Before the Romanovs were emperors of a vast continental empire, they were merchants, dealing in furs, wax, and honey along the Silk Road. In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the family's commercial roots from Novgorod and the Hanseatic League to the Muscovy Company's search for a northeast passage, and then leap to the nineteenth-century Great Game, where Russian tea caravans and British spies collided in Central Asia. They explore how the tsars turned trade routes into instruments of state power, from the Siberian fur rush to the Trans-Siberian Railway, and how the quest for tea, silk, and prestige shaped the very borders of Russia. Along the way, they meet Afanasy Nikitin, the first Russian to reach India, and consider the contested legacy of figures like Nikolai Przhevalsky. A story of commerce, empire, and the accidental collisions of global ambition.
#Romanovs #SilkRoad #GreatGame #RussianHistory #TradeHistory #TeaTrade #FurTrade #Novgorod #HanseaticLeague #MuscovyCompany #AfanasyNikitin #NikolaiPrzhevalsky #TransSiberianRailway #CentralAsia #ImperialRussia #FexingoHistory #History #EasternEurope
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