The Visage of Empire

At the end of the 9th century, the large bearded warriors disembarked on the shores of the northern lake of Ladoga at 61:00N and 31:30E. The Viking warriors came from Sweden on the invitation by the aboriginals, asking, "Come and rule us and bring the order and peace to our land." The order came indeed. The Viking sword subdued the fighting factions in a short time, and Kievan Rus Empire was established with its capital city Kiev on the high hills of the Dnieper River. The peace was short and turned into the almost unstoppable internecine warfare of the ruling princes, inhabitants and everybody against anybody. The local tribal culture had just one dimension - a war. Kievan Empire was sundered in two pieces. The southeast became Ukraine and the northeast became Russia, which name was borrowed from the first warriors-settles of Sweden, called Ros-Rus. Ukraine moved towards more peaceful life, while Russia continued its aggressive faculties for many centuries. The coming grand princes and then the tsars embarked on their militaristic agenda, invading, taking the territories and subduing the nations and peoples all around. The largest empire of the world has been being built. In the 19th century, it extended from Western Europe to the Pacific Ocean, for 11,000km and from the Asian desert to the Icy Ocean for 5,000km. And a very modest addition to the Empire was Alaska (sold to USA in 1867.) The Russian tsars had disappeared in the 20th century, but not the Russian imperialism.