forgetting any voicemods?

[blitzkrieg80]

Russia (the geographical unit) is not necessarily defined by the Slavs. Russia was quite a bit important all the while steppe peoples poured forth (which is quite a span of time)... one cannot say the Scythic culture zone was inconsequential, nor the Kipchak, ect. Central Asia is equally underestimated and luckily has been getting some due attention such as in EB with the help of such knowledgeable interested people as we've got. It may be that the oasis cities and high Islamic / Persian cultures of Central Asia makes it seem more immediately 'important' than pagans in Eurasia, but as has been argued, that is a very subjective thing. Religion in many ways helps the spread of literacy and the cultural value associated with the great works produced, but in many ways, the stories written were just as valuable as a piece of oral tradition, if not more valuable, because oral tradition keeps it fluid and dynamic, changing aspects on the fly depending on audience, changing words to make the story new every time. Jazz came about from this very thing, because improvisation is an important aspect of human culture that is NOT helped by literacy despite its best efforts.