Vikings Of The East: Igor & The Kievan Rus'

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Ever since the Eighth Century, Scandinavians had not only looked to the west for expansion, but to the east as well. Whereas opportunistic young Danes and Norsemen tended to look westward to Great Britain, France and the North Sea to raid, the people of modern day Sweden had long looked eastward across the Baltic Sea to Finland, the Baltic States and Russia for opportunities of their own.

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[HistoryTime]

Watch my latest full length history documentary here:-

Hi guys! Thanks for stopping by. So this was one of the first videos I ever made... Hit that subscribe button to check out the new stuff (40+ videos)! (Also we've got more than 50 new videos coming this year on a huge variety of different subjects)

[Aenaos]

As a Greek I've studied Byzantine History. Rus/Varangians/Vikings were employed as mercenaries forming the elite troop of the Varangian Guard. During the centuries they got hellenized and assimilated. Viking descedants made they way into the imperial bloodline, starting from the empress Eudocia Ingerina, daughter of Ingerin, an officer of the Varangian Guard and a Greek noblewoman from Constantinople.

[Russ]

As a Slavic history buff my self I applaud you for the accuracy of your content. You sir, deserve well over 8k subscribers.

[Vitalis]

"Modern nations of Russia and Ukraine" Damn, everybody is forgetting Belarus. Poor Belarussians. :P

[xyzjigsaw]

Scandinavian - Slavic Tribe - Iranic People - Turkic Tribe - Georgian - Caucasian Tribe - Arab - Baltic Tribe - Uralic Tribe - Greek - Vlach - Bulgar - Magyar > they all in contact at this time, amazing. Ancient globalization

[paulcateiii]

History Time has become one of my favorite channels on YouTube

[Alsayid]

I don't get why so many Russian nationalists want to deny a viking founding of states and admixture, and claim a pure Slavic heritage. No Englishman or American is ashamed of the viking admixture in England, right?

[adammessina]

Thank you. I always knew about Danes and Norwegians west ward raids on France, England, Ireland but you never hear much on eastern raids and the rus or at least in this part of the world! 🙏🏻

[ValensBellator]

Olga really deserves her own video, she was just incredible.

[Brakvash]

"Var" means Man in old swedish - meaning that Varangian could be translated to Mansword or transliterated as Swordsman.

[tyskbulle]

There is always a fight over Russian history. Especially over genes and mythic kings. What is the point? Arguably the vikings had an equal impact east as west. They founded and lost kingdoms. Settled and assimilated like everywhere else they went. This is the history of most European peoples at one point. They moved around, conquered or assimilated and then dispersed.

[haleydoe]

I have a hand-written line of descent from my 4th great uncle, John Church Hoskins of Sioux City Iowa from Rurik to himself, his parents, my 4th great grand parents, to his own daughter. We are direct descendants through parental lineage. It runs through the Byzantine Empire, the Capetian Kings, English Kings such as Longshanks and Henry III, and more recently the Drakes of Musbury, Cornwall, England. Thomas Drake was our first American ancestor.

I'm writing the history currently, and have gotten to Eleanor of Aquitaine. I have recently given in to DNA testing and it lines up to the stories. It is incredible.

Thanks for your research!

[simecki]

Kievan Rus was indeed founded by Norseman and early rulers were of norse blood, however majority of population in country was ethnic Slavs, from farmers to soldiers, nobles and later ruling class. No denial of Norseman influence on Kievan Rus BUT keep in mind they took Slavic faith, culture, names and became heavily slavenized.

[thedirty]

Your early videos are just as wonderful.... I love watching the evolution of peoples channels!

[RinaldoDegliAlbizzi]

Great video. However if I can give you an advice: judging by many comments in this section, it's obvious that many Russians continue to believe the slavophile propaganda that the early Rus were Slavs and not Scandinavians, contrary to all the evidence. Modern Russians should be considered an amalgam of slavic peoples with a Scandinavian elite that quickly integrated themselves to the wider population's culture. Vladimir Stanislavich himself had a Slav mother, so it should be portrayed as a mix. Otherwise beware of Russian nationalists.

[Hrafnasson]

I see so many people in the comments talking about Russians not having Scandinavian decent but only Slavic. Slavs are not a unanimous group. We are just liguistic group and we share similar genetics. Buy Polish people have a lot of German decent, Macedonias have a lot of Greek, Romanians a lot of Turkish and Russians have Scandinavian/Baltic. Yes Slavs are similar, but we have differences too. Polish people aren't exactly like Russians, Russians aren't exactly like Serbians and Serbians aren't exactly like Polish people. We can't forget the fact of how many Norse villages were settled in Russia during the Viking age. People also don't realize that how many settlements were established before Rurik and a the Viking Age. Scandinavian settled Russian lands from the time of Rurik (800 a.d.) all the way down to his descendents like Vladimir II (1200 a.d.). We can't ignore the Varangian migration into Russia. Icelanders are considered to be Scandinavian, but just as many Norsemen moved to Russia during the viking age.
Not counting that Russians picked up some cultural norms from Scandinavian that their Slavic brothers don't have.

[roberthockett]

VERY well done, friend - many thanks.

[goodstuff]

The reason why the Eastern Slavs and the Scandinavians got along so well is because their culture, beliefs and ways of life where very similar. Their gods where similar and they both had a reverence for the warrior spirit, they even looked similar with both having high amounts of blond hair and blue eyes. This is because they where both Northern Europeans and broke away more recently than they than they did from other European subgroups.

[АндрейСтроганов-зк]

The culture of Northern Europe is very similar, which leads to the conclusion of a single origin.

[BListHistory]

awesome stuff, can't wait to see more