Mark Schauss: Russian Rulers Podcast Blogsite

Ivan Grozny, was the first ruler of Russia to call himself Tsar. The research into this complex man for my podcast is coming along having just received a book entitled Ivan the Terrible by Robert Payne and Nikita Romanoff (a grand nephew of Nicholas II). Originally published in 1975, it looks like an excellent piece of work. Will have to balance it off with other works on their way though.

One interesting thing about Ivan’s name, is that Grozny, the name given to him by fellow Russian’s does not mean Terrible as many think. Its meaning is closer to the word powerful than Terrible. More on that in the Ivan IV podcast series starting in two weeks.

Don’t ask me how, but I now have an iPhone app for my Russian Rulers Podcast.  Just go to the iTunes store, look under apps and search for Russian Rulers Podcast and there it is. It is only $1.99 and I get a percentage which helps defray the costs of all the books I’ve been buying to get material for the show.

Thanks to all my loyal listeners which is growing by over 1,000 people a week.

A fascinating man, St. Sergius, born Bartholomew, was to change the size and shape of Russia for centuries to come. The spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox people, he inspired men to go into the forests of Russia and to build small churches and monasteries far from the horrors that beset the Russian people. With the plague running rampant and people fed up with the constant bickering amongst the princes of Russia, they enthusiastically took up the task.

Within a few hundred years, the Russian Orthodox Church owned fully 1/3rd of the land of the Rus. They caused one of the largest expansions the country had yet seen. Join me in today’s podcast on the man of God, St. Sergius of Radonezh.

If anyone is coming to this site dealing with my health lectures and environmental health issues please go to my other website, www.toxicworldbook.com.

Ivan I, aka Ivan Kalita or Ivan Moneybags along with Metropolitan Peter wanted to build churches and monastaries throughout Russia during his reign. The Dormition Cathedral aka The Church of the Assumption was the first stone church in Moscow. Finished in 1327 it fell into disrepair and was completely rebuilt by 1479  by Italian architect Aristotele Fioravanti at the behest of Ivan III (the Great). The photo is of the rebuilt church with the drawing being the sketch of the original.

Just added another podcast to my list of top notch podcasts on history and that is Historyzine. I’ve been listening to it for a while and have learned an awful lot about the War of Spanish Succession. Jim Mowatt does a great job of it with an almost carefree style. Very enjoyable.

Down a little on the right side of this blogsite is a list of some of the better history podcasts out there. As I find more, I’ll update them.

Would like to thank Bob Packett of the History According to Bob for mentioning my Russian Rulers podcast on his show. Quite an honor and it gave me a few hundred subscribers to my show.

To my loyal readers, I am going to shift things on this blog site away from discussions on health and research to my off-hours passion, history. If you want to keep up with my thoughts on health, the environment, toxicity and scientific research, go to my other blog site, Toxic World Book. I will not be removing anything from this site, just not updating it on topics related to health and research.

For those of you, who are coming to my site because of my Russian Rulers podcast, glad to have you. If you are also interested in issues regarding health and science, aside from my blog site, I have a podcast called Let’s Talk Real Health. Enjoy.

Many of you know about my friendship with Robert Crayhon, author, nutritionist and all-around good person. Unfortunately, many of you also know of his fight with stage IV colorectal cancer. I’d like to bring you an update on his condition and ask that you help him out if you can with either a donation or with caring words by going to these two websites:

To make a donation to help with Robert’s care please go to this website which is through Pay Pal.

To wish him well go to this site and pass a note showing all the love and care we all have for him.

Well, my life has decided to take a turn for the better, as in far less stress. So in order to replace stress with passion, I have started to restart my regular blogs and podcasts. One of my podcasts, Let’s Talk Real Health has a great new post to it and my other one, which is way off the beaten path is Russian Rulers History.

Both are available on iTunes as well as a bunch of other podcatchers so please try them out if you haven’t already and give me a rating, as fair and honest as possible. Feedback is always appreciated as well.