Russians live in a country where there are no clear and unambiguous answers to the simplest questions. To say how old Russia is, you need to randomly choose one of the many options or ask a lot of clarifying questions.
There is no other country in the world that has started from scratch several times in its history, either completely denying its past or returning to its roots again. It is customary for Russia to be a young country with a thousand-year history.
Reference point
Through the efforts of famous historians of the past N.M. Karamzin - author of 12 volumes of “History of the Russian State”, S.M. Soloviev, who wrote "History of Russia since ancient times," V.O. Klyuchevsky and many others, as well as thanks to more recent research and the work of modern scholars, several points have been identified from where the course of Russian history can be counted. Often these are sharp boundaries between state entities, which have very little similarity between themselves. Moreover, the understanding of Russian history as a continuous process lasting a thousand years seems natural.
The choice of the origin often depends in our country on philosophical or ideological convictions. Its own scale for measuring historical time, its own answer to the question of how old Russia is, a Westerner and a Slavophile, a conservative and progressive, a communist and a liberal, etc. We can assume several possible answers about the age of our state, and for each one we will find staunch supporters and no less violent opponents.
Prehistoric times
The earliest traces of primitive man were found in Russia in the Caucasus and the Kuban. Paleoanthropologists determine the beginning of the settlement of our territory with the first hominids 2 million years ago. The fully formed biological species Homo sapiens appeared in our region about 45 thousand years ago. Fortunately, there are no people who want to start the countdown of Russian identity from blond Neanderthals with blue eyes.
But the time of the appearance on the European part of today's Russia of individual Slavic tribes (around the 5th century BC) is considered by some to be quite suitable for the beginning of Russian history. Among such tribal associations with poetic names: Slovenia, Krivichi, Meria, Chud, etc., they are trying to choose one or more around which a future power will form, the particularly attractively consonant name of the Russian tribe, or Rusich.
Some say that the first Russian state formation is about as old as the cities of Russia from among the most ancient: Novgorod became the residence of Rurik and was already Great.
Nevertheless, the first logically valid reference point will appear later.
Vocation of the Varangians (882) - 1134
It is this time stamp that is considered the earliest for a more or less correct answer to the question of how many years Russia has existed. According to ancient chronicles, several Slavic, Baltic and Finno-Ugric clans sent their representatives to the warlike tribe of the Varangians with a request to single out a ruler from their ranks who could lead such an tribal alliance and turn it into a single state. Such a man was the legendary Varangian prince Rurik - the founder of the first ruling dynasty in Russia.
His successors annexed to their possessions, located around Novgorod and in the Upper Volga region, the territory of the southern Slavs with the capital in Kiev. It is believed that this ended the formation of the first Old Russian state. It happened in 882.
The peak of this formation can be considered the reign of Vladimir Svyatoslavich, during which Orthodoxy was adopted (988) and Yaroslav the Wise, who introduced the first set of laws - Russian Truth (1016). Russia acquired more and more signs of a single state.
But as a result of the princely civil strife, these signs were lost, as a result of which Russia fell into several destinies, and then completely lost its independence, becoming a victim of the Golden Horde.
Tsar Ivan IV the Terrible (1547) - 469 years
When Ivan the Terrible adopted the title of Tsar of All Russia, it became clear that a new Russian state with a new center, Moscow, appeared on the world map. It is very different from the previous education in size, in military and political power, in the strength of international influence and in the monolithic management system. The word "Russia" has become more often used to denote a country.
This was followed by another crisis of statehood, expressed in the calamities of the Time of Troubles and another almost complete loss of independence, this time in favor of Poland. A new revival of Russia began with the accession of the Romanov dynasty (1613) and ended in the era of Peter the Great.
Russian Empire (1721) - 295 years
After the end of the Northern War, Tsar Peter the Great assumed the title of the first Emperor of the All-Russian and Father of the Fatherland. A new page in the history of Russia began, a new state was formally formed . The time elapsed since then is another answer to the question of how old the country of Russia is. This is the official name received by a huge empire.
The history of the Russian autocracy ended in February 1917, after which for how many months an unprecedented form of government came in - the parliamentary republic. They tried to make it the official predecessor of modern Russia: formally, the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks was illegitimate, but it looked too insignificant in the shadow of the advancing Soviet Union.
State of the new type of the USSR (1922) - 94 years
The Communist Party at first sharply dissociated itself from the past, not thinking how old Russia was, declaring the Soviet state an unprecedented formation. True, this did not stop ideologists from searching in Russian history for inspiring examples of the heroism of the people, which was often in demand throughout almost the entire Soviet history.
And among the current Russian politicians there are many who see the ideal state form in the USSR, pointing their finger at its achievements and seeing the main reason for its collapse in evil foreign intrigues.
Russian Federation (1991) - 25 years
How old is Russia? Today's Russian state, if it feels isolated from past history, will temporarily be a small child who is pulled into a calm, reliable past, then into a bright progressive future, then into a radiant freedom, then into a great empire. The main thing is not to be torn.