04-20-2006, 06:42 PM
Ashock,Apr 20 2006, 11:11 AM Wrote:I'm not sure I'm understanding you. True original russians were Vikings. What we have now is a mix of that blood with that of the Mongols.
I won't touch the rest of this though.
-A
[right][snapback]107872[/snapback][/right]
Well, the territory Russia is enormous, and is much larger than any ethnic group's original space. To reduce it to Vikings + Mongols is to miss the vast majority of the ethnic mix, including the most important one: Slavs.
The mix of the 'Rus was a predominantly Slavic group of agriculturalists who were dominated by Viking raiders moving down the rivers for exploration and plunder. The Vikings were integrated into slavic society as an elite, and were assimilated into Slavic culture over many generations, hence why we call Russian men Igor, not Ingvar.
However, that comes later in the history than the original inhabitants of the southwestern steppes, which was inhabited by Turkic nomads much earlier than either Mongols or 'Rus. They were, in turn, displaced by Huns, Avars, Khazars, Ghuzz, and all sorts of other pre-Mongol groups. The Slavs then moved south and west in their wake, establishing sedentary communities. However, this is a different part of modern Russia than the northern, Viking-dominated areas. So, take your pick of areas, there's no single correct answer for who first inhabited "Russia."
-Jester