I've always thought that this thread could have great potential because, when the Orient was founded, it was felt that we couldn't really explore Russia as an Oriental culture, and it didn't really fit in with European ancient culture - so there it is, sortof "out there."

Whereas the Russian Experience with the Golden Horde is substantive and open to a lot of interesting inquiry!

So my theory would be twofold: this is one thread we might wish to develop. AND I think it would be interesting to see if we could develop a 'hood' around ancient Russia, both pre-and post-Mongol. Thoughts?