Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) In the broad sense yes. It was considered the edge of civilization. Everything East of that was dark and scary.
Actually, "Ukraine" is the result of V -> U transfer (which is quite frequent in Ukrainian dialects) from the proto-Slavic word "Vkraina", which still exists in some Slavic languages. That word means "Country", more precisely - "Our Country" The earliest mention of the word "Ukraina" in Kyivan annals is around the late 11th century, when Kyiv was actually the CENTER of Kyivan civilization, and the Povolzhie and other "non-Ukrainian" lands of Kyivan Rus were the borderland...
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) I thought it meant that it was the border between Russia proper and "Little Russia".
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) At that time Russia, or that lands that were to become Russia, were inhabited by Asiatic peoples, nomadic goat herders and a couple of Slavic villages in the Northwest of the Rus.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) A list of people populating the lands of European Russia to the NE of Kursk/Belhorod (Moskva, Smolensk, Mozhaisk, Tula, Kaluga, Vladimir, Rostov Velikiy, Suzdal regions - the core lands of later Muscovia) in late XI century: Meschera (Finnic), Mordva (Finnic/Altaic), Mari (Finnic), Galindi (Baltic), Merya (Finnic), Vyatichi (Slavic), Muroma (Finnic), Volga Bulgars (Turkic) Sounds asiatic to me.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) I'm not really sure how Baltic, Finnic, and Slavic qualify as Asiatic.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) We're not counting the Slavs, as most of the Slavic villages fell under the Kievan Princedom. The steppe from Poltava to Mongolia was populated by nomadic horsemen.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) That's pretty much what all the Slavs were saying until about 1500. 1700s if you count the Tatar's as Mongolianish.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) Most of the so called Mongols were of Tartar origin since the first invasion.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) Other than that massive invasion where they burned, raped, looted and generally ransacked everything. Not to imply that every other civilization didn't do the exact same thing, but I just think that to call burning the cities and cutting off everyone's head, "not bothersome," is an interesting description. Slave trading is fun too.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) Well Tatar is a horrifically broad term. If we apply it to everyone of Turkic origin, we'd have a nation of people stretching from Berlin to the Pacific ocean. But I was referring to the Crimean Khanate, who were excellent slave traders.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) They went ape chit at first but for the better part of their rule they weren't brutalizing the local populous. It's not as if the rulers that followed did much better.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) Yes, in the battle of the Slavs versus the Turks, it is now, 140898209340982934 million Turks dead 232032093029302 million Slavs dead. Round 345, ready... go!
Because all of the Finnic tribes came from beyond the Urals. So you got a wayward Baltic tribe (400 miles to the East of any other Balts), the Easternmost Slavic tribe, and a bunch of the Finnic tribes who used to be the earlier population on the Valdai Plato and, in fact, most of the Northeastern Europe. I bet you didn't know Finnic tribes (Estonians, Finns, Hungarians, and the rest) are not even Indo-European. not that there's anything wrong with that.
I do not know what that means. 90% of Tatar-Mongol invaders were Turkic, while the Mongols, themselves, were not.
interestingly, however, after the pillaging, murdering, and the ransacking of the initial invasion had passed, the Golden Horde turned out to be a surprisingly tolerant power. They were extremely tolerant of various religions and of different local power arrangements. If you paid taxes to the Khan on time, they had no reason to even query.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) Hungarians have much more in common with Slavs than they do with Estonians or Finns. Hungarian is related to Finnish kind of like how English is related to Russian. Genetically Hungarians are very close to their Slavic neighbors.
Re: FSU Players Abroad (Arshavin, Sheva, Pavlyuchenko, etc) Don't forget that the original Russian tsars were scandinavian Rurik vikings and not Slavs at all.