u/FunDelicious650

According to mainstream history, there was first Kievan Rus', then a series of principalities, then the Russian Tsardom, and finally the Russian Empire from 1721 to 1917. I would challenge this. Russia as a state emerged in the mid-19th century. This period is known as the reforms of Alexander II.

I'll go through the list from Wikipedia:

Abolition of serfdom (1861)

Financial reform (1863) - creation of the Central Bank and banking system

Higher education reform (1863)

Zemsky reform (1864)

Judicial reform (1864)

Censorship reform (1865)

Municipal self-government reform (1870)

Secondary education reform (1871)

Military reform (1874)

These reforms were in fact the launch of a new state. When a new state emerges, a raft of decrees must be passed throughout the country, establishing a system of governance. The best way to cover this up is to pass it off as reforms—that is, transformation, correction.

Another important fact is that the black, yellow, and white national flag of Russia was only adopted in 1858. Before that, Russia had no official national flag, which directly indicates the absence of a state as such.

People living in the mid-19th century lived 50 years later in a completely different world: telephones, telegraphs, trains, the first cars, and an industrial boom. People living in the mid-20th century saw a different world: airships and airplanes, ubiquitous motor vehicles, and television broadcasting. People living in the 1970s-1990s had already seen the world of computers; we now live in a digital world of the internet, AI, and robotics. In total, over 180 years, the technological level has changed four times.

Proponents of mainstream history argue that 7,000 years before the 19th century, there was no life-changing development at all. It was a single technological level of perpetual stagnation, which somehow gave way to progress in the 19th century. Developing metallurgy, fuel production, and electricity doesn't require thousands of years. This can be achieved much more quickly.

I see two facts suggesting that the age of our civilization is far less than generally believed.

1. The lack of population growth.

According to official history, human civilization is about 6,000 years old—dating back to the first states—yet there was no rapid population growth until the 19th century. Why? Until the 20th century, the vast majority of the population—even in wealthy nations—lived in rural areas, and people in villages always had large families. Families with 5, 10, or even more children were the norm. Furthermore, you couldn't simply buy contraceptives in any store back then, as you can today.

Stereotypical objections—such as the prevalence of epidemics and wars—do not hold water. Epidemics and wars decimated populations in the 19th and 20th centuries, yet this did not halt population growth.

There is no way to explain the lack of significant population growth over 6,000 years other than by concluding that population statistics have been falsified. Human civilization is not 6,000 years old; it is more like 200–250 years old—perhaps a little more.

2. The lack of technological progress.

Until the 19th century, progress was virtually stagnant, particularly in crucial areas such as electricity, communications, and transportation. Modern achievements in industry, construction, housing infrastructure, and so on would be inconceivable without these advancements. Why did people rely on the same modes of transport and communication methods—and fail to generate electricity—for 6,000 years? And then, suddenly, in the 19th century, progress took off.

Were people really too stupid for 6,000 years to conceive of electricity, telephones, and automobiles, only to suddenly become intelligent over the course of a single century and achieve what we have today? What would cause such a sudden shift? Stupid people generally aren't prone to suddenly becoming smart.

Most likely, that 6,000-year span never existed—it is a fabrication by historians; in reality, it was no more than 250 years.

Both processes—population growth and scientific-technological progress—suddenly kicked into gear simultaneously in the 19th century. A coincidence? I don’t really buy that at all. Suddenly, people started having lots of babies and realized there were ways to get around other than on horses and donkeys. It all happened all of a sudden.