janis on Nostr: You’re right, the Nazi collaboration is not a very meaningful fact in this context. ...

You’re right, the Nazi collaboration is not a very meaningful fact in this context.

What are meaningful facts however are how Moscow was a backwater during most of the time he discussed, how Alexander Nevsky fought very hard to subjugate other parts of old Rus under Mongol rule, and how the realm governed from Moscow was called by many “Muscovy” well into the 18th century to discern it from the Western part of old Rus.

You could as easily interpret medieval Rus history in a way that shows how the country whose capital is Kiev is the direct descendant of Kievan Rus, and the country whose capital is Moscow has little to do with it, apart from being founded and run by people who betrayed old Rus.

You could also argue that Russians are not a real ethnicity, because the ancestors of modern day Russians are the Russified local tribes from around Moscow, as well as Mongols, Tatars, and everyone else at some point falling under Moscow’s dominion.

I wouldn’t interpret history that way myself though. Because it’d be as one sided as the bullshit Putin spouts.