Mark Meek's Ideas: Where Russia Began

In what is now northwestern Russia there was once a group of tribes. They had succeeded in resisting being ruled by anyone else. But the tribes just couldn't get along with each other.

They ended up seeking some order by actually inviting an outside prince or chieftain to rule over them. The one that ended up being was named Rurik. It doesn't seem to be known for sure where he was from, but Rurik was almost certainly of Viking or Scandinavian origin. Vikings that went eastward were known as Varangians.

This began, in 862, what was known as the Rurik Dynasty that would last over 700 years.

The Rurik Dynasty ruled over a kingdom known as the Kievan Rus. Vladimir the Great was a Rurik prince in Kiev who made what would turn out to be the momentous decision to adopt the Byzantine rite of Christianity for his kingdom. This was, as we saw in "The House Of Holy Wisdom, Where The Modern World Began", was because his envoys were so impressed with the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.

The Kievan Rus ultimately broke apart, but had succeeded in being a conduit for the spread of Christianity and it is today acknowledged as the predecessor state of Russia, Ukraine and, Belarus, and is where the name of Russia comes from.

The next power that arose was the Grand Duchy of Moscow. This state gradually annexed the neighboring states that had been the remnants of the Kievan Rus, and lands to the east as well. This was still the Rurik Dynasty that had been founded centuries before.

A leader called Ivan the Great had married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor, from before Constantinople had been conquered by the Ottomans. Since Constantinople had been claimed to be the "Second Rome", the holy successor city to Rome, Ivan claimed Moscow as the "Third Rome", meaning the center of Christianity.

Finally, in 1547, the grandson of Ivan the Great, known as Ivan the Terrible, proclaimed the annexed lands as the Tsardom of Russia, with himself as tsar. But he is the one who built the magnificent St. Basil's Cathedral, in Moscow, and how terrible can someone be who can build something like that?

The place where Rurik had arrived to begin his rule over the quarreling tribes was Novgorod, to the northwest of Moscow on the way to what is now St. Petersburg. This was Rurik's capital and Ivan the Great eventually annexed what was known as the Republic of Novgorod into the Grand Duchy of Moscow, before all of it became the modern nation of Russia.

ALL IMAGES ARE FROM GOOGLE STREET VIEW UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED

A kremlin is a walled citadel, that is usually the original part of a city. This is a look at the walls of the Novgorod Kremlin.

The Cathedral Of St. Sophia, in the Novgorod Kremlin, was completed about 1050.

Here are some aerial views of the walled Kremlin and the surrounding city of Novgorod.

In 1862, a metal monument was unveiled in the Kremlin of Novgorod to celebrate the millennium since the arrival of Rurik in 862. His arrival in Novgorod is considered as the beginning of Russia and the monument is known as the Millennium of Russia. Here are four images of the Millennium of Russia, one from each side.

The first of the following scenes in the Novgorod Kremlin is of the Millennium of Russia Monument. The figure holding the shield is Rurik. The other figures, both on the top and the bottom of the monument, are other important people from Russia's history. The adjacent cathedral, St. Sophia, was the main cathedral of the Novgorod Republic.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow, ^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >, After clicking the up arrow, you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@58.5209835,31.2751234,3a,37.5y,33.81h,111.7t/data=!3m5!1e1!3m3!1sbOSDN7YUwGpqmu-8dydwZA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo2.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DbOSDN7YUwGpqmu-8dydwZA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D50.051704%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100

Notice how the Millennium of Russia Monument resonates with the Tsar Bell, in the Moscow Kremlin. Image from the Wikipedia article "Tsar Bell".

The city of Yaroslavl was, like Novgorod, a state that was later annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. It is one of the historic cities known as the Golden Ring of Russia. The great river of the European part of Russia is the Volga River. It runs a very long route from north to south and is kind of like the Mississippi River of Russia. Yaroslavl is, like several other major cities, on the Volga River. All of these cities originated in medieval times and are now important industrial centers.

These four images are of the Assumption Cathedral in Yaroslavl.