pre-communist russia

[sthitpradnya]

hello people,
people outside of russia generally know next to nothing about the ancient and medieval history of russia. the most that we know belongs to the iron-curtain era and the period preceding that - the tail end of the czarist period.
i would like some enlightenment along these lines -
1) how and when did russia emerge as an ethnic/geographical entity?

2) how did the very name 'russia' originate?

3) is it true that that the inhabitation of russia began by immigrants from the caucasus?
4) how far back does the antiquity of russia go?

5) any reliable information about ancient culture regarding food,medicine,social classes,attire,martial skills, music,education?

6) how did the royalty of russia establish itself. whom did they derive their stock from?
7) famous personages from the medieval/ancient period? warriors,poets,artists?

8) any architectural landmarks surviving from that period?

[Storm]

I believe the name came from Rus - the name of the Norse tribe that settled (more likely, conquered) the area.

[dust1n]

Originally Posted by sthitpradnya

1) how and when did russia emerge as an ethnic/geographical entity?

Apparently, the area of Novrgorod was settled by Vikings in the late 8th century. Christianity moved in near the late 900's. At this time, Russia was called Kievan Rus' and the empire that existed was destroyed by Genghis Khan.

I'd check this out. Kievan Rus' - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2) how did the very name 'russia' originate?

As Storm said, the Rus vikings.

3) is it true that that the inhabitation of russia began by immigrants from the caucasus?

I think early Russia would have seen a majority of Eastern Europeans and Slavics under the rule. But at the time, Russia did not extend super east like it does now. It's possible those areas were inhabited by people more closely associated with China, Mongolia, etc.

4) how far back does the antiquity of russia go?

The state seems to be a result of Ivan IV the terrible. His father, Ivan the Great, seems to have done another of campaigns that rid a lot of Russia's localized oppressors. The Terrible followed, and did brutal campaigns, many against the remaining Golden Horde. So this would be around 1570. But, before the state, people had existed there in a somewhat separate area since the 800's if not before.

5) any reliable information about ancient culture regarding food,medicine,social classes,attire,martial skills, music,education?

I found this:

"Kievan Rus', although sparsely populated compared to Western Europe,[33] was not only the largest contemporary European state in terms of area but also culturally advanced.[34] Literacy in Kiev, Novgorod and other large cities was high.[35][36] As birch bark documents attest, they exchanged love letters and prepared cheat sheets for schools. Novgorod had a sewage system[37] and wood paving not often found in other cities at the time. The Russkaya Pravda confined punishments to fines and generally did not use capital punishment.[38] Certain inalienable rights were accorded to women, such as property and inheritance rights.[39][40][41]"

Source at bottom.

6) how did the royalty of russia establish itself. whom did they derive their stock from?

Power, I'm assuming. There were leaders beforehand, and the leaders just bled through into Russia like they would anyone else. The specifics of the leadership is fairly long. Check my sources. Trade with the Byzantine empire seems to be one of the foundational elements for early Russian royalty.

7) famous personages from the medieval/ancient period? warriors,poets,artists?

Plenty of warriors, but I can't seem to find much about poets or artists. I'll keep looking. Information about some of the royalty is available in my sources.

8) any architectural landmarks surviving from that period?

This has been there since the 1000's. Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


My other sources.

Russian History, from the early beginnings to modern Russia

History & Culture of Russia / The Mongols and the Emergence of Moscow

Kievan Rus' - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[sthitpradnya]

dust1n,
appreciate your taking the time to reply. could you tell me how the cyrillic script originated?
also are their chronicles about medieval russia along the lines of say "the history of florence" ( niccollo maciavelli?)

[dust1n]

Well, I don't know much about Cyrillic Script, but according to the Wiki:


The Cyrillic script ( /sɨˈrɪlɪk/) or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system. It is based on the Early Cyrillic, which was developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School.[1] It is the basis of alphabets used in various languages, past and present, in Eastern Europe and Asia, especially those of Slavic origin, and non-Slavic languages influenced by Russian. As of 2011 around 252 million people in Europe and Asia use it as official alphabet for their national languages. About half of them are in Russia.[2]

Cyrillic is derived from the Greek uncial script, augmented by ligatures and consonants from the older Glagolitic alphabet and Old Bulgarian for sounds not found in Ancient Greek. It is named in honor of the two Byzantine Greek brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who created the Glagolitic alphabet earlier on. Modern scholars believe that Cyrillic was developed and formalized by early disciples of Cyril and Methodius.

With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek scripts.

Cyrillic script - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And concerning a big collection of early works, I know of this one in particular:

Primary Chronicle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And here is an academic English translation, though I am in not position to validate how good of a translation that may be. It's the one I have bookmarked.

Primary Chronicle reading 1

[sthitpradnya]

dust1n,
thanks for the prompt response. is there a way to change the title of this thread to "ancient and medieval russia"? maybe that would get more hits and info from people.