All language subtitles for THE BIRTH OF A NATION. Episode 2. Docudrama. English Subtitles. Russian History. (inglés)

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The Birth of a Nation

How could it happen?

Prince Vladimir of Kiev who has always come as a victor suddenly was defeated.

He had achieved whatever he wanted.

Now he has lost everything.

He took ancient Kherson, an invincible Greek fortress,

and suddenly became blind.

The Stone City by the Warm Sea had his revenge upon his conqueror.

Vladimir recalled – the Greeks,

when they want to disempower someone, blind him.

But who decided to stop the one who couldn't be stopped?

Stupid Kherson's sorcerers weak as women?

Or maybe the Greek God depicted on the cold wall?

It was only one thing left to do - return to the depths of the ages to see

the distant light of hope.

FILM TWO "THE LIGHTNING"

Once the young prince Igor could not cross the river, so he called a boatman

and ordered to carry him to the other side.

Once in the boat, the prince suddenly realized

that his carrier was a young and beautiful girl.

He felt lust.

And he began to speak in a shameless manner.

But the girl said firmly,

why are you shaming yourself, prince, calling me to shameless actions?

It is better for me to jump into the river,

than endure shame and you won’t commit a sin because of me.

Igor astonished and embarrassed by her words remained silent for the rest of the journey.

Igor, the son of Rurik, was proclaimed a Prince of Rus’

when he was only one year old.

While he was growing up, commander of the army Oleg ruled the state.

Igor became a man but was still following Oleg everywhere on marches

from the Drevlians' forests to the Greek sea and obeying him in everything.

The warriors were laughing and calling him Igor the Old Prince.

He was over 30 but remained no more than shadow of the great Oleg the Oracular.

Not a single decision Igor had made by himself.

Even his wife was chosen for him by Oleg, called Oracular for a reason.

Igor reached the full age and had to become a sovereign in Kiev.

Any Prince needs to have a Princess.

Girls from all over the Russian lands were invited to Kiev.

Oleg said - the one who will bring a gift,

but will come without presents will be the bride.

But Igor was thinking about that girl.

He didn't even know her name.

There were many girls: stately Slavs, pretty Varangians, strict and giggly,

with braids like silver, like tar, like rye, like autumn leaves.

No one solved Oleg's riddle.

In the evening one more girl from Pskov was brought,

she was not smiling or playing with her braid shyly.

Her hands were put together in front of her.

She came closer and said:

Here is my gift for you, Prince.

She opened her hands

and a small bird flew away into the skies.

It was that girl.

Igor looked silently into her eyes and couldn't get enough of that look.

At last, he pronounced hoarsely, "What is your name?

'Olga replied the girl."

Now he, Igor Rurikovich, has to rule the huge state

which was totally under the control of power and glory of Oleg the Oracular.

Now Oleg is gone, his power turned to dust

and his glory remains only in songs.

Khazars can't wait to take their lands back.

Riots have started in the Slavic tribes.

The funeral ceremony wasn't even over when the conquered Drevlians revolted.

Should Igor wait for a while and entire Rus' will fall apart

in a few years like an old patch cover.

IGOR

For the first time he led the military campaign.

For the first time he commanded the warriors who used to laugh behind his back and

now obeyed him in everything.

The Prince has to be generous and after the campaign

his warriors received a great booty

from what was robbed from the Drevlians.

The Drevlians’ Prince Mal who hardly escaped Igor's Varangians, was obedient and quiet,

didn't raise his eyes, so that Igor couldn't see hatred in them.

The time will come and Mal will take his revenge.

The long bleak years started, warriors were bored

no wars, no campaigns, no rich trophies.

Only routine and short-distance marches.

The warriors were complaining saying

that The old Prince was not capable of the great deeds.

And if the Prince is not a fighter and the Princess is not fruitful -

then why do we need them?

Igor knew everything about the rumors.

They have lived in harmony for many years with Olga, but they didn't have children.

The hope faded with every year.

Childlessness is a great misfortune and a curse for any man.

The great misfortune for any Prince is to be denied by his army.

The warriors need trophies,

need military campaigns and if their Prince can't provide it -

they have a right to leave for another prince.

Years passed and Kiev started to look like a sleeping kingdom.

The merchants’ ships rarely passed by, Tsar'grad was breaching the agreement

that was forcibly signed by Oleg.

The decision had to be made.

Another Tsar'grad campaign was necessary, following Oleg’s example.

Rus' needed glory, warriors - trophies, and gods – blood.

Igor hoped that if he wins mercy of Gods, they would give him a son.

After the long preparation,

the huge retinue hit the familiar route to Tsar'grad.

The march was slow,

half of army was riding horses and moved along river banks.

The Bulgarians, Byzantium’s allies,

informed Emperor Roman about the Russian campaign.

Constantinople was getting ready for the siege.

As in the past, there was no protection from sea,

the Greek fleet was at war with the Arabs.

The city hardly found 15 old carriers, small transport ships.

But the city had enough time to get ready.

The wildfire awaited the Russian ships.

"The wildfire" is the liquid flame

that Greek sailors used to fill the enemy ships

with using the brass pipe pumps - "siphons".

It was invented in 673 by an engineer called Callinik.

The main components of the wildfire

were burnt lime, sulfur, nitre and crude oil.

Contact with water intensified the burning of the mixture.

The hitting range of the siphons was short

therefore the ships had to come as close to the enemies as possible.

Emperor Roman ordered his shipbuilders,

"Rig the boats we have left, but place the siphons

'not only on the bow but also on the sterns and along the board sides."

And they started to throw the fire.

Russes were jumping overboard preferring to drown,

rather than to be burned alive.

Some, in the heavy armor went straight to the bottom of the sea,

others, though swimming, were all on fire.

When the Russes came back home, they described the wildfire.

As if the Greeks had control over lightning,

they burned us with it, that is why we didn't win.

It was a catastrophe. Only one-tenth of the army survived.

Igor miraculously returned from the Bosporus hell.

No one planned the retreat and on the way home

half of the remaining army was killed by dysentery.

It was a shameful return for Igor.

But horror, pain and shame were not in vain.

Gods were merciful to Igor and a son was born.

He was called after the great Princes Oleg and Rurik,

using the Slavic meanings of their names holy and glorious - Svyatoslav.

Without doubts - he was meantto become great warrior and prince.

But how was he supposed to remember his father?

An old man disgraced by the Constantinople campaign?

No. Igor felt strong enough

to conquer not only the Greeks, but the entire world.

He started to assemble the new retinue for a new campaign.

He hired the new experienced warriors from beyond the sea – Varangians,

famous for their ruthlessness and skill, and the new warriors,

which have never been on campaigns with the Russes, the Petchenegs.

The Greeks called them "panachikity", the Arabs - "bedjnak".

"The Russian name for them is Petchenegs, that comes from "betchenegs"

"the descendants of Betche" - the Turkic speaking nomad tribes,

who by the beginning of the 9th century had moved

from central Asia to the East European Plain.

They were great horseback riders and archers.

They rode, squeezing the horse with their legs,

without using their hands and keeping them free for the arches.

They came from nowhere,

robbed everyone on their way and disappeared.

They were almost untraceable and difficult to catch,

because of their migrations.

By the 10th century the Petchenegs reached

Don, Dnieper, Danube and the Black Sea.

Byzantine towns of the Northern Black Sea region

knew about the cruelty of the Petchenegs.

When the leader of Kherson found out that Igor was planning to attack Tsar'grad

and had the Petchenegs in his army

he sent a letter full of panic to Constantinople.

This time the Emperor Roman decided not to push luck

and not to wait until the barbarians reach the city walls.

"When the Emperor heard this news, he sent to Igor' his best boyars to entreat"

him to come no nearer, but rather to accept the tribute which Oleg had received,

and to the amount of which something should even be added.

Igor called together his retinue and they replied,

If the Emperor speaks thus,

what do we desire beyond receiving gold, silver,

and palls without having to fight for them?

Who knows who will be victorious, we or he?

Who has the sea for his ally?

For we are not marching by land, but through the depths of the sea.

Death lies in wait for us all.

The retinue did not believe in military luck of their Prince anymore.

And the Greek presents left next to their camp looked tempting.

The Prince agreed with his warriors

and decided to sign the peace treaty with the Greeks.

He gave all the presents to his retinue

and let the Petchenegs to leave for the Bulgarian lands.

Igor came back home to his wife and son as a winner.

The autumn was coming and Igor as always went to the vassal tribes

in order to collect the tributes.

The senior retinue was escorting him.

The junior retinue was headed by commander of the army Sveneld.

The last tribe on their way was the tribe of the Drevlians.

These lands were conquered 30 years ago,

that war was well remembered

and the retinue behaved in the most ruthless way.

At the end of the march Igor's warriors were still not pleased with the results.

Igor's retinue said to him,

"The servants of Sveinald are adorned

'with weapons and fine raiment, but we are naked.

'Go forth with us, oh Prince, after tribute, that both you and we may profit thereby."

Igor heeded their words, and he returned with a small part of his retinue

to take more tribute.

The Drevlians heard that he was again approaching,

and consulted with Mal, their prince, saying,

"If a wolf come among the sheep, he will take out the whole flock one by one,

'unless he be killed.

'If we do not thus kill him now, he will destroy us all."

The Drevlians came forth from the city of Iskorosten' and slew Igor.

They captured him, bent to the trees and tore in two.

The Drevlians sent their legates to Kiev.

The offer seemed to be a mockery.

After murdering Igor’ they wanted to take the widowed Olga as a wife for their Mal.

It was hardly an offer - it was a demand.

Since Mal won and slaughtered Igor -

everything that belonged to him, including his wife and children,

could be taken by Mal.

It was the tradition; it had been like that for ages.

When 20 best Drevlians men came to Kiev to ask Olga marry Mal,

the retinue was ready to fight for her if she wished to.

But Olga only asked to dig a deep trench in her yard.

Long time ago, after solving a riddle she became the Prince's wife.

Now it is her turn to ask riddles.

OLGA

Olga made this reply,

"I desire to honor you tomorrow in the presence of my people.

'Return now to your boat, and remain there.

'I shall send for you on the morrow, and you shall say,

'We will not ride on horses nor go on foot; carry us in our boat.

'And you shall be carried in your boat."

According to Varangian tradition,

the man lied down in a boat only at his funeral.

But the Drevlians’ legates didn’t know this.

"So they carried Drevlians in their boat dropped them into trench along with boat.

'Olga bent over and inquired whether they found the honor to their taste.

'They answered that it was worse than the death of Igor'.

'She then commanded that they should be buried alive,

'and they were thus buried."

The moans of those buried alive could be heard in the yard for some time.

Olga then sent a message to the Drevlians saying that,

"if they really required her presence,

'they should send after her their distinguished men,

'so that she might go to their Prince with due honor,

'for otherwise her people in Kiev would not let her go."

When the Derevlians arrived, Olga commanded that a bath should be made ready,

and invited them to appear before her after they had bathed.

The bathhouse was then heated, and the Drevlians entered in to bathe.

Olga's men closed up the bathhouse behind them,

and she gave orders to set it on fire from the doors,

so that the Drevlians were all burned to death.

The soot was still in the air,

when Olga told the warriors to get ready for a campaign.

Olga then sent to the Drevlians the following message,

"I am now coming to you,

'so prepare great quantities of mead in the city

'where you killed my husband,

'that I may weep over his grave and hold a funeral feast for him."

Funeral feasts assumed sacrifice of the animals,

but Olga intended to use the Derevlians instead.

"When the Drevlians were drunk, she bade her followers fall upon them.

'So they cut down five thousand of them;

'but Olga returned to Kiev

'and prepared an army to attack the survivors."

Svyatoslav became a Prince after Igor's death.

According to the tradition the Prince had to start fight by throwing the spear.

But Sviatoslav was younger than three.

His father didn’t teach him to ride a horse.

The voivode brought him the horse.

His mother put armor on him.

Little Sviatoslav was too weak to hold the heavy spear.

So he dropped it, and the spear fell in front of his horse.

But he kept the tradition.

And voivode roared,

"The prince has already begun battle; press on, vassals, after the prince."

The battle was short,

because the Drevlians fled, and shut themselves up in their cities.

By the end of summer Olga

was unsuccessfully trying to take Iskorosten’.

The Derevlians were desperately defending the city.

The rains were about to start.

They had to leave.

But she couldn't leave without victory.

On the last night of summer, when lightning frequently lit up the sky

so-called sparrow night, she devised a plan.

Olga promised to stop the siege

after receiving a small tribute of three pigeons

and three sparrows from each house.

The Drevlian land will remember this tribute for a long time, forever.

Now Olga gave to each soldier in her army a pigeon or a sparrow,

and ordered them to attach by a thread to each pigeon

and sparrow a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth.

When night fell, Olga bade her soldiers release the pigeons and the sparrows.

So the birds flew to their nests,

the pigeons to the cotes, and the sparrows under the eaves.

Thus the dove-cotes, the coops, the porches, and the haymows were set on fire.

There was not a house that was not consumed,

and it was impossible to extinguish the flames,

because all the houses caught fire at once.

Iskorosten' was never restored.

Kiev became the only capital of the united lands of the Slavs.

Olga together with the retinue went to Novgorod,

counting villages and cities, checking the harrisons,

and establishing new laws and tributes on the lands she passed.

Olga separated lands on districts pogosts, established trading posts

and fixed the amounts of tributes.

Pogosts received their name from the inns "pogostyes",

where the Prince and his retinue came to stay,

and where the tributes had to be taken.

It was the first executive tax reform in the Russian history.

The tax-districts, as Olga established them,

existed for 800 years and were cancelled in 1775.

The term "trading posts" pogosts was used for a long time

to describe a big village with a church and a cemetery.

Revenge was in Olga's heart.

But there was no one left to exact it on.

The servants were terribly scared of her,

the old experienced warriors lowered their eyes in her presence.

She was traveling around her lands, inspecting cities,

she gave orders, judged, punished and traveled again.

She spent days in a saddle.

The physical pain calmed down the fire inside her.

She had never seen people like that before.

In the eyes of this stranger dressed in black

there was no fear, no pity, no servility.

There was something else which she couldn't understand.

It felt as if she looked at some other world without pain,

without hatred and even without death.

She started to visit the Greek courtyard by the church of St. Ilya from time to time.

Presbyteral elder George was from Bulgaria, he spoke quite fluent Slavic.

Sometimes he opened a book that was translated from the Greek

by the monk Kirill.

And he read.

"You have heard that it was said,

'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

'But I say to you, love your enemies, bless the ones who curse you,

'be kind to those who hate you, and pray for those who hurt you and persecute you."

Wild, mad and impossible words.

All her essence was repelling.

She could not understand what kind of God allowed to crucify himself

and instead of punishing his executors prayed for them?

How could God die?

"God can do anything", George replied.

There was a strange pain in her chest

as if her heart buried in ashes was coming back to life.

The priest never asked her for anything,

but he had all the answers – sometimes he answered her before she asked.

"Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him?

'As many as seven times?" Jesus answered,

"I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times."

Years passed, she was getting old.

Svyatoslav grew up and Olga worried seeing that being a ruler bores him.

He liked weapons, horses, armor, fights.

The Prince has to be a ruler and only after that a warrior.

Olga knew what happens when the retinue has a big influence.

A few more years and Svyatoslav will become a sovereign and what is next?

Endless campaigns will weaken the state.

Olga was analyzing other countries’ history.

What is holding the Roman Empire together?

Why is this huge country not falling apart?

George had an answer for that as well.

Jesus answered them: "I am the bread of life.

'No one who comes to me will ever hunger;"

'no one who believes in me will ever thirst.

'I shall raise that person up on the last day."

The Prince's fleet was following the habitual route

"from the Varangians to the Greeks".

Only a few ships and warriors, to defend against attack.

It was not a military campaign, Olga was not interested in booty.

She was heading to the heart of Empire to obtain the source of its life.

The warriors were worried, but no one dared to ask the princess

about the aim of the trip.

She never spoke to anyone apart from a strange man dressed in black –

Presbyteral elder George from the Greek "courtyard."

For the first time in history

the leader of Rus' came to Constantinople with peace.

The Greeks thought that Olga wanted to reconsider conditions of the agreement

signed by Igor.

Her ships were kept next to the"Golden Horn" creek for a while.

The reception was organized on a highest possible level.

It took place in Magnaura - the ceremony hall

for the most important foreign leaders.

After the reception to Olga's companions’ astonishment it was announced

that on the eve of Elevation of the Life-Creating Cross holiday

in St. Sophia's Cathedral the princess of the Rus' will be baptized

by the patriarch of Constantinople and according to her own will.

After the ceremony she will bear the Christian name - Helena.

Olga, was absorbing the glory

of the holy books as a sponge absorbs dew.

She was crying the tears of happiness,

her tears fell to the ground and she knelt before patriarch

and said, "May your healing advice

'save me from the devil's deeds

'and may the God's mercy never leave me."

Do you deny the devil and all his deed and services and pride?

I do - Do you accept Christ?

I do - Do you trust in him?

I do as in Tsar and Lord – Servant of God Helena, in nomine Patris.

Amen...et Filii...Amen...et Spiritus Sancti.

Amen... always, now and forever. Amen

Before leaving home she went to Patriarch to request his benediction

for the homeward journey, and said to him,

"My people and my son are heathen.

'May God protect me from all evil!"

The Patriarch replied,

"Child of the faith, hast been baptized into Christ and hast put on Christ.

'Christ shall therefore save thee".

So the Patriarch blessed her,

and she returned in peace to her country, and arrived in Kiev.

Next Olga decided to baptize her land.

But for that she needed books, churches and people - priests and bishops.

Patriarch did not supply her with anything apart from his blessing.

She had to hurry, as it was a matter of months

before 16-year-old Svyatoslav becomes a sovereign.

He didn’t like Christians.

Olga couldn't wait for help from the Roman Empire forever.

And she sent her legates to the West, to the land of the Francs.

Otto I's state was called Francia Orientalis and was the mightiest of all states.

After a few years it will become the Holy Roman Empire -

the main protector of the European Christendom.

Western and Eastern Christendoms, Rome and Constantinople,

by the mid 10th century had disagreements only on the political arena.

The church was one -

the Global Apostles Catholic Church of Christ.

Olga, by turning to the West was only planning

to change the church jurisdiction

but not the faith.

After 100 years the Great split-off will divide

it into the Roman-Catholic and Orthodox churches.

If Rus' was baptized by the Pope, history would have taken a different path.

In 962 Rus' was one step away from becoming

a distant suburb of the Latin World.

The bishop came back from Kiev without any success

and being sure of the futility of his efforts.

Some of his companions were killed and he hardly managed to escape.

Olga was late – Svyatoslav Igorevish became the sovereign.

And he didn't wish to have any missioners in his capital.

He was confident that in case of being baptized

he was going to lose his peoples' respect.

Because every warrior would despise those, whose God was born in a barn

and died in a disgraceful way next to the criminals.

Svyatoslav didn't need a God like that.

He needed power and glory.

SVYATOSLAV

Svyatoslav has two children already

and the third one is about to be born from a bond-maid called Malusha.

Now Olga she urged him to be baptized,

but he would not listen to her suggestion.

"My son, I have learned to know God, and am glad for it.

'If you know him, you too will rejoice."

But he did not heed her exhortation, answering,

"How shall I alone accept another faith?

'My followers will laugh at that."

But his mother replied,

"If you are converted, all your subjects will perforce follow your example".

It’s a boy!

He named his third son - Vladimir - "the great sovereign ".

He was sure that he won in the dispute with his mother.

And a birth of his son proved that he was right.

Svyatoslav did not heed his mother, but followed heathen usages.

But not with standing, Olga loved her son Svyatoslav,

and said, "So be the will of God".

If God wishes to have pity upon my kin and upon the land of Rus',

let him lead my son heart to return to God, even as God has granted me to do.

With these words, she kept saying prayers for her son

and for her people day and night.

Svyatoslav was getting ready for a big military campaign.

He did not even listen to his mother.

He was a grown up.

It will be his first campaign.

She can only pray for him to survive.

He will be back, but only to leave again.

964 AD - Vyatichi campaign.

Svyatoslav defeated and annexed them to the state of Rus’.

It was the last Eastern Slavic tribe that had never been under the Kiev reign.

965 AD Svyatoslav sallied forth against the Khazars.

After a few battles the Khazar Khaganate ceased existing.

966 a.d. Svyatoslav marched to attack the Bulgarians on Volga

and fought in the mid and lower Volga Regions.

968 AD Svyatoslav marched to the Danube to attack the Bulgarians.

According to the chronicle, Svyatoslav captured 80 Bulgarian towns.

After Svyatoslav defeated the Bulgarians, he took up his residence in Pereyaslavets,

located in the mouth of the Danube.

He liked it there and even started to think that the capital should be moved

from the Dnieper to Danube.

Then he would go further.

He was fast as a leopard, he fought in many battles.

Upon his expeditions he carried with him neither wagons nor kettles,

and boiled no meat,

but cut off small strips of horseflesh and ate it after roasting it on the coals.

Nor did he have a tent, but he spread out a horse-blanket under him,

and set his saddle under his head; and all his retinue did likewise.

He sent messengers to the other lands announcing his intention to attack them.

By some miracle, a courier from Kiev managed to reach him and brought a letter.

The letter contained incredibly bitter words.

"Oh Prince, you visit and frequent foreign lands.

But while you neglect your own country,

the Pechenegs have all but taken us captive,

along with your mother and your children as well.

Unless you return to protect us, they will attack us again,

if you have no pity on your native land,

on your mother in her old age, and on your children.

For many decades hadn’t Kiev seen nomads at its walls.

Wars were underway far away from the city, in the Steppe.

Khazars used to hold the Pechenegs attacks, but Svyatoslav destroyed that shield.

When he started his Danube campaign he couldn't even think

that someone would dare to attack his capital.

The city was helpless.

Only the junior retinue remained in town.

The wild Pechenegs’ crowd near the walls of Kiev was horrifying.

After a few weeks of the siege the hunger started.

If not for Olga, the gates would had been opened.

But she managed to prevent the panic and didn't allow the citizens to surrender.

They were waiting for Svyatoslav to come back.

Every day lasted longer than eternity.

But one day they saw panic in the Pechenegs' camp

and understood - Svyatoslav was close.

The army marched without rest, eating and sleeping on the way.

Prince sent the retinue after the Pechenegs' and entered the city.

People were crying while welcoming him back.

His family came towards him.

But there was not a sign of Olga.

For the first time his mother was not welcoming him.

When he entered her room he got scared.

There was an old woman dressed

in the princess’s clothes was sitting on the throne.

The siege of Kiev and worries about grandchildren emptied her.

She was only afraid that shemight not live till her son return.

But she did.

Like in his childhood he sat by her and put his head on her knees.

The princess realized that she was crying for the first time since Svyatoslav's birth.

"I’m home".

Svyatoslav announced to his mother, "I do not care to remain in Kiev,

'but should prefer to live in Pereyaslavets on the Danube,

'since that is the centre of my realm,

'where all riches are concentrated".

She begged him first to bury her and then to go wheresoever he would.

Three days later Olga died.

Her son wept for her with great mourning,

as did likewise her grandsons and all the people.

They thus carried her out,

and buried her on the place she had chosen in advance.

Olga had given command not to hold a funeral feast for her,

for she had a priest

who performed last rites over the sainted Princess.

The tiny St. Ilya's church could only fit the closest relatives.

Men were with their weapons,

but the swords didn't leave their sheath at this unusual funeral.

Bulgarian priest was saying something in a singing voice.

The words were familiar but their meaning was unknown.

Everyone tried not to look at her.

Everyone tried not to think about the fact that she had to be buried in the ground.

Her son cried sobless for the first and last time in his life.

One of the grandchildren was looking at the candle

during the entire ceremony.

He looked at it until the black out.

And then he looked up on the icon of "Pantokrator".

30 years after Olga's death her grandson,

Prince Vladimir ordered to remove her remains

to the Virgin Mary's Church.

After the tomb was opened – it was found

that her body was incorruptible Olga's remains will become

the first incorruptible relics in Russia.

In 16th century Olga was canonized as equal to the apostles as Maria Magdalena,

Nina of Georgia and Greek Empress Helena, whose name Olga took when baptized.

Olga was the precursor of the Christian land,

even as the day-spring precedes the sun.

She was the first from Rus' to enter the kingdom of God,

and the sons of Rus' thus praise her as their leader,

for since her death she has interceded with God in their behalf.