The untold history of Russia

By Nicolai Levashov

Part II

(Some extracts from the book «Russian History Viewed through Distorted Mirrors»)

Peter the Great, the third tsar of the Romanovs’ dynasty is identified as «The Great» in the history of the Great Russian People. «Great» is a very significant word. What were those «great deeds» that Piotr Alekseevich Romanov (1672-1725) did to earn such a famous name in the history?!

«With other European people it is possible to achieve an aim using humane methods, and with Russians it is not... I have to work with non-humans, with animals, whom I want to transform into humans» this Peter’s I documented phrase shows clearly his attitude toward the Russian people¹.

It is hard to believe, that these «animals», appreciating his attitude towards them, called him «The Great». Russophobes will say at once that, indeed, he made humans from animals, and only because of him Russia became the Great Russia, and «animals» converted into humans gave him the name of «The Great» with enormous gratitude.

Most likely, this was the way the Romanovs’ masters thanked him for a job done perfectly: the elimination of the vestiges of the Russian people’s grandeur, which had given no rest to the rulers of Western European states (which quite recently had been remote outlying Russian provinces), who wanted to create their own «Great History» and the Russian people’s grandeur prevented them from creating that history.

One of Peter’s «great acts» for the good of the Russian people was the conversion to the Christian calendar. As a result, 5508 years of Russian history (from the day of the signing of a peace treaty in the Star Temple) disappeared, along with thousands of years of history before it. It is such a «trifle» – twenty to thirty thousand years, isn’t it?

Moreover, this act was a complete nonsense from the logical point of view. Peter I declared himself Emperor of the Russian Empire and these «unnecessary» thousands of years of Russia’s past would have served as a ground of the title of the Emperor and as a sign of the revival of former glory of the Empire. However, before speaking about the «revival of the glory» we’ll first examine the size of the «Great» Empire of Peter’s times.

In all unchanged maps before 1772, including maps in the first edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, the territory subject to the Romanov dynasty «extended» in the West from Riga and Smolensk to Belgorod abutting Little Tartary, better known as Zaporozskaya Sech.

In the South its border passed along the Don, rounding the Volga in its lower and middle flow, passing to the North of Samara and abutting the Ural (Riphean) mountains at this latitude. In the East its border was along the Urals abutting against the Kara Sea. In the North it bordered upon Lapland and Sweden. The Romanovs’ Empire was called Muscovite Tartary².
It is of interest that on all European maps dating up to the end of the 18^th century the Tsar of Moscow (who has always been identified as the head of the huge Russian Empire in the modern (rewritten) version of the history) was listed as a ruler of Muscovite Tartary (only!), or even as a duke of Moscow on some maps.

In the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1771 the Russian Empire, better known as Great Tartary, occupied the territory to the east of the Don at the latitude of Samara up to the Urals and the whole territory east of the Urals up to the Pacific ocean on the Asian part of Eurasia:

«TARTARY, a vast country in the northern parts of Asia, bounded by Siberia on the north and west: this is called Great Tartary. The Tartars who lie south of Moscovy and Siberia, are those of Astracan, Circassia, and Dagistan, situated north-west of the Caspian-sea; the Calmuc Tartars, who lie between Siberia and the Caspian-sea; the Usbec Tartars and Moguls, who lie north of Persia and India; and lastly, those of Tibet, who lie north-west of China»³.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica of 1771, there was an enormous country of Tartary, with provinces of different sizes. The greatest province of this empire was named Great Tartary and covered West Siberia, East Siberia and the Far East.

In the southeast, Chinese Tartary bordered it (please, do not confuse it with China). A so-called Independent Tartary (Middle Asia) was to the south of Great Tartary. Tibet Tartary (Tibet) was situated to the northwest of China and to the southwest of Chinese Tartary. In the north of India was Mongolian Tartary (Mogul Empire, modern Pakistan).

Uzbek Tartary (Bukaria, modern Uzbekistan) was nestled among Independent Tartary in the north, Chinese Tartary in the northeast, Tibet Tartary in the southeast, Mongolian Tartary in the south, and Persia in the southwest. There were also several Tartaries in Europe: Muscovy or Muscovite Tartary, Kuban Tartary and Little Tartary.

The meaning of the word «Tartary» was explained in Part I of this article. It is clear that it has nothing to do with modern Tatars just as Mongolian Empire has no connection with modern Mongolia. Mongolian Tartary (Mogul Empire) was situated in the area of modern Pakistan, while modern Mongolia is in the north of modern China, or between Great Tartary and Chinese Tartary.

The Mogul Empire of the 18^th century and modern Mongolia are divided by a distance of thousands of kilometers as well as by the greatest mountain range on earth – the Himalayas; they are inhabited by totally different people, who have nothing in common. Generally speaking, the word «Моgul» (Mogol) is of Greek origin and means «the Great» and, thus, has nothing to do with the self-name of any Asiatic tribe.

Thus, glancing at the maps of the 17^th-18^th centuries, we will see ten different Tartaries at the least, indicating that they were recently parts of a united Slavonic-Aryan Empire, which in the Middle Ages was known as Great Tartary in Western Europe.

So many Tartaries appeared when outlying provinces separated from the Slavonic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartary) when the Empire weakened as a result of the invasion the hordes of dzungars⁴, which took and completely destroyed the capital of this Empire – Asgard-Iriyskiy – in 7038 according to Slavonic chronology (or in 1530 A.D.).

However, even after the loss of its outlying provinces, the Slavonic-Aryan Empire was the greatest country in the world at the end of the 18^th century. It encompassed part of southeast Europe, Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, the Far East, a considerable part of North America, and many islands and archipelagos. Here we can see an imposing list of territories that were beyond the Romanovs’ power until the time of Catherine II (1729-1796). We’ll come back to that a little bit later, and meanwhile let us return to the epoch of «Peter the Great».

Peters I’s «great empire» was the territory of Moscovy or Muscovite Tartary. This shows that it had been the province of the Slavonic-Aryan Empire (Great Tartary) quite recently. Its separation occured during the rule of Dmitry Donskoy, who took absolute power in Vladimir-Suzdal kniazhestvo (principality). Before Dmitry Donskoy there was no absolute monarchy in this principality-province of the Slavonic-Aryan Empire. The position of Velikii Kniaz⁵ (Grand Duke) was not hereditary but appointed. He was chosen from the most honorable men of the Kniaz’s family.

Initially only a person who had a predisposition passed through his genes to possess certain knowledge and abilities was called a Kniaz. «Kniaz» in the parent Slavonic language (i.е., at a genetic level) means: «one who has concern for the perfection (refinement) of the Earth» or, simply, kniaz is an «innermost refinement of the Earth»⁶ In other words, only a person enlightened by knowledge could become a kniaz, an advanced person evolved beyond the rest. Not everyone could attain enlightenment by knowledge; nor could it be purchased, stolen or appropriated.

When such a person reached a state similar to enlightenment, he appeared to shine from within, which most people could see and feel. Because of this phenomenon these people were called «Shining», that later, after the perversion of the essence of this concept, «Your Radiance⁷» became the norm of address to everyone, who, on paper, occupied the post of «kniaz».

Undoubtedly, the properties and qualities necessary for this enlightenment by knowledge were preserved at the genetic level and handed down to children⁸. However, genetic qualities were only one necessary condition for achieving enlightenment by knowledge. It also required personal qualities of a bearer of these genetics. Therefore not all children, sometimes none of kniaz's children, achieved enlightenment by knowledge. Or sometimes children, having attained the initial stages of enlightenment, could commit follies due to, for example, misunderstanding, being guided by the best motives from their point of view, but in fact – erroneous, or following their perverted personal ambitions.

This was observed in the actions of Dmitry Donskoy (1350-1389), who, having been sufficiently poisoned by Christian ideas, considered the absolute personal power the only method for obtaining prosperity for his Motherland. He abolished the post of tysyatsky⁹ after death in 1374 of the last tysyatsky, a noble boyar¹⁰ Vasiliy Veliyaminov. This was an irreparable error by Dmitry Donskoy that bore its fruit in the form of the «Great Russian Revolution» in 1917.

This led to unreasonable actions by the last tysyatsky boyar Vasiliy Veliyaminov’s son, Ivan Veliyaminov, who having been deprived of this post, betrayed Dmitry Donskoy and became the leader of the opposition. Demanding the restoration of old traditions, he resorted to the help of Slavonic-Aryan Empire’s enemies, the Genoese merchants, who were backed up by the Catholic church and all of the Western European monarchs, who relatively recently changed from appointed heads of provinces into absolute rulers of their «domains» and fiercely hated the Slavonic-Aryan Empire.

Ivan Veliyaminov won the Slavs-Russians’ overt enemies over to his side, which convinced Dmitry Donskoy of the rightfulness of his own actions. The error of the patriot of Russia, who undoubtedly was Dmitry Donskoy, and the blindness of the offended noble boyar, Ivan Veliyaminov, resulted in civil war within the limits of the province, which still was called Moscow Tartary¹¹ in the times of Dmitry Donskoy. As a result of this civil war, Dmitry Donskoy’s army defeated Ivan Veliyaminov’s (Mamay) army, which consisted of Genoese hirelings and knights of Western Europe, as well as fighting squads of Russian Cossacks led by Russian kniazs, who stood up for old traditions.

If boyar Ivan Veliyaminov had not appealed to Russia’s overt enemies for help, the modern history would be completely different. It seems that this «help» was cunningly offered to him; and Ivan Veliyaminov’s sense of personal offense made him blind while choosing the means of his self-assertion and did the Russian state system a huge disservice.

The thing is that the power of the tysyatsky, a military authority, was practically equal to the power of Velikii Kniaz. This created a balance of power that prevented neither the Velikii Kniaz, the appointed civil ruler of the province, who in fact was Dmitry Donskoy, nor the tysyatsky, also an appointed leader and which Ivan Veliyaminov claimed to be, from obtaining absolute power — the power inevitably leading the country to catastrophe.

Absolute power decomposes human beings, especially those spiritually immature, as in fact were both protagonists of this historical performance, the scenario of which was carefully thought through by one and the same director. Certain words, in certain moments, in a certain emotional state were said to both participants. Unfortunately, they both began to act in compliance with the scenario obviously written by others; and the history of the whole world «took» quite another path, the worst one.

Nevertheless, this happened, and one more part of the Slavonic-Aryan Empire broke away from the maternal body of the Empire. It became separated and practically independent from its mother country. However, one of the protagonists played his role quite differently from what was expected of him.

After obtaining absolute power, Dmitry Donskoy managed to maintain complete independence from the backstage players and to preserve most traditions adopted in the Slavonic-Aryan Empire, thus to saving pretty close and friendly relations with the Empire. This compelled the plotters to search for other ways to destroy the Slavonic-Aryan Empire.

The Empire could not send its main military basic forces to the western province due to that fact that at its southeast borders they were involved in military conflicts with the hordes of dzungars, that were being ousted slowly by the Chinese and had no choice but to move to the north and north-west, which meant only one – a continuous war for total extermination. The destruction of the city Asgard-Iriyskiy, the capital of the Empire, in 7038 (Slavonic-Aryan system of chronology) or in 1530 A.D was the result of this conflict.

Let us return to the Romanovs. By the time of Piotr Alekseevich Romanov’s appearance on the historical arena, his grandfather had destroyed the ancient Books of Ranks and Genealogical Books, thus paying his debts off to his owners. One may think: «There is nothing unusual in this situation. The Romanovs destroyed these books to hide their usurpation of the tsar's power and wrote the Velvet Book in exchange. Big deal. What's wrong with that?»

This is «wrong» because due to it, the falsification of Russian history became possible: «primitive Slavs invited Varangians to govern them; 300 years of the Mongol or Tatar yoke», which in fact did not exist, because Russians, Slavs, were those Moguls (Mongols) and Tartars, as they were called by Western Europeans then.

Peter the «Great» is a very interesting and contradictory historical figure. Let us consider the rumors about his substitution during young Peter’s journey with the Grand Embassy¹². A twenty-six-year-old young man departed with this embassy. He was quite tall, of sturdy build, physically healthy, with wavy hair and a birth-mark on his left cheek; perfectly educated, who loved everything Russian; a Christian orthodox, who knew the Bible by heart, etc.

A completely different person appeared two years later. It was a man who hardly spoke Russian, hated everything Russian, who did not manage to learn to write Russian to the end of his life and who had forgotten everything that he had known before his departure with the Grand Embassy and had miraculously acquired new skills and abilities. He had no birth-mark on his left cheek; he had straight hair; he looked like an unhealthy, forty-year-old man.

Indeed, quite considerable changes happened to this young man during his two-year absence, didn’t it?

It is of interest that in the papers of the Grand Embassy there was no notes that Mikhaylov (young Peter used this name during the embassy) was taken ill with a jungle fever; after all, the members of the embassy knew perfectly well who «Mikhaylov» was in reality.

The man who returned from the journey was sick with fever in a chronic form. He showed signs of long-term treatment with mercuric medications, which were then used to treat a dengue fever. However, it is important to notice that the Grand Embassy used the northern marine way, while dengue fever can be «caught» only in southern waters and by visiting a jungle.

Moreover, after his return from the Grand Embassy, Peter I demonstrated considerable experience in a marine boarding fight. He possessed specific skills that could be acquired only through frequent use in practice, requiring personal participation in many boarding battles. All these facts demonstrate that the man who returned with the Grand Embassy was a skilled seaman who had participated in many marine battles and navigated a lot in the southern seas.

Before his journey Peter I did not take part in marine battles because during his childhood and youth Moscovy or Muscovite Tartary did not have outlets to the seas, except to the White Sea, which cannot be called tropical under any circumstances. Peter I visited it very rarely and as an honored passenger only. Moreover, once he saved his life by a miracle when visiting the Solovetskiy monastery in a launch during a heavy storm. On the occasion of his salvation in the storm, he made a memorable cross with his own hands to place in the Arkchangelsk cathedral.

Another fact is also of interest. Young Peter loved his wife (tsarina Evdokia) very much. He missed her during his journey and wrote her numerous letters, but when he came back from the Grand Embassy he sent her to a convent for no reason whatsoever, without even meeting her. There were also some sudden deaths upon Peter’s return from the Grand Embassy in 7207 (Slavonic system of chronology) or 1699 A.D. His former «mentor» P. Gordon and his «friend» F. Lefort died almost simultaneously and «suddenly». It was their suggestion that Peter would want to go incognito with the Grand Embassy.

We can go on and enumerate distinctions between the person who departed with the Grand Embassy and the person who returned to Moscow. A great number of facts support Peter I’s substitution during his journey. Most likely that substitution happened because Peter did not appear to be as compliant as P. Gordon and F. Lefort’s bosses wished him to be. Taking into account this scenario, nobody would envy the real Peter’s destiny.

Anyway, whether it was a genuine Peter I or a foundling, he performed all his «great acts» only after his return from the Grand Embassy. Let us contemplate these «great acts» more closely:

1. Right after his arrival he introduced the Christian calendar into practice in 7208 (Slavonic system of chronology) or in 1700 A.D. Undoubtedly, he had been aware perfectly of the Christian calendar’s existence, as he was educated as an orthodox sovereign. However, before the Embassy he did not even consider reforming the system of chronology.

Thus the Slavonic system of chronology dating back to the signing of a peaceful agreement between the Slavonic-Aryan Empire and Ancient China disappeared for good. That means that the thousands-year-long history of the Russian people disappeared also, and conditions for falsification of its modern version arose. This job was done by the «great Russian historiographers» – Gottlieb (Theophil) Siegfried Bayer, Gerard Friedrich Müller, August Ludwig (von) Schlözer (all of whom are Germans). Within several generations, few remembered what events happened before Peter’s time.

2. He implanted the serfage, in fact slavery, in his own people. There was no form of slavery either in the Slavonic-Aryan Empire or in any of its provinces. Never. Even prisoners of war captured during military operations did not become slaves in the habitual sense of this word.

Captive enemies were not humiliated. They worked in the household of their «owner» as workers, ate at the same table, slept in the same house. After working several years, the prisoners were free either to return to their Motherland or to stay and to be equal in all respects, to create family, etc. This «slavery» consisted in the fact that their labor was not paid. Russians, who always had been free and accepted the right of other people to be free, were converted into slaves in the worst sense of this word at the beginning of the 18th century. Their Tsar-father, whose decisions must satisfy God, did it.

Nobody had been able to turn the Russian people into slaves during millennia; the Russians reject slavery in every fiber of their being. However, their enemies managed to find a way to enslave the Russian people through the absolute monarchy. Thus, the absolute monarchy established by Dmitry Donskoy yielded its first, but not last, bitter fruit and opened the bloody pages of the genocide of the Russian people. Today nobody is in a hurry to speak about it and to defend the human rights of the Russians.

3. Peter’s «reforms» and wars had a negative economic effect. The population from 1700 to 1725 decreased from 18 to 16 million. Serfdom with its chattel slavery system ruined and regressed the economy of the country. While practically all Western European countries were ending the remains of slavery, understanding that they would be doomed keeping it; in Muscovy their protégé introduced slavery.

If Peter I indeed had cared for the Russian people’s interests, he would have noticed this while visiting a great deal of Europe during his journey with the Grand Embassy. And, if neither he nor his ambassadorial office staff had paid attention to this fact, it could mean the following:

а) He was a useless state and political figure who should not be allowed to govern under any circumstances. According to the old tradition, the destruction of which was begun by Rurik¹⁴ and completed by one of his descendants, Dmitry Donskoy, such a man would never be able to be the head of state.

b) Peter I was mentally retarded, and, even more, must not have access to the helm of state.

c) Peter I was recruited by anti-Russian forces during his journey with the Grand Embassy. His recruitment is doubtful because recruiters had nothing to offer him that he wouldn’t already have had as an absolute monarch.

d) Peter I was cunningly ensnared to take part in the Grand Embassy by his false friends; and, while visiting Europe, he was replaced by a man similar to him outwardly, who was not even his double. Numerous distinctions between the man who left his country with the Grand Embassy and the man who returned, and the analysis of his deeds after his return, makes this supposition solely logical and credible.

4. Peter’s church reforms were directed against both faithful Christianity and the vokhvs-keepers of Slavonic-Aryan Vedism gone underground. Peter I ordered all old books brought to the capital from all monasteries, cities and villages to «make copies». It is of interest that nobody saw any books brought into the capital, just as nobody saw any copies made of any of these books. It is also of interest that those who refused to fulfill this order were ordered to be executed. Quite a strange concern for books, isn’t it?

5. Banishing Cossacks troops from the limits of Muscovy forced Peter I to begin forming his army according to Western European standards. For this purpose Peter I invited the military from European countries, giving them enormous privileges in comparison to Russian officers. The foreigners despised everything Russian and humiliated the Russian peasants driven into the army by the monarch’s will. The dominant influence of foreigners in the army, in the public service and in the educational system resulted in the opposition of the aristocracy and people.

Peter I made a huge strategic mistake rejecting the utilization of Cossack troops due to their adherence to old traditions. The principle of Cossack lavas¹⁵ was used by the Bolsheviks, when they created their Cavalry, which played a deciding role in the Civil War of 1918-1924.

6. Due to the defeat of the Swedish army, Sweden weakened and lost its influence over the rest of Europe. This resulted in the strengthening of the latter at the expense of Russian troops. Russian territorial acquisitions were incommensurate with human losses of 2 million persons. At that time the population of all Europe did not exceed 20 million.

It was Peter I who first began to commit genocide of the Russian people and Slavs in general. It was during his rule that the lives of the Russians became a small change in the dirty political games of Western European politicians.

7. Peter the Great «cut a window through» Europe, providing Russia the outlet to the Gulf of Finland after the return of former Russian territories as a result of victory over Sweden. Correctly stated, he «cut a window through» Muscovy for European countries. Before Peter I the number of foreigners in the land of Muscovy was very limited. Mainly ambassadorial people, some merchants and a very insignificant number of travelers had the right to cross the border.

Peter I allowed crowds of adventurers hungry to fill their empty pockets with riches of Russian land to gush into Muscovy. It is of interest that all of them were given enormous privileges and advantages in comparison to both the truly Russian aristocracy and Russian merchants and businessmen.

8. To maintain his army Peter I needed enormous sums of money, the greater part of which was plundered immediately by both Russian scoundrels and Peter’s beloved foreigners. Of this, the greater part was plundered precisely by foreigners, who were poor in their Motherland or descended from impoverished noble families and were the second, third, etc. sons and did not have the right of inheritance. Some of them returned to their Motherland with their pockets filled with extraordinary riches; others preferred to make a profit from the work of people who were complete strangers to them.

9. Peter I imposed a great number of taxes to fill the quickly-emptying treasury. For this he brought vodka from Sweden and created a government vodka monopoly. Vodka was sold in state taverns, inns and horse changing stations. Before the Romanovs and, as early as in times of Ivan IV the Terrible (1530-1584), drunkenness was a vice punished by imprisonment and a huge fine.

It was Peter I who began to implant hard drinking at all levels of Russian society by running a wide advertising campaign and «inspiring» people by his own example to drink too much. The vodka monopoly brought fabulous profits into the treasury, what was enough for his aims. The money spent by the treasury returned back quickly with minimum expenses. In soviet times the Bolsheviks «improved» Peter’s undertaking by making vodka a liquid currency, thus robbing people, taking away the pitiful kopecks paid to them as a salary.

This list can be continued endlessly. All Peter I’s «great deeds» before his death in 7233 (Slavonic-Aryan chronology) or 1725 A.D., brought Muscovy (which was beginning to be called the Russian Empire) to a deplorable economic condition comparable only to that of The Time of Troubles¹⁶, which the Romanovs and their relatives had taken a very active part in creating.

Victory over Sweden brought enormous calamities to the Russian people or, more precisely, to those Russians moaning under the yoke of the Romanovs, a real yoke, and not the non-existent Mongol-Tatar yoke they invented.

Let us glance at Peter’s «Great Empire». The Muscovy of Peter’s time is shown on the map of 1717. The domain of the Romanovs surely considerably exceeded the size of any European country but had nothing in common with that huge Russian Empire (Great Tartary or Slavonic-Aryan Empire) that «Russian» historians arrogated to Moscovy later in their works. The eastern border of Peter’s Empire reached only the western offspurs of the Ural Mountains!

It is of interest that on this map there are several Novogorods. Two cities: Novogrod on Ladoga, Novogorod on Volga, as well as the area within the limits of the Golden Ring, a group of cities labeled on the map with Novogrod written in capital letters. It confirms the academician Fomenko’s supposition, that the Great Novogorod was a group of cities of the Golden Ring, being the commercial and cultural center of Muscovy, and not a small city on Ladoga. On the map even Moscow, the capital, is not highlighted the way the Great Novogorod is. It is another confirmation of the falsification of Russian history.

Unfortunately, practically nothing is left in the history of the Russian people that in one way or another would not have been falsified. Maybe, it is time for all Russians to know the truth about the Great past of our people, instead of the HIS-TOR-Y handed to us on a silver platter?! Only here there is a question: who benefits from this «silver platter»?!

 29 July, 2004

¹ Demin V.M. From Russiches to Russians, Moscow-Omsk, «Russian Truth», 2003, p. 24.
² Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. II, Edinburgh, 1771, p. 682.
³ Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. III, Edinburgh, 1771, p. 887.
⁴ Dzungar (also Jungar or Zungar;) is the collective identity of several Oirat (West Mongolian) tribes.
⁵ Kniaz’ or knyaz is a word denoting a nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or Duke, although the correspondence is not exact.
The meaning of the term changed over the course of history. Initially the term was used to denote the chieftain of a tribe. Later, with the development of feudal statehood, it become the title of a ruler of a state among East Slavs (княжество, kniazhestvo, traditionally translated as duchy or principality), for example, of Kievan Rus'. As the degree of centralization grew, the ruler acquired the title Velikii Kniaz (translated as Grand Prince or Grand duke). He ruled a Velikoe Knyazhestvo (Grand Duchy), while a ruler of its vassal constituent (udel, udelnoe kniazhestvo or volost – a region, province or district) was called udelny kniaz or simply kniaz. When Kievan Rus' became fragmented in the 13th century, the title Kniaz continued to be used in Ruthenian states, including Novgorod, Vladimir-Suzdal, Muscovy, Tver, Halych-Volynia, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
⁶ Grinevitch G.S. Parent Slavonic Written Language, Moscow, 1993, ISBN 5-85617-001-6.
⁷ Loan translation. Could correspond to English titles Your Grace, Your Serenity or Your Lordship. 
⁸ N. Levashov. Spirit and Mind, Vol. 2, Chapter 9; San Francisco, 2003.
⁹ Tysyatsky (tysiatsky, sometimes translated «dux» or «Heerzog») was a military leader, who commanded a people's volunteer army called tysyacha (a thousand) in Ancient Rus. In the Novgorod Republic, the tysyatsky was elected from boyars at a veche (a popular assembly) for a period of one year and was an assistant to posadnik (a deputy of the Kniaz). In the Novgorod Republic, tysyatskies were considered representatives of ordinary people. Alongside with the role as the military leaders, they were also supposed to supervise the city fortifications, open veches, serve as ambassadors to foreign powers.
¹⁰ A boyar was a member of the highest rank of the Slavonic aristocracy, second only to the ruling princes.
¹¹ G.V. Nosovsky, A.T. Fomenko. New chronology of Russia, England and Rome, Moscow, 2001.
¹² The Grand Embassy was a Russian diplomatic mission sent to Western Europe in 1697-1698.
¹³ Rurik or Riurik (830–879) was a Varangian chieftain who gained control of Ladoga in 862, built the Holmgard settlement near Novgorod, and founded the Rurik Dynasty which ruled Russia until the 17th century.
¹⁴ A Cossak lava is a tactical military disposition when a close formation of 100 riders attacs forming an arch. 
¹⁵ The Time of Troubles (Russian: Smutnoye Vremya) was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Muscovy Tsar, Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty, in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613 characterized by a grave political, economic and social crisis that led to the temporary collapse of the Russian State system.

Translation: Elena Lyubimova 
with the assistance of Kelly McMullen