Below, a translation of the French language Wikipedia version of early Russian
history (to the advent of the Romanovs). Very to-the-point, in my view:
Kievan Rus' or Principality of Kiev ( Ruthenia ) was the first organized state to be formed in the region occupied today by Ukraine , Belarus and part of Western Russia (862). Founded by Vikings from Scandinavia (the Varangians in Russian) then led by the Riourikid dynasty , it formed a loosely structured state whose subjects were the tribes of Eastern Slavs living in the region and who would gradually be conquered. The Varangian princes developed the trade route which linked the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea using the Dnieper River (the Varangian route). They succeeded, by force of arms, in imposing themselves on the Byzantine Empire as trading partners. The principality of Kiev must fight the nomadic peoples of the steppes coming from the east: Pechenegs , Cumans , etc. Under the reign of Vladimir , the territory expanded and in 988, this great prince converted to the religion of the Byzantine Empire, Orthodox Christianity : this will become the state religion and will be one of the factors of the Russian national unity . The principality of kyiv disintegrated over the years under the onslaught of nomadic peoples after a long period of internal instability due to inheritance divisions between Vladimir's descendants. It gave way to around fifteen principalities located in the territories of current Ukraine , Belarus and the European part of Russia. Thus, in 1276, the Grand Principality of Moscow was created.
The Baptism of Vladimir by Viktor Vasnetsov .
The princes, who ruled these principalities and had eminent ownership of the land, employed armies supervised by boyars who gradually became landowners. They reign over a mass of peasants who were generally free at that time. The principality of Vladimir-Suzdal and especially the republic of Novgorod, both located to the north of the principality of Kiev, will take advantage of their independence to develop. The Republic of Novgorod, a city-state with an original system of government, prospers thanks to its trade with the Baltic countries. It repeatedly repulsed the expansion attempts of the Teutonic Knights .
Tatar-Mongol invasion
In 1226, a nomadic warrior people from Mongolia , called Tataro-Mongols by the Russians, attacked the principalities. Between 1237 and 1242, Khan Batou , grandson of Genghis Khan , defeated the armies of the princes one after the other and reduced the main cities to ashes including Vladimir , Kiev and Moscow 25 . The populations are massacred or reduced to slavery. Only Novgorod and to a certain extent Pskov , located in the northeast, managed to maintain a certain autonomy. The Mongols did not occupy the defeated territories, but the principalities had to pay tribute and recognize the suzerainty of the Mongols who founded a state south of the Volga : the Golden Horde . This vassalage would only end three centuries later.
The Tatar Mongols had a profound impact on Russia, ethnically with the installation of peoples of Turkic languages , culturally with the Islamization of the peoples east of Moscow, between Vladimir and Kazan which will strengthen the weight of the Church in the face of Muslim occupation. The Russian vocabulary is enriched with many terms from the Mongolian language such as yam (post) and tamga (toll). Administratively, the Russians integrated the tribes as well as the levies of troops. Like the Mongols, the Russian princes went so far as to require their subjects to maintain a post relay service. Finally, militarily, the Russian army will take over the use of light cavalry 26 .
Moscovie
Map of the expansion of Russia between 1300 and 1796.
Portrait of Ivan the Terrible by Viktor Vasnetsov , 1897 ( Tretyakov Gallery , Moscow ).
From the 13th to the 16th century , one of these principalities, Muscovy (whose capital is Moscow), led by skillful princes, gradually annexed all the others to become Russia. Prince Dimitri IV of Russia first defeated the Mongols at the Battle of Kulikovo (1380). However, this unification movement came up against rivalries and the tradition of sharing territories between the different sons of the prince, which led to a civil war between 1425 and 1453. Ascended to the throne in 1462, Ivan III , who was a Venetian traveler described as a "tall man, leaning forward and handsome", freed Muscovy from the yoke of the Mongols , whose empire was now fragmented into several khanates , then absorbed the main still independent Russian principalities including Novgorod (1478) and principality of Tver (1485). In 1485, Ivan III took the title of "ruler of all Rus'", wishing to show his desire to restore all of Vladimir 's heritage . At the end of the reign of Ivan III the territory of Muscovy quadrupled. His son Vasily III (1505–1533) continued territorial expansion by annexing the city-state of Pskov (1510) and the principality of Ryazan (1521) as well as Smolensk (1514). Ivan the Terrible , first prince to be designated under the title of tsar , completed these conquests by seizing the main Mongol khanates, but he lost access to the Baltic Sea in the face of a coalition of the Swedish Empire with Poland and Lithuania . From now on, Russia's eastward expansion no longer has any serious obstacles. The colonization by Russian peasants of the vast basin of the Volga and the Urals takes off. Peasants and fugitives, the Cossacks , settled on the margins and organized themselves into an “army” while playing the roles of pioneers and border guards. Ivan the Terrible then logically considers himself the sole heir of Vladimir , although he does not own the city of Kiev in the hands of the Lithuanian Jagiellonian dynasty . The latter had conquered most of the territories of Western Rus'.
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Language is not the only entry to identifying ethnic identity. Genetics
also brings information. Here, Russians are not much melded with Mongolians.
Interestingly, Mongolians seem to be descendants of Iranians...
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