Fantastic Russian Primetime Documentary: The Fall of an Empire – The Lesson of Byzantium Credit to Rossiya TV https://www.youtube.com/user/Russia24TV Great Russian film (overdubbed in English) about the Byzantine Empire from an Orthodox Christian perspective. A Russian Documentary with an English Voiceover. History Channel Documentary – Byzantine Empire’s history.
Excellent documentary, Whom or what does the man in the Venetian mask represent, or is it just a reference to classic theatre?
@Jay I am curious to hear what you have to say about this in more detail.
In general, I feel that it is a good documentary, highlighting some of the spiritual and political mistakes that this long lasting civilization made.
But there is also a bit of Russian propaganda in this film which I find disturbing, especially given the host who is a respectable figure:
1) The West did not became rich and powerful ‘only after’ it sacked Constantinople, modern studies on GDP indicate that the west was already on a much better trajectory than the ERE by the 13th century, and in general was a much more dynamic civilization. There are a multitude of reasons for this.
2) In general, while the Florence compromise was horrible, I don’t believe the whole ‘the city fell because of the union with Rome/better the turk than the pope’ thing. I believe on a spiritual level it was a punishment for the general sinfulness of the people and on a practical level, a consequence of the indecisiveness of the whole Orthodox world who did not unite to rescue it in time.
What are your thoughs?
I say read Occult Renaissance Church of Rome which backs all this up from a Catholic view.