BigPinkLad,

the claim of a couple of hundred years (the dark age) being invented and not real has been made popular in Germany by
Heribert Illig. Whether Illig had a Russian precursor I don't know. But the thesis is laid out in any of the many books by Illig. None of them I think has been translated into English.

An English language article explaining why Illig's thesis is not bought by scientists is here.