The Vyatichi and the Rest of Zalissia (05.07.2025)

A street debate between Vitaliy Dribnytsya and a Russian, Sergei from Moscow, about the Vyatichi, the Zalissia region, and the origins of Muscovite statehood. The historian explains why the Christianization of the Vyatichi dragged on for four centuries, how “Rus’” and the “Rusian land” were distinguished, where the term “Zalissia” came from, and why it was precisely the Oka-Volga interfluve that rose — from the fertile Vladimir Opolye to Ivan Kalita and the liquidation of Tver under Ivan III. A source for the article on how “Rus’” became “Russia.”