Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
edict enforcers and intelligence gatherers. They were part of a long line of such men serving
a long line of Russia's tyrannical rulers.
WHEN DID THE KINGDOMS OF RUSSIA BEGIN?
The origins of the Russian state began in south Russia, sometime in the seventh century
CE. Viking bands from Denmark and Sweden, traveling south along the rivers of Russia
(and dragging their long boats on rollers where rivers freeze or run dry) imposed a govern-
ment on the Rus (a Norse word) in the northern area around Novgorod (new city). Rurik
was their leader; his kingdom began in 862. In 882 his successor, Oleg, transferred his cap-
ital to Kiev in southern Russia. In 987 Prince Vladimir (whose Viking lineage is Norman-
Swedish) married Anna, an Orthodox Christian sister of the Emperor of Byzantium, whose
capital city, Constantinople, was a worthy successor to the glories of Imperial Rome. Soon
Vladimir converted to Orthodoxy, and Russian rulers would then take the Byzantine title of
Caesar (Tsar in Russian, which later became Czar), and future Tsars would adopt the per-
quisites and style of Byzantine emperors: absolute rule (Tsars styled themselves Tsar and
autocrat). The power of the autocrat was undergirded by the Patriarch of Constantinople
(and later of Moscow), who claimed for the emperor divine blessing and authority. An aura
of mystery cloaked the Byzantine emperor, enhanced by infrequent appearances to ador-
ing crowds who were paid and prompted to shout, sing, and exhibit trance-like hysteria.
Much the same mystery cloaked the Russian Tsars. In the twentieth century, Josef Stalin,
a dwarfish five feet four inches, made use of the Byzantine mysteries by infrequent public
appearances, by an inner circle of doting, fearful attendants, and by larger-than-life photo-
graphs and statues that dominated every public place in the Soviet Union. Even in “god-
less” Soviet Russia, the Church played an important role in preserving Russian culture.
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