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My friends, I know that we have covered a lot of different topics, but we're probably going to make the most least controversial statement that this channel has ever made.

Russian people love vodka. And yeah, that's exactly what we're going to be talking about here

today. We're going to be talking about not only Russia's love for vodka, but actually the fascinating little thing of how over the course of history, it is actually influenced Russian politics. And basically, every single level of Russian society going back for over a thousand years. Yes, I know this sounds like a tall order, which, you know, I guess make it a double in that context.

All right, I'm going to stop that now. But as always, here on the history of everything, in order to be able to talk about that, we're going to first need to take a big swig of context and quench the thirst of historical knowledge. All right, I said I was going to stop, but I probably can't. There's going to be way too many puns over the course of this entire thing. Anyway, yes, my friends, we're talking about vodka. And when you were talking about that in the

history of it in Russia, that is something that goes back a long way. Like, stupidly far back.

In fact, there is a very famous story or legend that goes way back in the days of Kivan

Ruse that references the Russians had already developed

a famous taste for alcohol, where in the year in 978, Grand Prince Vladimir would go and conquer

the city of Kiev and numerous other lands and cities in the region, growing the size of the

Kiev and Russe and uniting them under his rule. Now, his grandmother, Olga of Kiev, who is a very

famous Kievan Rusci, Kivan, Kivin, Kivin who is a very famous Kiven-Rush. Keevan? Keevan? Keevan? I'm not even

sure what the adjective in the scenario would be. Anyway, she's one of the most famous figures of

Kivan-Ruse, and she had been a Christian. But Vladimir himself was a follower of Slavic paganism,

and as evidence of this, he had numerous wives,

and I think it's estimated like at this point 800 concubines, which is a lot. He also erected

statues and shrines to pagan gods in his early rule, but Vladimir knew that his people

themselves were predominantly Christian, and he knew that there was power in having a state religion.

And so he sent envoys far and wide seeking a religion that he could unite his people under,

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