Where did Russia come from? - Alex Gendler
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/where-did-russia-come-from-alex-gendler Russia is the biggest country in the world, spanning one-eighth of the earth's landmass. But where did...
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Where did Russia come from, why is it so big, and what are the differences between it and its neighbors? The answers lie in an epic story of seafaring warriors, nomadic invaders, and the rise and fall of a medieval state known as Kievan Rus. In the first millennium, a large group of tribes spread through the dense woodlands of Eastern Europe. Because they had no writing system, much of what we know about them comes from three main sources: archaeological evidence, accounts from literate scholars of the Roman Empire and the Middle East, and, lastly, an epic history called the Primary Chronicle compiled in the 12th century by a monk named Nestor. What they tell us is that these tribes who shared a common Slavic language and polytheistic religion had by...
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Where did Russia come from, why is it so big, and what are the differences between it and its neighbors? The answers lie in an epic story of seafaring warriors, nomadic invaders, and the rise and fall of a medieval state known as Kievan Rus. In the first millennium, a large group of tribes spread through the dense woodlands of Eastern Europe. Because they had no writing system, much of what we know about them comes from three main sources: archaeological evidence, accounts from literate scholars of the Roman Empire and the Middle East, and, lastly, an epic history called the Primary Chronicle compiled in the 12th century by a monk named Nestor. What they tell us is that these tribes who shared a common Slavic language and polytheistic religion had by...
