Famous travel-blogger of the 18th century Edward Clarke in his bestselling book ‘Travels in Russia, Tartary and Turkey‘ repeated the facts about Muscovy that were known in Europe 250 years ago, namely that: “John Basilovich I [‘Terrible‘] has been considered as one of the founders of the Russian empire; but his accession did not take place till the middle of the fifteenth century. He arose, like Bonaparte, in a period of national dismay, confusion, and calamity; and though described as a man of impetuous vices and violent passions, intrepid, artful, treacherous, and having all the ferocity of a savage, has been hailed as the deliverer of his country, and dignified by the appellation of the Great. It is a title which an oppressed intimidated people have frequently bestowed upon tyrants. Until his time, however, Tartars were lords of Moscow the tsars themselves being obliged to stand in the presence of their ambassadors, while the latter sat at meat, and to endure the most humiliating ceremonies.
Basilovich shook off the Tartar yoke; but it was a long time before the Russians, always children of imitation, ceased to mimic a people by whom they had been conquered. They had neither arts nor opinions of their own: everything in Moscow was Tartarian dress, manners, buildings, equipages in short, all except religion and language. Basilovich, at the conquest of Kasan, was solemnly crowned with the diadem of that kingdom, which is said to be the same now used for the coronation of the Russian sovereigns.
In the reign of his successor, Moscow was again taken by that people [Tatars], and its tsar subjected to an ignominious tribute. Twelve years afterwards, the eldest son of that successor, John Basilovich II, then an infant, but afterwards a ferocious and implacable tyrant, came to the throne…
Peter the Great might cut off the beards of the nobles, and substitute European habits for Asiatic robes, but the inward man is still the same. A Russian of the nineteenth century possesses all the servile propensities, the barbarity of manners, the cruelty, hypocrisy, and profligacy, which characterised his ancestors in the ninth.”
Even Karl Marx whom the Russians almost worshipped saw them in the very same perspective: “The bloody mire of Mongolian slavery, not the rude glory of the Norman epoch, forms the cradle of Muscovy, and modern Russia is but a metamorphosis of Muscovy,” – wrote the German in his “Secret Diplomatic History of the 18th century”.
For 2024 readers, the truth of the statements above can be illustrated by the looks and propensities of the ‘Russian’ ‘opposition’ ‘leader’ Kara-Murza. [Kara – black, –murza – prince in Tartarian].
Should we take a closer look at Putin in view of the facts above? Can any traits of a khan be observed in all of his 25 years of rule?
Why is Muscovy-Russia even worse than the Golden Horde? Because, unlike the Golden Horde which allowed the conquered nations to keep their languages and religion, Muscovy-Russia has been imposing its language and religion everywhere it went.
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‘Gardariki, Ukraine‘ e-book shows how the most backward province of Kyiv Rus became the imposter who still tries to appropriate the legacy of its former master Rus-Ukraine.
