Notes on Russian history

The Russian statehood and culture was formed in the most difficult conditions. By calculations of the Russian historian V.O. Klyuchevsky, Russia for 234 years (1228-1462) has rendered 160 external wars. In the XVI century Russia was at war against the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Livonian Order and Sweden for 43 years, not for a year without interrupting the struggle against the Tatar Mongols. In XVII century Russia fought for 48 years, in XVIII century - 56 years. In general, for Russia the state of the world was rather an exception, and war was a cruel rule. Put by fate on the border of two continents, Russia covered Europe as a shield from the invasion of wild Tatar-Mongol hordes and in gratitude from it received blows in the back. Defending or attacking, Russia as a whole was waging fair and inevitable wars at that time: it had no other choice. If the country wanted to live and develop, it had to prove its right to life and development to its neighbors with a blade over the course of five centuries.