Category
Sources & Evidence
How we know what we know: chronicles, travel accounts, archaeology, DNA, and where legend ends and evidence begins.
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Empires & Dynasties · Tsardom of Russia
The Muscovy Company: How England Found Russia
In 1553 three English ships sought a route to China. Two crews died in the Arctic; the third reached Ivan the Terrible. The story of the Muscovy Company.
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People · Grand Principality of Moscow
Sophia Palaiologina: The Byzantine Princess Who Married Ivan III
Sophia (Zoe) Palaiologina, niece of the last Byzantine emperor, married Ivan III in 1472. What did she really bring to Moscow, and what is legend?
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People · Tsardom of Russia
False Dmitry I: The Pretender Who Became Tsar
Who was False Dmitry I? How a runaway monk claimed to be Ivan the Terrible's dead son, took Moscow in 1605, married Marina Mniszech and was killed in 1606.
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Empires & Dynasties · Tsardom of Russia
The Oprichnina: Ivan the Terrible's Terror, 1565–1572
What was the oprichnina? How Ivan the Terrible split Russia in 1565, who the oprichniki were, what happened at Novgorod in 1570, and why Stalin admired it.
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Religion & Belief · Tsardom of Russia
St Basil's Cathedral: Why Ivan the Terrible Built It, and the Myths
St Basil's Cathedral was built in 1555–1561 to give thanks for the conquest of Kazan. Who designed it, who was Basil, and did Ivan blind the architects?
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Sources & Evidence · Tsardom of Russia
Ivan the Terrible and His Son: Repin's Painting and the Death of 1581
Repin's 1885 painting of Ivan the Terrible holding his dying son was banned, slashed in 1913 and attacked in 2018. What happened in November 1581?
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People · Tsardom of Russia
Ivan the Terrible: The First Tsar, Fact and Legend
Ivan IV was crowned Russia's first tsar in 1547 and died in 1584. His reforms, wars, the oprichnina, his wives, his son, and which famous stories are myths.
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Trade & Travel · Novgorod Republic
Sadko: The Novgorod Merchant Between Chronicle and Legend
Sadko, the gusli-player who became Novgorod's richest merchant: what the bylina tells, what the chronicle says about a real Sotko, and Novgorod's trade.
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People · Golden Horde
Tokhtamysh: The Khan Who Burned Moscow and Fought Timur
Tokhtamysh reunited the Golden Horde, burned Moscow in 1382 and fought his former patron Timur. What the Russian, Persian and Arabic sources say.
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War & Warriors · Kingdom of Hungary
The Mongol Invasion of Europe (1241): Legnica, Mohi and the Withdrawal
In 1241 Mongol armies crushed the Poles at Legnica and the Hungarians at Mohi, then withdrew. What the eyewitnesses wrote, and why the Mongols turned back.
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People · Mongol Empire
Subutai: Genghis Khan's Greatest General, Fact and Fiction
Subutai (1176–1248) led Mongol armies from China to Hungary. What the Yuan shi, the Secret History and the chronicles say, and where the legend begins.
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People · Mongol Empire
Jochi: Genghis Khan's Eldest Son and the Question of His Father
Jochi, eldest son of Genghis Khan, gave his name to the Golden Horde. What the sources say about his birth, the succession quarrel, and his early death.
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Sources & Evidence · Principality of Chernigov
The Tale of Igor's Campaign: The 1185 Raid, the Lost Manuscript and the Forgery Debate
The Tale of Igor's Campaign and the failed raid of 1185: what the chronicles say, how the only manuscript was lost, and why scholars think it genuine.
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Religion & Belief · Grand Principality of Moscow
Sergius of Radonezh: The Monk Behind Moscow's Rise
St Sergius of Radonezh (died 1392), founder of the Trinity monastery near Moscow: what his Life says, his role in politics, and what is later legend.
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People · Kievan Rus'
Vladimir Monomakh: The Prince Who Held Rus' Together
Vladimir Monomakh, grand prince of Kyiv from 1113 to 1125: his wars against the Polovtsians, the councils that kept Rus' together, his Instruction, and the cap.
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Religion & Belief · Rostov-Suzdal
Kitezh: The Invisible City and the Legend of 1238
The legend of Kitezh, the Russian city that became invisible to escape Batu in 1238: where the story comes from, what the chronicles say, what the lake holds.
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Religion & Belief · Grand Principality of Moscow
Rublev's Trinity: The Icon Behind the Legend
Andrei Rublev's Trinity icon, painted about 1411 or in the 1420s: what it shows, who painted it, and why its handover to the Church in 2023 alarmed experts.
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People · Bahmani Sultanate
Afanasy Nikitin: The Tver Merchant Who Travelled to India Beyond Three Seas
Afanasy Nikitin, a merchant from Tver, reached India around 1471 and wrote the Journey Beyond Three Seas. What his text says, when he went, and what is myth.
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War & Warriors · Grand Principality of Moscow
The Battle of Kulikovo (1380): Dmitry Donskoy, Mamai and the Myth of Liberation
The Battle of Kulikovo on 8 September 1380: who fought, how many, what the earliest sources say, and why the victory did not end the Tatar yoke.
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War & Warriors · Kievan Rus'
The Mongol Invasion of Rus' (1237–1240): How the Cities Fell
How the Mongols conquered Rus' in 1237–1240, city by city from Ryazan and Vladimir to Kyiv, what chronicles and graves show, and where the "Tatar yoke" began.
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War & Warriors · Teutonic Order
The Battle on the Ice (1242): What Really Happened on Lake Peipus
The Battle on the Ice of 5 April 1242 in the sources: who fought, how many died, where it happened, and how the drowning knights entered the story.
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Trade & Travel · Viking settlements
Viking Coins and Silver: Dirhams, Hacksilver and Hoards
Did the Vikings have coins? How weighed silver, Arab dirhams and hacksilver served as money, the great hoards from Cuerdale to Spillings, and Danegeld.
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Religion & Belief · Kievan Rus'
Slavic Paganism in Rus': Perun, Veles and the Gods Before Christianity
What did the pagan Slavs of Rus' believe? Perun, Veles, Mokosh and the other gods, the few sources that name them, and which "Slavic gods" were invented later.
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Peoples & Migrations · Abbasid Caliphate
Holmgard: Novgorod and Rurik's Hillfort in the Viking Age
Holmgard (Holmgarðr) was the Norse name for Novgorod, and first for the island hillfort beside it. What the excavations, runestones and sagas reveal.
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War & Warriors · Rus'
The Rus' Attack on Constantinople (860): The Vikings' First Raid on Byzantium
In 860 a Rus' fleet raided the outskirts of Constantinople. What Patriarch Photios saw, who the attackers were, why they left and where the storm legend began.
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Empires & Dynasties · Kievan Rus'
Kievan or Kyivan Rus'? The Name, the Spelling and Who Owns the Past
Was Kievan Rus' Ukraine or Russia? What the realm called itself, where "Kievan" and "Kyivan" come from, and why historians call Rus' a shared past.
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Peoples & Migrations · Viking settlements
Staraya Ladoga: The First Viking Town in the East
Staraya Ladoga, the Norse Aldeigjuborg: its smithy of 753, eleven building levels, runes, boat graves, sagas and the "first capital of Russia" claim.
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Sources & Evidence · Kievan Rus'
The Primary Chronicle: How We Know About Early Rus'
Who wrote the Primary Chronicle, when, which manuscripts survive, and how historians test its dates against Byzantine, Arabic and Frankish sources.
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Peoples & Migrations · Viking settlements
Who Were the Varangians? Vikings of the Eastern Rivers, Rus' and Byzantium
Who were the Varangians? The Vikings in Russia and Ukraine: Scandinavian traders, warriors and princes on the river roads to Byzantium and Baghdad.
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Empires & Dynasties · Rus'
Who Was Rurik? The Viking Founder of the Rurikid Dynasty
Was Rurik real? See what the chronicles and archaeology say about the Viking founder of the Rurikid dynasty, which ruled Rus' and Russia until 1598.
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Sources & Evidence · Volga Bulgaria
Ibn Fadlan: The Baghdad Envoy Who Met the Vikings on the Volga
Who was Ibn Fadlan? Follow the Abbasid envoy from Baghdad to the Volga in 921–922 and read what he really wrote about the Rus' and their ship funeral.