78. Kievan Rus and the origin stories of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus

What are the origin stories of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus? They all make a claim on the legacy of Kievan Rus, the loose grouping of warring principalities and many ethnic groups that formed in the territory between Novgorod and Kiev between 900 and 1200. This story has often been told for nationalist myths, but its more complex and layered story - still relevant to the Russia-NATO-Ukraine War today - is that all political cultures are plural. Along the way you will also hear a fragment from the 'Lay of Igor's Campaign' - the epic Russian medieval poem whose sole surviving copy was not saved from the burning archive caused by Napoleaon's invasion of Moscow.

This episode is the 11th in my series on the Black Legend of Russian History. The next and final episode in the series, coming after Christmas, will be a wrap up of the most recent episode in Russian history - the war in 2022.

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