Monday, March 21, 2022

RUSSIA'S INSATIABLE HUNGER FOR MORE LAND Where Our Ancestors Lived

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                      

                                                       

                                                       

                                               


The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs.   The traditional start-date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' state in the north in 862, ruled by Varangians, the  Vikings of Sweden.  . Between the 9th and 11th centuries, Varangians ruled the medieval state of Kievan Rus', settled among many territories of modern Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, and formed the Byzantine Varangian Guard which later also included Anglo-Saxons. Staraya Ladoga and Novgorod became the first major cities of the new union of immigrants from Scandinavia, the Vikings,  with the Slavs and Finns.

 In 882 Prince Oleg of Novgorod seized Kiev, thereby uniting the northern and southern lands of the Eastern Slavs under one authority. The state adopted Christianity from the Byzantine Empire in 988, beginning the synthesis of Byzantine and Slavic cultures that defined Russian culture for the next millennium. Kievan Rus' ultimately disintegrated as a state due to the Mongol invasions in 1237–1240 along with the resulting deaths of significant numbers of the population.

There was the commonwealth of Independent States, especially in the southern provinces of eastern Europe, ever since classical times.  There were the  Crimea, Caucasus, Khazars, Lithuania, Turkestan, Ukraine, etc.  Jews lived in all these places, scattered about like spices.  They were known in Kiev in the 12th century where they lived in a Jewish quarter.  In 1113, their quarter was raided and looted.  During this period, Russian Jews were attending their western Yeshivot and addressing queries from German rabbis, as their knowledge was highly respected.

  The Mongol invasion must have scattered the Jews again.  The center of the Mongols was the Khazar territory, inhabited by Jews along with Zhazarians who had converted to Judaism.  

in 1480 finally overthrew the Mongol yoke. The territories of the Grand Duchy of Moscow became the Tsardom of Russia in 1547. In 1721, Tsar Peter the Great renamed his state as the Russian Empire, hoping to associate it with historical and cultural achievements of ancient Rus' – in contrast to his policies oriented towards Western Europe. The state now extended from the eastern borders of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth to the Pacific Ocean. Russia became a great power and dominated Europe after the victory over Napoleon.

By the 15th century, Jewish traders from Lithuania found a Judaizing sect in Novgorod and Moscow in existence.  Their nickname arbitrarily presupposed their adherence to "Judaism", even though most of Skhariya's followers had been ordinary Russians of Russian Orthodox faith and low-ranking Orthodox clergy and had never confessed Judaism. Almost all we know about their religious beliefs is found in accounts left by their accusers. 

The term Zhidovstvuyushchiye (Жидовствующие), as it is known in the sources, is derived from the Russian word жид (zhid, from Judea, an older Russian term for Jew which is now considered pejorative). Zhidovstvuyuschiye may be loosely translated as "those who follow Jewish traditions" or "those who think like Jews". Hegumen Joseph Volotsky, the main critic and persecutor of this thought, considered the founder of this religious movement to be a certain Skhariya (a.k.a. Zakhariya, Skara; Russian: Схария, Захария, Скара).

 According to most accounts though, the Belief of Skhariya renounced the Holy Trinity and the divine status of Jesusmonasticismecclesiastic hierarchy, ceremonies, and immortality of soul. That's renouncing Christianity.   Some adherents also professed iconoclasm. The adherents also promoted the idea of "self-authority", or the self-determination of each individual in matters of faith and salvation. Priests Denis and Aleksei were considered ideologists of this heretical movement.

This sect caused Russia to have a drastic reaction.  In 1563, 300 Jews were drowned at Polotsk and Vitebsk on refusing to accept baptism.  By 1667 , Jews were expelled from Eastern Ukraine upon its annexation to Russia.  Clauses prohibiting Jews from even visiting the country of Russia were inserted in treaties signed by Russia with the foreign powers in 1550 and 1678, while expulsion orders were issued in 1727, 1738, and 1742 to groups of Jews. 

 In 1753, 35,000 Jews were driven out of Russia.  In 1762 and especially 1795, the great Jewish masses of White Russia (later called Belorussia) Republic, the Ukraine, Lithuania and Courland became Russia subjects and, for more than a century, the great majority of the world's Jews were under the reactionary rule of the Czars.  

By 1786,  Jews were to live only in towns, thereby laying the foundation of the PALE OF SETTLEMENT land mass, designated land where Jews were to live, apart from Russia.  Only the Karaites received equality of rights with the Christians, and that was in 1795. 

On the authority of the Derzhavin Report on White Russia, a Council For Jewish Affairs was established in 1802.    The Emperor Alexander II abolished Russian serfdom in 1861, but the peasants fared poorly and revolutionary pressures grew. In the following decades, reform efforts such as the Stolypin reforms of 1906–1914, the constitution of 1906, and the State Duma (1906–1917) attempted to open and liberalize the economy and political system, but the emperor refused to relinquish autocratic rule and resisted sharing his power.  The end of WWI was 1917.  A combination of economic breakdown, war-weariness, and discontent with the autocratic system of government triggered the Russian Revolution in 1917.

 The overthrow of the monarchy initially brought into office a coalition of liberals and moderate socialists, but their failed policies led to seizure of power by the communist Bolsheviks on 25 October 1917 (7 November New Style). In 1922, Soviet Russia, along with Soviet UkraineSoviet Belarus, and the Transcaucasian SFSR signed the Treaty on the Creation of the USSR, officially merging all four republics to form the Soviet Union as a country. Between 1922 and 1991 the history of Russia became essentially the history of the Soviet Union, USSR,  effectively an ideologically based state roughly conterminous with the Russian Empire before the 1918 Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.              

From Sputnik to Spacewalking, they have 7 Soviet Space Firsts; in competition with USA.  

The Soviet space program, founded by Sergey Korolev, was especially successful. On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first satelliteSputnik.[251] On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to travel into space in the Soviet spaceship Vostok 1.[252] Other achievements of Russian space program include: the first photo of the far side of the Moon; exploration of Venus; the first spacewalk by Alexei Leonov; first female spaceflight by Valentina Tereshkova. In 1970 and 1973, the world's first planetary rovers were sent to the moon and successfully worked there: Lunokhod 1 and Lunokhod 2. More recently, the Soviet Union produced the world's first space station, Salyut which in 1986 was replaced by Mir, the first consistently inhabited long-term space station, that served from 1986 to 2001.   


  The Russian-Ukraine Crisis is deterring aliens from making their presence known, says UFO specialist.  Ufologist Nick Pope has said that the Russia-Ukraine crisis is deterring aliens from making their presence known.

During an interview with British tabloid the Daily Star, Pope said “highly evolved extraterrestrials probably regard warfare as something that only primitive civilizations engage in.” 

                                   

Note the 3 Russian Cosmonauts wearing Ukraine colors now, Three Russian cosmonauts have arrived at the International Space Station wearing yellow flight suits with blue accents, colours that match the Ukrainian flag.

The men were the first new arrivals on the space station since the start of the Russian war in Ukraine last month.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergey Korsakov, of Russian space corporation Roscosmos, blasted off successfully from the Russia-leased Baikonur launch facility in Kazakhstan in their Soyuz MS-21 spacecraft on Friday at 8.55pm local time. They smoothly docked at the station just over three hours later, joining two Russians, four Americans and a German on the orbiting outpost.            

Russian President Vladamir Putin referred to territories in east Ukraine as "Novorussia," or "New Russia," and asserted Russia's ties to the area in a televised question-and-answer session on Thursday.  “Can a compromise be found on the Ukrainian question between Russia and America?” Putin asked. “Compromise should only be found in Ukraine. The question is to ensure the rights and interests of the Russian southeast.  Note that the orange southern section is Crimea.  Putin is claiming all of Ukraine and surrounding land as New Russia.  


Resosurce:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

A Social and Religious History of the Jews: High Middle Ages, 500-1200

By Salo Wittmayer Baron

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sect_of_Skhariya_the_Jew

https://www.history.com/news/from-sputnik-to-spacewalking-7-soviet-space-firsts

https://www.wionews.com/science/russia-ukraine-crisis-deterring-aliens-from-making-their-presence-known-says-ufo-specialist-449854

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/19/russian-cosmonauts-board-iss-wearing-colours-of-ukraine-flag

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