[Frontispiece: Peter the Great. ]

A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA

BY

MARY PLATT PARMELE

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1907

Copyright, 1899, 1904, 1906, BY MARY PLATT PARMELE

PREFACE. 

If this book seems to have departed from the proper ideal of historicnarrative--if it is the history of a _Power_, and not of a _People_--itis because the Russian people have had no history yet. There has beenno evolution of a Russian nation, but only of a vast governing system;and the words "Russian Empire" stand for a majestic world-power inwhich the mass of its people have no part. A splendidly embroideredrobe of Europeanism is worn over a chaotic, undeveloped mass ofsemi-barbarism. The reasons for this incongruity--the naturalobstacles with which Russia has had to contend; the strange ethnicproblems with which it has had to deal; its triumphant entry into thefamily of great nations; and the circumstances leading to thedisastrous conflict recently concluded, and the changed conditionsresulting from it--such is the story this book has tried to tell. 

M. P. P. 

CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

 Natural Conditions Greek Colonies on the Black Sea The Scythians Ancient Traces of Slavonic Race

CHAPTER II. 

 Hunnish Invasion Distribution of Races Slavonic Religion Primitive Political Conceptions

CHAPTER III. 

 The Scandinavian in Russia Rurik Oleg Igor Olga's Vengeance Olga a Christian Sviatoslaf Russia the Champion of the Greek Empire in Bulgaria Norse Dominance in Heroic Period

CHAPTER IV. 

 System of Appanages Vladimir the Sinner Becomes Vladimir the Saint Russia Forcibly Christianized Causes Underlying Antagonism Between Greek and Latin Church Russia Joined to the Greek Currents and Separated from the Latin

CHAPTER V. 

 Principalities Headship of House of Rurik Relation of Grand Prince to the Others Civilizing Influences from Greek Sources Cruelty not Indigenous with the Slavs How and Whence it Came Primitive Social Elements The Drujina End of Heroic Period Andrew Bogoliubski New Political Center at Suzdal

CHAPTER VI. 

 The Republic of Novgorod Invasion of Baltic Provinces by Germans Livonian and Teutonic Orders Russian Territory Becomes Prussia Mongol Invasion Genghis Khan Cause of Downfall

CHAPTER VII. 

 The Rule of the Khans Humiliation of Princes Novgorod the Last to Fall Alexander Nevski Russia Under the Yoke

CHAPTER VIII. 

 Lithuania Its Union with Poland A Conquest of Russia Intended Daniel First Prince of Moscow Moscow Becomes the Ecclesiastical Center Power Gravitates Toward that State Centralization Dmitri Donskoi Golden Horde Crumbling

CHAPTER IX. 

 Origin of Ottoman Empire Turks in Constantinople Moscow the Spiritual Heir to Byzantium Ivan Married to a Daughter of the Caesars Civilizing Streams Flowing into Moscow Work for Ivan III. And How He Did it Friendly Relations with the Khans Reply to Demand for Tribute in 1478 The Yoke Broken

CHAPTER X. 

 Vasili the Blind Fall of Pskof Splendor of Courts Ceremonial Nature of Struggle which was Evolving

CHAPTER XI. 

 Ivan IV. His Childhood _Coup d'État_ Unmasking of Adashef and Silvester A Gentle Youth Developing into a Monster Solicitude for the Souls of his Victims Destruction of Novgorod England Enters Russia by a Side Door Friendship with Elizabeth Acquisition of Siberia The _Sobor_ or States-General Summoned Ivan Slays his Son and Heir His Death

CHAPTER XII. 

 Boris Godunof The Way to Power A _Boyar_ Tsar of Russia Serfdom Created The False Dmitri Mikhail the First Romanoff

CHAPTER XIII. 

 Time of Preparation The Cossacks Attempt of Nikon Death of Mikhail Alexis Sympathizes with Charles II. Natalia Death of Alexis Feodor

CHAPTER XIV. 

 Sophia Regent Peter I. Childhood Visit to Archangel Azof Captured How a Navy was Built Sentiment Concerning Reforms A Conspiracy Nipped in the Bud Peter Astonishes Western Europe

CHAPTER XV. 

 Charles XII. Battle of Narva St. Petersburg Founded Mazeppa Poltova Peter's Marriage with Catherine

CHAPTER XVI. 

 Campaign against Turks Disaster Averted Azof Relinquished Treaty of Pruth Reforms The Raskolniks Visit to France His Son Alexis a Traitor His Death

CHAPTER XVII. 

 Catherine I. Anna Ivanovna Ivan VI. Elizabeth Petrovna French Influences Succeed the German Peter III. His Taking off Catherine II. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

 Conditions in Poland Victories in the Black Sea Pugatchek the Pretender Peasants' War Reforms Partition of Poland Characteristics of Catherine and of her Reign Her Death

CHAPTER XIX. 

 Paul I. Napoleon Bonaparte Franco-Russian Understanding Assassination of Paul Alexander I. 

CHAPTER XX. 

 Plans for a Liberal Reign Austerlitz Alexander I. An Ally of Napoleon Rupture of Friendship French Army in Moscow Its Retreat and Extinction The Tsar a Liberator in Europe Failure of Reforms Araktcheef's Severities Conspiracy at Kief Death of Alexander I. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

 Constantine's Renunciation Revolt Succession of Nicholas I. Order Restored Character of Nicholas His Policy Polish Insurrection Reactionary Measures Europe Excluded Turco-Russian Understanding Beginning of the Great Diplomatic Game Nature of the Eastern Question Intellectual Expansion in Russia

CHAPTER XXII. 

 1848 in Europe Nicholas Aids Francis Joseph Hungary Subjugated Nicholas claims to be Protector of Eastern Christendom Attempt to Secure England's Co-operation Russia's Grievance against Turkey His Demands France and England in Alliance for Defense of Sultan Allied Armies in the Black Sea The Crimean War Odessa Alma Siege of Sevastopol Death of Nicholas I. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

 Alexander II. End of Crimean War Reaction Toward Liberalism Emancipation of Serfs Means by which It was Effected Patriarchalism Retained Hopes Awakened in Poland Rebellion How it was Disposed of

CHAPTER XXIV. 

 Reaction toward Severity Bulgaria and the Bashi-Bazuks Russia the Champion of the Balkan States Turco-Russian War Treaty of San Stefano Sentiment in Europe Congress of Berlin Diplomatic Defeat of Russia Waning Popularity of Alexander II. 

CHAPTER XXV. 

 Emancipation a Disappointment Social Discontent Birth of Nihilism Assassination of Alexander II. The Peasants' Wreath Alexander III. A Joyless Reign His Death

CHAPTER XXVI. 

 Nicholas II. Russification of Finland Invitation to Disarmament Brief Review of Conditions

SUPPLEMENT. 

 Conditions Preceding Russo-Japanese War Nature of Dispute Results of Conflict Peace Conference at Portsmouth Treaty Signed A National Assembly Dissolution of First Russian Parliament Present Outlook

LIST OF PRINCES. 

INDEX. 

ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Peter the Great . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

The Czar Iván the Terrible and his son Iván Ivánovitch

The Coronation of the Czar Alexander III. , 1883

Scene during the Russo-Japanese War: Russian soldiers on the march in Manchuria

A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA

CHAPTER I

PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS AND RACES

The topography of a country is to some extent a prophecy of its future. Had there been no Mississippi coursing for three thousand miles throughthe North American Continent, no Ohio and Missouri bisecting it fromeast to west, no great inland seas indenting and watering it, nofertile prairies stretching across its vast areas, how different wouldhave been the history of our own land. 

Russia is the strange product of strange physical conditions. Naturewas not in impetuous mood when she created this greater half of Europe, nor was she generous, except in the matter of space. She was slow, sluggish, but inexorable. No volcanic energies threw up rocky ridgesand ramparts in Titanic rage, and then repentantly clothed them withlovely verdure as in Spain, Italy, and elsewhere. No hungry sea rushedin and tore her coast into fragments. It would seem to have been justa cold-blooded experiment in subjecting a vast region to the mostrigorous and least generous conditions possible, leaving it unshieldedalike from Polar winds in winter or scorching heat in summer, divestingit of beauty and of charm, and then casting this arid, frigid, torpidland to a branch of the human family as unique as its own habitation;separating it by natural and almost impassable barriers from civilizinginfluences, and in strange isolation leaving it to work out its ownproblem of development. 

We have only to look on the map at the ragged coast-lines of Greece, Italy, and the British Isles to realize how powerful a factor the seahas been in great civilizations. Russia, like a thirsty giant, has forcenturies been struggling to get to the tides which so generously washthe rest of Europe. During the earlier periods of her history she hadnot a foot of seaboard; and even now she possesses only a meagerportion of coast-line for such an extent of territory; one-half of thisbeing, except for three months in the year, sealed up with ice. 

But Russia is deficient in still another essential feature. Everyother European country possesses a mountain system which gives form andsolidity to its structure. She alone has no such system. No skeletonor backbone gives promise of stability to the dull expanse of plainsthrough which flow her great lazy rivers, with scarce energy enough tocarry their burdens to the sea. Mountains she has, but she shares themwith her neighbors; and the Carpathians, Caucasus, and Ural are simplya continuous girdle for a vast inclosure of plateaus of varyingaltitudes, [1] and while elsewhere it is the office of great mountainranges to nourish, to enrich, and to beautify, in this strange landthey seem designed only to imprison. 

It is obvious that in a country so destitute of seaboard, its riversmust assume an immense importance. The history, the very life ofRussia clusters about its three great rivers. These have been thearteries which have nourished, and indeed created, this strange empire. The _Volga_, with its seventy-five mouths emptying into the CaspianSea, like a lazy leviathan brought back currents from the Orient; thenthe _Dnieper_, flowing into the Black Sea, opened up that communicationwith Byzantium which more than anything else has influenced thecharacter of Russian development; and finally, in comparatively recenttimes, the _Neva_ has borne those long-sought civilizing streams fromWestern Europe which have made of it a modern state and joined it tothe European family of nations. 

It would seem that the great region we now call Russia was predestinedto become one empire. No one part could exist without all the others. In the north is the _zone of forests_, extending from the region ofMoscow and Novgorod to the Arctic Circle. At the extreme southeast, north of the Caspian Sea and at the gateway leading into Asia, are the_Barren Steppes_, unsuited to agriculture or to civilized living; fitonly for the raising of cattle and the existence of Asiatic nomads, whoto this day make it their home. 

Between these two extremes lie two other zones of extraordinarycharacter, the _Black Lands_ and the _Arable Steppes_, or prairies. The former zone, which is of immense extent, is covered with a deep bedof black mold of inexhaustible fertility, which without manure producesthe richest harvests, and has done so since the time of Herodotus, atwhich period it was the granary of Athens and of Eastern Europe. 

The companion zone, running parallel with this, known as the ArableSteppes, which nearly resembles the American prairies, is almost asremarkable as the Black Lands. Its soil, although fertile, has to berenewed. But an amazing vegetation covers this great area in summerwith an ocean of verdure six or eight feet high, in which men andcattle may hide as in a forest. It is these two zones in the heart ofRussia that have fed millions of people for centuries, which make hernow one of the greatest competitors in the markets of the world. 

It is easy to see the interdependence created by this specialization inproduction, and the economic necessity it has imposed for an undividedempire. The forest zone could not exist without the corn of the BlackLands and the Prairies, nor without the cattle of the Steppes. Norcould those treeless regions exist without the wood of the forests. Soit is obvious that when Nature girdled this eastern half of Europe, shemarked it for one vast empire; and when she covered those monotonousplateaus with a black mantle of extraordinary fertility, she decreedthat the Russians should be an agricultural people. And when shecreated natural conditions unmitigated and unparalleled in severity, she ordained that this race of toilers should be patient and submissiveunder austerities; that their pulse should be set to a slow, evenrhythm, in harmony with the low key in which Nature spoke to them. 

It is impossible to say when an Asiatic stream began to pour intoEurope over the arid steppes north of the Caspian. But we know that asearly as the fifth century B. C. The Greeks had established tradingstations on the northern shores of the Black Sea, and that these in thefourth century had become flourishing colonies through their trade withthe motley races of barbarians that swarmed about that region, who bythe Greeks were indiscriminately designated by the common name ofScythians. 

The Greek colonists, who always carried with them their religion, theirHomer, their love of beauty, and the arts of their mother cities, established themselves on and about the promontory of the Crimea, andbuilt their city of Chersonesos where now is Sebastopol. They firstentered into wars and then alliances with these Scythians, who servedthem as middle-men in trade with the tribes beyond, and in time aGraeco-Scythian state of the Bosphorus came into existence. 

Herodotus in the fifth century wrote much about these so-calledScythians, whom he divides into the agricultural Scythians, presumablyof the Black Lands, and the nomad Scythians, of the Barren Steppes. His extravagant and fanciful pictures of those barbarians have longbeen studied by the curious; but light from an unexpected source hasbeen thrown upon the subject, and Greek genius has rescued for us thetype of humanity first known in Russia. 

There are now in the museum at St. Petersburg two priceless works ofart found in recent years in a tomb in Southern Russia. They are twovases of mingled gold and silver upon which are wrought pictures morefaithful and more eloquent than those drawn by Herodotus. Thesefigures of the Scythians, drawn probably as early as 400 B. C. , reproduce unmistakably the Russian peasant of to-day. The samebearded, heavy-featured faces; the long hair coming from beneath thesame peaked cap; the loose tunic bound by a girdle; the trousers tuckedinto the boots, and the general type, not alone distinctly Aryan, but_Slavonic_. And not only that; we see them breaking in and bridlingtheir horses, in precisely the same way as the Russian peasant doesto-day on those same plains. Assuredly the vexed question concerningthe Scythians is in a measure answered; and we know that some of themat least were Slavonic. 

But the passing illumination produced by the approach of Greekcivilization did not penetrate to the region beyond, where was atumbling, seething world of Asiatic tribes and peoples, Aryan, Tatar, and Turk, more or less mingled in varying shades of barbarism, allstriving for mastery. 

This elemental struggle was to resolve itself into one between Aryanand non-Aryan--the Slav and the Finn; and this again into one betweenthe various members of the Slavonic family; then a life-and-deathstruggle with Asiatic barbarism in its worst form (the Mongol), withTatar and Turk always remaining as disturbing factors. 

How, and the steps by which, the least powerful branch of the Slavonicrace obtained the mastery and headship of Russia and has come to be oneof the leading powers of the earth, is the story this book will try totell. 

[1] In the Tatar language the word Ural signifies "girdle. "

CHAPTER II

SLAVONIC RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL SYSTEMS

In speaking of this eastern half of Europe as _Russia_, we have beenborrowing from the future. At the time we have been considering therewas no Russia. The world into which Christ came contained no Russia. The Roman Empire rose and fell, and still there was no Russia. Spain, Italy, France, and England were taking on a new form of life throughthe infusion of Teuton strength, and modern Europe was coming intobeing, and still the very name of Russia did not exist. The greatexpanse of plains, with its medley of Oriental barbarism, was to Europethe obscure region through which had come the Hunnish invasion fromAsia. 

This catastrophe was the only experience that this land had in commonwith the rest of Europe. The Goths had established an empire where theancient Graeco-Scythians had once been. The overthrowing of thisGothic Empire was the beginning of Attila's European conquests; and thepassage of the Hunnish horde, precisely as in the rest of Europe, produced a complete overturning. A torrent of Oriental races, Finns, Bulgarians, Magyars, and others, rushed in upon the track of the Huns, and filled up the spaces deserted by the Goths. Here as elsewhere theHun completed his appointed task of a rearrangement of races; thusfundamentally changing the whole course of future events. Perhapsthere would be no Magyar race in Hungary, and certainly a differenthistory to write of Russia, had there been no Hunnish invasion in 375A. D. 

The old Roman Empire, which in its decay had divided into an Easternand a Western Empire (in the fourth century), had by the fifth centurysuccumbed to the new forces which assailed it, leaving only aglittering remnant at Byzantium. 

The Eastern or Byzantine Empire, rich in pride and pretension, but poorin power, was destined to stand for one thousand years more, theshining conservator of the Christian religion (although in a form quitedifferent from the Church of Rome) and of Greek culture. It isimpossible to imagine what our civilization would be to-day if thissplendid fragment of the Roman Empire had not stood in shiningpetrifaction during the ages of darkness, guarding the treasures of adead past. 

While these tremendous changes were occurring in the West, unconsciousas toiling insects the various peoples in Russia were preparing for anunknown future. The Bulgarians were occupying large spaces in theSouth. The Finns, who had been driven by the Bulgarians from theirhome upon the Volga, had centered in the Northwest near the Baltic, their vigorous branches mingled more or less with other Asiatic races, stretching here and there in the North, South, and East. The RussianSlavs, as the parent stem is called, were distributing themselves alonga strip of territory running north and south along the line of theDnieper; while the terrible Turks, and still more terrible Tatartribes, hovered chiefly about the Black, the Caspian, and the Sea ofAzof. No dream of unity had come to anyone. But had there been aforecast then of the future, it would have been said that the morefinely organized Finn would become the dominant race; or perhaps theBulgarian, who was showing capacity for empire-building; but certainlynot that helpless Slavonic people wedged in between their strongerneighbors. 

But there were no large ambitions yet. It meant nothing to them thatthere was a new "Holy Roman Empire, " and that Charlemagne had beencrowned at Rome successor of the Roman Caesars (800 A. D. ); nor that anEngland had just been consolidated into one kingdom. Nor did itconcern them that the Saracen had overthrown a Gothic empire in Spain(710). For them these things did not exist. But they knew aboutConstantinople. The Byzantine Empire was the sun which shone beyondtheir horizon, and was for them the supreme type of power and earthlysplendor. Whatever ambitions and aspirations would in time awaken inthese Oriental breasts must inevitably have for their ideal thesplendid despotism of the Eastern Caesars. But that stage had not yetbeen reached. 

Although branches of the Slavonic race had separated from the parentstem, bearing different names, the Bohemians on the Vistula, thePoliani in what was to become Poland, the Lithuanians near the Baltic, and minor tribes scattered elsewhere, from the Peloponnesus to theBaltic, all had the same general characteristics. Their religion, likethat of all Aryan peoples, was a pantheism founded upon the phenomenaof nature. In their Pantheon there was a Volos, a solar deity who, like the Greek Apollo, was inspirer of poets and protector of theflocks--Perun, God of Thunder--Stribog, the father of the Winds, likeAeolus--a Proteus who could assume all shapes--Centaurs, Vampires, andhosts of minor deities, good and evil. There were neither temples norpriests, but the oak was venerated and consecrated to Perun; and rudeidols of wood stood upon the hills, where sacrifices were offered tothem and they were worshiped by the people. 

They believed that their dead passed into a future life, and from thetime of the early Scythians it had been the custom to strangle a maleand a female servant of the deceased to accompany him on his journey tothe other land. The barbarity of their religious rites varied with thedifferent tribes, but the general characteristics were the same, andthe people everywhere were profoundly attached to their paganceremonies and under the dominion of an intense form of superstition. 

Slav society was everywhere founded upon the patriarchal principle. The father was absolute head of the family, his authority passingundiminished upon his death to the oldest surviving member. This wasthe social unit. 

The Commune, or _Mir_, was only the expansion of the family, and wassubject to the authority of a council, composed of the elders of theseveral families, called the _vetché_. The village lands were held incommon by this association. The territory was the common property ofthe whole. No hay could be cut nor fish caught without permission fromthe _vetché_. Then all shared alike the benefit of the enterprise. 

The communes nearest together formed a still larger group called a_Volost_; that is, a canton or parish, which was governed by a councilcomposed of the elders of the communes, one of whom was recognized asthe chief. Beyond this the idea of combination or unity did notextend. Such was the primitive form of society which was common to allthe Slavonic branches. It was communistic, patriarchal, and just tothe individual. They had no conception of tribal unity, nor of asovereignty which should include the whole. If the Slav ever cameunder the despotism of a strong personal government, the idea must comefrom some external source; it must be imposed, not grow; for it was notindigenous in the character of the people. It would be perfectlynatural for them to submit to it if it came, for they were a passivepeople, but they were incapable of creating it. 

CHAPTER III

RURIK AND HIS DESCENDANTS

The Russian Slavs were an agricultural, not a warlike, people. Theyfought bravely, but naked to the waist, and with no idea of militaryorganization, so were of course no match for the Turks, well skilled inthe arts of war, nor for the armed bands of Scandinavian merchants, whomade their territory a highway by which to reach the Greek provinces. All the Slav asked was to be permitted to gather his harvests, anddwell in his wooden towns and villages in peace. But this he could notdo. Not only was he under tribute to the Khazarui (a powerful tribe ofmingled Finnish and Turkish blood), and harried by the Turks, in theSouth; overrun by the Finns and Lithuanians in the North; but in hisimperfect political condition he was broken up into minute divisions, canton incessantly at war with canton, and there could be no peace. The roving bands of Scandinavian traders and freebooters werealternately his persecutors and protectors. After burning his villagesfor some fancied offense, and appropriating his cattle and corn, theywould sell their service for the protection of Kief, Novgorod, andPskof as freely as they did the same thing to Constantinople and theGreek cities. In other words, these brilliant, masterful intruderswere _Northmen_, and can undoubtedly be identified with those rovingsea-kings who terrorized Western Europe for a long and dreary period. 

The disheartened Slavs of Novgorod came to a momentous decision. Theyinvited these Varangians--as they are called--to come and administertheir government. They said: "Our land is great and fruitful, but itlacks order and justice. Come--take possession, and govern us. " Withthe arrival from Sweden of the three Vikings, Rurik and his twobrothers Sineus and Truvor, the true history of Russia begins, and theone thousandth anniversary of that event was commemorated at Novgorodin the year 1862. 

Rurik was the Clovis of Russia. When with his band of followers he wasestablished at Novgorod the name of Russia came into existence, supposedly from the Finnish word _ruotsi_, meaning rowers orsea-farers. Slavonia was not only christened but regenerated at thisperiod, and infused into it were the new elements of martial order, discipline, and the habit of implicit obedience to a chosen orhereditary chief; and as Rurik's brothers soon conveniently died, theirterritory also passed to him, and he assumed the title of Grand Prince. 

Upon the death of Rurik in 879, his younger brother Oleg succeeded himas regent during the minority of his son Igor; and when two moreVarangian brothers--Askold and Dir--in the same manner--except thatthey were not invited--took possession of Kief on the Dnieper and setup a rival principality in the South with ambitious designs uponByzantium, Oleg promptly had them assassinated, added their territoryto the dominion of Igor, and removed the capital from Novgorod toKief--saying, "Let Kief be the mother of Russian cities!" Then afterselecting a wife named Olga for the young Igor, he turned his attentiontoward Byzantium, the powerful magnet about which Russian policy wasgoing to revolve for many centuries. 

So invincible and so wise was this Oleg that he was believed to be asorcerer. When the Greek emperor blockaded the passage of theBosphorus in 907, he placed his two thousand boats (!) upon wheels, andlet the sails carry them overland to the gates of Constantinople. TheRussian poet Pushkin has made this the subject of a poem which tellshow Oleg, after exacting tribute from the frightened Emperor Leo VI. , in true Norse fashion, hung his shield upon the golden gates as aparting insult. 

Again and again were the Greeks compelled to pay for immunity fromthese invasions of the Varangian princes. After the death of Oleg, Igor reigned, and in 941 led another expedition against Constantinoplewhich we are told was driven back by "Greek-fire. " Then enlisting theaid of the Pechenegs, a ferocious Tatar tribe, he returned with suchfury, and inflicted such atrocities, that the Greek Emperor begged formercy and offered to pay any price to be left alone. The invaderssaid: "If Caesar speaks thus, what more do we want than to have goldand silver and silks without fighting. " A treaty of peace was signed(945), the Russians swearing by their god Perun, and the Greeks by theGospels; and the victorious Igor turned his face toward Kief. But hewas never to reach that place. 

The Drevlians, the most savage of the Tatar tribes, had been forced topay him a large tribute, and were meditating upon their revenge. Theysaid: "Let us kill the wolf or we will lose the flock. " They watchedtheir opportunity, seized him, tied him to two young trees bentforcibly together; then, letting them spring apart, the son of Rurikwas torn to pieces. 

No act of the wise regent Oleg was more fruitful in consequences thanthe choice of a wife for the young Igor. Olga, who acted as regentduring the minority of her son, was destined to be not only the heroineof the Epic Cycle in Russia, but the first apostle of Christianity inthat heathen land; canonized by the Church, and remembered as "thefirst Russian who mounted to the Heavenly Kingdom. "

When the Drevlians sent gifts to appease her wrath at the murder ofIgor, and offered her the hand of their prince, she had the messengersburied alive. All she asked was three pigeons and three sparrows fromevery house in their capital town. Lighted tow was tied to the tailsof the birds, which were then permitted to fly back to their homesunder the eaves of the thatched houses. In the conflagration whichfollowed, the inhabitants were massacred in a pleasing variety of ways;some strangled, some smothered in vapor, some buried alive, and thoseremaining reduced to slavery. 

But an extraordinary transformation was at hand; and this vindictiveheathen woman was going to be changed to an ardent convert to theChristian faith. Nestor, who is the Russian Herodotus, relates thatshe went to Constantinople in 955, to inquire into the mysteries of theChristian Church. The emperor was astonished, it is said, at thestrength and adroitness of her mind. She was baptized by the GreekPatriarch, under the new name of Helen, the emperor acting as hergodfather. 

There were already a few Christians in Kief, but so unpopular was thenew religion that Olga's son Sviatoslaf, upon reaching his majority, absolutely refused to make himself ridiculous by adopting his mother'sfaith. "My men will mock me, " was his reply to Olga's entreaties, andNestor adds "that he often became furious with her" for her importunity. 

Sviatoslaf, the son of Igor and Olga, although the first prince to beara Russian name, was the very type of the cunning, ambitious, andintrepid Northman, and his brief reign (964-972) displayed all thesequalities. He defeated the Khazarui, the most civilized of all thoseOriental people, and once the most powerful. He subjugated thePechenegs, perhaps the most brutal and least civilized of all thebarbarians. But these were only incidental to his real purpose. 

The Bulgarian Empire was large, and had played an important part in thepast. It had a Tsar, while Russia had only a Grand Prince, and, although now declining in strength, was a troublesome neighbor to theGreek Empire. The oft-repeated mistake of inviting the aid of anotherpeople was committed. Nothing could have better pleased Sviatoslafthan to assist the Greek Empire, and when he captured the Bulgariancapital city on the Danube, and even talked of making it his owncapital instead of Kief, it looked as if a great Slav Empire wasforming with its center almost within sight of Constantinople. TheGreeks were dismayed. With the Russians in the Balkan Peninsula, thecenter of their dominions upon the Danube--with the Scythian hordes inthe South ready to do their bidding--and with scattered Slavonic tribesfrom Macedon to the Peloponnesos gravitating toward them, what mightthey not do? No more serious danger had ever threatened the Empire ofthe East. They rushed to rescue Bulgaria from the very enemy they hadinvited to overthrow it. After a prolonged struggle, and in spite ofthe wild courage displayed by Sviatoslaf, he was driven back, andcompelled to swear by Perun and Volos never again to invade Bulgaria. If they broke their vows, might they become "as yellow as gold, andperish by their own arms. " But this was for Sviatoslaf the lastinvasion of any land. The avenging Pechenegs were waiting in ambushfor his return. They cut off his head and presented his skull to theirPrince as a drinking cup (972). 

It seems scarcely necessary to call attention to the fact that thetransforming energy in this early period of Russian history was not inthe native people; but that the Slav, in the hands of his Norse rulers, was as clay in the hands of the potter. In the treaty of peace signedat Kief (945) by the victorious Igor, of the fifty names recorded byNestor only three were Slavonic and the rest Scandinavian. There canbe no doubt which was the dominant race in this the heroic age ofRussia. 

So we have seen a weaker people submitting to the rule of a stronger, not by conquest, like Spain under the Visigoths; not overrun andoverridden as Britain by the Angles and Saxons and Gaul by the Franks;but, in recognition of its own helplessness, voluntarily becomingsubject to the control of strangers. 

And we see at the same time the brilliant, restless Norseman, with noplan of establishing a racial dominion, but simply in the temporaryenjoyment of his own warlike and robber instincts, engrafting himselfupon a less gifted people, and then adopting its language and customs, letting himself be absorbed into the nationality he has helped tocreate, and becoming a Russian, with the same facility as Rollo and hissons at the very same period were becoming Frenchmen. 

CHAPTER IV

RUSSIANS CONVERSION--GREEK AND LATIN CHRISTIANITY

So the scattered clans of the Slav race were roughly drawn togetherinto something resembling a nation by the strong arm of theScandinavian. But the course of national progress is never a straightone. Nature understands better than we the value of retardinginfluences, which prevent the too rapid fusing of crude elements. Thiswork of retardation was performed for Russia by Sviatoslaf. When, instead of leaving his dominions to his oldest son, he divided themamong the three, he introduced a vicious system which was to become afatal source of weakness. This is known as the system of _Appanages_. To his son Yaropolk he gave Kief, to Oleg the territory of theDrevlians, and to Vladimir Novgorod. But as Vladimir quicklyassassinated Yaropolk, who had already assassinated Oleg, the injuriousresults of the system were not directly felt!

Vladimir became the sole ruler. He then started upon a course ofunbridled profligacy. He compelled the widow of his murdered brotherto marry him--then a beautiful Greek nun who had been captured fromByzantium--then a Bulgarian and a Bohemian wife, until finally hishousehold was numbered by hundreds. But this sensual barbarian beganto be conscious of a soul. He was troubled, and revived the worship ofthe Slav gods; erected on the cliffs near Kief a new idol of Perun, with head of silver and beard of gold. Two Scandinavian Christianswere by his orders stabbed at the feet of the idol. Still his soul wasunsatisfied. He determined upon a search for the best religion; sentambassadors to examine into the religious beliefs of Mussulmans, Jews, Catholics, and the Greeks. The splendor of the Greek ceremonial, themagnificence of the vestments, the incense, the music, and the presenceof the Emperor and his court, filled the souls of the barbarians withawe--and the final argument of his _boyars_ (or nobles) put an end todoubts: "If the Greek religion had not been the best, your grandmotherOlga, the wisest of mortals, would not have adopted it. "

Vladimir's choice was made. He would be baptized in the faith of Olga. But this must be done at the hand of the Greek Patriarch; so he wouldconquer baptism--and ravish it like booty--not beg for it. He besiegedand took a Greek city. Then demanded the hand of Anna, sister of theGreek Caesar, threatening in case of refusal to march onConstantinople. Consent was given upon condition of baptism, which wasjust what the barbarian wanted. So he came back to Kief a Christian, bringing with him his new Greek wife, and his new baptismal name ofBasil. 

Amid the tears and fright of the people, the idols were torn down;Perun was flogged and thrown into the Dnieper. Then the old paganstream was consecrated, and men, women, and children, old and young, master and slave, were driven into the river, the Greek priestsstanding on the banks reading the baptismal service. The frightenedNovgorodians were in like manner forced to hurl Perun into the Volkhof, and then, like herded cattle, were driven into the stream to bebaptized. The work of Olga was completed--Russia was Christianized(992)!

It would be long before Christianity would penetrate into the heart ofthe people. As late as the twelfth century only the higher classesfaithfully observed the Christian rites; while the old pagan ceremonieswere still common among the peasantry. And even now the Saints of theCalendar are in some places only thinly disguised heathen deities andpagan rites and superstitions mingle with Christian observances. 

The conversion of Vladimir seems to have been sincere. From being acruel voluptuary and assassin, he was changed to a merciful ruler whocould not bear to inflict capital punishment. He was faithful to hisGreek wife Anna. On the spot where he had once erected Perun, andwhere the two Scandinavians were martyred at his command, he built thechurch of St. Basil; and he is now remembered only as the saint whoChristianized pagan Russia, and revered as the "Beautiful Sun of Kief. "

So the two most important events considered thus far in the history ofthis land have been, first, its military conquest from the North, andsecond, its ecclesiastical conquest from the South. If the firsthelped it to become a nation, the second determined the character whichthat nationality should assume. 

To explain one fact by another and unfamiliar and uncomprehended factis one of the confusing methods of history! In order to know why theadoption of the form of religion known as the Greek Church sopowerfully influenced Russian development, one must understand whatthat faith was and is, and the source of the antagonisms which dividedthe two great branches of the Church of Christ--the Greek and the Latin. 

The cause underlying all others is _racial_. It is explained in theirnames. The theology of one had its roots in Greek Philosophy; that ofthe other in Roman Law. One tended to a brilliant diversity, the otherto centralization and unity. One was a group of Ecclesiastical States, a Hierarchy and a _Polyarchy_, governed by Patriarchs, each supreme inhis own diocese; the other was a _Monarchy_, arbitrarily anddiplomatically governed from one center. It was the difference betweenan archipelago and a continent, and not unlike the difference betweenancient Greece and Rome. One had the tremendous principle of growth, stability, and permanence; the other had not. 

Such were the race tendencies which led to entirely differentecclesiastical systems. Then there arose differences in dogma; andRome considered the Church in the East schismatic, and Byzantium heldthat that of the West was heterodox. They now not only disapproved ofeach other's methods, but what was more serious, held different creeds. The Latin Church, after its Bishop had become an infallible Pope (aboutthe middle of the fifth century), claimed that the Church in the Eastmust accept his definition of dogma as final. 

It was one small word which finally rent these two bodies ofChristendom forever apart. It was only the word _filioque_ which madethe impassable gulf dividing them. The Latins maintained that the HolySpirit proceeded from the Father--_and the son_; the Greeks that itdescended from the Father alone. It was the undying controversyconcerning the relations and the attributes of the three Members of theTrinity; and the insoluble question was destined to break up Greek andCatholic Church alike into numberless sects and shades of belief orunbelief; and over this Christological controversy, rivers of bloodwere to flow in both branches of Christendom. 

The theological question involved was of course too subtle for ordinarycomprehension. But although men on both sides stood ready to die forthe decisions of their councils which they did not understand, therewas underlying the whole question the political jealousy existingbetween the two: Byzantium, embittered by the effacement of itspolitical jurisdiction in the West, exasperated at the overweeningpretensions of Roman bishops; Rome, watching for opportunity to cajoleor compel the Eastern Church to submit to her authority and headship. 

Such was the condition of things when Russia allied herself in thatmost vital way with the empire in the East. It is impossible tomeasure the importance of the step, or to imagine what would have beenthe history of that country had Vladimir decided to accept the religionof Rome and become Catholic, as the Slav in Poland had already done. By his choice not only is it possible that he added some centuries tothe life of the Greek Empire itself, but he determined the type ofRussian civilization. When she allied herself with Byzantium insteadof Rome, Russia separated herself from those European currents fromwhich she was already by natural and inherited conditions isolated. She thus prolonged and emphasized the Orientalism which so largelyshaped her destiny, and produced a nationality absolutely unique in thefamily of European nations, in that there is _but one single root inRussia which can be traced back to the Roman Empire_; and whereas mostof the European civilizations are built upon a Roman foundation, thereis only one current in the life of that nation to-day which has flowedfrom a Latin source: that is a judicial code which was founded (inpart) upon Roman law as embodied by Justinian, Emperor of the Empire inthe East (527-565). 

CHAPTER V

PRINCIPALITIES--EXPANSION NORTHWARD

When Vladimir died, in 1015, the partition of his dominions amongnumerous heirs inaugurated the destructive system of _Appanages_. Thecountry was converted into a group of principalities ruled by Princesof the same blood, of which the Principality of Kief was chief, and itsruler _Grand Prince_. Kief, the "Mother of Cities, " was the heart ofRussia, and its Prince, the oldest of the descendants of Rurik, had arecognized supremacy over the others; who must, however, also belong tothis royal line. No prince could rule anywhere who was not adescendant of Rurik; Kief, the greatest prize of all, going to theoldest; and when a Grand Prince died, his son was not his rightfulheir, but his uncle, or brother, or cousin, or whoever among thePrinces had the right by seniority. This was a survival of thepatriarchal system of the Slavs, showing how the Norse rulers hadadapted themselves to the native customs as before stated. 

So while in thus breaking up the land into small jealous and rivalstates independent of each other--with only a nominal headship atKief--while in this there was a movement toward chaos, there were afterall some bonds of unity which could not be severed: A unity of race andlanguage; a unity of historical development; a unity in religion; andthe political unity created by the fact that all the thrones werefilled by members of the same family, any one of whom might becomeGrand Prince if enough of the intervening members could--by natural orother means--be disposed of. This was a standing invitation forassassination and anarchy, and one which was not neglected. 

Immediately upon the death of Vladimir there commenced a carnival offraternal murders, which ended by leaving Yaroslaf to whom had beenassigned the Principality of Novgorod, upon the throne at Kief. 

The "Mother of Russian Cities" began to show the effect of Greekinfluences. The Greek clergy had brought something besides OrientalChristianity into the land of barbarians. They brought a desire forbetter living. Learning began to be prized; schools were created. Music and architecture, hitherto absolutely unknown, were introduced. Kief grew splendid, and with its four hundred churches and its gildedcupolas lighted by the sun, was striving to be like Constantinople. Not alone the Sacred Books of Byzantine literature, but works uponphilosophy and science, and even romance, were translated into theSlavonic language. Russia was no longer the simple, untutoredbarbarian, guided by unbridled impulses. She was taking her firstlesson in civilization. She was beginning to be wise; learning newaccomplishments, and, alas!--to be systematically and judicially cruel!

Nothing could have been more repugnant or foreign to the free Slavbarbarian than the penal code which was modeled by Yaroslaf upon theone at Byzantium. Corporal punishment was unknown to the Slav, and wasabhorrent to his instincts. This seems a strange statement to makeregarding the land of the _knout_! But it is true. And imprisonment, convict labor, flogging, torture, mutilation, and even the deathpenalty, came into this land by the way of Constantinople. 

At the same time there mingled with this another stream fromScandinavia, another judicial code which sanctioned private revenge, the pursuit of an assassin by all the relatives of the dead; also theordeal by red-hot iron and boiling water. But to the native Slav race, corporal punishment, with its humiliations and its refinements ofcruelty, was unknown until brought to it by stronger and wiser peoplefrom afar. 

When we say that Russia was putting on a garment of civilization, letno one suppose we mean the _people_ of Russia. It was the Princes, andtheir military and civil households; it was official Russia that wasdoing this. The _people_ were still sowing and reaping, and sharingthe fruit of their toil in common, unconscious as the cattle in theirfields that a revolution was taking place, ready to be driven hitherand thither, coerced by a power which they did not comprehend, theirhorizon bounded by the needs of the day and hour. 

The elements constituting Russian society were the same in all theprincipalities. There was first the Prince. Then his official family, a band of warriors called the _Drujina_. This Drujina was the germ ofthe future state. Its members were the faithful servants of thePrince, his guard and his counselors. He could constitute them a courtof justice, or could make them governors of fortresses (_posadniki_) orlieutenants in the larger towns. The Prince and his Drujina were likea family of soldiers, bound together by a close tie. The body wasdivided into three orders of rank: first, the simple guards; second, those corresponding to the French barons; and, third, the _Boyars_, themost illustrious of all, second only to the Prince. The Drujina wastherefore the germ of aristocratic Russia, next below it coming thegreat body of the people, the citizens and traders, then the peasant, and last of all the slave. 

Yaroslaf, the "legislator, " known as the Charlemagne of Russia, died inthe year 1054. The Eastern and Western Empires, long divided insentiment, were that same year separated in fact, when Pope Leo VI. Excommunicated the whole body of the Church in the East. 

With the death of Yaroslaf the first and heroic period in Russiacloses. Sagas and legendary poems have preserved for us its grimoutlines and its heroes, of whom Vladimir, the "Beautiful Sun of Kief, "is chief. Thus far there has been a unity in the thread of Russianhistory--but now came chaos. Who can relate the story of two centuriesin which there have been 83 civil wars--18 foreign campaigns againstone country alone, not to speak of the others--46 barbaric invasions, and in which 293 Princes are said to have disputed the throne of Kiefand other domains! We repeat: Who could tell this story of chaos; andwho, after it is told, would read it?

It was a vast upheaval, a process in which the eternal purposes were"writ large"--too large to be read at the time. It was not intendedthat only the fertile Black Lands along the Dnieper, near to thecivilizing center at Constantinople, should absorb the life currents. All of Russia was to be vitalized; the bleak North as well as theSouth; the zone of the forests as well as the fertile steppes. Theinstruments appointed to accomplish this great work were--the disorderconsequent upon the reapportionment of the territory at the death ofeach sovereign--the fierce rivalries of ambitious Princes--and thebarbaric encroachments to which the prevailing anarchy made the Souththe prey. 

By the twelfth century the civil war had become distinctly a warbetween a new Russia of the forests and the old Russia of the fertilesteppes. The cause of the North had a powerful leader in AndrewBogoliubski. Andrew was the grandson of Monomakh and the son of Yuri(or George) Dolgoruki--both of whom were Grand Princes of extraordinaryabilities and commanding qualities. In 1169 Andrew, who was thenPrince of Suzdal, came with an immense army of followers; he marchedagainst Kief. The "Mother of Russian Cities" was taken by assault, sacked and pillaged, and the Grand Principality ceased to exist. Russia was preparing to revolve around a new center in the Northeast;and with the new Grand Principality of Suzdal, far removed fromByzantine and Western civilizations, it looked like a return towardbarbarism, but was in fact the circuitous road to progress. The lifeof the nation needed to be drawn to its extremities, and the ambitiousAndrew, who assumed the title and authority of Grand Prince, hadestablished a line which was destined to lead to the Czars of futureRussia. 

CHAPTER VI

GERMAN INVASION--MONGOL INVASION

The Principality of Novgorod had from a remote antiquity been thepolitical center of Northern, as was Kief of Southern Russia. It wasthe Novgorodians who invited the Norse Princes to come and rule theland; and it was the Novgorodians who were their least submissivesubjects. When one of the Grand Princes proposed to send his son, whomthey did not want, to be their Prince, they replied: "Send him here ifhe has a spare head. " It was a fearless, proud republic, as patrioticand as quarrelsome as Florence, which it somewhat resembled. TheirPrince was in reality a figurehead. He was considered essential to thedignity of the state, but his fortunes were in the hands of twopolitical parties, of which he represented the party in the ascendant. Novgorod was a commercial city--its life was in its trade with theOrient and the Greek Empire, and like the Italian cities, its politicswere swayed by economic interests. Those in trade with the Eastthrough the Volga desired a Prince from one of the great families aboutthat Oriental artery in the Southeast; while those whose fortunesdepended upon the Greeks preferred one from Kief or the principalitieson the Dnieper. When one party fell, the Prince fell with it, and asthe formula expressed it, they then "made him a reverence, and showedhim the way out of Novgorod"--or else held him captive until hissuccessor arrived. 

Princes might come, and Princes might go, but an irrepressible spiritof freedom "went on forever"; the reigns all too short and troubled todisturb the ancient liberties and customs of the republic. No GrandPrince was ever powerful enough to impose upon them a Prince they didnot want, and no Prince strong enough to oppose the will of the people;every act of his requiring the sanction of their _posadnik_, a highofficial--and every decision subject to reversal by the _Vetché_, thepopular assembly. The _Vetché_ was, in fact, the real sovereign of theproud republic which styled itself, "My Lord Novgorod the Great. " Suchwas the remarkable state which played an important, and certainly themost picturesque, part in the history of Russia. 

The first thought of the new Grand Prince at Suzdal was to prevent thepossible rivalry of this arrogant principality in the North, byconquering it and breaking its spirit. He was also resolved to breakthoroughly with the past, to destroy the system of Appanages, and hadconceived the idea of the modern undivided state. He removed hiscapital from the old town of Suzdal, which had its _Vetché_ or popularassembly, to Vladimir, which had had none of these things, assigning ashis reason, not that he intended to be sole master and free from allancient trammels--but that the Mother of God had come to him in a dreamand commanded him so to do! But an end came to all his dreams andambitions. He was assassinated in 1174 by his own _boyars_, who wereexasperated by his subversive policy and suspicions of his daringreforms. 

With the setting of the currents of Russian national life toward theNorth, there was awakened in Europe a vague sense of danger. Not farfrom Novgorod, on and about the shores of the Baltic, were varioustributary Slav tribes, mingled with pagan Finns. This was the onlypoint of actual contact, the only point without natural protectionbetween Russia and Europe, and it must be guarded. German merchants, hand in hand with Latin missionaries, invaded a strip of disputedterritory, and, under the cloak of Christianity, commenceda--_conquest_. A Latin Church became also a fortress; and the fortresssoon expanded into a German town, and these crept every year fartherand farther into the East. In order to quell the resistance of nativeFinns and Slavs, there was created, and authorized by the Pope, anorder of knighthood, called the "Sword-Bearers, " with the doublepurpose of driving back the Slavonic tide which threatened Germany andat the same time Christianizing it. These were the "Livonian Knights, "who came from Saxony and Westphalia, armed _cap-à-pie_, with redcrosses embroidered upon the shoulder of their white mantles. Thenanother order was created (1225), the "Teutonic Order, " wearing blackcrosses on their shoulders, which, after fraternizing with the LivonianKnights, was going to absorb them--together with some otherthings--into their own more powerful organization. Russia had no armedwarriors to meet these steel-clad Germans and Livonians. She had noorders of chivalry, had taken no part in the Crusades, the far-offechoes of which had fallen upon unheeding ears. The Russians coulddefend with desperate courage their own flimsy fortifications of wood, earth, and loose stones; but they could not pull down with ropes thesolid German fortresses of stone and cement, and their spears wereineffectual upon the shining armor. Their conquest was inevitable; theconquered territory being divided between the knights and the LatinChurch. So Königsberg and many other Russian towns were captured andthen Teutonized, by joining them to the cities of Lubeck, Bremen, Hamburg, etc. , in the "Hanseatic League. "

This conquest was of less future importance to Russia than to WesternEurope. It contained the germ of much history. The territory thuswrested from Russia became the German state of Prussia; and a futuremaster of the Teutonic order, a Hohenzollern, was in later years itsfirst King; and this was the beginning of the great German Empire whichconfronts the Empire of the Czar to-day. 

So the conquest by the German Orders was added to the other woes bywhich Russia was rent and torn after the death of her Grand Prince atSuzdal. To us it all seems like an unmeaning panorama of chaos anddisorder. But to them it was only the vicissitudes naturally occurringin the life of a great nation. They were proud of their nationality, which had existed nearly as long as from Columbus to our own day. Theygloried in their splendid background of great deeds and their long lineof heroes reaching back to Rurik. Their Princes were proud andpowerful--their followers (the _Drujiniki_)--noble and fearless--whocould stand before them? They would have exchanged their glories forthose of no nation upon the earth, except perhaps that waning empire ofthe Caesars at Constantinople!

Such was the sentiment of Russian nationality at the time when itsoverwhelming humiliation suddenly came, a degrading subjection toAsiatic Mongols, which lasted 250 years. 

In the year 1224 there appeared in the Southeast a strange host whoclaimed the land of the Polovtsui, a Tatar clan which had been forcenturies encamped about the Sea of Azof. The Russian chroniclernaively says: "There came upon us for our sins unknown nations. Godalone knew who they were, or where they came from--God, and perhapswise men, learned in books"--which it is evident the chronicler wasnot! The invaders were Mongols--that branch of the human family fromwhich had come the Tatars and the Huns, already familiar to Russia. But these Mongols were the vanguard of a vast army which had streamedlike a torrent through the heart of Asia, conquering as it came;gathering one after another the Asiatic kingdoms into an empire ruledby Genghis Khan, a sovereign who in forty years had made himself masterof China and the greater part of Asia--saying: "As there is only oneSun in Heaven, so there should be only one Emperor on the Earth"; andwhen he died, in 1227, he left the largest empire that had everexisted, and one which he was preparing to extend into Western Europe. 

It was the court of this great sovereign which, in 1275, was visited bythe Venetian traveler Marco Polo. This was the far-off Cathay, descriptions of which fired the imagination of Europe, and awoke aconsuming desire to get access to its fabulous riches, and which twocenturies later filled the mind of Columbus with dreams of reachingthat land of wonders by way of the West. 

The Polovtsui appealed to the nearest principalities for help, offeringto adopt their religion and to become their subjects, in return foraid. When several Princes came with their armies to the rescue, theMongols sent messengers saying: "We have no quarrel with you; we havecome to destroy the accursed Polovtsui. " The Princes replied bypromptly putting the ambassadors all to death. This sealed the fate ofRussia. There could be no compromise after that. Upon that firstbattlefield, on the steppes near the sea of Azof, there were left sixPrinces, seventy chief _boyars_, and all but one-tenth of the Russianarmy. 

After this thunderbolt had fallen an ominous quiet reigned for thirteenyears. Nothing more was heard of the Mongols--but a comet blazing inthe sky awoke vague fears. Suddenly an army of five hundred thousandAsiatics returned, led by Batui, nephew of the Great Khan of Khans. 

It was the defective political structure of Russia, its division intoprincipalities, which made it an easy prey. The Mongols, moving as oneman, took one principality at a time, its nobles and citizens alonebearing arms, the peasants, by far the greater part, being utterlydefenseless. After wrecking and devastating that, they passed on tothe next, which, however desperately defended, met the same fate. TheGrand Principality was a ruin; its fourteen towns were burned, andwhen, in the absence of its Grand Prince, Vladimir the capital cityfell, the Princesses and all the families of the nobles took refuge inthe cathedral and perished in the general conflagration (1238). Twoyears later Kief also fell, with its white walls and towers embellishedby Byzantine art, its cupolas of gold and silver. All was laid in thedust, and only a few fragments in museums now remain to tell of itsglory. The annalist describes the bellowings of the buffaloes, thecries of the camels, the neighing of the horses, and howlings of theTatars while the ancient and beautiful city was being laid low. 

Before 1240 the work was complete. There was a Mongol empire where hadbeen a Russian. Then the tide began to set toward Western Europe. Isolated from the other European states by her religion, Russia hadsuffered alone. No Europe sprang to her defense as to the defense ofSpain from the Saracens. Not until Poland and Hungary were threatenedand invaded did the Western Kingdoms give any sign of interest. Thenthe Pope, in alarm, appealed to the Christian states. Frederick II. OfGermany responded, and Louis IX. Of France (Saint-Louis) prepared tolead a crusade. But the storm had spent its fury upon the Slavonicpeople, and was content to pause upon those plains which to the Asiaticseemed not unlike his own home. 

CHAPTER VII

UNDER MONGOL YOKE

Amid the wreck of principalities there was one state remaining erect. Novgorod was defended by its remoteness and its uninviting climate. The Mongols had not thought it worth while to attempt the reduction ofthe warlike state, so the stalwart Republic stood alone amid thegeneral ruin. All the rest were under the Tatar yoke. Of Princesthere were none. All had either been slaughtered or fled. Proud_boyars_ saw their wives and daughters the slaves of barbarians. Delicate women who had always lived in luxury were grinding corn andpreparing coarse food for their terrible masters. 

After the conquest was completed the Mongol sovereign exacted onlythree things from the prostrate state--homage, tribute, and a militarycontingent when required. They might retain their land and theircustoms, might worship any god in any way; their Princes might disputefor the thrones as before; but no Prince--not the Grand Princehimself--could ascend a throne until he had permission from the GreatKhan, to whom also every dispute between royal claimants must bedeferred. Then when finally the messenger came from the sovereign withthe _yarlik_, or royal sanction, the Prince must listen kneeling, withhis head in the dust. And if then he was invited (?) to the Mongolcourt to pay homage, he must go, even though it required (as Marco Polotells us) four years to make the journey across the plains and themountains and rivers and the Great Desert of Gobi!

When Yaroslaf II. , third Grand Prince of Suzdal, succeeded to thePrincipality, he was _invited_ to pay this visit. After reachingthere, and after all the degrading ceremonies to which he wassubjected--kissing the stirrup of his Suzerain, and licking up thedrops which fell from his cup as he drank--then this Prince of thefamily of Rurik perished from exhaustion in the Desert of Gobi on hisreturn journey. But this was not all. The yoke was a heavy as well asa degrading one. Each Prince with his _Drujina_ must be always readyto lead an army in defense of the Mongol cause if required; and, lastof all, the poll-tax bore with intolerable weight upon everyone, richor poor, excepting only the ecclesiastics and the property of the GreekChurch, which with a singular clemency they exempted. 

What sort of a despotism was it, and what sort of a being, that couldwield such a power from such a distance! that, across a continent ittook four years to traverse, could compel such obedience; could by aword or a nod bring proud Princes with rage and rebellion in theirhearts to his court--not to be honored and enriched, but degraded andinsulted; then in shame to turn back with their _boyars_ andretinues, --if indeed they were permitted to go back at all, --one-halfof whom would perish from exhaustion by the way. What was the secretof such a power? Even with all the modern appliances for conveying thewill of a sovereign to-day, with railroads to carry his messengers andtelegraph wires to convey his will, would it be conceivable to exertsuch an authority?

And--listen to the language of a proud Russian Prince at the Court ofthe Great Khan: "Lord--all-powerful Tsar, if I have done aught againstyou, I come hither to receive life or death. I am ready for either. Do with me as God inspires you. " Or still another: "My Lord andmaster, by thy mercy hold I my principality--with no title but thyprotection and investiture--thy _yarlik_; while my uncle claims it notby your favor but by right!" It was such pleading as this thatsucceeded; so it is easy to see how Princes at last vied with eachother in being abject. In this particular case the presumptuous unclewas ordered to lead his victorious nephew's horse by the bridle, on hisway to his coronation at Moscow. So the path to success was throughthe dust, and it was the wily Princes of Moscow that most patientlytraveled that road with important results to Russia. 

Novgorod, as we have said, had alone escaped from these degradations. Her Prince Alexander was son of Yaroslaf, the Grand Prince who perishedin the desert on his way home. At the time of the invasion Alexanderwas leading an army against the Swedes and the Livonian Knights indefense of his Baltic provinces. It was Latin Christianity _versus_Greek, and by a great victory upon the banks of the Neva he earnedundying fame and the surname of _Nevski_. Alexander Nevski isremembered as the hero of the Neva and of the North; yet even he wasfinally compelled to grovel at the feet of the barbarians. Novgorodalone had stood erect, had paid no tribute and offered no homage to theKhan. At last, when its destruction was at hand, thirty-six yearsafter the invasion, Nevski had the heroism to submit to the inevitable. He advised a surrender. It needed a soul of iron to brave theindignation of the republic. "He offers us servitude!" they cried. The _Posadnik_ who conveyed the counsel to the _Vetché_ was murdered onthe spot. But Alexander persisted, and he prevailed. His own sonrefused to share his father's disgrace, and left the state. Again andagain the people withdrew the consent they had given. Better mightNovgorod perish! But finally, when Alexander Nevski declared that hewould go, that he would leave them to their fate, they yielded, and theMongols came into a silent city, passing from house to house makinglists of the inhabitants who must pay tribute. 

Then the unhappy Prince went to prostrate himself before the Khan atSaraï. But his heart had broken with his spirit. He had saved hisstate, but the task had been too heavy for him. He died fromexhaustion on his journey home (1260). 

On account of internal convulsions in the Great Tatar Empire, nowunited by Kublai-Khan, the fourth in succession from Genghis-Khan, theGolden-Horde had separated from the parent state, and its Khan wasabsolute ruler of Russia. So from this time the ceremony ofinvestiture was performed at Saraï; and the humiliating pilgrimages ofthe Princes were made to that city. 

The religion of the Mongols at the time of the invasion was a paganismfounded upon sorcery and magic; but they soon thereafter adoptedIslamism, and became ardent followers of the Prophet (1272). Althoughthey never attempted to Tatarize Russia, 250 years of occupation couldnot fail to leave indelible traces upon a civilization which was evenmore than before Orientalized. The dress of the upper classes becamemore Eastern--the flowing caftan replaced the tunic, the blood of theraces mingled to some extent; even the Princes and _boyars_ contractingmarriages with Mongol women, so that in some of the future sovereignsthe blood of the Tatar was to be mingled with that of Rurik. 

A weaker nation would have been crushed and disheartened by suchcalamities as have been described. But Russia was not weak. She had atremendous store of vigor for good or for evil. Life had always been aterrible conflict, with nature and with man, and when there had been noother barbarians to fight, they had fought each other. Every muscleand every sinew had always been in the highest state of activity, andwas toughened and strong, with an inextinguishable vitality. Suchnations do not waste time in sentimental regrets. Their wounds, likethose of animals, heal quickly, and they are urged on by a sort ofinstinct to wear out the chains they cannot break. By the timeNovgorod came under the Tatar yoke the entire state had adjusted itselfto its condition of servitude. Its internal economy wasre-established, the peasants, in their _Mirs_ or communes, sowed andreaped, and the people bought and sold, only a little more patient andsubmissive than before. The burden had grown heavier, but it must beborne and the tribute paid. The Princes, with wits sharpened byconflict, fought as they always had, with uncles, cousins, and brothersfor the thrones; and then governed with a severity as nearly aspossible like the one imposed upon themselves by their own master--theGreat Khan. 

The germ of future Russia was there; a strong, patient, toiling peoplefirmly held by a despotic power which they did not comprehend, anduncomplainingly and as a matter of course giving nearly one-half of thefruit of their toil for the privilege of living in their own land!When her sovereigns had Tatar blood in their veins and Tatar ideals intheir hearts, Russia was on the road to absolutism. All things weretending toward a centralized unity of an iron and inexorable type--atype entirely foreign to the natural free instincts of the Slavonicpeople themselves. 

CHAPTER VIII

RUSSIA BECOMES MUSCOVITE

The tumultuous forces in Russia, never at rest, were preparing torevolve about a new center. Whether this would be in the East or Westwas long in doubt, and only decided after a prolonged struggle. Western Russia grouped itself about the state of the Lithuanians on theBaltic, and Eastern Russia about that of Muscovy. 

The Lithuanians had never been Christianized; they still adored Perunand their pagan deities; and the only bond uniting them with Russia wasthe tribute they had for years reluctantly paid. They were ripe forrebellion; and when after long years of conflict with the Livonian andTeutonic Orders, Latin Christianity obtained some foothold in theirland, they began to gravitate toward Catholic Poland instead of GreekRussia; and when a marriage was suggested which should unite Poland andLithuania under their Prince Iagello, who should reign over both atCracow, and at the same time give them their own Grand Prince, theyconsented. The forces instigating this movement had their source atRome, where the Pope was unceasingly striving, through Germany andPoland, to carry the Latin cross into Russia. Again and again had theGreek Church repulsed the offers of reconciliation and union made byRome. So, much was hoped from the proselyting of the German Orders, and of Catholic Poland, and from the union effected by the marriage ofthe Lithuanian Prince Iagello with the Polish Queen Hedwig. 

The threads composing this network of policies in the West werealtogether ecclesiastical, until Lithuania began to feel strong enoughto wash off her Christian baptism and to indulge in ambitious designsof her own: to struggle away from Poland, and to commence anindependent and aggressive movement against Russia. 

There was an immense vigor in this movement. The power in the West, sometimes Catholic and at heart always pagan, absorbed first towns andcities and then principalities. It began to be a Lithuanian conquest, and overshadowed even Mongol oppression. The Mongol wanted tribute;while Lithuania wanted Russia! But one of the gravest dangers broughtby this war between the East and the West was the standing opportunityit offered to conspirators. An army of disaffected uncles and nephewsand brothers, with their followers, could always find a refuge, andwere always plotting and intriguing and negotiating with Lithuania andPoland, ready even to compromise their faith, if only they might ruinthe existing powers. 

Such, in brief, was the great conflict between the East and West, during which Moscow came into being as the supreme head, the livingcenter and germ of Russian autocracy. 

It seems to have been the extraordinary vitality of one family whichtwice changed the currents of national life: first drawing them fromKief to Suzdal, then from Suzdal toward Moscow, and there establishinga center of growth which has expanded into Russia as it exists to-day. This was the family of _Dolgoruki_. Monomakh and his son GeorgeDolgoruki, the last Grand Prince of Kief, were both men of commandingcharacter and abilities; and it will be remembered that it was AndrewBogoliubski, the son of George (or Yuri), who effected the revolutionwhich transferred the Grand Principality from Kief to Suzdal in thebleak North. Alexander Nevski, the hero of the Neva and of Novgorod, was the descendant of this Andrew (of Suzdal), and it was the son ofNevski who was the first Prince of Moscow and who there established aline of Princes which has come unbroken down to Nicholas II. Contraryto all the traditions of their state this dominating family was goingto establish a _dynasty_, and again to remove the national life to anew center, in a Grand Principality toward which all of Russia wasgradually but inevitably to gravitate until it became _Muscovite_. 

The city which was to exert such an influence upon Russia was foundedin 1147 by George (or Yuri) Dolgoruki, the last Grand Prince of Kief. The story is that upon arriving once at the domain of a _boyar_ namedKutchko, he caused him for some offense to be put to death; then, as helooked out upon the river Moskwa from the height where now stands theKremlin, so pleased was he with the outlook that he then and thereplanted the nucleus of a town. Whether the death of the _boyar_ or thepurpose of appropriating the domain came first, is not stated; but uponthe soil freshly sprinkled with human blood arose _Moscow_. 

The town was of so little importance that its destruction by the Tatarsin 1238 was unobserved. In 1260, when Alexander Nevski died, Moscow, with a few villages, was given as a small appanage or portion to hisson Daniel. Nevski, it must be remembered, was a direct descendant ofMonomakh, and of George Dolgoruki, the founder of Moscow. So the firstPrince of Moscow was of this illustrious line, a line which hasremained unbroken until the present time. 

When Daniel commenced to reign over what was probably the most obscureand insignificant principality in all Russia, it was surrounded by oldand powerful states, in perpetual struggle with each other. TheLithuanian conquest was pressing in from the West and assuming largeproportions; while embracing the whole agitated surface was the odiousenslavement to the Mongols and their oft-recurring invasions to enforcetheir insolent demands. 

The building of the Russian Empire was not a dainty task! It was notto be performed by delicate instruments and gentle hands. It neededbrutal measures and unpitying hearts. Nor could brute force andcruelty do it alone; it required the subtler forces of mind--cold, calculating policies, patience, and craft of a subtle sort. ThePrinces of Russia had long been observant pupils, first atConstantinople, and later at the feet of the Khans. They could meetcruelty with cruelty, cunning with cunning. But it was the Princes ofMoscow who proved themselves masters in these Oriental arts. Theircunning was not of the vulgar sort which works for ends that are near;it was the cunning which could wait, could patiently cringe and feignloyalty and devotion, with the steady purpose of tearing in pieces. Added to this, they had the intelligence to divine the secret of power. Certain ends they kept steadily in view. The old law of succession toeldest collateral heir they set aside from the outset; the principalitybeing invariably divided among the sons of the deceased Prince. Thenthey gradually established the habit of giving to the eldest sonMoscow, and only insignificant portions to the rest. So_primogeniture_ lay at the root of the policy of the new state--andthey had created a dynasty. 

Then their invariable method was by cunning arts to embroil neighboringPrinces in quarrels, and so to ingratiate themselves with their masterthe Khan, that when they appeared before him at Saraï--as theymust--for his decision, while one unfortunate Prince (unless perchancehe was beheaded and did not come away at all) came away without histhrone, the faithful Prince of Moscow returned with a new state addedto his territory and a new title to his name! Was he not always ready, not only to obey himself, but to enforce the obedience of others? Didhe not stand ready to march against Novgorod, or any proud, refractorystate which failed in tribute or homage to his master the Khan? Nogloomier, no darker chapter is written in history than that whichrecords the transition of Russia into _Muscovy_. It was rooted in atragedy, it was nourished by human blood at every step of its growth. It was by base servility to the Khans, by perfidy to their peers, bytreachery and by prudent but pitiless policy, that Moscow rose fromobscurity to the supreme headship--and the name of _Muscovy_ wasattained. 

There was a line of eight Muscovite Princes from Daniel (1260) to thedeath of Vasili (1462), but they moved as steadily toward one end as ifone man had been during those two centuries guiding the policy of thestate. The city of Moscow was made great. The Kremlin was built(1300)--not as we see it now. It required many centuries to accumulateall the treasures within that sacred inclosure of walls, crowned byeighteen towers. But with each succeeding reign there arose newbuildings, more and more richly adorned by jewels and by Byzantine art. 

Then the city became the ecclesiastical center of Russia, when theMetropolitan, second only to the Great Patriarch at Constantinople, wasinduced to remove to Moscow from Vladimir, capital of the GrandPrincipality. This was an important advance; for in the train of thegreat ecclesiastic came splendor of ritual, and wealth and culture andart; and a cathedral and more palaces must be added to the Kremlin. In1328 Ivan I. , the Prince of Moscow, being the eldest descendant ofRurik, fell heir by the old law of succession to the GrandPrincipality. So now the Prince of Moscow was also Grand Prince ofVladimir, or of Suzdal, which was the same thing; and as he continuedto dwell in his own capital, the Grand Principality was ruled fromMoscow. The first act of this Grand Prince was to claim sovereigntyover Novgorod. The people were deprived of their Vetché and their_posadnik_, while one of his own _boyars_ represented his authority andruled as their Prince. Then the compliant Khan bestowed upon hisfaithful vassal the triple crown of Vladimir, Moscow, and Novgorod, towhich were soon to be added many others. 

The next step was to be the setting aside of the old Slavonic law ofinheritance, and claiming the throne of the Grand Principality for theoldest son of the last reigning Grand Prince; making sure at the sametime that this Prince belonged to the Muscovite line. This was notentirely accomplished until 1431, when Vasili carried his dispute tothe Horde for the Khan's decision. The other disputant, who was makinga desperate stand for his rights under the old system of seniority, wasthe "presumptuous uncle" already mentioned, who was, it will beremembered, commanded to lead by the bridle the horse of his triumphantMuscovite nephew. The sons of the disappointed uncle, however, conspired with success even after that; and finally, in a rage, Vasiliordered that the eyes of one of his cousins be put out. But timebrings its revenges. Ten years later the Grand Prince, on an evil day, fell into the hands of the remaining cousin, --brother of hisvictim, --and had his own eyes put out. So he was thereafter known as"Vasili the Blind. " This wily Prince kept his oldest son Ivan close tohim; and, that there might be no doubt about his succession, sofamiliarized him with his position and placed him so firmly in thesaddle that it would not be easy to unseat him when his own deathoccurred. 

Many things had been happening during these two centuries besides theabsorption of the Russian principalities by Moscow. The ambitiousdesigns of Lithuania, in which Poland and Hungary, and the GermanKnights and Latin Christianity, were all involved, had been checked, and the disappointed state of Lithuania was gravitating toward a unionwith Poland. More important still, the Empire of the Khan was fallinginto pieces. The process had been hastened by a tremendous victoryobtained by the Grand Prince Dmitri in 1378, on the banks of the Don. In the same way that Alexander Nevski obtained the surname of Nevski bythe battle on the Neva, so Dmitri Donskoi won his upon the river Don. Hitherto the Tatars had been resisted, but not attacked. It was thefirst real outburst against the Mongol yoke, and it shook thefoundations of their authority. Then dissensions among themselves, andthe struggles of numerous claimants for the throne at Saraï broke theGolden-Horde into five Khanates each claiming supremacy. 

CHAPTER IX

PASSING OF BYZANTIUM--MONGOL YOKE BROKEN

Something else had been taking place during these two centuries:something which involved the future, not alone of Russia, but of allEurope. In 1250, just ten years before Daniel established the line ofPrinces in Moscow, a little band of marauding Turks were encamped upona plain in Asia Minor. They were led by an adventurer named Etrogruhl. For some service rendered to the ruler of the land Etrogruhl received astrip of territory as his reward, and when he died his son Othmandisplayed such ability in increasing his inheritance by absorbing thelands of other people that he became the terror of his neighbors. Hehad laid the foundation of the Ottoman empire and was the first of aline of thirty-five sovereigns, extending down to the present time. Itis the descendant of Othman and of Etrogruhl the adventurer who sitsto-day at Constantinople blocking the path to the East and defyingChristendom. These Ottoman Turks were going to accomplish what RussianPrinces from the time of Rurik and Oleg had longed and failed to do. They were going to break the power of the old empire in the East andmake the coveted city on the Bosphorus their own. In 1453, thesuccessor of Othman was in Constantinople. 

The Pope, always hoping for a reconciliation, and always striving forthe headship of a united Christendom, had in 1439 made fresh overturesto the Greek Church. The Emperor at Constantinople, three of thePatriarchs, and seventeen of the Metropolitans--including the one atMoscow--at last signed the Act of Union. But when the astonishedRussians heard the prayer for the Pope, and saw the Latin cross upontheir altars, their indignation knew no bounds. The Grand PrinceVasili so overwhelmed the Metropolitan with insults that he could notremain in Moscow, and the Union was abandoned. Its wisdom as apolitical measure cannot be doubted. If the Emperor had had thesympathy of the Pope, and the championship of Catholic Europe, theTurks might not have entered Constantinople in 1453. But they had notthat sympathy, and the Turks did enter it; and no one event has everleft so lasting an impress upon civilization as the overthrow of theold Byzantine Empire, and the giving to the winds, to carry whitherthey would, its hoarded treasures of ancient ideals. Byzantium hadbeen the heir to Greece, and now Russia claimed to be heir toByzantium; while the head of Russia was Moscow, and the head of Moscowwas Ivan III. , who had just settled himself firmly on the seat left byhis father, "Vasili the Blind" (1462). 

Christendom had never received such a blow. Where had been before arebellious and alienated brother, who might in time be reconciled, there was now--and at the very Gate of Europe--the infidel Turk, thebitterest and most dangerous foe to Christianity; bearing the samehated emblem that Charles Martel had driven back over the Pyrenees (in732), and which had enslaved the Spanish Peninsula for seven hundredyears; but, unlike the Saracen, bringing barbarism instead ofenlightenment in its train. 

The Pope, in despair and grief, turned toward Russia. Its Metropolitanhad become a Patriarch now, and the headship of the Greek Church hadpassed from Constantinople to Moscow. A niece of the last GreekEmperor, John Paleologus, had taken refuge in Rome; and when the Popesuggested the marriage of this Greek Princess Zoë with Ivan III. , theproposition was joyfully accepted by him. After changing her name fromZoë to Sophia, and making a triumphal journey through Russia, thisdaughter of the Emperors reached Moscow and became the bride of IvanIII. Moscow had long been the ecclesiastical head of Russia; now shewas the spiritual head of the Church in the East, and her ruling familywas joined to that of the Caesars. Russia had certainly fallen heir toall that was left of the wreck of the Empire, and her future sovereignsmight trace their lineage back to the Roman Caesars!

Moscow, by its natural position, was the distributing center of Russianproducts. The wood from the North, the corn from the fertile lands, and the food from the cattle region all poured into her lap, making herthe commercial as well as the spiritual and political center. Nowthere flowed to that favored city another enriching stream. Followingin the train of Ivan's Greek wife, were scholars, statesmen, diplomatists, artists. A host of Greek emigrants fleeing from theTurks, took refuge in Moscow, bringing with them books, manuscripts, and priceless treasures rescued from the ruined Empire. If this was aperiod of _Renaissance_ for Western Europe, was it not rather a_Naissance_ for Russia? What must have been the Russian _people_ whenher princes were still only barbarians? If Ivan valued these things, it was because they had been worn by Byzantium, and to him theysymbolized power. There was plenty of rough work for him to do yet. There were Novgorod and her sister-republic Pskof to be wiped out, andSweden and the Livonian Order on his borders to be looked after, Bulgaria and other lands to be absorbed, and last and most important ofall, the Mongol yoke to be broken. And while he was planning for thesehe had little time for Greek manuscripts; he was introducing the_knout_, [1] until then a stranger to his Slavonic people; he was havingPrinces and _boyars_ and even ecclesiastics whipped and tortured andmutilated; and, it is said, roasted alive two Polish gentlemen in aniron cage, for conspiracy. We hear that women fainted at his glance, and _boyars_ trembled while he slept; that instead of "Ivan the Great"he would be known as "Ivan the Terrible, " had not his grandson Ivan IV. So far outshone him. That he had his softer moods we know. For heloved his Greek wife, and shed tears copiously over his brother'sdeath, even while he was appropriating all the territory which hadbelonged to him. And so great was his grief over the death of his onlyson, that he ordered the physicians who had attended him to be publiclybeheaded!

The art of healing seems to have been a dangerous calling at that time. A learned German physician, named Anthony, in whom Ivan placed muchconfidence, was sent by him to attend a Tatar Prince who was a visitorat his court. When the Prince died after taking a decoction of herbsprepared by the physician, Ivan gave him up to the Tatar relatives ofthe deceased, to do with him as they liked. They took him down to theriver Moskwa under the bridge, where they cut him in pieces like asheep. 

Ivan III. Was not a warrior Prince like his great progenitors at Kief. It was even suspected that he lacked personal courage. He rarely ledhis armies to battle. His greatest triumphs were achieved sitting inhis palace in the Kremlin; and his weapons were found in a cunning andfar-reaching diplomacy. He swept away the system of appanages, and oneby one effaced the privileges and the old legal and judicial systems inthose Principalities which were not yet entirely absorbed. Whilemaintaining an outward respect for Mongol authority, and whilereceiving its friendly aid in his attacks upon Novgorod and Lithuania, he was carefully laying his plans for open defiance. He cunninglyrefrained from paying tribute and homage on the pretense that he couldnot decide which of the five was lawful Khan. 

In 1478 an embassy arrived at Moscow to collect tribute, bringing asthe symbol of their authority an image of the Khan Akhmet. Ivan toreoff the mask of friendship. In a fury he trampled the image under hisfeet and (it is said) put to death all except one whom he sent backwith his message to the Golden Horde. The astonished Khan sent wordthat he would pardon him if he would come to Saraï and kiss his stirrup. 

At last Ivan consented to lead his own army to meet that of the enragedKhan. The two armies confronted each other on the banks of the Oka. Then after a pause of several days, suddenly both were seized with apanic and fled. And so in this inglorious fashion in 1480, after threecenturies of oppression and insult, Russia slipped from under theMongol yoke. There were many Mongol invasions after this. Many timesdid they unite with Lithuanians and Poles and the enemies of Russia;many times were they at the gates of Moscow, and twice did they burnthat city--excepting the Kremlin--to the ground. But never again wasthere homage or tribute paid to the broken and demoralized Asiaticpower which long lingered about the Crimea. There are to-day twomillions of nomad Mongols encamped about the south-eastern steppes ofRussia, still living in tents, still raising and herding their flocks, little changed in dress, habits, and character since the days ofGenghis Khan. While this is written a famine is said to be ragingamong them. This is the last remnant of the great Mongol invasion. 

In 1487 Ivan marched upon Kazan. The city was taken after a siege ofseven weeks. The Tsar of Kazan was a prisoner in Moscow and "Prince ofBulgaria" was added to the titles of Ivan III. 

[1] From the word knot. 

CHAPTER X

GRAND PRINCE BECOMES TSAR

Vasili, who succeeded Ivan III. In 1505, continued his work on the samelines of absorption and consolidation by unmerciful means. Pskof, --thesister republic to Novgorod the Great, --which had guarded its libertieswith the same passionate devotion, was obliged to submit. The bellwhich had always summoned their _Vetché_, and which symbolized theirliberty, was carried away. Their lament is as famous as that for theMoorish city of Alhama, when taken by Ferdinand of Aragon. The poeticannalist says: "Alas! glorious city of Pskof--why this weeping andlamentation?" Pskof replies: "How can I but weep and lament? An eaglewith claws like a lion has swooped down upon me. He has captured mybeauty, my riches, my children. Our land is a desert! our city ruined. Our brothers have been carried away to a place where our fathers neverdwelt--nor our grandfathers--nor our great-grandfathers!" In the wholetragic story of Russia nothing is more pathetic and picturesque thanthe destruction of the two republics--Novgorod and Pskof. 

By 1523 the last state had yielded, and the Muscovite absorption wascomplete. There was but one Russia; and the head of the consolidatedempire called himself not "Grand Prince of all the Russias, " but_Tsar_. When it is remembered that Tsar is only the Slavonic form for_Caesar_, it will be seen that the dream of the Varangian Princes hadbeen in an unexpected way realized. The Tsar of Russia was thesuccessor of the Caesars in the East. 

Vasili's method of choosing a wife was like that of Ahasuerus. Fifteenhundred of the most beautiful maidens of noble birth were assembled atMoscow. After careful scrutiny the number was reduced to ten, then tofive--from these the final choice was made. His wife's relationsformed the court of Vasili, became his companions and advisers, _boyars_ vying with each other for the privilege of waiting upon histable or assisting at his toilet. But the office of adviser was adifficult one. To one great lord who in his inexperience ventured tooffer counsel, as in the olden time of the _Drujina_, he said sharply:"Be silent, rustic. " While still another, more indiscreet, who hadventured to complain that they were not consulted, was ordered to hisbedchamber, and there had his head cut off. 

The court grew in barbaric and in Greek splendor. As the Tsar sat uponthe throne supported by mechanical lions which roared at intervals, hewas guarded by young nobles with high caps of white fur, wearing longcaftans of white satin and armed with silver hatchets. Greekscholarship was also there. A learned monk and friend of Savonarolawas translating Greek books and arranging for him the priceless volumesin his library. Vasili himself was now in correspondence with Pope LeoX. , who was using all his arts to induce him to make friends withCatholic Poland and join in the most important of all wars--a war uponConstantinople, of which he, Vasili, the spiritual and temporal heir tothe Eastern Empire, was the natural protector. 

All this was very splendid. But things were moving with the momentumgained by his father, Ivan the Great. It was Vasili's inheritance, nothis reign, that was great. That inheritance he had maintained andincreased. He had humiliated the nobility, had developed the movementsinitiated by his greater father, and had also shown tastes magnificentenough for the heir of his imperial mother, Sophia Paleologus. But heis overshadowed in history by standing between the two Ivans--Ivan theGreat and Ivan the Terrible. 

[Illustration: The Czar Iván the Terrible and his son Iván Ivánovitch. From the painting by I. E. Répin. ]

Leo X. Was soon too much occupied with a new foe to think about designsupon Constantinople. A certain monk was nailing a protest upon thedoor of the Church at Wittenburg which would tax to the uttermost hisenergies. As from time to time travelers brought back tales of thesplendor of the Muscovite court, Europe was more than ever afraid ofsuch neighbors. What might these powerful barbarians not do, if theyadopted European methods! More stringent measures were enforced. Theymust not have access to the implements of civilization, and Sigismund, King of Poland, threatened English merchants on the Baltic with death. 

It is a singular circumstance that although, up to the time of Ivan theGreat, Russia had apparently not one thing in common with the states ofWestern Europe, they were still subject to the same great tides ortendencies and were moving simultaneously toward identical politicalconditions. An invisible but compelling hand had been upon everyEuropean state, drawing the power from many heads into one. In Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella had brought all the smaller kingdoms and theMoors under one united crown. In France, Louis XI. Had shattered thefabric of feudalism, and by artful alliance with the people hadhumiliated and subjugated the proud nobility. Henry VIII. Hadestablished absolutism in England, and Maximilian had done the same forGermany, while even the Italian republics, were being gathered into thehands of larger sovereignties. From this distance in time it is easyto see the prevailing direction in which all the nations were beingirresistibly drawn. 

The hour had struck for the tide to flow toward _centralisation_; andRussia, remote, cut off from all apparent connection with the Westernkingdoms, was borne along upon the same tide with the rest, as if itwas already a part of the same organism! There, too, the power waspassing from the many to one: first from many ruling families to onefamily, then from all the individual members of that family to asupreme and permanent head--the Tsar. 

There were many revolutions in Russia from the time when the Dolgorukisturned the life-currents from Kief to the North; many centers ofvolcanic energy in fearful state of activity, and many times when ruinthreatened from every side. But in the midst of all this there was onesteady process--one end being always approached--a consolidation and acentralization of authority before which European monarchies wouldpale! The process commenced with the autocratic purposes of AndrewBogoliubski. And it was because his _boyars_ instinctively knew thatthe success of his policy meant their ruin that they assassinated him. 

In "Old Russia" a close and fraternal tie bound the Prince and his_Drujina_ together. It was one family, of which he was the adoredhead. What characterized the "New Russia" was a growing antagonismbetween the Grand Prince and his lords or _boyars_. This developedinto a life-and-death struggle, similar to that between Louis XI. Andhis nobility. His elevation meant their humiliation. It was aterrible clash of forces--a duel in which one was the instrument offate, and the other predestined to destruction. 

It was of less importance during the period between Andrew Bogoliubskiand Ivan IV. That Mongols were exercising degrading tyranny and makingdesperate reprisals for defeat--that Lithuania and Poland, andconspirators everywhere, were by arms and by diplomacy and by treacherytrying to ruin the state; all this was of less import than the factthat every vestige of authority was surely passing out of the hands ofthe nobility into those of the Tsar. The fight was a desperate one. It became open and avowed under Ivan III. , still more bitter under hisson Vasili II. , and culminated at last under Ivan the Terrible, when, like an infuriated animal, he let loose upon them all the pent-upinstincts in his blood. 

CHAPTER XI

IVAN THE TERRIBLE--ACQUISITION OF SIBERIA

In 1533 Vasili II. Died, leaving the scepter to Ivan IV. , an infant sonthree years old. Now the humiliated Princes and _boyars_ were to havetheir turn. The mother of Ivan IV. , Helena Glinski, was the onlyobstacle in their way. She speedily died, the victim of poison, andthen there was no one to stem the tide of princely and oligarchicreaction against autocracy; and the many years of Ivan's minority wouldgive plenty of time to re-establish their lost authority. The _boyars_took possession of the government. Ivan wrote later: "My brother and Iwere treated like the children of beggars. We were half clothed, cold, and hungry. " The _boyars_ in the presence of these childrenappropriated the luxuries and treasures in the palace and thenplundered the people as well, exacting unmerciful fines and treatingthem like slaves. The only person who loved the neglected Ivan was hisnurse, and she was torn from him; and for a courtier to pity theforlorn child was sufficient for his downfall. Ivan had a superiorintelligence. He read much and was keenly observant of all that washappening. He saw himself treated with insolent contempt in private, but with abject servility in public. He also observed that hissignature was required to give force to everything that was done, andso discovered that he was the rightful master, that the real power wasvested only in him. Suddenly, in 1543, he sternly summoned his courtto come into his presence, and, ordering the guards to seize the chiefoffender among his _boyars_, he then and there had him torn to piecesby his hounds. This was a _coup d'état_ by a boy of thirteen! He wascontent with the banishment of many others, and then Ivan IV. Peacefully commenced his reign. He seemed a gentle, indolent youth;very confiding in those he trusted; inclined to be a voluptuary, lovingpleasure and study and everything better than affairs of state. In1547 he was crowned Tsar of Russia, and soon thereafter marriedAnastasia of the house of Romanoff, whom he devotedly loved. As wasthe custom, he surrounded himself with his mother's and his wife'srelations. So the Glinskis and the Romanoffs were the envied familiesin control of the government. His mother's family, the Glinskis, wereespecially unpopular; and when a terrific fire destroyed nearly thewhole of Moscow it was whispered by jealous _boyars_ that the PrincessAnna Glinski had brought this misfortune upon them by enchantments. She had taken human hearts, boiled them in water, and then sprinkledthe houses where the fire started! An enraged populace burst into thepalace of the Glinskis, murdering all they could find. 

Ivan, nervous and impressionable, seems to have been profoundlyaffected by all this. He yielded to the popular demand and appointedtwo men to administer the government, spiritual and temporal--Adashef, belonging to the smaller nobility, and Silvester, a priest. Believingabsolutely in their fidelity, he then concerned himself very littleabout affairs of state, and engaged in the completion of the workcommenced by Ivan III. --a revision of the old code of laws establishedby Yaroslaf. These were very peaceful and very happy years for Russiaand for himself. But Ivan was stricken with a fever, and whileapparently in a dying condition he discovered the treachery of histrusted ministers, that they were shamefully intriguing with his Tatarenemies. When he heard their rejoicings that the day of the Glinskisand the Romanoffs was over, he realized the fate awaiting Anastasia andher infant son if he died. He resolved that he would not die. 

Banishment seems a light punishment to have inflicted. It was gentletreatment for treason at the court of Moscow. But the poison ofsuspicion had entered his soul, and was the more surely, becauseslowly, working a transformation in his character. And when soonthereafter Anastasia mysteriously and suddenly died, his whole natureseemed to be undergoing a change. He was passing from Ivan the gentleand confiding, into "Ivan the Terrible. "

Ivan said later, in his own vindication: "When that dog Adashefbetrayed me, was anyone put to death? Did I not show mercy? They saynow that I am cruel and irascible; but to whom? I am cruel towardthose that are cruel to me. The good! ah, I would give them the robeand the chain that I wear! My subjects would have given me over to theTatars, sold me to my enemies. Think of the enormity of the treason!If some were chastised, was it not for their crimes, and are they notmy slaves--and shall I not do what I will with mine own?"

His grievances were real. His _boyars_ were desperate and determined, and even with their foreheads in the dust were conspiring against him. They were no less terrible than he toward their inferiors. There nevercould be anything but anarchy in Russia so long as this aristocracy ofcruel slave-masters existed. Ivan (like Louis XI. ) was girding himselffor the destruction of the power of his nobility, and, as oneconspiracy after another was revealed, faster and faster flowed thetorrent of his rage. 

In 1571 he devoutly asked the prayers of the Church for 3470 of hisvictims, 986 of whom he mentioned by name; many of these being followedby the sinister addition: "With his wife and children"; "with hissons"; "with his daughters. " A gentle, kindly Prince had beenconverted into a monster of cruelty, who is called, by the historiansof his own country, the Nero of Russia. 

He was a pious Prince, like all of the Muscovite line. Not one of hissubjects was more faithful in religious observances than was this"torch of orthodoxy"--who frequently called up his household in themiddle of the night for prayers. Added to the above pious petition formercy to his victims, is this reference to Novgorod: "Remember, Lord, the souls of thy servants to the number of 1505 persons--Novgorodians, whose names, Almighty, thou knowest. "

That Republic had made its last break for liberty. Under theleadership of Marfa, the widow of a wealthy and powerful noble, it hadthrown itself in despair into the arms of Catholic Poland. This wastreason to the Tsar and to the Church, and its punishment was awful. The desperate woman who had instigated the act was carried in chains toMoscow, there to behold her two sons with the rest of the conspiratorsbeheaded. The bell which for centuries had summoned her citizens tothe _Vetché_, that sacred symbol of the liberty of the Republic, is nowin the Museum at Moscow. If its tongue should speak, if its clarioncall should ring out once more, perhaps there might come from theshades a countless host of her martyred dead--"Whose names, Almighty, thou knowest. " Ivan then proceeded to wreck the prosperity of therichest commercial city in his empire. Its trade was enormous with theEast and the West. It had joined the Hanseatic League, and its wealthwas largely due to the German merchants who had flocked there. Withsingular lack of wisdom, the Tsar had confiscated the property of thesemen, and now the ruin of the city was complete. 

While Germany, and Poland, and Sweden, --resolved to shut up Russia inher barbaric isolation, --were locking the front door on the Baltic andthe Gulf, England had found a side door by which to enter. With greatsatisfaction Ivan saw English traders coming in by way of the WhiteSea, and he extended the rough hand of his friendship to QueenElizabeth, who made with him a commercial treaty, which wascountersigned by Francis Bacon. Then, as his friendship warmed, heproposed that they should sign a reciprocal engagement to furnish eachother with an asylum in the event of the rebellion of their subjects. Elizabeth declined the asylum he kindly offered her, "finding, by thegrace of God, no dangers of the sort in her kingdom. " Then he did herthe honor to offer an alliance of a different kind. He proposed thatshe should send him her cousin Lady Mary Hastings to take the placeleft vacant by his eighth wife--to become his Tsaritsa. Theproposition was considered, but when the English maiden heard about hisbrutalities and about his seven wives, so terrified was she that sherefused to leave England, and the affair had to be abandoned. Elizabeth's rejection of his proposals, and also of his plan for analliance offensive and defensive against Poland and Sweden, soinfuriated Ivan that he confiscated the goods of the English merchants, and this friendship was temporarily ruptured. But amicable relationswere soon restored between Elizabeth and her barbarian admirer. If shehad heard of his awful vengeance in 1571, she had also heard of themassacre of St. Bartholomew in Paris in 1572!

Russia had now opened diplomatic relations with the Western kingdoms. The foreign ambassadors were received with great pomp in a sumptuoushall hung with tapestries and blazing with gold and silver. The Tsar, with crown and scepter, sat upon his throne, supported by the roaringlions, and carefully studied the new ambassador as he suavely asked himabout his master. A police inspector from that moment never lost sightof him, making sure that he obtained no interviews with the natives norinformation about the state of the country. Although the Tsar wasreputed to be learned and was probably the most learned man in hisnation, and had always about him a coterie of distinguished scholars, still there was no intellectual life in Russia, and owing to theOriental seclusion of the women there was no society. The men wereheavily bearded, and the ideal of beauty with the women, as they lookedfurtively out from behind veils and curtains, was to be fat, with red, white, and black paint laid on like a mask. It must have been a drearypost for gay European diplomats, and in marked contrast to gay, witty, gallant Poland, at that time thoroughly Europeanized. 

Next to the consolidation of the imperial authority, the event in thisreign most affecting the future of Russia was the acquisition ofSiberia. A Cossack brigand under sentence of death escaped with hisfollowers into the land beyond the Urals, and conquered a part of theterritory, then returned and offered it to Ivan (1580) in exchange fora pardon. The incident is the subject of a _bilina_, a form ofhistorical poem, in which Yermak says:

 "I am the robber Hetman of the Don. And now--oh--orthodox Tsar, I bring you my traitorous head, And with it I bring the Empire of Siberia!

 And the orthodox Tsar will speak-- He will speak--the terrible Ivan, Ha! thou art Yermak, the Hetman of the Don, I pardon thee and thy band, I pardon thee for thy trusty service-- And I give to the Cossack the glorious and gentle Don as an inheritance. "

The two Ivans had created a new code of laws, and now there was anample prison-house for its transgressors! The penal code wasfrightful. An insolvent debtor was tied up half naked in a publicplace and beaten three hours a day for thirty or forty days, and then, if no one came to his rescue, with his wife and his children he wassold as a slave. But Siberia was to be the prison-house of a moreserious class of offenders for whom this punishment would beinsufficient. It was to serve as a vast penal colony for crimesagainst the state. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century it issaid one million political exiles have been sent there, and theycontinue to go at the rate of twenty thousand a year; showing howuseful a present was made by the robber Yermak to the "Orthodox Tsar"!

This reign, like that of Louis XI. Of France, which it much resembled, enlarged the privileges of the people in order to aid Ivan in hisconflict with his nobility. For this purpose a _Sobor_, orStates-General, was summoned by him, and met at long intervalsthereafter until the time of Peter the First. 

Of the two sons left to Ivan by his wife Anastasia, only one nowremained. In a paroxysm of rage he had struck the Tsarevitch with hisiron staff. He did not intend to kill him, but the blow was mortal. Great and fierce was the sorrow of the Tsar when he found he had slainhis beloved son--the one thing he loved upon earth, and there remainedto inherit the fruit of his labors and his crimes only another child(Feodor) enfeebled in body and mind, and an infant (Dmitri), the son ofhis seventh wife. His death, hastened by grief, took place three yearslater, in 1584. 

CHAPTER XII

SERFDOM CREATED--THE FIRST ROMANOFF

Occasionally there arises a man in history who, without distinction ofbirth or other advantages, is strong enough by sheer ability to graspthe opportunity, vault into power, and then stem the tide of events. Such a man was Godwin, father of Harold, last Saxon King; in England;and such a man was Boris Godunof, a _boyar_, who had so faithfullyserved the terrible Ivan that he leaned upon him and at last confidedto him the supervision of his feeble son Feodor, when he should succeedhim. The plans of this ambitious usurper were probably laid from thetime of the tragic death of Ivan's son, the Tsarevitch. He broughtabout the marriage of his beautiful sister Irene with Feodor, and fromthe hour of Ivan's death was virtual ruler. Dmitri, the infant son ofthe late Tsar, aged five years, was prudently placed at a distance--andsoon thereafter mysteriously died (1591). There can be no doubt thatthe unexplained tragedy of this child's death was perfectly understoodby Boris; and when Feodor also died, seven years later (1598), therewas not one of the old Muscovite line to succeed to the throne. But sowise had been the administration of affairs by the astute Regent that achange was dreaded. A council offered him the crown, which he feigneda reluctance to accept, preferring that the invitation should come froma source which would admit of no question as to his rights in thefuture. Accordingly, the States-General or _Sobor_ was convened, andBoris Godunof was chosen by acclamation. 

The work of three reigns was undone. A _boyar_ was Tsar of Russia--anda _boyar_ not in the line of Rurik and with Tatar blood in his veins!But this bold and unscrupulous man had performed a service to thestate. The work of the Muscovite Princes was finished, and theextinction of the line was the next necessary event in the path ofprogress. 

Boris had large and comprehensive views and proceeded upon new lines ofpolicy to reconstruct the state. He saw that Russia must beEuropeanized, and he also saw that at least one radical change in herinternal policy might be used to insure his popularity with the Princesand nobles. The Russian peasantry was an enormous force which was notutilized to its fullest extent. It included almost the entire ruralpopulation of Russia. The peasant was legally a freeman. He livedunchanged under the old Slavonic patriarchal system of _Mirs_, orcommunes, and _Volosts_. These were the largest politicalorganizations of which he had personal cognizance. He knew nothingabout Muscovite consolidation, nor oligarchy, nor autocracy. No crumbsfrom the modern banquet had fallen into his lap. With a thin veneer oforthodoxy over their paganism and superstition the people listened inchildish wonder to the same old tales--they lived their old primitivelife of toil under the same system of simple fair-dealing and justice. If their commune owned the land it tilled, they all shared the benefitof the harvests, paid their tax to the state, and all was well. Ifnot, it swarmed like a community of bees to some wealthy neighbor'sestate and sold its labor to him, and then if he proved too hard ataskmaster--even for a patient Russian peasant--they might swarm againand work for another. 

The tie binding them to special localities was only the very slightest. There were no mountains to love, one part of the monotonous plateau wasabout like another; and as for their homes, their wooden huts wereburned down so often there were no memories attached to them. 

The result of this was that the peasantry--that immense force uponwhich the state at last depended--was not stable and permanent, butfluid. At the slightest invitation of better wages, or better soil orconditions, whole communities might desert a locality--would gather uptheir goods and walk off. Boris, while Regent, conceived the idea ofcorrecting this evil, in a way which would at the same time make him avery popular ruler with the class whose support he most needed, thePrinces and the landowners. He would chain the peasant to the soil. Adecree was issued that henceforth the peasant must not go from oneestate to another. He belonged to the land he was tilling, as thetrees that grew on it belonged to it, and the master of that land washis master for evermore!

Such, in brief outline, was the system of serfdom which prevailed until1861. It was in theory, though not practically, unlike the institutionof American slavery. The people, still living in their communes, stillclung to the figment of their freedom, not really understanding thatthey were slaves, but feeling rather that they were freemen whosesacred rights had been cruelly invaded. That they were giving to hardmasters the fruit of their toil on their own lands. 

Now that Russia was becoming a modern state, it required more money togovern her. Civilization is costly, and the revenues must not befluctuating. Boris saw they could only be made sure by attaching tothe soil the peasant, whose labor was at the foundation of theprosperity of the state. It was the peasant who bore the weight of anexpanded civilization which he did not share! The visitor at Moscowto-day may see in the Kremlin a wonderful tower, 270 feet high, whichwas erected in honor of Ivan the Great by the usurper Boris; but themonument which keeps his memory alive is the more stupendous oneof--Serfdom. 

The expected increase in prosperity from the new system did notimmediately come. The revenues were less than before. Bands offugitive serfs were fleeing from their masters and joining thecommunity of free Cossacks on the Don. Lands were untilled, there wasmisery, and at last there was famine, and then discontent anddemoralization extending to the upper classes, and a diminished incomewhich finally bore upon the Tsar himself. 

Suddenly there came a rumor that Dmitri, the infant son of Ivan theTerrible, was not dead! He was living in Poland, and withincontestable proofs of his identity was coming to claim his own. In1604 he crossed the frontier, and thousands of discontented peopleflocked to his standard with wild enthusiasm. Boris had died justbefore Dmitri reached Moscow. He entered the city, and the infatuatedpeople placed in his hand and upon his head the scepter and the crownof Ivan IV. ; and after making sure that the wife and the son of BorisGodunof were strangled, this amazing Pretender commenced his reign. 

An extraordinary thing had happened. A nameless adventurer andimpostor had been received with tears of joy as the son of Ivan and ofSt. Vladimir, the seventh wife of Ivan the Terrible even recognizingand embracing him as her son! But Dmitri had not the wisdom to keepwhat his cunning had won. His Polish wife came, followed by a suite ofPolish Catholics, who began to carry things with a high hand. Theclergy was offended and soon enraged. In five years Dmitri wasassassinated, and his mutilated corpse was lying in the palace at theKremlin, an object of insult and derision; and then, for Russia therecame another chaos. 

For a brief period Vasili Shuiski, head of one of the princelyfamilies, reigned, while two more "false Dmitris" appeared, one fromSweden and the other from Poland. The cause of the latter was upheldby the King of Poland, with the ulterior purpose of bringing thedisordered state of Russia under the Polish crown, and making one greatSlav kingdom with its center at Cracow. 

So disorganized had the State become that some of the Princes hadactually opened negotiations with Sigismund with a view to offering thecrown to his son. But when Sigismund with an invading army was inMoscow (1610), and when Vasili Shuiski was a prisoner in Poland, and aPolish Prince was claiming the title of Tsar, there came anawakening--not among the nobility, but deep down in the heart oforthodox Russia. From this awakening of a dormant national sentimentand of the religious instincts of the people there developed thatevent, --the most health-restoring which can come to the life of anation, --a national uprising in which all classes unite in averting acommon disaster. What disaster could be for Russia more terrible thanan absorption into Catholic Poland? The Polish intruders andpretenders were driven out, and then a great National Assembly gatheredat Moscow (1613) to elect a Tsar. 

The name of Romanoff was unstained by crime, and was by maternalancestry allied to the royal race of Rurik. The newly awakenedpatriotism turned instinctively toward that, as the highest expressionof their hopes; and Mikhail Romanoff, a youth of 16, was elected Tsar. 

It was in 1547 that Anastasia, of the House of Romanoff, had marriedIvan IV. At about the same time her brother was married to a Princessof Suzdal, a descendant of the brother of Alexander Nevski. ThisPrincess was the grandmother of Mikhail Romanoff, and the source fromwhich has sprung the present ruling house in Russia. 

CHAPTER XIII

NIKON'S ATTEMPT--RASKOLNIKS

In the building of an empire there are two processes--the building up, and the tearing down. The plow is no less essential than the trowel. The period after Boris had been for Russia the period of the wholesomeplow. The harvest was far off. But the name Romanoff was going tostand for another Russia, not like the old Russia of Kief, nor yet thenew Russia of Moscow; but another and a Europeanized Russia, in which, after long struggles, the Slavonic and half-Asiatic giant was going totear down the walls of separation, escape from his barbarism, andcompel Europe to share with him her civilization. 

The man who was to make the first breach in the walls was the grandsonof Mikhail Romanoff--Peter, known as "The Great. " But the mills of thegods grind slowly--especially when they have a great work in hand; andthere were to be three colorless reigns before the coming of theLiberator in 1689--seventy-six years before they would learn that tohave a savage despot seated on a barbaric throne, with crown and robesincrusted with jewels, and terrorizing a brutish, ignorant, andbarbaric people--was not to be Great. 

The reigns of Mikhail and of his son Alexis and his grandson Feodorwere to be reigns of preparation and reform. Of course there wereturbulent uprisings and foreign wars, and perils on the frontiers nearthe Baltic and the Black seas. But Russia was gaining in ascendencywhile Poland, from whom she had narrowly escaped, was fast declining. The European rulers began to see advantages for themselves from Russianalliances. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and champion ofProtestantism, made an eloquent appeal to the Tsar to join him againstCatholic Poland--"Was not the Romish Church their common enemy?--andwere they not neighbors?--and when your neighbor's house is afire, isit not the part of wisdom and prudence to help to put it out?" Polandsuffered a serious blow when a large body of Cossacks, who were hervassals, and her chief arm of defense in the Southeast, in 1681transferred themselves bodily to Russia. 

The Cossacks were a Slavonic people, with no doubt a plentiful infusionof Asiatic blood, and their name in the Tatar language meantFreebooters. They had long dwelt about the Don and the Dnieper, inwhat is known as Little Russia, a free and rugged community which wasrecruited by Russians after the Tatar invasion and Polish conquest, byoppressed peasants after the creation of serfdom, and by adventurersand fugitives from justice at all times. It was a militaryorganization, and its Constitution was a pure democracy. Freedom andindependence were their first necessity. Their Hetman, or chief, heldoffice for one year only, and anyone might attain to that position. Their horsemanship was unrivaled--they were fearless and enduring, andstood ready to sell their services to the Khan of Tatary, the King ofPoland, or to the Tsar of Russia. In fact, they were the Northmen ofthe South and East, and are now--the Rough-Riders of Russia. 

They had long ago divided into two bands, the "Cossacks of theDnieper, " loosely bound to Poland, and the "Cossacks of the Don, "owning the sovereignty of Russia. The services of these fearlessadventurers were invaluable as a protection from Turks and Tatars; and, as we have seen in the matter of Siberia, they sometimes brought backprizes which offset their misdoings. The King of Poland unwiselyattempted to proselyte his Cossacks of the Dnieper, sent Jesuitmissionaries among them, and then concluded to break their spirit byseverities and make of them obedient loyal Catholic subjects. He mightas well have tried to chain the winds. They offered to the Tsar theirallegiance in return for his protection, and in 1681 all of theCossacks, of the Dnieper as well as the Don, were gathered underRussian sovereignty. It was this event which, in the long strugglewith Poland, turned the scales at last in favor of Russia. 

One of the most important occurrences in this reign was the attempt ofthe Patriarch Nikon to establish an authority in the East similar tothat of the Pope in the West--and in many ways to Latinize the Church. This attempt to place the Tsar under spiritual authority was put downby a popular revolt--followed by stricter orthodox methods in a sectknown as the _Raskolniks_. 

Mikhail died in 1645, and was succeeded by his son Alexis. The newTsar sent an envoy to Charles the First of England to announce hissuccession. He arrived with his letter to the King at an inopportunetime. He was on trial for his life. The Russian could not comprehendsuch a condition, and haughtily refused to treat with anyone but theKing. He was received with much ceremony by the House of Lords, andthen to their consternation arose and said: "I have come from mysovereign charged with an important message to your King--Charles theFirst. It is long since I came, and I have not been permitted to seehim nor to deliver the letter from my master. " The embarrassed English_boyars_ replied that they would give their reasons for this by letter. When the Tsar was informed by Charles II. Of the execution of hisfather, sternly inflicted by his people, he could not comprehend such acondition. He at once forbade English merchants to live in any of hiscities except Archangel, and sent money and presents to the exiled son. 

An interest attaches to the marriage of Alexis with Natalia, his secondwife. He was dining with one of his _boyars_ and was attracted by ayoung girl, who was serving him. She was motherless, and had beenadopted by her uncle the _boyar_. The Tsar said to his friend soonafter: "I have found a husband for your Natalia. " The husband wasAlexis himself, and Natalia became the mother of Peter the Great. Shewas the first Princess who ever drew aside the curtains of her litterand permitted the people to look upon her face. Thrown much into thesociety of Europeans in her uncle's home, she was imbued with Europeanideas. It was no doubt she who first instilled the leaven of reforminto the mind of her infant son Peter. 

One of the most important features of this reign was the development ofthe fanatical sect known as _Raskolniks_. They are the dissenters ornon-conformists of Russia. Their existence dates from the time of thePatriarch _Nikon_--and what they considered his sacrilegiousinnovations. But as early as 1476 there were the first stirrings ofthis movement when some daring and advanced innovators began to sing "OLord, have mercy, " instead of "Lord, have Mercy, " and to say "Alleluia"twice instead of three times, to the peril of their souls! But it wasin the reign of Alexis that signs of falling away from the faith spokenof in the Apocalypse were unmistakable. Foreign heretics who shavedtheir chins and smoked the accursed weed were tolerated in Holy Moscow. "The number of the Beast" indicated the year 1666. It was evident thatthe end of the world was at hand! Such was the beginning of the_Raskolniks_, who now number 10, 000, 000 souls--a conservative Slavonicelement which has been a difficult one to deal with. 

Upon the death of Alexis, in 1676, his eldest son Feodor succeeded him. It is only necessary to mention one significant act in his shortreign--the destruction of the Books of Pedigrees. The question ofprecedence among the great families was the source of endless disputes, and no man would accept a position inferior to any held by hisancestors, nor would serve under a man with an ancestry inferior to hisown. Feodor asked that the Books of Pedigrees be sent to him forexamination, and then had them every one thrown into the fire andburned. This must have been his last act, for his death and thisholocaust of ancestral claims both occurred in the year 1682. 

CHAPTER XIV

PETER STUDIES EUROPEAN CIVILIZATION

A history of Russia _naïvely_ designates one of its chapters "ThePeriod of Troubles"! When was there not a period of troubles in thisland? The historian wearies, and doubtless the reader too, of suchprolonged disorder and calamity. But a chapter telling of peace andtranquillity would have to be invented. The particular sort of troublethat developed upon the death of Feodor was of a new variety. Alexishad left two families of children, one by his first wife and the otherby Natalia. There is not time to tell of all the steps by whichSophia, daughter of the first marriage, came to be the power behind thethrone upon which sat her feeble brother Ivan, and her half-brotherPeter, aged ten years. Sophia was an ambitious, strong-willed, strong-minded woman, who dared to emancipate herself from the tyrannyof Russian custom. 

The _terem_, of which we hear so much, was the part of the palacesacred to the Tsaritsa and the Princesses--upon whose faces no man everlooked. If a physician were needed he might feel the pulse and thetemperature through a piece of gauze--but see the face never. It issaid that two nobles who one day accidentally met Natalia coming fromher chapel were deprived of rank in consequence. 

But the _terem_, with "its twenty-seven locks, " was not going toconfine the sister of Peter. She met the eyes of men in public;studied them well, too; and then selected the instruments for herdesigns of effacing Peter and his mother, and herself becomingsovereign indeed. A rumor was circulated that the imbecile Ivan (whowas alive) had been strangled by Natalia's family. In the tumult whichfollowed one of her brothers, Peter's uncle, was torn from Natalia'sarms and cut to pieces. But this was only one small incident in thehorrid tragedy. Then, after discovering that the Prince was not dead, the bloodstains in the palace were washed up, and the two brothers wereplaced upon the throne under the Regency of Sophia. But while she wasoutraging the feelings of the people by her contempt for ancientcustoms, and while her friendship with her Minister, Prince Galitsuin, was becoming a public scandal, Sophia was at the same time beingdefeated in a campaign against the Turks at the Crimea; and herpopularity was gone. 

In the meantime Peter was growing. With no training, no education, hewas in his own disorderly, undisciplined fashion struggling up intomanhood under the tutelage of a quick, strong intelligence, a hungrydesire to know, and a hot, imperious temper. His first toys were drumsand swords, and he first studied history from colored German prints;and as he grew older never wearied of reading about Ivan the Terrible. His delight was to go out upon the streets of Moscow and pick upstrange bits of information from foreign adventurers about the habitsand customs of their countries. He played at soldiers with his boycompanions, and after finding how they did such things in Germany andin England, drilled his troops after the European fashion. But it waswhen he first saw a boat so built that it could go with or against thewind, that his strongest instinct was awakened. He would not restuntil he had learned how to make and then to manage it. When thisstrange, passionate, self-willed boy was seventeen years old, herealized that his sister was scheming for the ruin of himself and hismother. In the rupture that followed, the people deserted Sophia andflocked about Peter. He placed his sister in a monastery, where, afterfifteen years of fruitless intrigue and conspiracy, she was to die. Then, conjointly with his unfortunate brother, he commenced his reign(1689). 

If Sophia had freed herself from the customary seclusion of Princesses, Peter emancipated himself from the usual proprieties of the palace. Both were scandalous. One had harangued soldiers and walked with herveil lifted, the other was swinging an ax like a carpenter, rowing likea Cossack, or fighting mimic battles with his grooms, who notinfrequently knocked him down. In 1693 he gratified one great thirstand longing. With a large suite he went up to Archangel--and for thefirst time a Tsar looked out upon the sea! He ate and drank with theforeign merchants, and took deep draughts of the stimulating air fromthe west. He established a dock-yard, and while his first ship wasbuilding made perilous trips upon that unknown ocean from which Russiahad all its life been shut out! His ship was the first to bear aRussian flag into foreign waters, and now Peter had taken the firststep toward learning how to build a navy, but he had no place yet touse one. So he turned his nimble activities toward the Black Sea. Hehad only to capture Azof in the Crimea from the Turks, and he wouldhave a sea for his navy--and then might easily make the navy for hissea! So he went down, carrying his soldiers and his new Europeantactics--in which no one believed--gathered up his Cossacks, and theattack was made, first with utter failure--all on account of the newtactics--and then at last came overwhelming success; and a triumphantreturn (1676) to Moscow under arches and garlands of flowers. Threethousand Russian families were sent to colonize Azof, which was guardedby some regiments of the _Streltsui_ and by Cossacks--and now theremust be a navy. 

There must be nine ships of the line, and twenty frigates carryingfifty guns, and bombships, and fireships. That would require a greatdeal of money. It was then that the utility of the system of serfdombecame apparent. The prelates and monasteries were taxed--_one vesselto every eighty thousand serfs_!--according to their wealth all theorders of nobility to bear their portion in the same way, and thepeasants toiled on, never dreaming that _they_ were building a greatnavy for the great Tsar. Peter then sent fifty young nobles of thecourt to Venice, England, and the Netherlands to learn the arts ofshipbuilding and seamanship and gunnery. But how could he be sure ofthe knowledge and the science of these idle youths--unless he himselfowned it and knew better than they? The time had come for hislong-indulged dream of visiting the Western kingdoms. 

But while there were rejoicings at the victory over the Turks, therewas a feeling of universal disgust at the new order of things; with themilitia (the _Streltsui_) because foreigners were preferred to them andbecause they were subjected to an unaccustomed discipline; with thenobles because their children were sent into foreign lands amongheretics to learn trades like mechanics; and with the landowners andclergy because the cost of equipping a great fleet fell upon them. Allclasses were ripe for a revolt. 

Sophia, from her cloister, was in correspondence with her agents, and aconspiracy ripened to overthrow Peter and his reforms. As the Tsar wasone evening sitting down to an entertainment with a large party ofladies and gentlemen, word was brought that someone desired to see himprivately upon an important matter. He promptly excused himself andwas taken in a sledge to the appointed place. There he graciously satdown to supper with a number of gentlemen, as if perfectly ignorant oftheir plans. Suddenly his guard arrived, entered the house, andarrested the entire party, after which Peter returned in the best ofhumor to his interrupted banquet, quite as if nothing had happened. The next day the prisoners under torture revealed the plot toassassinate him and then lay it to the foreigners, this to be followed, by a general massacre of Europeans--men, women, and children. Theringleaders were first dismembered, then beheaded--their legs and armsbeing displayed in conspicuous places in the city, and the rest of theconspirators, excepting his sister Sophia, were sent to Siberia. 

With this parting and salutary lesson to his subjects in 1697, Peterstarted upon his strange travels--in quest of the arts of civilization!

The embassy was composed of 270 persons. Among them was a young mantwenty-five years old, calling himself Peter Mikhailof, who a few weekslater might have been seen at Saardam in Holland, in complete outfit ofworkman's clothes, in dust and by the sweat of his brow learning theart of ship-carpentry. Such was the first introduction to Europe ofthe Tsar of Russia! They had long heard of this autocrat before whommillions trembled, ruling like a savage despot in the midst ofsplendors rivaling the Arabian Nights. Now they saw him! And theamazement can scarcely be described. He dined with the Great ElectressSophia, afterwards first Queen of Prussia, and she wrote of him:"Nature has given him an infinity of wit. With advantages he mighthave been an accomplished man. What a pity his manners are not lessboorish!"

But Peter was not thinking of the impression he made. With aninsatiable inquisitiveness and an omnivorous curiosity, he was lookingfor the secret of power in nations. Nothing escaped him--cutlery, rope-making, paper manufacture, whaling industry, surgery, microscopy;he was engaging artists, officers, engineers, surgeons, buying modelsof everything he saw--or standing lost in admiration of a travelingdentist plying his craft in the market, whom he took home to hislodgings, learned the use of the instruments himself, then practicedhis new art upon his followers. 

At The Hague he endured the splendid public reception, then hurried offhis gold-trimmed coat, his wig and hat and white feathers, and was amidgrime and dust examining grist-mills, and ferry-boats, and irrigatingmachines. To a lady he saw on the street at Amsterdam he shouted"Stop!" then dragged out her enameled watch, examined it, and put itback without a word. A nobleman's wig in similar unceremonious fashionhe snatched from his head, turned it inside out, and, not being pleasedwith its make, threw it on the floor. 

Perhaps Holland heard without regret that her guest was going toEngland, where he was told the instruction was based upon theprinciples of ship-building and he might learn more in a few weeks thanby a year's study elsewhere. King William III. Placed a fleet at hisdisposal, and also a palace upon his arrival in London. A violentstorm alarmed many on the way to England, but Peter enjoyed it andhumorously said, "Did you ever hear of a Tsar being lost in the NorthSea?" England was no less astonished than Holland at her guest, butWilliam III. , the wisest sovereign in Europe, we learn was amazed atthe vigor and originality of his mind. The wise Bishop Burnet wrote ofhim: "He is mechanically turned, and more fitted to be a carpenter thana Prince. He told me he designed a great fleet for attacking theTurkish Empire, but he does not seem to me capable of so great anenterprise. " This throws more light upon the limitations of BishopBurnet than those of Peter the Great, and fairly illustrates theincompetency of contemporary estimates of genius; or, perhaps, theinability of talent to take the full measure of genius at any time. The good Bishop adds that he adores the wise Providence which "hasraised up such a furious man to reign over such a part of the world. "Louis XIV. "had procured the postponement of the honor of his visit";so Peter prepared, after visiting Vienna, to go to Venice, butreceiving disturbing news of matters at home, this uncivilizedcivilizer, this barbarian reformer of barbarism, turned his face towardMoscow. 

There was widespread dissatisfaction in the empire. The _Streltsui_(militia) was rebellious, the heavily taxed landowners were angry, andthe people disgusted by the prevalence of German clothes and shavedfaces. Had not the wise Ivan IV. Said: "To shave is a sin that theblood of all the martyrs could not cleanse"! And who had ever beforeseen a Tsar of Moscow quit Holy Russia to wander in foreign lands amongTurks and Germans? for both were alike to them. Then it was rumoredthat Peter had gone in disguise to Stockholm, and that the Queen ofSweden had put him into a cask lined with nails to throw him into thesea, and he had only been saved by one of his guards taking his place;and some years later many still believed that it was a false Tsar whoreturned to them in 1700--that the true Tsar was still a prisoner atStockholm, attached to a post. Sophia wrote to the _Streltsui_--"Yousuffer--but you will suffer more. Why do you wait? March on Moscow. There is no news of the Tsar. " The army was told that he was dead, andthat the _boyars_ were scheming to kill his infant son Alexis and thenget into power again. Thousands of revolted troops from Azof began topour into Moscow, then there was a rumor that the foreigners and theGermans--who were introducing the smoking of tobacco and shaving, tothe utter destruction of the holy faith--were planning to seize thetown. Peter returned to find Moscow the prey to wild disorder, in thehands of scheming revolutionists and mutineers. He concluded it wasthe right time to give a lesson which would never be forgotten. Hewould make the partisans of Old Russia feel the weight of his hand in away that would remind them of Ivan IV. 

On the day of his return the nobles all presented themselves, layingtheir faces, as was the custom, in the dust. After courteouslyreturning their salutations, Peter ordered that every one of them beimmediately shaved; and as this was one of the arts he had practicedwhile abroad he initiated the process by skillfully applying the razorhimself to a few of the long-beards. Then the inquiry into therebellion commenced. The Patriarch tried to appease the wrath of theTsar, who answered; "Know that I venerate God and his Mother as much asyou do. But also know that I shall protect my people and punishrebels. " The "chastisement" was worthy of Ivan the Terrible. Thedetails of its infliction are too dreadful to relate, and we read withincredulous horror that "the terrible carpenter of Saardam plied hisown ax in the horrible employment"--and that on the last day Peterhimself put to death eighty-four of the _Streltsui_, "compelling his_boyars_ to assist"--in inflicting this "chastisement!"

CHAPTER XV

CHARLES XII. --NARVA--ST. PETERSBURG

The Baltic was at this time a Swedish sea. Finland, Livonia, and allthe territory on the eastern coast, where once the Russians and theGerman knights had struggled, was now under the sovereignty of aninexperienced young king who had just ascended the throne of his fatherCharles XI. , King of Sweden. If Peter ever "opened a window" into theWest, it must be done by first breaking through this Swedish wall. Livonia was deeply aggrieved just now because of some oppressivemeasures against her, and her astute minister, Patkul, suggested to theKing of Poland that he form a coalition between that kingdom, Denmark, and Russia for the purpose of breaking the aggressive Scandinavianpower in the North. The time was favorable, with disturbed conditionsin Sweden, and a youth of eighteen without experience upon the throne. The Tsar, who had recently returned from abroad and had settled matterswith his _Streltsui_ in Moscow, saw in this enterprise just theopportunity he desired, and joined the coalition. 

At the Battle of Narva (1700) there were two surprises: one when Peterfound that he knew almost nothing about the art of warfare, and theother when it was revealed to Charles XII. That he was a militarygenius and his natural vocation was that of a conqueror. But ifCharles was intoxicated by his enormous success, Peter accepted hishumiliating defeat almost gratefully as a harsh lesson in military art. The sacrifice of men had been terrible, but the lesson was not lost. The next year there were small Russian victories, and these creptnearer and nearer to the Baltic, until at last the river upon which thegreat Nevski won his surname was reached--and the Neva was his! Peterlost no time. He personally superintended the building of a fort andthen a church which were to be the nucleus of a city; and there may beseen in St. Petersburg to-day the little hut in which lived the Tsarwhile he was founding the capital which bears his name (1703). Nowonder it seemed a wild project to build the capital of an empire, notonly on its frontier, but upon low marshy ground subject to theencroachments of the sea from which it had only half emerged; and in alatitude where for two months of the year the twilight and the dawnmeet and there is no night, and where for two other months the sunrises after nine in the morning and sets before three. Not only musthe build a city, but create the dry land for it to stand upon; and itis said that six hundred acres have been reclaimed from the sea at St. Petersburg since it was founded. 

Charles XII. Was too much occupied to care for these insignificantevents. He sent word that when he had time he would come and burn downPeter's wooden town. He was leading a victorious army toward Poland, he had beheaded the traitorous Patkul, and everything was bowing beforehim. The great Marlborough was suing for his aid in the coalitionagainst Louis XIV. In the War of the Spanish Succession. Flushed withvictory, Charles felt that the fate of Europe was lying in his hands. He had only to decide in which direction to move--whether to help tocurb the ambition of the Grand Monarque in the West, or to carry outhis first design of crushing the rising power of the Great Autocrat inthe East. He preferred the latter. The question then arose whether toenter Russia by the North or by way of Poland, where he was now master. The scale was turned probably by learning that the Cossacks in LittleRussia were growing impatient and were ripe for rebellion against theTsar. 

Peter was anxious to prevent the invasion. He had a wholesomeadmiration for the terrible Swedish army, not much confidence in hisown, and his empire was in disorder. He sent word to Charles that hewould be satisfied to withdraw from the West if he could have one porton the Baltic. The king's haughty reply was: "Tell your Tsar I willtreat with him in Moscow, " to which Peter rejoined: "My brother Charleswants to play the part of an Alexander, but he will not find in me aDarius. "

It is possible that upon Ivan Mazeppa, who was chief or Hetman of theCossacks at this time, rests the responsibility of the crushing defeatwhich terminated the brilliant career of Charles XII. Mazeppa was thePolish gentleman whose punishment at the hands of an infuriated husbandhas been the subject of poems by Lord Byron and Pushkin, and also of apainting by Horace Vernet. This picturesque traitor, who always roseupon the necks of the people who trusted him, whose friendships he oneafter another invariably betrayed, reached a final climax of infamy byoffering to sacrifice the Tsar, the friend who believed in him soabsolutely that he sent into exile or to death anyone who questionedhis fidelity. Mazeppa had been with Peter at Azof, and abundant honorswere waiting for him; but he was dazzled by the career of the Swedishconqueror, and believed he might rise higher under Charles XII. Thanunder his rough, imperious master at Moscow. So he wrote the King thathe might rely upon him to join him with 40, 000 Cossacks in LittleRussia. He thought it would be an easy matter to turn the irritatedCossacks from the Tsar. They were restive under the severity of thenew military _régime_, and also smarting under a decree forbidding themto receive any more fugitive peasants fleeing from serfdom. But he hadmiscalculated their lack of fidelity and his own power over them. 

It was this fatal promise, which was never to be kept, that probablylured Charles to his ruin. After a long and disastrous campaign he methis final crushing defeat at Poltova in 1709. The King and Mazeppa, companions in flight, together entered the Sultan's dominions asfugitives, and of the army before which a short time ago Europe hadtrembled--there was left not one battalion. 

The Baltic was passing into new hands. "The window" opening upon theWest was to become a door, and the key of the door was to be kept uponthe side toward Russia! Sweden, which under Gustavus Adolphus, CharlesXI. , and Charles XII. Had played such a glorious part, was never to doit again; and the place she had left vacant was to be filled by a newand greater Power. Russia had dispelled the awakened dream of a greatScandinavian Empire and--so long excluded and humiliated--was going tomake a triumphal entry into the family of European nations. 

The Tsar, with his innovations and reforms, was vindicated. Forbreadth of design and statesmanship there was not one sovereign in thecoalition who could compare with this man who, Bishop Burnet thought, was better fitted for a mechanic than a Prince--and "incapable of agreat enterprise. "

Of Charles XII. It has been said that "he was a hero of theScandinavian Edda set down in the wrong century, " and again that he wasthe last of the Vikings, and of the Varangian Princes. But Mazeppasaid of him, when dying in exile: "How could I have been seduced in myold age by a military vagabond!"

Ivan, Peter's infirm brother and associate upon the throne, had died in1696. Another oppressive tie had also been severed. He had married atseventeen Eudoxia, belonging to a proud conservative Russian family. He had never loved her, and when she scornfully opposed his policy ofreform, she became an object of intense aversion. After his triumph atAzof, he sent orders that the Tsaritsa must not be at the palace uponhis return, and soon thereafter she was separated from her childAlexis, placed in a monastery, and finally divorced. At the surrenderof Marienburg in Livonia (1702) there was among the captives the familyof a Lutheran pastor named Glück. Catherine, a young girl of sixteen, a servant in the family, had just married a Swedish soldier, who waskilled the following day in battle. We would have to look far for amore romantic story than that of this Protestant waiting-maid. Menschikof, Peter's great general, was attracted by her beauty and tookthe young girl under his protection. But when the Tsar was alsofascinated by her artless simplicity, she was transferred to his moredistinguished protection. Little did Catherine think when weeping forher Swedish lover in Pastor Glück's kitchen that she was on her way tothe throne of Russia. But such was her destiny. She did not know howto write her name, but she knew something which served her better. Sheknew how to establish an influence possessed by no one else over thestrange husband to whom in 1707 she was secretly married. 

CHAPTER XVI

RUSSIA KNOUTED INTO CIVILIZATION--PETER DEAD

While Peter was absorbing more territory on the Baltic, and while hewas with frenzied haste building his new city, Charles XII. Was stillhiding in Poland. The Turks were burning with desire to recaptureAzof, and the Khan of Tartary had his own revenges and reprisals atheart urging him on; so, at the instigation of Charles and the Khan, the Sultan declared war against Russia in 1710. 

It seemed to the Russian people like a revival of their ancient glorieswhen their Tsar, with a great army, was following in the footsteps ofthe Grand Princes to free the Slav race from its old infidel enemies. Catherine, from whom Peter would not be separated, was to be hiscompanion in the campaign. But the enterprise, so fascinating inprospect, was attended with unexpected disaster and suffering; and theclimax was finally reached when Peter was lying ill in his tent, withan army of only 24, 000 men about to face one of over 200, 000--Tatarsand Turks--commanded by skilled generals, adherents of Charles XII. This was probably the darkest hour in Peter's career. The work of hislife was about to be overthrown; it seemed as if a miracle could notsave him. Someone suggested that the cupidity of the Grand Vizier, Balthazi, was the vulnerable spot. He loved gold better than glory. Two hundred thousand rubles were quickly collected--Catherine throwingin her jewels as an added lure. The shining gold, with the glitteringjewels on top, averted the inevitable fate. Balthazi consented totreat for peace upon condition that Charles XII. Be permitted to goback to Sweden unmolested, and that Azof be relinquished (Treaty ofPruth). Peter's heart was sorely wrung by giving up Azof, and hisfleet, and his outlet to the Southern seas. The peace was costly, butwelcome; and Catherine had earned his everlasting gratitude. 

The Tsar now returned to the task of reforming his people. There wereto be no more prostrations before him: the petitioner must call himself"subject, " not "slave, " and must stand upright like a man in hispresence, even if he had to use his stick to make him do so! TheAsiatic caftan and the flowing robes must go along with the beards; the_terem_, with its "twenty-seven locks, " must be abolished; the wivesand daughters dragged from their seclusion must be clothed likeEuropeans. Marriage must not be compelled, and the betrothed might seeeach other before the wedding ceremony. 

If it is difficult to civilize one willing barbarian, what must it havebeen to compel millions to put on the garment of respectability whichthey hated! Never before was there such a complete socialreorganization, so entire a change in the daily habits of a wholepeople; and so violently effected. It required a soul of iron and ahand of steel to do it; and it has been well said that Russia wasknouted into civilization. A secret service was instituted to see thatthe changes were adopted, and the knout and the ax were theaccompaniment of every reforming edict. This extraordinary man was bymain force dragging a sullen and angry nation into the path ofprogress, and by artificial means trying to accomplish in a lifetimewhat had been the growth of centuries in other lands. Then there mustbe no competing authorities--no suns shining near to the Central Sun. The Patriarchate--which, after Nikon's attempt in the reign of hisgrandfather, had been shorn of authority--was now abolished, and a HolySynod of his own appointing took its place. For the _Sobor_ orStates-General there was substituted a Senate, also of his ownappointing. The _Streltsui_, or militia, was swept out of existence;the military Cossacks were deprived of their _Hetman_ or leader; and astanding army, raised by recruiting, replaced these organizations. Nobility meant service. Every nobleman while he lived must serve thestate, and he held his fief only upon condition of such service; whilea nobleman who could not read or write in a foreign tongue forfeitedhis birthright. This was the way Peter fought idleness and ignorancein his land! New and freer municipal organizations were given to thecities, enlarging the privileges of the citizens; schools and collegeswere established; the awful punishment for debtors swept away. He wasleveling up as well as leveling down--trying to create a great plateauof modern society, in which he alone towered high, rigid, andinexorable. 

If the attempt was impossible and against nature, if Peter violatedevery law of social development by such a monstrous creation of amodern state, what could have been done better? How long would it havetaken Russia to _grow_ into modern civilization? And what would it benow if there had not been just such a strange being--with the natureand heart of a barbarian joined with a brain and an intelligence thepeer of any in Europe, capable of seeing that the only hope for Russiawas by force to convert it from an Asiatic into a European state?

One act bore with extreme severity upon the free peasantry. They werecompelled to enroll themselves with the serfs in their Communes, or tobe dealt with as vagrants. Peter has been censured for this and alsofor not extending his reforming broom to the Communes and overthrowingthe whole patriarchal system under which they existed--a system so outof harmony with the modern state he was creating. But it seems to thewriter rather that he was guided by a sure instinct when he leftuntouched the one thing in a Slavonic state, which was really Slavonic. He and the long line of rulers behind him had been ruling by virtue ofan authority established by aliens. Russia had from the time of Rurikbeen governed and formed after foreign models. Peter was at leastchoosing better models than his predecessors. If it was an apparentmistake to build a modern, centralized state in the eighteenth centuryupon a social organization belonging to the eleventh century, it may bethat in so doing, an inspired despot builded wiser than he knew. Mayit not be that the final regeneration of that land is to come some day, from the leaven of native instincts in her peasantry, which have neverbeen invaded by foreign influences and which have survived all thevicissitudes of a thousand years in Russia?

The _Raskolniks_, composed chiefly of free peasants and the smallermerchant class, had fled in large numbers from these blasphemouschanges--some among the Cossacks, and many more to the forests, hidingfrom persecution and from this reign of Satan. The more they studiedthe Apocalypse the plainer became the signs of the times. Satan wasbeing let loose for a period. They had been looking for the coming ofAntichrist and now he had come! The man in whom the spirit of Satanwas incarnate was Peter the Great. How else could they explain suchimpious demeanor in a Tsar of Russia--except that he was of Satanicorigin, and was the Devil in disguise? By his newly invented censushad he not "numbered the people"--a thing expressly forbidden? And hisnew "calendar, " transferring September to January, was it not clearly atrick of Satan to steal the days of the Lord? And his new title_Imperator_ (Emperor), had it not a diabolic sound? And his order toshave, to disfigure the image of God! How would Christ recognize hisown at the Last Day?

Hunted like beasts, these people were living in wild communities, dyingoften by their own hands rather than yield the point of making the signof the cross with two fingers instead of three--2700 at one timevoluntarily perishing in the flames, in a church where they had takenrefuge. Peter put an end to their persecution. They were permitted topractice their ancient rites in the cities and to wear beards withoutmolestation, upon condition of paying a double poll-tax. 

The millions of _Raskolniks_ in Russia to-day still consider New Russiaa creation of the evil one, and the Tsar as Antichrist. They yield asullen compliance--pray for the Tsar, then in private throw away thehandle of door if a heretic has touched it. It is a conservativeSlavonic element which every Tsar since Mikhail Romanoff has had todeal with. 

Not one of the reforms was more odious to the people than the removalof the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg. It violated the mostsacred feelings of the nation; and many a soul was secretly lookingforward to the time when there would be no Peter, and they would returnto the shrine of revered associations. But the new city grew insplendor--a city not of wood, to be the prey of conflagrations likeMoscow; but of stone, the first Russia had yet possessed. The greatNevski was already there lying in a cathedral bearing his name, and theCathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul was ready to entomb the future Tsars. And Peter held his court, a poor imitation of Versailles, and gavegreat entertainments at which the shy and embarrassed ladies in theirnew costumes kept apart by themselves, and the attempt to introduce theEuropean dances was a very sorry failure. In 1712 Peter planned avisit to Paris, with two ends in view--a political alliance and amatrimonial one. He ardently desired to arrange for the futuremarriage of his little daughter Elizabeth with Louis XV. , the infantKing of France. Neither suit was successful, but it is interesting tolearn how different was the impression he produced from the one twelveyears before. Saint-Simon writes of him: "His manner was at once themost majestic, the proudest, the most sustained, and at the same timethe least embarrassing. " That he was still eccentric may be judgedfrom his call upon Mme. De Maintenon. She was ill in bed, and couldnot receive him; but he was not to be baffled. He drew aside thebed-curtains and stared at her fixedly, while she in speechlessindignation glared at him. So, without one word, these two historicpersons met--and parted! He probably felt curious to see what sort ofa woman had enthralled and controlled the policy of Louis XIV. Peterdid not intend to subject his wife to the criticism of the wittyFrenchwomen, so prudently left her at home. 

Charles XII. Died in 1718, and in 1721 there was at last peace withSweden. But the saddest war of all, and one which was never to cease, was that in Peter's own household. His son Alexis, possibly embitteredby his mother's fate, and certainly by her influence, grew up into asullen, morose, and perverse youth. In vain did his father strive tofit him for his great destiny. By no person in the empire--unless, perhaps, his mother--were Peter's reforms more detested than by the sonand heir to whom he expected to intrust them. He was in closecommunication with his mother Eudoxia, who in her monastery, holdingcourt like a Tsaritsa, was surrounded by intriguing and disaffectednobles--all praying for the death of Peter. Every method for reachingthe head or heart of this incorrigible son utterly failed. DuringPeter's absence abroad in 1717, Alexis disappeared. Tolstoi, theTsar's emissary, after a long search tracked him to his hiding placeand induced him to return. There was a terrible scene with his father, who had discovered that his son was more than perverse, he was atraitor--the center of a conspiracy, and in close relations with hisenemies at home and abroad, betraying his interests to Germany and toSweden. 

The plan, instigated by Eudoxia, was that Alexis, immediately upon thedeath of his father--which God was importuned to hasten--should returnto Moscow, restore the picturesque old barbarism, abandon the territoryon the Baltic, and the infant navy, and the city of his father's love;in other words, that he should scatter to the winds the prodigiousresults of his father's reign! It was monstrous--and so was itspunishment! Eudoxia was whipped and placed in close confinement, andthirty conspirators, members of her "court, " were in various waysbutchered. Then Alexis, the confessed traitor, was tried by a tribunalat the head of which was Menschikof--and sentenced to death. 

On the morning of the 27th of June, 1718, the Tsar summoned his son toappear before nine of the greatest officers of the state. Concerningwhat happened, the lips of those nine men were forever sealed. But theday following it was announced that Alexis, the son of the emperor, wasdead; and it is believed that he died under the knout. 

The question of succession now became a very grave one. Alexis, whohad under compulsion married Charlotte of Brunswick, left a son Peter. The only other heirs were the Tsar's two daughters Anna and Elizabeth, the children of Catherine. Shortly after the tragedy of his son'sdeath, Peter caused Catherine to be formally crowned Empress, probablyin anticipation of his own death, which occurred in 1725. 

CHAPTER XVII

GERMINATING OF SEED--CATHERINE EMPRESS

The chief objection to a wise and beneficent despotism is that itscreator is not immortal. The trouble with the Alexanders and theCharlemagnes and the Peters is that the span of human life is too shortfor their magnificent designs, which fall, while incomplete, intoincompetent or vicious hands, and the work is overthrown. Peter's restin his mausoleum at Sts. Peter and Paul must have been uneasy if he sawthe reigns immediately succeeding his own. Not one man capable of alofty patriotism like his, not one man working with unselfish energyfor Russia; but, just as in the olden time, oligarchic factions withleaders striving for that cause which would best protect and elevatethemselves. Menschikof, Apraxin, Tolstoi promoting the cause ofCatherine that they may not suffer for the death sentence passed uponAlexis; Galitsuin and others seeing their interests in the successionof Peter, son of Alexis and grandson of the Emperor. 

Catherine's harmless reign was over in two years (1727) and wasfollowed by another, equally brief and harmless, by the young Peter II. The wily Menschikof succeeded in betrothing his daughter to the youngEmperor, but not in retaining his ascendency over the self-willed boy. 

We wonder if Peter saw his great minister scheming for wealth and forpower, and then his fall, like Wolsey's, from his pinnacle. We wonderif he saw him with his own hands building his hut on the frozen plainsof Siberia, clothed, not in rich furs and jewels, but bearded and inlong, coarse, gray smock-frock; his daughter, the betrothed of anEmperor, clad, not in ermine, but in sheep-skin. Perhaps the lessonwith his master the Carpenter of Saardam served him in building his ownshelter in that dread abode. Nor was he alone. He had the best ofsociety, and at every turn of the wheel at St. Petersburg it hadaristocratic recruits. The Galitsuins and the Dolgorukis would havejoined him soon had they not died in prison, and many others had theynot been broken on the wheel or beheaded by Anna, the coarse and vulgarwoman who succeeded Peter II. , when he suddenly died in 1730. 

Anna Ivanovna was the daughter of Peter's brother Ivan V. , who wasassociated with him upon the throne. She had the force to defeat anoligarchic attempt to tie her hands. The plan had originated with theGalitsuins and Dolgorukis, and was really calculated to benefit thestate in a period of incompetent or vicious rulers by having theauthority of the Crown limited by a council of eight ministers. But itwas reactionary. It was introducing a principle which had beencondemned, and was a veiled attempt to undo the work of the Ivans andthe Romanoffs, and to place the real power as of old in the hands ofruling families. The plan fell, and the leaders fell with it, and ahost of their followers. The executioners were busy at St. Petersburg, and the aristocratic colony in Siberia grew larger. 

Anna's reign was the period of a preponderating German influence inpolitics and at court. Germans held high positions; one of them, Gustav Biron, the highest and most influential of all. Anna'sinfatuation for this man made him the ruling spirit in her reign andthe Regent in the next, until he had his turn in disgrace and exile. Added to the dissatisfaction on account of German ascendency was agrowing feeling that the succession should come through Peter, insteadof through Ivan, his insignificant associate upon the throne. Such wasthe prevailing sentiment at the time of Anna's death (1740). TheTsaritsa named Ivan, a grand-nephew, the infant son of her niece Anna, her successor under the Regency of Biron, the man who had controlledthe policy of the administration during her reign. 

This was only a brief and tragic episode. Biron was swiftly swept outof power and into exile, and succeeded in the Regency by Anna, themother of the infant Emperor; then, following quickly upon that, was acarefully matured conspiracy formed in the interest of ElizabethPetrovna, the beautiful daughter whose marriage with the young LouisXV. Had been an object of the great Peter's hopes. 

In this connection it is well to mention that the terminations _vich_and _vna_, so constantly met in Russian names, have an importantsignificance--_vich_ meaning son of, and _vna_ daughter of. _ElizabethPetrovna_ is Elizabeth the daughter of Peter, and _Peter Alexievich_ isPeter the son of Alexis. In like manner Tsarevich and Tsarevna arerespectively the son and daughter of the Tsar; Czar, Czarevich, andCzarevna being the modern form, and Czarina instead of Tsaritsa. Thehistorian may for convenience omit the surname thus created, but inRussia it would be a great breach of decorum to do so. 

By a sudden _coup d'état_, Elizabeth Petrovna took her rightful placeupon the throne of her father (1741). In the dead of night theunfortunate Anna and her husband were awakened, carried into exile, andtheir infant son Ivan VI. Was immured in a prison, where he was to growup to manhood, --shattered in mind by his horrible existence of twentyyears, --and then to be mercifully put out of the way as a possiblemenace to the ambitious plans of a woman. 

Of the heads that dropped by orders of Elizabeth it is needless tospeak; but of one that was spared there is an interesting account. Ostermann, a German, had been vice chancellor to the Empress Anna, andhad also brought about the downfall of Biron the Regent. Now his turnhad come. He was taken to the place of execution with the rest; hisgray head was laid upon the block, his collar unbuttoned and gown drawnback by the executioner--when a reprieve was announced. Her GraciousMajesty was going to permit him to go to Siberia. He arose, bowed, said: "I pray you give me back my wig, " calmly put it on the head hehad not lost, buttoned his shirt, replaced his gown, and started tojoin his company of friends--and of enemies--in exile. 

Elizabeth was a vain voluptuary. If any glory attaches to her reign itcame from the stored energies left by her great father. The marvel isthat in this succession of vicious and aimless tyrannies by shamelesswomen and incompetent men, Russia did not fall into anarchy andrevolution. But nothing was undone. The dignity of Moscow waspreserved by the fact that the coronations must take place there. Butthere was no longer a reactionary party scheming for a return to theAncient City. The seed scattered by Peter had everywhere taken holdupon the soil, and now began to burst into flower. A university wasfounded at Moscow. St. Petersburg was filled with French artists andscholars, and had an Academy of Art and of Science, which the greatVoltaire asked permission to join, while conferring with Ivan Shuvalofover the History of Peter the Great which he was then engaged inwriting. There were no more ugly German costumes; French dress, manners and speech were the fashion. Russia was assimilating Europe:it had tried Holland under Peter, then Germany under Empress Anna; butfound its true affinity with France under Elizabeth, when to write andspeak French like a Parisian became the badge of high station andculture. 

So of its own momentum Russia had moved on without one strong competentpersonality at its head, and had become a tremendous force which mustbe reckoned with by the nations of Europe. In every great politicalcombination the important question was, on which side she would throwher immense weight; and Elizabeth was courted and flattered to herheart's content by foreign diplomatists and their masters. Frederickthe Great had reason to regret that he had been witty at her expense. It was almost his undoing by turning the scale against him at acritical moment. Elizabeth did not forget it and had her revenge whenshe joined Maria Theresa in the final struggle with Frederick in 1757. And Frederick also remembered it in 1760, when, as he dramaticallyexpressed it, "The Barbarians were in Berlin engaged in digging thegrave of humanity. "

But all benefit from these enormous successes was abandoned, when thecommanding Russian officer Apraxin mysteriously withdrew and returnedwith his army to Russia. This was undoubtedly part of a deeply laidplot of which Frederick was cognizant, and working in concert with acertain distinguished lady in Elizabeth's own court--a clever puller ofwires who was going to fill some important chapters in Russian history!

The Empress had chosen for her successor her nephew Peter, son of heronly sister and the Duke of Holstein. The far-seeing Frederick hadbrought about a marriage between this youth and a German Princess, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst. Then the Future Emperor Peter III. And hisGerman bride took up their abode in the palace at St. Petersburg, shehaving been rechristened _Catherine_, upon adopting the Greek faith. Amutual dislike deepened into hatred between this brilliant, cleverwoman and her vulgar and inferior husband; and there is little doubtthat the treacherous conduct of the Russian commander was part of aplan to place her infant son Paul upon the throne instead of hisfather, and make her Regent. Elizabeth's death was apparently at handand the general mistrust of Peter's fitness for the position opened theway for such a conspiracy--which, however, is not known, but onlysuspected. 

The one merciful edict which adorns this reign is the "abolishing ofthe death penalty. " But as the knout became more than ever active, weare left to infer that by a nice distinction in the Russian mind deathunder that instrument of torture was not considered "capitalpunishment. "

It is said that when the daughter of the austere Peter died, she leftsixteen thousand dresses, thousands of slippers, and two large chestsof silk stockings--a wardrobe which would have astonished her mother atthe time she was serving the table of the Pastor Glück. Elizabethexpired in 1761, and the throne passed to Peter III. , grandson of Peterthe Great and Catherine I. 

The first act of the new Tsar was a delightful surprise to thenobility. He published a manifesto freeing the nobles from theobligation of service imposed by Peter the Great, saying that this law, which was wise at the time it was enacted, was no longer necessary, nowthat the nobility was enlightened and devoted to the service of theirruler. The grateful nobles talked of erecting a statue of gold to thisbenign sovereign, who in like manner abolished the Secret Court ofPolice and proclaimed pardon to thousands of political fugitives. TheBirons were recalled from Siberia, and the old Duke of Kurland and hiswife came back like shades from another world, after twenty years ofexile. 

But this pleasant prelude was very brief. The nobles soon found thattheir golden idol would have to be made instead of very coarse clay. Nothing could exceed the grossness and the unbalanced folly of Peter'scourse. He reversed the whole attitude of the state toward Germany. So abject was his devotion to Frederick the Great that he restored tohim the Russian conquests, and reached the limit which could be bornewhen he shouted at one of his orgies: "Let us drink to the health ofour King and master Frederick. You may be assured if he should orderit, I would make war on hell with all my empire. " He was also planningto rid himself of Catherine and to disinherit her child Paul in favorof Ivan VI. ; and with this in view that unfortunate youth, who afterhis twenty years' imprisonment was a mental wreck, was brought to St. Petersburg. 

Catherine's plans were carefully laid and then swiftly executed. TheEmperor was arrested and his abdication demanded. He submitted asquietly as a child. Catherine writes: "I then sent the deposed Emperorin the care of Alexis Orlof and some gentle and reasonable men to apalace fifteen miles from Peterhof, a secluded spot, but very pleasant. "

In four days it was announced that the late Emperor had "suddenly diedof a colic to which he was subject. " It is known that he was visitedby Alexis Orlof and another of Catherine's agents in his "pleasant"retreat, who saw him privately; that a violent struggle was heard inhis room; and that he was found lying dead with the black and blue markof a colossal hand on his throat. That the hand was Orlof's is notdoubted; but whether acting under orders from Catherine or not willnever be known. 

This is what is known as the "Revolution of 1762, " which placedCatherine II. Upon the throne of Russia. Her son Paul was only sixyears old; and in less than two years Ivan VI. , the only claimant tothe throne who could become the center of a conspiracy against herauthority, was most opportunely removed. It was said that his guardskilled him to prevent an attempted rescue. No one knows or ever willknow whether or not Catherine was implicated in his "taking off. " Butcertainly nothing at the time could have pleased her better. 

CHAPTER XVIII

PARTITION OF POLAND--DEATH OF CATHERINE

European diplomacy at this period was centered about the perishingstate of Poland. That kingdom, once so powerful, was becoming everyyear more enfeebled. 

It was a defective social organization and an arrogant nobility thatruined Poland. There existed only two classes--nobles and serfs. Thebusiness and trade of the state were in the hands of Germans and Jews, and there existed no national or middle class in which must reside thelife of a modern state. In other words, Poland was patriarchal andmediaeval. She had become unsuited to her environment. Surrounded bypowerful absolutisms which had grown out of the ruins of mediaevalforces, she in the eighteenth century was clinging to the traditions offeudalism as if it were still the twelfth century. It was in vain thather sons were patriotic, in vain that they struggled for reforms, invain that they lay down and died upon battlefields. She alone inEurope had not been borne along on that great wave of centralizationlong ago, and she had missed an essential experience. She was out ofstep with the march of civilization, and the advancing forces weregoing to run over her. 

The more enlightened Poles began too late to strive for a firmhereditary monarchy, and to try to curb the power of selfish nobles. Not only was their state falling to pieces within, but it was beingcrushed from without. Protestant Prussia in the West, Greek Russia inthe East, and Catholic Austria on the South, each preparing to absorball it could get away--not from Poland, but from each other. It wasobvious that it was only a question of time when the feeble kingdomwedged in between these powerful and hungry states must succumb; andfor Russia, Austria, and Prussia it was simply a question as to theshare which should fall to each. 

Such was the absorbing problem which employed Catherine's powers fromthe early years of her reign almost to its close. Europe soon saw thatit was a woman of no ordinary ability who was sitting on the throne ofRussia. In her foreign policy, and in the vigor infused into theinternal administration of her empire, the master-hand became apparent. 

As a counter-move to her designs upon Poland, the Turks were induced toharass her by declaring war upon Russia. There was a great surprise instore for Europe as well as for the Ottoman Empire. This dauntlesswoman was unprepared for such an emergency; but she wrote to one of hergenerals: "The Romans did not concern themselves with the _number_ oftheir enemies; they only asked, 'Where are they?'" Her armies sweptthe Peninsula clear of Tatars and of Turks, and in 1771 a Russian fleetwas on the Black Sea, and the terror of Constantinople knew no bounds. If affairs in Europe and disorders in her own empire had not been sopressing, the long-cherished dream of the Grand Princes might have beenrealized. 

A plague in Moscow broke out in 1771 which so excited the superstitionsof the people, that it led to an insurrection; immediately followingthis, a terrible demoralization was created in the South by anilliterate Cossack named Pugatchek, who announced that he was Peter theThird. He claimed that instead of dying as was supposed, he hadescaped to the Ukraine, and was now going to St. Petersburg with anarmy to punish his wife Catherine and to place his son Paul upon thethrone. As a _pretender_ he was not dangerous, but as a rallying pointfor unhappy serfs and for an exasperated and suffering people lookingfor a leader, he did become a very formidable menace, which finallydeveloped into a Peasants' War. The insurrection was at last quelled, and ended with the execution of the false Peter at Moscow. 

In the midst of these distractions at home, while fighting the OttomanEmpire for the shores of the Black Sea, and all Europe over a partitionof Poland, the Empress was at the same time introducing reforms inevery department of her incoherent and disordered empire. Peter theGreat had abolished the Patriarchate. She did more. The monasteriesand the ecclesiastical estates, which were exempt from taxes during allthe period of Mongol dominion, had never paid tribute to Khans, had inconsequence grown to be enormously wealthy. It is said the clergyowned a million serfs. Catherine placed the property of the Churchunder the administration of a secular commission, and the heads of themonasteries and the clergy were converted from independent sovereignsinto mere pensioners of the Crown. Then she assailed the receiving ofbribes, and other corrupt practices in the administration of justice. She struggled hard to let in the light of better instruction upon theupper and middle classes. If she could, she would have abolishedignorance and cruelty in the land, not because she was aphilanthropist, but because she loved civilization. It was herintellect, not her heart, that made Catherine a reformer. When sheseverely punished and forever disgraced a lady of high rank for crueltyto her serfs, --forty of whom had been tortured to death, --it wasbecause she had the educated instincts of a European, not an Asiatic, and she had also the intelligence to realize that no state could bemade sound which rested upon a foundation of human misery. Sheestablished a Russian Academy modeled after the French, its objectbeing to fix the rules for writing and speaking the Russian languageand to promote the study of Russian history. In other words, Catherinewas a reformer fully in sympathy with the best methods prevailing inWestern Europe. She was profoundly interested in the New Philosophyand the intellectual movement in France, was in correspondence withVoltaire and the Encyclopedists, and a student of the theories ofRousseau. 

Of course the influence exerted by French genius over Russiancivilization at this time did not penetrate far below the upper andhighly educated class; but there is no doubt it left a deep impressupon the literature and art of the nation, and also modified Russiancharacteristics by introducing religious tolerance and habits ofcourtesy, besides making aspirations after social justice and politicalliberty entirely respectable. Catherine's "Book of Instructions" tothe commission which was created by her to assist in making a new codeof laws contained political maxims which would satisfy advancedreformers to-day; although when she saw later that the FrenchRevolution was their logical conclusion, she repudiated them, tookVoltaire's bust down from its pedestal, and had it thrown into arubbish heap. The work she was accomplishing for Russia was secondonly to that of Peter the Great; and when she is reproached for nothaving done more and for not having broken the chains forged by Borisupon twenty million people, let it be remembered that she lived in theeighteenth, and not the nineteenth, century; and that at that very timeFranklin and Jefferson were framing a constitution which sanctioned theexistence of negro slavery in an ideal republic!

A new generation had grown up in Poland, men not nobles nor serfs, buta race of patriots familiar with the stirring literature of theircentury. They had seen their land broken into fragments and thenground fine by a proud and infatuated nobility. They had seen theirpusillanimous kings one after another yielding to the insolent demandsfor their territory. Polish territory extended eastward into theUkraine; now that must be cut off and dropped into the lap of Russia. Another arm extended north, separating Eastern Prussia from Western. That too must be cut off and fall to Prussia. Then after shearingthese extremities, the Poland which was left must not only accept thespoliation, but co-operate with her despoilers in adopting under theirdirection a constitution suited to its new humiliation. Her King wasmaking her the laughing-stock of Europe--but before long the namePoland was to become another name for tragedy. Kosciusko had fought inthe War of the American Revolution. When he returned, with the badgeof the Order of the Cincinnati upon his breast and filled with dreamsof the regeneration of his own land by the magic of this new politicalfreedom, he was the chosen leader of the patriots. 

The partition of Poland was not all accomplished at one time. It tookthree repasts to finish the banquet (the partitions of 1792-1793-1794), and then some time more was required to sweep up the fragments and toefface its name from the map of Europe. Kosciusko and his followersmade their last vain and desperate stand in 1794, and when he fellcovered with wounds at the battle of Kaminski, Poland fell with him. The Poles were to survive only as a more or less unhappy element amongnations where they were aliens. Their race affinities were withRussia, for they were a Slavonic people; their religious affinitieswere with Catholic Austria; but with Protestant Prussia there was notone thing in common, and that was the bitterest servitude of all. ThePoles in Russia were to some extent autonomous. They were permitted tocontinue their local governments under a viceroy appointed by the Tsar;their Slavonic system of communes was not disturbed, nor their languagenor customs. Still it was only a privileged servitude after all, andthe time was coming when it was to become an unmitigated one. Buteffaced as a political sovereignty, Poland was to survive as anationality of genius. Her sons were going to sing their songs inother lands, but Mickiewiz and Sienkiewicz and Chopin are Polish, notRussian. 

The alliance of the three sovereigns engaged in this dismemberment wasabout as friendly as is that of three dogs who have run down a hare andare engaged in picking nice morsels from its bones. If Russia wasgetting more than her share, the Turks would be incited by Austria orPrussia to attack her in the South; and many times did Catherine'sarmies desert Poland to march down and defend the Crimea, and her newfort at Sebastopol, and her fleet on the Black Sea. In 1787, accompanied by her grandsons, the Grand Dukes Alexander andConstantine, she made that famous journey down the Dnieper; visited theancient shrines about Kief; stood in the picturesque old capital ofSaraï, on the spot where Russian Grand Princes had groveled at the feetof the Khans; and then, looked upon Sebastopol, which marked the limitof the new frontier which she had created. 

The French Revolution caused a revulsion in her political theories. She indulged in no more abstractions about human rights, and had anantipathy for the new principles which had led to the execution of theKing and Queen and to such revolting horrors. She made a holocaust ofthe literature she had once thought entertaining. Russians suspectedof liberal tendencies were watched, and upon the slightest pretext sentto Siberia, and she urged the King of Sweden to head a crusade againstthis pestilential democracy, which she would help him to sweep out ofEurope. It was Catherine, in consultation with the Emperor of Austria, who first talked of dismembering Turkey and creating out of its ownterritory a group of neutral states lying between Europe and theOttoman Empire. And Voltaire's dream of a union of the Greek peoplesinto an Hellenic kingdom she improved upon by a larger plan of her own, by which she was to be the conqueror of the Ottoman Empire, while hergrandson Constantine, sitting on a throne at Constantinople, shouldrule Greeks and Turks alike under a Russian protectorate. 

Upon the private life of Catherine there is no need to dwell. This isnot the biography of a woman, but the history of the empire shemagnificently ruled for thirty-four years. It is enough to say she wasnot better than her predecessors, the Tsaritsas Elizabeth and Anna. The influence exerted by Menschikof in the reign of Catherine I. , andBiron in that of Anna, was to be exerted by Alexis Orlof, Potemkin, andother favorites in this. Her son Paul, who was apparently an object ofdislike, was kept in humiliating subordination to the Orlofs and herother princely favorites, to whose councils he was never invited. Righteousness and moral elevation did not exist in her character nor inher reign; but for political insight, breadth of statesmanship, and apowerful grasp upon the enormous problems in her heterogeneous empire, she is entitled to rank with the few sovereigns who are called "Great. "A German by birth, a French-woman by intellectual tastes andtendencies--she was above all else a Russian, and bent all theresources of her powerful personality to the enlightenment andadvancement of the land of her adoption. Her people were not "knoutedinto civilization, " but invited and drawn into it. Her touch wasterribly firm--but elastic. She was arbitrary, but tolerant; and ifher reign was a despotism, it was a despotism of that broad type whichdeals with the sources of things, and does not bear heavily uponindividuals. The Empress Catherine died suddenly in 1796, and Paul I. Was crowned Emperor of Russia. 

CHAPTER XIX

NAPOLEON IN EUROPE--ATTITUDE OF RUSSIA

Paul was forty-one years old when he ascended the throne he had fortwenty years believed was rightfully his. The mystery surrounding thedeath of his father Peter III. , the humiliations he had suffered at hismother's court, and what he considered her usurpation of hisrights--all these had been for years fermenting in his narrow brain. 

His first act gave vent to his long-smothered indignation and hissuspicions regarding his father's death. Peter's remains wereexhumed--placed beside those of Catherine lying in state, to share allthe honors of her obsequies and to be entombed with her; while AlexisOrlof, his supposed murderer, was compelled to march beside the coffin, bearing his crown. 

Then when Paul had abolished from the official language the words"society" and "citizen, " which his mother had delighted to honor--whenhe had forbidden the wearing of frock-coats, high collars, andneckties, and refused to allow Frenchmen to enter his territory--andwhen he had compelled his people to get out of their carriages andkneel in the mud as he passed--he supposed he was strengthening thefoundations of authority which Catherine II. Had loosened. 

To him is attributed the famous saying, "Know that the only person ofconsideration in Russia is the person whom I address, and he onlyduring the time I am addressing him. " He was a born despot, and hisreforms consisted in a return to Prussian methods and to an Orientalservility. The policy he announced was one of peace with Europe--acessation of those wars by which his mother had for thirty-four yearsbeen draining the treasury. He was going to turn his conquests towardthe East; and vast plans, with vague and indefinite outlines, wereforming in the narrow confines of his restless brain. But these wereinterrupted by unexpected conditions. 

In 1796 the military genius of a young man twenty-seven years oldelectrified Europe. Napoleon Bonaparte, at the head of a ragged, unpaid French army, overthrew Northern Italy, and out of the fragmentscreated a Cisalpine Republic. The possession of the Ionian Isles, quickly followed by the occupation of Egypt, threatened the East. SoTurkey and Russia, contrary to all old traditions, formed a defensivealliance, which was quickly followed by an offensive one between Russiaand Austria. But the tactics so successful against Poles and Turkswere unavailing against those employed by the new Conqueror. TheRussian commander Suvorov was defeated and returned in disgrace to hisenraged master at St. Petersburg, who refused to receive him. In 1798Bonaparte had secured Belgium, had compelled Austria to cede to himLombardy, also to promise him help in getting the left bank of theRhine from the Germanic body, and to acknowledge his Cisalpine Republic. 

The Emperor Paul's feelings underwent a swift change. He was blindedby the glory of Napoleon's conquests and pleased with his despoticmethods. He conceived not only a friendship but a passion for the manwho could accomplish such things. Austria and England had bothoffended him, so he readily fell into a plan for a Franco-Russianunderstanding for mutual benefit, from which there developed a largerplan. 

The object of this was the overthrow of British dominion in India. Paul was to move with a large army into Hindostan, there to be joinedby a French army from Egypt; then they would together sweep through thecountry of the Great Mogul, gathering up the English settlements by theway and so placating the native population and Princes that they wouldjoin them in the liberation of their country from English tyranny andusurpation. Paul said in his manifesto to the army that the GreatMogul and the Sovereign Princes were to be undisturbed; nothing was tobe attacked but the commercial establishments acquired by money andused to oppress and to enslave India. At the same time he said to hisarmy, "The treasures of the Indies shall be your recompense, " failingto state how these treasures were to be obtained without disturbing theSovereign Princes. 

It is known that Napoleon had plans of an empire in the East, and it isalso known that some compact of this kind did exist between him and theEmperor Paul. In 1801 eleven regiments of Cossacks, the vanguard ofthe army which was to follow, had started upon the great undertaking, when news was received that the Emperor Paul I. Was dead. 

The unbalanced course pursued by the Tsar, his unwise reforms, and hiscapricious policy had not only alienated everyone, but caused seriousapprehensions for the safety of the empire. He had arrayed himselfagainst his wife and his children; had threatened to disinheritAlexander, his oldest son and heir, whom he especially hated. A plotwas formed to compel his abdication. To that extent his sons Alexanderand Constantine were aware of and party to it. 

On the night of the 23d of March, 1801, the conspirators entered Paul'ssleeping apartment after he had retired, and, sword in hand, presentedthe abdication for him to sign. There was a struggle in which the lampwas overturned, and in the darkness the Tsar, who had fallen upon thefloor, was strangled with an officer's scarf. 

On the 24th of March, 1801, Alexander, who was entirely innocent ofcomplicity in this crime, was proclaimed Emperor of Russia. 

It is said that when Bonaparte saw the downfall of his vast design, hecould not contain his rage; and pointing to England as the instigatorof the deed, he said in the _Moniteur_: "It is for history to clear upthe secret of this tragedy, and to say what national policy wasinterested in such a catastrophe!"

The Emperor Paul had an acute, although narrow, intelligence, and wasnot without generous impulses. But although he sometimes madeimpetuous reparation for injury, although he recalled exiles fromSiberia and gave to Kosciusko and other patriots their freedom, unlesshis kindness was properly met the reaction toward severity wasexcessive. A little leaven of good with much that is evil sometimescreates a very explosive mixture, and converts what would be a mild, even tyranny into a vindictive and revengeful one. When we behold thetraits exhibited during this brief reign of five years, we are notsurprised at Catherine's unwillingness to resign to her son the empirefor which she had done so much; and we are inclined to believe it istrue that there was, as has been rumored, a will left by the Empressnaming as her heir the grandson whom she had carefully prepared to beher successor, and that this paper was destroyed by the conspirators. 

There is one wise act to record in the reign of Paul--although it wasprobably prompted not by a desire to benefit the future so much as toreverse the past. Peter the Great, probably on account of his perverseson Alexis, had set aside the principle of primogeniture; a principlenot Slavonic, but established by the Muscovite Princes. Peter, theruthless reformer, placed in the hands of the sovereign the power tochoose his own successor. Paul reestablished this principle, andthereby bestowed a great benefit upon Russia. 

CHAPTER XX

NAPOLEON IN RUSSIA--HOLY ALLIANCE

A youth of twenty-five years was Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias. Alexander had from his birth been withdrawn entirely from his father'sinfluence. The tutor chosen by his grandmother was Laharpe, a SwissRepublican, and the principles of political freedom were at thefoundation of his training. It was of course during the period of herown liberal tendencies that Alexander was imbued with the advancedtheories which had captured intellectual Europe in the days before theFrench Revolution. The new Emperor declared in a manifesto that hisreign should be inspired by the aims and principles of Catherine II. He then quickly freed himself from the conspirators who had murderedhis father, and drew about him a group of young men like himself, utterly inexperienced, but enthusiastic dreamers of a reign of goodwillwhich should regenerate Russia. With the utmost confidence, reforms ofthe most radical nature were proposed and discussed. There was to be agradual emancipation of the serfs, and misery of all sorts to be liftedfrom the land by a new and benign system of government which should berepresentative and constitutional. Many changes were at onceinstituted. The old system of "colleges, " or departments, establishedby Peter the Great was removed and a group of ministers after theEuropean custom constituted the Tsar's official household, or whatwould once have been called his _Drujina_. In the very first year ofthis reign there began an accession of territory in Asia, whichgravitated as if by natural law toward the huge mass. The picturesqueold kingdom of Georgia, lying south of the Caucasus between the Blackand Caspian seas, was the home of that fair and gifted race which, fallen from its high estate, had become the victim of the Turks, and, with its congener Circassia, had long provided the harems of theOttoman Empire with beautiful slaves. The Georgians had often appealedto the Tsars for protection, and in 1810 the treaty was signed whichincorporated the suffering kingdom with Russia. 

A portion of the state passed to Russia in 1801, at the commencement ofAlexander's reign; but the formal surrender of the whole by treaty wasnot until 1810. 

So day by day, while the young Emperor and his friends were living intheir pleasant Utopia, Russia, with all its incoherent elements, withits vast energies, its vast riches, and its vast miseries, wasexpanding and assuming a more dominating position in Europe. Whatwould be done at St. Petersburg, was the question of supremeimportance; and Alexander was being importuned to join the coalitionagainst the common enemy Bonaparte. 

The night before the 2d of October, 1805, the Russian Emperor and hisyoung officers, as confident of victory as they were of their abilityto reconstruct Russia, were impatiently waiting for the morrow, and theconflict at Austerlitz. With a ridiculous assurance the youngAlexander sent by the young Prince Dolgoruki a note addressed--not tothe Emperor--but to the "Head of the French Nation, " stating hisdemands for the abandonment of Italy and immediate peace! Beforesundown the next day the "Battle of the Three Emperors" had beenfought; the Russian army was scattered after frightful loss, andAlexander, attended by an orderly and two Cossacks, was galloping awayas fast as his horse could carry him. Then Napoleon was inVienna--Francis II. At his bidding took off his imperial crown--the"Confederation of the Rhine" was formed out of Germanic States; andthen the terrible and invincible man turned toward Prussia, defeated aRussian army which came to its rescue, and in 1806 was inBerlin--master and arbiter of Europe!

Alexander, the romantic champion of right and justice, the dreamer ofideal dreams, had been carried by the whirlpool of events into currentstoo strong for him. He stood alone on the continent of Europe face toface with the man who was subjugating it. His army was broken inpieces, and perhaps an invasion of his own empire was at hand. Shouldhe make terms with this man whose career had so revolted him?--orshould he defy him and accept the risk of an invasion, which, byoffering freedom to the serfs and independence to the Poles, might givethe invader the immediate support of millions of his own subjects?Then added to the conflict with his old self, there was theirresistible magic of Napoleon's personal influence. A two-hours'interview on the raft at Tilsit--June 25, 1807--changed the wholedirection of Alexander's policy, and made him an ally of the despot hehad detested, whom he now joined in determining the fate of Europe. Together they decided who should occupy thrones and who should not; towhom there should be recompense, and who should be despoiled; and theEmperor of Russia consented to join the Emperor of the French in a warupon the commercial prosperity of England--his old friend and ally--bymeans of a continental blockade. 

Times were changed. It was not so long ago--just one hundredyears--since Peter the Great had opened one small window for the lightfrom civilized Europe to glimmer through; and now the Tsar of that sameRussia, in a two-hours' interview on a raft, was deciding what shouldbe the fate of Europe!

The Emperor's young companions, with small experience and lofty aims, were keenly disappointed in him. This alliance was in contravention ofall their ideals. He began to grow distrustful and cold toward them, leaning entirely upon Speranski, his prime minister, who was French inhis sympathies and a profound admirer of Napoleon. Alexander, no lesszealous for reforms than before, hurt at the defection of his friendsand trying to justify himself to himself, said "Does not this manrepresent the new forces in conflict with the old?" But he was not atease. He and his minister worked laboriously; a systematic plan ofreform was prepared. Speranski considered the Code Napoleon the modelof all progressive legislation. Its adoption was desired, but it wassuited only to a homogeneous people; it was a modern garment and not tobe worn by a nation in which feudalism lingered, in which there was nota perfect equality before the law; hence the emancipation of the serfsmust be the corner-stone of the new structure. The difficulties grewlarger as they were approached. He had disappointed the friends of hisyouth, had displeased his nobility, and a general feeling of irritationprevailed upon finding themselves involved by the Franco-Russianalliance in wars with England, Austria, and Sweden, and the prosperityof the empire seriously impaired by the continental blockade. But whenBonaparte began to show scant courtesy to his Russian ally, and to actas if he were his master, then Alexander's disenchantment was complete. He freed himself from the unnatural alliance, and faced the inevitableconsequences. 

Napoleon, also glad to be freed from a sentimental friendship not atall to his taste, prepared to carry out his long-contemplated design. In July of 1812, by way of Poland, he entered Russia with an army ofover 678, 000 souls. It was a human avalanche collected mainly from thepeople he had conquered, with which he intended to overwhelm theRussian Empire. It was of little consequence that thirty or fortythousand fell as this or that town was captured by the way. He hadexpected victory to be costly, and on he pressed with diminishednumbers toward Moscow, armies retreating and villages burning beforehim. If St. Petersburg was the brain of Russia, Moscow--Moscow theHoly--was its heart! What should they do? Should they lure the Frencharmy on to its destruction and then burn and retreat? or should theythere take their stand and sacrifice the last army of Russia to saveMoscow? With tears streaming down their cheeks they yielded to thewords of Kutuzof, who said: "When it becomes a matter of the salvationof Russia, Moscow is only a city like any other. Let us retreat. " Thearchives and treasures of the churches and palaces were carried toValdimir, such as could of the people following them, and the city wasleft to its fate. 

On September the 14th, 1812, the French troops defiled through thestreets of Moscow singing the Marseillaise, and Napoleon establishedhimself in the ancient palace of the Ivans within the walls of theKremlin. The torches had been distributed, and were in the hands ofthe Muscovites. The stores of brandy, and boats loaded with alcohol, were simultaneously ignited, and a fierce conflagration like a sea offlame raged below the Kremlin. Napoleon, compelled to force his waythrough these volcanic fires himself, narrowly escaped. 

For five days they continued, devouring supplies and everything uponwhich the army had depended for shelter and subsistence. Forthirty-five days more they waited among the blackened ruins. All wasover with the French conquest. The troops were eating their horses, and thousands were already perishing with hunger. Then the elementsbegan to fight for Russia--the snow-flakes came, then the bitter polarwinds, cutting like a razor; and a winding sheet of snow enveloped theland. On the 13th of October, after lighting a mine under the Kremlin, with sullen rage the French troops marched out of Moscow. The GreatTower of Ivan erected by Boris was cracked and some portions of palacesand gateways destroyed by this vicious and useless act of revenge. 

Then, instead of marching upon St. Petersburg as he had expected, Napoleon escaped alone to the frontier, leaving his perishing wreck ofan army to get back as it could. The peasantry, the mushiks, whom theRussians had feared to trust--infuriated by the destruction of theirhomes, committed awful atrocities upon the starving, freezing soldiers, who, maddened by cold and hunger and by the singing in their ears ofthe rarefied air, many of them leaped into the bivouac fires. It was acolossal tragedy. Of the 678, 000 soldiers only 80, 000 ever returned. 

The extinction of the grand army of invasion was complete. But in thefollowing year, with another great army, the indomitable Napoleon wasconducting a campaign in Germany which ended with the final defeat atLeipzig--then the march upon Paris--and in March, 1814, Alexander atthe head of the Allies was in the French capital, dictating the termsof surrender. This young man had played the most brilliant part in thegreat drama of Liberation. He was hailed as a Deliverer, and exerted amore powerful influence than any of the other sovereigns, in the longperiod required for rearranging Europe after the passing ofNapoleon--the disturber of the peace of the world. 

In 1809 Sweden had surrendered to Russia Finland, which had belonged tothat country for six centuries. The kindly-intentioned Alexanderconceded to the Finns many privileges similar to those enjoyed byPoland, which until recent years have not been seriously interferedwith. He guaranteed to them a Diet, a separate army, and thecontinuance of their own language and customs. A ukase just issued bythe present emperor seriously invades these privileges, and a forcibleRussification of Finland threatens to bring a wave of Finnishemigration to America (1899). 

When the Emperor Alexander returned after the Treaty of Paris he wasthirty-four years old. Many of the illusions of his youth had faded. His marriage with Elizabeth of Baden was unhappy. His plans for reformhad not been understood by the people whom they were intended tobenefit. He had yielded finally to the demands of his angry nobility, had dismissed his liberal adviser Speranski and substituted Araktcheef, an intolerant, reactionary leader. He grew morose, gloomy, andsuspicious, and a reign of extreme severity under Araktcheef commenced. In 1819 he consented to join in a league with Austria and Prussia forthe purpose of suppressing the very tendencies he himself had oncepromoted. The League was called the "Holy Alliance, " and its objectwas to reinstate the principle of the divine right of Kings and todestroy democratic tendencies in the germ. Araktcheef's severities, directed against the lower classes and the peasantry, produced moreserious disorders than had yet developed. There were popularuprisings, and in 1823 at Kief there was held secretly a convention atwhich the people were told that "the obstacle to their liberties wasthe Romanoff dynasty. They must shrink from nothing--not from themurder of the Emperor, nor the extermination of the Imperial family. "The peasants were promised freedom if they would join in the plot, anda definite time was proposed for the assassination of Alexander when heshould inspect the troops in the Ukraine in 1824. 

When the Tsar heard of this conspiracy in the South he exclaimed: "Ah, the monsters! And I planned for nothing but their happiness!" Hebrooded over his lost illusions and his father's assassination. Hishealth became seriously disordered, and he was advised to go to theSouth for change of climate. At Taganrog, on the 1st of December, 1825, he suddenly expired. Almost his last words were: "They may sayof me what they will, but I have lived and shall die republican. " Astatement difficult to accept, regarding a man who helped to create the"Holy Alliance. "

CHAPTER XXI

RUSSIA ORIENTALIZED--EASTERN QUESTION

As Alexander left no sons, by the law of primogeniture his brotherConstantine, the next oldest in the family of Paul I. , should have beenhis successor. But Constantine had already privately renounced thethrone in favor of his brother Nicholas. The actual reason for thisrenunciation was the Grand Duke's deep attachment to a Polish lady forwhom he was willing even to relinquish a crown. The letter announcinghis intention contained these words: "Being conscious that I haveneither genius, talents, nor energy necessary for my elevation, I begyour Imperial Majesty to transfer this right to my brother Nicholas, the next in succession. " The document accepting the renunciation andacknowledging Nicholas as his successor was safely deposited byAlexander, its existence remaining a profound secret even to Nicholashimself. 

At the time of the Emperor's death Constantine, who was Viceroy ofPoland, was residing at Cracow. Nicholas, unaware of thecircumstances, immediately took the oath of allegiance to his brotherand also administered it to the troops at St. Petersburg. It requiredsome time for Constantine's letter to arrive, stating his immovabledetermination to abide by the decision which would be found in hisletter to the late Emperor. There followed a contest ofgenerosity--Nicholas urging and protesting, and his brother refusingthe elevation. Three weeks passed--weeks of disastrousuncertainty--with no acknowledged head to the Empire. 

Such an opportunity was not to be neglected by the revolutionists inthe South nor their co-workers in the North. Pestel, the leader, hadlong been organizing his recruits, and St. Petersburg and Moscow werethe centers of secret political societies. The time for action hadunexpectedly come. There must be a swift overturning: the entireimperial family must be destroyed, and the Senate and Holy Synod mustbe compelled to adopt the Constitution which had been prepared. 

The hour appointed for the beginning of this direful programme was theday when the senators and the troops should assemble to take the oathof allegiance to Nicholas. The soldiers, who knew nothing of the plot, were incited to refuse to take the oath on the ground thatConstantine's resignation was false, and that he was a prisoner and inchains. Constantine was their friend and going to increase their pay. One Moscow regiment openly shouted: "Long life to Constantine!" andwhen a few conspirators cried "Long live the Constitution!" thesoldiers asked if that was Constantine's wife. So the ostensible causeof the revolt, which soon became general, was a fidelity to theirrightful Emperor, who was being illegally deposed. Under this maskworked Pestel and his co-conspirators, composed in large measure of menof high intelligence and standing, including even government officialsand members of the aristocracy. 

A few days were sufficient to overcome this abortive attempt atrevolution in Russia. Pestel, when he heard his death sentence, said, "My greatest error is that I tried to gather the harvest before sowingthe seed"; and Ruileef, "I knew this enterprise would be mydestruction--but could no longer endure the sight of my country'sanguish under despotism. " When we think of the magnitude of theoffense, the monstrous crime which was contemplated; and when weremember that Nicholas was by nature the very incarnation ofunrestrained authority, the punishment seems comparatively light. There was no vindictiveness, no wholesale slaughter. Five leaders weredeliberately and ignominiously hanged, and hundreds of their misguidedfollowers and sympathizers went into perpetual exile in Siberia--thereto expiate the folly of supposing that a handful of inexperiencedenthusiasts and doctrinaires could in their studies create new andideal conditions, and build up with one hand while they were recklesslydestroying with the other. Their aims were the abolition of serfdom, the destruction of all existing institutions, and a perfect equalityunder a constitutional government. They were definite andsweeping--and so were the means for accomplishing them. Their benigngovernment was going to rest upon crime and violence. We should callthese men Nihilists now. There were among them writers and thinkers, noble souls which, under the stress of oppression and sympathy, hadgone astray. They had failed, but they had proved that there were menin Russia capable of dying for an ideal. When the cause had itsmartyrs it had become sacred--and though it might sleep, it would notdie. 

The man sitting upon the throne of Russia now was not torn by conflictsbetween his ideals and inexorable circumstance. His natural instinctsand the conditions of his empire both pointed to the same simplecourse--an unmitigated autocracy--an absolute rule supported bymilitary power. Instead of opening wider the doors leading intoEurope, he intended to close them, and if necessary even to lock them. Instead of encouraging his people to be more European, he was going tobe the champion of a new Pan-Slavism and to strive to intensify theRussian national traits. The time had come for this great empire toturn its face away from the West and toward the East, where its trueinterests were. Such a plan may not have been formulated by Nicholas, but such were the policies instinctively pursued from the beginning ofhis reign to its close. 

Such an attitude naturally brought him at once into conflict withTurkey, with which country he was almost immediately at war. Of courseno one suspected him of sentimental sympathy when he espoused the causeof Greece in the picturesque struggle with the Turks which broughtWestern Europe at last to her rescue. It was only a part of a muchlarger plan, and when Nicholas had proclaimed himself the Protector ofthe Orthodox Christians in the East, he had placed himself in arelation to the Eastern Question which could be held by no othersovereign in Europe; for persecuted Christians in the East were notCatholic but Orthodox; and was not he the head of the Orthodox Church?It was to secure this first move in the game of diplomacy that Russiajoined England and France, and placed the struggling little state ofGreece upon its feet in 1832. 

But the conditions in Western Europe were unfavorable to the tranquilpursuit of autocratic ends. Charles X. Had presumed too far upon thepatient submission of the French people. In 1830 Paris was in a stateof insurrection; Charles, the last of the Bourbons, had abdicated; andLouis Philippe, under a new liberal Constitution _approved by thepeople_, was King of the French. The indignation of Nicholas at thisoverturning was still greater when the epidemic of revolt spread toBelgium and to Italy, and then leaped, as such epidemics will, acrossthe intervening space to Russian Poland. The surface calm in thatunhappy state ruled by the Grand Duke Constantine swiftly vanished andrevealed an entire people waiting for the day when, at any cost, theymight make one more stand for freedom. The plan was a desperate one. It was to assassinate Constantine, who had relinquished a throne ratherthan leave them; to induce Lithuania, their old ally, to join them; andto create an independent Polish state which would bar the Russians fromentering Europe. 

In 1831 the brief struggle was ended, and Europe had received thehistoric announcement, "Order reigns at Warsaw. " Not only Warsaw, butPoland, was at the feet of the Emperor. Confiscations, imprisonments, and banishments to Siberia were the least terrible of the punishments. Every germ of a Polish nationality was destroyed--the army and the Dieteffaced, Russian systems of taxes, justice, and coinage, and the metricsystem of weights and measures used in Russia were introduced, --theJulian Calendar superseded the one adopted all over the world--theUniversity of Warsaw was carried to Moscow, and the Polish language wasprohibited to be taught in the schools. Indemnity and pardon wereoffered to those who abjured the Roman Catholic faith, and many werereceived into the bosom of the National Orthodox Church; those refusingthis offer of clemency being subjected to great cruelties. Poland wasno more. Polish exiles were scattered all over Europe. In France, Hungary, Italy, wherever there were lovers of freedom, there werethousands of these emigrants without a country, living illustrations ofwhat an unrestrained despotism might do, and everywhere intensifyingthe desires of patriots to achieve political freedom in their own lands. 

Nicholas, as the chief representative of conservatism in Europe, lookedupon France with especial aversion. Paris was the center of thesepernicious movements which periodically shook Europe to itsfoundations. It had overthrown his ally Charles X. , and had been thedirect cause of the insurrection in Poland which had cost him thousandsof rubles and lives; and now nowhere else was such sympathetic welcomegiven to the Polish refugees, thousands of whom were in the Frencharmy. His relations with Louis Philippe became strained, and he waslooking about for an opportunity to manifest his ill will. In themeantime he addressed himself to what he considered the _reforms_ inhis own empire. He was going to establish a sort of politicalquarantine to keep out European influences. It was forbidden to sendyoung men to Western universities--the term of absence in foreigncountries was limited to five years for nobles, three for Russiansubjects. The Russian language, literature, and history were to begiven prominence over all studies in the schools. German free-thoughtwas especially disliked by him. His instincts were not mistaken, forwhat the Encyclopedists had been to the Revolution of 1789, the newschool of thought in Germany would be to that of 1848. So from hispoint of view he was wise in excluding philosophy from the universitiesand permitting it to be taught only by ecclesiastics. 

The Khedive of Egypt, who ruled under a Turkish protectorate, in 1832was at war with his master the Sultan. It suited the Emperor of Russiaat this time to do the Sultan a kindness, so he joined him in bringingthe Khedive to terms, and as his reward received a secret promise fromthe Porte to close the Dardanelles in case of war against Russia--topermit no foreign warships to pass through upon any pretext. There wasindignation in Europe when this was known, and out of the wholeimbroglio there came just what Nicholas and his minister Nesselrode hadintended--a joint protection of Turkey by the Great Powers, from whichFrance was excluded on account of her avowed sympathy for the Khedivein the recent troubles. 

The great game of diplomacy had begun. Nicholas, for the sake ofhumiliating France, had allied himself with England, his natural enemy, and had assumed the part of Protector of an Ottoman integrity which hemore than anyone else had tried to destroy! There were to be manystrange roles played in this Eastern drama--many surprises forChristendom; and for Nicholas the surprise of a crushing defeat a fewyears later to which France contributed, possibly in retaliation forthis humiliation. 

The Ottoman Empire had reached its zenith in 1550 under Suleyman theMagnificent, when, with its eastern frontier in the heart of Asia, itsEuropean frontier touching Russia and Austria, it held in its graspEgypt, the northern coast of Africa, and almost every city famous inbiblical and classical history. Then commenced a decline; and when itsterrible Janizaries were a source of danger instead of defense, whenits own Sultan was compelled to destroy them in 1826 for the protectionof his empire, it was only a helpless mass in the throes of dissolution. 

But Turkey as a living and advancing power was less alarming to Europethan Turkey as a perishing one. Lying at the gateway between the Eastand the West, it occupied the most commanding strategic position inEurope. If that position were held by a living instead of a dyingpower, that power would be master of the Continent. No one state wouldever be permitted by the rest to reach such an ascendency; and the nextalternative of a division of the territory after the manner of Poland, was fraught with almost as much danger. The only hope for the peace ofEurope was to keep in its integrity this crumbling wreck of a wicked, crime-stained old empire. Such was the policy now inaugurated byRussia, Great Britain, Austria, and Prussia; and such in brief is the"Eastern Question, " which for more than half a century has overshadowedall others in European diplomacy, and more than any other has strainedthe conscience and the moral sense of Christian nations. We wish wemight say that one nation had been able to resist this invitation to amoral turpitude masked by diplomatic subterfuges. But there is not one. 

Although the question of the balance of power was of importance to all, it was England and Russia to whom the interests involved in the EasternQuestion were most vital. Every year which made England's IndianEmpire a more important possession also increased the necessity for herhaving free access to it; while Russian policy more and more revolvedabout an actual and a potential empire in the East. So just becausethey were natural enemies they became allies, each desiring to tie theother's hands by the principle of Ottoman integrity. 

But daily and noiselessly the Russian outposts crept toward the East;first into Persia, then stretching out the left hand toward Khiva, pressing on through Bokhara into Chinese territory; and then, with aprescience of coming events which should make Western Europe tremblebefore such a subtle instinct for power, Russia obtained from theChinese Emperor the privilege of establishing at Canton a school ofinstruction where Russian youths--prohibited from attending Europeanuniversities--might learn the Chinese language and become familiarizedwith Chinese methods! But this was the sort of instinct that impels aglacier to creep surely toward a lower level. Not content with owninghalf of Europe and all of Northern Asia, the Russian glacier was movingnoiselessly, --as all things must, --on the line of least resistance, toward the East. 

The Emperor Nicholas, who comprehended so well the secret of imperialexpansion, and so little understood the expanding qualities within hisempire, was an impressive object to look upon. With his colossalstature and his imposing presence, always tightly buttoned in hisuniform, he carried with him an air of majesty never to be forgotten ifonce it was seen. But while he supposed he was extinguishing theliving forces and arresting the advancing power of mind in his empire, a new world was maturing beneath the smooth hard surface he hadcreated. The Russian intellect, in spite of all, was blossoming fromseed scattered long before his time. There were historians, and poets, and romanticists, and classicists, just as in the rest of Europe. There were the conservative writers who felt contempt for the West, andfor the new, and who believed Russia was as much better before IvanIII. Than after, as Ivan the Great was superior to Peter the Great; andthere were Pushkin and Gogol, and Koltsof and Turguenief, whom theyhated, because their voice was the voice of the New Russia. Turguenief, who with smothered sense of Russia's oppression was thengirding himself for his battle with serfdom, says: "My proof used tocome back to me from the censor half erased, and stained with red inklike blood. Ah! they were painful times!" But in spite of all, Russian genius was spreading its wings, and perhaps from this veryrepression was to come that passionate intensity which makes it sogreat. 

CHAPTER XXII

1848 IN EUROPE--CRIMEAN WAR. 

The Revolution of 1831 was only the mild precursor of the one which shookEurope to its foundations in 1848. It had centers wherever there werepatriots and aching hearts. In Paris, Louis Philippe had fled at thesound of the word Republic, and when in Paris workmen were waving thenational banner of Poland, with awakened hope, even that land wasquivering with excitement. In Vienna the Emperor Ferdinand, unable tomeet the storm, abdicated in favor of his young nephew, Francis Joseph. Hungary, obedient to the voice of her great patriot, Louis Kossuth, inApril, 1849, declared itself free and independent. It was the Hungarianswho had offered the most encouragement and sympathy to the Poles in 1831;so Nicholas determined to make them feel the weight of his hand. Uponthe pretext that thousands of Polish exiles--his subjects--were in theranks of the insurgents, a Russian army marched into Hungary. By thefollowing August the revolution was over--thousands of Hungarian patriotshad died for naught, thousands more had fled to Turkey, and still otherthousands were suffering from Austrian vengeance administered by theterrible General Haynau. Francis Joseph, that gentle and benignsovereign, who sits today upon the throne at Vienna, subjected Hungary tomore cruelties than had been inflicted by Nicholas in Poland. Not onlywere the germs of nationality destroyed--the Constitution and the Dietabolished, the national language, church, and institutions effaced; butrevolting cruelties and executions continued for years. Kossuth, whowith a few other leaders, was an exile and a prisoner in Asia Minor, wasfreed by the intervention of European sentiment in 1851. The UnitedStates government then sent a frigate and conveyed him and his friends toAmerica, where the great Hungarian thrilled the people by the magic ofhis eloquence in their own language, which he had mastered during hisimprisonment by means of a Bible and a dictionary. 

It was to Russia that Austria was indebted for a result so satisfactory. The Emperor Nicholas returned to St. Petersburg, feeling that he hadearned the everlasting gratitude of the young ruler Francis Joseph, little suspecting that he was before long to say of him that "hisingratitude astonished Europe. "

There can be no doubt that the Emperor Nicholas, while he was, in commonwith the other powers, professing to desire the preservation of Ottomanintegrity, had secretly resolved not to leave the Eastern Question toposterity, but to crown his own reign by its solution in a way favorableto Russia. His position was a very strong one. By the Treaty of 1841his headship as protector of Eastern Christendom had been acknowledged. Austria was now bound to him irrevocably by the tie of gratitude, andPrussia by close family ties and by sympathy. It was only necessary towin over England. In 1853, in a series of private, informal interviewswith the English ambassador, he disclosed his plan that there should be aconfidential understanding between him and Her Majesty's government. Hesaid in substance: "England and Russia must be friends. Never was thenecessity greater. If we agree, I have no solicitude about Europe. Whatothers think is really of small consequence. I am as desirous as you forthe continued existence of the Turkish Empire. But we have on our handsa sick man--a very sick man: he may suddenly die. Is it not the part ofprudence for us to come to an understanding regarding what should be donein case of such a catastrophe? It may as well be understood at once thatI should never permit an attempt to reconstruct a Byzantine Empire, andstill less should I allow the partition of Turkey into smallrepublics--ready-made asylums for Kossuths and Mazzinis and Europeanrevolutionists; and I also tell you very frankly that I should neverpermit England or any of the Powers to have a foothold in Constantinople. I am willing to bind myself also not to occupy it--except, perhaps, as aguardian. But I should have no objection to your occupying Egypt. Iquite understand its importance to your government--and perhaps theisland of Candia might suit you. I see no objection to that islandbecoming also an English possession. I do not ask for a treaty--only anunderstanding; between gentlemen that is sufficient. I have no desire toincrease my empire. It is large enough; but I repeat--the sick man isdying; and if we are taken by surprise, if proper precautions are nottaken in advance, circumstances may arise which will make it necessaryfor me to occupy Constantinople. "

It was a bribe, followed by a threat. England coldly declined enteringinto any stipulations without the concurrence of the other Powers. HerMajesty's government could not be a party to a confidential arrangementfrom which it was to derive a benefit. The negotiations had failed. Nicholas was deeply incensed and disappointed. He could rely, however, upon Austria and Prussia. He now thought of Louis Napoleon, the newFrench Emperor, who was looking for recognition in Europe. The Englishambassador was coldly received, and for the first time since theabdication of Charles X. , the representative of France received a cordialgreeting, and was intrusted with a flattering message to the Emperor. But France had not forgotten the retreat from Moscow, nor the presence ofAlexander in Paris, nor her attempted ostracism in Europe by Nicholashimself; and, further, although Louis Napoleon was pleased with theovertures made to win his friendship, he was not yet quite sure whichcause would best promote his own ends. 

Fortunately Russia had a grievance against Turkey. It was a very smallone, but it was useful, and led to one of the most exciting crises in thehistory of Europe. It was a question of the possession of the HolyShrines at Bethlehem and other places which tradition associates with thebirth and death of Jesus Christ; and whether the Latin or the Greek monkshad the right to the key of the great door of the Church at Bethlehem, and the right to place a silver star over the grotto where our Saviourwas born. The Sultan had failed to carry out his promises in adjustingthese disputed points. And all Europe trembled when the great PrinceMenschikof, with imposing suite and threatening aspect, appeared atConstantinople, demanding immediate settlement of the dispute. Turkeywas paralyzed with fright, until England sent her great diplomatist LordStratford de Redcliffe--and France hers, M. De Lacour. No simplerquestion was ever submitted to more distinguished consideration or waswatched with more breathless interest by five sovereigns and theircabinets. In a few days all was settled--the questions of the shrinesand of the possession of the key of the great door of the church atBethlehem were happily adjusted. There were only a few "businessdetails" to arrange, and the episode would be closed. But the troublewas not over. Hidden away among the "business details" was the germ of agreat war. The Emperor of Russia "felt obliged to demand guarantees, formal and positive, " assuring the security of the Greek Christians inthe Sultan's dominions. He had been constituted the Protector ofChristianity in the Turkish Empire, and demanded this by virtue of thatauthority. The Sultan, strengthened now by the presence of the Englishand French ambassadors, absolutely refused to give such guarantee, appealing to the opinion of the world to sustain him in resisting such aviolation of his independence and of his rights. In vain did LordStratford exchange notes and conferences with Count Nesselrode and PrinceMenschikof and the Grand Vizier and exhaust all the arts and powers ofthe most skilled diplomacy. In July, 1853, the Russian troops hadinvaded Turkish territory, and a French and English fleet soon after hadcrossed the Dardanelles, --no longer closed to the enemies of Russia, --hadsteamed by Constantinople, and was in the Bosphorus. 

Austria joined England and France in a defensive though not an offensivealliance, and Prussia held entirely aloof from the conflict. 

Nicholas had failed in all his calculations. In vain had he tried tolure England into a secret compact by the offer of Egypt--in vain had hepreserved Hungary to Austria--in vain sought to attach Prussia to himselfby acts of friendship; and his Nemesis was pursuing him, avenging a longseries of affronts to France. Unsupported by a single nation, he was atwar with three; and after a brilliant reign of twenty-eight yearsunchecked by a single misfortune, he was about to die, leaving to hisempire the legacy of a disastrous war, which was to end in defeat andhumiliation. 

But a strange thing had happened. For a thousand years Europe had beentrying to drive Mohammedanism out of the continent. No sacrifice hadbeen considered too great if it would help to rid Christendom of thatgreat iniquity. Now the Turkish Empire, --the spiritual heir and centerof this old enemy, --no less vicious--no less an offense to the instinctsof Christendom than before, was on the brink of extermination. It wouldhave been a surprise to Richard the lion-hearted, and to Louis IX. Thesaint, if they could have foreseen what England and France would do eighthundred years later when such a crisis arrived! While the Sultan in thename of the Prophet was appealing to all the passions of a mad fanaticismto arise and "drive out the foreign infidels who were assailing theirholy faith"--there was in England an enthusiasm for his defense assplendid as if the cause were a righteous one. 

It is not a simple thing to carry a bark deeply loaded with treasuresafely through swift and tortuous currents. England was loaded to thewater's edge with treasure. Her hope was in that sunken wreck of anempire which fate had moored at the gateway leading to her Easterndominions, and what she most feared in this world was its removal. As amatter of state policy, she may have followed the only course which wasopen to her; but viewed from a loftier standpoint, it was a compromisewith unrighteousness when she joined Hands with the "Great Assassin" andpoured out the blood of her sons to keep him unharmed. For fifty yearsthat compromise has embarrassed her policy, and still continues to soilher fair name. In the War of the Crimea, England, no less than Russia, was fighting, not for the avowed, but unavowed object. But frankness isnot one of the virtues required by diplomacy, so perhaps of that we haveno right to complain. 

On the 4th of January, 1854, the allied fleets entered the Black Sea. The Emperor Nicholas, from his palace in St. Petersburg, watched theprogress of events. He saw Menschikof vainly measuring swords with LordRaglan at Odessa (April 22); then the overwhelming defeat at the Alma(September 20); then the sinking of the Russian fleet to protectSebastopol, about which the battle was to rage until the end of the war. He saw the invincible courage of his foe in that immortal act of valor, the cavalry charge at Balaklava (November 5), in obedience to an orderwise when it was given, but useless and fatal when it was received--ofwhich someone made the oft-repeated criticism--"_C'est magnifique--maisce n'est pas la guerre_. " And then he saw the power to endure duringthat awful winter, when the elements and official mismanagement werefighting for him, and when more English troops were perishing from coldand neglect than had been killed by Russian shot and shell. 

But the immense superiority of the armies of the allies could not bedoubted. His troops, vanquished at every point, were hopelesslybeleagured in Sebastopol. The majesty of his empire was on every sideinsulted, his ports in every sea blockaded. Never before had he tastedthe bitterness of defeat and humiliation. Europe had bowed down beforehim as the Agamemnon among Kings. He had saved Austria; had protectedPrussia; he had made France feel the weight of his august displeasure. Wherever autocracy had been insulted, there he had been its champion andstriven to be its restorer. But ever since 1848 there had been somethingin the air unsuited to his methods. He was the incarnation of an oldprinciple in a new world. It was time for him to depart. His day hadbeen a long and splendid one, but it was passing amid clouds and darkness. 

A successful autocrat is quite a different person from an unsuccessfulone. Nicholas had been seen in the shining light of invincibility. Buta sudden and terrible awakening had come. The nation, stung by repeateddefeats, was angry. A flood of anonymous literature was scatteredbroadcast, arraigning the Emperor--the administration--the ministers--thediplomats--the generals. "Slaves, arise!" said one, "and stand erectbefore the despot. We have been kept long enough in serfage to thesuccessors of Tatar Khans. "

The Tsar grew gloomy and silent. "My successor, " he said, "may do whathe likes. I cannot change. " When he saw Austria at last actually inalliance with his enemies he was sorely shaken. But it was the voice ofbitter reproach and hatred from his hitherto silent people which shookhis iron will and broke his heart. He no longer desired to live. Whilesuffering from an influenza he insisted upon going out in the intensecold without his greatcoat and reviewing his guards. Five days later hedictated the dispatch which was sent to every city in Russia: "TheEmperor is dying. "

CHAPTER XXIII

LIBERALISM--EMANCIPATION OF SERFS

When his life and the hard-earned conquests of centuries were togetherslipping away, the dying Emperor said to his son: "All my care has beento leave Russia safe without and prosperous within. But you see how itis. I am dying, and I leave you a burden which will be hard to bear. "Alexander II. , the young man upon whom fell these responsibilities, wasthirty-seven years old. His mother was Princess Charlotte of Prussia, sister of the late Emperor William, who succeeded to the throne ofPrussia, left vacant by his brother in 1861. 

His first words to his people were a passionate justification of hisfather, --"of blessed memory, "--his aims and purposes, and a solemndeclaration that he should remain true to his line of conduct, which"God and history would vindicate. " It was a man of ordinary flesh andblood promising to act like a man of steel. His own nature and thecircumstances of his realm both forbade it. The man on the thronecould not help listening attentively to the voice of the people. Theremust be peace. The country was drained of men and of money. Therewere not enough peasants left to till the fields. The landedproprietors with their serfs in the ranks were ruined, and had notmoney with which to pay the taxes, upon which the prosecution of ahopeless war depended. Victor Emmanuel had joined the allies with aSardinian army; and the French, by a tremendous onslaught, had capturedMalakof, the key to the situation in the Crimea. Prince Gortchakof, who had replaced Prince Menschikof, was only able to cover a retreatwith a mantle of glory. The end had come. 

A treaty of peace was signed March 30, 1856. Russia renounced theclaim of an exclusive protectorate over the Turkish provinces, yieldedthe free navigation of the Danube, left Turkey the Roumanianprincipalities, and, hardest of all, she lost the control of the BlackSea. Its waters were forbidden to men-of-war of all nations; noarsenals, military or maritime, to exist upon its shores. The fruitsof Russian policy since Peter the Great were annihilated, and the workof two centuries of progress was canceled. 

Who and what was to blame for these calamities? Why was it that theRussian army could successfully compete with Turks and Asiatics, andnot with Europeans? The reason began to be obvious, even to stubbornRussian Conservatives. A nation, in order to compete in war in thisage, must have a grasp upon the arts of peace. An army drawn from acivilized nation is a more effective instrument than one drawn from abarbarous one. The time had passed when there might be a few highlyeducated and subtle intelligences thinking for millions of people inbrutish ignorance. The time had arrived when it must be recognizedthat Russia was not made for a few great and powerful people, for whomthe rest, an undistinguishable mass, must toil and suffer. In otherwords, it must be a nation--and not a dynasty nourished by misery andsupported by military force. 

Men high in rank no longer flaunted their titles and insignia ofoffice. They shrank from drawing attention to their share ofresponsibility in the great calamity, and listened almost humbly to thesuggestions of liberal leaders, suggestions which, a few months ago, none dared whisper except behind closed doors. A new literature spranginto life, unrebuked, dealing with questions of state policy with afearless freedom never before dreamed of. Conservative Russia hadsuddenly vanished under a universal conviction that the hope of theirnation was in Liberalism. 

The Emperor recalled from Siberia the exiles of the conspiracy of 1825, and also the Polish exiles of 1831. There was an honest effort made toreform the wretched judicial system and to adopt the methods whichWestern experience had found were the best. The obstructions toEuropean influences were removed, and all joined hands in an effort todevise means of bringing the whole people up to a higher standard ofintelligence and well-being. Russia was going to be regenerated. Men, in a rapture of enthusiasm and with tears, embraced each other on thestreets. One wrote: "The heart trembles with joy. Russia is like astranded ship which the captain and the crew are powerless to move; nowthere is to be a rising tide of national life which will raise andfloat it. "

Such was the prevailing public sentiment in 1861, when EmperorAlexander affixed his name to the measure which was going to make itforever glorious--the emancipation of over twenty-three million humanbeings from serfdom. It would require another volume to tell even inoutline the wrongs and sufferings of this class, upon whom at lastrested the prosperity and even the life of the nation, who, absolutelysubject to the will of one man, might at his pleasure be conscriptedfor military service for a term of from thirty to forty years, or athis displeasure might be sent to Siberia to work in the mines for life;and who, in no place or at no time, had protection from any form ofcruelty which the greed of the proprietor imposed upon them. Sellingthe peasants without the land, unsanctioned by law, became sanctionedby custom, until finally its right was recognized by imperial ukases, so that serfdom, which in theory presented a mild exterior, was inpractice and in fact a terrible and unmitigated form of human slavery. 

Patriarchalism has a benignant sound--it is better than something thatis worse! It is a step upward from a darker quagmire of humancondition. When Peter the Great, with his terrible broom, swept allthe free peasants into the same mass with the unfree serfs, and when heestablished the empire upon a chain of service to be rendered to thenobility by the peasantry, and then to the state by the nobility, hesimply applied to the whole state the Slavonic principle existing inthe social unit--the family. And while he was Europeanizing thesurface, he was completing a structure of paternalism, which wasAsiatic and incompatible with its new garment--an incongruity which intime must bring disorder, and compel radical and difficult reforms. 

To remove a foundation stone is a delicate and difficult operation. Itneeded courage of no ordinary sort to break up this serfdom encrustedwith tyrannies. It was a gigantic social experiment, the results ofwhich none could foresee. Alexander's predecessors had thought andtalked of it, but had not dared to try it. Now the time was ripe, andthe man on the throne had the nerve required for its execution. 

The means by which this revolution was effected may be brieflydescribed in a sentence. The Crown purchased from the proprietors theland--with the peasants attached to it, and then bestowed the land uponthe peasants with the condition that for forty-five years they shouldpay to the Crown six per cent. Interest upon the amount paid by it forthe land. It was the commune or _mir_ which accepted the land andassumed the obligation and the duty of seeing that every individualpaid his annual share of rental (or interest money) upon the landwithin his inclosure, which was supposed to be sufficient for his ownmaintenance and the payment of the government tax. 

These simple people, who had been dreaming of emancipation for years, as a vague promise of relief from sorrow, heard with astonishment thatnow they were expected to pay for their land! Had it not alwaysbelonged to them? The Slavonic idea of ownership of land through laborwas the only one of which they could conceive, and it had survivedthrough all the centuries of serfdom, when they were accustomed to say:"We are yours, but the land is ours. " Instead of twenty-five millionpeople rejoicing with grateful hearts, there was a ferment ofdiscontent and in some places uprisings--one peasant leader telling tenthousand who rose at his call that the Emancipation Law was a forgery, they were being deceived and not permitted to enjoy what the Tsar, their "Little Father, " had intended for their happiness. Butconsidering the intricate difficulties attending such a tremendouschange in the social conditions, the emancipation was easily effectedand the Russian peasants, by the survival of their old Patriarchalinstitutions, were at once provided with a complete system of localself-government in which the ancient Slavonic principle was unchanged. At the head of the commune or _mir_ was the elder, a group of communesformed a _Volost_, and the head of the _Volost_ was responsible for thepeace and order of the community. To this was later added the_Zemstvo_ a representative assembly of peasants, for the regulation oflocal matters. 

Such a new reign of clemency awakened hope in Poland that it too mightshare these benefits. First it was a Constitution such as had beengiven to Hungary for which they prayed. Then, as Italy wasemancipating herself, they grew bolder, and, incited by societies ofPolish exiles, all over Europe, demanded more: that they be givenindependence. Again the hope of a Polo-Lithuanian alliance, and arecovery of the lost Polish provinces in the Ukraine, and thereestablishment of an independent kingdom of Poland, dared to assertitself, and to invite a more complete destruction. 

The liberal Russians might have sympathized with the first moderatedemand, but when by the last there was an attempt made upon theintegrity of Russia, there was but one voice in the empire. So crueland so vindictive was the punishment of the Poles, by Liberals andConservatives alike, that Europe at last in 1863 protested. The Polishlanguage and even alphabet were prohibited. Every noble in the landhad been involved in this last conspiracy. They were ordered to selltheir lands, and all Poles were forbidden to be its purchasers. Nothing of Poland was left which could ever rise again. 

CHAPTER XXIV

TURCO-RUSSIAN WAR--TREATY OF BERLIN

Liberalism had received a check. In this outburst of severity, used torepress the free instincts of a once great nation, the temper of theRussian people had undergone a change. The warmth and ardor werechilled. The Emperor's grasp tightened. Some even thought thatFinland ought to be Russianized precisely as Poland had been; butconvinced of its loyalty, the Grand Principality was spared, and theprivileges so graciously bestowed by Alexander the First were confirmed. 

While the political reforms had been checked by the Polishinsurrection, there was an enormous advance in everything making formaterial prosperity. Railways and telegraph-wires, and an improvedpostal service, connected all the great cities in the empire, so thatthere was rapid and regular communication with each other and all theworld. Factories were springing up, mines were working, and trade andproduction and arts and literature were all throbbing with a new life. 

In 1871, at the conclusion of the Franco-Prussian War, the EmperorAlexander saw his uncle William the First crowned Emperor of a UnitedGermany at Paris. The approval and the friendship of Russia at thiscrisis were essential to the new German Empire as well as to France. Gortchakof, the Russian Chancellor, saw his opportunity. He intimatedto the Powers the intention of Russia to resume its privileges in theBlack Sea, and after a brief diplomatic correspondence the Powersformally abrogated the neutralization of those waters; and Russiacommenced to rebuild her ruined forts and to re-establish her navalpower in the South. 

There had commenced to exist those close ties between the Russian andother reigning families which have made European diplomacy seem almostlike a family affair--although in reality exercising very littleinfluence upon it. Alexander himself was the son of one of thesealliances, and had married a German Princess of the house of Hesse. In1866 his son Alexander married Princess Dagmar, daughter of ChristianIX. , King of Denmark, and in 1874 he gave his daughter Marie inmarriage to Queen Victoria's second son Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. Itwas in the following year (1875) that Lord Beaconsfield took advantageof a financial crisis in Turkey, and a financial stringency in Egypt, to purchase of the Khedive his half-interest in the Suez Canal for thesum of $20, 000, 000, which gave to England the ownership of nearlynine-tenths of that important link in the waterway leading direct toher empire in India. 

During all the years since 1856, there was one subject which had beenconstantly upper-most in the mind of England; and that one subject wasthe one above all others which her Prime Minister tried to make peopleforget. It was perfectly well known when one after another of theBalkan states revolted against the Turk--first Herzegovina, thenMontenegro, then Bosnia--that they were suffering the cruelestoppression, and that not one of the Sultan's promises made to thePowers in 1856 had been kept. But in 1876 no one could any longerfeign ignorance. An insignificant outbreak in Bulgaria took place. Inanswer to a telegram sent to Constantinople a body of improvisedmilitia, called Bashi-Bazuks, was sent to manage the affair after itsown fashion. The burning of seventy villages; the massacre of fifteenthousand--some say forty thousand--people, chiefly women and children, with attendant details too revolting to narrate; the subsequentexposure of Bulgarian maidens for sale at Philippopolis--all this atlast secured attention. Pamphlets, newspaper articles, speeches, gavevoice to the horror of the English people. Lord Stratford deRedcliffe, Gladstone, John Bright, Carlyle, Freeman, made powerfularraignments of the government which was the supporter and made Englandthe accomplice of Turkey in this crime. 

However much we may suspect the sincerity of Russia's solicituderegarding her co-religionists in the East, it must be admitted that thepreservation of her Faith has always been treated--long before theexistence of the Eastern Question--as the most vital in her policy. Inevery alliance, every negotiation, every treaty, it was the one thingthat never was compromised; and Greek Christianity certainly holds acloser and more mystic relation to the government of Russia than theCatholic or Protestant faiths do to those of other lands. 

Russia girded herself to do what the best sentiment in England had invain demanded. She declared war against Turkey in support of theoppressed provinces of Servia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro. In themonth of April, 1877, the Russian army crossed the frontier. Then camethe capture of Nikopolis, the repulse at Plevna, the battle of ShipkaPass, another and successful battle of Plevna, the storming of Kars, and then, the Balkans passed, --an advance upon Constantinople. On the29th of January the last shot was fired. The Ottoman Empire had beenshaken into submission, and was absolutely at the mercy of the Tsar, who dictated the following terms: The erection of Bulgaria into anautonomous tributary principality, with a native Christian government;the independence of Montenegro, Roumania, and Servia; a partialautonomy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, besides a strip of territory uponthe Danube and a large war indemnity for Russia. Such were the termsof the Treaty of San Stefano, signed in March, 1878. To theundiplomatic mind this seems a happy conclusion of a vexed question. The Balkan states were independent--or partially so; and the OttomanEmpire, although so shorn and shaken as to be innocuous, still remainedas a dismantled wreck to block the passage to the East. 

But to Beaconsfield and Bismarck and Andrassy, and the otherplenipotentiaries who hastened to Berlin in June for conference, it wasa very indiscreet proceeding, and must all be done over. Gortchakofwas compelled to relinquish the advantages gained by Russia. Bulgariawas cut into three pieces, one of which was handed to the Sultan, another made tributary to him, the third to be autonomous under certainrestrictions. Montenegro and Servia were recognized as independent, Bosnia and Herzegovina were given to Austria; Bessarabia, lost by theresults of the Crimean War, was now returned to Russia, together withterritory about and adjacent to Kars. Most important of all--theTurkish Empire was revitalized and restored to a position of stabilityand independence by the friendly Powers!

So by the Treaty of Berlin England had acquired the island of Cyprus, and had compelled Russia, after immense sacrifice of blood andtreasure, to relinquish her own gains and to subscribe to the line ofpolicy which she desired. A costly and victorious war had beennullified by a single diplomatic battle at Berlin. 

The pride of Russia was deeply wounded. It was openly said that theCongress was an outrage upon Russian sensibilities--that "Russiandiplomacy was more destructive than Nihilism. "

Emperor Alexander had reached the meridian of his popularity in thosedays of promised reforms, before the Polish insurrection came to chillthe currents of his soul. For a long time the people would not believehe really intended to disappoint their hope; but when one reform afteranother was recalled, when one severe measure after another wasenacted, and when he surrounded himself with conservative advisers andinfluences, it was at last recognized that the single beneficent acthistory would have to record in this reign would be that one act of1861. And now his prestige was dimmed and his popularity still morediminished by such a signal diplomatic defeat at Berlin. 

CHAPTER XXV

ALEXANDER II. ASSASSINATED--NIHILISM

The emancipation had been a disappointment to its promoters and to theserfs themselves. It was an appalling fact that year after year thedeath-rate had alarmingly increased, and its cause was--starvation. Inlands the richest in the world, tilled by a people with a passion foragriculture, there was not enough bread! The reasons for this are toocomplex to be stated here, but a few may have brief mention. Theallotment of land bestowed upon each liberated serf was too small toenable him to live and to pay his taxes, unless the harvests werealways good and he was always employed. He need not live, but histaxes must be paid. It required three days' work out of each week todo that; and if he had not the money when the dreaded day arrived, thetax-collector might sell his corn, his cattle, his farming implements, and his house. But reducing whole communities to beggary was not wise, so a better way was discovered, and one which entailed no disastrouseconomic results. He was flogged. The time selected for this settlingof accounts was when the busy season was over; and Stepniak tells us itwas not an unusual thing for more than one thousand peasants in thewinter--in a single commune--to be seen awaiting their turn to havetheir taxes "flogged out. " Of course, before this was endured allmeans had been exhausted for raising the required amount. Usury, thatsurest road to ruin, and the one offering the least resistance, was theone ordinarily followed. Thus was created that destructive classcalled _Koulaks_, or _Mir-eaters_, who, while they fattened upon thenecessities of the peasantry, also demoralized the state by creating awealthy and powerful class whom it would not do to offend, and whoseabominable and nefarious interests must not be interfered with. 

Then another sort of bondage was discovered, one very nearlyapproaching to serfdom. Wealthy proprietors would make loans todistressed communes or to individuals, the interest of the money to bepaid by the peasants in a stipulated number of days' work every weekuntil the original amount was returned. Sometimes, by a clause in thecontract increasing the amount in case of failure to pay at a certaintime, the original debt, together with the accruing interest, would befour or five times doubled. And if, as was probable, the principalnever was returned, the peasant worked on year after year gratuitously, in the helpless, hopeless bondage of debt. Nor were these the worst oftheir miseries, for there were the _Tchinovniks_--or governmentofficials--who could mete out any punishment they pleased, could ordera whole community to be flogged, or at any moment invoke the aid of amilitary force or even lend it to private individuals for thesubjugation of refractory peasants. 

And this was what they had been waiting and hoping for, for twocenturies and a half! But with touching loyalty not one of themthought of blaming the Tsar. Their "Little Father, " if he only knewabout it, would make everything right. It was the nobility, the wickednobility, that had brought all this misery upon them and cheated themout of their happiness! They hated the nobility for stealing from themtheir freedom and their land; and the nobility hated them for not beingprosperous and happy, and for bringing famine and misery into thestate, which had been so kind and had emancipated them. 

As these conditions became year after year more aggravated acute mindsin Russia were employed in trying to solve the great social problemsthey presented. In a land in which the associative principle wasindigenous, _Socialism_ was a natural and inevitable growth. Then, exasperated by the increasing miseries of the peasantry, maddened bythe sufferings of political exiles in Siberia, there came intoexistence that word of dire significance in Russia--_Nihilism_, andfollowing quickly upon that, its logical sequence--_Anarchism_, which, if it could, would destroy all the fruits of civilization. 

It was Turguenief who first applied the ancient term "Nihilist" to acertain class of radical thinkers in Russia, whose theory of society, like that of the eighteenth-century philosophers in France, was basedupon a negation of the principle of authority. All institutions, social and political, however disguised, were tyrannies, and must go. In the newly awakened Russian mind, this first assumed the mild form ofa demand for the removal of _legislative_ tyranny, by a system ofgradual reforms. This had failed--now the demand had become a mandate. The people _must_ have relief. The Tsar was the one person who couldbestow it, and if he would not do so voluntarily, he must be compelledto grant it. No one man had the right to wreck the happiness ofmillions of human beings. If the authority was centralized, so was theresponsibility. Alexander's entire reign had been a curse--andemancipation was a delusion and a lie. He must yield or perish. Thisvicious and degenerate organization had its center in a highly educatedmiddle class, where men with nineteenth-century intelligence andaspirations were in frenzied revolt against methods suited to the timeof the Khans. The inspiring motive was not love of the people, buthatred of their oppressors. Appeals to the peasantry brought smallresponse, but the movement was eagerly joined by men and women from thehighest ranks in Russia. 

Secret societies and organizations were everywhere at work, recruitedby misguided enthusiasts, and by human suffering from all classes. Wherever there were hearts bruised and bleeding from official cruelty, in whatever ranks, there the terrible propaganda found sympathizers, ifnot a home; men--and still more, women--from the highest families inthe nobility secretly pledging themselves to the movement, untilRussian society was honeycombed with conspiracy extending even to thehousehold of the Tsar. Proclamations were secretly issued calling uponthe peasantry to arise. In spite of the vigilance of the police, similar invitations to all the Russian people were posted inconspicuous places--"We are tired of famine, tired of having our sonsperish upon the gallows, in the mines, or in exile. Russia demandsliberty; and if she cannot have liberty--she will have vengeance!"

Such was the tenor of the threats which made the life of EmperorAlexander a miserable one after 1870. He had done what not one of hispredecessors had been willing to do. He had, in the face of thebitterest opposition, bestowed the gift of freedom upon 23, 000, 000human beings. In his heart he believed he deserved the good-will andthe gratitude of his subjects. How gladly would he have ruled over ahappy empire! But what could he do? He had absolute power to make hispeople miserable--but none to make them happy. It was not his faultthat he occupied a throne which could only be made secure by a policyof stern repression. It was not his fault that he ruled through asystem so elementary, so crude, so utterly inadequate, that toadminister justice was an impossibility. Nor was it his fault that hehad inherited autocratic instincts from a long line of ancestors. Inother words, it was not his fault that he was the Tsar of Russia!

The grim shadow of assassination pursued him wherever he went. In 1879the imperial train was destroyed by mines placed beneath the tracks. In 1880 the imperial apartments in "the Winterhof" were partiallywrecked by similar means. Seventeen men marched stolidly to thegallows, regretting nothing except the failure of their crime; andhundreds more who were implicated in the plot were sent into perpetualexile in Siberia. The hand never relaxed--nor was the Constitutiondemanded by these atrocious means granted. 

On the 13th of March, 1881, while the Emperor was driving, a bomb wasthrown beneath his carriage. He stepped out of the wreck unhurt. Thenas he approached the assassin, who had been seized by the police, another was thrown. Alexander fell to the ground, exclaiming, "Helpme!" Terribly mutilated, but conscious, the dying Emperor was carriedinto his palace, and there in a few hours he expired. 

In the splendid obsequies of the Tsar, nothing was more touching thanthe placing of a wreath upon his bier by a deputation of peasants. Itcan be best described in their own words. The Emperor was lying in theCathedral wrapped in a robe of ermine, beneath a canopy of gold andsilver cloth lined with ermine. "At last we were inside the church, "says the narrative. "We all dropped on our knees and sobbed, our tearsflowing like a stream. Oh, what grief! We rose from our knees, againwe knelt, and again we sobbed. This did we three times, our heartsbreaking beside the coffin of our benefactor. There are no words toexpress it. And what honor was done us! The General took our wreath, and placed it straightway upon the breast of our Little Father. Ourpeasants' wreath laid on his heart, his martyr breast--as we were inall his life nearest to his heart! Seeing this we burst again intotears. Then the General let us kiss his hand--and there he lay, ourTsar-martyr, with a calm, loving expression on his face--as if he, ourLittle Father, had fallen asleep. "

If anything had been needed to make the name Nihilism forever odious, it was this deed. If anything were required to reveal the baldwickedness of the creed of Nihilism, it was supplied by this aimlesssacrifice of the one sovereign who had bestowed a colossal reform uponRussia. They had killed him, and had then marched unflinchingly to thegallows--and that was all--leaving others bound by solemn oaths tobring the same fate upon his successor. The whole energy of theorganization was centered in secreting dynamite, awaiting a favorablemoment for its explosion, then dying like martyrs, leaving otherspledged to repeat the same horror--and so _ad infinitum_. In theirdetestation of one crime they committed a worse one. They conspiredagainst the life of civilization--as if it were not better to be ruledby despots than assassins, as if a bad government were not better thannone!

The existence of Nihilism may be explained, though not extenuated. Cananyone estimate the effect upon a single human being to have known thata father, brother, son, sister, or wife has perished under the knout?Could such a person ever again be capable of reasoning calmly or sanelyupon "political reforms"? If there were any slumbering tiger-instinctsin this half-Asiatic people, was not this enough to awaken them? Therewere many who had suffered this, and there were thousands more who atthat very time had friends, lovers, relatives, those dearer to themthan life, who were enduring day by day the tortures of exile, subjectto the brutal punishments of irresponsible officials. It was thiswhich had converted hundreds of the nobility into conspirators--thiswhich had made Sophia Perovskaya, the daughter of one of the highestofficials in the land, give the signal for the murder of the Emperor, and then, scorning mercy, insist that she should have the privilege ofdying upon the gallows with the rest. 

But tiger-instincts, whatever their cause, must be extinguished. Theycannot coexist with civilization. Human society as constituted to-daycan recognize no excuse for them. It forbids them--and the Nihilist isthe Ishmael of the nineteenth century. 

The world was not surprised, and perhaps not even displeased, whenAlexander III. Showed a dogged determination not to be coerced intoreforms by the assassination of his father nor threats of his own. Hiscoronation, long deferred by the tragedy which threatened to attend it, finally took place with great splendor at Moscow in 1883. He thenwithdrew to his palace at Gatschina, where he remained practically aprisoner. Embittered by the recollection of the fate of his father, who had died in his arms, and haunted by conspiracies for thedestruction of himself and his family, he was probably the least happyman in his empire. His every act was a protest against the spirit ofreform. The privileges so graciously bestowed upon the Grand Duchy ofFinland by Alexander I. Were for the first time invaded. Literatureand the press were placed under rigorous censorship. The _Zemstvo_, his father's gift of local self-government to the liberated serfs, waspractically withdrawn by placing that body under the control of thenobility. 

[Illustration: The Coronation of the Czar Alexander III. , 1883. TheEmperor crowning the Empress at the Church of the Assumption. From adrawing by Edwin B. Child. ]

It was a stern, joyless reign, without one act intended to make gladthe hearts of the people. The depressing conditions in which he livedgradually undermined the health of the Emperor. He was carried indying condition to Livadia, and there, surrounded by his wife and hischildren, he expired November 1, 1894. 

CHAPTER XXVI

FINLAND--HAGUE TRIBUNAL--POLITICAL CONDITIONS

When Nicholas II. , the gentle-faced young son of Alexander, came to thethrone there were hopes that a new era for Russia was about tocommence. There has been nothing yet to justify that hope. Theaustere policy pursued by his father has not been changed. The recentdecree which has brought grief and dismay into Finland is not the actof a liberal sovereign! A forcible Russification of that state hasbeen ordered, and the press in Finland has been prohibited fromcensuring the _ukase_ which has brought despair to the hearts and homesof the people. The Russian language has been made obligatory in theuniversity of Helsingfors and in the schools, together with othersevere measures pointing unmistakably to a purpose of effacing theFinnish nationality--a nationality, too, which has never by disloyaltyor insurrection merited the fate of Poland. 

But if this has struck a discordant note, the invitation to aConference of the Nations with a view to a general disarmament has beenone of thrilling and unexpected sweetness and harmony. Whether thePeace Congress at The Hague (1899) does or does not arrive at importantimmediate results, its existence is one of the most significant factsof modern times. It is the first step on the way to that millennialera of universal peace toward which a perfected Christian civilizationmust eventually lead us, and it remained for an autocratic Tsar ofRussia to sound the call and to be the leader in this movement. 

At the death-bed of his father, Nicholas was betrothed to a princess ofthe House of Hesse, whose mother was Princess Alice, daughter of QueenVictoria. Upon her marriage this Anglo-German princess was compelledto make a public renunciation of her own faith, and to accept that ofher imperial consort--the orthodox faith of Russia. The personaltraits of the Emperor seem so exemplary that, if he fails to meet theheroic needs of the hour, the world is disposed not to reproach him, but rather to feel pity for the young ruler who has had thrust upon himsuch an insoluble problem. His character recalls somewhat that of hisgreat-uncle Alexander I. We see the same vague aspiration after grandideals, and the same despotic methods in dealing with things in theconcrete. No general amnesty attended his coronation, no act ofclemency has been extended to political exiles. Men and women whosehairs have whitened in Siberia have not been recalled--not one thingdone to lighten the awful load of anguish in his empire. It may havebeen unreasonable to have looked for reforms; but certainly it was nottoo much to expect mercy!

What one man could reform Russia? Who could reform a volcano? Thereare frightful energies beneath that adamantine surface--energies whichhave been confined by a rude, imperfectly organized system of force; achain-work of abuses roughly welded together as occasion required. Itis a system created by emergencies, --improvised, not grown, --in whichto remove a single abuse endangers the whole. When the imprisonedforces tried to escape at one spot, more force was applied and morebands and more rivets brutally held them down, and were then retainedas a necessary part of the whole. 

On the surface is absolutism in glittering completeness, and beneaththat--chaos. Lying at the bottom of that chaos is the great mass ofSlavonic people undeveloped as children--an embryoniccivilization--utterly helpless and utterly miserable. In the masslying above that exists the mind of Russia--through which coursestreams of unduly developed intelligence in fierce revolt against theomnipresence of misery. And still above that is the shining, enameledsurface rivaling that of any other nation in splendor. The Emperor maysay with a semblance of truth _l'état c'est moi_, but although he maycombine in himself all the functions, judicial, legislative, andexecutive, no channels have been supplied, no finely organized systemprovided for conveying that triple stream to the extremities. Theliving currents at the top have never reached the mass at thebottom--that despised but necessary soil in which the prosperity of theEmpire is rooted. There has been no vital interchange between theseparated elements, which have been in contact, but not in union. AndRussia is as heterogeneous in condition as it is in elements. It hasaccepted ready-made the methods of Greek, of Tatar, and of European;but has assimilated none of them; and Russian civilization, with itsamazing quality, its bewildering variety of achievement in art, literature, diplomacy, and in every field, is not a naturaldevelopment, but a monstrosity. The genius intended for a whole peopleseems to have been crowded into a few narrow channels. Where have menwritten with such tragic intensity? Where has there been musicsuggesting such depths of sadness and of human passion? And who hasever told upon canvas the story of the battlefield with such energy andwith such thrilling reality, as has Verestchagin?

The youngest among the civilizations, and herself still only partiallycivilized, Russia is one of the most--if not the most--important factorin the world-problem to-day, and the one with which the future seemsmost seriously involved. She has only just commenced to draw upon hervast stores of energy; energies which were accumulating during the ageswhen the other nations were lavishly spending theirs. How will thiscolossal force be used in the future? Moving silently and irresistiblytoward the East, and guided by a subtle and far-reaching policy, whocan foresee what will be the end, and what the ultimate destiny of theEmpire which had its beginning in a small Slavonic State upon theDnieper, and which, until a little more than a century ago, was toomuch of a barbarian to be admitted into the fraternity of EuropeanStates. 

The farthest removed from us in political ideals, Russia has in thevarious crises in our national life always been America's truestfriend. When others apparently nearer have failed us, she has stoodsteadfastly by us. We can never forget it. Owning a large portion ofthe earth's surface, rich beyond calculation in all that makes fornational wealth and prosperity, with a peasantry the most confiding, the most loyal, the most industrious in the world, with intellectualpower and genius in abundant measure, and with pride of race and apatriotism profound and intense, what more does Russia need? Onlythree things--that cruelty be abandoned; that she be made a homogeneousnation; and that she be permitted to live under a government capable ofadministering justice to her people. These she must have and do. Inthe coming century there will be no place for barbarism. There will besomething in the air which will make it impossible that a great part ofa frozen continent shall be dedicated to the use of suffering humanbeings, kept there by the will of one man. There will be something inthe air which will forbid cruelty and compel mercy and justice, andwhich will make men or nations feign those virtues if they have themnot. 

The antagonism between England and Russia has a deeper significancethan appears on the surface. It is not the Eastern question, not thecontrol of Constantinople, not the obtaining of concessions from Chinawhich is at stake. It is the question which of two principles shallprevail. The one represented by a despotism in which the people haveno part, or the one represented by a system of government through whichthe will of the people freely acts. There can be but one result insuch a conflict, one answer to such a question. The eternal purposesare writ too large in the past to mistake them. And it is the ardenthope of America that Russia--that Empire which has so generouslyaccorded us her friendship in our times of peril--may not by cataclysmfrom within, but of her own volition, place herself fully in line withthe ideals of an advanced civilization. 

SUPPLEMENT TO SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA

From Rurik to Nicholas III. The policy of Russia has been determined byits thirst for the sea. Every great struggle in the life of thiscolossal land-locked empire has had for its ultimate object the openingof a door to the ocean, from which nature has ingeniously excluded it. In the first centuries of its existence Rurik and his descendants wereincessantly hurling themselves against the door leading to theMediterranean. But the door would not yield. Then Ivan IV. And hisdescendants, with no greater success, hammered at the door leading tothe West. The thirst growing with defeat became a national instinct. When Peter the Great first looked out upon the sea, at Archangel, andwhen he created that miniature navy upon the Black Sea, and when hedragged his capital from "Holy Moscow" to the banks of the Neva, planting it upon that submerged tract, he was impelled by the sameinstinct which is to-day making history in the Far East. 

It was in 1582 that Yermak, the Cossack robber and pirate, undersentence of death, won a pardon from Ivan IV. ("the Terrible") inexchange for Siberia--that unknown region stretching across theContinent of Asia to the Pacific. Eight hundred Cossacks under thedaring outlaw had sufficed to drive the scattered Asiatic tribes beforethem and to establish the sovereignty of Yermak, who then gladlyexchanged his prize with the "Orthodox Tsar" for his "traitorous head. "

It was the tremendous energy of one man, Muraviev, which led to thedevelopment of Eastern Siberia. Pathfinder and pioneer in the marchacross the Asiatic continent, drawing settlers after him as he movedalong, he reached the mouth of the Amur river in 1846, and, at last, the empire possessed a naval station upon the Pacific, which was namedNikolaifsk, after the reigning Tsar, Nicholas I. 

It was this Tsar, great-grandfather of Nicholas II. , who, grimlyturning his back upon Western Europe, set the face of Russia toward theEast, reversing the direction which has always been the course ofempire. What had Russia to gain from alliances in the West? Herfuture was in the East; and he intended to drive back the tide ofEuropeanism which his predecessors had so industriously invited. Russian youths were prohibited from being educated in Westernuniversities, and at the same time there was established at Canton aschool of instruction where they might learn the Chinese language andthe methods and spirit of Chinese civilization. It was a determinedpurpose to Orientalize his empire. And violating all the traditions ofhistory, the flight of the Russian Eagle from that moment was towardthe rising, not the setting sun. 

Muraviev, now Governor of the Eastern Provinces of Siberia, wasempowered to negotiate a treaty with China to determine the rights ofthe two nations upon the river Amur, which separated Manchuria, thenorthernmost province of China, from Russian Siberia. The treaty, which was concluded in 1858, conceded the left bank of this river toRussia. 

Nikolaifsk, a great part of the year sealed up with ice, was only astepping-stone for the next advance southward. From the mouth of theAmur to the frontier of Korea there was a strip of territory lyingbetween the sea on the east and the Ussuri river on the west, which tothe Russian mind, at that time, seemed an ideal possession. How it wasaccomplished it is needless to say; but China reluctantly agreed thatthere should be for a time a joint occupation of this strip, and, in1859, needing Russia's friendship, it was unconditionally bestowed. The "Ussuri Region" was now transformed into the "_Maritime Provincesof Siberia_, " and the Russian Empire, by the stroke of a pen, had movedten degrees toward the south. Vladivostok, at the southern extremityof the new province, was founded in 1860, and in 1872 made chief navalstation on the eastern coast, in place of Nikolaifsk. 

But the prize obtained after such expenditure of effort and diplomacywas far from satisfactory. Of what use was a naval station which wasnot only ice-bound half the year but from which, even when ice-free, itwas impossible for ships to reach the open sea except by passingthrough narrow gateways controlled by Japan? How to overcome theseobstacles, how to circumvent nature in her persistent effort toimprison her--this was the problem set for Russian diplomacy to solve. 

The eastern slice of Manchuria, which now had become the "MaritimeProvince of Siberia, " was a pleasant morsel, six hundred miles long. But there was a still more desired strip lying in the sun south ofit--a peninsula jutting out into the sea, the extreme southern end ofwhich (Port Arthur) was ideally situated for strategic purposes, commanding as it does the Gulf of Pechili, the Gulf of Liao-Tung andthe Yellow Sea. Who could tell what might happen? China was in anunstable condition. Her integrity was threatened. England, France andGermany, quickly following Russia's lead in the Ussuri strip, hadalready wrung privileges from her. Circumstances might any day justifyRussia's occupation of the entire peninsula. She could afford to wait. And while she waited she was not idle. 

The post-road across Asia was no longer adequate for the larger plansdeveloping in the East; so the construction of a railway was planned tospan the distance between Moscow and Vladivostok. At a point beyondLake Baikal the river Amur makes a sudden detour, sweeping far towardthe north before it again descends, thus enclosing a large bit ofManchuria in a form not unlike the State of Michigan. Many miles ofthe projected road might be saved by crossing the diameter of thissemi-circle and moving in a straight line to Vladivostok, acrossChinese territory. It did not seem wise at this time to ask such aprivilege, the patience of China being already strained by the matterof the Ussuri strip, that much-harassed country being also suspiciousof the railroad itself. So with consummate tact Russia proceeded tobuild the road from the two extremities, leaving this gap to beadjusted by time and circumstances. She had not to wait long. In 1894an unexpected event altered the whole face of the problem. War wasdeclared between China and Japan. 

The three Oriental nations involved in this dispute--China, Japan andKorea--offer three distinct and strongly contrasting types coming outof the mysterious region the world used to know by the comprehensivename of Cathay. When we read of 160, 000 Japanese soldiers in the year1600 tramping across Korea for the purpose of conquering their greatneighbor China, it has a familiar sound! But China was not conqueredby Japan in 1600, and remained the dominant power in the East, as shehad been since she struggled out of the Mongol yoke which, in commonwith Russia, Kublai-Khan imposed upon her in 1260. 

At the time of this Mongol invasion, the Manchus, a nomadic tribe, gathered up their portable tents and fled into a province lying beyondthe Great Wall, permanently occupying the region now called Manchuria. Remote and obscure, the Manchus were almost unknown to the Chineseuntil the year 1580, when Tai-Tsu, a remarkable man and born leader, onaccount of grievances suffered by his tribe, organized a revolt againstChina and made a victorious assault upon his powerful Suzerain. Uponhis death, in 1626, his victories were continued by his son, whooverthrew the reigning dynasty and was proclaimed Emperor of China. And that wretched youth who is to-day obscured and dominated by thepowerful Empress Dowager at Pekin is the lineal descendant of Tai-Tsuand the last representative of the Manchurian Dynasty, which has ruledChina for nearly four centuries. 

The Manchus had not much in the way of civilization to impose upon thepeople they had conquered. But such as they had they brought withthem; and the shaven forehead and the queue, so precious to theChinese, are Manchurian exotics. Mukden, the capital of Manchuria, became the "Sacred City, " where Manchurian Emperors at death were laidbeside Tai-Tsu. Wealthy mandarins built residences there. It becamesplendid and, next only to Pekin, was known as the second official cityin the empire. 

While the world has long been familiar with China and its civilization, Japan and Korea have only recently come out from their Orientalseclusion. In looking into the past of the former, in vain do we seekfor any adequate explanation, anything which will reasonably accountfor that phenomenally endowed race which occupies the centre of thestage to-day; which, knowing absolutely nothing of our civilizationforty years ago, has so digested and assimilated its methods andessential principles that it is beating us at our own game. 

From its earliest period this country was under a feudal system ofgovernment, with the Mikado as its supreme and sacred head. The Divinenature of this being separated him from the temporal affairs of thenation, which were in the hands of the Shogun, who represented thestrong arm of the state. Next below the Shogun were the Daimios, thefeudal or military chiefs; these in turn being the rulers of bands ofmilitary retainers which constituted the aristocratic class, and werecalled the Samurai. 

Shintoism, a form of ancestral worship and sacrifice to dead heroes, which was the primitive cult of Japan, was in 600 A. D. Superseded, orrather absorbed, by Buddhism, which for a thousand years has prevailed. And although Shintoism to some extent still lingers, and althoughConfucianism with its philosophical and abstract principles has alwayshad its followers, still Japanese civilization is the child of Gautama. 

The dual sovereignty of the Mikado and the Shogun, like that existingin the Holy Roman Empire, made a great deal of history in Japan. Thethings representing the real power in a state were in the hands of theShogun. The Mikado was venerated, but this first servant in the landwas feared, the one dwelling in a seclusion so sacred that to look uponhim was almost a sacrilege, the other with armies and castles andwealth and the pomp and circumstance which attend the real sovereign. History again repeats itself as we see this Maire du Palais obscuringmore and more the titular sovereign, the Mikado, until like Pepin heopenly claimed absolute sovereignty, assuming the title of Tycoon. 

The people rose against this usurpation. It was while in the throes ofthis revolution that the United States Government dispatched a fewships under Commodore Perry, in protection of some American citizens inJapan. After this events moved swiftly. In 1854 a treaty with theUnited States--their first with foreign nations--was signed atYokohama. Treaties with other nations speedily followed. In 1860 aJapanese embassy arrived at Washington, and similar ones wereestablished in European capitals. 

In 1869 the revolution was over. The party of the usurping Tycoon wasdefeated and the Shogunate abolished. The anti-foreign spirit whichwas allied with it shared this defeat, and the party desiring to adoptthe methods of foreign lands was triumphant. There was areorganization of the government, with the Mikado as its single andsupreme head. The entire feudal structure, with its Daimios andSamurai, was swept away. A representative body was created holding arelation to the Mikado similar to that of the Houses of Parliament tothe King of England. The rights of the people were safeguarded. Inother words, at a bound, an Oriental feudal and military despotism hadbecome a modern democratic free state. From this moment dates anascent from obscurity to an advanced type of civilization, accomplishedwith a swiftness without a parallel in the history of nations. 

Japanese youths, silent, intent, studious, were in European andAmerican universities, colleges, technical schools, learning the artsof war and of peace. When war was declared between China and Japan(1894), the world discovered that they had not studied in vain. 

In order to understand the Chino-Japanese war, one must know somethingof Korea, that, little peninsula jutting out between these twocountries, washed by the Yellow Sea on the west and by the Sea of Japanon the east. 

In the Koreans we seem to behold the wraith of a something whichexisted long ago. There are traditions of ancient greatness, the lineof their present King stretching proudly back to 1390, and beyond thatan indefinite background of splendor and vista of heroic deeds which, we are told, made China and Japan and all the East tremble! But to-daywe see a feeble and rather gentle race, eccentric in customs and dressand ideals, with odd rites and ceremonials chiefly intended to placatedemoniacal beings to whom they ascribe supreme control over humanevents. Nothing may be done by the King or his humblest subjectwithout consulting the sorcerers and exorcists, who alone know thepropitious moment and place for every important act. With norecognition of a Supreme Being, no sacred books; without temples, orart, or literature, or industries, excepting one or two of a verysimple nature, it is extremely difficult for the Western mind tounderstand what life must mean to this people. That it is a degenerateform of national life which must be either absorbed or effaced seemsobvious. And if the life of Korean nationality is prolonged in thefuture, it will be simply because, like Turkey, it harmlessly holds astrategic point too valuable to be allowed to pass into the hands ofany one of the nations which covet it. And it is also easy to foreseethat in the interval existing until its absorption, Korea must remain, also like Turkey, merely the plaything of diplomacy and thebattle-ground for rival nations. 

Until the year 1876 Korea was really a "Hermit Kingdom, " with everycurrent from the outside world carefully excluded. In that year hernear neighbor, Japan, made the first rift in the enclosing shell. Atreaty was concluded opening Chemulpo, Fusan and Won-San to Japanesetrade. The civilizing tide pressed in, and by 1883 the United States, France, England and Germany had all concluded treaties and Korea wasopen to the outside world. 

The government of Korea at this time was simply an organized system ofrobbery and extortion--wearing not even the mask of justice. Theundisguised aim of officialdom was to extort money from the people; andthe aim of the high-born Korean youth (or _yang-ban_) was to pass theroyal examination in Chinese classics, which was requisite to make himeligible for official position, and then join the horde of vampires whofed upon the people. At irregular intervals there were revolts, andunder the pressure of violent acts temporary relief would be afforded;then things would go on as before. 

While such was the perennial condition of political unrest, a rebellionof a different sort broke out at Seoul in 1885--an anti-foreignrebellion--which had for its purpose the expulsion of all the foreignlegations. This led to negotiations between China and Japan having animportant bearing upon subsequent events. Li Hung Chang, representingChina, and Marquis Ito, the Japanese Foreign Minister, held aconference (1885) at Tien-tsin, which resulted in what is known as the"Li-Ito treaty. " In view of the disorders existing, it was agreed thattheir respective governments should hold a joint control in Korea, eachhaving the right to dispatch troops to the peninsula if required. Thisagreement was later expanded into a joint occupation until reformshould be established insuring security and order. These negotiationsleft Korea as before an independent state, although tributary to China. 

The Koreans attributed their calamities to their Queen, a woman ofintelligence and craft, who managed to keep her own family in thehighest positions and also, by intriguing with China, to thwartJapanese reforms. It soon became apparent that so far fromco-operating in these reforms, which were an essential part of theLi-Ito agreement, China intended to make them impossible. TheGovernment at Tokio came to a momentous decision. 

In 1894 an outbreak more serious than usual occurred, known as the"Tong-Hak Rebellion. " Li Hung Chang promptly sent an army fromTien-tsin for its suppression, another from Japan coming simultaneously. 

But the Japanese army poured into Chemulpo in such numbers and with aperfection of equipment suggesting a purpose not mentioned in theLi-Ito agreement! China's protest was met by open defiance, Japandeclaring that, as the convention of 1885 had been violated, she shouldno longer recognize the sovereignty of China in Korea. 

War was declared Aug. 1, 1894. The Mikado's Government was notunprepared for this crisis. There were no surprises awaiting the armyof little men as they poured into Korea. They knew the measurements ofthe rivers, the depth of the fords and every minutest detail of theland they intended to invade. Their emissaries in disguise had alsobeen gauging the strength and the weakness of China from Thibet to thesea. They knew her corruption, her crumbling defenses, her antiquearms and methods, the absence of all provision for the needs of an armyin the field. 

With a bewildering suddenness and celerity the plan of the campaigndeveloped. First the control of Korea was secured, then the command ofthe sea, then the Yalu was crossed; and while one division of the armywas pouring into Manchuria, threatening Niu-Chwang and beyond thatMukden, a second division landed at Pitsewo, making a rapid descentupon Port Arthur, the chief stronghold of China, which was captured byassault Nov. 20, 1894. 

Wei-Hai-Wei, the next strongly fortified point on the coast of China, south of Port Arthur, of almost equal strategic value, was defendedwith desperation by sea and by land. But in vain; and, with thecapitulation of Wei-Hai-Wei, Feb. 12, 1895, the war was ended. 

With the "Sacred City" of Mukden threatened in the north, and Pekin inthe south, Japan could name her own terms as the price of peace. Firstof all she demanded an acknowledgment of the independence of Korea. Then that the island of Formosa and the Manchurian peninsula(Liao-Tung), embracing a coast line from the Korean boundary to PortArthur, should belong to her. 

A severe blow had been dealt to Russia. She saw her entire Easternpolicy threatened with failure. The permanent occupation of theLiao-Tung peninsula by Japan meant that she had to deal, not with aneffete and waning power which she might threaten and cajole, but with anew and ambitious civilization which had just given proof of surprisingability. After vast expenditure of energy and treasure and diplomacy, access to the sea was further off than ever. 

Then came a masterly stroke. Germany and France were induced toco-operate with Russia in driving Japan out of Manchuria, upon theground that her presence so near to Pekin endangered the ChineseEmpire, the independence of Korea and the peace of the Orient. So inthe hour of her triumph Japan was to be humiliated; the fruits of hervictory snatched from her, precisely as the "Berlin Treaty, " in 1879, had torn from Russia the fruits of her Turkish victories! Japan wastedno time in protests, but quietly withdrew and, as it is significantlysaid, "proceeded to double her army and treble her navy!"

As the protector of Chinese interests Russia was in position to ask afavor; she asked and obtained permission to carry the Siberian railwayin a straight line through Manchuria, instead of following the Amur inits great northward sweep. The Japanese word for statesman also means_chess-player_. Russian diplomatists had played their game well. Inserving China, they had incidentally removed the Japanese from aposition which blocked their own game, and had at the same time openeda way for their railway across that waiting gap in Northern Manchuria. 

Just three years after these events Germany, by way of indemnity forthe murder of two missionaries, compelled China to lease to her theprovince of Shantung. Russia immediately demanded similar privilegesin the Liao-Tung peninsula. China, beaten to her knees, could notafford to lose the friendship of the Tsar, and granted the lease; andwhen permission was asked to have a branch of the Russian railway runfrom Harbin through the length of this leased territory to Port Arthur, humbly conceded that too. 

With wonderful smoothness everything had moved toward the desired end. To be sure, the tenure of the peninsula was only by lease, and in noway different from that of Shantung by Germany. There was no pretextin sight for garrisoning the dismantled fort at Port Arthur, but thefates had hitherto opened closed doors and might do it again. And soshe waited. And while she waited the branch road from Harbin movedswiftly down to Mukden, and on through the Manchurian peninsula, andPort Arthur was in _direct line of communication with St. Petersburg_. 

In 1900 the anti-foreign insurrection known as the "Boxer war" brokeout in China. Russia, in common with all the Great Powers (nowincluding Japan), sent troops for the protection of the imperiledlegations at Pekin. Nothing could better have served the Government ofthe Tsar. Russian troops poured into Manchuria, and the new road fromHarbin bore the Tsar's soldiers swiftly down to Port Arthur. The fortwas garrisoned, and work immediately commenced--probably upon plansalready drawn--to make of this coveted spot what Nature seemed to havedesigned it to be--the Gibraltar of the East. 

The Western Powers had not been unobservant of these steadyencroachments upon Chinese territory, and while a military occupationof the peninsula was necessary at this time, it was viewed withuneasiness; but none was prepared for what followed. Before peace wasactually concluded, Russia approached China with a proposition for herpermanent occupancy of--not the peninsula alone, but all of Manchuria. A mystifying proposition when we reflect that Japan was forced out ofthe southern littoral of Manchuria because her presence therethreatened Korea, China, and the peace of the world. Port Arthur wasno farther from Pekin and Seoul than it was five years before, and itwas much nearer to St. Petersburg! And as Russia had already madesurprising bounds from Nikolaifsk to Vladivostok, and from Vladivostokto Port Arthur, she might make still another to one or both of thesecapitals. 

So limp and helpless had China become since the overthrow by Japan andthe humiliations following the "Boxer war, " and so compliant had shebeen with Russia's demands, that the United States, Great Britain andJapan, fearful that she would yield, combined to prevent this lastconcession, which under this pressure was refused, and a pledgedemanded for the withdrawal of troops before a fixed date, which pledgeRussia gave. At the specified dates, instead of withdrawing her troopsfrom Manchuria, Russia reopened negotiations with China, proposing newconditions. Garrisons were being strengthened instead of withdrawn. Strategic positions were being fortified and barracks built in rushinghaste. At the same time Russian infantry and bands of Cossacks werecrossing the Yalu to protect Russian sawmills and other industrieswhich had also crept into Korea. And when the Korean Governmentprotested, Russian agents claimed the right to construct railways, erect telegraphs or take any required measures for the protection ofRussian settlers in Korea; and every diplomatic attempt to openManchuria or Korea to foreign trade and residents was opposed by Russiaas if it were an attack upon her own individual rights. 

Surprising as this was to all the Treaty Powers, it had for Japan theadded sting of injustice. She had been ejected from her own territory, fairly won in war, because her presence would endanger the independenceof Korea and the peace of the Orient. She now saw Russia in fulloccupation of this very territory, and the absorption of Korea itselfthreatened. 

And what was the object of all this scheming? Not more land!Certainly a nation owning more than a sixth of the earth's surfacecould not be hungering for land! And no doubt Russia would long agogladly have given one-half of Siberia to the sea in exchange for a fewgood harbors such as existed on the east coast of Korea. It was thatever-existent thirst for access to the ocean which tempted her intotortuous diplomacy, drawing her on and on, like the hand of fate. Manchuria itself would be unavailing unless she could control Korea, which alone possessed the ocean facilities for which she had struggledsince the first year of her existence. 

In the year 1900 the Trans-Siberian Railway was completed. Its 6, 600miles of rails, if laid in a straight line, would pass one-quarter ofthe distance around the earth! It had traversed an unexploredcontinent, creating, as it moved along, homes for the workmen, schoolsfor their technical instruction, churches, hospitals, inns, stores;converting a wilderness, in fact, into a semi-civilization at the rateof a mile a day for nine years! And whereas in the days of the Mongolsubjection it required four years for the Grand Princes to go fromMoscow to Saraï, near Pekin, to prostrate themselves before the GreatKhan, many perishing by the way from fatigue and exposure, the journeyfrom Moscow to Pekin may now be accomplished in two weeks. In perfectgood faith Japan commenced her task of reformation in Korea. But theway was obstructed by the large and powerful family of the Queen, whowere, in fact, the chief vampires in the kingdom. A few Koreanmiscreants led by Japanese officials formed a plot to get rid of thesepeople, seize the Government, and then administer the reformsthemselves. Forcing their way into the palace Oct. 8, 1895, there wasenacted a tragedy similar to the one which recently horrified the worldin Servia. While the King was being insulted and dragged about by hishair, the fleeing Queen was stricken down and stabbed, several membersof her family sharing the same fate. She, it is said, was thencarried, still breathing, to a grove in the park, where, after havingkerosene poured over her, she was incinerated. Such was the fate ofthe intriguing but fascinating Queen of Korea, of whom Count Inouyesaid: "She has few equals in her country for shrewdness and sagacity, and in the power of conciliating enemies and attaching friends. "

The King, a prisoner in his palace, allowed to see or speak with noone, unaware of the death of the Queen (as were all except thoseengaged in the plot), was compelled to sign odious edicts framed by acabinet composed of men upon whose hands the blood of his adored wifewas scarcely dry. The first of these brought for his signature was aroyal decree deposing the Queen, "who for 33 years has dulled oursenses, sold offices and titles, " etc. , etc. "Since she will not giveup her wickedness and is hiding and plotting with low fellows, wehereby depose her and degrade her to the lowest rank. " The Kingdeclared he would have both his hands cut off before he would sign thisinfamous paper, which did not prevent its appearing with his nameattached. 

After four months of this torture the wretched man escaped in disguiseand found safe asylum in the Russian Legation, where he remained forone year. 

One of these reforming edicts signed under compulsion had ordered theimmediate abolishment of the Top Knot. The Top Knot was the symbol ofnationality and personal dignity. A man without it was less thannothing, and its assumption was the most important event in his life. The ceremony was costly. But what money could be saved from theofficials was freely given to the sorcerers and astrologers, who mustdetermine the proper moment and place, and the sacrifices which wouldbe required when their ancestors were informed of the important eventwhich had taken place! Then, when this horn-shaped knot had beencovered by a high hat of gauze tied tightly on with ribbons, the Koreanarose transformed into a being of dignity and consequence. It was theabolishment of this sacred adornment which brought about a rebellion. Those who did not obey the order were hiding from the officials, whilethose who did were mobbed and in danger of being killed by the populace. 

The King's first act after his escape was to issue a royal proclamationdisclaiming with horror the edict degrading and casting infamousreflections upon his beloved Queen. It also rescinded the edicts hehad signed under compulsion. It said: "As to the Top Knot, no oneshall be forced. Do as you please"; and he continues: "Traitors bytheir crimes have made trouble. Soldiers, come and protect us! Youare our children! You are all pardoned. But when you meet the chieftraitors" (naming them) "cut off their heads at once and bring them. 

"Soldiers, attend us at the Russian Legation. "

Within an hour all were aware of the repeal of the Top Knot decree, andseveral of the cabinet officers had been beheaded on the streets ofSeoul. 

Although the Government of the Mikado was innocent of any complicitywith this crime, renegade Japanese officials had been leaders in theplot, and Japanese ascendancy had received a severe blow. A point hadalso been secured by Russia, when the King for one year ruled hiskingdom from her legation at Seoul. It is easy to conceive that thedistracted man, grateful for protection, did at this time, as issupposed, consent to the purchase of lands and cutting of timber by theRussians on the Yalu, which the following year (1896) expanded into agrant of an extended tract, and became the centre of a large Russianindustry in Northern Korea. And it is significant that AdmiralAlexieff was one of the prime movers in this project, which to Japanseemed to have a thinly veiled political purpose, and which became, infact, one of the chief _casus belli_. 

In 1899 the Tsar issued an order for the creation of a city on the Bayof Talien-Wan; and in two years Dalny stood in massive completeness, with docks and wharves and defences which had cost millions of dollars. Millions more had been expended upon Port Arthur, and still moremillions upon the railway binding Manchuria to Russia with bands ofsteel. This did not look like temporary occupation; like pitching hertent for a passing emergency. Still, in the frequent interchange ofnotes with the powers, there was never an acknowledgment that apermanent occupation was intended. In displeasure at these repeatedviolations of solemn pledges the Western Powers held aloof; the UnitedStates and Great Britain, however, insistently declaring that the"open-door" policy must be maintained, _i. E. _, that all nations musthave equal industrial and commercial opportunities in Manchuria andKorea, and also that the integrity of China must be preserved. 

In the hope of arriving at a peaceful adjustment of their differences, Japan made a proposition based upon mutual concessions. She wouldaccept the Russian economic status in Manchuria if Russia wouldrecognize hers in Korea. 

Russia absolutely refused to admit Japan's right to have anythingwhatever to say concerning Manchuria--the land which eight years beforewas hers by right of conquest, and from which Russia for her ownpurposes had ejected her. Admiral Alexieff was Viceroy of the EasternProvinces, and to him the Tsar confided the issues of peace or war. Confident in her enormous weight and military prestige, Russiaundoubtedly believed that the Japanese must in the end submit. Butafter five months of fruitless negotiations the patience of theGovernment at Tokio was exhausted. On Feb. 8, 1904, the Japanese fleetmade a sudden descent upon Port Arthur. This act, so audaciouslyplanned, resulted in the destruction of battle-ships, cruisers, torpedo-boats--nine in all--to which were added the day following twomore battle-ships, destroyed at Chemulpo. 

[Illustration: Scene during the Russo-Japanese War: Russian soldiers onthe march in Manchuria. ]

There was dismay and grief at St. Petersburg. The Tsar, realizing thathe had been misled regarding the chances of peace and also the militarystrength of the foe, recalled Admiral Alexieff from Port Arthur. Admiral Makaroff, Russia's military hero and ablest commander, succeeded him. Just as his invigorating influence was being felt inawakened energy and courage, there came another disaster more terriblethan the first. The Petropavlovsk, flag-ship of the fleet, coming incontact with a submarine mine or boat, was torn to pieces and sank intwo minutes, with all on board, including Admiral Makaroff and hisentire staff of seventeen officers. 

Still benumbed by these crushing blows, the Russians were bewildered bythe electrical swiftness with which the campaign developed, moving onlines almost identical with those in the war with China, ten yearsbefore. A miracle of discipline and minute perfection in method anddetail, the Mikado's army of little men first secured control in Korea, then the command of the sea. Then one army division crossed the Yaluwith three converging lines, moving toward Mukden, pressing aretreating army before them. Then, still moving in the grooves of thelast war, there was a landing of troops at Pitsewo, threatening Dalnyand Port Arthur, the latter already isolated, with railroad andtelegraphic lines cut. Seeing the capture of Dalny was imminent, without a pause the Russians mined the harbor, docks and defences whichhad cost millions of dollars, and the city created by fiat was by fiatdoomed to destruction. 

Behind this life and death struggle with a foreign foe, anotherstruggle nearer home was being profoundly affected by these unexpectedcalamities. An unpopular war cannot afford to be an unsuccessful one. This clash with Japan was distinctly the outcome of bureaucraticambitions and policy. It had not one single issue in which the peoplewho were fighting its battles and bearing its burdens were evenremotely interested. And then again--a despotism must not show signsof weakness. Its power lies in the fiction of its invincibility. Liberals and Progressives of all shades, wise and not wise, saw theiropportunity. Finns and Poles grew bolder. The air was thick withthreats and demands and rumors of revolt. 

At this critical moment M. Von Plehve, the leader of the party ofreaction, the very incarnation of the spirit of old Russia, ofPobiedonostseff and the Holy Synod, was in power. 

In 1903 there had occurred a shocking massacre of Jews at Kishineff. This culmination of a prolonged anti-Semitic agitation was quicklyfollowed by an imperial edict, promising, among other reforms, religious liberty for all. With M. De Witte, the leader of theprogressive party, to administer this new policy, a better day seemedto be dawning. But under the benumbing pressure of autocraticinfluences, and with his characteristic infirmity of purpose, the Tsaralmost immediately removed M. De Witte, replacing him with M. VonPlehve, in whose hands the reforming edict became practicallyinoperative, and in fact all reforms impossible. 

On June 15, 1904, General Bobrikov, the recently appointed RussianGovernor of Finland, was assassinated by the son of a Finnish Senatorwithin the walls of the Senate. Quickly following this, July 28th, M. Von Plehve was killed on the streets of St. Petersburg by the explosionof a dynamite bomb. The Tsar, recognized the meaning of these events, and quickly appointed Prince Mirski, known by his liberal tendencies, to Von Plehve's place in the Ministry of the Interior. One of thefirst acts of the new minister was the authorizing of a meeting of allthe Presidents of the _Zemstvos_ for consultation over nationalconditions. When it is recalled that the _Zemstvo_ is a Peasants'Court, that it is a representative assembly of the humblest class inthe Empire, and a gift which accompanied emancipation bestowed fortheir own protection--when this is remembered, we realize the fullsignificance of this act of M. Von Plehve's successor. This firstconference of the heads of the _Zemstvos_, which met at Moscow, Nov. , 1904, by permission of Prince Mirski, contained the germ of arepresentative government. It was an acknowledgment of a principlehitherto denied; a recognition never before made of the right of thepeople to come together for the purpose of discussing measures ofgovernmental policy. 

In the meantime the Japanese, irresistible as fate, were breaking downone after another of the supposed impregnable defences about PortArthur; climbing over hills of their own dead, fathers, sons, andbrothers, in order to do it. Within the beleaguered fort the supply ofammunition was running low, only one-quarter of the defenders wereleft, and disease was slaying and incapacitating these. Nearer andnearer came the rain of fire. In vain they listened for the booming ofKuropatkin's guns sweeping down from the north. In vain they watchedfor the smoke of the long-promised Baltic fleet approaching from thesouth. No rescue came. On the last night of the year, afterconsultation with his officers, General Stoessel signed the conditionsof capitulation to General Nogi. The key to the Russian power in theEast was lost. When the new year dawned the Japanese flag floated fromthe Citadel on the Golden Hill, and the greatest siege of modern timeswas ended. 

On Jan. 1, 1905, General Stoessel wrote to his Imperial Master: "GreatSovereign, pardon us! We have done everything humanly possible. Judgeus, but be merciful!" He then goes on to state the conditions whichwould make further resistance a wanton sacrifice of the lives of thoseremaining in the garrison. 

St. Petersburg was stunned by the receipt of this intelligence; andevery day added to its dismay: Oyama, leaving the captured fortressbehind him, sweeping the Russians back from Mukden; Kuropatkin sendingdespairing messages to the Tsar, who, bewildered and trembling beforehis own subjects at home, was still vibrating between the two widelyopposing influences--the spirit of the old despotism, and that of a newage which clamored to be admitted. 

Rescript followed quickly upon rescript; one sounding as if written byde Witte, the other as if dictated by Pobiedonostseff; while alarmingrumors were coming hourly from Moscow, Finland, Poland, the Crimea, theCaucasus; and the great fabric before which the world had trembledseemed threatened at every vital point. 

In the midst of these colossal disasters stood a young man notfashioned for great events--from whom the world and the situationdemand a statesmanship as able as Bismarck's, a political ideal asexalted as Washington's, a prompt and judicious dealing with anunprecedented crisis worthy of Peter the Great. And not finding thisample endowment, we call him a weakling. It is difficult for theAnglo-Saxon, fed and nourished for a thousand years upon the principlesof political freedom and their application, to realize the strain towhich a youth of average ability is subjected when he is called upon tocast aside all the things he has been taught to reverence, --to abandonthe ideals he holds most sacred, --to violate all the traditions of hisancestors, --to act in direct opposition to the counsel of his naturaladvisers; and to do all these things at the dictation of men he hasbeen taught not only to distrust, but to hold in contempt. 

Chief among his counsellors is the Procurator Pobiedonostseff, head ofthe "Holy Synod, "--that evil genius of two reigns, who reminds him ofthe sacredness of his trust, and his duty to leave his divine heritageto his son unimpaired by impious reforms. Next to him standsMuravieff, the wise and powerful Minister of Justice, creator of modernSiberia, and member of the Court of Arbitration at The Hague, whospeaks with authority when he tells him he has not the _right_ tochange a political system created by his predecessors; and still nearerthan these are the Grand Dukes, a phalanx of uncles and imperialrelatives surrounding him with a petrified wall of ancient prejudices. Confronting these imposing representatives of imperial and historicRussia are a few more or less discredited men, like M. De Witte andPrince Mirski, counselling and warning with a freedom which would oncehave sent them to Siberia, and with a power to which the bewilderedNicholas cannot be indifferent, and to which, perhaps, he would gladlyyield were it not for the dominating sentiment about him. Many a manwho could face a rain of bullets without a tremor, would quail and turncoward if subjected to the same test before such a cumulative force ofopinion. 

But this is not a crisis to be settled in the Council-Chamber, nor tobe decided by convincing arguments, but by the march of events. Andevents were not slow in coming. 

The assassination of the Grand Duke Sergius, uncle of the Tsar, and themost extreme of the reactionaries at Moscow, of which he was governor, was the most powerful argument yet presented for a change of directionin the Government; and others were near at hand. 

The derangement of industrial conditions induced by the war pressedheavily upon the wage-earners; and the agitation upon the surface, thethreatened explosions here and there, were only an indication of themisery existing in the deeps below. At all industrial centres therewere strikes accompanied by the violence which invariably attends them. 

On the morning of Sunday, Jan. 22d, an orderly concourse of workmen, inconformity with a plan already announced, were on their way to theWinter-Palace bearing a petition to the "Little Father, " who, if heonly knew their wrongs, would see that justice was done them. So theywere going to tell him in person of their grievances. The letter ofthe preceding day ran thus:

"Sovereign. We fear the ministers have not told you the whole truth. Your children, trusting in you, have resolved to come to the WinterPalace tomorrow at 2 P. M. To tell you of their needs. Appear beforeus and receive our address of devotion. "

Had these 8, 000 or 10, 000 men been marching to the Winter-Palace withrifles in their hands, or with weapons of any sort indicating a violentpurpose, there might have been cause for alarm. But absolutelyunarmed, even for their own defence, led by an orthodox priest carryingan icon, these humble petitioners were met by a volley of rapid firefrom repeating rifles, were cut down by sabres and trampled by cavalry, until "policing" had become an indiscriminate massacre of innocentpeople upon the streets, regardless of age or sex. Before midnight theTsar was miles away at his Palace Tsarskoe-Selo; and there was a newcry heard in St. Petersburg, a cry unfamiliar to Russian ears, --"Downwith the Tsar!" Those blood-stains in Nevski Prospect will be long ineffacing!

The long-looked-for Baltic fleet, commanded by Admiral Rojestvenski, was detained at the outset of its voyage by an untoward incident, having fired into a fleet of British fishermen, which was mistaken forthe enemy in disguise. After being acquitted by a court of inquiry, the Admiral proceeded, his objective point now being changed from PortArthur to Vladivostock, the next most critical point. 

On May 27-28th there occurred one of the most disastrous navalengagements in the annals of war, in the Korean Straits, near Tsushima, where Admiral Togo with sure instinct of the course which would betaken, was lying in wait under the cover of darkness and fog. 

Nineteen Russian vessels were destroyed, the Japanese ships sustainingalmost no injury. All that remained of the Russian fleet wassurrendered to Admiral Togo, and Rojestvenski, desperately wounded, andall of his surviving officers, were prisoners of war in Tokio. 

With this climax of Russian disaster the end had come. Although Russiastill doggedly refused to acknowledge defeat, and made feint ofpreparation for reënforcements and future triumphs, the world saw thatthere must be peace; and that the only existing obstacle was thedetermination of a proud nation not to be placed in a humiliatingposition. 

The absolute neutrality of the United States enabled PresidentRoosevelt to intervene at this critical moment as no European sovereigncould have done. His proposal that there should be a meeting of envoysfor the discussion of some peaceable adjustment of their differenceswas promptly accepted by both nations, and with the hostile armiesstill facing each other in Manchuria, arrangements were made for thePeace Conference to be held in the United States in August. 

The envoys selected for this mission were M. De Witte and Baron Rosen, Ambassador to the United States from Russia, on the one hand, and BaronKomura, Minister of Foreign Affairs in Japan, and Kogaro Takahira, Minister at Washington from that country, on the other. If theappointment of M. De Witte had awakened expectation of a presentationof the Russian cause from the view-point of a progressive leader, themistake was quickly discovered. M. De Witte, performing a dutyintrusted to him by his Imperial master, was quite a different personfrom de Witte, the exponent of liberal ideas, pleading the cause of anoppressed people before the Tsar; and an adamantine side of hischaracter, quite unexpected, was revealed. The fencing between the twoskilled diplomats, de Witte and Komura, afforded a fascinating study inracial methods and characteristics at a high point of development; theimpression left being that the intense sincerity of purpose in theJapanese, and the lack of it in the other, was the main point ofdifference. The Russian argument throughout was upon a perfectlyinsincere basis. The Russian envoy never once recognized that herepresented a defeated nation, steadily maintaining the attitude of agenerous foe willing to stop fighting to prevent the shedding of moreblood. In striking contrast to this was Baron Komura's calmpresentation of his twelve peace proposals, and the sad sincerity withwhich he tenaciously maintained their justification by the results ofthe war. 

Eight of these proposals, of minor importance, were accepted, while thefour of real significance were at once rejected by M. De Witte. Thesewere: the cession of the Island of Saghalien, already partly occupiedby the Japanese troops; the interning of all Russian ships lying inJapanese waters; an indemnity of $600, 000, 000 to reimburse Japan forthe cost of the war, and a limitation of the naval power of Russia. 

Many times negotiations were on the verge of breaking; at the last ofthese crises, when the hope of an agreement was actually abandoned andpreparations were making for departure, it is said, strong pressure wasbrought to bear upon Japan by President Roosevelt which led to amodification of the terms--a modification so excessive that deepresentment existed in Tokio, and a satisfaction correspondingly greatwas experienced in St. Petersburg. Japan withdrew her demands forindemnity and for acquisition of territory in the following way: shesaved her adversary from the humiliation of reimbursing her for thecost of the war by offering to sell to Russia the northern half of theisland in dispute, --Saghalien, --for two-thirds of the sum she haddemanded under the name of indemnity. 

The Russo-Japanese treaty of peace, signed at Portsmouth in August, 1905, registers the concession of all the vital points in the demandsof the conquering nation. The popular saying, "to the victor belongthe spoils, " does not hold good in Japan! Twice has she seen thefruits of her splendidly won victories snatched from her by the samehand; and twice has she looked with far-seeing eyes into the future, and quietly submitted. Perhaps she realizes that a time may come whenRussia's friendship will be more valuable to her than Saghalien!

The war was over. The march of armies had ceased; but the march ofevents, accelerated by the great upheaval, moved irresistibly on. Realizing that something must be done to pacify the people, a new andmore liberal policy was announced, with de Witte, now Prime Minister, in charge. Russia was to have a _National Assembly_, a law-making bodyin which every class would have representation. 

This Russian Parliament was to be composed of two bodies: an Upper anda Lower House. The one to be called the "_Council of the Empire_, " theother the "_Duma_. " These were to be convoked and prorogued annuallyby Imperial Ukase. The President, Vice-President, and one-half themembers of the Council of the Empire (consisting of 178 members) wereto be appointed by the Tsar; twenty-four more to be elected by thenobility and clergy, a very small number by some designateduniversities and commercial bodies; each _Zemstvo_ (of which there arefifty-one) being entitled to one representative. The members composingthe _Duma_, or Lower House, were to be elected by the ElectoralColleges, which had in turn been created by the votes of the people inthe various provinces of the Empire for that purpose. 

The two bodies were to have equal rights in initiating legislation. But a bill must pass both Houses and then receive Imperial Sanction inorder to become a law; and failing in this, cannot come up again duringthe same session. Thus hedged about and thus constituted, it isobvious that a conservative majority was permanently secured and waysprovided to block any anti-imperial or revolutionary legislation in theDuma. And when it is added that matters concerning finance andtreasonable offences were almost entirely in the hands of the Council, we realize how this gift of political representation to the Russianpeople had been shorn of its dangers!

The first National Assembly was opened by the Tsar May 10, 1906, withthe form and splendor of a court ceremonial. It was a strangespectacle, that solid body of 100 peasants seated on the left of thethrone, intently listening to the brief and guarded speech of welcometo the "representatives of the nation, who had come to aid him inmaking laws for their welfare!" And the first jarring note came whennot one of these men joined in the applause which followed. 

The first _Duma_ was composed of 450 members. The world was watchingthis experiment, curious to find out what sort of beings have beendumbly supporting the weight of the Russian Empire. Almost the firstact was a surprise. Instead of explosive utterances and intemperatedemands, the _Duma_ formally declared Russia to be a _ConstitutionalMonarchy_. No anarchistic extravagance could have been so disturbingto autocratic Russia as was this wise moderation, which at the veryoutset converted Constitutional Bureaucrats into ConstitutionalDemocrats, thus immensely strengthening the people's party at theexpense of the Conservatives. The leaders in the _Duma_ knew preciselywhat they wanted, and how to present their demands with a clearness, apower, and a calm determination for which Russia, --and indeed thatgreater audience, the world at large, --was quite unprepared. That thisseriously alarmed the Imperial party was proved by an immediatestrengthening of the defences about the throne by means of a change inwhat is called the _Fundamental Laws_. These Fundamental Laws afford arigid framework, an immovable foundation for the authority of theEmperor and his Cabinet Ministers. 

Repairs in the Constitution of the United States have been usually inthe direction of increased liberties for the people. The Tsar, on thecontrary, aided by his Cabinet and high Government officials, drafted anew edition of the Fundamental Laws suited to a new danger. 

The changes made were all designed to build up new defences around thethrone, and to intrench more firmly every threatened prerogative. TheTsar was deliberately ranging himself with the bureaucratic partyinstead of the party of his people; and the hot indignation whichfollowed found expression in bitter and powerful arraignment of theGovernment, even to the extent of demanding the resignation of theMinistry. What was at first a rift, was becoming an impassable chasm. 

If Count Witte had disappointed the Liberals by his lukewarmness and bywhat they considered an espousal of the conservative cause, he was evenless acceptable to the Bureaucrats, to whom he had from the first beenan object of aversion--an aversion not abated by his masterly diplomacyat Portsmouth, for which he received only a grudging acknowledgment. Whatever may be the verdict of the future, with its better historicperspective, whether justly or unjustly, Count Witte had lost his holdupon the situation; and the statesman who had been the one heroicfigure in Russia was no longer the man of the hour. At all events, hisresignation of the head of the Ministry during this obnoxious attemptto nullify the gift of popular representation was significant; and thename of de Witte is not associated with this grave mistake made by themaster he has tried to serve. 

The reforms insistently demanded by the _Duma_ were as follows:--Theresponsibility of the Ministry to that body, as the representative ofthe people; the distribution to the working peasants of the lands heldby the Crown and the clergy; a General Amnesty, with the release of allpolitical prisoners; and the abolition of the death penalty. 

This was virtually a sweeping demand for the surrender of theautocratic principle, the very principle the Fundamental Laws had justbeen revised to render more inviolable. The issue was now narroweddown within definite limits. It was a conflict for power, foradministrative control, and it was a life-and-death struggle betweenthe Tsar and his people. 

Printed reports of the debates were sent broadcast, and for the firsttime since Russia came into being the peasantry saw things as theyreally were. They had always attributed their wrongs to the nobility, who, they believed, had cheated them out of their land and their rightsunder the Emancipation Act. But now it was not the nobility, not thehated Boyars who were cruelly refusing to give them land and liberty, but it was the Little Father, he whom they had always trusted andadored!

It is a critical moment when the last illusion drops from the eyes of aconfiding people. The _Duma_ at this moment was engaged in a task ofsupreme difficulty and responsibility. Millions of people hung uponits words and acts. A group of inexperienced but terribly determinedmen were facing an equally determined group of well-seasoned officials, veterans in the art of governing. Never was there greater need ofcalmness and wisdom, and at this very time a wild revolutionary factionwas doing its utmost to inflame the passions of a peasantry alreadymaddened with a sense of wrong and betrayal, who in gusts ofdestructive rage were burning, pillaging, and carrying terror into theremotest parts of the Empire. 

Even while the _Duma_ was demanding this larger measure of liberty andof authority over the Ministry, that body had already initiated and putin force new and more vigorous methods of suppression. Under M. Durnovo, Minister of the Interior, a law had been promulgated known asthe Law of Reinforced Defense. Under the provisions of this law, highofficials, or subordinates designated by them, were clothed withauthority to arrest, imprison, and punish with exile or death, withoutwarrant, without accusation, or any judicial procedure whatever. 

On July 16, 1906, M. Makaroff, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, appeared personally before the _Duma_; and in answer to thirty-threeinterpellations concerning as many specific cases of imprisonmentwithout resort to the courts, frankly replied: "Yes. We have held thepersons named in prison for the time mentioned without warrant oraccusation; and some of these, and many others, have been exiled toSiberia. But it is a precaution demanded by the situation and thecircumstances; a precaution we are authorized to take by the Law ofReinforced Defense. "

In October of last year (1905) the world was made glad by a manifestoissued by the Tsar containing these words: "In obedience to ourinflexible will, we hereby make it the duty of our Government to giveto our beloved people freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedomof public assembly, freedom of association, and _real inviolability ofpersonal rights_. " The Tsar had also, with the same solemnity, declared: "No law shall take effect without the sanction of the _Duma_, which is also to have _participation in the control of the officials_. "Yet, Ministers and Governors General, or subordinates appointed bythem, may at their own discretion imprison, exile, or kill in defianceof Imperial command, and find ample protection in the Law of ReinforcedDefense!

The free handling of these governmental methods in the _Duma_, and theimmediate world-wide publicity given to these revelations, if allowedto continue, must inevitably destroy the cause of Russian Bureaucracy. There were but two courses open to the Tsar. He must either surrenderthe autocratic principle, and in good faith carry out his pledges andshare his authority with his people, or he must disperse arepresentative body which flagrantly defied his Imperial will. Hechose the latter course. 

Five days after the examination of M. Makaroff, on July 21, 1906, thefirst Russian Parliament was dissolved by Imperial ukase. 

The reason assigned for this was that, "instead of applying themselvesto the work of productive legislation, they have strayed into a spherebeyond their competence, and have been making comments on theimperfections of the Fundamental Laws, which can only be modified byour Imperial will. "

The Tsar at the same time declared his immutable purpose to maintainthe institution of Parliament, and named March 5, 1907, as the date ofthe convening of a new _Duma_. 

A body of 186 Representatives, including the Constitutional andConservative members of the _Duma_, immediately reassembled at Viborgin Finland, where, in the few hours before their forcible dispersion bya body of military, they prepared an address to "The Citizens of AllRussia. " This manifesto was a final word of warning, in which thepeople were reminded that for seven months, while on the brink of ruin, they are to stand without representation; also reminding them of allthat may be done in that time to undermine their hopes, and to obtain apliable and subservient Parliament, if, indeed, any Parliament at allbe convoked at the time promised by the Tsar. 

In view of all this they were solemnly abjured not to give "one kopekto the throne, or one soldier to the army, " until there exists apopular representative Parliament. 

The hand of autocracy is making a final and desperate grasp upon theprerogatives of the Crown. When the end will come, and how it willcome, cannot be foretold. But it needs no prophetic power to see whatthat end will be. The days of autocracy in Russia are numbered. Acentury may be all too short for the gigantic task of habilitating aRussian people--making the heterogeneous homogeneous, and converting anundeveloped peasantry into a capable citizenship. The problem isunique, and one for which history affords no parallel. In no othermodern nation have the life forces been so abnormal in theiradjustment. And it is only because of the extraordinary quality of theRussian mind, because of its instinct for political power, and itsgenius for that instrument of power hitherto known as diplomacy--it isonly because of these brilliant mental endowments that this chaoticmass of ethnic barbarism has been made to appear a fitting companionfor her sister nations in the family of the Great Powers. 

It is vain to expect the young Tsar to set about the task ofdemolishing the autocratic system created by his predecessors andancestors. That work is in charge of more august agents. It isperishing by natural process because it is vicious, because it is outof harmony with its environment, and because the maladjusted lifeforces are moving by eternal laws from the surface to their naturalhome in the centre. And we may well believe that the fates arepreparing a destiny commensurate with the endowments of agreat--perhaps the greatest--of the nations of the earth. 

Let it not be supposed that it is the moujik, the Russian peasant insheepskin, with toil-worn hands, who has conducted that brilliantparliamentary battle in the _Duma_. Certain educational and propertyqualifications are required for eligibility to membership in that body, which would of necessity exclude that humble class. It is not theemancipated serf, but it is _rural Russia_ which the _Duma_represented, and the vastness of the area covered by that term isrealized when one learns that of the 450 members constituting that bodyonly eighteen were from cities. It is the leaders of this vast ruralpopulation, members of ancient princely families or owners of greatlanded estates, these are the men who are coming out of long oblivionto help rule the destinies of a new Russia. Men like PrinceDolgorouki, some of them from families older than the Romanoffs--suchmen it is who were the leaders in the _Duma_. They have been for yearsstudying these problems, and working among the _Zemstvos_. They arecountry gentlemen of the old style, --sturdy, practical, imaginative, idealistic, and explosive; powerful in debate, bringing just at theright moment a new element, a new force. Happy is Russia in possessingsuch a reserve of splendid energy at this time. And if the moujik isnot in the forefront of the conflict, he, too, affords a boundlessocean of elementary force--he is the simple barbarian, who will perhapsbe needed to replenish with his fresh, uncorrupted blood the Russia ofa new generation. 

 LIST OF PRINCES. 

 GRAND PRINCES OF KIEF. 

 Rurik, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862-879 Oleg (Brother of Rurik, Regent), . . . . . . 879-912 Igor (Son of Rurik), . . . . . . . . . . . . 912-945 Olga (Wife of Igor, Regent), . . . . . . . . 945-964 Sviatoslaf, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 964-972 Vladimir (Christianized Russia, 992), . . . . 972-1015 Yaroslaf (The Legislator), . . . . . . . . . 1015-1054

 (Close of Heroic Period. )

 Isiaslaf, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054-1078 Vsevolod, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1078-1093 Sviatopolk, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1093-1113 Vladimir Monomakh, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1113-1125

 (Throne Disputed by Prince of Suzdal. )

 Isiaslaf, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1146-1155 George Dolgoruki (Last Grand Prince of Kief) 1155-1169

 (Fall of Kief, 1169. )

 Andrew Bogoliubski (First Grand Prince of Suzdal), . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1169-1174 George II. (Dolgoruki), . . . . . . . . . . . 1212-1238 Yaroslaf II. (Father of Alexander Nevski and Grandfather of Daniel, First Prince of Moscow), . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1238-1246

 PRINCES OF MOSCOW. 

 Daniel (Son of Alexander Nevski), . . . . . . 1260-1303 Iri (George) Danielovich, . . . . . . . . . . 1303-1325 Ivan I. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1328-1341 Simeon (The Proud), . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1341-1353 Ivan II. (The Debonair), . . . . . . . . . . 1353-1359

 PRINCES OF MOSCOW AND GRAND PRINCES OF SUZDAL. 

 Dmitri Donskoi, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1363-1389 Vasili Dmitrievich, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1389-1425 Vasili I. (The Blind, Prince of Moscow, Novgorod, and Suzdal), . . . . . . . . . . 1425-1462

 GRAND PRINCES OF ALL THE RUSSIAS. 

 Ivan III. (The Great), . . . . . . . . . . . 1462-1505 Vasili II. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1505-1533

 TSARS OF RUSSIA. 

 Ivan IV. (the Terrible), . . . . . . . . . . 1533-1584 Feodor Ivanovich, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1584-1598 Boris Godunof (Usurper), . . . . . . . . . . 1598-1605 The False Dmitri, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605-1606 Vasili Shuiski, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1606-1609 Mikhail Romanoff, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1613-1645 Alexis (Son of former and Father of Peter the Great), . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1645-1676 Feodor Alexievich, . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1676-1682 Ivan V. And Peter I. ) Sophia Regent, ) Ivan died 1696 . . . 1682-1696 Peter I. (The Great), . . . . . . . . . . . . 1696-1725 Catherine I. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1725-1727 Peter II. (Son of Alexis and Grandson of Peter the Great and Eudoxia), . . . . . . . 1727-1730 Anna Ivanovna (Daughter of Ivan V. , Niece of Peter I. ), . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1730-1740 Ivan VI. (Infant Nephew of former Sovereign), 1740-1741 Elizabeth Petrovna (Daughter of Peter I. And Catherine), . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1741-1761 Peter III. (Nephew of Elizabeth Petrovna; reigned five months, assassinated), . . . . 1762 Catherine II. (Wife of Peter III. ), . . . . . 1762-1796 Paul I. (Son of former), . . . . . . . . . . 1796-1801 Alexander I. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1801-1825 Nicholas I. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1825-1855 Alexander II. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1855-1881 Alexander III. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1881-1894 Nicholas II. , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1894-

 INDEX. 

 Absolutism, 244 Act of Union, 71 Adashef, 87, 88 Akhmet (Khan), 76 Alexander I, 164, 172, 175, 177, 178, 179, 183, 184, 186 Alexander II, 213, 217, 223, 228, 234, 236 Alexander III, 239 Alexieff, Admiral, 275, 276 Alexis, 105, 107, 109, 110, 111, 141, 142 Alexis Orlof, 154, 166, 168 Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, 224 Alice (Princess), 242 Alma (the), 210 Anarchism, 232 Anastasia, 86, 88, 95, 103 Andrassy, 227 Angles, 25 Anna, 28, 29 Anna Ivanovna, 142, 146, 148 Anthony, 75 Appanages, 26, 34 Apraxin, 144, 150 Arable Steppes, 4 Araktcheef, 185 Aryan, 8, 14 Asia Minor, 70 Asiatic Mongols, 46 Askold, 19 Austerlitz, 177 Austria, 170, 180 Azof, Sea of, 115

 Bacon, Francis, 91 Baikal, Lake, 253 Balthazi, 133 Baltic (the), 13, 43, 59, 124 Baltic Fleet, 286 Barren Steppes, 4 Bashi-Bazuks, 225 Basil, 28 Batui, 48 Beaconsfield, 224, 227 Berlin, Treaty of, 227 Bessarabia, 227 Biron, 146, 148 Bismarck, 227 Black Lands, 4, 39 Black Sea, 6, 12, 115, 214 Bogoliubski (Andrew), 40, 62, 83 Bohemians, 13, 27 Book of Instruction, 161 Book of Pedigrees, 110 Boris Godunof, 96, 97, 99, 100, 101 Bosnia, 224, 226, 227 Bosphorus (the), 20, 71 Boxer War, 267 Boyars, 27, 38, 43, 48, 51 Bremen, 45 Britain, 25 Buddhism, 257 Bulgaria, 24, 74, 226, 227 Bulgarians, 11, 27 Burnett, Bishop, 120 Byzantine, 36, 49, 66 Byzantine Empire, 11, 13, 72 Byzantium, 19, 27, 31, 32, 33, 36, 72, 74

 Calendar (new), 138 Candia, 204 Carpathians, 3 Caspian Sea, 12 Cathay, 47 Catherine I, 130, 132, 143 Catherine II, 155, 157, 159, 160, 165, 166, 169, 175 Catholics, 27 Caucasus, 3 Centaurs, 14 Charlemagne, 13 Charles Martel, 72 Charles I, 108 Charles II, 108 Charles X, 192 Charles XI, 124 Charles XII, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133, 140 Charlotte (Princess), 213 Charlotte of Brunswick, 142 Chemulpho (Battle of), 276 Chersonesos, 7 China, 47, 253 China-Japan War, 254, 259, 263 Chopin, 164 Christian IX, 224 Church of Bethlehem, 206 Cincinnati, Order of, 163 Circassia, 176 Code Napoleon, 180 Commune (the), 15 Confucianism, 257 Constantine, Grand Duke, 164, 172, 187, 188, 189, 193 Constantinople, 18, 20, 23, 28, 30, 39, 46, 64, 70 Constitution, 292 Cossacks, 101, 105, 106 Council of the Empire, 290, 291 Court of Arbitration, 281 Cracow, 50, 102 Crimea, 7, 77, 115, 164 Crimean War, 210 Cyprus, 227

 Dagmar, 224 Daimios, 257 Dalny, 275, 278, 279 Daniel, 270 Danube (the), 23 Dir, 19 Dmitri, 95, 96, 101, 102 Dmitri Donskoi, 69 Dnieper (the), 4, 12, 19, 39, 42 Dolgorukis, 83 Dolgoruki (Yuri), 40, 61, 62, 63 Dolgoruki (Prince), 177, 301 Don (the), 69, 101 Drevlins (the), 21, 26 Drujina, 37, 38, 52 Drujiniki (the), 46 Duma, 290, 291, 292, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 301 Durnovo, M. , 296

 Eastern Empire (the), 38 Eastern Question, 198, 203 Ecclesiastical States, 30 Egypt, 170, 171 Electoral College, 291 Elizabeth Petrovna, 140, 142, 147, 148, 149, 152 Emancipation Law, 220, 295 Etrogruhl, 70 Eudoxia, 130, 141

 Feodor, 95, 96, 97, 105, 110, 111 Ferdinand, 82, 201 Finland, 184, 222 Finns, 8, 11, 12, 17, 43, 44 Florence, 41 Formosa, 264 Francis II, 178 Francis Joseph, 202 Franks, 25 Frederick II, 50 Frederick the Great, 150, 153 Fundamental Laws, 293, 295, 299

 Galitsuin (Prince), 113, 144 Gaul, 25 Gautama, 257 Genghis Kahn, 47, 48 Georgia, 176 German Knights, 68 German Orders, 45, 60 Glinski (Anna), 87 Glinski (Helena), 85 Glück, 130 Godwin, 96 Golden Horde, 69, 71 Gortchakof, 213, 223, 227 Goths (the), 10 Grand Principality (the), 66 Great Desert of Gobi, 52 Great Patriarchs, 66 Great Tower of Ivan, 183 Greece, 72 Greek Church, 30, 31, 71, 72, 226 Greeks (the), 6, 24, 27 Gustavus Adolphus, 105

 Hague (the), 119, 281 Hague, the Congress, 242 Hamburg, 45 Hanseatic League, 45 Harold, 96 Hastings, Lady Mary, 92 Haynau, 202 Hedwig, 60 Helen, 22 Helsingfors, 241 Henry VIII, 82 Herodotus, 7 Herzegovina, 224, 226, 227 Hindostan, 170 Hohenzollern, 45 Holy Alliance, 85 Holy Roman Empire, 13 Holy Shrines, 206 Holy Synod, 135 Horde (the), 67 Hungary, 50, 68 Huns, 47

 Iagello, 59, 60 Icon, 285 Igor, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25 Imperator, 138 Indemnity, 289 India, 171 Inouye, Count, 272 Ionian Isles, 170 Isabella, 82 Islamism, 56 Ito, Marquis, 262 Ivan I, 66 Ivan III (the Great), 72, 73, 74, 75, 81, 84 Ivan IV (the Terrible), 75, 84, 85, 86, 88, 92, 96, 101, 113, 249 Ivan (the Imbecile), 112, 130 Ivan Mazeppa, 127, 128, 130 Ivan V, 146 Ivan VI, 148, 154, 155 Ivan Shuvalof, 150

 Japan, 256 Japan-Korea Treaty, 1876, 261 Japan Treaty with U. S. , 1854, 258

 Kaminski, Battle of, 163 Karz, 226 Kazan, 77 Khazarui, the, 17, 23 Kiel, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40, 42, 49, 61 Kishineff, 279 Komura, Baron, 278, 288 Knout, 30 Königsberg, 45 Koreans, 259 Kosciusko, 163 Kossuth, 201, 202 Koulaks, 230 Kremlin (the), 62, 66, 101 Kublai-khan, 56 Kurland, Duke of, 153 Kuropatkin, 281 Kutchko, 62 Kutuzof, 181

 Lacour (M. De), 206 Laharpe, 175 Latin Church, 31, 44, 45 Leipzig, 183 Leo VI, 20 Leo X, 80, 81 Liao-Tung, Gulf of, 253 Liberalism, 222 Li Hung Chang, 262 Li-Ito Treaty, 262 Lithuania, 59, 60, 63, 68, 84 Lithuanians (the), 13, 17, 59, 77 Little Russia, 106, 127 Livonia, 124 Livonian Knights, 44, 54 Livonian Orders, 74 Lombardy, 170 Louis IX, 50 Louis XI, 82, 83, 95 Louis XIV, 121, 126 Louis XV, 140 Louis Napoleon, 205 Louis Phillippe, 192, 201 Lubeck, 45

 Magyar, 11 Makaroff, M. , 297, 298 Makaroff, Admiral, 277 Malakof, 213 Manchuria, 253 Manchus (the), 255 Marco Polo, 47 Marfa, 90 Maria Theresa, 150 Marie, 224 Maximilian, 82 Menschikof, 131, 142, 144, 145, 206, 207, 210, 213 Merienburg, 130 Metropolitan (the), 66 Mickiewiz, 164 Mikhailof, Peter, 118 Mir, 15, 57, 98 Mir-eaters, 230 Mirski, Prince, 279, 280, 283 Mohammedanism, 208 Mongols, 48, 49, 51, 52, 56, 63 Monomakh, 40, 61, 63 Montenegro, 224, 226, 227 Moscow, 54, 61, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 70, 72, 74, 90, 181, 182 Moskwa (the), 62 Mukden, 256, 277 Muraviev, 250, 251, 283 Muscovite, 66, 67 Muscovy, 59, 65 Mussulman, 27

 Napoleon Bonaparte, 169, 170, 171, 172, 177, 180, 183 Narva, Battle of, 125 Natalia, 108, 109, 111 National Assembly, 103, 290, 292 Nesselrode (Count), 207 Nestor, 22, 25 Neva (the), 4, 54 Nevski, Alexander, 54, 55, 63, 69, 103 Nevski, Daniel, 63, 66 Nicholas I, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, 192, 194, 196, 199, 201, 203, 208, 210 Nicholas II, 241 Nicholas III, 249 Nihilism, 232, 237, 238 Nikolaievsk, 250, 251 Nikon (Patriarch), 107, 109 Nikopolis, 226 Nogi, General, 281 Norse, 34 Norsemen, 18, 25 Novgorod, 14, 18, 26, 28, 35, 41, 42, 43, 54, 55, 57, 65, 67, 74, 79, 90

 Odessa, 210 Oka (the), 76 Oleg, 19, 20, 21, 26, 71 Olga, 21, 23, 28 Osterman, 148 Othman, 70, 71 Ottoman, 70 Ottoman Empire, 158, 166, 226, 227 Oyama, 281

 Paleologisk, John, 73 Pantheon, 14 Paris, Treaty of, 184 Patkul, 124, 126 Patriarchalism, 217 Patriarchate (the), 135 Patriarchs, 30 Paul I, 159, 167, 168, 170, 171, 172, 173 Peace Conference, 287 Peace Congress, 242 Pechenegs, 20, 23, 24 Pechili, Gulf of, 253 Peloponnesus (the), 13, 24 Perry, Commodore, 258 Perun, 14, 20, 24, 27, 28, 29, 59 Pestel, 188, 189 Peter the Great, 95, 104, 109, 112, 113, 114, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 125, 127, 132, 135, 139, 145, 174, 176 Peter III, 151, 168 Plague of Moscow, 158 Plevna, 226 Pobiedonosteeff, 278, 283 Poland, 13, 32, 50, 59, 60, 68, 105, 156, 162, 163, 164, 221 Poles, 77 Poliani (the), 13 Polovtsui (the), 46, 48 Poltova, 129 Pope, 44 Pope Leo VI, 38 Port Arthur, 253, 264, 278, 279 Portsmouth, Peace of, 290 Posadnik, 38, 42, 45 Potemkin, 166 Proteus, 14 Prussia, 45, 162 Pruth, Treaty of, 133 Pskof, 18, 74, 78, 79 Pugatschek, the Cossack, 158 Pushkin, 20 Pyrenees, 72

 Raskolniks, 107, 109, 110, 137, 138 Reinforced Defense, Law of, 296, 298 Revolution of 1762, 155 Rojestvenski, 286 Rollo, 25 Roman Empire, 31, 32 Romanoff, 86, 301 Romanoff, Mikhail, 103, 104, 105, 107 Rome, 31, 32 Romish Church, 105 Rosen, Baron, 287 Roosevelt, President, 287, 289 Roumania, 226 Ruileef, 189 Rurik, 18, 21, 34, 46, 66, 71, 103, 249 Russian Academy, 160

 Saardan, 118 Sagas, 38 Saghalien, 289, 290 Samurai, 257 San Stefano (Treaty of), 226 Saracen, 13, 50 Sarat, 55, 56, 65, 69, 271 Saxons, 25 Scandinavia, 37 Scandinavians, 17, 25, 26, 27, 29 Scythians, 6, 7, 14, 24 Sea of Azof, 12, 46, 48 Sebastopol, 7, 164, 210 Senate, 135 Sergius, Grand Duke, 284 Servia, 226, 227 Shantung, 266 Shintoism, 257 Shipka Pass, 226 Siberia, 93 Siberia, Maritime Provinces of, 252 Sienkiewicz, 164 Sigismund, 81, 102 Silvesta, 87 Sineus, 18 Sisalpine, 170 Slav, 8, 12, 15, 17, 18, 24, 26, 27, 32, 34, 36, 37, 43, 44 Slavonia, 19, 58 Slavonic, 15, 24, 25, 36, 50 Sobor, 95, 97, 135 Socialism, 232 Sophia, 73, 81, 111, 113, 114, 117, 118, 122 Sophia, Queen of Prussia, 118 Sophia Perovskaya, 238 Spain, 25 Speranski, 179, 185 St. Basil, Church of, 29 St. Bartholomew, Massacre, 92 Stoessel, General, 281 St. Paul, Cathedral of, 130 St. Petersburg, 125, 126 St. Vladimir, 101 Stratford de Redcliffe (Lord), 206, 207 Stribog, 14 Strultsui, 115, 116, 121, 123 Suez Canal, 224 Suleyman, the Magnificent, 197 Suvorov, 170 Suzdal, 40, 43, 46, 52, 61 Sviatoslaf, 22, 23, 24, 26 Sweden, 74, 124, 180 Swedes, 54 Sword-Bearers, 44

 Tai-Tsiu, 255 Tartar, 8, 20, 21, 46, 49, 51, 63 Takahira, Kogaro, 287 Taxes, 229 Tchinovniks, 231 Teutonic Order, 44 Togo, Admiral, 286 Tokio, 287, 289 Tolstoi, 141, 144 Tong-Hak Rebellion, 263 Top Knot (the), 273 Topography, 1 Trans-Siberian Railway, 267, 270 Treaty of 1841, 203 Treaty with China, 1858, 251 Truvor, 18 Tsar, 23 Tsarkoe-Selo, Palace of, 286 Tsushima, 286 Turguenief, 200, 232 Turk (the), 8, 9, 17, 70, 71, 132, 153 Turkey, 170 Turkish Empire, 204, 208 Tycoon, 258

 United States, 202 Ural, 3, 93 Ussuri Region, 252 Usury, 229

 Vampires, 14 Varangians, 18, 20 Vasili, 66, 67, 68 Vasili II, 71, 72, 78, 79 Vasili Shuiski, 102 Verestchagin, 245 Vernet, Horace, 128 Vetché, 15, 42, 55 Viborg, 299 Vich, 147 Victor Emmanuel, 213 Visigoths, 25 Vistula, 13 Vladimir, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 35, 182 Vladivostok, 252, 254, 286 Vna, 147 Volga (the), 3, 12, 42 Volkof (the), 28 Volost, 15, 98, 220 Volus, 14 Von Plehve, 278, 279, 280

 Warsaw, University of, 194 Wei-Hai-Wei, Battle of, 1895, 264 Western Empire (the), 38 White Seat (the), 91 Winter Palace, 283, 285, 287, 288, 294 William I, 223 William III, 120 Witte (M. De), 278

 Yalu, the, 264 Yaroslaf I, 35, 38, 54 Yaroslaf II, 52 Yaropolk, 26 Yellow Sea (the), 253 Yermak, 94, 250

 Zemstvo, 220, 239, 280, 291, 302 Zoë, Princess, 73 Zone of Forests, 4