Units of History: The Druzhina - Knights of the Kievan Rus #Shorts

Who were the most elite units of the Medieval Kievan Rus?
The Druzhina were originally huscarl bodyguards of Prince Rurik who first founded the Rus dynasty out of Novgorod. In time their followers would go on to forge a great Empire of Eastern Europe which stood its ground against Byzantines, Crusaders, and Mongols alike!

You can learn more about the Units of History through our documentary series:

THE BYZANTINES

THE HELLENISTIC WORLD

THE ROMANS

THE NORTHMEN

THE AFRICANS

THE NEAR EAST

Sources and Suggested Reading:
The Rus Primary Chronicle
Armies of Medieval Russia by Osprey Publishing

[adamstrle]

In Slovenian language družina literally means family.

[AfaqueAhmed_]

Who needs Swiss mercenaries when you have bros by your side ?

[bdleo]

Actually no one called them "Kievan Rus" only Rus

[alex_zetsu]

Did they change YouTube shorts? I thought you couldn't skip to a certain part of a short and they used the _horrible_ portrait aspect ratio. or is it just invicta being nice to his viewers with a special setting?

[nvmtt]

Knights: ha, look at those spears, how can they hope to match our glorious charge?
Druzhina: *Pulls out axes
Knights: Hol

[grahamturner]

Excellent. May I recommend the Viking stories, myths, legends and folktales on the Northworthy Sagas and Stories channel here on YouTube. ⚔️

[CsStoker]

I hate this "youtube shorts" format

[Интересный-щу]

Ruric was another Viking eager for more land and glory. So this band of Vikings conquered all the territory down to the Byzantine Empire. The Primary Chronicles 300 years later described the conquest as a brotherly trip👍

[galenbjorn]

feels like every story in the 500-1000 AD start with ''A Scandinavian Man''

[joshuathomas]

Can we all agree its more efficient to use AD than BCE? Or is that just me?

[MCorpReview]

I think 🤔 they call these baron’s sons in total war medieval 🏰 Theres another polish unit called stel something would be cool 😎 if u could do a vid on that juz for benefit of gamers yo

[WelcomeToDERPLAND]

Please, make them as regular posts- I hate this fucking 'shorts' formats.


Even if short, I want the normal video player.

[wulf]

who thought that this format was a good idea. Absolutely crap. the first time i came across this format i thought there was something wrong with my pc.

[guyasor]

the "a clockwork orange" droogs, gets another layer of origin. I like it

[truthbtold]

Every nation has their honorable Warriors. Glad to have them to stand with.

[Lavey]

Is it from an already existing video or an upcoming one'

[RWNetworkEX]

Are the Druzhina like the varangian gaurd?

[Havik_AoE]

Is there a full episode about the Druzhina? could be cool

[julianshepherd]

So we should replace Putin with a Swede ?

[keplertagapan]

East Slavic Russkiiyv 🇷🇺 Rus Kievan Kiev Capital Cities Ukraine🇺🇦 Soviet Socialist Russia 🇷🇺🚩 States In Region (Bolshevik States Regional)