00:00What if I told you that Russia, the world's largest country,
00:04a nuclear power, a cultural giant, has no idea who it truly is?
00:11That's not just a philosophical question.
00:14It's a very real identity crisis at the heart of Russia's politics, society and culture.
00:21Is Russia Western? Not quite.
00:24It shares almost none of the same values or institutions.
00:30Is it Eastern? Definitely not.
00:33Is it a civilization all its own?
00:36That sounds nice, but doesn't hold up under scrutiny either.
00:41In fact, everything we think we know about Russia's origins,
00:45its architecture, religion, literature, even its power structures, was borrowed.
00:51The Kremlin was built by Italians.
00:54But they came from France.
00:56Its nuclear bomb was reverse engineered from America.
01:00The military system? German.
01:03Even its iconic literature echoes 19th century England.
01:07So, where do the true roots of Russian civilization lie?
01:11It's a question that few people, Russians included, can answer.
01:15But I do.
01:18My name is Elvira Barry.
01:19I was born in the USSR.
01:21I write novels about Russia's forgotten history.
01:25And today, I'm going to take you on a journey into the origins of Russian identity.
01:30A story buried so deep that it's been erased from national memory.
01:36It's not just about history.
01:39It's about understanding why modern Russia behaves the way it does.
01:43Its obsession with power.
01:46Its unpredictable politics.
01:48And its constant clash with the West.
01:51And the key to unlocking all of this is a long-lost empire most people barely remember.
01:58Byzantium.
01:59Just as it's important for an individual to know their origins, it's crucial for a nation
02:05to understand where its ideological and cultural roots lie.
02:10This is tied to a fundamental concept called the origin myth or founding myth.
02:16We need it to explain and justify our current state of affairs.
02:21It's not necessarily based on true events, but it must be lofty and sacred.
02:27Because it serves as the core on which everything else is built.
02:33For the West, everything is clear.
02:35First came the ancient Greeks with their philosophy.
02:38Then the Romans with their law, followed by Christian thinkers,
02:43the Renaissance and Reformation figures,
02:45the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.
02:48All the way to the present day.
02:51Western European countries, despite constantly fighting among themselves,
02:55still formed a unified trade, scientific and cultural space.
03:01But Russia never belonged to this space because it came from a different root – Byzantium.
03:08A once thriving Christian civilization that existed in what is now Turkey and the Balkans.
03:14For a thousand years, Byzantium was the most powerful and wealthiest European state.
03:21Imagine the time spent from the Norman conquest of England in 1066 to today.
03:27That's how long Byzantium dominated Europe.
03:31Like Western civilization, Byzantium also came from ancient Rome.
03:35But then it charted its own path, affecting everything from religion and philosophy to government, technology, culture and the arts.
03:45For many centuries, Byzantium was Russia's primary trading partner.
03:51Cultural and spiritual exchange did not flow from the west to the east, but from the south to the north.
03:58It was from Byzantium that Russia received Christianity, painting, literature, architecture, science, fashion and systems of governance.
04:09Byzantium did not speak Latin, but medieval Greek – the language in which Russian intellectuals communicated.
04:16In a way, the cultural connection between Russia and Byzantium was similar to that between modern America and the United
04:24Kingdom.
04:25In 1453, the Ottomans conquered Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, and created an entirely new state on its ruins,
04:36where there are different language, religion, culture and population.
04:40For Western Europe, this had a significant impact.
04:43The Ottomans disrupted traditional trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa,
04:49which had been the source of silk and spices, which were the most prestigious commodities of the time.
04:57Moreover, precious metals, pearls and gemstones, which had come from Africa and the East,
05:03were now out of reach for European elites.
05:06Imagine a king needing a crown, but there is no material to make it.
05:11Problem arose on all fronts.
05:15No ivory for the decorative objects that once served as plastic.
05:20No fine arabian horses.
05:23And no perfumes.
05:24Perfumes were especially important because nobles wore elaborate clothes that weren't so easy to wash.
05:31And they sweated.
05:32Just like we do.
05:34This led Western Europe to search for alternative routes to India and China, sparkling the age of great geographical discoveries.
05:42For the Russians, the fall of Byzantium had an even more devastating effect.
05:48Not only were traditional trade routes destroyed, leading to serious economic problems,
05:53but the main religious center and many sacred objects were lost.
05:59If any Catholics are listening, imagine if Rome were captured by Muslims and St. Peter's Basilica turned into a mosque.
06:08For centuries, Byzantium had provided Russia's principal teachers, translators, icon painters, architects, craftsmen, trade representatives and noble brides.
06:21It was a familiar and established source of human capital.
06:26After the fall of Constantinople, many Byzantine scholars, craftsmen and noble families moved to Italian city-states, where they had
06:36strong trade connections.
06:37They brought classical Greek manuscripts and knowledge with them, playing a major role in sparkling the Renaissance, especially in Florence.
06:46Another wave of refugees, mostly priests, diplomats and aristocrats, made their way to Russia, the strongest Orthodox state of the
06:56time.
06:56The Moscow Tsars took up the fallen mantle of Orthodoxy, proclaiming themselves as the Third Rome.
07:05According to this ideology, the First Rome was the ancient city, the second was Constantinople, and the third was Moscow.
07:13This reinforced Russia's Orthodox identity and imperial ideology.
07:19The marriage of Ivan III, Grand Prince of Moscow, to the niece of the last Byzantine Emperor, symbolized this inheritance.
07:28However, the fall of Byzantium occurred before widespread literacy.
07:33And, as a result, memory of it quickly began to fade.
07:37Reconnecting with Byzantine knowledge was impossible because the Turks, who had conquered the territories, were deeply hostile to Europeans, both
07:48Western and Eastern.
07:50European aristocrats, scholars and writers didn't visit the Ottoman Empire, didn't admire Byzantine ruins or examine the surviving scrolls.
07:59They traveled to Rome during the Grand Tour, a traditional journey through Europe taken by young aristocrats from the 17th
08:08to early 19th centuries as their form of cultural education.
08:13They commissioned countless paintings and replicas of ancient statues, helping to shape our vivid impressions of ancient Rome and its
08:22art.
08:23But in the Ottoman Empire, this was not the case.
08:28So, we have very vague ideas of what Byzantium looked like, even though it was much closer to us in
08:35time.
08:36A whole millennium of history was erased from Russian thought.
08:41As a result, Russia became trapped between two worlds, East and West.
08:46Many now claim that Russia is the heir of the Golden Horde.
08:51But that is not true.
08:53The Mongol conquest, of course, left scars on Russia's body.
08:57And some administrative practices were used for many centuries, such as the postal system and tribute collection.
09:06But the Mongol experience, culturally, aesthetically and spiritually, did not stick.
09:12Russia was an agricultural land with Orthodox traditions.
09:17While the Mongols were nomads with shamanistic beliefs.
09:21Two completely different worlds.
09:24The traces of Byzantium are still clearly felt in Russian politics and culture.
09:30But all of this is unconscious.
09:33Religion, church rituals and nearly all early theological texts, that's Byzantium.
09:39The distinctive architecture of Russian churches, that's Byzantium.
09:44Early Russian laws, like the Ruskaya Pravda, Russian truth, that's Byzantium.
09:50The Byzantine idea of symphonia, harmony between church and state, shaped the Russian views on the relationship between the Tsar
09:58and the church.
10:00Political despotism and the drive to build an empire, that's Byzantium.
10:06Ceremonial and court culture, that's Byzantium.
10:10Russian coronations, court rituals and imperial symbolism borrowed heavily from Byzantine practices, including robes, crowns and titles like Tsar, which
10:21derives from Caesar.
10:23By the way, do you know why Russian officials, including Putin, love opulence and golden embellishments so much?
10:31Why do their private residences look like temples?
10:35That's also a Byzantine tradition.
10:39However, Byzantine history is rarely taught in Russian schools.
10:43There is no academic school, no textbooks, no films or novels creating historical memory.
10:50This historical orphanhood has turned Russia into a loose cannon.
10:55That's why it constantly swings from one extreme to another, trying to find common ground with the West, then breaking
11:03ties and attempting to forge its own narrative.
11:06I believe that extreme sensitivity, the inability to self-criticize and constant self-regulation among Russians are linked to a
11:16feeling of historical orphanhood.
11:19It's like a person who lost their parents at an early age and was raised in the foster system.
11:27They wander, searching for themselves, trying to prove to the world that they are significant and often resorting to violence.
11:36The founding myth is crucial for a nation's self-awareness.
11:41It's one thing to clearly know where your historical and cultural roots are, who your founding fathers were and what
11:50ideas they followed.
11:51It's another thing to lose all of that and be unable to restore it.
Comments