Rugoz wrote:You mean the ACTUAL natural boundaries:
You are spouting babbys first western propaganda on a subject you know nothing about. Muscovy is not even a direct predecessor to modern Russia. Recall the capital has moved around, as has the cultural core.
I should have warned you, I just had four coffees in a row. Hold on to your seat.
Rus' was founded by Varangians, Slavic and Finno-Ugric tribes in what is now northwestern Russia. The founder of Rurikid ruling dynasty of Rus', you know Rurik, was from Novgorod. Earliest Rus' cities were Novgorod, Ladoga, Izborsk, Beloozero, Rostov, Murom and Polotsk - all in modern Russia and Belarus. Kiev and Ukrainian territories were conquered by Rus' from Khazars. All written in the most important Rus' source - The Primary Chronicle.
The so called "Kievan Rus'" is purely a historiographical term coined in 19th century in the Russian empire. The country was called simply Rus' or Russkaya Zemlya (Russian land). The term was used to refer specifically to Kievan principality during the feudal fragmentation of Rus'. Among with such terms as Suzdalian Rus', Novgorodian Rus', Cherven Rus' and so on. Later the term started to being to refer to historical timeframe of Rus', when Kiev was the capital. But again Rus' didn't start in Kiev and it didn't end with it.
Now as for "Muscovites". The city of Moscow was founded by Rurikid prince in 12th century, even before the Mongols, unlike Lvov for example. And it was of course part of old Rus' land. The Moscow principality was the successor of Vladimir principality, one of main Rus' principalities during feudal split. Which in turn was the successor of Rostov-Suzdal principality. Again as already mentioned, Rostov is one of the earliest Rus' cities.
As for Mongol yoke, many like to throw around, like it makes Russia non-Rus' forcsome reason. Ukrainian territory was fucked by Mongol invasion the hardest and whole of it was under Mongol yoke too. Even more! Galician-Volyn principality raided Poland together with the Horde. Yes, the yoke ended earlier, simply because Ukraine was partitioned by Poland and Lithuania. But it's ironic, because Mongol yoke helped retain Rus' spirit much better than Polish rule.
The Rus' Orthodox metropolitan seat was moved from Kiev to Vladimir and then Moscow, by Constantinople itself. Mongols didn't fuck with the Church, in fact strengthened its position by exempting from taxation. Mongol didn't settle Russian principalities, they lived far in the steppes together with their Tatar subjects. They really didn't even intervene into internal matters much, they simply wanted tribute.
The fact that Rus' principalities continued to exist and Rurikids to rule them. And Rus' culture, language, faith and identity were retained in the north. And in the end those principalities consolidated by Moscow got their independence from Mongol-Tatars on their own. And right after started to revive the Byzantine tradition, on which ancient Rus' was based. That's where the Tsar title comes from, the Third Rome idea, marriage of Ivan the Great (no not the Terrible, his grandpa) to niece of last Byzantine emperor.
And of course the common people never refered to themselves as "Muscovites" as ethnicity and the state was not called "Muscovy" - purely Latin exonym. Grand Princes of Vladimir and then Moscow had the title "of all Rus'", same for Orthodox metropolite. And then the title "Tsar of Russia" was adopted and finally "Emperor" by Peter the Great. People called themselves "Rusin", "Rusak" and commonly used today "Russkiy". There are plenty of native official documents, literature and notes made by European travelers.
But those southern principalities which fell under Poland and Lithuania were completely liquidated along with Rurikid rule. They were turned into provinces. They got polonized, latinized, catholicized. Poles
Admin Edit: Rule 3 Violation were colonizing those lands, basically occupying and making up the majority of all cities, while Rusin Orthodox population marginalized in rural areas. What does this have to do with Rus'? Cossacks were resisting though and eventually turned to Russia.