And the The Welcome to Russian History

Russian history. Welcome to Russian History Retold episode 150. The Mongol Invasion. Did it really matter? Well last, we covered the aftermath of the Crimean War.

And today, for episode 150, and I gotta tell you

don't believe it's actually been that many episodes.

And as I've said before, I only planned on maybe 50. We have

this you know the numbered episodes 150 and we've probably got about another 20

of the other types of the short ones. So, you know, this was an important event, so I want to go back 600 years to the invasion of a horde from the east, the Mongols.

Many of you were wondering why would we discuss whether the Mongol invasion had any influence on history or culture and society of Russia?

Of course it did. Well, you'd be really surprised that there's a major debate on the subject.

There are many historians who would argue that there was very little influence

while others argue the exact opposite.

It will be my job today to present you with all the information so you can decide for yourself.

In doing so, I will be utilizing more material than I have for any other podcast to date.

There's more books than I've ever opened up to look into this to see all the different, you know,

points of view. We're going to go from firsthand accounts to scholarly debates, from religious

interpretations to the thoughts of Tolstoy, Pushkin, and Dostoevsky. We will be hearing from historians like Platonov, Kyuchevsky, Vernadsky, Vierzanovsky, and Steinberg. All in all, I hope that this podcast will open up your minds to an event an era that is one of the most profound in all of Russian history.

Let's start with some quotes from different historians to gain a perspective on the different

points of view.

The first comes from Sergei Fyodorovich Plitanov, who led the St. Petersburg School of Imperial Histiography before and after the Russian Revolution.

He was considered to be a slava file, as he believed that the Russian history that he was studying was one of a purely

Slavic nature with little outside influence. He is quoted his writing, quote, and how could the Mongol influence on Russian life be considerable?

When the Mongols lived far off, did not mix with the Russians, and came to Russia only

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