“Peaceloving” a la russe: How historical Russia was formed

NV is publishing an excerpt of Ihor Harin's new book, Crimes of the Collective Putin

When a country stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean, a natural question arises as to how the small principality of Moscow grew to comprise such vast territories whose size exceeds that of ​​all other countries of the world. And it grew with endless wars of aggression in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Volga, Siberia, Central Asia, and the Far East. In fact, the history of Russia in the 13th-20th centuries, which was accompanied by significant territorial growth, is an almost continuous period of wars of conquest, which, for the sake of decency, are called "liberation" by Russian historians.

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Here it should be noted that Moscow could wage endless wars against its neighbors, having the Mongol Horde as its ally and protector. Why? Because, while collecting tribute for the Horde, Muscovite lords did not forget themselves, either, collecting much more than was necessary and spending the surplus on waging wars of aggression. They not only paid the Horde correctly and on time, but also expressed their willingness to help the outlaws of the Golden Horde to extract tribute from the neighboring principalities. That is, Muscovite princes went into voluntary service to their conquerors. It was in the interests of the Horde to strengthen Moscow as much as possible, because good Moscow paid properly and fought valiantly against the wicked, who paid reluctantly, not on time, and only under the threat of force. It is clear that the invaders transferred part of their powers to the hands of Moscow’s princes. It can be compared with how in 1941, millions of Red Army soldiers were captured by the Nazis, and from those ranks immediately appeared people that became voluntary helpers of the invaders. The capture and subjugation of neighboring principalities by Moscow can be compared to mafia wars, when the most treacherous, cruel and cunning kingpin mercilessly subjugates neighboring possessions.

In this virtual reality, which is loudly called the "Russian World," there are many contradictory slogans. For example, right alongside “remember how our grandfathers fought!” There are also both "Russia has never attacked anyone" and "Russia’s borders have no end."

At the same time, we should remember that the territory of Muscovy in 1547 (the date of the proclamation of the Muscovite Kingdom) was already the result of the aggression of Ivan IV the Terrible and his predecessors - Ivan III and Basil III, who started the policy of "the gathering of lands." And in less than a hundred years, they had "gathered" so many lands that they had increased the territory of the Moscow principality by more than 10 times. Gathered "peacefully," of course. That is, the biggest "peacemakers" in the world during the existence of the Russian state managed to increase the land area from less than 200 thousand km² (Muscovy until 1300) to 22.4 million km² (the USSR), i.e. more than 100 times (!!!). This is not just a world record for "peacefulness" a la russe, but likely for the amount of human blood spilled over the millennia. Because this is typical for the Muscovites, who conquered new lands, using absolutely the same criteria as Putin in Ukraine: scorched earth, soaked in blood.

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Thus, there is every reason to claim that historical Russia is the largest state in the world to be built entirely on blood. And the war with Ukraine is not just typical for Russia, but is indeed a mirror that reflects the barbaric and inhumane methods inherent in all of this terrible country’s other wars.

Currently, the territory of the Russian Federation is "only" 17 million km², and this obviously greatly upsets the "collective Putin," who are once again looking for any (in particular, the most inhumane) ways to "peacefully annex" at least a piece of it (let's remember the epic with Crimea, "Novorossiya," the destructive war in Ukraine, and other Kremlin territorial claims against almost all of Russia's neighbors). But even against this historical background, the current war propaganda, which blares from every corner of the Russian information space, is unique not only in its totality, but in its terrible aggressiveness and mass scale – what they call "popular support".

There an ironic expression "to bomb Voronezh" (roughly, to cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face - ed.) which reflects the influence of Russia’s aggressive policy on the sharp deterioration of life inside the country itself. But few have paid attention to the fact that today, after the "accession" of 4 Ukrainian regions, Putin is bombing his country, not in the figurative sense, but in the literal one. After all, many territories which Russia considers to be its own, including Zaporozhzhia, are today being subjected to barbaric bombing: Kramatorsk or Slovyansk (and in the near future, probably Kherson). Is this not classic schizophrenia? I'm not talking about the fact that the war unleashed by a serial killer has led to massive bombings of Belgorod and other border regions. Or that Putin's war has hit the entire world economy hard, including the economy of Russia’s so-called "allies," including China. (According to economists' estimates, the total damage from the war has already approached a trillion dollars.)

If we look at known historical facts, we learn that since the middle of the 16th century, Muscovy-Russia has participated in at least 76 different wars, conflicts, and military operations. Of course, most of these wars (54) were waged by Russia.

In the XIV-XVI centuries. Muscovy captured:

Kolomna (1301), Pereslavl-Zalisky (1302), Mozhaisk (1303), Halych (1330s), Smolensk (1359), Tula (1381), Volodymyr (1389), Kaluga (1389), Meshchera ( 1386), Suzdal (1392), Murom (1392), Vologda (1397), Kozelsk (1404), Ustyug (1425), Suzdal (1440), Rostov (1447), Shuya (1448), Rzhev (1449), Novgorod ( 1067 and 1478), Klin (1482), Yelets (1483), Ryazan (1483), Tver (1485), Vyatka (1489), Udmurtia (1489), Vyazma (1494), Novgorod-Siverskyi, Putivl, Bryansk, Mtsensk, Chernihiv, Gomel (1500−1505), Pskov (1510), Smolensk (1514), Ryazan (1520), Kazan Khanate (Kazan, Cheboksary, Yelabuga, Samara, etc.; 1552), Astrakhan Khanate (Astarkan, Sarai , Magyars, etc.) (1556), Bashkiria (1582), the Siberian Khanate (1582), and the principalities of Priobya (1595), Tyumen (1594), and Izhora (1595).

This list is far from exhaustive.

The Novgorod pogrom eloquently testifies to what kind of passions there were - the march of Ivan the Terrible’s notorious oprichnina secret police corps to Novgorod in 1569−1570 under the personal leadership of Ivan the Terrible, which was accompanied by mass murders. At that time, many thousands of people fell victim to the life-giving tsar. Marching on Novgorod in the fall of 1569, the oprichniks staged mass murders and looting in Tver, Klin, Torzhk, and other towns on the way. The atrocities of the Russian army are simply stunning: the pogrom lasted six weeks, thousands of people were drowned in the Volkhov River, immersed in ice water, and then boiled alive in cauldrons, mercilessly tortured. Ivan ordered the residents of Novgorod to be doused with an incendiary mixture and then, still alive, set alight, tied by their hands and feet, dropped in the Volkhov River. They also threw women and children in there, with babies tied to their mothers. The oprichniks traveled the river in boats and killed those who floated away with pikes, spears, and axes. The water in the river turned red, and local priests and monks were beaten with clubs and thrown there after various abuses. Contemporaries report that the Volkhov River was filled with corpses, and a living tradition of this was preserved as early as the 19th century.

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But the worst thing started in the city later. In 1569−1570, a terrible crop failure occurred. The total destruction of the few reserves by the Muscovites led to a terrible famine, from which many more people died than at the hands of the oprichniks. Cannibalism was widespread in Novgorod. The plague epidemic that started in Russia before the pogrom, and came to Novgorod after it, finished the job.

"There is no truth or justice in Novgorod," laments the chronicler. In the city and in its surrounding villages and parishes, there were robberies, exorbitant extortions from the people, shouting, cries, and curses on the oldest and the whole of Novgorod, and the people of Novgorod became an object of scorn for their neighbors.

In 1552, Ivan the Terrible took Kazan, the capital of the Tatar Khanate, with an army of 150,000. After the battle, the Christ-loving invaders slaughtered all the men who survived in the city, including captives, and the Tsar "gave the women and children to his army as booty."

Bucha, Irpin, Gostomel, Mariupol, Izyum, and tens of thousands of tortured and missing people – these are all unlearned lessons of the past, from the capture of Novgorod and Pskov by Ivan the Terrible to the atrocities of the Red Army in East Prussia and Afghanistan. In Russia’s "special path" or "unseen spirituality" that allows such killing, we see the justification of the "greatness" of the country and its next Fuhrer.

Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine