"Alfred Nicolas Rambaud (2 July 1842 ? 10 November 1905) was a French historian. Alfred Nicolas Rambaud was born in Besançon. After studying at the École Normale Supérieure, he completed his studies in Germany. He was one of that band of young scholars, among whom were also Ernest Lavisse, Gabriel Monod and Gaston Paris, whose enthusiasm was aroused by the principles and organization of scientific study as applied beyond the Rhine, and who were ready to devote themselves to their cherished plan of remodelling higher education in France...The Franco-Prussian War inspired him with the idea for some courses of lectures...He watched attentively the role played by Russia, and soon observed how much to the interest of France, a good entente with this power would be. He accordingly threw himself into the study of Russian history, staying in Russia in order to learn its language, institutions and customs. In 1874 he took part in the 3rd Archeological Congress that was held in Kiev, and wrote a report on it for the "Revue des Deux Mondes". On his return, he published La Russie épique, a study of the dumas, Ukrainian epic songs (1876), a short but excellent Histoire de la Russie depuis les origines jusqu'à l'année 1877 (1878; 5th ed., 1900)..."--Wikipedia.

Anatolii Fomenko is a distinguished Russian mathematician turned popular history writer, founder of the so-called New Chronology school, and part of the explosion of alternative historical writing that has emerged in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Among his more startling claims are that the Old Testament was written after the New Testament, that Russia is older than Greece and Rome, and that the medieval Mongol Empire was in fact a Slav-Turk world empire, a Russian Horde, to which Western and Eastern powers paid tribute. While academic historians dismiss Fomenko as a dangerous ethno-nationalist or post-modern clown, Fomenko’s publications invariably outsell his conventional rivals. Just as Putin has restored Russia’s faith in its future, Fomenko and an army of fellow alternative historians are determined to restore Russia’s faith in its past. For Fomenko, the key to Russia’s greatness in the future lies in ensuring that Russians understand the true greatness of their past. Fomenko and other pseudo-historians have built upon existing Russian notions of identity, specifically the widespread belief in the positive qualities of empire and the special mission of Russia. He has drawn upon previous attempts to establish a Russian identity, ranging from Slavophilism through Stalinism to Eurasianism. While fantastic, Fomenko’s pseudo-history strikes many Russian readers as no less legitimate than the lies and distortions peddled by Communist propagandists, Tsarist historians and church chroniclers.