@Mick Medieval Russia 980-1584

@Mick The White Nationalist Manifesto

https://www.counter-currents.com/2018/12/against-escapism/

- C.S. Lewis, *Mere Christianity*

Only a real progressive is willing to acknowledge when it’s time to turn around and retrace our steps

Russian courtship

@Nemets What made you pick up this book in particular? I'm trying to dig into European history on the whole but it's hard to know what's worth reading and what's not.

if it's 600+ pages and the 1 star reviews on amazon aren't about formatting errors or freudianism it's usually at least half decent @Mick

@Nemets Yikes. Guess so. What do you think of the book so far?

How is it written? Is it tough to read, meaning, maybe a little dry?

I'm enjoying it, but it is pretty academic

Ok with academic, that can be written in a way to keep you reading imo.

I'm very inexperienced with Russia, does it get into what it means to be Russian wrt ethnicity?

I'm only 7% into it so far - but a lot of it is past the arrival of ryurik

I don't know if ethnic conflict was later, obviously soviet era

was a big deal

oh, ok.

I've always been curious about the history of the various groups that fell under Russian influence

how those groups formed, how they interacted with Russian influence and power, etc.

Ryurik?

Viking?

he was a viking of finnish background that united a lot of slavs and founded Rus'

his descendants would rule russia until the death of Ivan IV "The Terrible"

Ok. Ivan was the first Czar, so he was of Viking decent? I though Ivan was the beginning of a new era in Russian rule and culture...?

I've got some learning to do.

russians are a mixture of a lot of different peoples, just like americans

slavs are the main group, but they have a lot of finnic and ugrian ancestry, with a sprinkling of tatar and german

That's my very elementary understanding. I was just under the impression Ivan was the beginning and not the end of an era

in a lot of ways he was

he was both...?

yeah

can you calrify?

oh

probably a lot to clarify, haha

don't mean to ask for a history lesson haha

no problem

after mongols destroyed kiev and a lot of principalities, base of russian civilization shifted north of the forest line to places where nomadic hordes were less capable of attacking

moscow was a very loyal servant of the mongols, and gained a lot in power and wealth relatively during that time

by the 15th century, the mongols were destroying themselves through fighting between descendants of genghis khan and new warlords