Kyivan Rus laid the cultural foundations for Eastern Europe

The origins of Ukrainian identity are a matter of historical debate

Scholars disagree on when a distinct Ukrainian identity emerged. Some trace it to Kyivan Rus, a medieval East Slavic state centered in Kyiv, while others argue that Ukrainian nationhood developed much later, shaped by centuries of foreign rule and cultural revival movements.

Prehistoric to present day Ukraine

Recognizing the abundance of information available on the current war between Ukraine and Russia, this video focuses on the history of the region. Encapsulating Ukraine's background, the viewer will gain a better grasp of how the modern state arose from a quilt of different ethnicities, noteworthy conflicts between various groups, and more.

Ukraine came under Russian imperial rule in the late 18th century

After centuries of division among neighboring powers, most of present-day Ukraine was absorbed into the Russian Empire by the late 1700s, marking the beginning of a long period of imperial control and cultural suppression.

Mapping Russia's historical borders

This interactive map illustrates how the country’s borders have changed over the centuries, dating all the way back to the year 862, when the Varangian king Rurik assumed leadership of Ancient Rus. Scroll down to see how Russia vastly expanded its territory in the 16th and 17th centuries, and skip to 1991 to see which countries gained independence after the fall of the USSR.

Language and region are fault lines in Ukraine's conflict

Ukraine's east and south—largely Russian-speaking—differ from the Ukrainian-speaking west and center. These geographic, linguistic, and cultural divides have become fault lines exploited by political and military conflict since 2014.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24, 2022

Russia launched a massive multifront assault from Belarus, Russia, and Crimea, aiming to seize Kyiv within days. Instead, Ukrainian forces repelled the advance, halting Moscow's plans for a rapid takeover.

Ukraine's pro-Russian President halted an EU deal in 2013, leading to a mass protest movement

In late 2013, President Viktor Yanukovych suspended preparations for a long-negotiated EU association agreement under Russian pressure, signaling a return to Moscow's influence and sparking mass Euromaidan protests across Ukraine.

Soviet control spread across Eastern Europe after WWII

In the late 1940s, the USSR solidified control over Eastern Europe by installing pro-communist regimes in countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania—often through rigged elections and political repression.

Hear how Putin's Soviet childhood shaped his rule

In this podcast, journalist Julia Ioffe traces Putin's worldview to his "dvor"—the rough Soviet courtyards where he learned power, loyalty, and survival. The series shows how these early lessons shape his war in Ukraine.

Why did this prehistoric culture regularly burn their homes?

This article explores why the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture may have regularly burned their homes. The Cucuteni-Trypillia culture is the oldest known in Europe, dating back to about 5,500 BCE in present-day Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. The...

The Etruscans laid the foundations for Roman civilization

When we put aside the myths and legends about Rome's founding, one group takes center stage: the Etruscans. This now-vanished, Greek-like culture laid the foundations of Rome's alphabet, art, and more. Etruscan culture dominated northern Italy in the centuries before the Roman Republic.

Viking raids spread Scandinavian culture far beyond northern Europe

Between roughly 800 and 1200 CE, seafaring Vikings from Scandinavia combined skilled craftsmanship with violent coastal raids. Their expeditions extended cultural influence from the British Isles to Northern Africa, reshaping medieval trade, warfare, and settlement patterns.

The Russian Revolution toppled the tsar and brought the Bolsheviks to power

In 1917, mass unrest, war exhaustion, and economic collapse overthrew the Romanov monarchy, enabling the Bolsheviks to seize control. The revolution dismantled imperial Russia and set the foundation for the creation of the Soviet Union.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

Stalin's policies intentionally caused a devastating famine in Ukraine

The Holodomor of 1932-33 was a human-made famine resulting from Stalin's grain requisition policies, killing an estimated 3 million to 4 million Ukrainians—considered by many to be an act of genocide.

The Silk Road was an ancient series of trade routes between East Asia and Europe

Founded by the Han Chinese in 130 BCE, the Silk Road was a series of trade routes connecting eastern China with the Mediterranean and the rest of Europe. The Persians created a predecessor series of routes, but the Chinese solidified the Silk Road, where travelers traded commerce, ideas, and more.

The western Roman Empire fell in the 5th century CE amid invasions, weakness

A mix of over-expansion, political instability, a weak military and economy, and the broad invasion of the Eurasian Huns prompted the downfall. Its eastern half, the Byzantine Empire, would last for another millennium.

A prisoner at the haunted Corvin Castle in Romania helped inspire Dracula

The dungeon in Corvin Castle has hosted numerous ill-fated prisoners and many unsettling occurrences. One of its most famous former residents is the cruel ruler Vlad III, the inspiration for the character of Dracula. Listen to the eerie tales of the dungeon where psychological torture and extreme violence took place.

...and allowed newly arrived European immigrants to maintain their cultures

19th-century public schools often included Protestant spiritual instruction, something that was disturbing for Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, and elsewhere, who found homes in neighborhood “parochial” schools.

The Iroquois Confederacy's political structure may have shaped the US Constitution

Centuries before the US existed, six Indigenous nations—the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora—united under a shared constitution known as the Great Law of Peace. Some historians argue that the framework of federalism and representative councils influenced the American founders.

Georgian wine and the qvevri method

What do we know about early viticulture? The earliest evidence of winemaking comes from the country of Georgia. More than 8,000 years ago, people began fermenting grapes in clay vessels called qvevri (pronounced kway-vree). Join Master of Wine Konstantin Baum for a video diving into the origins of winemaking in Georgia, exploring how that country's unique mix of climates and cultures made it the perfect place for wine to flourish.

The mosaics of San Vitale, Italy's Byzantine city

This video explores the unique artistic heritage of Ravenna, the center of Byzantine power in Italy. The city’s churches and baptistries still sparkle with a dazzling array of Byzantine mosaics. The most famous of these, in the Church of San Vitale, show Justinian and his wife Theodora with their courtiers. A visit to Ravenna – or at least a look at this video – is highly recommended to anyone interested in Byzantine history or art.

Enlightenment ideals of reason informed the foundation of the Revolution

From the 17th to 19th centuries, an intellectual movement took place in Europe and its colonies that emphasized reason over authority. Following the Scientific Revolution, thinkers like Descartes, Kant, and Locke sought to explain the world in rational—rather than religious—terms. The movement caused a paradigm shift in how societies are organized and how people perceive themselves.

Feudal landholding organized medieval Europe’s economy without relying on slavery

From the 10th to 13th centuries, Europe’s agricultural system relied on localized hierarchies. Lords granted land to knights for defense, who in turn mainly oversaw free peasants paying rents in labor, goods, or money rather than living under slavery.

Practices and beliefs from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism influenced yoga

Yoga scholars Mark Singleton and James Mallinson’s study, “Roots of Yoga,” collects over 100 core texts on the subject. They found that many different ethnicities and religions practiced yoga in antiquity; Singleton says that the practice was a “floating technology between various religious systems.”

Inside Vitalik Buterin’s trip to Russia

A Vice reporter heads to Russia, where he documents Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin’s time there. Buterin, then 23, attends events in the country to raise awareness about Ethereum and its potential to pave the way for a new financial future. At the same time, Vice notes that Russia’s interest in crypto could stem from its potential to allow the country to evade international sanctions. Watch the full video here.

Volcanic activity may have triggered the Black Death by spewing gases that led to crop failures in Europe, thus forcing the import of grain ships with plague-infested fleas.

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Ebola species have historically been named after where they were discovered, stigmatizing residents who live there, including Bundibugyo, in Uganda.

The Brothers Grimm were lawyers before they were storytellers, and became interested in fairy tales as they began investigating how rules and customs had been passed down through cultures.

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.