The ENTIRE History of Russia in 13 Minutes

The entire history of Russia: the biggest country on Earth, locked in by ice. This Russian history documentary covers the Romanovs, the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union (USSR), and Russia today. Russia is nearly twice the size of the United States, yet most of its coast is frozen for months, and its other seas exit through straits held by others. In 1904, its fleet had to sail 18,000 nautical miles to fight Japan, and on the way it fired on English fishing boats. This documentary follows the complete history of Russia: the Mal'ta boy of Lake Baikal, the Mongol sack of Kyiv, Ivan the Terrible, the exiled bell of Uglich, the Romanovs, Peter the Great, the Battle of Tsushima, the cruiser Aurora and the Russian Revolution, the Gulag, the Siege of Leningrad, the collapse of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin, the war in Ukraine, the Batagaika crater, and the thawing Arctic. For a thousand years, no rival held Russia in for good. Only the ice did. Now the ice is letting go: Verkhoyansk has hit 100°F, a crater locals call the gateway to the underworld keeps growing, and the permafrost under nearly two-thirds of the country is thawing. This Russia documentary is built on peer-reviewed research, primary sources and current reporting. War, economy and election figures are as of late September 2026. SOURCES Li, M. et al. (2021), "Nickel isotopes link Siberian Traps aerosol particles to the end-Permian mass extinction," Nature Communications Bloomberg — Nornickel taps AI to seek new demand for its palladium (March 2026) Raghavan, M. et al. (2014), "Upper Palaeolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans," Nature Ibn Fadlan, Mission to the Volga, trans. J. E. Montgomery (NYU Press, 2017) Cross, S. H. and Sherbowitz-Wetzor, O. P. (trans.), The Russian Primary Chronicle: Laurentian Text Encyclopaedia Britannica — History of Russia de Madariaga, I. (2005), Ivan the Terrible: First Tsar of Russia, Yale University Press Russia Beyond — How Russians executed bells Dunning, C. S. L. (2001), Russia's First Civil War: The Time of Troubles and the Founding of the Romanov Dynasty, Penn State University Press Encyclopedia of Russian History — Moskvitin, Ivan Yurievich Resis, A. (1985), "Russophobia and the 'Testament' of Peter the Great, 1812-1980," Slavic Review Bozkurt, A. (2021), "Passage of the Black Sea Volunteer Fleet Through the Turkish Straits During the Russo-Japanese War (1904)," Asia Minor Studies Pleshakov, C. (2002), The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Journey to the Battle of Tsushima, Basic Books Naval Sea Systems Command — The Treaty of Portsmouth The Nobel Prize — Theodore Roosevelt, Facts (1906) Encyclopaedia Britannica — Aurora (Russian ship) Encyclopaedia Britannica — Constantinople Agreement Applebaum, A. (2003), Gulag: A History, Doubleday Wheatcroft, S. (1999), "Victims of Stalinism and the Soviet Secret Police: The Comparability and Reliability of the Archival Data - Not the Last Word," Europe-Asia Studies Ertz, S. (2003), "Building Norilsk," in The Economics of Forced Labor: The Soviet Gulag, Hoover Institution Press Encyclopaedia Britannica — Siege of Leningrad Nautilus — The Botanist Who Defied Stalin NASA — Dawn of the Space Age Hoffman, D. (1999), "I Had a Funny Feeling in My Gut," The Washington Post National Security Archive — Memorandum of Telephone Conversation, Bush-Yeltsin, December 8, 1991 Russia Matters, Belfer Center — The Russia-Ukraine War Report Card, Sept. 30, 2026 Mediazona — Russian losses in the war with Ukraine, Mediazona count (September 2026) Naval News — Russia's massive Black Sea problem is worse than it looks (April 2026) The Moscow Times — Russian Regions Slowly Reimpose Fuel Purchase Limits Amid Ongoing Refinery Attacks (September 2026) The Moscow Times — United Russia Wins Record State Duma Majority in Elections Dubbed as the Most Uncompetitive in Modern History (September 2026) World Meteorological Organization — WMO recognizes new Arctic temperature record of 38°C (2021) Guinness World Records — Greatest temperature range on Earth Rantanen, M. et al. (2022), "The Arctic has warmed nearly four times faster than the globe since 1979," Communications Earth & Environment Streletskiy, D. A. et al. (2019), "Assessment of climate change impacts on buildings, structures and infrastructure in the Russian regions on permafrost," Environmental Research Letters Reuters — World's biggest permafrost crater in Russia's Far East thaws as planet warms (July 2023) Live Science — Siberia's 'gateway to the underworld' is growing by 35 million cubic feet per year, study finds (May 2024) Centre for High North Logistics — Main Results of NSR Transit Navigation in 2025 #HistoryOfRussia #RussianHistory #Russia #History #Documentary #HistoryDocumentary #WorldHistory #SovietUnion #USSR #RussianRevolution #Romanov #Siberia #ColdWar #BattleOfTsushima #Permafrost