How to write the history of statehood (02.04.2024)
A street dialogue between the channel’s host and a Russian on the methodology of writing the history of statehood. The interlocutor agrees with the principle that “a state’s history is written within its present-day borders”; the conversation details why Novgorod and the Oka–Volga interfluve were not “Rus’” from the start, how Russian university textbooks pull the Scythians and the Greek cities on the territory of present-day Ukraine into “their own” history, and how historical opinion journalism (the example of Novodvorskaya) differs from scholarship.
Key moments
- 01:03 Two approaches to the history of Russia: the Moscow and the St. Petersburg schools
- 03:18 The principle of borders: write the history of a state within its present-day boundaries
- 04:57 Novgorod: Princess Olha was the first to install a posadnik there; Kyiv's control
- 05:30 Novgorod became part of Russia only in the second half of the 15th century
- 05:54 The Oka–Volga interfluve: Balts, Finno-Ugrians, Turkic peoples; Slavs came later
- 08:01 Scythians and Greek cities: Russian university textbooks describe those located on the territory of present-day Ukraine
- 13:08 Novodvorskaya on Novgorod: historical opinion journalism, not scholarship
- 17:14 Moscow's seizure of Novgorod: massacres and forced resettlement from the Oka–Volga interfluve