the current dead end pathway with MicroPimp and the Human pathway to your freedom -- literally.

Of the various possibilities, the so-called 'Linux Flavors' are probably where you will go if you are new to programming. The flavors are called 'Kubuntu', 'Lubuntu', Ubuntu' and 'Xubuntu'. Ubuntu is the major one, with Kubuntu enhanced for previous Windows Slaves and very popular. Ubuntu and Kubuntu use different GUI's but they share the same kernel. Both come with some programs that are also found on Ugly Windows, such as Firefox and LibreOffice and file managers etc.

Kubuntu is much more 'Windows-like', and either version can be downloaded off the Internet and put onto a USB drive as an 'Image'. The download sites will tell you how to burn an Image onto your USB drive. Simple copying will not work. The process is not difficult. After the Image is installed onto the USB drive, you can plug it into a poisoned machine (with secure boot turned off). The BIOS will see it on startup and ask which system you want to use. That is how you get rid of MicroPimp forever. You choose the USB drive and your system (Ubuntu or Kubuntu) loads. Follow the prompts to erase Ugly Windows and install your system.

That is just the beginning. There are many programs available on the Internet for either system. They are designed to make your Linux experience much easier. The BIOS itself will not be changed as it is universal. Lubuntu and Xubuntu are for lighter and less powerful systems. No hardware changes will be necessary.

These programs will allow you to use line commands to change just about anything and everything in the computer, like any Ugly Windows slave never thought was possible.

But, there is a learning curve to having so much control over machines that you never controlled before. In this World, with Freedom comes Work. Work is the price of Freedom.

Which is why Politicians can never be free.

Which is why the Radio Hacks that suck Politics can never be free.

Which is why the Radio Hacks never want you to be free of them.

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A good rule to follow when dealing with sewage such as the PPPP(-), and the Radio Hacks, and the monstrous MicroPimp is ...

'Never Allow Greatness To Be Ruined By Shitness'.

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PART TWO

I had intended to put out a smaller message around the 24th, of two for this month, but that might cause confusion. It is easier on my readers if I put as much as I can into one message so it can all be seen as one package, monthly. And, I wanted to compare the statements of Vladimir Putin to the never-ending lies of the EU Deviates.

This may sound like a stacked deck in favor of Vladimir, and it is! If Vladimir said One Truth in his interview with Tucker Carlson, then he is ahead of the EU Deviates by a long mile. And you know that is true and you know it worries the Queer Propagandists because the Hideous Hillary tried to bad-mouth and degrade Carlson for giving the interview. Which means, all of the Deviates are afraid of being compared to any Truth that Vladimir said.

So ... did Vladimir Putin say anything that was true in the interview?

I will examine that now; with the stipulation that if one thing which Vladimir said during the interview is true -- then the EU Deviates deserve to lose everything!!!!

Which is a stacked deck in favor of Humanity, because the Deviates deserve to lose everything anyway!!!!

But, to make it fair (which it cannot be anyway) we will use one truth as our measuring stick up their asses. Also, to make it clearer and more obvious, I will ignore statements that are really just opinions, or conjectures, or ethereal such as the statement about Souls at the very end.

Here is the first statement that we can fact-check, which Vladimir Putin said in the interview that I saw on the Internet ...

1. 862 AD was the year of the establishment of the Russian State, when Prince Ryurik from Scandinavia was invited to Novorosk in Russia to reign. In 1862 Russia celebrated the 1000th year of its Statehood.

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If only ONE of the statements by Vladimir Putin is true then the EU Deviates deserve to lose everything -- AND -- two of the European Dominoes have already fallen halfway to begin with. The Ukraine is besieged by Russian Armies and has lost significant territory, and Poland has been invaded by the EU Deviates led by the 'Anus That Ate Poland' -- some faggot named 'toosk'. Perverts like to kill anything else, even each other, butt the scum are deathly afraid of 'Final Death'. In any fight the things always shout and scream threats and kill whatever they can and use minions as fodder to keep from being hurt themselves -- BUTT -- if there is any chance that they might be killed too they always run for their anuses!!!! The EU Deviates will abandon Poland to the Russians in a fartbeat if 'Final Death' threatens them.

The Truths:

The first thing that we notice is that Vladimir Putin does not lie forever. Vladimir is not a Forever-Liar like all Deviates are. No Queer can say anything from the anus under its nose that is true, unless such an utterance is intended to support Queer Propaganda in some twisted way, and to support other lies of Queer Propaganda.

Remember, as soon as we reach 'one' Vladimir wins.

Bingo! The first statement made by Vladimir Putin in the interview is True!!!!

THAT IMMEDIATELY PUTS THE SHAME TO ALL OF THE ENDLESS LIARS OF THE BBC PET EU!!!!

Vladimir Wins.

Done.

Over.

Let's Continue.

What a fine time to learn some Real History, wouldn't you agree?

Therefore, for your enlightenment I have put together a concise history of the Russian Past which pertains so much to the Russian Present and your own life.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cKW35g1EtGlvheXY_qZASJQcmlLljoul/view?usp=sharing

This is a short podcast about this message, and Russian history.

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A concise history of Russia from the Beginning to 1613:

The main skeleton of this history is from the Ancient Encarta article about Russia. Any text that is not italicized is from Encarta or ****myself****.

its alrite i do dis kind a ting all de time

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****In the Beginning ... there was no one there, not even the Presbyterians. Then, the Oldowans arrived about 2 million years ago. For more than a million years a tremendous amount of Kodak Golden Moments and Epic Film Opportunities were utterly lost due to historical accident. Slowly, like melting steel in a blizzard, the overall herd of Hominids developed, until Homo Erectus walked upright across these lands.

Then, the hand of Fickle Fate descended upon the land and was there created what could have been the most sexy rascal in ancient history -- the 'Denisovan Man' (south central Siberia). From about 287,000 years ago Denisovan Man has been prolifically breeding all over that part of the world, to such an extent that his DNA has definitely been found mixed with ...

Neanderthals, Archaic Humans and Modern Humans (homo sapiens) including Melanesians, Polynesians, Aboriginal Australians, Fijians, Filipinos Negritos, and Indonesians.

Yes, those were the happy times.****

{{{{Ethnic Russians account for about 80% of the Russian Federation's Population, but the country is very diverse. There are many language groups represented by over one hundred different ethnic groups.

The Russians are primarily eastern Slavs, but many also have a Finnish, Siberian, Turkish, or Baltic heritage. Since the Russians have spread over such a large territory, many culturally distinct subgroups have developed because of ethnic mixing or isolation.

The Slavic ancestors of the Russians may have first settled in the area north of the Baltic Sea. The culture and religion of this early Russian State was influence by the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) empire.

During the Mongolian occupation (c. 1240-1480), the Mongols made the Russians pay them tribute and taxes, but the Mongols let the ruling princes and the Russian Orthodox Church remain in power. The period of Mongol rule disrupted cultural links with the rest of Europe and is part of the reason why Russia was not influenced by the Renaissance, Reformation, or Industrial Revolution when those events occurred in Western Europe.

After a dozen years of power struggles, in 1613 the Russian nobility elected Michael Romanov as the new Tsar (emperor -- the empress was called Tsarina). The Romanov dynasty produced Tsar Peter I (1672-1725, better known as Peter the Great), considered the greatest Russian Tsar in history. During the reign of Tsarina Catherine II (who ruled 1762-96, also known as Catherine the Great), the Russian Empire added substantial territory through conquest.

For centuries, serfdom was a way of life for most Russian peasants who did not own any land. Serfdom was a form of bonded labor similar to slavery, except that a serf belonged to the master's land. Whenever land was sold, the serfs who worked on that land became the property of the new owner. After the Russians defeated Napoleon's army in the War of 1812, Tsar Alexander I (who ruled 1801-25) eventually abolished serfdom in a few small areas near the Baltic Sea.

In 1825, a group of army officers called the 'Decembrists' organized the first revolt against the imperial government. Although the revolt failed, its memory served to rally the people in later years. In 1861 Tsar Alexander II (ruled 1855-81) freed the serfs, but in 1881 he was assassinated by terrorists. Industrialization helped improve the economy, but a financial crisis in 1899, crop failures, and an embarrassing defeat in the 1905 war with Japan led to more civil unrest and strikes by organized labor. Millions of Russian peasants were moving from the country into cities, which made it possible for them to get politically organized. At the start of the twentieth century, many Russians had come to believe that the imperial government was incapable of properly running the country.

During World War I (1914-18), the Russians found themselves fighting in a useless war that plunged the nation into deeper economic and social problems. Tsar Nicholas II (who ruled 1894-1917) gave up the throne, and a temporary government briefly had loose control. Then the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin (governed 1917-24), took over the government. In 1918, Lenin had the entire royal family executed. Russia was called the 'Soviet Union' after that time.

The Soviet Era lasted from 1917 to 1991. In the late 1920's and 1930's, the Soviet government under Josef Stalin (governed 1924-53) instituted policies of terror and persecution to keep its power. The government wanted to control all property and information in order to keep the people in line. Millions of Russians were eventually imprisoned, exiled, or executed on made-up charges and suspicion. An estimated 20 million Soviet citizens died during 1928-38 from Stalin's reign of terror and from preventable famine.

The most profound event during the Soviet years was World War II (1939-45) which Russians called 'the Great Patriotic War'. An estimated 27 million Soviet citizens died in the war, half of whom were civilians or prisoners. After World War II, the Soviet Union quickly rebuilt its military and became a rival of the United States. During the 1950's and 1960's, the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Nikita Khrushchev (governed 1953-64), and the United States began building nuclear weapons against each other in the event of warfare.

During the 1970's, there was political and economic stagnation (lack of movement or progress) in the Soviet Union. In the mid-1980's, widespread reforms began under the leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev (governed 1985-91), and those reforms brought a new optimism to the Russian people. However, the Soviet administration had always relied on a strong central government to control the people, and the reforms and the economic problems eventually caused the Soviet Union to split apart.

When the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991, the Russian people were filled with hope for a bright future. They had their first chance in history to freely choose their own leadership through democratic elections. During the 1990's, however, the people realized that the transition from central planning (socialism) to a market economy (capitalism) would not be quick and painless.}}}}

Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures 1999

In the 14th and 15th centuries a powerful Russian state began to grow around Moscow. It gradually expanded west and southwest toward the Dnieper River, north to the Arctic Ocean, and east to the Ural Mountains. By the 18th century Russia had gained full control over a number of major rivers, giving it access to the Baltic and Black seas. These conquests had a huge impact on the country’s trade and economic development. The Russian Empire continued to grow. At its greatest extent, in 1914 before World War I (1914-1918), the empire included more than 20 million sq km (8 million sq mi), nearly one-sixth of the land area of the Earth.

Russian Empire--1914--Brittanica

The empire’s heartland centered on Moscow and was the original homeland of the Great Russians, the chief ethnic component of the Russian Empire. To the east of the empire lay Siberia, which by 1914 had an overwhelmingly Russian population. The western borderlands were home to Ukrainians and Belarusians; the empire considered these Orthodox Slavs to be merely branches of the Russian people who spoke somewhat strange, regional dialects. In the northwest were Finland and the Baltic provinces (now Latvia and Estonia); their Protestant populations were very different from the Russians, both culturally and linguistically. Most of Poland, along with Lithuania, was acquired in the late 18th century. Transcaucasia, with its partly Muslim population, was absorbed in the early 19th century; most of Central Asia, almost entirely Muslim, was absorbed a generation later.

The Russian Empire fell in 1917. Most of its territory was inherited by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, or Soviet Union), a Communist state that existed until 1991. When the USSR collapsed, the Russian Federation became its principal successor state.

*The Territorial Zones:

Russian history has been strongly influenced by the country’s natural environment. European Russia’s relatively flat terrain and dense network of navigable rivers facilitated communications, economic development, and political unity across the region.

The frozen swamplands and dense forests of northern European Russia were unsuitable for agriculture, as they are today; however, fur pelts from the region's enormous animal population were important Russian exports that were crucial to the state treasury until the 18th century. All the medieval Russian settlements were located in a central zone of European Russia, an area with thick forests and some agricultural land. Most of the area had relatively poor soils. Therefore, this zone could not sustain a very large population until industrial development began in the 19th and 20th centuries. The region’s forests offered security to the neighboring agricultural settlements, which were periodically raided by the tribes of fierce nomadic horsemen that dominated the vast grasslands to the south.

For more than 1,000 years before 1600 these warring horsemen were more formidable soldiers than the armies of the settled agricultural communities were. It was only with the creation of a modern, disciplined army, equipped with muskets and artillery, that the Russians were able to turn the tables on the nomads. With the new army, Russians colonized the steppe and united the entire vast plain between the Baltic and Black seas. Russia’s modern identity as a powerful military state with a large population did not emerge until this process was completed in the 18th century. Indeed, even as late as the mid-18th century Russia’s population was smaller than that of France.

*Origins of the Russian People:

During the pre-Christian era the vast territory that became Russia was sparsely inhabited by tribal peoples, many of whom were described by ancient Greek and Roman writers. The largely unknown north, a region of extensive forests, was inhabited by tribes later known collectively as Slavs. These Slavs were the ancestors of the modern Russian people. Far more important to the ancient Greeks and Romans were southern peoples in Scythia, an indeterminate region that included the greater part of southeastern Europe and Central Asia. Portions of this region were occupied by a succession of horse-riding nomadic peoples, including, chronologically, the Cimmerians, Scythians, and Sarmatians. In these early times, Greek traders and colonists established many trading posts and settlements, particularly along the north coast of the Black Sea and in Crimea.

Slavic Tribes--7th to 9th Centuries

{{{{Slavs, a branch of the Aryan or Indo-Germanic family, constituting the great bulk of the population of Europe east of the meridian of 15 E. as well as of Siberia. They are broad-headed (brachy-cephalic), below the average Aryan in height, with skin pale white, swarthy, or light brown, and eyes brown, grey, and black.

The Slavs comprise the following groups and nationalities:

Eastern Group--Great Russians, Little Russians or Malo-Russians (Ukrainians and Ruthenians),White Russians.

Western Group--Poles, Wends, Czechs (Bohemians and Moravians), Slovaks.

Southern Group--Slovenians, Serbo-Croats, (ie Croats, Servians, including those formerly known as Morlaks and Uskoks, Herzego-vinians, Bosniaks, Montenegrins), Slavic inhabitants of Macedonia, and Bulgarians.

It has long been recognized that in this vast complex resulting from racial mixtures there can be found no 'Slav Type'.

Investigation among Slav peoples show an inter-blending of a great variety of races, and that the Ukrainians (Little Russians) probably deviate least from the primitive types. The country occupied by Slavs before the great migration of nations appears to have been between the rivers Oder and Dnieper. From this seat in the period from the 3rd or 4th century to the 7th century they spread in all directions, towards the Baltic beyond the Elbe (river), towards the Danube (river) and the lower Dnieper (river), and into the Balkan Peninsula. From the 10th century on the Germans pressed back the Slavs, and in the course of centuries many regions occupied by Slavic tribes again became German. The Bulgarian invaders of the Balkan Peninsula were a Turkish people, soon assimilated by the Balkan Slavs. After their settlement in Bulgaria they became Slavicized. The Polabians, a Slavic people who dwelt about the lower Elbe and the southwestern corner of the Baltic Sea, have become extinct.

The earliest reliable information concerning the mythology and religion of the Slavs before their adoption of Christianity does not reach further back than the 11th century of our era and is confined to the Baltic Slavs and Russians. From German and Scandinavian sources we learn that the Slavonic dwellers of the lower Elbe and Oder (river) basins worshiped a number of divinities of a military character. Thus, 'Suarasiz' was the god of the Lutitians; 'Svantovit the Mighty' was worshiped at Arcona; and 'Triglav the Three-headed' at Stettin. These divinities had their statues, temples, and attendants and received part of the spoils of battle. The old Russian chronicles state that the Varangian Russ princes took oath by the gods Perun and Volos.}}}}

F&W New Standard Encyclopedia

so why wouldnt the forrids swear by their bitch god drof

[[[[Cimmerians, in the poetry of Homer, a mythical people who lived in northwestern Europe, on the shores of the ocean, where perpetual darkness reigned. The name is also used to designate a historical people who settled along the northern shore of the Black Sea and presumably made several inroads into Asia Minor (the accounts are confused). The Cimmerians, driven from their homes, probably in the 8th century BC by the Scythians, overran Asia Minor; they plundered Sardis and destroyed Magnesia. After their defeat by the empire of Lydia about the 7th century BC, the Cimmerians disappeared.]]]]

{{{{1. Cimmerians, in Homer, a mythical people, living in the far west, on the shores of the ocean, where the sun never shines and perpetual darkness reigns. 2. An historical people, whose country lay along the northern shore of the Black Sea, including the Tauric Chersonese. These latter at an early period made inroads into Asia Minor and laid waste the country. There were presumably several such incursions, but the accounts are confused. It was probably in the 7th century BC that they were driven from their homes by the Scythians and overran Asia Minor. They on this occasion plundered Sardis and destroyed Magnesia, but failed in an attempt on Ephesus, and were finally driven back by Alyattes of Lydia.}}}}

F&W New Standard Encyclopedia

Cimmerians

[[[[Scythians, name given by ancient Greek writers to a number of nomadic tribes of southeastern Europe and Asia. The name was used either for the Scythians proper, or Scolots, dwelling north of the Black Sea, between the Carpathian Mountains and the Don River, in what is now Moldova, Ukraine, and western Russia; or for all the nomad tribes who inhabited the steppes eastward from what is now Hungary to the mountains of Turkistan. The tribes are believed to have migrated to these areas from the region of the Altay Mountains, on the border of China, during the 8th century BC. Their speech was a form of Iranian, one of the branches of the Indo-European languages. Scythians kept herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, lived in tent-covered wagons, and fought with bows and arrows on horseback. They developed a rich culture characterized by opulent tombs, fine metalwork, and a brilliant art style.

In the early 7th century BC the Scythians advanced south of the Caspian Sea and invaded the kingdom of Media, but they were expelled in 625 by Cyaxares, king of Media. Shortly after the middle of the 4th century BC the Scythians of southeastern Europe were subdued and largely exterminated by the Sarmatians, who then gave their name to the region. The Scythian tribes in Asia, however, invaded the Parthian Empire, southeast of the Caspian Sea, in the 2nd century BC. About 130 BC they advanced eastward into the kingdom of Bactria, in the region of present-day Afghanistan, and in the 1st century BC they invaded western and northern India, where they remained powerful for five centuries.]]]]

Battle of Scythians and Slavs

{{{{Scythians, a nomadic race of Asia known to the ancient writers. The name bore two significations, meaning (1) the Scythians proper or Scolots, (2) all the nomad tribes (Sacae, Sarmatians, Massagetae, Scolots), who dwelt in the steppes from what is now Hungary to the mountains of Turkestan. They inhabited the plains that stretch from the Danube to the Volga, where nomads, keeping herds of horses, cattle, and sheep, lived in tent-covered wagons, and fought with bows and arrows on horseback. From the Greek colonies established north of the Euxine (Euxine Sea--Black Sea) they learned something of the arts of civilization; one of their kings, Anacharsis, even went to Athens to study under Solon. In the 7th century BC the Scythians invaded Media, and were only got rid of after ten years' occupation by Cyaxares making all their chiefs drunk at a banquet, and then slaying them. Shortly after the middle of the 4th century the Scythians (Scolots) were subdued and in great part exterminated by the Sarmatians. The Sycthians of Asia, however, after about 128 BC overran Parthia (Persia), routed several Parthian armies, and leveled tribute from the Parthian kings. They founded also in the east of the empire the kingdom of Sacastane, so that this part of Asia was long known as Indo-Scythia. During the first century before and the first century after Christ, hordes of Scythians, having overthrown the Bactrian and Indo-Greek dynasties of Afghanistan and India (125-25 BC) invaded northern India; and there they maintained themselves with varying fortune for five centuries longer.}}}}

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Sarmatians--Dacians--Scythians

[[[[Sarmatians, ancient nomadic and pastoral people, speaking an Indo-Iranian language, who in the 5th century BC, according to accounts by the contemporary Greek historian Herodotus, lived between the Caspian Sea, the Don River, and the Sea of Azov (an area that is now part of Russia). By the 3rd century BC they had subdued the Scythians of the great plains north of the Black Sea and their territory extended from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and from the Wisla (Vistula) River to the Volga River. They remained dominant in this area until they were overpowered by the Goths from the west in the 3rd century AD and by the Huns from Asia in the 4th century. Among the Sarmatian tribes were the Alans, Roxolani, and Iazyges.]]]]

{{{{Sarmatians, an ancient tribe who in the time of Herodotus (ancient historian fifth century BC) lived between the Caspian Sea, the Don (river), and the Sea of Azov. Later they subdued the Scythians of the great plains north of the Black Sea, to which the name of Sarmatia was extended. Here they remained until overpowered by the Goths and the Huns. It is supposed that they were the ancestors of the Slavs. Among the Sarmatian tribes were the Roxolani and the Jazyges.}}}}

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Large stretches of open plain facilitated the immigration of outside peoples. Such migrations resulted in successive invasions, the establishment of settlements, and the assimilation of people who spoke different languages. Thus, in the early centuries of the Christian era, Germanic Goths displaced the Asian peoples of Scythia and established an Ostrogothic (eastern Goth) kingdom on the Black Sea. In the 4th century nomadic Huns invaded from Asia and conquered the Ostrogoths. The Huns held the territory constituting present-day Ukraine and most of present-day Moldova until their defeat in Western Europe in the mid-5th century. Later came the Mongolian Avars, followed by the nomadic Asian Magyars, and then the Turkic Khazars, who remained influential until about the mid-10th century.

[[[[Goths, ancient Teutonic people (see Teutons), who in the 3rd to the 6th century AD were an important power in the Roman world. The Goths were the first Germanic peoples to become Christians. According to the 6th-century Gothic historian Jordanes, the Goths came from Sweden across the Baltic Sea to the basin of the Wisla (Vistula) River. By the 3rd century AD they had migrated as far south as the lower Danube, around the Black Sea. During that century Gothic armies and fleets ravaged Thrace, Dacia, and cities in Asia Minor and along the Aegean coast. They captured and plundered Athens in 267 to 268, and threatened Italy. For about a century, wars between the Roman emperors and Gothic rulers devastated the Balkan territory and the northeastern Mediterranean region. Other tribes joined the Goths, and under the great king Ermanaric in the 4th century, a kingdom was established that extended from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea.

About 370 the Goths divided into two separate groups. The Ostrogoths (Low Latin Ostrogothae, “the eastern Goths”) inhabited a large kingdom east of the Dniester River on the shores of the Black Sea (part of modern Ukraine and Belarus). The Visigoths (Low Latin Visigothi, “the good Goths” or “the noble Goths”) were the western Goths, with a domain extending from the Dniester to the Danube rivers.]]]]

Invasion of the Goths into the Roman Empire

{{{{Goths, the elder Pliny (roman historian 79 AD) mentions the Goths (Guttones) in two passages of his Natural History, once in a mere enumeration of the Germanic peoples, and once in what purports to be a quotation from the Greek navigator Pytheas (4th century BC). If Pliny's citation be accurate Pytheas referred to the Guttones as dwelling on the shores of an estuary called Mentonomon, and as trading in amber, gathered by the inhabitants of an island distant from them a day's sail. The Goths (Gotones, Gothones) are also spoken of by Tacitus (roman historian). The indications given by Tacitus seem to imply that he regarded the Goths as the easternmost people of Germany (the boundary of which was the Vistula river), and that their territory reached to the Baltic Sea.

In the middle of the 4th century the Ostrogothic king, Ermanaric, established by conquest a powerful empire, extending from the Black Sea to the Gulf of Bothnia. About the year 375 this empire was subjugated by the Huns. The Visigoths, with a small portion of the Ostrogoths, escaped a similar fate by crossing the Danube, and placing themselves under the protection of the Roman empire. The oppression of the provincial governors soon provoked a revolt. The eastern emperor, Valens, collected a great army and marched into Thrace for the purpose of subduing the barbarians; but at the battle of Adrianople (August 9, 378) the Romans suffered a ruinous defeat, and Valens himself was killed. The Goths were too ill-organized to make effective use of their victory, and Theodosius, the successor of Valens in the empire of the east, and afterwards sole sovereign of the Roman empire, found it possible in a few years to bring back to their allegiance the whole Gothic people, excepting those who were under the yoke of the Huns.

The Goths thus incorporated into the Roman empire had for the most part been converted to Christianity. On the death of Theodosius in 395 the sovereignty of the Roman empire was divided between his two sons, Arcadius, becoming emperor of the East, and Honorius, emperor of the West. One of the first acts of the ministers of Arcadius was to lower the pay of the Gothic soldiery. ((Bad mistake))

The Visigoths at once rose in rebellion, and, electing as their king a young officer of distinction named Alaric, proceeded to overrun Greece.}}}}

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((Alaric hammered a nail into the coffin of the Roman empire by sacking the city of Rome in 410))

Sack of Rome by Visigoths--KnightsTemplar-com

[[[[Huns, nomadic Asian people, probably of Turkish, Tataric, or Ugrian origins, who spread from the Caspian steppes (the areas north of the Caspian Sea) to make repeated incursions into the Roman Empire during the 4th and 5th centuries AD. These attacks culminated in a series of wars under Attila, the most renowned of its leaders, that brought both parts of the Roman Empire, East and West, to the verge of destruction. At the height of their power the Huns absorbed a number of different racial strains in their armies and assimilated the characteristics of the populations of their environment, so that in Europe they gradually lost their distinct Asian character; but even in their pre-European period they were highly variable in their physical characteristics, and of no easily determined ethnic or linguistic identity. All accounts, however, agree in describing them as an aggressive nomadic people of great vigor and comparatively low cultural achievement, who had developed considerable skill in the techniques of warfare, particularly in military horsemanship.]]]]

{{{{Huns, an obscure nomadic warlike race, probably of Tartar stock, that made repeated incursions upon the Roman dominions, and under Attila, the most renowned of its leaders, brought the empires of both the East and the West to the verge of destruction.

About 200 BC the Huns overran the Chinese empire, and drove the emperor Kao-ti to a capitulation. Eventually they separated into two distinct camps, one of which, amounted to about 50,000 families, went southwards, while the remainder established themselves on the banks of the Volga. Successfully they invaded the territories of the Alani, a powerful people dwelling between the Volga and the Don, and the country of the Ostrogoths. The Huns now occupied all of the territories that had been abandoned by the Goths and when the latter not long afterward revolted against Rome, the Huns crossed the Danube and joined the Goths in hostilities against the Empire of the East.

Little is known of the Huns during the remainder of the 4th century. In the reign of Theodosius the Younger they had increased so considerably in power that to their sovereign Rugilas, or Roas, was paid an annual tribute of about $70,000 (1948 dollars) to secure the Empire of the East from further injury. Rugilas (died 434) was succeeded in the sovereignty of the Huns by his nephews Attila and Bleda. The latter was put to death by his brother about 444. Attila carried his arms as far west as Gaul (France, Luxembourg, Belgium), where the Romans and the Visigoths successfully encountered him in the Catalaunian Plain. In the following year he ravaged Italy. With Attila's death (about 454), the power of the Huns was broken, and this nation never regained its former power.}}}}

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Extent of the Hun's Empire 450 AD

[[[[Avars, Mongolian people, who about 461 conquered the Uygurs, a Turkic tribe sometimes called the pseudo-Avars, and with the Uygurs formed a confederation on the Volga steppes (now in Russia). In the middle of the 6th century the confederation was almost annihilated by the Turks. The survivors, mostly Uygurs led by Avar chiefs, took the name of Avar, by which they were thenceforth known, and split into two bodies. One part remained in eastern Europe; the other moved westward, eventually reaching the Danube River. The members of the second group settled in Dacia (now in Romania) and inaugurated an era of conquest.

At the end of the 6th century the domain of the Dacian Avars extended from the Volga River to the Baltic Sea, and they exacted enormous tribute from the Byzantine Empire. During this period, under their khagan, or khan, Baian, they were probably the greatest power in Europe, and they influenced tremendously the later development of a large part of Europe by driving most of the Western Slavs to the areas that they have occupied ever since. After the death of Baian the power of the western Avars declined under blows struck by the Slavs and Bulgars. In 795-96 they were crushed by Charlemagne, and they were later almost completely exterminated by the Moravians. The survivors were absorbed by the Slavs.

Of the Avars who remained in eastern Europe little is known; the available evidence indicates that they are the ancestors of the modern Avars of the Caucasus, one of the 27 Lezghian tribes of Dagestan, Russia. Estimated to number more than 150,000, the modern Avars are Muslims and speak a language similar to Arabic. The great Lezghian warrior and patriot Shamil, who led the people of the Caucasus region in the 19th century in their struggle for freedom from Russia, was an Avar.]]]]

{{{{Avars, tribe of Tartar origin, who made their appearance a hundred years later than the Bulgarians, in the countries about the Don, the Caspian Sea, and the Volga. One part of them remained in the Caucasus; another pressed forward (about 555 AD) to the Danube, and settled in Dacia. Later, confined to Pannonia, they were subdued by Charlemagne, and well-nigh extirpated by the Moravians in the early part of the ninth century.

One of the Lesghian tribes of the Daghestan, in the Caucasus, estimated to number about 100,000. They profess Mohammedanism and possess a written language with Arabic characters. The great Lesghian warrior and patriot, Schamyl, (died 1871), who led the peoples of the Caucasus in their struggle against Russia, was an Avar. }}}}

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Avar--Slavic--Byzantine Warriors--kdet-ucoz-ru

[[[[Magyars, people who founded and continue to inhabit the state of Hungary. The Magyars' remote ancestors spoke languages belonging to the Eastern, or Ugric, branch of the Finno-Ugric language family. They lived on the middle Volga River and its eastern tributaries. Some of these peoples moved eastward into the basins of the Ob’ and the Irtysh rivers and came into contact with West Turkic, or Chuvash, tribes. Anthropological evidence confirms that the more warlike Turkic peoples dominated the less advanced Ugrians. Later, however, the two groups merged and became known as Magyars.

In 889 the Magyars were driven westward when the Pechenegs, a Turkic tribe, attacked them from the east. In 895 or 896, under the leadership of Hungarian hero Arpad, they traversed the Carpathian Mountains through Verecke Pass and entered what became their permanent European home, in what is now Hungary. Throughout the 9th and 10th centuries, the Magyars invaded Europe. In 933 they were defeated by the Germans led by Henry the Fowler, and in 955 they suffered an even more serious defeat at the hands of Henry's son, Otto the Great.

Also around this time, Hungary’s first king, Stephen I, enacted a body of laws giving Hungary the unified political structure that it has retained in some form ever since. Stephen, who was anointed king around the year 1000, had a relatively peaceful reign. He is best known for his Christian policies and for his suppression of paganism. He also encouraged agriculture and trade. Stephen is known as one of the founders of Hungary, and he was canonized as the patron saint of the country in 1083.]]]]

{{{{Magyars, Hungarians, made their first appearance in 884. They are generally believed to be the descendants of the Scythians, and to have come from regions around the Caspian Sea. They first settled along the Middle Volga, but in 889, they crossed the Carpathian Mountains under Almos, and under the further leadership of his son Arpad they conquered the ancient Pannonia and Dacia of the Romans; and this, their new country, was in the year 1000 formed into a regular kingdom by Stephen. The reign of Andrew II is remarkable on account of the nobles having extorted from him in 1222 the 'Golden Bull', or Hungarian Magna Charta, the privileges of which were in 1231 extended to the clergy and lower nobility. By the death of Andrew III in 1301 the House of Arpad became extinct, and the throne of Hungary became an object of rivalry between various foreign potentates. Charles Robert of Anjou was king (1308-42). His son, Louis the Great, made Hungary the most powerful nation of the period in central Europe. After the death of Ladislaus Posthumus (1457), Matthias Corvinus was elected king. Under his reign Hungary attained to the pinnacle of power. In 1485 he conquered Vienna and made it the capital of his country. Under Vladislaus (1490-1516) Hungary was the scene of a sanguinary peasant insurrection, known as the Dazsa revolt, which was ultimately suppressed. Louis II's reign was still more disastrous. In 1526 the Turks, under Soliman the Great, annihilated the Hungarian forces at Mohacs, pillaged whole districts, and carried off some 30,000 Hungarians as slaves. Louis II himself lost his life in or after the battle of Mohacs, and the Hungarian throne became once more the prize of contention between two claimants. Eventually, the Hapsburgs represented by Ferdinand of Austria, obtained the throne.}}}}

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Magyar Warrior--magtudin-org

[[[[Khazars, extinct Turkic people, who flourished from about 200 AD to about 950, living at first in the region of the Caucasus Mountains and the Caspian Sea and later on the steppes of southeastern Russia. At the height of their power, in the 9th century, the Khazars controlled Russia west to the Dnieper River and north to the middle course of the Volga River. They carried on an extensive commerce, centered in their capital at Itil (now Astrakhan). The ethnicity of the Khazars was complicated by racial mixture and dispersion; most authorities classify them as a Turkish or, less probably, a Georgian people. In the 7th century their Khakan, or sovereign, embraced Judaism, and a large part of the population converted thereafter. Khazar power came to an end when, after a series of wars, they were assimilated by the Russians. The Khazars were a significant factor in preventing Arab expansion to the Caucasus. The name is also spelled Chazars.]]]]

{{{{Khazars, Chozars, or Chazars, a people long extinct, who in the early part of the Middle Ages inhabited the region of the Caucasus and the Caspian and the steppes of southeastern Russia. In the 9th century, they held sway as far west as the Dnieper and northward to the Middle Volga. They had many important cities which carried on an extensive commerce; their capital 'Itil' (now Astrakhan) being the 'Venice of the East'.}}}}

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Map--Carpathian to Caucasus Mountains

Meanwhile, during this long period of successive invasions, the Slavic tribes in the area northeast of the Carpathian Mountains had begun a series of migratory movements. As these migrations took place, the western tribes in the region eventually evolved as the Moravians, Poles, Czechs, and Slovaks; the southern tribes as the Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and a Slavic people who were conquered by but soon assimilated the Turkic Bulgars; and the eastern tribes as a people who later gave rise to the modern Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians. The East Slavs became renowned traders. The systems of rivers and waterways extending through the territory from the Valday Hills facilitated the establishment of Slav trading posts, notably the cities of Kyiv (Kiev), which is the present-day capital of Ukraine, and Novgorod, directly north of Kyiv. Along these waterways the Slavs transported goods between the Baltic and Black seas.

[[[[Novgorod, city, capital of Novgorod Oblast, western Russia, on the Volkhov River, near Lake Il’men. It is the commercial center for a rich farm region, and industries here produce fertilizer, processed food, furniture, and china. Novgorod retains examples of early Russian architecture, including a kremlin (citadel) and the Cathedral of Saint Sophia (both 11th century).

One of the oldest cities in Russia, Novgorod was founded as early as the 5th or 6th century. Rurik, founder of the Russian monarchy, became prince of Novgorod in 862. In 1136 the city achieved independence from Kyiv (Kiev) and, with a democratic form of government, became the capital of sovereign Great Novgorod. In the 13th and 14th centuries, Novgorod flourished as a trade outpost of the Hanseatic League and was a major cultural center. It repulsed Tatar invasions in the late 13th century. In 1478 the city was annexed by its rival, Moscow, under Ivan III. The city declined as a trading center after the establishment of nearby Saint Petersburg in 1703. During the German occupation (1941-44) of World War II, the city was severely damaged. Population (1997 estimate) 232,000.]]]]

{{{{Novgorod, a region of Soviet Russia. It lies immediately east of that of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), has an area of 42,240 square miles. It has 1200 lakes. Novgorod (new town) a Russian city, capital of the region of the same name. It is on the Volkhof river, 110 miles south-southeast of Leningrad. It is rich in relics of the 11th to the 17th centuries and is known as 'Museum City'. Formerly it had 400,000 inhabitants. Population about 31,000 (1948).}}}}

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Battle between Novgorod and Suzdal in 1170

*The House of Ryurik:

In the 9th century Scandinavian Vikings invaded and settled a number of regions in northern Europe, from Russia in the east to Ireland in the west. From these eastward-moving Scandinavians, called Varangians or Rus, came the name Rossiya, or Russia, meaning "land of the Rus." (Scholars debate the origin of the word Rus, which also may have been derived from ruotsi, the Finnish name for the Swedes, or from Rukhs-As, the name of an Alanic tribe in southern Russia.)

Scandinavian princes from the house of Ryurik organized the East Slavs into a single state. According to tradition recorded in the Primary Chronicle, the chief East Slavic source of much of early Russian history, internal dissension and feuds among the East Slavs around Novgorod became so violent that the people voluntarily chose a Scandinavian chief, Ryurik, to rule over them in AD 862. In fact, Ryurik is a semi-mythical figure and his precise relationship with subsequent princely rulers of Rus is debated.

{{{{Ryurik, Russian historians date the beginning of the Russian empire from the year 862 when three brothers, Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, Scandinavians, were invited, according to tradition, to come and protect territory in northwest Russia against the Finns and Lithuanians. The times of the 'Sunny Vladimir' (980-1015) are the 'heroic' epoch of early Russian history. His successful wars extended the boundaries of Russia and he became a convert to Greek Christianity. (Vladimir I of Kiev also known as Vladimir the Great)

The first half of the 11th century, during which Yaroslav the Wise was grand prince at Kief (Kiev), was the most brilliant time for Kief, then the 'mother of the Russian towns'. (son of Vladimir the Great)

The great cathedral of St. Sophia was built at that time; schools were opened, and the first written Russian law was compiled. It corresponds to the leges barbarorum of the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. At his death (1054) Yaroslav was ruling over most of the Russian towns.

A new Russian territory grew in importance in the two succeeding centuries, Suzdal and Rostof being its chief centers. The Suzdal prince, Andrei Bogolubsky (1157-74), was the first representative of a policy of guiding the people through the church and the boyers. He and his churchly advisers founded a new town, Vladimir, on the Klazma, a tributary of the Oka (river). He invited many Kief boyars to settle in the land of Suzdal, and finally he took and burnt Kief (1169). The supremacy of Kief was thus destroyed, and the land of Suzdal became the 'Ile-de-France' of Russia -- the nucleus of the future Russian state. But in the 13th century a great calamity visited Russia: a Mongol invasion suddenly put a stop to the development of the country and threw it into a totally new direction.}}}}

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1. Vladimir the Great--Conversion to Orthodoxy

In 882 Kyiv and Novgorod were united as the state of Kievan Rus under a single ruler from the house of Ryurik. The East Slavs were pagans who worshiped the Earth’s natural forces. By the early 10th century, however, Kievan Rus had established close commercial and cultural ties with the Byzantine Empire, the center of Orthodox Christianity. In 980 Vladimir I (whose name is spelled Volodymyr in Ukrainian) became ruler; eight years later he converted to Orthodox Christianity and made Orthodoxy (see Orthodox Church) the official religion of Kievan Rus. The Slavic church had considerable autonomy, and services were held in a Slavic liturgical language known as Old Church Slavonic rather than in the Greek language of the Byzantine Empire. In matters of doctrine, however, the church obeyed the rulings of the patriarch of Constantinople in the Byzantine capital. Monasteries and churches were built in Byzantine style, and Byzantine culture became the predominant influence in fields such as art, architecture, and music. Vladimir’s choice of Orthodox Christianity, rather than the Latin church (Roman Catholicism) or Islam, had an important influence on the future of Russia. Orthodoxy played a crucial role in shaping the values and the separate identity of the East Slavs. As Christians, they belonged unequivocally to Europe rather than to one of the other great regional civilizations of the world. As Orthodox, particularly after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, they were powerful but peripheral members of the European Christian community.

{{{{In the year 987, after consultation with his boyars, Vladimir the Great (Vladimir I) sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is described by the chronicler Nestor. He reported that Islam was undesirable due to its prohibition of alcoholic beverages and pork. Vladimir remarked on the occasion: "Drinking is the joy of all Rus'. We cannot exist without that pleasure." Ukrainian and Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys and questioning them about their religion, but ultimately rejecting it as well, saying that their loss of Jerusalem was evidence that they had been abandoned by God.
His emissaries also visited pre-schism Latin Rite Christian and Eastern Rite Christian missionaries. Ultimately Vladimir settled on Eastern Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth", they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "...nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys.}}}}

Primary Chronicle

Vladimir the Great

****Thus were laid the foundations for the creation of Vodka. Around 1430 a Thessalian Greek monk called Isidore, kept as a prisoner in Chudov Monastery inside the Moscow Kremlin, made a recipe of the first Russian vodka.****

2. Yaroslav the Wise

Kievan Rus achieved its greatest power and splendor under Yaroslav the Wise in the 11th century. Yaroslav made Kyiv a great city and built magnificent buildings, including the notable Cathedral of Saint Sophia (also known as the Hagia Sophia of Kyiv). Yaroslav did much to develop Rus education and culture. He also compiled the first Russian law code, the so-called Russkaya Pravda (Russian Justice).

*The Decline of Kievan Rus:

After Yaroslav’s death in 1054, Kievan Rus declined. The state’s prosperity was highly dependent on its control of the major trade routes between northern Europe and the Byzantine Empire and the Middle East. In the 11th and 12th centuries the Turkic Polovtsy (Cuman) tribe conquered and dominated the southeastern steppe, threatening the Kievan Rus trade routes. Matters worsened after the Crusaders sacked Constantinople (present-day İstanbul) in 1204. The huge but sparsely populated lands between the Baltic and Black seas were difficult to hold together as a single state. Furthermore, because Kievan Rus territories were divided among a ruler’s heirs, political power became fragmented and constant battles ensued between the various branches of the princely house.

Yaroslav’s grandson, Vladimir II Monomakh, made the final attempt to unite Kievan Rus, but after his death in 1125 the fragmentation continued. Other Kievan Rus principalities challenged Kyiv’s supremacy, particularly Galicia and Volhynia to the west; Chernigov, Novgorod-Severskiy, and Vladimir-Suzdal to the northwest; Polotsk and Smolensk to the north; and Novgorod, by far the largest, in the far north.

{{{{Crusades, this is a big one -- a crusade was a war undertaken for a religious purpose; specifically the Crusades refer to the wars waged by the Christians for the recovery of the Holy Land. Towards the close of the eleventh century, when the Byzantine Empire was in great danger of being conquered by the Seljukian Turks, the Emperor Alexis Comnenus appealed for help. At the Council of Clermont, in November, 1095, Pope Urban II made his memorable speech, in which he exhorted his hearers to bear aid to the Eastern Empire and to reconquer Jerusalem. After the conclusion of Urban's speech many pressed forward to take the Crusader's vow and the cross, which was the symbol of this vow and gave its name to the movement. The agitation spread rapidly to all the countries of western Europe and embraced all ranks of society. In the spring of 1096 thousands of men, women, and children started in bands under the leadership of Walter the Penniless, Peter the Hermit, and others.

((too preposterous not to be true))

The march of these disorderly bands, of whom nearly all perished at the hands of the Turks, is generally styled the Peasant's Crusade.

The First Crusade, 1096-99. In the summer and fall of 1096 the real armies, led by the nobles, began their march. Among the leaders were Godfrey of Bouillon, Bohemond, Prince of Tarentum, Robert of Normandy, Robert of Flanders, and Raymond, Count of Toulouse, who was the latest of all to start. They proceeded by different routes to Constantinople, where they were delayed by the Emperor, who was alarmed by their numbers and lack of discipline, but wished to make use of their strength. An agreement was finally made, by which almost all of the leaders were induced to become his vassals, but in the campaign that followed neither side kept its promises. All of the crusaders met at the siege of Nicaea, in May, 1097, when the army may have numbered 100,000. Nicaea was taken, the Sultan of Iconium was defeated at Dorylaeum, and in a few months the Crusaders accomplished the arduous march to Antioch, which was captured after a siege lasting from Oct. 21, 1097, to June 2, 1098. In the meantime Baldwin, brother of Godfrey, had taken possession of Edessa for himself (Urfa, Turkey), and Bohemond now established himself as Prince of Antioch. The leaders became so intent upon making conquest for their own profit that the advance to Jerusalem was delayed for months. Finally, on June 7, 1099, the remnants of the army, about 20,000 in number, reached Jerusalem. After a siege of five weeks the city was captured, by reckless daring, on July 15. The Crusaders vented their wrath in an indiscriminate massacre, in which neither youth nor age was spared, and men and women were slaughtered in the holy places. Godfrey was elected 'Baron and Defender of the Holy Sepulchre', and after the battle of Ascalon, in which the Egyptian army was defeated with great slaughter, almost all of the Crusaders returned home, leaving Godfrey with a small band of followers to defend Jerusalem. Bohemond held Antioch with his Norman followers. Baldwin was in the distant Edessa (Turkey). A large part of Asia Minor was restored to the Greek Emperor. The news of the victories gained by the Crusaders set in motion three great armies from France, Germany and Italy (1101-02), but, owing to their own excesses and folly they fell an easy prey to the Mussulmans in Asia Minor.

The Second Crusade, 1147-49. In 1144 Edessa was captured by the Mohammedans. The news of its loss aroused great alarm in the West, and a new Crusade was initiated in which special privileges were offered to all participants, including the remission of all sins, absolution of all transgressions committed while engaged on the sacred mission, and the cancellation of the debts of the Crusaders. This last provision was especially attractive to the nobles weighted down with the universal poverty of the Middle Ages. Bernard of Clairvaux was the great preacher of this movement. Conrad III of Germany and Louis VII of France took the cross and led great armies to the relief of the Holy Land, Conrad and Frederick Barbarossa starting from Ratisbon, in April, 1147. The march was very disorderly, the troops were harassed by the Turks, and finally they retreated, closely pursued by the enemy, only a very few getting back to Nicaea. Louis had better fortune at first, but after meeting with a terrible defeat, in which the loss was very great, he and his knights gathered up all of their toys and went home.

((just checking to see if you are still awake))

Louis had better fortune at first, but after meeting with a terrible defeat, in which the loss was very great, he and his knights went by ships to Antioch, while the common people were left behind to be slaughtered.

((armies always had a large contingent of common people as support personnel, many traveling the entire course of the army's movements))

From Antioch Louis proceeded to Jerusalem, where he was joined by Conrad. Together they planned the renewal of hostilities on a grand scale, but their schemes miscarried, and the kings went home in disgust.

((I am not making this up. These events actually happened.))

((aint politics grand))

The Third Crusade, 1189-91. The capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, in 1187, caused Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus of France, and Richard the Lionhearted of England to take the cross. Frederick was drowned soon after he reached Syria. Richard and Philip captured Acre after a long siege; but the two kings quarreled so bitterly that Philip went home soon after the capture. Richard, thwarted at every turn by Saladin, was compelled to make a truce without accomplishing anything more.

The Fourth Crusade, 1201-04. Innocent III (pope) made every effort to bring about a new Crusade. A great number of Latin nobles and knights were induced to take the cross, and the enthusiasm of the people was unbounded. Among the leaders of this Crusade were Baldwin of Flanders, Boniface Montferrat, Geoffroy de Villehardouin, Louis of Blois, and Simon de Montfort. Arrangements were made with Venice that the Republic should supply the vessels and the provisions for the journey; but, when the Crusaders reached Venice, they could not raise the amount agreed upon for payment. After a long delay they made a new bargain with Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice, by undertaking to capture for Venice the city of Zara, in Dalmatia. Zara was sacked, and the army spent the winter there. In the meanwhile a new plot was hatched in the fertile and ambitious brain of Dandolo by which, under the pretense of reinstating the rightful Byzantine Emperor, Isaac Angelus, the Crusade was diverted to Constantinople. Isaac Angelus was restored to his throne, but, as he was not able to fulfill the conditions to which he had been compelled to agree, the Crusaders turned against him. Constantinople was captured a second time and sacked (1204). The Crusaders and the Venetians divided their conquests, and the Latin Empire was established.

The Fourth Crusade, which is usually considered of slight significance, had great and far-reaching results. Diverted from its original purpose, which was the capture of the Holy Land by way of Egypt, the whole project was eventually engineered by that amazing old man, the Doge, Enrico Dandolo, (who had already passed his eightieth year), to the advantage of Venice. Zara, the prosperous rival of Venice, was totally ruined, leaving Venice master of the shipping of the Mediterranean. Dandolo, personally leading the attack on Constantinople, a Greek Christian city, and at that time, the most opulent one in the world, secured for Venice a third of the booty, estimated at not less than a billion dollars (in modern money 1948) in value. Altho priceless works of art in vast quantities, including works of the great classical Greek artists, were either melted into bullion or destroyed, much of what remained was carried off by the Christian vandals; and so was disseminated through semi-barbaric Europe the knowledge of Byzantine art and culture. Among these stolen treasures were the famous bronze horses which were brought to Venice for the adornment of St. Mark's.}}}}

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Crusaders Sack Constantinople 1204

((back in russia))

Novgorod rose to a dominant position as a flourishing commercial state. In the 13th century the city became the site of a major factory of the Hanseatic League, a commercial confederation of European city-states. Kyiv also lost its importance as the great national and cultural center as Suzdal, Vladimir, and ultimately Moscow, surpassed it. The East Slavic lands became a loose federation of small principalities, held together by common language, religion, traditions, and customs. Although ruled by members of the house of Ryurik (Rurik), these principalities were often at war with one another. Plundering along the frontiers also caused difficulties. In the west the Poles, Lithuanians, and Teutonic Knights encroached on East Slavic territory; the Polovtsy repeatedly raided the south. While all these posed significant threats to Kievan Rus (the Russians if Kiev), in the 13th century an even greater danger came from East Asia.

*The Mongol Invasion:

In 1223 the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan invaded the southeast. The Polovtsy sent for help from the Russian princes, who came to their aid against this common, greater foe. In the Battle of the Kalka River (now Kal’mius River), the Polovtsy-Russian coalition was routed (defeated). After his victory, however, the Mongol khan recalled his armies to Asia and they retreated as rapidly as they had come. For 14 years, the Mongols made no move in the direction of Russia. Then, in 1237, Genghis Khan’s grandson Batu Khan led an army back to eastern Russia. On their northward march, Batu’s forces captured and destroyed most of the major cities in the Vladimir-Suzdal region.

The difficult terrain of the forests and swamps south of Novgorod halted the Mongol sweep, and Batu Khan was forced to change the direction of his march, moving to the southwest. Kyiv desperately tried to defend itself, but the city was destroyed by Batu’s army in 1240. The invaders came to be generally known in Russia as the Tatars, after the Turkic-speaking people who comprised a prominent part of the Mongol forces. The Mongols ravaged Poland and Hungary and progressed as far east as Moravia. In 1242 Batu established his capital at Sarai on the lower Volga (near modern Volgograd) and founded the khanate known as the Golden Horde, which was virtually independent of the Mongol Empire.

{{{{Mongols continued, in 1224 the Mongol tide of invasion, sweeping westward from Asia, reached the Polovtses, a nomadic tribe, who applied for aid to the Russians, and their united forces met the invaders on the Kalka river (a tributary of the Don). The Mongols and Tartars were completely victorious, but retreated and did not return to Russia for thirteen years. In 1238 the hordes of Batu-khan invaded the whole of east and central Russia. In 1239-40 they ravaged the southwest, destroying Chernigof, Galacia, Kief, and entering Poland and Hungary. But, being checked in Moravia, and receiving at the same time the news of the khan's death, Batu-khan returned to Asia, and built his palace at Sarai on the lower Volga. Thither the Russians princes had to go to pay tribute and receive their investiture by kissing the stirrup of the khan.

The industrial, artistic, and literary development of Russia was totally arrested. On the whole, Mongol rule threw the country more than 200 years behind the other states of Europe. The principalities of Kief and Chernigof never recovered afterward.}}}}

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Mongol Invaders

1. Ethnic Changes

In addition to the havoc it created in Russia at the time, the Mongol invasion had a long-term influence on later Russian history. Mongol rule increased Russia’s isolation from Europe, and Tatar customs, laws, and government also had an influence on Russia. During the Mongol era the East Slavs evolved into three distinct groups. One group, culturally influenced by the Poles and Lithuanians, eventually became known as White Russians, or Belorussians (Belarusians). A second group, formed of the Slavic population from Kyiv and adjacent areas, became known as Little Russians (Malorussians) and later as Ukrainians. Those who lived in the northeast became known as the Great Russians.

Early Ukrainians

2. Tribute to the Khanate

Although the Mongols did not attack Novgorod, northwestern Russia was menaced by invaders from the west during the same time period. The Swedes descended from the Baltic and sought to penetrate the territories of Novgorod. In 1240 a Swedish army landed on the banks of the Neva River, and Prince Alexander of Novgorod led a Russian army to meet them. The prince so completely defeated the Swedes that he became known as Alexander Nevsky, meaning "Alexander of the Neva." Two years later the Teutonic Knights, a religious military order of Germans, advanced from the west. Alexander led his troops to meet the Germans, crossing the frozen Lake Peipus, and routed them. Faced with continuing danger in the west and unwilling to risk Tatar invasion from the south, Alexander adopted a policy of loyal submission to the Golden Horde and conciliation with the khan. In accordance with Tatar wishes, Alexander journeyed to Sarai to secure permission to rule from the khan. The Tatars made Alexander ruler of Kyiv, Vladimir, and Novgorod. Most of the other Russian princes followed Alexander’s example, paying tribute and considering themselves vassals of the khan.

{{{{Alexander Nevsky, Russian hero and saint, was the son of the grand-duke Yaroslav of Novgorod, who was forced to submit to the Mongol domination in 1240. Alexander received the surname of Nevski because he defeated the Swedes on the Neva (river) in 1240. He succeeded his father in 1247 as Grand Duke Vladimir, and opposed a papal attempt to reunite the Greek and Roman churches.}}}}

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Alexander Nevsky

*The Growing Importance of Moscow:

The town of Moscow, in the principality of Vladimir, occupied a favorable geographical position in the center of Russia and on the principal trade routes. In 1263 Alexander Nevsky gave Moscow to his youngest son, Daniel. Moscow, also known as Muscovy, was made a separate principality in 1301. Daniel was first in a line of powerful Muscovite princes, astute rulers who worked closely with the khans. As Mongol favorites they gradually extended their lands by annexing surrounding territories, retaining the city of Moscow as their capital. In 1328 the khan named Daniel’s son, Ivan I, grand prince of Muscovy. During Ivan’s reign the head of the Russian church, then called the metropolitan, moved from the town of Vladimir to Moscow. With the sanction of the church, the Muscovite grand princes began to organize a new Russian state with themselves as rulers.

Meanwhile, internal dissension rocked the Golden Horde. In the mid-14th century, a series of ineffectual rulers gained control of the khanate and the turmoil weakened their ability to collect tribute from the Russian princes. During the reign of Grand Prince Dmitry (1359-1389), Mamay Khan launched a military expedition to collect unpaid taxes. Dmitry and his army defeated Mamay’s troops in 1380 at the Battle of Kulikovo, although Mamay’s successor sacked Moscow two years later.

Not until the reign of Ivan III Vasilyevich (1462-1505), or Ivan the Great, did Muscovy throw off all control by the Golden Horde and establish itself as the dominant power in northern Russia. In 1478 Muscovy annexed Novgorod, with its huge territories and lucrative fur trade. Two years later Muscovy stopped paying tribute to the Golden Horde, which ultimately disintegrated into a number of separate, weaker khanates. Tver, Muscovy’s traditional regional rival, was finally absorbed in 1485. After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Russian rulers began calling themselves tsars, a term Russians had previously used to describe the Byzantine emperor and the Tatar khan. However, the term tsar did not become the official title of the Russian ruler until the 16th century.

{{{{Golden Horde, the name (1) of a great body of Tartars who, under Batu-Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, overran eastern Europe; and (2) of the khanate, or empire, which they established on the banks of the Volga, and which is also know as Kiptchak. The army led by Batu (known as Sain Khan, 'the great prince') was one of three sent out in 1235 by Ogotai Khan, the successor of Genghis. Crossing the Ural river in 1237, it invaded Russia, penetrating to the very center of the country, killing and destroying. Moscow and Kiev and other cities were taken and burned, and their inhabitants put to the sword. From Russia they passed into Poland, Silesia, and Hungary, carrying devastation and bloodshed everywhere. Lublin and Cracow (Krakow) were destroyed in 1240, Breslau (Wroclaw) was burned in 1241; and at Liegnitz (Legnica), on the field since known as Wahlstatt, an army of Silesians, Poles, and Teutonic knights, under Henry II, Duke of Silesia, was overcome.

Unsuccessful at the siege of Neustadt, the horde turned eastwards, and Batu pitched his silk tent on the banks of the Volga, and summoned the Russian princes to his presence to pay him homage. The settlement was called Sir Orda (Golden Camp), from which originated the expression 'Golden Horde'. The empire established by him over the Russians was maintained until the power of the khans was broken by Ivan III towards the close of the 15th century.}}}}

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****In April 1241 Breslau was the political center of the Polish kingdom. It was burned to the ground by the Poles themselves to keep it out of the hands of the Mongols. The Breslau castle was defended and never captured.

While attacking Vienna, Baku was informed that the Great Khan had died. That meant an immediate fight for succession by the lesser khans. Baku left off the attack on Vienna to attend to internal Mongol politics. The horde turned eastwards again, the westward advance was halted. The center of the Mongol Western Arm (led by Baku) settled at Sarai on the Volga river. Rape and pillage and plunder continued in the east and to the south, and there were further Mongol attacks on eastern Europe. Soon, all of these became truncated by decades of very complicated infighting and in-wars within the Mongols themselves. This served to draw them away from eastern Europe.****

The Golden Horde

The Golden Horde--circa 1300 AD

Muscovy’s increasing power and its position as the last surviving Orthodox state broadened its rulers’ horizons and ambitions. Internally, the power of the tsar grew at the expense of the boyars (Russian nobles). The great increase in the state’s territory encouraged the development of a small but effective Muscovite bureaucracy that was loyal to the tsars alone. The tsars confiscated privately held lands in the conquered principalities and gave these estates to calvarymen who pledged continual military service in return. In the 16th century the Streltsy, a regular infantry corps armed with firearms, was formed. The tsars now had an army of their own and were no longer dependent on the military forces raised by the boyars. ((autonomy))

1. Ivan the Terrible

These practices continued during the reign of Ivan IV Vasilyevich, also known as Ivan the Terrible, who became grand prince of Muscovy in 1533. Ivan conquered and absorbed the Tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan in the 1550s. During his reign Russia also began the conquest of Siberia, originally conducted by Yermak, a Cossack adventurer. Russia also established commercial contacts with England through the perilous White Sea trade route. Ivan IV imported foreign technical and professional experts, a practice continued by subsequent Russian monarchs. However, the tsar’s attempt to seize Livonia and establish Russian control over part of the Baltic coastline failed in the face of Polish and Swedish resistance, and also seriously over-strained Russian resources. Furthermore, Ivan IV became mentally unstable; his increasingly maniacal domestic policies resulted in the murder of part of the aristocratic elite and the devastation of a number of regions. During Ivan’s reign the Crimean Tatars began to make destructive raids into Russian territory in search of slaves, for whom there was an insatiable market in the Middle East. All of these factors worsened the acute economic crisis that Ivan IV bequeathed to his heirs upon his death in 1584.

Europe with Russia 1550

Ivan the Fearsome

The Boyars

((just how maniacal could he have been compared to today's homo-fascists))

Ivan the Formidable

****The two films about Ivan IV made by Sergei Eisenstein present a very different view of Ivan the Misunderstood.

https://duckduckgo.com/?va=b&t=hr&q=ivan+the+terrible+movie+by+eisenstein&iax=videos&ia=videos&iaf=videoDuration:long

In these films Ivan appears to be surrounded by the bloodsucking predecessors of the horrible DemoQueers of today. Indeed, the only comparison to today that I can make, is that of any Real Man forced to live in the putrid sewage of the National Democrapic Headquarters for all of his life. The similarities between the main 'Evil Bitch' in these films, and the Nazi-Pelosi and the Horrible Hillary of today, are uncanny.

I really do recommend watching these two films. They are masterpieces of the film craft. The production values were very high and the acting is impeccable. If the real Ivan was somewhere halfway between his depiction here and what the mongrel dogs that revise history claim him to be -- then he would be a Saint Among Men today.****

enough said that todays vermin of hollyqueer could never begin to create such a great film as this

not good enough to kiss the shoes of a great film like this

so say i

dude____its in the criterion collection

****Before we go any further take notice of the basic and endless animosity and hostilities between the Poles and the Russians since the Dawn of Time, as perceived by both Poles and Russians. It is as though they feel born to hate each other.****

[[[[Cossacks, name given to a group of people in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), chiefly of Russian and Ukrainian stock, who lived principally on the steppes that begin north of the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains and extend eastward to the Altay Mountains in Siberia. Those inhabiting the regions of the Don and Kuban’ rivers are known respectively as the Don and Kuban’ Cossacks.

Some historians trace the origin of the Cossacks to serfs who fled from the principality of Muscovy in the 14th and 15th centuries and established wheat-growing and stock-raising communities in the valleys of the Dnieper, Don, and Ural rivers and in Siberia. The name Cossack derives from the Turkish word kazak, which means free person. The individual Cossack communities, like other Russian peasant communes of the time, owned land in common. The Cossack communities were governed by village assemblies, presided over by elected village elders called atamans or hetmans. The chief ataman or hetman of a region enjoyed great prestige and exercised the authority of a military chieftain in war and of a civil administrator in peacetime.

From the 16th century, as the tsars extended their realm, the Cossacks were subjected to the authority of the Russian government, which tried to incorporate them into the state on the same basis as the other inhabitants of the country. Therefore, as subjects of the tsar, all Cossack males 18 to 50 years of age became liable to military service. They were used most often as cavalry and became famous in the wars of the tsars against the Tatars in Crimea and the Caucasus. The Don Cossacks were the largest group and led colonizing expeditions to Siberia.

The Cossacks cherished their traditions of freedom, however, and conflicts with the tsars occurred. In the 17th and 18th centuries the Cossacks, supported by peasants, engaged in two widespread revolts, in 1670 and 1671 and in 1773 and 1774, in the lower Volga Valley. In later years the tsars of Russia used the Cossacks as border troops and as a special military and police force for the suppression of internal unrest. In the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries, the tsarist government used Cossack troops to perpetrate pogroms against the Jews. Cossack troops were used on a large scale in the suppression of the Russian Revolution of 1905; they refused to be used for the same purpose in the Revolution of 1917.]]]]

The Cossacks

Ivan’s son, Fyodor I, was sickly and feeble-minded, and his brother-in-law, Boris Godunov, dominated the court during Fyodor’s reign. Fyodor died without an heir in 1598, and the Assembly of the Land (zemsky sobor)—a council that represented the aristocracy, chief towns, and the church—met to choose his successor. The assembly settled on Boris Godunov.

2. Time of Troubles

Boris Godunov never firmly established his legitimate hold on power, partly because he was suspected of murdering Dmitry Ivanovich, Fyodor’s younger brother and last male blood relative. Furthermore, Boris was unpopular among the members of the aristocracy, who resented his power, and among the peasantry, who were heavily taxed and whose mobility he had severely restricted.

The institution of serfdom (a system in which an agricultural worker is bound to the land and the landowner) had gradually begun to take hold in Russia during the 16th century. For some time the impoverished conditions of the peasants had induced many to seek refuge in the vast steppes to the south. Independent communities of people who became known as Cossacks developed and grew near the major rivers of the steppes. Some of the Cossacks were farmers, but many were also warriors. Discontent increased as a result of a severe famine that began in 1601. In 1604 False Dmitry, a pretender claiming to be Ivan IV’s son and the rightful heir to the throne, invaded Russia with Polish troops. False Dmitry’s advance on Moscow received the overwhelming support of the peasants and Cossacks in the western provinces. Boris died unexpectedly in April 1605, and in June False Dmitry took Moscow. He was a conscientious and able ruler, but he displeased the boyars, who had hoped for a revival of their power. They revolted, murdered False Dmitry, and elevated the boyar Vasily Shuysky to the throne. This move was opposed by the Cossacks and rebellious peasants, who chafed under oppressive serf laws and feared the severity of boyar rule. They rose in southern Russia and joined another pretender, the second False Dmitry, who was already advancing on Moscow. At the same time, Zygmunt III, king of Poland, invaded from the west. After a long period of fighting and intrigue, Vasily was deposed in 1610, and the throne was left vacant. Some boyars advanced the candidacy of Wldyslaw, the son of Zygmunt, and a Polish army entered Moscow. The entire country then fell into a state of anarchy. In 1612 an army raised by Kuzma Minin and led by Prince Dmitry Mikhailovich Pozharsky drove out the Poles.

The Time of Troubles, as this turbulent period became known, was subsequently seen as proof of Russia’s need for a powerful monarchy whose legitimacy and authority were accepted by all the Russian people. In the absence of an autocratic tsar, Russia appeared doomed to anarchy and to dismemberment by powerful neighbors.

****It was a very interesting time up to this point. An outright melee for territory, prompted by the 'Survival of the Fittest' axiom. Of course it was a thousand times more complicated than you read in the histories. Think of the tens of thousands of amazing true stories that happened during those centuries! The shame of it all was not that it happened that way, ignorance ruled in those years, what was (and is) really bad about it is the loss of knowledge that has happened during and since. A staggering amount of information about the Earth and the Human Species in those centuries has been lost because no one took the time to record that information in any way. And, with education no longer existing in the sham civilization of today even the truth about the Earth and the Human Species in these times is being deliberately destroyed by the Queer Medias and the Proudless Prideless Pervert Pretenders (minus the many Humans they have already killed) and the APA/NEA/ACLU****

****The year is 1613, and here I leave this concise history. Matters after this year are really not very interesting. The creation of Communism in reaction to the dictatorship of the Romanovs was inevitable -- however it was the worst possible reaction, and the Communist era was God-awful to say the least. I lived through it and I know it was nothing to crow about. The two world wars and the cold war were a terrible agony for the planet.****

First Group of Five Move Out--VictimsofCommunism-org

{{{{Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians have been confronted with many of the old social problems that existed during the Soviet era, as well as with a new set of problems brought about by the rapid changes in society. The change to private ownership created new opportunities but also resulted in high unemployment in many areas. Because of high inflation and economic instability, many elderly persons who live on a government pension are now very poor. Life expectancy and health rates have plunged as well.

Ethnic hostilities have flared up in some parts of Russia that were conquered either by the Soviet Government or during the imperial Russian era. When the Soviet government collapsed, there was enough instability for some areas to gain partial independence or even try to break away completely from the Russian government. The fiercest fighting of this type occurred in Chechnya, a region in the Caucasus Mountains near Georgia. Between 1994 and 1996, thousands of Russian troops were sent into the area, and many people on both sides were killed.

Alcohol abuse has traditionally been a problem for the Russians. Alcoholism was prevalent during the Soviet years and is still a problem today. Family violence is often a consequence of alcoholism.

Crime rates have risen rapidly in Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, which has made the economic situation even worse. Much of the crime problem is due to the threats and violence caused by organized crime, which has gained considerable power in some areas. Organized crime is also aided in some places because of corruption among local officials. Russians often look down on the 'new rich', who are assumed to be criminals.

Unemployment is high for women, and prostitution has become a popular way for women to make money. Many teenage girls believe that a career in prostitution will pay more than most legitimate professions ever would, regardless of education. About one-fourth of Russia's prostitutes have received some sort of higher education.}}}}

Worldmark Encyclopedia of World Cultures

Long ago, in a land far far away, there used to be a good company called 'Microsoft', and once upon a time long long ago it made an encyclopedia called 'Encarta'.

but dats all gone now

[[[[Excerpts from Encarta]]]]

{{{{Excerpts from other sources so listed}}}}

All pictures from Wikimedia unless otherwise specified.

*************************

Markel Peters

https://voices-of-iowa.blogspot.com/

https://voices-of-iowa-concise.blogspot.com/