@@dajdasdq Imagine if they could have hung on to that. It likely would have affected the outcome of the Cold War and they would have had a warm place in the tropics.
@@crepesoftime yeah it would make the cold war 100% more tense as alaska and hawaii didnt have much to lose, but would allow nukes to reach straight into the heart of usa, without the need of allies like cuba
Alexander I didn't go to war against Finland. He went to war against Sweden and conquered the territory called Finland (renamed Grand Duchy of Finland by Alexander).
"How did Russia get so big?" Because they had two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large vodka.
Kievan Rus is not the name of the country but a time period created later by historians. Moreover, Kiev was not the original capital of Rus - it was captured by Prince Oleg the Prophetic (regent of the son of Rurik) in 882 and only after the capital was moved to Kiev.
@Ben Dover Most countries in the feudal era were multinational, even in Europe. It is just that in Europe there was assimilation, or outright genocide of peoples in the era of the formation of nations.
@Ben Dover there is a theory about Rurik's Slavic roots. His mother was Umila from Novgorod, the middle daughter of the Slavic elder Gostomysl. And his father was from Slavic Baltic tribe Bodrichi
Capital wasn't moved to Kyiv, because Rus' was established only after varyags reached Kyiv, so since foundation of Rus' Kyiv was its capital. Also some people that write about Novgorod - it had nothing to do with nowadays "Russia" until Ivan "The terrible" conquered Novgorod and slaughtered there half of civilians. As I remember historians described language of Novgorod similar to Polish, because of similarity of many words and officially "Russian" language was established only during empire time by Lomonosov and based on Church Slavonic language and was totally made up to spread made up "Russian" culture and russify other nations
@@maksymkashchuk5420 For the first time statehood at people Rus has arisen with arrival Rurik - about what it is spoken in "The Tale of Bygone Years" of the beginning of XII century. The dynasty of Rurikovich ruled in Russia up to death, son of Ivan Terrible, Fedor Ioannovich. Hence dynasty Rurikovich has gone from the North, the first Prince Rurik reigned not in Kiev. Kiev is not the first capital of Rus
1. The word "Rus'"comes from the word Rower, although it's still under debate. However, the tribe that conquered Southern Karelia, were mostly known as "Varyags" or varangians 2. Main part of the trade wasn't going on with local slavic population, but was going through the traderoads "From Varangians to Persians" and "From Varangians to Greeks". Expansion of the Arabian Califate made this traderoads very important, because The Silk Road and The Spice Road was blocked. This made important for the Varangians to control these territories, to build the infrastructure so the trade ships could safely go through the rivers of Volga and Dniepr, and eventually a government have appeared. 3. Ivan IV's nickname "The Terrible" comes from mistranslation of the word "Grozny", which means literally means "thunderous", or "menacing". He had a heavy character, and there were executions, like anywhere in Europe, but certainly not a remarkably big, and there were not much of reasons (besides oprichnina, of course) to call him The Terrible. Also, he was the first tzar, not the Vasily III, because on his coronation a byzantine ritual of anointing was performed, and the word tzar comes from "Caesar" directly. Just wanted to note it, a lot of people doesn't know it. 4. Pavel I (or Paul) wasn't actually so much of a diplomate. He only ruled for 5 years, during which Napoleon was thrashing Europe. Many reforms of Paul I were directly reforming russian military. He was a big fan of Friedrich II of Prussia, and he in many ways was using prussian methods of training the military. 5. A lot of information was missed with no mention of Crimean War. One of many reasons of this war was russian influence on local minorities and expansion towards the Balkans, as Russia, with Byzantine Empire long gone, proclaimed herself a defender of orthodox faith. Ottoman Empire, "the sick man of Europe", was not much of a threat anymore, but still was making the balance of power in the region of eastern mediterranean, but expansion of Russia in the Balkans could ruin it. So, in result of the Crimean War, the most part of expansion was stopped, only the influence by faith and support of bolgarian and greek rebels remained. Russia would be in only single war with Turks until WW1, in 1877-1878, with minor land additions to empire, partially because of it. 6. 7:03 omg this map is terrible Just a minor additions to the video, GK, but still, the video is great, thank you!
The answer is so simple, with a lot of genocides like Circassian genocide, Crimean genocide and Genocide of indigenous peoples in Siberia!! But ofc none of them are mentioned, i wonder why? Ohh right, Russian empire was a Christian empire so it's atrocities and genocides are automatically ignored...
@@ggoddkkiller1342 compare what happened to local siberians and local indians in USA, if Russia was genociding locals, its scary to imagine what a psycho nazi was USA
@@ggoddkkiller1342 then why are most of those ethnic groups still here, while many in the areas colonised by western Europeans are totally gone? Westerners were the most genocidal maniacs, worse the Russia or Mongols or anyone else
@@KateeAngel I completely agree your this statement as westerners were really the worst who genocided tens of millions of innocent people and could still act like they are ''civilized'' with tons of propaganda!! But sadly two wrongs don't make a right mate...
At 7:45. Fun fact: some geologists believe that Russia's "Time of Troubles" was triggered by vast famines caused by very harsh winters and extremely short growing seasons caused by one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the past 2,000 years--the massive blow-up of Huaynaputina. This is a huge volcano in southern Peru that exploded tremendous quantities of ash into the atmosphere in 1600, which blocked out the sun for a few years and led to a sudden cooling of the Earth's surface. This is manifested in very long and harsh winters. This eruption was larger than the far more famous one at Krakatoa in 1883. The Spanish had built a large settlement near this volcano, Arequipa, and this thriving colonial town was wiped off the face of the Earth by apocalyptic amounts of ash that had fallen on it, along with a large number of earthquakes that struck it one after the other. Some geologists also theorize that the Huaynaputina eruption triggered "The Little Ice Age" in Europe, China, Russia and North America in the early 1600s.
It basically came down to the same colonial race other European powers where involved in. but Russia went the land route east instead of seeking overseas colonies.
@@hollowed4306 if no one lived there than why did all these republics go their own way after 1992? soviet population whent down by 50% after 1992. is 150 million not alot of people?
@@SU-vy8nb Well, these republics were partially or fully populated even before being incorporated into Russia, so it's no surprise that Russia lost so much population. Siberia was empty, some more or less large aboriginal settlements resisted, but Russian technical superiority was dominant. And, as you can see, Siberia, inhabited by Russians, has not gone away.
It’s interesting how despite the collapse of both the Russian empire and subsequently the Soviet Union which resulted in massive Territorial losses, Russia managed to maintain its gargantuan size.
Its because modern Russia was the biggest and solid Republic within the Soviet Union. And though it has separated from the Union in 1991, it didn't collapsed in smaller parts, mostly because, all the regions of Russia was managed from Moscow. And were and are populeted mostly with native russians, with some exceptions.
Japan: The Kuril Islands have always been ours! Russia: I don't understand what you're talking about, you only conquered them at the beginning of the 20th century
Looking at genetic studies. The Rus, or at least Rurik's clan was a local "river raider" kind of clan. the Rurikids themselves, the royal family, were of mixed Norse, Finnic and Slavic backgrounds indicating Rurik's family lived in the family long enough to intermix with the locals. It also makes sense that a local warlord took power as opposed to a foreigner coming and being given the reigns over the proto state. The Rurikid dynasty ruled the Russian and the Ruthenians since the 9th century. The Russian state was massive since the reign of Igor Rurikovich. At the peak the Kievan Rus stretched over a span of some 1 million square kilometers. That was huge at the time, and still is fairly large today.
Rurik is the son of the Prince of Obodrit, Wagria region. Obodrit are the ancient Prussians, who called themselves Russ. The Slavic princes of ancient Prussia moved to Novgorod.
How everything in this world is relative ... Non-Russians, looking at a modern map, ask - how can Russia be so big? ... I, a Russian, looking at the same map, and remembering what Russia was just recently ... I ask myself, how can Russia be so small? ...
Russia lost 23% of its land after USSR..if only Lenin and his group didn't divide the land of old Russian Empire it would stay one piece to this day only the Soviet government would change but the lands would remain the same
Russia had no natural borders that offered protection from enemies. So they were forced to conquer the whole continent. And when they reached the Pacific, they couldn't stop and set over to America. So they finally got their overseas colony as well.
@@e.s.6275 Yes, they were forced. As mentioned in the video, the land is very flat and had no natural borders for protection from enemies from the east. Keep in mind that the Kievian Rus was conquered by the Mongols within shortest time and when they finally drove the Golden Horde out of their territory, they swore that to never happen again. So they conquered these lands of the barbarian tribes in order to protect the mainland. But since their was no natural border, the wild frontier went more and more east. Portugal didn't have this problem. They have a fixed border with Spain and the Atlantic Ocean. And their colonozation was by ship overseas. Russia, however, didn't have an access to the sea for a very long time. So their direction of expansion could only be east. I don't know what thas has to do with Germany conquering Europe. Or Napoleon conquering Europe. The situation is completely different.
@@Nikioko you see, what you are trying to discuss is an official, largely faked version of history, as also narrated in this video. There are strongly grounded arguments against it. Consider that the state of Rus (Ruthenia) was NOT a direct ancestor of modern Russia. Yes, Rus' fell in 1240, however Russia only emerged AFTER that. And not as Russia: it was known as Moscovia, or Tartaria, over the next 300 years, before renaming itself to Russia. And it emerged in a totally different place. Strange, isn't it? Got any other examples of the same people group resurrection elsewhere geographically? Consider that the invading tribes of 13th century had nothing to do with modern Mongols. They were Turkic instead, moving from Siberia and Central Asia towards Europe. And yes, they devastated a number of states on their way, including Rus'. Also consider the vast evidence that the official documents of Moscow until early 16th century were written in... Arabic script! Also, consider that the Golden Horde was not 'drawn away', it fell into pieces instead. Are you getting the whole different picture, that actually looks more plausible than the official one?
16:46 Your comment about war against Finland is not accurate. If you are referring to Finnish war of 1808-1809, it was between Russia and Sweden. Finland didn't exist as a sovereign nation back then.
nah USSR sphere of influence was much bigger. Capitalism sucks, because it destroyed our science and production. Democracy sucks because it is fake. My grandfather was just an injenier- mechanic, and granny was a teacher. But they were much richer, they could afford traveling to our courorts in Crimea and Georgia. They changed place of living several times, they had a good car of their time. But in 90-s crisis time my grandfather was getting paid by butter, which his factory was producing, because of no money. Healthcare and social wellfare at all decreased a lot in their village. Sad but thats how capitalism works out of Europe and North America.
@@faiscaofsparta3771 oh yeah i forgot, if capitalist country isnt successful, its just not that capitalism. But unsuccessful socialist states are of course a good example of socialism.
@@nice6918 I never said that, corruption is one the main reason why exist poor countries, corruption can happen is capitalism and socialism, in reality, there was never a communist country, only a socialist one, the one that came closest to communism was Cuba, because communism is a utopia, as are anarchism and anarchocapitalism.
@@geoffreycharles6330, I am russian and I am telling you this is correct. You also can read this wikipedia article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tse_(Cyrillic) This word originate from famous latin "Caesar" (Цезарь in russian). So it's Russian analogue of "Emperor".
Why is Russia so big? I'm talking only about the eastern expansion. 1 The main reason is geography. The sparsely populated steppes and mountains on the southern outskirts of Russia, in fact, are not needed by anyone. Only nomadic peoples can live in the steppes - a weak enemy. 2 Powerful neighbors: Golden Horde and China. the golden horde extended its influence to china, mongolia, eastern europe. Russia was securely covered from the south and east by its enemies. the golden horde and its satellites regularly raided. Russia managed to become a vassal of the Golden Horde. Tax is much better than raids. Much later, Russia will go to the Pacific Ocean. Again, a powerful power (China) in the south will be able to cover Russia from attacks by other countries. 3. Unification of Russian princes. The raids of the Golden Horde rallied the warring Russian cities. The centralization of power helped Russia resist the Golden Horde, and then itself absorb the former satellites of the Golden Horde (Kazan, Siberian, Astrakhan, Crimean Khanates). 4 Russia is the easternmost European country (civilized). Of course, many countries dispute this title, but that's not the point. During the time of Ivan the Terrible, the Khanate of Kazan was conquered. The Russian army had the most advanced guns of that time. Russia always had access to European technologies, which it used. Many times reformer tsars introduced European technologies to Russia. 5 Relatively mild colonization of the peoples east of Russia. Nobody killed the locals, they negotiated with them. The locals were conquered so that they paid taxes. The Russians did not need "living space", unlike the Americans. They usually appointed a Russian chief (the tradition was preserved in Soviet times). He kept order, ensured the collection of taxes, and ensured the protection of the locals from unconquered peoples. Russians lived in cities, and local peoples lived in villages. Such tactics allowed more than 150 peoples of Russia to survive. Now Tatars live in Tatarstan 53,2%, Bashkirs live in Bashkiria 29,5%, Yakuts live in Yakutia 49,9%, Chechens live in Chechnya 95,3%. In the 20th century, nationalities mixed up (wars, large construction projects, urbanization, friendship of peoples). Already in the third generation of mixed marriages, for example, the Chuvash considers himself Russian. About Siberian expansion: In Siberia there was a ridiculous tax - two fur skins a year. This is a terrible Russian colonization ? lol. There were also nationalities that fought with the Russians. For example, it did not work out to completely conquer Alaska. The strong remoteness of Alaska prevented the normal supply of food, weapons and ammunition. Even after the collapse of the Russian empire, unconquered peoples remained. For example, the Chukchi are skilled fighters of the Far North, a warlike tribe that fought with all neighboring tribes. The Soviet government made them drunk (the northern peoples have no resistance to alcohol), but also gave writing, education, medicine and the benefits of civilization. The Chukchi became the hero of Soviet jokes. Jokes about an uneducated person in a big city. Sadly. Now there are only 15,900 Chukchi in Russia. Doubly sad.
If you haven’t already watched the video General Knowledge or anyone else - Epic TV has video on the history of Russia (From Rurik to Revolution) - it’s a great video & worth a watch. Great video as well. Continue the brilliant work General Knowledge 😁👍
Russia basically did what their fellow European countries did during colonialism they expanded by taking the land they could & like US they just expanded in their own backyard so when decolonisation took place they got to keep it. I think every country that expanded in contiguous land has kept those land (well most seem to have if not all) but those with far away possessions have lost it (with some exceptions like overseas territories of many). Very interesting & detailed video.
@@gaydvorak7053 Yes every country that did expanded in their own backyard did that even in Europe where they're small but used to be much smaller & therefore we see separatist movements there even now.
@@NikhileshSurve "every country that expanded in contiguous land has kept those land" - No! Habsburg empire. Russian Empire (partially: Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine etc have escaped). Ottoman empire. In modern times is harder to keep and empire, people are communicating and rebelling against the occupant.
@@ionbrad6753 Yes not all the land like UK who doesn't control most of Ireland now & definitely not the empires that themselves no longer exist. I'm talking about those that expanded in their own region & still exist not even as an "empire" but as regular states in modern times like UK (basically an expansion of England), US, Russia, Spain (very much an expansion of Castile), etc. Also yes there are rebellions in many of these modern day states too.
@@gaydvorak7053 Of course China did. Vast parts of China that are now Sinitic/Chinese used to have different types of peoples that ended up being assimilated or replaced. China still has large sparsely populated area that have minority populations (e.g. Xinjiang). Taiwan, an island mainland China is so keen to get back, only got a large Chinese majority AFTER the Dutch and Portuguese colonists had been kicked out. Taiwanese Aboriginals have more in common with Filipinos than with the Chinese. Colonizing your neighbours is more effective in the long run. Their territories are more easily consolidated.
Well when you area monarchy it’s not really that magical if a woman ends up as empress and rules the country from time to time but it’s much harder in a democracy where people are actually voted for
Mostly flat lands. But, with one omission. Waterways, a.k.a. rivers. Lots of them. It made traversing a flat terrain even more quicker and easier. Lots and lots of rivers for Russia, General 😮😮😮
That state never called the kievan rus. this is a modern Russian historical term to describe some period of Russian history. The state was called just Rus.
I know this might seem like an odd request, but could you make your next video about what the total amount of wealth would be if every East India Company combined into a single giant East India Company? I'm asking this because I've heard that the Dutch East India Company was the wealthiest corporation of all time, yet I know for a fact that the British East India Company and various other East India Companies were also extremely wealthy.
Dutch was exceedingly wealthy but with interests spread out a bit more and for a shorter duration. British company was many times richer eventually, with absolutely staggering, gigantomongously massive amount of wealth stolen from local populace first in India and later in China with their drug trafficking. It belies anything like reliable estimation.
@@killtie15 The Dutch East India company alone was worth about 7.9 trillion dollars, so you're saying the British East India company was worth more than 7.9 trillion dollars?
@@Rishi123456789 Yes, much much more. Remember, its not just the money, that too over much longer period of time, unlike the Dutch they owned "kingdoms" and virtually owned millions of people. Its next to impossible to estimate the value of intangible "assets" like that. Plus don't forget the absolute monopoly on trade routes and in the colonies.
@@Rishi123456789 ) Unfortunately no one can truly help you there, I can't give you a true and exact figure, no one can. That's why there's so much confusion about its estimates, the figures are just too much. Those who do give a figure are deluded, I mean if you read some entries online, there's even people saying it was barely solvent))))
Not as much as the Europeans in America. There was only a lot of uninhabited land very easy to conquer. In Russia today there are still gigantic regions with no streets or any infrastuctur.
@@arnolsi In World War II alone, 27 million Russians died! More than 80% of the Wehrmacht's forces were sent to Russia, so there were so many casualties. Read the real history of World War II, not from American textbooks. Compare that to how many Americans died in World War II. Defend the territory with borders 60 932 km long !!! not as easy as you think.
18:09 Wait a second! This is Nicholas II of Russia, not Nicholas I of Russia that you made a typo mistake! Nicholas I of Russia was the Emperor of the Russian Empire before Nicholas II!
@@paellamaster8305 But this typo is for a RUclips video, not for the comments. The video matters the most! The comments don't matter much. Some people make typos on the comments and some others can still make some good comments.
The last Russian Tsar was no Nikolai I but Nicolai II, although the photo is correct. Also it would be greate to meantion the changes of USSR territory during XX century (annexation parts of Poland, Hungary, Romania and also gaining Kaliningrad after ww2). Nevertheless, a great video, thank you!
Probably a less known detail -- There used to be a park and museum in northern central Moscow, reportedly by area 1 ten-millionth of the area of the whole Soviet Union. The museum showed achievements of the socialist nation(s). Near it was a titanium statue, called "Kosmos" with a space rocket shape pointing to the sky. Another noteworthy item near it was the Moscow (Ostankino) TV tower (and a large studio and administrative building nearby). At a time, the tower was a tourist attraction, with 3 restaurants high up. They were operated one at a time. They were on top of each other, and if I recall, the top one was called The Seventh Heaven. By the way, the North Branch of the Moscow Metro terminated just at the gate of the park. And our visiting team joked about the park size -- "Let's check how much expansion space there is around the park, just in case".
Western European states were surrounded by near-peers. To find riches and land, they had to sail across the seas. That limited the number of people who went, and in most cases European settlers were always outnumbered by locals. Most of these colonies have since become independent. Russians could just head east on foot (or later by train). So they did in much larger numbers (and of course it helped that there were so few natives to their east). Russians became the majority population in the most-desirable areas, all the way to the Pacific.
06:32 Dynasty of Rurykids extinction in 1610, Vasyliy 4 Shuyskiy also is member of Rurykids, but member of Suzdal branch of the dynasty Rurykids. And dynasty of Rurykids still exists.
You said that the Rurik dynasty ruled Russia since the 13 century and ended in 16 century when they arrived in 9 century and that’s when they started ruling.
@@oleksandrbulda8758 Novgorod was a city built up by Rurik and Is Russia’s oldest ancestral city. Their doesn’t have to be a connection between cities.
@@TEXASRUSKI so in this case why dont u take into consideration Suzdal or Rostov,they are also old and ruled by Rurik ancestors..why exactly Novgorod??and i repeat it was an independent republic with own language...conquered by moscow same kazan and asrtrakhan..🤔🤔🤔 Btw there is no evidence that it was built by Rurik,there is no clear evidence that rurik even existed 😅unless the history of russia is based on fairy tales 😉
I'm more amazed with the fact that Russia managed to maintain all of its territories intact while it went from Russian Empire, to Soviet Union and then Russian Federation, they must have some insane logistics, and the Siberian railway systems and their high ways must be really good.
Well tbf everytime that happened there would be dozens of break away regions. Russia is whole because its able to enforce its power, with bribes or violence
I remember some time ago seeing that what triggered the exploration\expansion of the east was the harvesting of animal fur which was highly valued at that time. Also because that territory was held by the now very weak "mongol empire". Is this true?
By economic and geopolitical reasons, yes. Also, as i remember, (maybe I am wrong here), to find China, and establish trade routes with China and India.
The rulers of Russia wanted defensible borders and also to stop being invaded and for most of history invaders came from the east so eastern expansion. The west was more easily defensible (better defence doesn't mean successful) while invading was harder due to high population density and later technological superiority. Russia today could steamroll through the EU but US, UK and French nukes keep them in check while Russian nukes give Russia their long awaited security from invasion. If Russia was going to take all of Ukraine they would have and could have done it at the beginning of the Crimean takeover but they retook Crimea and clearly plan to wait till everyone just officially accepts it's Russia's again.
Partial. Yes, Siberia was developed because of resources, including furs. But it was mostly inhabited by independent tribes. When the Cossacks came there, they offered help and protection in exchange for loyalty from the remnants of the Mongol empire to the south, and the region of Kazakhstan
The answer is so simple, with a lot of genocides like Circassian genocide, Crimean genocide and Genocide of indigenous peoples in Siberia!! But ofc none of them are mentioned, i wonder why? Ohh right, Russian empire was a Christian empire so it's atrocities and genocides are automatically ignored...
@@iddomargalit-friedman3897 Yep, local population who were 98% getting slaughtered and deported had nothing to do with the land being vast majority Russian today, right??? You people are such biased jokes...
Alaska was sold at a very low price, it contributed very little in their weak economy that time. they sold it because of the Brits. better gain some penny rather than completely losing it in another war that they were too exhausted to fight.
Technically 700.000 sq.km of modern Russia is located on the North American lithospheric plate. There's a narrow strip of water between Russia and Alaska. So technically Russia is in Europe, Asia and in North America.
The Alaska story has so much more behind it. The animosity between Great Britain and Russia over Central Asia as well as Russia's support of the Union during the recently concluded US Civil War made the sale of Alaska to the US a dream deal. Russia was interested to divest overseas territory so it could concentrate on creating infrastructure across Siberia, something Alexander II felt was necessary to keep Russia competitive globally. He was determined to sell it to the US as opposed to the neighboring British Empire territory of Canada. US Secretary of State William Seward had established a great relationship with Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchako and Russian Ambassador to the US Eduard de Stoeckl; the negotiations worked to each nation's advantage. Back in the day when Russia and the US called each other "friend."
It's not that useless. If we look how much resources(oil, gas, diamonds etc.) Russia get from these territories, we'll see that they are a main part of Russian economy .
@@mocha_osla He is jealous because he pretends to laugh at the Russians. He has mental disorders, a nervous breakdown due to envy. Probably lives in a country that is not visible on the map)))))
This is because terrorists came to take over the power. Before that, almost 12 years there were multiple terrorists attacks on ministers, govermental people and in between . Severe times . So much blood .
@@Korrus_ He wasn't. Tsar Nikolai was a close a relative to english royal family. They could have helped him escape. They didn't! Tsar Nikolai himself was sweet, gentle persona, not a tough man, more of a flegmatic type. He did not make a good Tsar , yet he was a good man with nice character.
@@lartts7483 well, if you read or let's say gather info about Tsar Nikolay carefully, you would get that he was too gentle, too liberal for what he was required to do and at what times he had lived. If he had lived today, he would be rather a Top man. But that's because times has changed much. I always wonder why we think people were stupid or good back then? They weren't. Think of it. This man had the best education at his time, lots of money, and we just come here to claim he was that and that. Now we can't even make sure our internet service provider comes up with a deadline to provide the service, yet we judge the Tsar for not making something. The main point with Tsar Nikolay, he did not listen to those he rather should to guarantee the changes that were required. Changes meant reforms, reforms meant people with low understanding uncomfortable. Pretty the same we have today in our countries, populists, liberalists, conservatives and proactive radicalists.
Internet knowledge: Eat Borscht, wrestle bears, crush fascists. IRL knowledge: centuries of warring rivals, eastward pioneering, brutal colonization of foreign peoples, immense military investments to secure borders, no one else bothered to claim Siberia that accounts for most of its land area
I want to add, that russia is big, but more than a half of its territories has low temperature and almost unsuitable for life, its a very big problem also territory is flat and easy to explore, but its also easy to conquer russian territories (USSR used east-european countries as a shield from potential attacks of NATO during cold war)
The city of Smolensk used to belong to Rus', but was conquered by Muscovy in 16th century, just like Novgorod and Pskov. The way Muscovites conquered other places around was ultimately by deceit followed by mass atrocities, hard to accept even by standards of past times. This is how Russian empire grew.
@@e.s.6275 Not true. Actually thanks to Smolensk which is just a little west of Moscow, Russian capital could be protected (or could win time to prepare for) from different Western invasions cause Smolensk always had Moscow’s back. Smolensk is called “a guardian” of Russia. Thanks to Smolensk, Moscow became the strongest Russian city and eventually the capital of the Russian Tsardom.
@@General.Knowledge The Ottomans would be interesting. They were there at the edge of Europe, basically dominating central Eurasia and the Levant, for a very long time.
In the Nordic war Russia was defeated, but the swedes tried to take ower Moscow and failed in the battle of poltava. The Russians could then take the land because the swedes didn’t have a army to stop them.
It's complicated. I couldn't find any adequate map that showed the situation of all territories of the former Russian empire in english. Searching in ukrainian and in russian I found only this images.app.goo.gl/aeqNwTJFwiEsEoSk6 I doubt someone not knowing ukrainian language can understand this map. Even with knowledge of the language, I'm having hard time with understanding it.
@@Lyudovik1917 I saw it in the video, but I thing it's wildly inaccurate. As far as for Ukraine, there was one Ukrainian People's Republic, than it's government was overthrown by German backed Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, thus, Ukrainian State was created. Later (after 6 most productive months in Ukrainian revolution), after the defeat of Germany had become inevitable, regime of the Hetman changed for the UPR again. All of these states, although (except Hetman's regime) were too week to stand against russian communists, were pretty legitimate (the governments were chosen by people on democratic elections) and had international recognition (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in which german allies and Germany itself recognized UPR as independent state). And it's only the most prominent events in Ukrainian revolution. I can only guess how much history of other nations the map that you showed neglects.
@@Lyudovik1917 and here is the Ukrainian State: images.app.goo.gl/cdjRxXWV6Abwe5S39 (Light green areas are negotiated ones. They were argued by several independent states. The Kuban negotiated to join Ukrainian State, but both countries disappeared before signing crucial treaties.)
@@Nazar_Melnyk I knew that it was obviously inaccurate, but it still looked interesting for a basic idea. Also, I thought Ukraine had the Peoples Republic and then the Peoples Republic of Western Ukraine as two seperate states?
Yes, you miss that Russians establish Fort Ross in 1812 in today's California, which is crazy to think of.
also in Hawaii
@AT Neandertals were native Europeans when Sapiens (ancestors of today Europeans) eat bananas in Africa.
@@dajdasdq Imagine if they could have hung on to that. It likely would have affected the outcome of the Cold War and they would have had a warm place in the tropics.
@@crepesoftime yeah it would make the cold war 100% more tense as alaska and hawaii didnt have much to lose, but would allow nukes to reach straight into the heart of usa, without the need of allies like cuba
@@kirtil5177 The USSR could reach straight into the heart of the USA without the need of allies like Cuba thanks to its nuclear submarines.
This is the first video in a long time in which you haven mentioned Portugal
That's true!
Technically he did, when he mentioned that Napoleon invaded half of europe 😂
and if he did, what's the problem?
@@felipelins9418 the problem is: PORTUGAL CARALHO!
@@redflagtool dont say sh*t in portuguese
Mongols : There's nothing there but trees and wolves.
Russians : It's free real estate.
Free real estate with lots of wild animals with highly valued furs.
@@Dark_Plum and a crap ton of potential and already obtained resources
There were wars with indigenous ppl bc ✨ fur✨
Trees and Bears
Fairly similar to the USA and Canada.
This is literally third video on exactly this topic that I got in my subscribtion page this month.
Awesome ! What are the othere?
@Safwaan Johnny Haris gang rise up
@@pujanrokaya6963 johnny harris vid is literally below this one to me lol
@@freyjafirefly9201 I've had this, Johnny Harris and one about the colonisation of the Americas which covered Russia in Alaska.
Same.
Russia: This list is incomplete, you can help by expanding it.
Wait for it 😏
Edit: Added Crimea
Awaiting reannexation of the Eastern Bloc
Belarus sweats with antici... putin
Edit: siberia
Alexander I didn't go to war against Finland. He went to war against Sweden and conquered the territory called Finland (renamed Grand Duchy of Finland by Alexander).
"How did Russia get so big?"
Because they had two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large vodka.
Did you know, Russia is developing a fancy bulletproof suit? Welcome❤️ to our varied channel
GTA Vladivosktok!!
lol
whats the name of the true size website he used plz tell
@@fuqupal GTA: Moscow stories
Kievan Rus is not the name of the country but a time period created later by historians. Moreover, Kiev was not the original capital of Rus - it was captured by Prince Oleg the Prophetic (regent of the son of Rurik) in 882 and only after the capital was moved to Kiev.
@Ben Dover Most countries in the feudal era were multinational, even in Europe. It is just that in Europe there was assimilation, or outright genocide of peoples in the era of the formation of nations.
@Ben Dover there is a theory about Rurik's Slavic roots. His mother was Umila from Novgorod, the middle daughter of the Slavic elder Gostomysl. And his father was from Slavic Baltic tribe Bodrichi
Maksimovich, Karamzin and Gumilyov all dedicated to this myth. Wasn't the first capital in the Old Lagoda?
Capital wasn't moved to Kyiv, because Rus' was established only after varyags reached Kyiv, so since foundation of Rus' Kyiv was its capital. Also some people that write about Novgorod - it had nothing to do with nowadays "Russia" until Ivan "The terrible" conquered Novgorod and slaughtered there half of civilians. As I remember historians described language of Novgorod similar to Polish, because of similarity of many words and officially "Russian" language was established only during empire time by Lomonosov and based on Church Slavonic language and was totally made up to spread made up "Russian" culture and russify other nations
@@maksymkashchuk5420 For the first time statehood at people Rus has arisen with arrival Rurik - about what it is spoken in "The Tale of Bygone Years" of the beginning of XII century. The dynasty of Rurikovich ruled in Russia up to death, son of Ivan Terrible, Fedor Ioannovich. Hence dynasty Rurikovich has gone from the North, the first Prince Rurik reigned not in Kiev. Kiev is not the first capital of Rus
1. The word "Rus'"comes from the word Rower, although it's still under debate. However, the tribe that conquered Southern Karelia, were mostly known as "Varyags" or varangians
2. Main part of the trade wasn't going on with local slavic population, but was going through the traderoads "From Varangians to Persians" and "From Varangians to Greeks". Expansion of the Arabian Califate made this traderoads very important, because The Silk Road and The Spice Road was blocked. This made important for the Varangians to control these territories, to build the infrastructure so the trade ships could safely go through the rivers of Volga and Dniepr, and eventually a government have appeared.
3. Ivan IV's nickname "The Terrible" comes from mistranslation of the word "Grozny", which means literally means "thunderous", or "menacing". He had a heavy character, and there were executions, like anywhere in Europe, but certainly not a remarkably big, and there were not much of reasons (besides oprichnina, of course) to call him The Terrible. Also, he was the first tzar, not the Vasily III, because on his coronation a byzantine ritual of anointing was performed, and the word tzar comes from "Caesar" directly. Just wanted to note it, a lot of people doesn't know it.
4. Pavel I (or Paul) wasn't actually so much of a diplomate. He only ruled for 5 years, during which Napoleon was thrashing Europe. Many reforms of Paul I were directly reforming russian military. He was a big fan of Friedrich II of Prussia, and he in many ways was using prussian methods of training the military.
5. A lot of information was missed with no mention of Crimean War. One of many reasons of this war was russian influence on local minorities and expansion towards the Balkans, as Russia, with Byzantine Empire long gone, proclaimed herself a defender of orthodox faith. Ottoman Empire, "the sick man of Europe", was not much of a threat anymore, but still was making the balance of power in the region of eastern mediterranean, but expansion of Russia in the Balkans could ruin it. So, in result of the Crimean War, the most part of expansion was stopped, only the influence by faith and support of bolgarian and greek rebels remained. Russia would be in only single war with Turks until WW1, in 1877-1878, with minor land additions to empire, partially because of it.
6. 7:03 omg this map is terrible
Just a minor additions to the video, GK, but still, the video is great, thank you!
The answer is so simple, with a lot of genocides like Circassian genocide, Crimean genocide and Genocide of indigenous peoples in Siberia!! But ofc none of them are mentioned, i wonder why? Ohh right, Russian empire was a Christian empire so it's atrocities and genocides are automatically ignored...
@@ggoddkkiller1342 compare what happened to local siberians and local indians in USA, if Russia was genociding locals, its scary to imagine what a psycho nazi was USA
@@ggoddkkiller1342 and also compare this to what turks were doing with greeks and armenians
@@ggoddkkiller1342 then why are most of those ethnic groups still here, while many in the areas colonised by western Europeans are totally gone? Westerners were the most genocidal maniacs, worse the Russia or Mongols or anyone else
@@KateeAngel I completely agree your this statement as westerners were really the worst who genocided tens of millions of innocent people and could still act like they are ''civilized'' with tons of propaganda!! But sadly two wrongs don't make a right mate...
At 7:45. Fun fact: some geologists believe that Russia's "Time of Troubles" was triggered by vast famines caused by very harsh winters and extremely short growing seasons caused by one of the biggest volcanic eruptions of the past 2,000 years--the massive blow-up of Huaynaputina. This is a huge volcano in southern Peru that exploded tremendous quantities of ash into the atmosphere in 1600, which blocked out the sun for a few years and led to a sudden cooling of the Earth's surface. This is manifested in very long and harsh winters. This eruption was larger than the far more famous one at Krakatoa in 1883. The Spanish had built a large settlement near this volcano, Arequipa, and this thriving colonial town was wiped off the face of the Earth by apocalyptic amounts of ash that had fallen on it, along with a large number of earthquakes that struck it one after the other. Some geologists also theorize that the Huaynaputina eruption triggered "The Little Ice Age" in Europe, China, Russia and North America in the early 1600s.
u had to write all of this and no one commented
8:38 "The False Dmitris" sounds like a no-wave group from the late 70's
In original it is "Лжедмитрий" (Lzhedmitry). Lie-Dmitry or The False Dmitry.
word chain: Лгать(lgat')(to lie) - Ложь(lozhe)(the lie) - Лже-something
Fake news - a long tradition there.
@@ionbrad6753 lol, yeah ahahhaha
DA!
with their brand new single feat. The Real Mac Coys O_o
Oh we got a long one this week
That’s what she said.
Like my ..... oh you already know cuz it is as long as Hong Kong
@@Floral_Green 😂😂 walked right into that one
It basically came down to the same colonial race other European powers where involved in. but Russia went the land route east instead of seeking overseas colonies.
There's nothing colonial about getting yourself a shit tone of no-man's land lol.
@@hollowed4306 if no one lived there than why did all these republics go their own way after 1992? soviet population whent down by 50% after 1992. is 150 million not alot of people?
@@hollowed4306 defeating all the steppe tribes that have terrorized the world for milenia
@@SU-vy8nb Well, these republics were partially or fully populated even before being incorporated into Russia, so it's no surprise that Russia lost so much population. Siberia was empty, some more or less large aboriginal settlements resisted, but Russian technical superiority was dominant. And, as you can see, Siberia, inhabited by Russians, has not gone away.
@@endivilla4389 Terrorized Asia*
This is getting out of hand, now there's two of them.
*casually insert Ruusan crystal in double-bladed lightsaber*
It’s interesting how despite the collapse of both the Russian empire and subsequently the Soviet Union which resulted in massive Territorial losses, Russia managed to maintain its gargantuan size.
Its because modern Russia was the biggest and solid Republic within the Soviet Union. And though it has separated from the Union in 1991, it didn't collapsed in smaller parts, mostly because, all the regions of Russia was managed from Moscow. And were and are populeted mostly with native russians, with some exceptions.
Because most of Russian lands cannot be used for normal human life.
@@FlyLoriens lol Russia have land for better life for human bigger than Europe up to 8m km2
Просто мы всех победили.
@@Hurao48999 What are you talking about? Most of Russia land has permafrost.
Japan: The Kuril Islands have always been ours!
Russia: I don't understand what you're talking about, you only conquered them at the beginning of the 20th century
"How did Russia get so big?"
Mercator: "I didn't do it!"
He did though.
It was not a council of nobles who elected the Michael Romanov - there were representatives from all the population including farmers.
Russia is actually slightly bigger than Pluto.
You meant, Pluto's surface area. Which is true.
Pluto is a dwarf after all
@@jeffington1224 Yeah, and Russia is a country
Looking at genetic studies. The Rus, or at least Rurik's clan was a local "river raider" kind of clan. the Rurikids themselves, the royal family, were of mixed Norse, Finnic and Slavic backgrounds indicating Rurik's family lived in the family long enough to intermix with the locals. It also makes sense that a local warlord took power as opposed to a foreigner coming and being given the reigns over the proto state.
The Rurikid dynasty ruled the Russian and the Ruthenians since the 9th century.
The Russian state was massive since the reign of Igor Rurikovich. At the peak the Kievan Rus stretched over a span of some 1 million square kilometers.
That was huge at the time, and still is fairly large today.
Rurik is the son of the Prince of Obodrit, Wagria region. Obodrit are the ancient Prussians, who called themselves Russ. The Slavic princes of ancient Prussia moved to Novgorod.
@@torquemada2281 Whaaaa
How everything in this world is relative ...
Non-Russians, looking at a modern map, ask - how can Russia be so big? ... I, a Russian, looking at the same map, and remembering what Russia was just recently ... I ask myself, how can Russia be so small? ...
Russia is the worst country in the world, y’all do not even deserve the half of your lands
@@verificationguy8062 Whiner)) Your opinion is not interesting to anyone ... Continue whining further. Just snot, don't forget to wipe it off ...
When you look at it, the majority is uninhabitable or uninhabited, it's really not so large
Russia lost 23% of its land after USSR..if only Lenin and his group didn't divide the land of old Russian Empire it would stay one piece to this day only the Soviet government would change but the lands would remain the same
Russia had no natural borders that offered protection from enemies. So they were forced to conquer the whole continent. And when they reached the Pacific, they couldn't stop and set over to America. So they finally got their overseas colony as well.
They were 'forced'? that's an interesting reasoning.
Is this the same reason by which Germany was 'forced' to conquer Europe?
@@e.s.6275 Yes, they were forced. As mentioned in the video, the land is very flat and had no natural borders for protection from enemies from the east. Keep in mind that the Kievian Rus was conquered by the Mongols within shortest time and when they finally drove the Golden Horde out of their territory, they swore that to never happen again. So they conquered these lands of the barbarian tribes in order to protect the mainland. But since their was no natural border, the wild frontier went more and more east.
Portugal didn't have this problem. They have a fixed border with Spain and the Atlantic Ocean. And their colonozation was by ship overseas. Russia, however, didn't have an access to the sea for a very long time. So their direction of expansion could only be east.
I don't know what thas has to do with Germany conquering Europe. Or Napoleon conquering Europe. The situation is completely different.
@@Nikioko you see, what you are trying to discuss is an official, largely faked version of history, as also narrated in this video.
There are strongly grounded arguments against it.
Consider that the state of Rus (Ruthenia) was NOT a direct ancestor of modern Russia. Yes, Rus' fell in 1240, however Russia only emerged AFTER that. And not as Russia: it was known as Moscovia, or Tartaria, over the next 300 years, before renaming itself to Russia. And it emerged in a totally different place. Strange, isn't it? Got any other examples of the same people group resurrection elsewhere geographically?
Consider that the invading tribes of 13th century had nothing to do with modern Mongols. They were Turkic instead, moving from Siberia and Central Asia towards Europe. And yes, they devastated a number of states on their way, including Rus'.
Also consider the vast evidence that the official documents of Moscow until early 16th century were written in... Arabic script!
Also, consider that the Golden Horde was not 'drawn away', it fell into pieces instead.
Are you getting the whole different picture, that actually looks more plausible than the official one?
@@e.s.6275 Lol, nice pseudohistory
@@handsdown3521 exactly. What they discuss here is a pseudo-history.
The almost claimed territory of Macquarie Island by the Russians is quite impressive
16:46 Your comment about war against Finland is not accurate. If you are referring to Finnish war of 1808-1809, it was between Russia and Sweden. Finland didn't exist as a sovereign nation back then.
"How come Russia is the biggest country in the world today?"
Russian Empire by the end of 19th century: hold my pelmeni
nah USSR sphere of influence was much bigger. Capitalism sucks, because it destroyed our science and production. Democracy sucks because it is fake. My grandfather was just an injenier- mechanic, and granny was a teacher. But they were much richer, they could afford traveling to our courorts in Crimea and Georgia. They changed place of living several times, they had a good car of their time. But in 90-s crisis time my grandfather was getting paid by butter, which his factory was producing, because of no money. Healthcare and social wellfare at all decreased a lot in their village. Sad but thats how capitalism works out of Europe and North America.
At the time, British Empire was even bigger. UK is, ironically, the largest empire to ever exist on Earth
@@nice6918 You dont know what is capitalism pal.
@@faiscaofsparta3771 oh yeah i forgot, if capitalist country isnt successful, its just not that capitalism. But unsuccessful socialist states are of course a good example of socialism.
@@nice6918 I never said that, corruption is one the main reason why exist poor countries, corruption can happen is capitalism and socialism, in reality, there was never a communist country, only a socialist one, the one that came closest to communism was Cuba, because communism is a utopia, as are anarchism and anarchocapitalism.
6:47 - wow. I guess the city names are higher and so are the dates of anexations.
The word "Царь" (Tsar) is pronounced exactly by letters TS A R. There's no z sound at all. Not a reproach, just a reference.
Are you Russian? How do you know?
@@geoffreycharles6330 idk about him, but I'm Russian and i can say that he is right
@@geoffreycharles6330 You don’t have to be Russian. Many Slavic languages have similar consonants and use the same Cyrillic alphabet...
@@geoffreycharles6330 yeah, I'm Russian
@@geoffreycharles6330, I am russian and I am telling you this is correct. You also can read this wikipedia article - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tse_(Cyrillic)
This word originate from famous latin "Caesar" (Цезарь in russian). So it's Russian analogue of "Emperor".
Romanovs are actually not extinct.
Technically not, but they have no rights to anything
Imagine if Russia hadn’t sold Alaska…
And part of Hawaii and part of California. That time those lands were too far away form Russian heartland to effectively rule the lands.
USA would be the 5th largest country today instead of 3rd or 4th.
It would've probably conquered by British Empire, there was no army on Alaska, around 1k russian population
would be cool
Russia will be defeated
Why is Russia so big?
I'm talking only about the eastern expansion.
1 The main reason is geography. The sparsely populated steppes and mountains on the southern outskirts of Russia, in fact, are not needed by anyone. Only nomadic peoples can live in the steppes - a weak enemy.
2 Powerful neighbors: Golden Horde and China.
the golden horde extended its influence to china, mongolia, eastern europe. Russia was securely covered from the south and east by its enemies. the golden horde and its satellites regularly raided. Russia managed to become a vassal of the Golden Horde. Tax is much better than raids. Much later, Russia will go to the Pacific Ocean. Again, a powerful power (China) in the south will be able to cover Russia from attacks by other countries.
3. Unification of Russian princes. The raids of the Golden Horde rallied the warring Russian cities. The centralization of power helped Russia resist the Golden Horde, and then itself absorb the former satellites of the Golden Horde (Kazan, Siberian, Astrakhan, Crimean Khanates).
4 Russia is the easternmost European country (civilized). Of course, many countries dispute this title, but that's not the point. During the time of Ivan the Terrible, the Khanate of Kazan was conquered. The Russian army had the most advanced guns of that time. Russia always had access to European technologies, which it used. Many times reformer tsars introduced European technologies to Russia.
5 Relatively mild colonization of the peoples east of Russia. Nobody killed the locals, they negotiated with them. The locals were conquered so that they paid taxes. The Russians did not need "living space", unlike the Americans. They usually appointed a Russian chief (the tradition was preserved in Soviet times). He kept order, ensured the collection of taxes, and ensured the protection of the locals from unconquered peoples. Russians lived in cities, and local peoples lived in villages. Such tactics allowed more than 150 peoples of Russia to survive. Now Tatars live in Tatarstan 53,2%, Bashkirs live in Bashkiria 29,5%, Yakuts live in Yakutia 49,9%, Chechens live in Chechnya 95,3%. In the 20th century, nationalities mixed up (wars, large construction projects, urbanization, friendship of peoples). Already in the third generation of mixed marriages, for example, the Chuvash considers himself Russian. About Siberian expansion: In Siberia there was a ridiculous tax - two fur skins a year. This is a terrible Russian colonization ? lol. There were also nationalities that fought with the Russians. For example, it did not work out to completely conquer Alaska. The strong remoteness of Alaska prevented the normal supply of food, weapons and ammunition.
Even after the collapse of the Russian empire, unconquered peoples remained. For example, the Chukchi are skilled fighters of the Far North, a warlike tribe that fought with all neighboring tribes. The Soviet government made them drunk (the northern peoples have no resistance to alcohol), but also gave writing, education, medicine and the benefits of civilization. The Chukchi became the hero of Soviet jokes. Jokes about an uneducated person in a big city. Sadly. Now there are only 15,900 Chukchi in Russia. Doubly sad.
If you haven’t already watched the video General Knowledge or anyone else - Epic TV has video on the history of Russia (From Rurik to Revolution) - it’s a great video & worth a watch. Great video as well. Continue the brilliant work General Knowledge 😁👍
Привет из России , друзья)
Calling Ivan the terrible is so wrong, he was genius, his Kazan campaign was executed when he only 22
@Malika Masimova Ivan was insane. He was terrible and menacing for his own people. In Lithuania and Poland was called "cawardly".
His title is better translated as "terrifying", actually
Thanks for including Tannu Tuva in the map - a hoi4 player
Tannu what?
@@vikingwalrus2253 Tannu Tuva
@@anjavinding5412 tannu what?
@@alextuller6222 THE GREAT TANNU TUVA EMPIRE👺
Russia basically did what their fellow European countries did during colonialism they expanded by taking the land they could & like US they just expanded in their own backyard so when decolonisation took place they got to keep it. I think every country that expanded in contiguous land has kept those land (well most seem to have if not all) but those with far away possessions have lost it (with some exceptions like overseas territories of many).
Very interesting & detailed video.
Would you say China did that as well?
@@gaydvorak7053 Yes every country that did expanded in their own backyard did that even in Europe where they're small but used to be much smaller & therefore we see separatist movements there even now.
@@NikhileshSurve "every country that expanded in contiguous land has kept those land" - No! Habsburg empire. Russian Empire (partially: Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine etc have escaped). Ottoman empire. In modern times is harder to keep and empire, people are communicating and rebelling against the occupant.
@@ionbrad6753 Yes not all the land like UK who doesn't control most of Ireland now & definitely not the empires that themselves no longer exist. I'm talking about those that expanded in their own region & still exist not even as an "empire" but as regular states in modern times like UK (basically an expansion of England), US, Russia, Spain (very much an expansion of Castile), etc. Also yes there are rebellions in many of these modern day states too.
@@gaydvorak7053 Of course China did. Vast parts of China that are now Sinitic/Chinese used to have different types of peoples that ended up being assimilated or replaced. China still has large sparsely populated area that have minority populations (e.g. Xinjiang). Taiwan, an island mainland China is so keen to get back, only got a large Chinese majority AFTER the Dutch and Portuguese colonists had been kicked out. Taiwanese Aboriginals have more in common with Filipinos than with the Chinese. Colonizing your neighbours is more effective in the long run. Their territories are more easily consolidated.
ca. 1735 - Russia: is ruled by a female
2021 - USA: still waiting for a female president...
Well when you area monarchy it’s not really that magical if a woman ends up as empress and rules the country from time to time but it’s much harder in a democracy where people are actually voted for
You are talking about some 500 years into the country's history. I guess USA is simply not that far yet!
Mostly flat lands. But, with one omission. Waterways, a.k.a. rivers. Lots of them. It made traversing a flat terrain even more quicker and easier. Lots and lots of rivers for Russia, General 😮😮😮
PLS make a video about the war of ultramar ( war between Portugal and his colonies)
Did you know, Russia is developing a fancy bulletproof suit? Welcome❤️ to our varied channel
That state never called the kievan rus. this is a modern Russian historical term to describe some period of Russian history. The state was called just Rus.
ok and
"How did Russia gets so big??"
"Rush B, my friend. Rush B."
I always wondered about that, thanks for the quick summary
I know this might seem like an odd request, but could you make your next video about what the total amount of wealth would be if every East India Company combined into a single giant East India Company? I'm asking this because I've heard that the Dutch East India Company was the wealthiest corporation of all time, yet I know for a fact that the British East India Company and various other East India Companies were also extremely wealthy.
Dutch was exceedingly wealthy but with interests spread out a bit more and for a shorter duration. British company was many times richer eventually, with absolutely staggering, gigantomongously massive amount of wealth stolen from local populace first in India and later in China with their drug trafficking. It belies anything like reliable estimation.
@@killtie15 The Dutch East India company alone was worth about 7.9 trillion dollars, so you're saying the British East India company was worth more than 7.9 trillion dollars?
@@Rishi123456789 Yes, much much more. Remember, its not just the money, that too over much longer period of time, unlike the Dutch they owned "kingdoms" and virtually owned millions of people. Its next to impossible to estimate the value of intangible "assets" like that. Plus don't forget the absolute monopoly on trade routes and in the colonies.
@@killtie15: "Yes, much much more."
How much more?
@@Rishi123456789 ) Unfortunately no one can truly help you there, I can't give you a true and exact figure, no one can. That's why there's so much confusion about its estimates, the figures are just too much. Those who do give a figure are deluded, I mean if you read some entries online, there's even people saying it was barely solvent))))
I miss my '90s Encarta. It has some awesome animations that showed things like territorial expansion.
Oh man ENCARTA was LEGENDARY
*nerdgasm*
Very well-made video. You did a great job explaining a lot of history in a short amount of time while still making it interesting and understandable
During Russia's greatest extent they bordered Germany, Iran, China, Korea, and Canada. That's just so mind-bogglingly big to me.
It should be remembered that the Russians had to fight a lot and bring tens of millions of sacrifices to defend all these territories.
Also those, who fought against them...
Not as much as the Europeans in America. There was only a lot of uninhabited land very easy to conquer. In Russia today there are still gigantic regions with no streets or any infrastuctur.
@@arnolsi In World War II alone, 27 million Russians died! More than 80% of the Wehrmacht's forces were sent to Russia, so there were so many casualties. Read the real history of World War II, not from American textbooks. Compare that to how many Americans died in World War II. Defend the territory with borders 60 932 km long !!! not as easy as you think.
@@AlexNKoh Es ging um den Genozid an den amerikanischen Ureinwohnern.
Alternate title: History of Russia
History of Russia can't be explained in 21 mins.
@@ushikiii if u want to speedrun it well...
@@gjergjkastrioti2966 it has to be at least 30 mins if not an hour.
@@ushikiii because history of Russia stollen, mostly from Ukraine
Long story short they took all the land that nobody else wanted
That nobody couldn't take for the moment
It belongs to indigenous people
...and now it is feeding us all with its resources. Good investment, I think.
You're wrong. Wars, battles decimating the original inhabitants...
@@ionbrad6753 Yeah they took the land in the north that nobody else and wanted
18:09 Wait a second! This is Nicholas II of Russia, not Nicholas I of Russia that you made a typo mistake! Nicholas I of Russia was the Emperor of the Russian Empire before Nicholas II!
and.... im sure you also do typo mistakes
@@paellamaster8305 But this typo is for a RUclips video, not for the comments. The video matters the most! The comments don't matter much. Some people make typos on the comments and some others can still make some good comments.
@@idotso But when I make videos, I must be very careful when typing things! Otherwise I will make those dumb-ass typos!
6:47 this map hurts my brain
It was stupidly difficult to find half decent maps about Russian territorial expansion, sorry!
@@General.Knowledge No worries mate, I get it. It just seems to be quite badly misaligned. Names of places should be more to the south east.
The guy who made the map should be tired for war crimes
Forests: Exists
Russia: it's mine
Tundras: Exists
Russia: mine
Completely random island: Exists
Russia: yes
The last Russian Tsar was no Nikolai I but Nicolai II, although the photo is correct. Also it would be greate to meantion the changes of USSR territory during XX century (annexation parts of Poland, Hungary, Romania and also gaining Kaliningrad after ww2). Nevertheless, a great video, thank you!
Probably a less known detail -- There used to be a park and museum in northern central Moscow, reportedly by area 1 ten-millionth of the area of the whole Soviet Union. The museum showed achievements of the socialist nation(s). Near it was a titanium statue, called "Kosmos" with a space rocket shape pointing to the sky. Another noteworthy item near it was the Moscow (Ostankino) TV tower (and a large studio and administrative building nearby). At a time, the tower was a tourist attraction, with 3 restaurants high up. They were operated one at a time. They were on top of each other, and if I recall, the top one was called The Seventh Heaven. By the way, the North Branch of the Moscow Metro terminated just at the gate of the park. And our visiting team joked about the park size -- "Let's check how much expansion space there is around the park, just in case".
The park and the Ostankino Tower are still here, and the restaurant Seventh Heaven too)))
You basically summarized the history of Russia thank you for the amazing video
That's an excellent question, General Knowledge😎👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Note how Russia expands eastwards so much for the nation intent on conquering Europe
Western European states were surrounded by near-peers. To find riches and land, they had to sail across the seas. That limited the number of people who went, and in most cases European settlers were always outnumbered by locals. Most of these colonies have since become independent. Russians could just head east on foot (or later by train). So they did in much larger numbers (and of course it helped that there were so few natives to their east). Russians became the majority population in the most-desirable areas, all the way to the Pacific.
06:32 Dynasty of Rurykids extinction in 1610, Vasyliy 4 Shuyskiy also is member of Rurykids, but member of Suzdal branch of the dynasty Rurykids. And dynasty of Rurykids still exists.
You said that the Rurik dynasty ruled Russia since the 13 century and ended in 16 century when they arrived in 9 century and that’s when they started ruling.
Rurik arrived to Kyiv in 9cen..moscow didn't exist at this time even..
Novgorod did
@@TEXASRUSKI what is the connection between novgorod and moscow??novgorod was an independent republic before conquered by moscow...🤔
@@oleksandrbulda8758 Novgorod was a city built up by Rurik and Is Russia’s oldest ancestral city. Their doesn’t have to be a connection between cities.
@@TEXASRUSKI so in this case why dont u take into consideration Suzdal or Rostov,they are also old and ruled by Rurik ancestors..why exactly Novgorod??and i repeat it was an independent republic with own language...conquered by moscow same kazan and asrtrakhan..🤔🤔🤔
Btw there is no evidence that it was built by Rurik,there is no clear evidence that rurik even existed 😅unless the history of russia is based on fairy tales 😉
I'm more amazed with the fact that Russia managed to maintain all of its territories intact while it went from Russian Empire, to Soviet Union and then Russian Federation, they must have some insane logistics, and the Siberian railway systems and their high ways must be really good.
Well tbf everytime that happened there would be dozens of break away regions. Russia is whole because its able to enforce its power, with bribes or violence
“Why did Russia get so big?”
It followed yo moms diet lmao
I'm a huge geography nerd, but laying Russia near the equator blew my mind!
I remember some time ago seeing that what triggered the exploration\expansion of the east was the harvesting of animal fur which was highly valued at that time. Also because that territory was held by the now very weak "mongol empire".
Is this true?
By economic and geopolitical reasons, yes. Also, as i remember, (maybe I am wrong here), to find China, and establish trade routes with China and India.
The rulers of Russia wanted defensible borders and also to stop being invaded and for most of history invaders came from the east so eastern expansion. The west was more easily defensible (better defence doesn't mean successful) while invading was harder due to high population density and later technological superiority.
Russia today could steamroll through the EU but US, UK and French nukes keep them in check while Russian nukes give Russia their long awaited security from invasion.
If Russia was going to take all of Ukraine they would have and could have done it at the beginning of the Crimean takeover but they retook Crimea and clearly plan to wait till everyone just officially accepts it's Russia's again.
Partial. Yes, Siberia was developed because of resources, including furs. But it was mostly inhabited by independent tribes. When the Cossacks came there, they offered help and protection in exchange for loyalty from the remnants of the Mongol empire to the south, and the region of Kazakhstan
Short answer: Use cossacks to expand into the vast and empty territory and beat up the local tribes
The answer is so simple, with a lot of genocides like Circassian genocide, Crimean genocide and Genocide of indigenous peoples in Siberia!! But ofc none of them are mentioned, i wonder why? Ohh right, Russian empire was a Christian empire so it's atrocities and genocides are automatically ignored...
@@ggoddkkiller1342 It was a different time, practically everybody did it back then. It wasn't considered to be something extraordinary.
@@xxAlbertxxWeskerxx Crimean genocide happened in 1944!!! Learn about those genocides before trying to defend them moronically...
@@ggoddkkiller1342
So I think we can agree that that's not how they got crimea.
@@iddomargalit-friedman3897 Yep, local population who were 98% getting slaughtered and deported had nothing to do with the land being vast majority Russian today, right??? You people are such biased jokes...
I Swear you and Johnny Harris cover the same topics like every few weeks lol. (Johnny covers politics, history, geography).
EXACTLY
😖
Exploit: they are brothers and support eachothers business Lmao
I don't know him! I need to check his channel out
Nah just the Russia episode
Same way as the US, Brazil, Argentina or the UK, which enlarged to Canada and Australia (together similar extensión as Russia)
It's like playing total war in the perspective of many Russia's Empress and emperor hahaha
"Napoleon invaded Russia, and half of Europe as well".
Now THAT'S an understatement.
Ivan the Terrible: WE AIN'T BIG ENOUGH!
Cossacks:Am I a joke to you?
It’s Ivan the menacing not Terrible
@@darth3911 he was "menacing" for his own people. In Lithuania and Poland was called "cowardly".
Could you make a video like this one but about Argentine expansion to the south? It was a much quicker process, but it also consisted of many steps.
Everyday, I asked that question a lot
If Russia did not Sell Alaska to US., Russia Will Locate 3 Continents
+ Asia
+Europe
+North America
Love from Cambodia💕💕💞
Alaska was sold at a very low price, it contributed very little in their weak economy that time. they sold it because of the Brits. better gain some penny rather than completely losing it in another war that they were too exhausted to fight.
2
Europe and Asia isn't continents, Eurasia is
at least that's how we told in school
@@benismann really? here we learned that Ural mountains separated Europe from Asia. Making it 7 total continents on earth.
@@shohan5772 Eurasia its 1 continent. Sry my bad english
Technically 700.000 sq.km of modern Russia is located on the North American lithospheric plate. There's a narrow strip of water between Russia and Alaska. So technically Russia is in Europe, Asia and in North America.
The Alaska story has so much more behind it. The animosity between Great Britain and Russia over Central Asia as well as Russia's support of the Union during the recently concluded US Civil War made the sale of Alaska to the US a dream deal. Russia was interested to divest overseas territory so it could concentrate on creating infrastructure across Siberia, something Alexander II felt was necessary to keep Russia competitive globally. He was determined to sell it to the US as opposed to the neighboring British Empire territory of Canada. US Secretary of State William Seward had established a great relationship with Russian Foreign Minister Alexander Gorchako and Russian Ambassador to the US Eduard de Stoeckl; the negotiations worked to each nation's advantage. Back in the day when Russia and the US called each other "friend."
Excellent video and very well researched.
Thanks!
6:47 map is corrupted 19:54 it's ok
*layers are not superimposed correctly (maybe my translation is not correct too)
Nope, your English is correct. I noticed too, since Moscow is much further north than it should be, along with Arkhangelsk and Astrakhan.
@@Luboman411 ahah, author made some kind of puzzle.
All cities and dates are so
Every single country in that time: "more spice and slaves!"
Russia: "more useless land!"
Not so much when they found there was much oil and gas in that land.
It's not that useless. If we look how much resources(oil, gas, diamonds etc.) Russia get from these territories, we'll see that they are a main part of Russian economy .
@@mocha_osla He is jealous because he pretends to laugh at the Russians. He has mental disorders, a nervous breakdown due to envy. Probably lives in a country that is not visible on the map)))))
Great video!
Im from Algeria, my country are 10 top of bigger countrys of world 🇩🇿
Oh
Yea Algeria is the biggest African country
@@bornstar481
Rip Sudan
@@hi-nw7qy South Sudan betray Sudan for East African federation
@@bornstar481
Don't really know the politics. All I knew is it used to be the largest.
Wow, that was great! So informative, and answered a whole bunch of my curiosity. Thanks!
The story of the last Tsar of Russia and how the entire family was killed is pretty heart breaking.
This is because terrorists came to take over the power. Before that, almost 12 years there were multiple terrorists attacks on ministers, govermental people and in between . Severe times . So much blood .
He was a terrible person though. No different to the death penalty in other countries nowadays
@@Korrus_ He wasn't. Tsar Nikolai was a close a relative to english royal family. They could have helped him escape. They didn't! Tsar Nikolai himself was sweet, gentle persona, not a tough man, more of a flegmatic type. He did not make a good Tsar , yet he was a good man with nice character.
@@SmeWnulyaIdk man, when most Russians generally hated him for understandable reasons, he probably wasn't a good person
@@lartts7483 well, if you read or let's say gather info about Tsar Nikolay carefully, you would get that he was too gentle, too liberal for what he was required to do and at what times he had lived. If he had lived today, he would be rather a Top man. But that's because times has changed much. I always wonder why we think people were stupid or good back then? They weren't. Think of it. This man had the best education at his time, lots of money, and we just come here to claim he was that and that. Now we can't even make sure our internet service provider comes up with a deadline to provide the service, yet we judge the Tsar for not making something. The main point with Tsar Nikolay, he did not listen to those he rather should to guarantee the changes that were required. Changes meant reforms, reforms meant people with low understanding uncomfortable. Pretty the same we have today in our countries, populists, liberalists, conservatives and proactive radicalists.
Здравствуйте. Очень приятно, что Вы сделали такой подробный разбор нашей истории, спасибо
can you make a video about "what if the portuguese empire reunited?"
He did this video allready
Great video! Beautiful images!
Internet knowledge: Eat Borscht, wrestle bears, crush fascists. IRL knowledge: centuries of warring rivals, eastward pioneering, brutal colonization of foreign peoples, immense military investments to secure borders, no one else bothered to claim Siberia that accounts for most of its land area
I like the countryball in the thumbnail.
I want to add, that russia is big, but more than a half of its territories has low temperature and almost unsuitable for life, its a very big problem
also territory is flat and easy to explore, but its also easy to conquer russian territories (USSR used east-european countries as a shield from potential attacks of NATO during cold war)
Don't mess with slavs
You know a country is pretty fucking big, when it shares it's border with North Korea and Norway.
It also shares borders with the USA and Japan.
@@arnolsi Russia do not share it's land border with USA.
@@apostatethegreat.9398 It's only 85 km.
@@arnolsi I said land border. it's not 85Km, in fact the distance between Great Diomede island(Russia) and Little Diomede island(USA) is only 3,77 KM.
@@arnolsi it's also share it borders with China and Mongolia.
It's not big enough for us Russians, we want more.
*Johnny harris wants to know your location*
For what, to push skill share?
Johnny Harris also recently did a video on this
in every Russia history a town called 'smolensk' is mentioned 🤔
It's sacred city, for cultural and historical reasons for many slavic people, as I know.
The city of Smolensk used to belong to Rus', but was conquered by Muscovy in 16th century, just like Novgorod and Pskov.
The way Muscovites conquered other places around was ultimately by deceit followed by mass atrocities, hard to accept even by standards of past times.
This is how Russian empire grew.
Cursed City
@@e.s.6275
Not true. Actually thanks to Smolensk which is just a little west of Moscow, Russian capital could be protected (or could win time to prepare for) from different Western invasions cause Smolensk always had Moscow’s back. Smolensk is called “a guardian” of Russia. Thanks to Smolensk, Moscow became the strongest Russian city and eventually the capital of the Russian Tsardom.
@@e.s.6275зверства оооо
very well explained
Please make a video on India's 🇮🇳 contribution to World Wars
You forgotten about Tuva, which was also taken from China.
Could you do another history type video like this on another empire like the ottomans?
Sure!
@@General.Knowledge The Ottomans would be interesting. They were there at the edge of Europe, basically dominating central Eurasia and the Levant, for a very long time.
In the Nordic war Russia was defeated, but the swedes tried to take ower Moscow and failed in the battle of poltava. The Russians could then take the land because the swedes didn’t have a army to stop them.
I know I already asked this but can you do if the Mughal empire reunited or if the Indian subcontinent United!?!?
It would nuke itself
Just check RLL he has already made a video 4 years ago on this topic
@@majorgeneral7009 I know RealLifeLore did but I want to see general knowledge’s points
Great effort from you thanks 🙏🏼
Where is that map of ephemeral states of the Russian Civil War? I would like to see it for myself if at all possible.
It's complicated. I couldn't find any adequate map that showed the situation of all territories of the former Russian empire in english. Searching in ukrainian and in russian I found only this images.app.goo.gl/aeqNwTJFwiEsEoSk6
I doubt someone not knowing ukrainian language can understand this map. Even with knowledge of the language, I'm having hard time with understanding it.
@@Nazar_Melnyk I found the map a while ago, its probably not accurate but here is the link: c1.staticflickr.com/1/812/40257187974_a5e318d549_o.png
@@Lyudovik1917 I saw it in the video, but I thing it's wildly inaccurate. As far as for Ukraine, there was one Ukrainian People's Republic, than it's government was overthrown by German backed Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi, thus, Ukrainian State was created. Later (after 6 most productive months in Ukrainian revolution), after the defeat of Germany had become inevitable, regime of the Hetman changed for the UPR again. All of these states, although (except Hetman's regime) were too week to stand against russian communists, were pretty legitimate (the governments were chosen by people on democratic elections) and had international recognition (Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, in which german allies and Germany itself recognized UPR as independent state).
And it's only the most prominent events in Ukrainian revolution. I can only guess how much history of other nations the map that you showed neglects.
@@Lyudovik1917 and here is the Ukrainian State:
images.app.goo.gl/cdjRxXWV6Abwe5S39
(Light green areas are negotiated ones. They were argued by several independent states. The Kuban negotiated to join Ukrainian State, but both countries disappeared before signing crucial treaties.)
@@Nazar_Melnyk I knew that it was obviously inaccurate, but it still looked interesting for a basic idea.
Also, I thought Ukraine had the Peoples Republic and then the Peoples Republic of Western Ukraine as two seperate states?