being from Slovenia, a former member of Yugoslavia ("Southslavia") it is heartbreaking seeing our blood brothers from russia and ukraine fighting each other

Fun Fact: On November 4th every year Russia celebrates "Unity Day", which commemorates the day the Russians who had no tsar to lead them expelled the Polish-Lithuanian occupation forces from Moscow in 1612. This date is considered to be the end of the "Time of Troubles". The monument to Minin and Pozharsky in Red Square commemorates the two individuals that raised a volunteer army and repelled the Polish occupation force from Moscow.

Really interesting learning the context of how modern events were shaped by historical events and how Russia was formed. Great reaction video again .

Just to add a little bit to how much vikings contributed to the current Slavic cultures, Russia and Belarus get their name from the Russ. The Russ were Swedish pagans that settled and eventually integrated into the Slavic cultures. Didn't finish the video before I typed this, so if that's covered, here's a separate tidbit that's unrelated. There's strong evidence that the Goths who settled northern eruope/sacked Rome emigrated from the Scandinavian peninsula.

Thank you VTH for showing us the Ukraine conflict with a different lense. It’s not always about a big johnson contest. History and ties always matter!

The entire History of Russia before the start of the Tsar dynasty was unknown to me. I do enjoy watching this channel a lot and always will :)

Vladamir not only adopted Orthodox Christianity, he ensured its independence as a religion. Curiosity Stream covered this on their documentary of Orthodox iconography

This is a great history to keep in mind. I feel like we Americans forget how old/ingrained/intertwined the culture and geopolitics are in Europe and other parts of the world.

fun fact, this phenomenon of different names being used by foreign and local people is called exonyms and endonyms, a good example is how Miklagard is the exonym that the vikings used for istanbul

What I'm most impressed by is that you don't avoid a topic most wouldnt touch with a ten ft pole, and then handle it with care and respect. What the rest of the world needs now more than anything is accurate and unbiased information.

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.” How many times has an invading force arrived while the children of a fallen leader are attacking each other for power.

I think linking relative history to modern events like this is great.

Russia’s history is really fascinating. Love this series. Keep up the great work Chris!

10:30 It's very fascinating to see the multi-ethnic compositions of pre-nationalism militaries. You see this in much of pre-modern Mainland Southeast Asian history (Burma, Ayutthaya, Lan Na), as well as in states like the Ottoman Empire. It also perhaps points to the lack of manpower the Mongols had, or the high amount of toleration they had for other cultures, keep in mind that this was before the concepts of nationalism and the idea that countries are mainly a single ethnic bloc.

As a Russian, I'm happy that you're covering my history, looking forward for more videos about this. lit unbiased channel for sure.

11:14 Goosebumps for some reason, must be with the music and that

I’m so glad you’re starting this series! I’m 1/4 Russian, but I never knew too much about the ancient history of the area, so it’s really interesting to hear you talking about it. Keep up the great work!

Whatever happens regarding the war in Ukraine, I think we in the west can all stand back and admire the courage and tenacity of the ordinary citizens taking up rifles and fighting for their homes. It really is astounding to see, as befitting a people with such a rich history

YESSSS this is one of my favorite series they have done. Thanks for the reaction.

It’s actually kind of jarring how so few schools actually cover Russian history I think it’s actually very important

Only been watching this channel for a few months now and I gotta say, it’s one of the best channels I’ve found on KZfaq. I’ve learnt so much from your videos and I’ve just genuinely really enjoyed it. Thanks heeps and please continue what you’re doing. Love from New Zealand peeps

Nice, didn't watch it before. Looking forward to seeing part2 covered!

Just want to say I love the channel and hope you keep growing :)

Great video, i knew very little and atleast in Australia were never taught any of this in school Your insight on top of these videos is always incredble Chris. Didn't realize now ever heard how Ukraine/Kyin was a potental spark plug for WW3 or of such importance to even modern day Russia

Age of Empire 4 actually does a great job in representing the rise of Grand Duchy of Moscow from a city to an empire. It also had a Mongols campaign that told the story from a different side so I heavily suggest checking out this game purely for its campaign

I love your statement about how nations did not exist until recently. The most common mistake I hear history KZfaqrs make is to apply nationality to times and places where there was no such concept.

Thank you for this! I was looking for content like this to get a better overall history of the region.

Just to add some extra information. Here in Russia we are told about two theories: norman and antinorman. So, some believe that Rurik was a scandinavian chieftain and others believe he was a Slav. But it is touched so deeply only in universities and colleges, in schools we are just told he was from Scandinavia.

Very excited to see you delving into one of my favorite realms of history, and my compliments on your choice of videos. I do think this is extremely important, because, as you say, we're not going to truly understand what's going on today without understanding the literally centuries of history behind it. While I'm not going to go into it here, both for the sake of length and not to get too much into a hot button issue, understanding the history of Kievan Rus is one of many factors that have built up the idea that many have held down the centuries of Ukraine being an integral part of Russia (NOTE: My mentioning that is not an endorsement in any form; I'm simply pointing out the historical point.) For quite a long time, Kyiv was the most important city of the Slavic/Russian world. A couple of notes about individuals discussed in the video today: Alexander Nevskiy's impact can't be overstated, and his name is still seen frequently in Russia. For example, Nevskiy Prospekt, the main street of Saint Petersburg, and the monastery at its eastern end both bear his name. As for Ivan the Terrible, it's the choice of English words that gives much of the impression that people have today. I don't think it's unfair to say that he was an evil man, and he certainly had increased struggles with mental health and bouts of anger as he aged, but the idea of his being totally unhinged that many have is, I feel exaggerated, as he was actually quite an effective ruler. Both "awe-inspiring" and "formidable" have been offered as better translations, and I think either of them would be more appropriate, considering the intended meaning. By the way, the word translated as "terrible" is Groznyy, which is also the name of the capital of Chechnya. I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this series. Great job as always!

Hey! I know its a tad late to comment here, but listening to this during finals really helped last year!

I love how you said, to get more people excited by history. It just hit me, because you did the same thing for me. I was always fascinated by history but I just never realized it, and now I live your reactions

Good pick BTW kings and Generals has a great series on Kievan Rus and Scythians

Started watching with your Oversimplified series and have really been enjoying the channel since then. Im glad you’re taking about Russian and Ukrainian history. It’s important that people understand how far-reaching the consequences of historical events can be, especially with the situation between those countries being what it is right now. Cheers!

Thanks for the explanation about Kyiv / Kiev. I was curious about the change the last week or so as well.

How does this guy not have at least a million subscribers yet?! Like dude, your content is amazing 🤩

Please continue the reactions on Epic History TV’s Napoleon Wars series

bro ngl ur vids are really entertaining!

As an American, it's hard for me to appreciate just how long Russian history is. The Romanov dynasty dates all the way back to Jamestown. And that leaves out 800 years of history from the dynasty beforehand! Russia's first dynasty isn't much younger than England or France, but their dynasties were more stable than England or France.

I’ve watched the series before too. Everything on their channel is really good.

I didn't knew that there was only two dynasty in russia... I admit that I was stunned by this fact.

As someone from Virginia Beach, VA thank you for pronouncing “Norfolk” correctly.

I can't describe to you how much I enjoy your content. My honest opinion is that your commentary is legendary, perfectly placed in a way that allows me to enjoy learning about any historical topic. I have always loved US history, but have been reluctant to make the jump into any world history. Keep up your awesome content! I hope to be here when you hit 500k 1M, etc. Easily one of my favorite channels.

Outstanding and relevant

Oh! Tell me "Ghost of Kiev" wouldn't be an AWESOME Sabaton song.

During the time of problems, Poland and Russia were very close to establishing a union and merging into one country. But the Polish king Zygmunt III refused to let his son convert to Orthodoxy, which was necessary for Władysław IV to become tsar. He had the title of tsar from 1610-1613 during the Polish occupation of Moscow but never ruled Russia. As a Pole, it would be very interesting to see such a state composed of two great powers at that time.

So important that everyone learn history. So many conflicts of the past and current, including modern day Ukraine, are not random, but just a continuation of events. So many people do not know this.

Regarding Ivan the terrible killing his own son there’s a famous painting of Ivan cradling his sons’s body after calming down and realizing what he’s done.

I truly hope someday you continue the epic history Napoleonic War series

Slightly off topic but I hope Sabaton one day makes a song about the Legends of Snake Island. To tell an invading warship (technology far superior than most last stands have gone against) to F off, literally in the face of overwhelming odds and impending doom, is probably some of the most bad ass and brave things I’ve ever heard.

I would like to add a quote "Russia is an isolated power because she is inaccessible, but the access to other States is constantly open to her, she is, by the nature of her position, always aggressive and therefore always invasive. She may well engage with other states by ties of common interest, but these interests will be for her only accidental, secondary and fragile [...]. Russia does not need her friends, her allies to defend itself." Report of Count d'Hauterive (1824) Napoleon's former secretary of state and French diplomat. After you watch the Russian history, I suggest you finished the Napoleonic Wars serie by Epic History TV because it's ABSOLETLY amazing !

Thx for all. I love this channel.

I think you are one of the best youtubers I watch, I love your content so much!

Kinda funny, was never interested in history before but found your Oversimp WW2 video react and just loved the smal extra pointers of the history, been a big fan ever since and love the content your making! Keep it up!

I’m glad you are doing this series- it’s a nice way to talk about current events. We have to understand what’s happening now through the lens of what happened before.

Kiev is common name for it and yes it's from Russian. Kyiv is Ukrainian name for it. That's all. Capital of my country is Prague.. all people call it Prague, Prag, Praag etc. but we call it Praha. Same goes with Kiev/Kyiv and both are both correct.

Appreciate your work, shouts outs from cuyahoga falls Ohio

We gotta learn History to understand our present. Thank you for having the courage to touch this sensitive topic now, it´s important.

Thank you for doing this series right now. I'm excited to learn more about the whole area.

The 4k is awesome as always I love the incredible added information

Before I've even started watching I liked the video because it couldn't have been a better time to talk about this subject considering the circumstances, however I do know that the origins go back to the Viking era.

Pretty sure the impression of Ivan the Terrible being a bad ruler and dictator comes mostly from the nickname, which I'm pretty certain is a wrong or dubious translation of the Russian version of the nickname

Love the work done on the thumbnail. I know I have scrolled past your videos in the past knowing full well I enjoy them. Good work.

Thank you for your work. Great video, much needed context to events of the past linked to present times. About the toponyms -- quite a big chunk of those in slavic languages are literal translations. For example, "Novgorod" is literally "New city", because it was, well, new. You were right about "Ivan the Terrible" being viewed very differently: in Russian he is known as "Ivan Grozny", Ivan the Formidable. He is not revered in any way, but he represents the "strong governing hand", the symbol of ultimate autocracy (*not seen as a bad thing). That notion of "ruling with an iron fist is necessary" goes throughout the whole history of Russia - from Grozny to Peter the Great to Joseph Stalin to current times.

Beautiful reaction as always VTH! Can't wait for the next part. I also wanted to suggest you a really well made video behind the current invasion of Ukraine by Russia that was made some days ago by the channel RealLifeLore with the title "Why Russia is invading Ukraine". It helped me personally a lot to understand many things behind what's going on. Keep up the good work!

Thanks so much. Looking forward to the continuation.

It’s funny…I was just talking to a friend yesterday about how all the reporters seemed to be mispronouncing Kiev. Nice to see you also didn’t realize the cultural distinction. Thanks for clearing that up. And great work in general! Love your history commentary!

"Ivan the Terrible" is a terrible translation xD It's more like "Ivan the Dangerous" in russian.

The Norwegian way of saying Norwegians is saying nordmann (single person) or nordmenn (2+ people) which has been a thing since the 800’s. Another fun fact! "Norweg" in Norweg-ians is the "original" form of saying Norway And it means "Nord (north) Weg (way) so Nordweg.

15:15 yes correct! "Kaisar" is the Latin pronunciation, I remember from school

I started thinking you were biased during a presidents video. But I figured out you’re really not. It’s just your generation. Your videos are great and I enjoy them greatly. Ivan the terrible was the beginning of where Russia is even today.

Great stuff I didn’t know much about that part of the world until recently after watching all of those Neapolitan wars on this channel interesting stuff thanks for sharing

Yeah this awesome! Ivan the Terrible smashing his son in with the royal scepter is particularly grim.

You’re a good man. I just found this channel and I LOVE IT youre making me so into history

Hey Chris, can you do a video of Kraut's History of Russian Authoritarianism? It's really good.

This is the first epic history reaction I've seen and wow it's amazing.

My additions: -8:46 Yaroslav the wise divided his kingdom between his sons in fear of a fratricidal war with the eldest being prince of Novgorod. -9:27 The Mongols first sacked Babylon (long story) and only a vanguard approached the Russian principalities, but then the mongols actually attacked and burned down resisting cities all the way across Europe. They used flat grasslands to feed their cavalry and to easily travel. I am pretty sure it was Ogadai Khan who led this attack and his death concluded this war. 10:17 The principalities were devastated and surrendered and basically became puppet state of the golden horde and got authority to reign separately after a visit the the capital of the golden horde, Sarai. -11:46 I believe that is why the golden horde was a separate entity from the rest of the Mongol empire. -12:20 the principality was actually Muscovy, and their capital was Moscow. They had the ostensible aim to unite Rus lands. -15:10 Ceaser is Latin for Tsar and I dunno know about Kaiser-it's probably German. -15:55 The regime of terror was called Opritchina, and Ivan was probably mentally ill at that point. He executes all those against him, and his madness drives him to killing his heir apparent. -16:32 Crimea was supported by the ottomans. -18:44 Boris Godunov was also his brother in law. -18:54 Gregory Otripiev fled his monastery, and claims to be Ivan's son whose name was Dimitry Ivanovitch. He also tries to get help from the Polish king, but refuses.

A comment on the Kiev / Kyiv. The name of the city comes from the name of its legendary founder named Kiy. Basically, the city name means “Kiy’s something (presumably, city)”. And the difference in the city name pronunciation comes from the difference between Russian and Ukrainian grammar. Say, if you want to say “Kiy’s plane” in Russian it will sound something like “Kiev samolet”, but in Ukrainian it would sound like “Kyiv litak”. So the pronunciation is just driven by the grammar about word endings. Therefore the city is called Kyiv in Ukrainian and Kiev in Russian. Notably, Russian-speaking Ukrainians say “Kiev”, I believe. Just like German-speaking Americans would probably say Munich, not Munchen.

It’s always fascinating the history that is missed in western education I took AP European History back in high school and never knew half of what was in this video.

Interesting that this is the second channel I follow which is doing a series on this EXACT series, and both because of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. She is not a historian, so she doesn't have the historical notes to add, she's more from the lens of someone curious about all of history.

Interesting regarding name changes of cities. In Ukraine the city of Lviv, was Lvov when it was under Russian control, Lwow under Polish control, and Lemberg under Austrian control. Makes me wonder what the city with the most 'official' name changes is.

About the romanov dynasty, according to useful charts the agnatic house of the dynasty did not last many years. After a while, although the name stayed romanov, the ruling house was the house of holstein-godorp that was a brarch of the oldenburg dynasty that ruled danemark for many years. This is something that is most of the time forgotten or is not even known by some people.

I know very little about the pre-Romanov dynasty time period so a lot of the info in this video was new to me!

You’re my favorite man. Thank you

History seems to be reminding us that nothing is new. Everything is connected and in some ways is a continuum.

Thank you Chris. Your awesome.

When you said about the video format and the need to grow the channel i felt bed cause I usually watch your stuff in-between doing something else so i don't usually comment and help the algorithm, but I'll try to do better. And another thing, no worries you certainly don't need getting ME more excited about history than i already am 😃 but I'm all for proselitising 🤭

Vladimir wasn’t the first Grand Prince to convert to Christianity, although he was the ones to convert his people. His grandmother Olga (or Helga), widowed by the Drevlyans killing her husband (some accounts say he deserved it by succumbing to greed and demanding extra tribute from them), avenged his death (brutally), then went to Constantinople. The reigning Emperor was impressed by her intelligence and beauty and offered her to be his empress. She cleverly told him that she couldn’t marry him until she was a Christian and asked him to be the one to convert her. He participated in the rite. Afterwards, she said that he was now her holy father and thus she couldn’t marry him before going back to Kiev

I love your videos man!! great insight and commentary!

Good video, hello from Russia btw, but just wanted to a little bit correct several interesting moments: 1) While it is commonly believed even here in Russia, that the Ryrik (Рюриковичи) dynasty ended up in 1598, it is...not entirely true. Yes, the ''main'' line, or ''Moscow'' line to be more proper, did ended up in 1598, but there were still many-many other Ryrikovich lines (there are thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, may be more) of their descendants after up till today, and the last Ryrikovich Tsar to rule was Vasiliy Shuiski (Василий Шуйский), who ruled in 1606-1610. With his removal Rurikovichs no longer ruled the Russia as monarchs - though, as I've mentioned before, there were tons of them still alive and present, so they were still very prominent, and, well, ''ruled'' the Russia anyway - but with a lesser roles than it was before. 2) It's important to note, that the name of the ''Kievan Rus'' is absolutely artificial, created by Russian scholars to differentiate this period from the periods, where Moscow or other principialities like the Vladimir were major ones. The only name of the state was just ''Rus'' (Русь, or ''Роусь'', how it was written back in time, cause ''оу'' were considered as a one letter, and separate letter ''у'' did not existed yet), Latter it became ''Rusland' in Dutch, ''Russland'' in German or ''Russia'' in English (and so on), and we Russians themselves...picked up Hellenized version of this name - ''Rossiya'', cause Greeks called us ''Ros'' instead of ''Rus''. Greek culture and language were very prestige here for obvious reasons. Though, it became only name of the country, our ethnicity, nation, language, etc, are still being called ''русский/русские'' (russkiy/russkiye, single and plural forms respectively), coming from the same root ''Rus''. 3) About name of our capital - Moskva/Moscow, it is very interesting to note, that...English language spelling is more archaic in that regard that Russian one is. It was called ''grad Moscov'' in ancient times, which basically means ''Moscov town/city'' - and the Moscow's name just have got changed in time. I hope this does not sound like too critique, cause video is excellent, and I just wanted to add some more details for those curious in the Russian history.

I’m just a history novice. I loved this! It was so interesting that Kyiv was the capital of Russia early on.

Snowy land mass: *exists * Vikings: Is mine?

It blows my mind how late Russia developed. Peter the Great wasn't around that much before the US.

the font used in that video is the font from Avatar the Last Airbender lol but interesting video none the less

It's amazing how personal leadership was at this time. In the early 1200's one of the largest groups in what is now Latvia was the Principality of Jerzika ruled by a guy named Visvaldis. The people were Latvians living along the Northern Dvina River. Visvaldis was from a cadet branch of the Rurikids (see Polotsk on your map.) His wife was the daughter of the Lithuanian Grand Duke. What was important to the locals was that their Prince and Princess were blood relatives of the two most powerful groups in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the Livonian Knights (Germans) showed up right about that time and crushed them. Their daughter then ended up marrying a German knight. Go figure. Source: Chronicles of Henricus Letticus (Henry of Livonia)

Cossacks were basicaly cowboys of the east. SandRoman History did a video on them recently!

hey man your doing a great job you got me soo interested in history with your great videos keep up the awesome work

As a Norwegian, i just had to mentiln the Vikings who served ass royal guards in Constantinople under the Ottoman sultan.

When you have mentioned Ugoslavia I thought you would go into more details about it. Since it is one of the very important things leading to current events in my understanding.

Controversial video considering what’s going on but nevertheless important as well

I only watch these with u cause u provide a ton more knowledge