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 THE 
 
 Russian Empire 
 
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 By 
 
 JOHN G^BDDIE, F.R.G.S., 
 
 Author of "Lake Regions of Central Africa." 
 
 T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 EDINBURGH ; AND NEW YORK.
 
 
 x c f a c c. 
 
 F there is a country that bears its history 
 impressed on its surface and on the char- 
 acter of its people, that country is Eussia. 
 To the traveller from the west, Russian scenery, away 
 from the great towns, has a forlorn, half-savage aspect, 
 as of a land that is only being reclaimed from a state 
 of nature. To understand why this is so, he must keep 
 in mind not alone the harshness of the climate and the 
 sparseness of the population, but also the fact that the 
 tillers of the soil, as a class, are more poor and ignorant 
 and superstitious than the peasantry of the other Chris- 
 tian countries of Europe ; that till a few years ago they 
 were serfs, bought and sold with the land ; and that 
 even to-day they have scarcely begun to enjoy or ap- 
 preciate the blessings of true liberty. To know why 
 the bulk of the Russian people are so far in the wake of 
 civilization, one must dip a little into the national history. 
 It has been thought well, therefore, in an account of 
 the Russian Empire, to embody a sketch of its historical 
 development. Instead of seeking to describe the vari- 
 ous provinces in any geographical order, it has been 
 attempted roughly to follow the process of growth by 
 which, from small beginnings, the dominions of the Czar 
 have reached their present vast proportions. The plant- 
 ing of the germs of power in the forests of Novgorod, 

 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 the quarrels of rival principalities on the Dnieper, the 
 conquests of the half-Tartar czarate on the Volga, the 
 ambitious strivings of the modern state which Peter 
 established on the Neva, and the restless aggressions 
 and annexations that have marked her more recent 
 history, may be seen to have each had its several influ- 
 ence in producing that wonderful social and political 
 phenomenon — the Russia of to-day. In giving some 
 popular idea of that phenomenon there may probably 
 be found, notwithstanding the care taken to avoid them, 
 errors in the grouping, in proportion, and in conception 
 and presentation of facts ; and for excuse, reference can 
 only be made to the vast dimensions of the subject and 
 the extreme multiplicity of the details. 
 
 But the past of Russia, besides explaining its present, 
 is of the highest importance in interpreting its future — 
 a subject which recent events have helped to make 
 matter of painful conjecture. It is clear that this great 
 country has reached a crisis in its fate. The three chief 
 powers to be reckoned with, it would seem, are a corrupt 
 military bureaucracy, that has almost said its last word — 
 that is clearly moving towards bankruptcy and ruin ; a 
 people still almost dumb and blind, and only half con- 
 scious that they have rights and grievances ; and a party 
 of wild political dreamers, strong as yet only by reason 
 of desperation, that seek, as the sole panacea for the ills 
 of society, the total destruction of order and law. What 
 will be the issue of the struggle for Russia it is impos- 
 sible almost to guess; before it, as a French writer has 
 said, there rises " an immense note of interrogation."
 
 '■ 
 
 r *
 
 CSfontcnts. 
 
 I. THE GROWTH OF TWO CENTURIES, 
 
 II. GREAT NOVGOROD AND ITS NEIGHBOURS 
 
 III. LITTLE RUSSIA AND KIEV, 
 
 IV. ROLAND AND LITHUANIA, 
 V. THE VOLGA, 
 
 VI. MOSCOW, ... 
 
 VII. HISTORIC SITES IN GREAT RUSSIA, 
 
 VIII. NISHNI-NOVGOROD — RUSSIAN INDUSTRY AND TOWN LI1 
 
 IX. PEASANT LIFE IN GREAT RUSSIA, 
 
 X. ASTRAKHAN AND ORENBURG, 
 
 XI. THE URALIAN PROVINCES, ... 
 
 XII. NORTHERN RUSSIA, 
 
 XIII. ST. PETERSBURG, 
 
 XIV. THE BALTIC PROVINCES, 
 XV. RUSSIA ON THE BLACK SEA — THE CRIMEA, 
 
 XVI. NEW RUSSIA AND ITS PORTS, 
 
 XVII. THE CAUCASUS AND TRANSCAUCASIA, 
 
 XVIII. RUSSIA IN ASIA, 
 
 XIX. TTIE CONQUEST AND DISCOVERT OF SIBERIA, 
 
 , THE CHINESE FRONTIER, 
 
 XXI. LIFE IN THE TUNDRA AND THE FOREST, 
 
 XXII. THE PACIFIC SHORES, 
 
 XXIII. RUSSIAN TURKESTAN, 
 
 XXIV. LATEST CONQUESTS IN CENTRAL ASIA, 
 
 50 
 77 
 111 
 131 
 1.7.) 
 172 
 190 
 215 
 231 
 253 
 285 
 31G 
 331 
 355 
 372 
 309 
 407 
 428 
 443 
 471 
 48S 
 50G
 
 Ua
 
 THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GROWTH OF TWO CENTURIES. 
 
 IF the courteous reader were to turn to some 
 old map of the world, say of two hundred 
 years ago, and compare it with the earth as 
 we know it to-day, perhaps the change of 
 all others which would strike him as most marvellous 
 would be the enormous development of the Russian 
 Empire. The face of Europe has been metamorphosed. 
 Powerful states have disappeared, and others whose 
 names two centuries ago were scarcely known have 
 risen into prominent rank among the Great Powers. 
 The vast colonial empire of Britain was then only being- 
 founded ; and England had yet barely a foothold in 
 India. The great North American Republic had yet a 
 century to wait before its time came to step forth on the 
 stage of history. The coast of Australia had been merely 
 sighted; the Mississippi still rolled its waters from fcheir 
 source to the sea through an almost unexplored wilderness; 
 California was believed to be an island. But incon-
 
 10 RUSSIA TWO CENTURIES AGO. 
 
 ceivably great as have been the changes which these 
 facts reveal, the most " portentous birth " of latter times, 
 at least in its imposing magnitude, must be pronounced 
 to be the Empire of the White Czar. 
 
 When this country was achieving its "Revolution," 
 and laying down on firm lines the foundations of its 
 national progress and its constitutional liberty, Russia — 
 Muscovy, as our forefathers would have called it — was a 
 semi- Asiatic state, still thickly crusted with the rust of 
 barbarism. Few dreamed of its future destiny, though 
 its progress had already been rapid and continuous. It 
 counted for little more in the European -"balance of 
 power" than the Empire of Morocco does to-day, and 
 was indeed scarcely classed among the European family 
 of nations. It was still to all intents and purposes an 
 inland state, with no commerce save what was carried 
 through the territories of its neighbours. The Kingdom 
 of Poland had not only a sea-board on the Baltic, but 
 ports on the Black Sea. The Mohammedan Khanate of 
 Crim-Tartary interposed between the southern margin 
 of Muscovy and the Euxine. Fierce, independent Cir- 
 cassian and Tartar tribes held the country between the 
 Don and the Caucasus. Sweden possessed not Finland 
 alone, but Livonia, Esthonia, and the site of the modern 
 capital of the Czars. Towards the north, on the shores 
 of the White Sea, the rulers of Moscow had indeed an 
 outlet to the ocean ; but this, and all the channels leading 
 to it, were closed during the long months of the Arctic 
 winter. 
 
 To the eastward the limits of the empire were less 
 well defined. The Czars held as much as they were 
 able of the ground roamed over by the nomad tribes of
 
 THE GROWTH OF AN EMPIRE. 11 
 
 the Siberian steppes, and lost no opportunity of tight- 
 ening their grasp on these loose possessions, and 
 pushing their frontier to the east and the south. The 
 ruler of Moscow was content at first to govern these 
 wild peoples with a slack rein, and exact a very light 
 tribute, if they were but willing to make nominal ac- 
 knowledgment of his suzerainty. And so the empire 
 enlarged itself almost insensibly, or at least almost un- 
 observed, until Cossack conquest and discovery had, in 
 the course of a few generations, carried the boundary of 
 the Czars' dominions eastward to the shores of Behring 
 Strait and southward to the Altai chain and the river 
 Amoor. 
 
 Before Peter the Great's days, however, it is doubtful 
 whether even the Kussians themselves knew much of the 
 region beyond the present limits of Europe.. Not much 
 more than a century had elapsed since they had shaken 
 themselves clear, after a desperate struggle prolonged 
 through three hundred years, from the yoke of the Tartars 
 of the Golden Horde. It was not till the overthrow of 
 the Mongol Khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan by Ivan 
 the Terrible, in the second half of the sixteenth century, 
 that the Russian dominions were carried as far as the 
 Volga and the Caspian Sea, and the princes of Muscovy 
 thought themselves entitled to assume the name of 
 " Czar." Their knowledge of the regions beyond the 
 Ural chain and to the east of the Caspian must have 
 been vague, and their interest in them probably not 
 very keen. 
 
 But to the peoples of Western Europe — even to 
 the learned among them — Siberia and the countries 
 of Central Asia were still almost a terra incognita
 
 12 ASIAN MYTHS AND CHIMERAS. 
 
 two hundred years back. As in the days of the 
 Greek and Roman geographers, these remote regions 
 were the abodes of myths and chimeras. The few 
 ascertained facts were distorted by fear and prejudice 
 and by the mists of uncertain distance. The fabulous 
 races with which the old world writers had peopled 
 Inner Scythia had indeed disappeared from the maps. 
 No one now had faith in the existence of the war-loving 
 Amazons ; of tribes that once a year were transformed 
 into were-wolves, and roamed through the gloom of the 
 northern forests with the lust of blood and slaughter 
 glowing in their red eyes ; of races that were bald-headed 
 from birth to old age, or who devoured their parents to 
 save the expense of burying them. The man-eaters by 
 the Arctic Seas, the one-eyed Arimaspian who contended 
 with the winged griffon for the possession of the Mines 
 of Gold, the dog-headed people, or that still stranger 
 headless race with a single eye planted in the middle 
 of the breast who inhabited the innermost recesses of 
 the desert, had been relegated to the realm of poetry 
 and fable. Only a few enthusiastic imaginations still 
 cherished the idea of the Riphsean Mountains, with their 
 impenetrable wall of snow, behind which, " at the back 
 of the north wind," dwelt the venerable Hyperboreans 
 in the practice of all the virtues and in the enjoyment of 
 eternal calm, in a region where the feathery snow-flakes 
 fell continually, and day succeeded night at intervals of 
 six months. 
 
 The names and something of the character and 
 habitat of several of the more important of the tribes 
 of Northern Asia were known ; but concerning their geo- 
 graphical and political relations and their race affinities
 
 TARTART AND ITS TRIBES. 13 
 
 only the vaguest notions were afloat. A comparatively- 
 short time had elapsed since these fierce barbarians 
 had precipitated themselves on Europe and laid it waste 
 up to the walls of Liegnitz ; and the flood of Tartar 
 invasion had barely ebbed back within the limits of 
 Asia when Czar Peter began to reign. The natural 
 tendency was to make an exaggerated estimate of their 
 numbers and their destructive power; and so the picture 
 that stamped itself upon the popular fancy regarding the 
 northern and central parts of Asia, and which has con- 
 tinued to be more or less distinctly impressed there down 
 to the present clay, is that of an illimitable waste, grim, 
 hungry, and forbidding, and yet, in spite of its barren- 
 ness, holding within its savage girdle of mountains 
 myriads of outlandish races with high cheek-bones and 
 obliquely -set eyes, who are continually engaged in 
 furious strife with each other, but who might at any 
 moment unite their forces and pour in a resistless torrent 
 over Europe or India. 
 
 Marco Polo's famous account of his journey across 
 Asia to the court of the great Kublai Khan at Pckin, 
 and through the length and breadth of the Middle 
 Kingdom, was still the chief repository of facts relating 
 to this part of the world ; and so vague was the 
 information possessed even by the learned two cen- 
 turies ago, that we find the whole region north of the 
 Oxus and east of the Ural Mountains, comprehending 
 modern Siberia and Turkestan, slumped together as 
 " Grand Tartary." So inadequate was the conception of 
 the enormous extension of Asia to the northward and 
 eastward, that the Dutch and English navigators who 
 strove for more than a century — from 1553 to 167G —
 
 14 THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE. 
 
 to discover a " north-east passage " to China and India 
 by coasting the Arctic shores of Russia, imagined that if 
 they could only round the cape to the south of Vaygatz 
 Strait, opposite Novaya Zemlia, and on the frontier of 
 Europe and Asia, they might then turn their vessel's 
 head to the south-east and sail directly to Cathay and 
 the Islands of Spice, and thus completely outdistance 
 their Spanish and Portuguese rivals in the Eastern Seas, 
 who had to make the long voyage by the Cape of Good 
 Hope or Cape Horn. That this ignorance of the actual 
 outline of the Russian Empire continued down to our 
 own day was proved by Nordenskiold, who in his 
 memorable exploit of threading the long-sought-for 
 North-East Passage, and circumnavigating for the first 
 time the continents of the Old World, sailed over 
 tracts of sea which were laid down in the maps as dry 
 land, and found a bold and high coast where he had been 
 led to expect a navigable ocean. 
 
 But the knowledge possessed by the rest of Europe 
 regarding the true kinship and character of the Russian 
 people themselves, and of the nature and strength of the 
 power wielded by the Czar of Muscovy, was scarcely less ill 
 defined than that as to the vast supplementary empire that 
 was growing up in Asia. The early glories of Novgorod 
 and Kiev, when the Grand Princes espoused daughters of 
 the Emperors of the East, and were united by marriage 
 with half the crowned heads of Europe, had been obscured 
 or forgotten in the long night of Tartar domination that 
 followed the invasion of the Golden Horde. 
 
 It is true that, ha vino- at length thrown off the 
 yoke of its barbarian masters, the young Muscovite 
 power bounded along the course marked out for it with
 
 A LONG LEEWAY. 15 
 
 gigantic strides. But it had a long leeway to make up. 
 It had to work " overtime," as it were, to bring itself 
 into the same field with its more favoured western com- 
 petitors. While it was struggling almost despairingly 
 for national existence, they had been passing through 
 rapid changes in their political, social, and intellectual 
 development. Paganism and Mohammedanism were 
 round it on three sides, and in its midst. The race, like 
 the land, was in the primitive stages of cultivation. The 
 intelligence of the people was obscured by the grossest 
 superstitions. The necessity of constantly watching and 
 encountering their terrible Mongol foes turned their 
 faces towards the dark east instead of westward, where 
 the new light was rising. Their political relations were 
 with Asia rather than with Europe. Other countries 
 had long ago received, and more or less successfully ab- 
 sorbed, all the constituent elements of their nationalities. 
 Celts, Teutons, and Slavs had already taken up their 
 appointed places, and were busy adjusting questions of 
 precedence. 
 
 Russia, however, was still within the flood-mark 
 of barbarism. The exodus of the nations from Central 
 Asia — the process that had been going on from the 
 earliest beginnings of history, when we see Cimmerians 
 pushed forward by Scythians, Issedones treading on the 
 heels of Massagetce, and political convulsions within the 
 Wall of China sweeping away the decaying barriers of 
 the Roman Empire, and pouring hosts of Goths, Huns, 
 and Vandals into Europe — was still in active operation 
 there. As had been the case for centuries, these Eastern 
 Slavs had to bear the first shock of the charge of the 
 Asiatic hosts. No sooner was one tribe overthrown
 
 16 OBSTACLES TO PROGRESS. 
 
 than the way was left open for another and still stronger 
 that came on in its turn, to be in turn absorbed or ex- 
 terminated. 
 
 Russia was therefore constantly acquiring from 
 without, by the westward movement of population 
 and the eastward extension of her frontiers, vast addi- 
 tions to her stock of inhabitants. And these were no 
 longer, as in the earlier immigrations, Aryan peoples of 
 her own kin, but races of Turanian or semi-Turanian 
 origin, half-savage Finnish, Mongol, and Turkish tribes, 
 hard of assimilation into a stable and well-governed 
 state. She managed to incorporate them. The Russians 
 have a great natural talent in that direction. Their 
 stage of progress was not so far removed from that 
 of the peoples whom they absorbed as to prevent 
 them from mingling with them easily and on equal 
 terms. The process of the " Russification" of these alien 
 nations has been a rapid and effectual one, and has no 
 parallel in the history of British colonization; but it has, 
 as a matter of course, considerably impeded the social 
 progress of the Russian people. 
 
 On the other hand, while Russia's political outlook 
 had been towards Asia, her culture and religion, such as 
 they were, had been derived from Constantinople. This 
 fact has had a most powerful influence on the national 
 life and character, and has formed a main part of the 
 great wall of division separating Russia from the know- 
 ledge and sympathy of the rest of Europe. Not only 
 were there the antagonism of race and religion, and the 
 difficulties of an unknown language, and even alphabet, 
 to overcome, but Russia had adopted another type of 
 civilization, a different standard of taste and morals from 
 
 (718)
 
 A " WINDOW TOWARDS EUROPE." 17 
 
 her neighbours in the west. Peter the Great was the 
 (first who thoroughly understood the great loss that his 
 country suffered from this isolation, or at least he was 
 the first who had the far-seeing sagacity and boldness 
 to set himself with all his might to break down the bar- 
 riers. Russia had still no foothold on the Baltic. The 
 site of the great capital, which is the most magnificent and 
 enduring memorial of Peter's superb ambition, was a lonely 
 marsh, which had still to be won from the Swede, and that 
 Swede no other than Charles the Twelfth. He chose this 
 spot for the seat of his court and the centre of his power, 
 and he called it " the window " by which Russia would 
 see into Europe, and learn the lesson of progress. It 
 has been in scarcely a less degree a window by which 
 Europe has peered into the interior gloom of Russia, and 
 with a half-sympathetic, half-apprehensive feeling has 
 watched its wonderful brightening. If the heart of 
 Russia still beat at Moscow, her eye and brain, her per- 
 ceptive and intellectual faculties, were removed to St. 
 Petersburg. She had become at length a European 
 power ; and she attracted to herself more and more 
 of the curiosity and wonder of the world, as she strode 
 on from conquest to conquest, while the solid develop- 
 ment of her internal strength and the progressive 
 enlightenment of her people almost kept pace with her 
 vast aggrandizements to north, south, east, and west. 
 
 We have learned much regarding the Russian land 
 and people since we have been thus brought face to face 
 with them. Scores of observers have noted the pecu- 
 liarities of the government, religion, and social life. 
 Tourists may now travel with ease from one end to the 
 other of the European possessions of the Czar ; while 
 
 (718) 2
 
 18 DIVERSITY OF RACE AXD RELIGION. 
 
 enterprising explorers have penetrated into the remotest 
 corners of his vast Asiatic domains. More important 
 than all, a national literature has arisen, in which we 
 can read more clearly than in a thousand descriptions 
 what are the aspirations and the mental characteristics 
 of the race. 
 
 Yet it cannot be said that we know Russia and its 
 people thoroughly, or even well. It is so colossal and so 
 complicated a phenomenon that is presented to us, that 
 it is not easy to fix an adequate picture of it in the 
 mind. From the Danube to Behring Strait, from Arch- 
 angel to Samarcand, what a " multitude of all peoples 
 and tongues and nations that no man can number " are 
 comprised within the bounds of the Russian Empire ! 
 Within are found representatives of all the northern and 
 eastern and of many of the southern and western races 
 of the Old World. Every phase of civilization, from the 
 highest to the most primitive, and nearly every variety 
 of religion — Christian, Jewish, Mohammedan, Buddhist, 
 and pagan — are represented. Dr. Latham, as the result 
 of his ethnological studies, which he admits to be imper- 
 fect, has reckoned up no fewer than forty-seven " non- 
 Russian " races dwelling within the bounds of Russia 
 proper. In Asia, and in the Polish, Circassian, and other 
 alien European provinces, there are at least as many 
 more. And in customs, costumes, and languages there is 
 almost as much variety as in race and religion. The 
 empire of the White Czar is the bond of union between 
 two great continents, which are otherwise sharply opposed 
 to each other in every physical and mental feature. It 
 leans on one side against the ereat Wall of China, and 
 neighbours on the other side with Germany; and it
 
 RUSSIAN SCENERY. 19 
 
 shades away so insensibly from Western progress and 
 ;culture to Oriental immobility, that it is impossible to 
 put down the finger anywhere, and say, " Here Asia 
 begins." 
 
 Not less striking is the diversity of scenery compre- 
 hended within the Russian Empire. Busy sea-ports on 
 the Baltic and Euxine, with quays lined with steamers 
 and crowded with merchandise, and trackless Mon- 
 golian wastes, where the solitary traveller may ride for 
 many days without encountering a human habitation ; 
 garish new cities, where streets and boulevards and the 
 costumes of the people smack of the latest Parisian 
 taste, and decaying seats of Tartar and Uzbeg power, 
 whose ancient magnificence is crumbling into dust ; 
 waving corn-fields stretching for hundreds of square 
 leagues over the " Black Lands " of the Dnieper and 
 Boug, and dreary tracts by the Arctic Sea, where it is 
 impossible to tell where the frozen plain ends and the 
 ice-field begins ; white winter landscapes, where the 
 ringing sledge speeds along under the keen stars and the 
 snow-covered branches of the pines, and the soft steady 
 tramp of the wolves is heard in the distance, and Kin- 
 van deserts, where the blazing sun shines down on the 
 fainting camel-drivers, as they toil through the hot 
 sands; squat Laplanders and Samoyedes driving their 
 reindeer to the pasture ; Kamschadales putting out to sea 
 in their frail kajaks, in chase of the walrus and the 
 seal ; hardy lumbermen descending the northern rivers 
 in their huge rafts of larch and fir trees ; Yakut fur 
 trappers following the tracks of silver fox and marten 
 across the snow; sturgeon-fishers landing their mighty 
 prize on the shores of the Volga and the Don; Turco-
 
 20 CONTRAST AND UNIFORMITY. 
 
 mans and Kipchaks riding forth on marauding and 
 kidnapping expeditions; Kalnrak and Kirghiz shepherds 
 watching their flocks on the steppe, with their guns con- 
 veniently at hand; Caucasian mountaineers leaping from 
 crao- to crae in chase of ibex and chamois; uncouth Mant- 
 churian merchants bringing their bales of silk and brick- 
 fcea to the Russian markets; Cossack colonists on dis- 
 turbed and distant frontiers, where the settler has to till 
 the ground with arms in his hand; dark and mysterious 
 scenes of suffering endured by exiles in the Siberian 
 mines; peaceful log-built villages in Central Russia, where 
 the vastest social and political revolutions produce 
 scarcely a ripple on the even current of peasant life ; 
 court splendours and great military displays ; the interior 
 of < Ihristian churches, Mohammedan mosques, and Buddhist 
 temples ; mighty rivers, interminable marshes, and great 
 salt and fresh water lakes ; deserts of salt and shingle 
 and sand and snow; vast forests, boundless grassy plains, 
 and lonely Alpine peaks ; — these and a hundred other 
 pictures equally startling in their contrast rise before 
 the mind when the name of Russia is mentioned. 
 
 But, after all, considering the stupendous area it covers, 
 it is not diversity, but rather uniformity, even monot- 
 ony, that is the distinguishing characteristic of the em- 
 pire of Russia. Bulky though it is — stretching through 
 one hundred and sixty degrees of longitude, and from 
 far within the Arctic Circle to semi-tropical lands — it 
 is one great whole, not only having continuity of extent, 
 but uniformity of natural features. Compared with 
 Western Europe, and even Southern Asia, it is a solid 
 mass of land, indented to only a small extent by arms of 
 the sea, and less dependent upon or connected with the
 
 PLAINS AND RIVERS. 21 
 
 ocean than any other territory of similar extent. M. 
 Rambaud, in his " History of Russia," has on this account 
 described the region west of the Ural Mountains as the 
 " Continental Europe," as distinguished from " Maritime 
 Europe." Another physical peculiarity has suggested 
 the name of " Europe of the Plains," as contrasted with 
 " Europe of the Mountains," applied to the countries to 
 the westward. Unlike its neighbours, Russia has a 
 mountain girdle, but no mountain system. The Caucasus, 
 the Urals, the Carpathians, the plateau of Finland, have 
 been termed its frame — -its limits, as laid down by 
 nature ; but within these bounds, and that of the seas 
 that wash its shores, there is scarcely an eminence worthy 
 of the name of a hill. The rivers draining to the Black 
 Sea and the Caspian, and those flowing to the Baltic and 
 the Arctic Ocean, take their rise at an elevation of a few 
 hundred feet above sea-level. In a large measure the still 
 more extensive territory of Siberia is a counterpart of 
 European Russia. Except in its eastern parts, its great 
 ranges of mountains are on its frontiers ; but there is 
 this important difference, that the drainage of the rivers 
 and the slope of the country are towards the north and 
 the Frozen Ocean. 
 
 If Russia, however, has not mountains to break up 
 her unity and form natural barriers between her peoples, 
 she has abundance of mighty streams. Few countries 
 are so well favoured in regard to deep and navigable 
 rivers. The Obi, the Yenisei, the Lena, the Volga, the 
 Don, and the Dnieper arc all rivers of the first rank, 
 whose courses from source to mouth are within her 
 borders. Many of their tributaries are great rivers over 
 a thousand miles in length ; while a score of inde-
 
 2-1 THE RUSSIAN NATION. 
 
 pendent streams could be mentioned that excel in size 
 any of the rivers of Western Europe. Besides these, 
 Russia has frontier rivers of historic note — the Dan- 
 ube, the Amoor, and the Oxus — scarcely inferior in 
 volume to those that have been mentioned. But in the 
 winter the Russian land is " one and indivisible." An 
 Arctic climate reigns from Lapland to the Kirghiz Steppe, 
 and from St. Petersburg to Kamschatka. The tempera- 
 ture rushes from one extreme to another. The Polar 
 air-currents and the hot winds from the sandy deserts 
 east of the Caspian have alike an uninterrupted sweep 
 across the level plains. Archangel has its broiling sun 
 and its clouds of mosquitoes during its short summer ; 
 while at Odessa and Astrakhan the mercury ranges many 
 degrees below zero in the winter months. The rivers 
 are then all ice-bound, and the inequalities of the land 
 are smoothed over by the universal covering of snow. 
 
 These common conditions of climate and surroundings 
 have had an incalculable influence on the spread of the 
 Russian nation, and in welding out of many materials 
 one massive whole. For as with the land, so with the 
 people : while there are endless varieties and contrasts, 
 there is a wonderful agreement in the general type. The 
 quaint and curious diversities that are presented by 
 Georgian and Sart, Kalmuk and Eskimo, are only, as it 
 were, the gay party-coloured fringing that surrounds the 
 sober-hued web of the Russian nationality. As the rod 
 of Aaron swallowed up the rods of the magicians of Egypt, 
 so the Slav stock has absorbed Ugrian aborigines and 
 Turk and Tartar immigrants, and seems little changed, 
 pt in bulk, by the process. The surroundings of the 
 have fostered their colonizing spirit. There has been
 
 THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT. 23 
 
 little to fasten them to their homes, and they have gone 
 on and on in search of further conquest and happier for- 
 tunes. Their pioneers, so long as they saw no bounds to 
 their horizon, have pushed steadily forward, hewing out 
 for themselves new heritages in the forests of the north, 
 and spreading their name and their creed over the steppe 
 lands of the south. It is computed that sixty million 
 of the inhabitants of the .Russian Empire are of the 
 Russian race. If their blood is not unmixed with foreign 
 infusions, there can be no question of the force and purity 
 of their national sympathies. At least, as large a pro- 
 portion speak the Russian tongue and profess the national 
 religion. 
 
 Here is a broad and solid basis for an empire's 
 greatness to rest upon ; capable, one would fancy, of 
 sustaining almost any shock from without or from 
 within. But the autocratic power that guides the desti- 
 nies of Russia has not been content to retain it within 
 its natural frontier. Military ambition and an unwise 
 passion for aggrandizement have carried it into regions 
 where, so far as can be seen, it can reap no permanent 
 benefit, and where its presence arouses the suspicions of 
 its neighbours. At the same time, the nation, stimulated 
 by the great act of Serf Emancipation, is awakening to 
 political life. It appears to be growing weary of parental 
 government, and impatient of the myriad official bonds by 
 which its freedom of action is controlled. It will by-and- 
 by demand, and will obtain, a share in controlling its own 
 destinies. Many fear that the awakening has come too 
 early, before the nation has received its sight, and that if 
 left to itself it will stumble forward, like a blind Samson, 
 to a mysterious fate that will wreck its mighty strength.
 
 24 AX IMPENDING CRISIS. 
 
 At all events, Russia is approaching a crisis of its 
 history which must intensify our interest in everything 
 that concerns it. Old problems and new are waiting 
 for solution on terms and on a scale never before wit- 
 nessed. Despotism and Communism are in the same 
 boat, and around them are the angry and rising waters 
 of popular passion. It will be of interest as we pass 
 from end to end of the vast Russian dominion, no ting- 
 its present aspects and seeking to understand its present 
 condition, to glance from time to time at the beginnings 
 of this unique and portentous power, undoubtedly the 
 rival, but by no means necessarily the opponent, of 
 Britain, and to mark the process of development which 
 has made it what it is.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 GREAT NOVGOROD AND ITS NEIGHBOURS. 
 
 fHREE hundred versts — some two hundred 
 miles — south-east of the city of St. Peters- 
 burg is a short range of hills which the 
 Russians call the Valdai Mountains. They 
 would not be mountains in any other country than Russia, 
 for their summits rise little more than three hundred 
 feet above the surrounding country. But these insignif- 
 icant hills form the only elevated ground that breaks 
 the immense plain that stretches from the Carpathian 
 to the Ural range. They are important also as con- 
 taining the sources of the great rivers that drain to 
 the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian; and not 
 far off is the low water-shed from which the Northern 
 Dwina flows towards the White Sea and the Arctic 
 Ocean. 
 
 The Valdai Hills, therefore, though they be little 
 beside the mountain systems of Western Europe, 
 play an important role. They form the umbilicus of 
 Russia — its geographical centre, and the nucleus round 
 which the early traditions and history of the Russian 
 race are grouped. From its south-eastern skirts issues 
 the Volga, flowing through the region where the Muscovite
 
 o 6 THE VALDAI HILLS. 
 
 Czarate first gathered strength. To the south rises the 
 Dnieper, that runs under the historic old walls of Kiev, — 
 a splendid seat of wealth and power when the site of 
 Moscow was still a forest. Towards the west we come 
 upon the head-waters of the Niemen, and to Lithuanian 
 Russia, whose princes gave the law in Eastern Europe 
 while the ancestors of the present Autocrat were bending 
 humbly under the yoke of the Tartars. Standing on 
 the bold bluffs of granite and quartz that on the north 
 dominate the basin of Lake Ilmen, you look down upon 
 a region perhaps still more full of ancient associations 
 and historic interest. The eye takes in a wide view of 
 forest, lake, and morass ; of cultivated land, wooded knolls, 
 and waste patches of sand, where, scattered far apart, the 
 belfries of village churches, with the sun gilding their 
 metal domes, peep out from among the pine trees or dot 
 the banks of slow-flowing streams. 
 
 This is the province of Novgorod, the cradle of the 
 Russian nationality. Even now the country seems only 
 in course of being slowly reclaimed from a state of 
 nature. But a thousand years ago the scene must have 
 been rude indeed. This plain was then the most northerly 
 and easterly outpost of the great Slav race. Here they 
 dwelt surrounded on almost all sides by savage Finnish 
 peoples — Tchuds, Vesses, and Merians ; by still more 
 ferocious Lithuanic tribes; exposed to incursions from 
 the Scandinavian pirates, and divided among themselves 
 by fierce feuds. They were scarcely less rude and bar- 
 barous than their neighbours. Like them they were 
 heathens, worshipping Perun, the god of thunder; offering 
 human sacrifices to the deities of the earth and air, and 
 to the genii of the forests and swamps ; and celebrating
 
 THE BEGINNING OF RUSSIA. 27 
 
 the obsequies of their chief by burning his wives and 
 slaves on the funeral pyre. They lived, the old chroni- 
 clers say, " like wild beasts ; " but already they had begun 
 to show their passion for agriculture, and their talent 
 for colonizing and encroaching, and for absorbing weaker 
 peoples. Slowly they were pushing forward, like a 
 wedge, into the heart of the country, clearing spaces in 
 the primeval woods in which to plant their scanty crops 
 of grain and build their rude fortified villages. Already, 
 favoured by their position on the head-waters of the 
 navigable streams, they had begun to engage in com- 
 merce. 
 
 Ten centuries ago, perhaps, might have been seen from 
 the most northern spurs of the Valdai Hills the wooden 
 buildings of Novgorod — 'the "New Town" — situated 
 on both sides of the Volkhov, after it issues from Lake 
 Ilmen, to find its way to Lake Ladoga, and finally to the 
 Gulf of Finland by the broad Neva ; for already Nov- 
 gorod was the metropolis of the nascent Russian state. 
 
 "We begin then our survey of the Russian dominions, 
 not at the east or the west, the north or the south, 
 neither at the centre nor the extremities, but at the be- 
 ginning. Every Russian at least knows that Novgorod 
 Veliki — " Novgorod the Great " — is the birth-place and 
 name-place of the nation. It is only some one hundred 
 miles to the south-east of St. Petersburg ; but the super- 
 cilious modern capital on the Neva has disdained to 
 open a direct communication with the decayed old Slav 
 metropolis on the Volkhov. 
 
 For, alas ! it has sadly fallen from its former opu- 
 lence and splendour ; and the command of its trade 
 is no longer a prize that is worth straining to catch.
 
 28 ROUTES TO NOVGOROD. 
 
 Only the relics remain of the great city of half a million 
 souls ; the head-quarters of Kuric and the "men of Rus;" 
 the heart of the great republic which was the wonder 
 of medieval Europe. Railways, among other modern 
 appliances of trade, have been largely introduced into 
 Russia of late years ; but Novgorod has benefited little 
 by them. The main route from St. Petersburg to Moscow 
 does not make the small deviation necessary to embrace 
 Novgorod in its course. It was the imperial will and 
 pleasure of the late Czar Nicolas that this main railway, 
 reirardino' the route of which engineers, contractors, and 
 military men were engaged in endless squabbling, should 
 be drawn as straight as a ruled line ; and Novgorod has 
 had to be content with connecting herself with it 
 by a small branch line. Such things can be done in 
 Russia ! 
 
 A longer but perhaps more interesting journey is that 
 by which the traveller, leaving the railway fifty miles 
 from St. Petersburg, proceeds in a small steamboat up 
 the Volkhov, arriving probably late in the evening at 
 the ancient town. The scenery through which he passes 
 produces a feeling of novelty and strangeness, if he is 
 making a first acquaintance with Russia ; but when the 
 newness wears off, a still stronger sense of monotony 
 begins to assert itself. It is not a land that charms you 
 by its soft graces of outline and pleasing diversity of 
 colour. You perceive somehow that you have left the 
 familiar scenes of Europe, and yet are not in Asia. 
 
 The country is flat and featureless in contour, like a 
 Tartar physiognomy, and yet preserves a Tartar harsh- 
 ness of expression. Nature seems to have intended it 
 for a solitude; but the hard needs of man have compelled
 
 MIGRATION AND SERVITUDE. 29 
 
 him to invade her sanctuary, and win his hard black 
 bread with sweat and care. 
 
 Long as this portion of the empire has been occupied, 
 it preserves the primitive air of an American settlement 
 in the backwoods. This is partly due, no doubt, to the 
 wooden materials of which the "houses are built. Quar- 
 ries of stone are few in that flat land, and the peasant 
 throughout Russia builds his cabin of logs, employing 
 brick where wood cannot be used. There is no perma- 
 nence about these dwellings. The popular saying runs 
 that " Russia is burned once every seven years." The 
 strong ties of association that bind us in Western Europe 
 to the home of childhood, fastening our affections, as 
 it were, to very walls and stones, have not time to grow 
 up there. 
 
 The movjik — the Russian peasant — feels himself more 
 in the position of one who has set up his tent, than as 
 having built a permanent shelter for himself and his 
 children's children. From the earliest times, and in 
 a certain sense still, he has held himself ready to aban- 
 don his patrimony, and shift farther into the wilder- 
 ness : the passion for wandering has got into his blood. 
 Whole populations, influenced by the oppression of their 
 rulers, the dread of Tartar invasion, or golden reports of 
 fertile and vacant lands ahead, were in the habit of 
 leaving the older settled localities in a body and moving 
 elsewhere. The wealth of the great proprietors depended 
 less on the extent of their lands — of which there was 
 never any lack — than on the number of hands there 
 were to till them. Governments also could not afford to 
 lose the main source of their revenue, the industrious 
 peasantry, on whom their capitation tax and other
 
 30 A FOREST COUNTRY 
 
 heavy state burdens mainly rested. Stem "ukases" 
 were issued to stop the displacement of population ; the 
 tenants and dependants of the boyards, or great nobles, 
 became bondsmen " attached to the glebe," bought and 
 sold with the land, like the other chattels upon it; and 
 the village communities had their rights to the grounds 
 which they tilled in common legally recognized, — these 
 rights, however, being then, and in some places still, re- 
 garded by the peasants and their masters as an onerous 
 duty rather than as a valuable possession. In a word, 
 serfage and the commune were established: and the 
 Russian peasant of to-day is largely the product of these 
 two remarkable institutions, the nature and the influence 
 of which, however, form too wide and intricate a subject 
 to be entered into here. 
 
 In the Novgorodian landscape, therefore, the tourist 
 must not look for picturesqueness or fertility — at least 
 in the northern and eastern parts of the province. In its 
 best days it never was famous for its agricultural riches. 
 Only a small part of it has ever been brought, or is likely 
 to be brought, under the plough. With an area equal 
 to that of England, the population of the government of 
 Novgorod is little over a million. Much of it is still 
 covered with the primeval pine woods, and alternating 
 with these forest tracts are great undrained marshes and 
 spaces of sandy plain. The desolate aspect of the 
 scene is increased by the absence of the scattered farra- 
 we associate with country life at home. A sociable 
 and gregarious people, the blank solitude and oppressive 
 silence of the great plains and dark forests appal and 
 depress the Russian peasant farmers; and they love 
 to draw their houses cozily together into some snug
 
 PEASANT SUPERSTITIONS. 31 
 
 hamlet or township for mutual protection and companion- 
 ship. 
 
 The old pagan myths have still a strong hold on the 
 minds of the simple peasantry, in spite of nearly a thousand 
 years of Christianity; and in few places is more implicit 
 faith placed in these venerable superstitions than in 
 Novgorod. After nightfall a thousand unearthly and 
 malign creatures are abroad. The were-wolf haunts the 
 forest, and the foul vampire creeps from the sepulchre 
 to slake his thirst for sweet young blood. Tales are 
 whispered over the fire about the clumsy antics of the 
 domovoi — the " brownie," or familiar house-spirit — who 
 takes up his quarters in empty barns and mills ; of 
 weird encounters with the roussalka, or wood-fairy ; 
 with the leechie, or forest-demon, who slinks sidelong- 
 through the undergrowth, dogging the steps of the trav- 
 eller ; and with the still more malignant vodianoi- — the 
 water- wraith, or kelpie — who delights in enticing the un- 
 wary to his home beneath the surface of the deep pool. 
 There are well-defined traces of the heathen worship 
 of the old Slavs in the village customs of to-day. 
 Perun, the Kussian Thor, has still homage paid to him in 
 various ways ; the aid of Mikonla, the ploughman, the 
 personification, as has been suggested, of the intense love 
 of the race for agriculture, is implored as often as that 
 of the Christian saints ; and the attributes of Did-Lado, 
 the female deity who sends the refreshing rains of early 
 summer, are inextricably mixed up with those of the Vir- 
 gin Mary. On certain anniversaries the ancient tumuli 
 — graves of the heroes of the Novgorodian cycle — and 
 the ruins of the towns that in other days were wealthy 
 and industrious seats of commerce, are visited by the
 
 32 FORSAKEN GREATNESS. 
 
 country people, and observances take place that are half 
 a superstitious rite and half a touching commemoration 
 of a mighty past which no native of " the great" Novgorod 
 ever forgets. 
 
 The vestiges of the departed greatness of the old repub- 
 lic become more noticeable as, ascending the Volkhov, we 
 approach the renowned city of Novgorod. Once, as has 
 been said, it contained within its walls a population of 
 400,000, or, as some chroniclers say, 000,000. Now, it is 
 a dwindling and forsaken little provincial town of some 
 17,000 inhabitants. The cincture of its old fortifications 
 can still be traced, and bears witness to the immense strength 
 of the walls and the enormous extent of the city, which 
 in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries had its 
 seventy " quarters," in which were congregated merchants 
 from every part of Europe and Asia. Glancing round 
 the sweep of the ancient walls, the Novgorod of to-day 
 looks like a shrunken nut in its shell. Nothing remains 
 of its old magnificence except the kremlin or citadel — 
 a feature found in every Russian town of note — and the 
 Cathedral of St. Sophia, with a few other ecclesiastical 
 edifices. As of yore, the Volkhov divides the town into 
 two parts. The " side of commerce," we have the assur- 
 ance of Mr. Mackenzie Wallace, who spent a considerable 
 I'm i ip in Novgorod and its vicinity, is "eminently unpic- 
 fcuresque and thoroughly uninteresting" — wide, ill-paved, 
 dirty streets running at right angles to each other, and 
 lined with houses that, as is too often the case in 
 Russia, have no pretension to regularity or achitectural 
 effect. 
 
 Crossing to the right bank by the bridge which has 
 often played an important part in Novgorodian history,
 
 THE KREMLIN AND CATHEDRAL. 33 
 
 you find several things worthy of attention, especially by 
 one acquainted with the city's past. The kremlin faces 
 you, surrounded by its high battlemented wall of brick, 
 above which rise the spiry summits of the citadel itself, 
 consisting of bulging cupolas, surmounted by slender 
 pinnacles in the usual Russian taste. The cathedral 
 church is a quaint-looking building, erected more than 
 eight hundred years ago, when architecture was in its 
 infancy in these Northern regions. Its blind walls and 
 massive structure bear evident token that the thrifty 
 citizens looked forward in building it to the time when 
 the sanctuary would be used as a magazine of war mate- 
 rials, and a strong place of defence in the day of civic 
 broil or foreign attack. In spite of the secular uses to 
 which it has been put, the ancient church is deservedly 
 looked upon with unusual reverence ; for does it not 
 contain, in addition to miracle-working images and relics, 
 the bones of St. Vladimir, the first Russian prince who 
 favoured Christianity, and of Mstislaf the Brave of 
 Smolensk, who, with his son Mstislaf the Bold, were the 
 great defenders of the city against Lithuanian, Tartar, 
 and Muscovite aggression ? On the walls are curious 
 old frescoes of the twelfth century ; and on the canopy 
 overhead is painted a gigantic figure of Christ, with the 
 arms outstretched in the act of blessing the city, which 
 is popularly believed to show signs of rejoicing or of 
 grief at every great change in the fortunes of Novgorod. 
 Close by the old cathedral is a wide-open public place, 
 and in the middle of this stands the monument erected 
 in 1862 in commemoration of the "millennium" of the 
 Russian nationality, an event much more grandly cele- 
 brated by the serf emancipation of the year previous. 
 
 (71S) 3
 
 34 THE "MEN OF RUS." 
 
 The monument is described as a colossal pedestal of stone, 
 surmounted by an enormous globe, round which are 
 grouped figures emblematical of Russian history. On 
 this spot, more than a thousand years ago, the Varangian 
 Ruric and his " men of Rus " set up their standard, and 
 took possession of the town. According to the old 
 chroniclers, whose story is generally accepted as based 
 on historic fact, these " men of Rus " were Scandinavian 
 rovers — from Roslagen, in Sweden, it is thought — of that 
 race of Vikings who then infested all European seas, 
 conquering and founding states in England, Normandy, 
 the Low Countries, and Sicily, and pillaging even the 
 shores of Greece and the islands of the iEgean. 
 
 These bold and enterprising Norsemen, who dared 
 the perils of the Greenland seas in search of spoil and 
 adventure, and are believed by some to have actually 
 visited America five hundred years before Columbus, 
 were scarcely likely to overlook the growing Slav power 
 on the Volkhov. At that period the Slavs, the last 
 of the Aryan races to arrive in Europe, were partly 
 settled, as they are to-day, as far to the south-west 
 as the Adriatic ; but Novgorod, as we have said, was 
 their farthest limit to the north-east. There, tired of 
 the constant wars with Finns and Livs, and anxious 
 to devote themselves to trade and agriculture, they 
 called in Ruric, with his Norse followers, to be their 
 head and protector. He found the town defended by 
 its earthen wall, surmounted by a wattled palisade, the 
 highest development of Slav fortification at the time; 
 and he built on the site of the present kremlin a feudal 
 stronghold that could bid defiance to the savages. Ruric 
 is the ancestor of most of the princely personages that
 
 THE COMMERCE OF NOVGOROD. 35 
 
 figure in subsequent Russian history, and his droujin<< — 
 his retainers or henchmen, men that to the early Slavs 
 appeared " tall as pine trees and fierce as bears " — were 
 the founders of the great families of boyards who for so 
 many centuries have had things nearly all their own way 
 in Russia. 
 
 If Ruric proved himself a King Stork to his subjects, 
 they had much to thank him for ; and by-and-by, 
 when his descendants moved to fairer and more fertile 
 regions in the south, the citizens were left very much to 
 their own devices. For, as has been hinted, the import- 
 ance of Novgorod depends not on its agricultural riches, — 
 in that respect it is poor, — but on its commanding 
 geographical position. Holding the key of the Valdai 
 Hills, it had water communication with rivers draining 
 to the Baltic, the White Sea, the Caspian, and the Euxine. 
 By the Volkhov the Novgorodians descended to Lake 
 Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland ; and by the same route 
 they could also make their way with little difficulty to 
 the shores of the Arctic Sea. They descended the great 
 river Volga, which in all times has been the commercial 
 highway of Russia, and were the carriers of merchandise 
 between Europe and the distant East. Their neighbour- 
 hood to the sources of the Niemen and Dwina and of the 
 Dnieper brought them into communication on the one 
 hand with the Germans, and on the other with the Greeks 
 of the Eastern Empire. 
 
 Every year Novgorod grew in wealth and population, 
 till in the fourth and fifth centuries after its occupation 
 by Ruric it had reached the apex of its glory. Chris- 
 tianity had been introduced by Vladimir the Saint, great- 
 grandson of Ruric, and the pagan observances had been
 
 36 A TURBULENT AND PIOUS CITY. 
 
 abolished, and the old beliefs expelled or transmuted into 
 new superstitions. 
 
 A turbulent and a pious city was the Novgorod of 
 those days. Its civil and its religious freedom went 
 hand in hand. The citizens chose as the head of the 
 republic some prince of the House of Ruric from a 
 neighbouring state ; but they did not allow him to 
 govern, and they exacted an oath from him that he 
 would conserve all the rights and privileges granted 
 them by their great benefactor Jaroslav, son of Vladi- 
 mir, the Charlemagne of Russia, who built the church 
 of St. Sophia. The prince led their armies in the 
 numerous wars against the Finns, Lithuanians, and 
 Poles, or with the neighbouring republic of Pskov. 
 Very often they turned their weapons against himself, 
 and ejected him with little ceremony when he did 
 not please them. The Metropolitans of Novgorod would 
 acknowledge no ecclesiastic dependence on Kiev or on 
 Moscow. Had not the Church of St. Sophia also its 
 wonder-working images and its sainted bones? Were 
 they not Novgorodians, who would not doff their caps to 
 any Muscovite or Little Russian? Everything was done 
 by popular vote, and by the convocation of the notables, 
 under their possadnih or burgomaster, gathered either 
 in the cathedral or in the Court of Jaroslav beyond 
 the river. "When this assembly was sitting, or when public 
 strife and clamour were raging, the great bell was rung. 
 Sometimes it pealed forth for seven days without ceas- 
 ing. It was the sonorous voice of the republic, whom 
 the citizens proudly termed " My lord Novgorod the 
 Great." " Who," they said, " can resist God and great 
 Novgorod?"
 
 NOVGORODIAN COLONIZING. 37 
 
 Under these free institutions its commercial im- 
 portance developed in a wonderful manner. Novgorod 
 became, in the words of the writers of the time, " a pro- 
 digiously large city." Its territory was more extensive 
 than that of the Venetian Republic. Its " Good Com- 
 panions," as the bands of adventurers called themselves, 
 sailed down the Volkhov in their light craft, and made 
 their way by lake, marsh, and stream to the White 
 Sea and the base of the Ural Mountains. They reduced 
 to submission the vast territories comprehended in the 
 modern governments of Archangel, Vologda, and Olonetz; 
 founded a new republic in Viatka, between the Volga and 
 the Kama; and penetrated far into Siberia. When they 
 came near to a town, they did not stop to inquire 
 whether its inhabitants were Christian or pagan, but 
 made war upon it as a matter of course. Deeply reli- 
 gious men they were, too, after their own notions. They 
 prayed fervently before attacking a sleeping village, and 
 set up a cross on the blood-stained ashes. Little better 
 than pirates, perhaps, were these pious swash-bucklers, 
 though in that respect they differed not from all the 
 pioneers of their time. But they were bold, fearless, 
 enterprising men, who laid wide and deep the foundations 
 of the Russian power, and added enormously to the 
 wealth and consequence of Novgorod. 
 
 The wealth of the great republic was the cause of its 
 downfall. It excited the cupidity of the Poles and 
 Lithuanians. But more dangerous than all was the grow- 
 ing power of the principality of Moscow. Time after 
 time it repelled the Grand Princes ; but possessing as 
 they did the rich grain-lands of the Volga, they had the 
 power of starving it into terms. Great plagues and
 
 38 THE TENDER MERCIES OF THE "TERRIBLE." 
 
 famines thinned the population; and then, in 1478, 
 Ivan the Great, the "Binder of the Russian Land," 
 marched against it while it was torn by internal fac- 
 tions, ravaged and wasted the region round about with 
 his Tartar cavalry, took the city, massacred or deported 
 its principal inhabitants, and added its great possessions 
 to his own. That was an important day for Muscovy, 
 for it brought its frontier for the first time to the sea— 
 though it was only the White Sea. But it was the day 
 of Novgorod's humiliation. It was stripped of its power 
 and its independence ; its defences were destroyed, and 
 its subject towns shared in its fall. Isborsk alone — 
 founded by a brother of Ruric — retained its kremlin. 
 
 But if possible a worse enemy to Novgorod than Ivan 
 the Third was his grandson, the " terrible" Czar Ivan the 
 Fourth. Determined to put an end finally to the ceaseless 
 rebellions of its people, he occupied the city, and for six 
 weeks devoted himself to the slaughter of its citizens. 
 Every day, it is said, during that period upwards of a 
 thousand people, without regard to age or sex, were 
 slain or flung over the parapet of the bridge into the 
 Volkhov, while boat-loads of soldiers lay in wait below 
 to prevent any of the victims from reaching the shore. 
 There is a curious ripple under the piers of the bridge, 
 where the water never freezes in winter, which the 
 awe-struck native will point out to you as caused by 
 the troubled spirits of the martyred Novgorodian patriots. 
 Besides the sixty thousand that perished in this manner, 
 tens of thousands of families were transplanted to the 
 interior of Russia. Ivan sought to get rid of others by 
 planting colonies of citizens of Novgorod on Novaya 
 Zemlia — the desolate "new land," in the Arctic Sea,
 
 THE NEIGHBOURS OF NOVGOROD. 39 
 
 which had just been discovered — where, of course, they 
 all perished miserably. The old privileges of the city 
 were taken away. It fell afterwards into the hands 
 of the Poles and the Swedes ; but it never recovered 
 from the terrible treatment the two Ivans meted out to 
 it. The neighbourhood of St. Petersburg has shorn it of 
 some of the few attractions that a Russian country town 
 affords, and it is now the dreariest of provincial capitals. 
 Its crops of rye, buckwheat, and hemp, above all, its 
 forests, now furnish the chief wealth of the province of 
 Novgorod. The great lakes Ilmen and Bielo are well 
 stored with fish ; and in the numerous ponds and lake- 
 lets of the Valdai district, acclimatized salmon, and the 
 still more aristocratic sterlet, are reared, and the fisher- 
 men make a comfortable living by conveying these to 
 the St. Petersburg and Moscow markets. In the recesses 
 of these hills are many charming glens and wooded 
 nooks, where we come upon the quaint villages of the 
 natives of these parts — a race by themselves, famed for 
 the good looks of their women, their curious custom of 
 painting the neck and hands blue, red, and black, and 
 for their manufacture of savoury cracknels and great 
 bells ; and the scenery has a diversity of aspect rarely 
 seen in Novgorod, or, for that matter, in Russia. 
 
 Neighbours of Novgorod, and lying respectively west, 
 east, and south of the Valdai Hills, are three provinces 
 — Pskov, Tver, and Smolensk — that illustrate the pro- 
 gressive stages of the history of Russia, and varying 
 phases of the national life. In the economic condition 
 of Pskov and Tver may be traced the fickle ebb and 
 flow of the currents of trade in the course of centuries.
 
 40 U MT LORD PSKOV." 
 
 The city of Pskov is a thousand years old, and boasts 
 of being the birth-place of the Princess Olga, daughter-in- 
 law of Panic, and the first Christian convert in the 
 ruling family of Eussia. It was once the head of a 
 republic, and the commercial rival of Great Novgorod. 
 It, too, had its massive kremlin, its cathedral — not to 
 mention one hundred and fifty smaller churches — its 
 important wars, and its alliances with Lithuanians and 
 Poles, and with the Grand Princes of Kiev and Moscow. 
 Pskov called herself the " younger sister" of Novgorod ; 
 and the two republics quarrelled with each other in 
 a way that was anything but sisterly. The Pskovians 
 also spoke of their city as " the Great," and prefixed to it 
 the style of Gospodin — " my lord." The period of its 
 decay, as of its greatness, was contemporary with the 
 decline and fall of Novgorod ; and the causes also were 
 identical. 
 
 Pskov has, however, sunk to an estate lower, if possible, 
 even than her ancient rival. The modern town has some 
 twelve thousand odd inhabitants. It is a squalid and 
 desolate-looking place, with narrow miry streets lined 
 with rickety wooden houses. The line of railway from 
 St. Petersburg to Warsaw passes it at some little dis- 
 tance, having disdained to move a few miles aside 
 to touch the old emporium. It has a certain conse- 
 quence as the seat of a provincial government, and it 
 preserves a few vestiges of its leather and furniture 
 industries. The annual fair, the " Great Town " and the 
 '• Middle Town" quarters still remain; and its churches, 
 sixty in number, are more than sufficient for the needs 
 of the people. The old ramparts, that often repelled the 
 Teutonic Knights, are crumbling away : " the street boys,"
 
 PSKOVIAN CUSTOMS AND COSTUMES. 41 
 
 says M. Rambaud, " amuse themselves by flinging the 
 stones into the Pskova to frighten the laundresses." But 
 on fete days, when the great bell booms from the Cathe- 
 dral of the Trinity, where rest the bones of the best- 
 beloved princes of Pskov — Vsevolod, Gabriel, and Dov- 
 mont the Lithuanian — and is answered in less deep 
 notes from the belfries of its numerous churches, a phan- 
 tom of its past splendour seems still to linger above the 
 decayed old town. A more abiding lustre, perhaps, 
 attaches to Pskov in that it has given to Russia the 
 greatest of her poets — Alexander Pushkin. 
 
 The district of Pskov is even poorer than Novgorod 
 in agricultural resources, and the people are more primi- 
 tive in their ways. With an area nearly as large as 
 that of the kingdom of the Netherlands, its population 
 only numbers three quarters of a million. The soil is 
 flat and sandy, and much of the surface is covered with 
 swamp and forest. At Pskov the Pskova river joins the 
 Velikaia, and a little farther down the united stream 
 falls into Lake Pskov, which again is a prolongation of 
 the great Lake Peipus, whose flat shores of sedge and 
 sand, two hundred miles in circuit, are, however, chiefly 
 within the neighbouring governments of Livonia and St. 
 Petersburg. A busy current of commerce sweeps round 
 its skirts, but Pskov itself is in a backwater, where few 
 influences from the outer world penetrate. The ancient 
 Slav customs and family organization are found here in 
 pristine simplicity. The costume of the women has 
 changed little since the days of Olga. The maidens 
 still bind a broad ribbon across their heads, that after 
 marriage is replaced by a linen band, and wear round 
 their necks a kerchief broidered with glass beads, which
 
 42 FAMILY LIFE AND FOOD. 
 
 is removed at the altar. The wide-sleeved sarafan, or 
 gown, fastened behind from top to bottom with metal 
 bangles, the mitten of sheepskin edged with sable, and 
 the strong shoes lined with wool, are articles of dress 
 that have altered little in fashion for many centuries. 
 
 The housewife, respected and consulted as the man- 
 ager and director of in-door affairs throughout Russia, 
 is regarded in Pskov, perhaps more than elsewhere, as 
 the absolute power at the family hearth, to whose behests 
 daughters-in-law and children, and even sons and bus- 
 band, must pay implicit attention within her own espe- 
 cial domain. The food of this primitive folk, as may be 
 imagined, includes few foreign delicacies. Black rye 
 bread — the " staff of life" throughout Russia — cabbage 
 soup, curdled milk and potatoes, occasionally oat-cakes, 
 cheese, butter, and eggs, these meet all their simple 
 wants, if we add draughts of kavass (beer made from the 
 aforesaid black bread), or stronger potions, if procurable, 
 of vodka (rye spirit). Ordinarily, however, the Russian 
 peasant is a frugal and contented fellow, with whom a 
 little luxury — a spoonful of gravy to enrich his daily 
 mess, or a glass of home-brewed beer to wash it down — 
 goes a long way. Even when in liquor he is seldom or 
 never quarrelsome, but rather, perhaps, inclined to be 
 demonstratively affectionate. The peasantry of Novgorod 
 and Pskov, in spite of their simple fare, have long been 
 noted for their Avell-grown, sturdily-knit figures, and 
 many of the female population have regular features 
 and pleasing expressions. They have a staidness and 
 '1 1 unity ( ,f deportment, amounting almost to austerity, 
 that contrasts strongly with the light, volatile, and im- 
 pulsive demeanour of the Polish and Little Russian
 
 TVER. 43 
 
 people to the south, and which may, in part at least, be 
 attributed to their still unextinguished pride in their 
 ancient republican independence and power. 
 
 Unlike Novgorod and Pskov, Tver is on one of the 
 main arteries of Russian trade. The chief town of the 
 old principality is a considerable and a rising place. 
 Czar Nicolas's " straight line" of rail happened to hit it, 
 and helped to build its fortunes. It has still only some 
 thirty thousand inhabitants, but it is an entrepot for the 
 grain from the fertile corn-lands of the south on its way 
 to the capital. It has its theatre, its public parks and 
 drives, its busy working population, its lively provincial 
 society, and even its small literary coterie. Of course it 
 has its kremlin and its cathedral, in which are the bones 
 of the sainted Prince Michael, basely murdered in 1319 
 at the court of the Tartar Khan of Kazan, by George 
 Danielovitch of Moscow, with whose family the princes 
 of Tver disputed for a century subsequently the possession 
 of the grand principality and the precedency among 
 Russian states. Like other Russian towns, Tver has often 
 suffered by fire, and has profited by the disaster. To a 
 terrible conflagration in 1763, that burned the city to the 
 ground, it owes its present regularity of design and its 
 broad and straight thoroughfares. 
 
 Few parts of the empire present such a scene of ani- 
 mation and active industry as the government of Tver. 
 The nobles have the reputation of being among the most 
 advanced and liberal of the Russian aristocracy in their 
 ideas and in their treatment of their tenantry and 
 dependants. The result of this is seen in the superior 
 industry, robustness, and contentment of the Tverian
 
 44 SMOLENSK. 
 
 peasantry. The winter time is the period when busi- 
 ness and labour are at their briskest. Tver owes its im- 
 portance to its position on the sources of the Volga, and 
 the products of the immense region of which that river 
 is the commercial artery are here drawn to a focus. 
 Vast stores of grain — wheat, rye, oats, barley, and pease 
 — and of wool, hemp, flax, and other raw material, 
 are constantly arriving for storage or for transport to the 
 manufacturing countries to the west. Tver itself is not 
 noted for its agricultural riches. It has the same rigor- 
 ous climate and poor soil as Novgorod and Pskov ; like 
 them, it is within the " zone of forest." Its timber is, 
 indeed, one of its great sources of riches. Thousands 
 of its population are engaged in the work of wood- 
 cutting, rafting, and saw-milling. The felled trunks of 
 oak and larch are dragged over the snow to the banks 
 of the rivers, whence, as soon as the ice melts, they are 
 floated down-stream to spots where thousands of saws 
 are busy cutting up the rough logs into beams, battens, 
 and deals for shipment to Western Europe. Altogether, 
 a more active and yet more peaceful scene, one more 
 indicative of vigorous life in the present and of promise 
 for the future, can hardly be witnessed within the Czar's 
 possessions than that to be seen within his faithful prov- 
 ince of Tver. 
 
 Travelling southwards, and leaving the Valdai Hills 
 behind us, we enter a district famous for the great events 
 that have happened within it in modern as well as in 
 medieval times — Smolensk. The Varangians followed 
 this route on their way from the Volkhov to the Lower 
 Dnieper; but they saw little in these cold, swampy,
 
 TEE BATTLE-FIELD OF RUSSIA. 45 
 
 forest-clad flats to tempt them to linger when the sunny, 
 smiling plains of the Ukraine lay before them. As 
 soon, however, as the early Russian State began to break 
 up into principalities, Smolensk began to assert its im- 
 portance. It contains the upper waters of the Dnieper 
 and the heads of the valleys of the Dwina and the 
 Moskva — streams draining into three seas. 
 
 The commercial advantages of this position have in 
 all times been overshadowed by its military import- 
 ance. It was the debatable land between Novgorod 
 and Kiev, and later between Moscow and Lithuania. 
 On this field have been fought out the great contests 
 between Poland and Russia — between Catholicism and 
 Greek Orthodoxy — in the sixteenth and seventeenth 
 centuries : and it was a scene of the prolonged struggle 
 between Czar Peter and the Alexander of the North — 
 Charles the Twelfth of Sweden. Through it lies the 
 direct road to Moscow and the heart of Russia. On its 
 soil were fought, in that " memorable year," 1812, some 
 of the most murderous battles that marked Napoleon's 
 advance on the capital ; and its snow-covered ways and 
 obscure hamlets witnessed the hideous scenes of suffer- 
 ing and vengeance enacted during the retreat of that 
 terrible winter. The sites of a thousand desperate fights, 
 still famous or sunk in oblivion, are thickly sprinkled 
 over the surface of Smolensk ; and the mouldering bones 
 of combatants of a score of different races — Turk, Tartar, 
 and Finn, Lithuanian, Pole, and Russ, German, Swede, 
 and Frenchman — fatten its lean soil. It is, in fact, the 
 battle-field of Russia, the scene above all others where 
 she has won her unity and independence from foreign 
 control ; and the Russians are not oblivious to the fact.
 
 46 THE "IMPREGNABLE" CITY. 
 
 as the memorial on the scene of the sanguinary struggle 
 at Borodino — which, however, is just outside of the 
 boundary of Smolensk — serves, among many other 
 proofs, to show. They complain that " space is their 
 great enemy;" but here they must admit that it proved 
 their saviour, when their courage, their numbers, their 
 military skill, and the lavish expenditure of their blood, 
 availed them not. 
 
 The old city of Smolensk, the capital of the govern- 
 ment, has associations that are in fit keeping with the 
 warlike history of the province. It is built on the 
 banks of the Dnieper, and is admirably situated for 
 trade ; but its prosperity has been too often staked on the 
 chances of a battle for it to have had an unbroken career 
 of good fortune. Its kremlin, washed by the waters of 
 the river, often destroyed and rebuilt, is still the most 
 prominent building in the town. The remains of the 
 massive walls, thirty feet high, fifteen feet thick, and 
 two miles in circuit, which were long believed to render 
 Smolensk impregnable, still exist. In the days of the 
 Mstislafs — the " Brave " and the " Bold ; ' — the princi- 
 pality on the Upper Dnieper protected Novgorod, and 
 spread its conquests as far as Halitch (modern Galicia), 
 of which the younger Mstislaf died the ruler. But the 
 growing power of Moscow in the east absorbed Smolensk 
 as it absorbed Novgorod. It was an appanage of the 
 Grand Dukes of Lithuania when, in 1514, Vassili, son of 
 Ivan the Great and father of Ivan the Terrible, besieged 
 it, battered down the " impregnable " ramparts of the 
 kremlin with his great guns, and entered the city amid the 
 rejoicing of the people, who were tired of Polish supremacy. 
 Ever since, Smolensk has been one of the most patriotic 

 
 SMOLENSK IN 1812. 47 
 
 of Russian cities. A hundred years later, in the " time 
 of the troubles," when the old male line of Ruric had been 
 exhausted, and before the present family of the Romanoffs 
 were seated in their place, Smolensk was again taken by 
 the Poles after a long and bloody resistance ; but it was 
 won back by the Czar Alexis, son of Michael Romanoff, 
 in 1G54. 
 
 Its last and most terrible experience was in 1812, 
 when the " grand army ' ' of nearly half a million 
 of men, led by the greatest military genius of modern 
 times, burst over the frontiers of Russia and pursued 
 its conquering way towards Moscow. It was in at- 
 tempting to cover Smolensk that the Russian army 
 under Barclay de Tolly and Bragation was beaten and 
 driven back in the sanguinary battles of the 14th, 17th, 
 and 19th of August. Other three days sufficed to carry 
 the town, though garrison and inhabitants fought with 
 the fury of patriotic and religious zeal, and the battered 
 walls of the kremlin and the blazing streets were 
 drenched with the blood of twenty thousand dead. 
 Great were the rejoicings of the conquerors, while the 
 city was abandoned to pillage, and marauding parties 
 wasted the country around, more especially after the 
 patriot host, making its final stand near the Moskva, at 
 Borodino, was again repulsed with fearful carnage, thirty 
 thousand Frenchmen and forty thousand Russians being 
 piled in heaps on the field of battle. 
 
 It was a ruinous triumph, as was seen three months 
 later. When the remnants of the victorious army, fleeing 
 from the smouldering ruins of Moscow, pursued not only 
 by the avenging Russians, but by still more remorseless 
 enemies — cold and hunger — re-entered the deserted streets
 
 48 THE RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. 
 
 of Smolensk, they found there no comfort, no supplies, 
 no resting-place from persecution, scarcely even shelter 
 for the thousands of sick and wounded. Footsore and 
 famishing they had to continue their weary way through 
 a country which their own hands had utterly wasted, 
 turning at bay at intervals to repel the attacks of the 
 relentless foe ; massacred by the infuriated peasantry 
 when any of them straggled behind ; numbed to the 
 bones by the Arctic cold, and seeing no speck in the 
 white expanse of the snow-covered plain except the 
 ravens that flapped slowly in their rear, and no hope of 
 escape but in the grave. It was here, in a word, where 
 was enacted one of the greatest tragedies of modern 
 times — where a mass of living valour and military 
 strength such as has seldom been brought together was 
 utterly wrecked and dissipated in space, and a mighty 
 reputation received a fatal wound. Is it strange that 
 stories of this eventful time cling to every by-way and 
 thicket in the environs of Smolensk, and along the 
 broad track followed by the retreating French army; 
 that they are told over, with marvellous additions, by 
 the village firesides ; and that the deeds of the patriot 
 troops, of the Cossack horsemen, and of the peasant 
 volunteers, should be mixed up with the exploits of the 
 earlier heroes of the race ? 
 
 Smolensk is not only the most celebrated, but — with 
 the exception of Viazma, one hundred miles to the east- 
 ward, where also a battle was fought between the 
 Russians and the French — the only important town of a 
 government which contains over a million of souls spread 
 over twenty -one thousand square miles of territory. 
 The new city, partly built of stone, which has risen on
 
 MODERN SMOLENSK. 49 
 
 the ashes of the old wooden one, contains some hand- 
 some public buildings, including the large allowance of 
 churches which we find in every Russian town. 
 
 Besides a cathedral, with the archbishop's palace, 
 there are Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches for the 
 unorthodox Christians; and monasteries, colleges, a mili- 
 tary school for the nobles, assembly rooms, and other 
 institutions required by an advanced civilization. It 
 retains the control of a large transport business in grain 
 on its way to the Baltic ports ; and also a considerable 
 manufacturing trade in carpets, linen goods, soap, and 
 leather. Altogether, Smolensk, with its twenty -five 
 thousand inhabitants, is a place of some little activity 
 and enterprise ; and if it has not the stir and bustle of 
 Tver, it has still less resemblance to the forsaken and 
 decaying streets of Novgorod and Pskov. But for 
 generations to come the chief interest which the city and 
 the government must present to the tourist will be the 
 traces they contain of the ruinous tempests of war that 
 have so often swept over them in the past. 
 
 (718)
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LITTLE RUSSIA AND KIEV. 
 
 HEX the extreme southern frontier of Smolensk 
 is crossed, we are in Little Russia. The 
 " zone of forests" is left behind ; the fat grain- 
 lands of Tchernigov and the Dnieper valley 
 are around us, and the green rolling prairies of the 
 Ukraine in front. The transformation from the lower- 
 ing gloom of Smolensk to the " favoured land " of Little 
 Russia is like the change from the dark and dolorous 
 scene that closes the dramatic part of a pantomime to 
 the gay frolic and brilliancy of the harlequinade. There 
 is a change in latitude, in elevation, and in soil. We 
 seem transported from the climate of Sweden to that of 
 Southern France. 
 
 From a region where the frost binds up the marshes 
 and the snow keeps its chill hand on the ground until 
 far into April, a day or two's march has brought the 
 traveller to a land where the cottages are buried under 
 the blossom of peach and apricot trees, where the 
 grape ripens in the open air, and where tobacco is grown 
 for export. The heavy drapery of the forest has dis- 
 appeared — not suddenly, but by degrees. Oak, ash. 
 and lime trees mingle with the dark evergreen of
 
 LANDSCAPES IN THE UKRAINE. 51 
 
 the fir and spruce ; the woods become thinner and more 
 scattered, and the last sentinels of the great " Northern 
 Host " of pines are left behind. There are heavily 
 timbered patches in Tchernigov, and in the northern 
 parts of Kiev there are still fine tracts of woodland, but 
 farther south are the boundless, treeless steppe-lands. 
 
 In great level spaces, or in gentle undulations, like a sea 
 rocking itself to rest after a tempest, the country stretches 
 away until sky and horizon meet in a hardly discernible 
 line. In spring and summer it is an ocean of verdure, 
 the vivid green starred by flowers of every hue, and 
 scattered over with large herds of sheep and cattle ; in 
 autumn, a bare brown waste of burned-up pastures ; and 
 in winter, a white, unsullied expanse of snow. Human 
 habitations do not make a great figure in the landscapes 
 of the Ukraine. The Cossack plants his hata under the 
 lee of some swell in the surface, or by the margin of a 
 stream where his flocks can be watered during the parch- 
 ing droughts of the summer. A group of oak or walnut 
 trees, guarded with extreme care, helps to shelter his snug 
 little home, with the garden, cattle enclosures, and other 
 outhouses grouped around it ; and the biting blasts of 
 the north and the hot breath of the desert pass over 
 his humble roof without disturbing his tranquillity of 
 mind. The wide rim of his horizon is the boundary of 
 his world, and in spite of many drawbacks he finds it 
 not an unpleasant place to dwell in. 
 
 For Little Russia is inhabited by a people who are the 
 true children of its sunny skies, rich soil, and open, 
 breezy plains. They speak a dialect that differs con- 
 siderably from that of the Great Russia to the north and 
 north-east of them. They dwell in a land that yields its
 
 52 THE LITTLE RUSSIAN. 
 
 fruits not grudgingly and sparingly, but with lavish hand, 
 and almost spontanepusly. They are not less fond of 
 agricultural work than their neighbours, but they have 
 more opportunity for play. They are Slavs of the Slavs. 
 The buoyancy of temperament — the insouciance — which 
 carries the Russian through so many of the trials that 
 fall to his hard lot, is possessed in a special degree by the 
 peasant cultivators of Kiev and Poltava ; but while else- 
 where it may be set down to stolidity, here it can only 
 be attributed to light-hearted gaiety of spirits. 
 
 Neither in intermittent devotion to labour, nor in luxu- 
 rious appreciation of the delights of idleness when the work- 
 im<- hours are over, is he a whit behind his brother peasant 
 of the forests ; but while the latter loves to revel in the 
 close warmth of his smoky hut, the Little Russian can 
 take his ease in the open air. His history, his descent, his 
 religious feelings and political sympathies, like his mother 
 tongue, are not identical with those of his Muscovite 
 compatriot ; and he is keenly alive to the fact. He draws, 
 indeed, a broader distinction than is perhaps warranted 
 by the facts, and "cocks his beaver" with disdain at races 
 that can lay less claim to purity of blood and superiority 
 of physique. He knows that the Great Russia of the 
 northern forests and eastern wastes is but a colony of 
 his own beautiful land ; that it was from this nest on 
 the Dnieper that the vast swarm hived off that has 
 covered the half of Europe and the half of Asia, just as 
 our little Britain of the seas is the original home of the 
 race that has colonized the " Greater Britain " of America 
 and Australia. 
 
 If Novgorod was the beginning of the political powei 
 of Russia, Kiev is the birth-place of her religion and
 
 THE "PAN SLAVIC IDEA." 53 
 
 her literature. And the Kievian, like the Novgorodian, 
 does not forget the days that are past. The old 
 capital is still the capital of his country to him— 
 much the same as the Scotsman regards Edinburgh as 
 the capital of his native land. The ancient glory of 
 Kiev touches his imagination more quickly perhaps than 
 the later power of Moscow; the honour and advancement 
 of the Slav race and tongue are often nearer to his heart 
 than the aggrandizement of Russia. So the "Panslavic" 
 idea — the notion of uniting all the Slavonian peoples, in 
 Turkey and Austria as well as in Russia, in one great 
 and irresistible confederation — has a special allurement 
 for the Little Russian. The wild Nihilist theories also 
 — the recoil from the hard and fast bonds of absolutism 
 — have found a most fertile field for propagation in the 
 old home of the Slavs. The revolutionary seed has not 
 only been thickly sown among the students at the uni- 
 versities of Kiev and Kharkov, but is discoverable, it is 
 said, even in the professorial staff. 
 
 But whatever dangerous combustibles are hidden in 
 the Little Russian's bosom, his daily life bears little sign 
 of their presence. The brightness of the Slav tempera- 
 ment has not been dimmed, as in the north, by melan- 
 cholic infusions from aboriginal Finnish stocks. His 
 affinities, so far as they are not purely Slavonic, are 
 rather with the Greek and the Tartar. His quick, 
 artistic impulses, his inflammable enthusiasm, have been 
 stimulated by Hellenic impulses from the Black Sea and 
 Byzantium, and the Tartar admixtures of centuries have 
 helped to inspire him with an almost savage love of out- 
 side nature, of personal freedom, and of war. In the 
 very looks and costume, and much more in the manner
 
 54 THE POETRY OF PEASANT LIFE. 
 
 of life, of the peasant of the Ukraine, are reminiscences of 
 his long and troublous relations with Turk and Mongol 
 
 i ads. There are Tartar traits in the type of his 
 
 features and in his dark hair and eyes. He is one of 
 those who "love to lie i' the sun;" and the sun has 
 left its kiss on the brown cheek, and kindled some of 
 its fiery fervour in his nature. From choice, he would 
 sleep rather under the stars than within doors; and there 
 are traces of the magic and mystery of the summer night 
 in his wayward fancies. For the rest, we see a tall and 
 sturdy figure, firmly knit by a life of toil and outdoor 
 exercise from childhood up. 
 
 If to be merry is to be wise, then the shepherds of the 
 " frontier " and the peasantry of the Black Lands of the 
 Dnieper are among the sages of the earth. Jest, raillery, 
 quick repartee, are as the breath of their nostrils ; song, 
 dance, and music have for them irresistible attractions. 
 A vein of poetry, not deep perhaps, but widely spread, 
 runs through this race. Their land is the oldest and 
 chosen home of Russian folk-lore, where snatches of lyrical 
 ballad and strains of improvised melody still spring spon- 
 taneously from the hearts of the peasantry. Their tastes 
 are shown in their love for flowers, their success in bee- 
 keeping, and their skill in the training of orchard and 
 forest trees. The humblest little garden, where the cottar 
 grows his pot-herbs, bears witness of an artistic eye to 
 colour and effect. The very arrangement of the houses 
 in the rustic hamlet tells of the exercise of individual 
 taste, instead of the mere copying of old models or next- 
 door neighbours. Picturesque grouping takes the place 
 of dull and ugly uniformity of straight lines. 
 
 The interiors of the houses do not belie the outsides.
 
 HOUSEHOLD GODS AND FAMILY FESTIVALS. 55 
 
 In the Ukraine, the hata in which a young couple are to 
 take up their abode is " run up " almost with as much ease 
 as the Kirghiz nomad pitches his black felt tent, and the 
 walls are not much more substantial. All the neio-h- 
 hours assist, the women plastering on the clay when the 
 men are driving the stakes and plaiting the tough withes 
 that form the skeleton framework of the future home. 
 Within there are manifest signs of that imitative talent 
 in carving, painting, and decoration which is the heir- 
 loom of the Russian, and which with the dwellers by 
 the Dnieper becomes almost an original gift. On the 
 floor, on the sides and front of the indispensable oven 
 — which, as elsewhere in Russia, is also the family 
 hot bath, and often the family sleeping-place — are 
 often artistic scrolls and tracery of flowers, foliage, and 
 figures. High on the wall to the left of the entrance, 
 opposite the great stove, are ranged the "household gods" 
 — figures of Virgin and saint curiously wrought and 
 gilded — to which the inmates pay devout attention, gar- 
 nishing the family shrine with flowers in their seasons, 
 and other little marks of reverential awe. The Little 
 Russian, as becomes his history, is a stout champion of 
 Orthodoxy, carrying his zeal often to the extent of di.ssent 
 from the established religion, as relaxing from the strict 
 letter of ancient dogma and form. Saint-days and other 
 Church festivals, of which there are an enormous number 
 in the year, do not fail to receive due observance ; and 
 the " name-day " of each member of the household is 
 an anniversary on which piety and inclination alike call 
 upon them to make merry with their friends. Nor are 
 more secular feasts forgotten. Among a people so social 
 and joyous, a very slight occasion, or no occasion what-
 
 56 THE MALO-RUSS AND HIS HISTORY. 
 
 ever, is enough to call a company of young and old 
 together for mutual amusement. 
 
 The Malo-Russ, as his neighbour of Moscow terms him, 
 lias been called the "spoiled child" of Russia. If that 
 is the case, it is nature and not man who has spoiled 
 him. Since the earliest historic times Little Russia has 
 had harsh taskmasters and experiences of war and dis- 
 aster that would have broken the spirit of a race of less 
 elastic temper. They have worked hard and fought 
 hard, and come through it all, a people ten million strong 
 — or thirteen million, if we count Podolia and Volhynia, 
 along with Tchernigov, Kiev, Poltava, and Kharkov, as 
 forming their heritage. 
 
 Who are they, and whence came they, these south- 
 eastern Slavs, who have ended in being south-western 
 Russians ? They were settled on these fertile lands of the 
 Dnieper as early as, if not earlier than, their northern 
 relatives were on the banks of the Volkhov. The towers 
 and walls of Kiev emerge from the mists of the barbaric 
 Middle Ages even before those of Novgorod. A Slav 
 people were here a thousand years ago, industriously 
 turning up the rich loam, sowing, reaping, and sending 
 their surplus grain past the cataracts of the Dnieper, 
 and down that river to the Black Sea, to be exchanged 
 for articles of luxury from the Eastern Empire, as the 
 Little Russians of to-day exchange their corn at Odessa 
 for the manufactures of Western Europe. 
 
 As early as the days of Herodotus — four hundred 
 years before the Christian era — the Ploughmen Scy- 
 thians fed the Greek colonies from this same inexhaust- 
 ible granary. Where are the Scythians now — that 
 terrible and widely-spread people, delighting in war
 
 SCYTHIANS AND SLAVS. 57 
 
 and in agriculture, who worshipped a sword stuck into 
 the earth, and quaffed their wine from the skulls of their 
 enemies killed in battle ? Did some annihilating catas- 
 trophe overtake them that the ghost of their name no 
 longer stalks on the earth ? Were they a Hunnish 
 race, the ancestors of those whom Attila led westward ? 
 were they allied to the Goths, who are also first seen 
 emerging from this region to assist in the wild work of 
 upturning the Roman world ? or were they the original 
 Slavs, over whom these human hurricanes swept with- 
 out destroying ? Let ethnologists say. What we know 
 is that a millennium ago, when Ruric and his brethren 
 were consolidating their power over the Slavs of the 
 Volkhov — building fortresses at Novgorod, on Lake 
 Ladoga, and on the " White Lake " far to the north-east- 
 ward, and " exploiting " the country of Pskov and 
 Smolensk — other tribes of the same race (the Polians 
 and Severians), as happily situated for trade, and more 
 fortunate in soil and climate, were settled in the pleasant 
 and fertile lands of the Dnieper, and that their metro- 
 polis, Kiev, placed on a high site on the right bank of 
 the river, a little way below its junction with the Desna, 
 was already coming into notice. 
 
 Within its earthen ramparts a strange medley of men 
 of different nations were gathered together about the 
 time when the Saxon king Alfred reigned in England. 
 Bulgarians from the Volga, where a powerful kingdom 
 had been founded ; Khazars, whose extensive empire, 
 stretching along the northern shores of the Black Sea 
 and as far as the Caspian, was renowned in those days 
 for its opulence and civilization ; Tartars from the 
 steppes ; Jews from the Crimea ; and Rumanyos from
 
 58 TWO MEMORABLE GIFTS. 
 
 the Danube, the descendants of the legionaries of ancient 
 I >uci;i, who still spoke the tongue of imperial Rome, — 
 met on common ground at Kiev, drawn thither by the 
 fame of its growing commerce. Fiercely-whiskered Poles 
 and big, unkempt, skin-clad Lithuanians descended the 
 Pripet or the Dnieper, to barter the raw produce of their 
 marshes and plains for luxuries from the Greek colonies 
 on the Euxine or from Byzance. Religion had not yet 
 set a great ffulf between these western members of the 
 Sarmatian stock and their Slav hosts at Kiev; nor had 
 it established a bond of union between the latter and the 
 smooth-mannered, supple-tongued strangers who came 
 all the way from the Bosphorus and the iEgean, to dis- 
 play in the markets of Kiev their raiment of purple and 
 fine linen, their wondrous stuffs of silk and gold brocade, 
 their gay horse-trappings and keen-tempered weapons. 
 Polian and Severian, Lett and Finn, Pole and Goth were 
 alike pagan — bowing down to idols of stock and stone, 
 and dabbling their altars with the blood of human sac- 
 rifices. But to the gates of Kiev one day came two 
 humble monks of Byzantium — Cyril and Methodius — 
 bearing in their hands two memorable gifts — the Greek 
 Orthodox religion and the Greek alphabet. That was 
 one of the great turning-points in Russian history ; an 
 event that has perhaps influenced the national destiny 
 and character, and especially the destiny and character 
 of Kiev, more than any other. Thenceforth the Russia 
 beyond the Dnieper was bound to alien Constantinople 
 by a triple strand of religion, literature, and policy, and 
 drifted ever into more violent antagonism to the cognate 
 race of Poland. 
 
 But before the ninth century was out Kiev received
 
 " THE MOTHER OF RUSSIAN CITIES: 1 59 
 
 other guests whose visit was scarcely less fateful. A 
 Varangian band — a freebooting party of adventurers 
 on a raid from Novgorod — descended the Dnieper, and 
 set up here a new Norse principality. Its leader, 
 Askold, whose tomb is still shown at Kiev, was not of 
 the " blood of the princes," however ; and not long after 
 came Oleg, brother and successor of Ruric, taking- 
 Smolensk on his way. It was when this rude northern 
 barbarian saw the beauty and the fertility of these 
 southern lands, and especially when he looked upon the 
 commanding site and imposing towers of its chief town, 
 that he uttered the words which the Kievians are not 
 likely to forget — " Let Kiev be the mother of Russian 
 cities." 
 
 The Kiev of to-day is not, like its old northern rivals 
 Novgorod and Pskov, a melancholy wreck of a great 
 past, though in its time it has suffered even more than 
 they have from war and fire. It is still a stately and 
 handsome city of sixty thousand or seventy thousand 
 souls ; and in Russia, where the tendency of the popu- 
 lation seems to be rather to spread abroad than to gather 
 towards centres, that is considered an immense number 
 of inhabitants. The cradle of Orthodoxy, it is still in a 
 sense the religious centre of the nation — the " most 
 holy place " in Holy Russia. Beautiful for situation, 
 and commandingiy placed for trade, it has not neglected 
 to improve its charms by means of modern art, nor to 
 avail itself of modern science in developing its com- 
 mercial prosperity. 
 
 From whatever side we approach it, the first view 
 of Kiev, like that of many other Russian towns that 
 are less able to bear inspection from within, is strik-
 
 60 KIEV FROM WITHOUT. 
 
 ingly picturesque and imposing. Colour, form, and 
 magnitude, the traces of ancient splendour and of 
 modern energy, are all present to impress the traveller 
 that he is gazing on a spot that is not unworthy to 
 be the bourn of the pilgrimages of a vast and widely- 
 spread nation. The broad channel of the inconstant 
 Dnieper flows under the walls, and from its left bank 
 some of the finest views of the city are obtained. The 
 turbid current, the wide beds of shingle which the 
 stream leaves as it alters its course with each flood, the 
 precipitous rocky wall where the Petschersk quarter and 
 Old Kiev abut on the river, are in fine contrast with the 
 gleaming white towers, the dark red of the brick build- 
 ings, the vivid green of the trees sprinkled along the 
 banks or grouped in lines and masses in the streets and 
 public places, and the dazzling sheen of the silvern 
 and golden cupolas that everywhere rear their heads. 
 
 Let this be seen in bright summer weather, when fifty 
 thousand pilgrims from every part of the empire are 
 gathered in the Holy City, when a brilliant blue shines 
 overhead, and when the conical hills that rise here and 
 there above the mass of buildings and foliage, with their 
 green slopes, and summits crowned with churches and 
 monuments, seem in the dry clear atmosphere preter- 
 naturally close at hand, and it will be acknowledged 
 that the glory of Kiev has not wholly departed. 
 
 The chief interest of the city, however, lies in its asso- 
 ciations with the past. As we walk through the streets of 
 the old town, situated on the high ground to the north, 
 it is almost possible to read its former fortunes in its 
 stones ; its historic sites are as so many tide -marks that 
 show the rise and progress of early Eussia. On the
 
 THE PASSING OF PERUN. 61 
 
 summit of the Kopirev-Konets — one of the gigantic 
 masses of rock that tower above the river — was the 
 Pantheon of the heathen Slavs. The altar of Perun, the 
 great war-god, was reared on the spot now occupied by 
 the Church of St. Basil. Under its shadow the first 
 descendants of Ruric — Oleg, Igor, and Sviatoslav — 
 equipped the expeditions with which they harried the 
 shores of the Euxine and the cities of Greece, con- 
 quered the countries of the Danube, and hung their 
 shields at the " Golden Gate " of Constantinople. Here, 
 too, on their return, they threw down the choice of their 
 spoils and trophies before their gods. 
 
 A small Christian community had lived here in fear 
 and trembling since the days of the monk Cyril ; and the 
 Princess Olga, when she became a convert to the faith, 
 hardly dared avow it to the rough boyards. But one fine 
 day, about the year 1000, the Grand-Prince Vladimir, 
 after a stormy life of war and debauchery, bethought 
 him of selecting a new religion ; and the choice fell on 
 that of his grandmother Olga, whose grave is shown in 
 the Church of the Nativity. Perun the Thunderer was 
 thrown down from his seat of honour, flogged, dragged 
 ignominiously at a horse's tail, and trundled down the 
 steep bank into the Dnieper. A little way down, say the 
 chroniclers, Perun drifted ashore, and the people were 
 ready to worship the miracle ; but Vladimir's men pushed 
 the image out again into mid-current. At the foot of 
 the high ground at the river-side is pointed out the 
 Fountain of Baptism, where the imperious grand-prince 
 hustled his family and his people into the bosom of 
 Holy Church, and renamed them, in batches of hun- 
 dreds, after the saints of the Greek calendar. The Em-
 
 62 JAROSLAV AXD HIS WORKS. 
 
 peror Nicolas erected on the spot an obelisk of stone, 
 one hundred and fifty feet in height, in memory of the 
 event. 
 
 Many relapses followed this wholesale conversion. It 
 was long ere the inhabitants quite gave up their faith 
 in the old gods, if indeed it is yet wholly departed ; 
 but as Pcrun floated slowly away from Kiev, so paganism 
 drifted out of the hearts of the Russian people. 
 
 Another monument of the piety of St. Vladimir was 
 the ancient Church of the Tithe, to the endowment 
 of which he devoted one-tenth of his revenues. Still 
 more splendid, however, were the memorials left by his 
 successor, Jaroslav the Great, under whom Kiev reached 
 the summit of its grandeur ; and chief of all is the 
 Cathedral of St. Sophia, modelled after that famous 
 church of the same name in the city of Constantine, 
 which for so many centuries has been used as a Moslem 
 mosque. Its great tower rises in four stages high above 
 the other buildings of the city ; its golden cupolas blaze 
 like suns over the massive pile. " Within," says M. 
 Rambaud, " the mosaics of the time of Jaroslav still 
 exist. The traveller may admire on the ' indestructible 
 wall ' the colossal image of the Mother of God, the Last 
 Supper, the images of saints and doctors, the angel of 
 the Annunciation of the Virgin. The frescoes which 
 have been preserved or carefully restored are numerous, 
 and everywhere cover the pillars, the walls, and the 
 vaults floored with gold." These works were executed 
 by Greek artists, whom Jaroslav had attracted in large 
 numbers to his capital. It was he, too, that founded 
 schools in his dominions, that instituted the first code 
 of laws, that encouraged literature and music, and first
 
 CIVIL WARS AND INVASIONS. 63 
 
 struck coins in Russia. It is not strange that his grave, 
 covered by its sarcophagus of marble, should be one of 
 the most sacred spots within the walls of Kiev. 
 
 Venerable as the old city and its relics have always 
 been in Russian eyes, they have not escaped desecration 
 and mutilation, even from people of the Slav race. 
 When the grand-princes began to break up their pos- 
 sessions, and divide them among their younger sons, and 
 powerful new princedoms started up all around, especi- 
 ally in the north-east among the forests of the Volga, 
 Kiev became the prize for the most ambitious and enter- 
 prising. Its ruler was acknowledged to possess the 
 seniority among the sons of Ruric, and alone took the 
 title of " Grand." Civil wars tore the Russian common- 
 wealth. Confusion and anarchy reigned supreme. The 
 princes were constantly engaged in triangular and quad- 
 rangular duels with each other ; sometimes uniting to 
 crush one who threatened to become too strong, and 
 then again mixed up in a general melee, in which towns 
 were sacked and whole provinces wasted with fire and 
 sword. Kiev was the centre round which they fought. 
 Russian historians record that in the one hundred and 
 seventy years that intervened between Jaroslav's death 
 and the period when the whole land succumbed to the 
 Tartars, " sixty-four principalities had an existence more 
 or less prolonged, two hundred and ninety-three princes 
 disputed the throne of Kiev and other domains, and 
 there were eighty-three civil wars." 
 
 The fame of opulent Kiev was spread far over the 
 East, and attracted the cupidity of the restless nomads. 
 Year after year hordes of new enemies bore clown on 
 it from the steppes. Petchenegs, Polovtsi, Khvallisses,
 
 64 THE DECADENCE OF KIEV. 
 
 TJzes, Kipchaks, and Nogais followed each other in 
 apparently endless succession, appearing without warning 
 on the eastern horizon like clouds of arrows shot by 
 unseen archers. Kiev was the butt at which these wild 
 flights of Turk and Tartar horsemen were directed. 
 The open grassy plains that led up to it were a continu- 
 ation of their own deserts, and it lay directly across 
 their path into Europe. Eighteen campaigns against the 
 Polovtsi alone, and forty-seven invasions by that people 
 successfully repelled, are reckoned up. These incessant 
 attacks, if they formed the Little Russians into a war- 
 like people, also weakened their power, and caused a 
 continuous movement of the population into the forests 
 of the north-east, where, if there were a sterner soil and 
 climate, comparative tranquillity might be enjoyed. 
 
 Kiev began to decline, and Suzdal, between the Volga 
 and the Kliasma, to rise into power. At length George 
 Dolguruky of Suzdal entered Kiev in triumph, and it 
 ceased from that hour to be the capital of Russia. 
 George's son, Andrew of Suzdal, has cause to be even 
 more bitterly remembered by Kiev. He led a host of 
 forest-men against it, and captured it by assault, and for 
 three days it was given up to sacrilegious plunder. The 
 numerous monasteries and other ecclesiastical buildino-s, 
 even the sacred temples founded by Vladimir and Jaro- 
 slav, were not spared, and vestments, images, relics, 
 books, pictures, and bells were carried off to the country 
 of the Volga. 
 
 But a more awful calamity was about to burst over 
 Kiev and over Russia. The Tartars were at last to reap 
 the reward of their perseverance, by means of the weak- 
 ness and division of the Slavs. Unknown to all, in the 

 
 GHENGH1Z KB AN AND BATY KIIAX. 65 
 
 remote obscurity of Central Asia— in Mongolia, and 
 along the chain of the Altai — Ghenghiz Khan had for 
 forty years been labouring to weld together the Mono-ol 
 tribes, until he had enrolled half a million horsemen 
 under his banner. When the full time was come, he 
 burst from his solitudes upon an astonished world, over- 
 whelming kingdom after kingdom, as much by the 
 suddenness and mystery of his appearance as by the 
 irresistible might of his army. While in other directions 
 he overran China, and carried his arms across Persia 
 towards the Mediterranean, a branch of his mighty host 
 swept round the northern end of the Caspian and came 
 full upon Kiev. The first token of its approach was the 
 fleeing bands of the Polovtsi, coming now, not as enemies, 
 but as suppliants. The chivalry of Southern Russia 
 assembled in Kiev — their northern brethren offering' them 
 no help — and went forth to meet the heathen, who were 
 encountered on the steppes north of the Sea of Azov. 
 
 The Russian army was not merely defeated, but al- 
 most annihilated. Kiev alone had ten thousand of its 
 citizens slain on the battle-field. But the Mongols with- 
 drew as mysteriously as they had come. For thirteen 
 years they were no more heard of. But at the end of 
 that time Baty Khan was sent by his uncle, Oktai, son 
 of the great Ghenghiz, to reduce the nations of Europe, 
 and complete the " conquest of the world." The whole 
 of Russia — the north as well as the south — was this 
 time attacked, and all fell under the Tartar, who 
 rode over its smoking ruins to Olmutz in Moravia and 
 Liegnitz in Silesia. For three hundred years Russia 
 was under the domination of the Tartars — an ap- 
 panage of the Golden Horde of Kipchaks, whose capi- 
 tis) 5
 
 66 A MONGOL TRIUMPH. 
 
 tal was first at Sarai, near Astrakhan, in the delta of 
 the Volga. 
 
 Kiev did not escape the general desolation, as her walls 
 and towers to this day attest. Baty appeared before its 
 gates in the year 1240 with a vast host of invincible 
 barbarians. " The grinding of the wooden chariots, the 
 bellowing of the buffaloes, the harsh cries of the camels, 
 the neighing of the horses, and the howlings of the 
 Tartars, made it impossible," the old historians say, " to 
 hear your own voice in the town." The walls were 
 battered down, and the city delivered over to sack and 
 massacre. The last defenders of Kiev retreated to the 
 Church of the Tithe, and fell fighting round the tomb 
 of Jaroslav. The venerable building where Christianity 
 was first established in Russia was burned. All that 
 remains of it are a few fragments of its mosaic pavement, 
 preserved in the Museum of Kiev. The other churches 
 — four hundred they are said to have numbered in those 
 days — were rifled and desecrated ; the streets ran with 
 blood. The very tombs were broken open. The bones 
 of saints, martyrs, and anchorites were torn by heathen 
 hands from their crypts in the famous catacombs, and 
 .strewn abroad. 
 
 These catacombs are in the Petschersk quarter of the 
 city — the high ground to the south of Old Kiev, and 
 separated from it by a deep ravine, where the principal 
 fortifications and military and government establish- 
 ments are situated. The catacombs form the most 
 singular of all the sights of Kiev, and one of the 
 strangest memorials of ascetic devotion to be found in 
 any country. It is they that attract specially the thou- 
 sands of pilgrims that still annually crowd to the Holy 

 
 THE CATACOMBS. 67 
 
 City from the remotest corner of the empire. The Mon- 
 astery of the Catacombs is said to have been founded 
 in the ninth century. The massive gateway is orna- 
 mented with figures of its first abbots, St. Anthony 
 and St. Theodosius. In the centre is the Church of 
 the Assumption of the Virgin, one of the most ancient 
 and imposing of the edifices of Kiev. The belfry rises 
 to a height of three hundred feet, and grouped round 
 it are glittering domes and pinnacles and huge crosses. 
 Access is got by narrow stairs to the two ranges of 
 catacombs cut in the soft rock forming the bank of the 
 river, a labyrinth of subterranean passages, whose heavy 
 atmosphere, lighted only by the dim lamps placed over 
 the sarcophagi of the dead cenobites, seems redolent of 
 the spirit of dark asceticism of the " pious men of old " 
 who chose this spot as their place of living sepulture. 
 
 In this gloomy underground world, where day was not 
 distinguishable from night, and no glad sound from the 
 upper air ever penetrated, generations of devout monks 
 spent their days, extended sometimes to the utmost 
 span of human life, their thoughts busied only with their 
 prayers and penances, and in devising new methods for 
 mortifying the frail flesh and rendering more assured 
 their claims to future bliss. The tomb is pointed out of 
 the hermit John, who is said to have spent the last thirty 
 years of his life immured in the earth up to the arm- 
 pits, and who ate of food only once a week. Others 
 went to still more sad and eccentric lengths in the dis- 
 mal competition of self-torture ; and some allowed them- 
 selves to be bricked up alive in the little cells where 
 I they passed their doleful days. A spot more worthy of 
 honour is the tomb of the monk Nestor, the Father of
 
 68 PILGRIMS AND BEGGARS. 
 
 Russian History, whose annals, written in the twelfth 
 century, contain almost all we know authentically re- 
 garding the early fortunes of Kiev and of the Slav race. 
 In the centre of the catacombs are two small chapels, 
 where the anchorites met for prayer who were not self- 
 condemned to perpetual seclusion in their cells. These 
 little niches are placed at intervals along the passages. 
 Within each, in an open coffin, reposes the mummified 
 body of its former occupant, and above is a plate bearing 
 his name. 
 
 If homage paid to their dust could make amends 
 for a life of pain and gloom, that certainly is not 
 wanting ; for here, especially at the Festival of the 
 Assumption, is to be witnessed the chief outpouring of 
 that superstitious devotion which is so marked a feature 
 of the religious life of Russia. The pilgrims, as they 
 pass each sacred tomb, kiss reverently the shrivelled 
 hand laid out for the purpose, and believe that they 
 purchase thereby a blessing for themselves and their 
 families. Another token of the holy zeal of these 
 votaries is the battered and defaced figure of Satan, 
 painted on the wall of the vestibule of the catacombs, 
 on which the rage of Orthodoxy against the author 
 of evil is expressed in characters that may be read by 
 all. But if the annual concourse of pilgrims adds to the 
 importance and religious prestige of Kiev, it cannot be 
 said to conduce to the comforts of its visitors. The 
 streets, especially the neighbourhood of the historic sites, 
 are thronged with beggars, sturdy or whining. Rags, 
 wretchedness, revolting sores and deformities, are exposed 
 to view wherever the eye is turned. The pilgrims may 
 be pious, but they are not as a rule cleanly ; they may
 
 KIEV REDIVIVCS. 69 
 
 be fit objects for charity, but they are intolerably impor- 
 tunate. 
 
 A new humiliation was reserved for Kiev when, as 
 the Tartar domination waned to the east, the Lithuanian 
 power grew in the west, and it fell under a new alien and 
 pagan rule. For centuries it bent the neck to Lithuan- 
 ian and Polish masters ; and not until the days of the 
 Romanoffs, in 1667, did the "Mother of Russian Cities" 
 again become a city of Russia. That long twilight 
 period of foreign oppression has left no memorial worthy 
 of the name. But in more modern times, as has been 
 said, Kiev has been renewing its youth. It is not alone 
 a city of historic remains, but a busy mart of trade and 
 an enlightened seat of learning and art, full of thriving 
 modern institutions, and containing, at least, one high 
 triumph of science over nature — the great suspension 
 bridge, the work of the English engineer Viniol, which 
 spans the wide Dnieper from bank to bank. 
 
 The modern public buildings are for the most part to 
 be found in " Podole " — the " low town " — whose hand- 
 some, well -laid -out streets, gardens, and parks occupy 
 the space between the high ground of Petschersk and 
 Old Kiev and the margin of the river. The Univer- 
 sity of Kiev is one of the most important in the empire, 
 fifteen hundred students being enrolled in its classes. 
 The library, too, is famous, though a great fire last 
 century destroyed many of the most precious books and 
 documents. 
 
 A popular tradition has it that one of the walled-up 
 passages in the catacombs leads by an underground way 
 to the ancient city of Tchernigov, the capital of the gov-
 
 70 TCHERNIGOV. 
 
 eminent of that name, situated on the Desna, eighty miles 
 to the north-east. A more certain route, however, is 
 available, though there is still no railway communication 
 with Tchernigov ; and in any case a subterranean passage 
 is not needed in order to establish a connection between 
 it and Kiev. The two have often shared each other's 
 good or ill fortune. Tchernigov, too, is an old town ; 
 for Prince Oleg signed here the earliest treaty with the 
 Greek emperors. It also had its time of dynastic 
 trouble, when its rulers, the Olgovitches, fought the 
 princes all round them ; and it was pillaged by Tartars 
 and captured by Poles. But except some old ecclesiasti- 
 cal remains, dating as far back as the early part of the 
 eleventh century, and fragments of the old walls, there 
 is little in it now to detain the traveller. 
 
 Quite another interest attaches to Poltava, the chief 
 town of the government that lies along the opposite side 
 of the Dnieper from Kiev. Near it, in 1709, was fought 
 that memorable battle in which Charles the Twelfth of 
 Sweden and Czar Peter the Great brought their long duel 
 to a climax. It was here, after nine years spent in march- 
 ing from victory to victory over the face of North- Eastern 
 Europe, and winning and losing kingdoms, and after 
 enduring unheard-of hardships with his troops during a 
 winter of exceptional rigour, that Charles staked his 
 whole fortunes and reputation, the lives of his soldiers, 
 and the safety of his native country on the issue of one 
 desperate and decisive fight. He was far from his own 
 Sweden, in the heart of the enemy's country ; but he had 
 on Lis side the prestige of his great name, and the devo- 
 tion and hitherto invincible valour of his soldiers. The
 
 '•DARK POLTAVA'S DAY." 71 
 
 patriotic persistency of her people, with the peculiar 
 natural features of the country that stood her in such 
 good stead in the later struggle with Napoleon, availed 
 Russia on this occasion to rid herself of a terrible foe. 
 With their king, who had been wounded a day or two 
 previous, carried in front of them in a litter, the Swedes 
 swept on the Russian lines in the early morning in an 
 irresistible charge. The Russian cavalry were scattered ; 
 but under the voice of their Czar they re-formed, and 
 checked the Swedish advance. The infantry coming up, 
 pressed the enemy in turn ; while Prince Menchikof, 
 piercing in between the Swedish army and Poltava, 
 and annihilating their reserves on his way, cut Charles's 
 force in two. The battle became a rout. Charles him- 
 self fled for his life, leaving his artillery, baggage, and 
 military chest, with six thousand wounded, in the hands 
 of the Russians, and nine thousand of the finest troops 
 that ever followed a commander dead on the field of 
 battle. The wreck of the army — Poles, Cossacks, and 
 Swedes — collected beyond the Dnieper, again to dissolve, 
 and the hero of Narva disappeared into inglorious exile 
 with the Grand Seigneur of Turkey. Sweden, the 
 dangerous rival of Russia for centuries, was never again 
 a formidable enemy ; and Poltava, as Peter wrote, laid 
 firmly the foundation-stone of the new capital on the 
 Neva. 
 
 Poltava itself, situated on a ridge overlooking the 
 wide steppe to the eastward, is on the site of one of the 
 border strengths built in old times by the Cossacks of 
 the Ukraine against their Tartar foemen. Farther od 
 we will meet with the Cossacks under conditions where 
 the peculiarities of their military organization and duties
 
 can be more suitably described Bo* it was here, on the 
 of the frontier, in innumerable brushes with Po- 
 Nogais, and - - - 
 
 riders " — which soon came to mean someth in g equivalent 
 :: eebooters " — first took shape, and their manner of 
 life marked them out so much from then thai 
 began to be looked upon as a separate race. Many are the 
 tales handed down from mouth to mouth, or sung with 
 oTiitar accompaniment by itinerant minstrels or village 
 bards, of the deeds of the hetmans Bolgan and Mazeppa, 
 of thv El the mournful tragedies : 
 
 - d I Xalivaigko. And these ballads are not 
 all of war ; love and wine mingle with the theme. At 
 the close of a successful f . Z rorogian Cossacks 
 
 — the free commonwealth, who guarded the country 
 - 1 the " porogs " or cataracts of the Dnieper against 
 all comers, and carried on a continual crusade against 
 Mussulmans — held festivals of Brobdingnagian pro- 
 portions at the island stronghold of their hetman ; for 
 eeks, the carouse was kept up, and often it 
 ended in : :_ren of the lance shedding each other's 
 
 blood 
 
 Still farther eastward we pass though the ruined frag- 
 ments of the old Tartar Wall, and at some distance 
 . 1, in the basin of the Donetz. a tributary of the 
 Don, come to Kharkov, the capital of the steppe govern- 
 : name. Kharkov pom- the future 
 
 rather than to the past. Its political, ecclesiastical, and 
 academical life are all strongly philo-Slav. Specimens 
 of each branch of that wi read family of nations 
 
 id the univ founded in the 1 ^ginning of
 
 KHARKOV— THE WESTERN UKRAINE. 73 
 
 the present century. Every wild theory of social and 
 national reconstruction takes rapid root in the im- 
 pulsive Slav temperament, and blossoms into wonderful 
 new forms. Kharkov has about it a certain " o-o- 
 ahead " air. It has handsome streets and buildings, and 
 its institutions are designed on ambitious plans. It may 
 become a great place in the new Russia that is to be, 
 but, like the ideas of its doctrinaires, it is still too 
 chaotic and unformed, too dusty and sultry in summer 
 and grimly cold in winter, to invite a long visit at 
 present. 
 
 To the west of Kiev are the great provinces of 
 Volhynia and Podolia — the Western Ukraine — fertile 
 and flourishing border countries, where the plains begin 
 to roll in higher and higher undulations as we approach 
 the bases of the Carpathians. Geographically, they are 
 part of Little Russia. The principal race inhabiting 
 them, and the soil and climate and the manner of life, 
 are much the same ; in fact, it is thought that here the 
 Slav blood is found freest of foreign admixture. Politi- 
 cally, however, they form part of Western Russia. In 
 history, since they ceased to have a separate existence, 
 their fortunes have generally been united with those of 
 Lithuania and Poland. Their western parts, along with 
 their next neighbour Galicia, formed the country of the 
 "Bed Russians;" but Galicia fell to the share of Austria 
 in the division of the spoils of Poland, and whether it 
 also will gravitate to the great Russian Empire, or 
 reunite in a new Sarmatia, the future will tell. Abor- 
 tive Polish insurrections have taken place in these prov- 
 inces, and there were risings and massacres here in the
 
 74 VOLHYNIA AND PODOLIA. 
 
 troublous years of 1848 and 18G3. The Polish land- 
 owners and educated classes, however, are not in full 
 sympathy in race or religion with the Ruthenian peas- 
 antry, and the Russian and Austrian governments have 
 taken good care not to heal the breach. 
 
 As for Volhynia and Podolia, between them they 
 have an area nearly equal to that of England, and a 
 population approaching four million. They are rich 
 and pleasant countries, Podolia especially being famed 
 for its diversified prospects and its mild climate, which 
 have led an enthusiastic English traveller to style 
 it the " Devonshire of Russia." These provinces raise 
 much grain and cattle; are noted for their horses " of the 
 Ukraine breed," herds of which were till lately, and 
 perhaps are still, roaming the steppes in a wild state ; 
 and they do a large legitimate internal and transport 
 trade — it may be also a little smuggling. 
 
 In the streets of Volhynian and Podolian towns like 
 Jitomir, Vladimir, and Berditchev — the last-named of 
 which has been dubbed the New Jerusalem, from its 
 population of forty thousand Hebrews — the Jewish cos- 
 tume and features are far from unfamiliar. Banished 
 from Great Russia, these children of Israel are exten- 
 sively settled in all the southern and western govern- 
 ments. We will find the Lithuanian provinces farther 
 north even more abundantly blessed with their presence 
 than Little Russia. Wherever men do congregate to do 
 business — and more particularly to barter — there will 
 a certain large proportion be found with well-developed 
 noses, long-skirted and probably greasy and loopholed 
 raiment, and faces that look more cadaverous and woe- 
 begone from their surrounding of dark ringleted locks
 
 THE JEWS AND THEIR DEALINGS. 75 
 
 and peaked beards. Here, as in other parts of the 
 world, the Hebrew people have had a history full of 
 vicissitudes, with experiences of times both of toleration 
 and of expulsion, of favour and of persecution. There 
 are Jews here of many sects and degrees of sanctity — 
 Karaites and Talmudists, Pietists and Zoharists — hating 
 each other with an intense and concentrated fury that 
 exceeds even their abhorrence for their Christian neioh- 
 bours ; and Jews gathered out of many peoples and 
 nations — a sprinkling of the descendants of the Khazars, 
 who are believed to have been converted to Judaism by 
 immigrants from Palestine and Cordova, Galician Jews, 
 Moldavian Jews, Polish Jews, and, lowest type of all, the 
 Hebrew of Northern Hungary, who has been described 
 as combining, in the highest possible concentration, the 
 attributes of filth and greed. A strange, interesting, but, 
 on the whole, not very attractive people are these chil- 
 dren of the stock of Abraham, as we shall see when we 
 are compelled to examine them more minutely in this 
 northern house of bondage ; and the stranger from 
 Western Europe is certain to bear away, as one of his 
 liveliest recollections of these countries, a picture of their 
 cringing manners and not over clean gabardines, of the 
 way in which talon-like hands clutched his skirts in the 
 market-place, and hungry eyes scanned his face for 
 prospects of barter or sale. 
 
 Many other spots of interest might be pointed out in 
 the region of which Kiev is the centre — Kamienetz in 
 Podolia, for instance, in other times the bulwark of 
 Poland, and often fiercely fought for by the Turks, placed 
 on a high peninsulated rock, round which winds the
 
 76 THE COURSE OF EMPIRE. 
 
 river Smotritza on its way to the Dniester ; Kremenetz 
 in Volhynia, the highest point of Russian soil between 
 the Black Sea and the Baltic ; Pereiaslav, in Poltava, 
 an old residence and place of strength of the early grand- 
 princes of Kiev ; and Novgorod-Sieversk, in Tchernigov, 
 the last of the princely appanages to be devoured by the 
 all-absorbing- greed of Moscow or of Poland. For new 
 scenery, manners, and race, however, we must follow the 
 " course of empire," and ascend the Dnieper and Pripet 
 to their sources in Lithuanian Russia.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 POLAND AND LITHUANIA. 
 
 ^HE Dnieper — the Borysthenes of the Greeks — 
 deserves all the fame that it has possessed in 
 ancient and modern times. It is a magnifi- 
 cent stream, with a length of over a thousand 
 miles, a breadth in its middle course varying from a 
 quarter of a mile to a mile and a half, and in the season 
 of the spring floods three and four miles, and a swift 
 and deep current. It is the great geographical feature 
 of South- Western Russia. It has made the fortune of 
 Kiev, and has moulded in a large measure the fate of 
 Lithuania and Poland. Apart from its celebrated 
 " cataracts," which are within the boundaries of South 
 Russia, its middle course is full of difficulties and perils 
 for the navigator. The restless, turbulent current flings 
 itself waywardly from one side to the other of its 
 channel, and increases with each flood the breadth of 
 the valley it has worn through the centre of the plains. 
 The whitish waters hold in solution large quantities of 
 the chalk, sand, and lime which it has ground away in 
 chafing against its banks, or in rushing over the ledges 
 of rock that cross its bed. 
 
 The boatmen and the raftsmen of the Dnieper need
 
 78 THE DNIEPER. 
 
 an experienced eye and a steady hand in descend- 
 ing its rapids to avoid being dashed against the pro- 
 jecting reefs, caught in the powerful eddies, or stranded 
 on the shifting shoals. Enormous quantities of timber 
 are brought down the stream every season for use in 
 the treeless steppe districts to the south, or for ship- 
 ment from Kherson and Odessa. Other raw produce 
 — hides and tallow, wax and honey, hemp and grain — 
 with the manufactures of Western Russia, such as 
 leather and linen goods, spirits and turpentine, are 
 transported by water, which, as in every other part of 
 the Russian Empire, affords the chief means of con- 
 veyance. These materials do not come from the upper 
 regions of the Dnieper alone. Through the Desna it has 
 canal communication with the country of the Oka and 
 the Volga, and in other directions it is united with the 
 Baltic rivers, the Dwina, the Niemen, and the Vistula. 
 The difficulty in its lower course is the impetuous 
 current that has to be contended against ; but from its 
 upper waters you can penetrate to the innermost recesses 
 of the empire, or to any of the seas that border Russia. 
 A little way above Kiev the nature of the river 
 changes. There it is no longer one ^reat main stream, 
 reinforced only by shallow rivulets from the thirsty 
 steppes, but large tributaries extend like the fingers of 
 a hand, or like the branches of a tree from the trunk. 
 The name of the Dnieper is given to the central chan- 
 nel, which leads us on to Moghilev and Smolensk ; but 
 the Pripet and the Desna, its western and its eastern 
 branches, have almost equal claim to the title, from 
 the length of their courses and their volume. Other 
 changes are manifest. The banks become lower and
 
 THE KINGDOM OF POLAND. 79 
 
 less diversified by cliff and shelf. The woods become 
 more frequent and dense. The gloomy drapery of the 
 coniferous trees is again a feature in the landscape. 
 Morasses spread for miles and miles back from the 
 banks of the streams, and in periods of inundation are 
 converted into vast shallow lakes. The climate has 
 grown more rigorous and more moist. The frost bites 
 deeper and the snow lies thicker in winter, and there 
 are no such blossoming expanses of orchard lands to be 
 seen in the summer as in the kindly Ukraine. We 
 have unquestionably returned to the swamps and the 
 forests of the north. This time, in changing the climate 
 and the soil, we come also among a new race, with a 
 history and traditions separate in many respects from 
 those of the people whom we have hitherto been visiting. 
 
 The part of the Czar's dominions on which we are 
 now entering is that which generally comes first under 
 the notice of the traveller in Russia. His approach is 
 made, as a rule, not through Novgorod, or by way of 
 the Black Sea and the Dnieper, but by one of the great 
 lines of railway in connection with the main routes across 
 the continent of Europe which enter Russia from the 
 west, and are prolonged to St. Petersburg or Moscow. 
 Before reaching the Russian people, he must pass 
 through a country which, while it is within the political 
 boundaries of the empire, is intensely anti-Russian in its 
 sympathies, — through the Kingdom of Poland. In the 
 eyes of patriotic Poles, however, Poland begins before 
 the frontier of the " Kingdom" is touched, and it extends 
 far beyond the limits that have been laid down as mark- 
 ing the border of the Russian provinces. 
 
 The Kingdom of Poland, since the last insurrection, has
 
 80 POLAND OF THE POLES, 
 
 itself become little more than a " geographical expression;" 
 it is under direct control of the Government at St. Peters- 
 burg, and retains few of the privileges that were accorded 
 to it when it was formed into a separate sovereignty 
 and handed over by the Great Powers to the Czar by the 
 Treaty of Vienna. Poland, in the official sense, consists 
 of ten small provinces, with an area about equal to that 
 of England, and a population of rather more than six 
 millions. But the Poland that the Poles recognize is 
 the extensive country which existed previous to the 
 partitions — a region much more extensive than France, 
 and now estimated to contain nearly thirty million 
 people. Before that series of acts of international bri- 
 gandage, by which it was broken up and appropriated 
 piecemeal by its neighbours, Poland included, in addition 
 to the " Kingdom," the province of Posen and part of West 
 Prussia, now in possession of the Emperor of Germany ; 
 Cracow and Galicia, which have fallen to the lot of 
 Austria ; and a broad and long stretch of territory, 
 embracing the ancient Lithuanian provinces Volhynia, 
 Podolia, and part of Kiev, which have long ago come to 
 be regarded by foreigners as an integral part of the 
 dominions of the Czar. Danzig in 1772, the date of 
 the first partition, was a sea-port of Poland on the 
 Baltic ; Kamienetz was its border stronghold towards 
 Turkey ; and its frontier extended to the north and east 
 almost to the walls of Riga, Smolensk, and Kiev. 
 
 At a still earlier period, the Polish possessions were 
 yet more extensive. At different times they embraced 
 Bessarabia, Moldavia, Moravia, Silesia, and Livonia. 
 The Ukraine, as has been mentioned, was for centuries 
 part of Poland, whose rule was established over the
 
 THE RIVALRY OF POLAND AND MUSCOVY. 81 
 
 whole of the region where the early Norman-Russ 
 princes had borne sway, and approached within one hun- 
 dred miles of Moscow itself. In the great square of 
 Warsaw, where the citizens were " massacred " by the 
 Russian garrison during the excited times of the last 
 insurrection, there is a monument erected to the memory 
 of King Sigismund III. by his son and successor Ladis- 
 las, which records how Moscow was conquered in 1 G 1 1 
 by the said Sigismund ; a fact which reminds us, as Mr. 
 Sutherland Edwards remarks in his " Polish Captivity," 
 that the metropolitan Philarete, father of the first of 
 the Romanoff line of Czars, was carried off a prisoner 
 to Poland, and confined there . for nine years, for refusing 
 to crown this same Ladislas as sovereign of Muscovy. 
 The monument also tells that the conquering Sigismund 
 had " recaptured " Smolensk from the Russians ; but it 
 had not been standing ten years when the " key of 
 Moscow" had been "recaptured" again by the Russians, 
 and this time kept. 
 
 Before the time of Sigismund and Ladislas, who 
 were Swedish princes, the power of Poland had be- 
 gun to disintegrate. The old dynasty of Jagellon, in 
 which the crown was hereditary, had ended, and the 
 turbulent and greedy landowning class were rapidly ab- 
 sorbing to themselves all real authority in the state. 
 The capital had been removed from Cracow, the 
 "cradle and last resting-place of Polish independ- 
 ence," to Warsaw, where the court and the great nobles 
 spent their time in dissipation and intrigue, and 
 occasionally in bloody quarrels. The wars against Russia 
 and her other neighbours brought Poland no good, in 
 spite of the unfailing dash and bravery of her mounted 
 
 (718) 6
 
 82 ANARCHY AND CORRUPTION. 
 
 soldicrv and the skill of her military commanders. Yet, 
 less than one hundred years before the first partition of 
 Poland, by the Empresses Catherine and Maria Theresa 
 and Frederick the Great of Prussia, a Polish army. 
 under John Sobieski, saved Europe when the Turks laid 
 siege to Vienna. 
 
 Sobieski, however, great warrior and statesman 
 though he was, made a terrible breach in the defences 
 of his country when he bartered Kiev to the Russians. 
 On his death, anarchy crept more rapidly into the 
 constitution of Poland. The " noble " class, to which 
 belonged all holding land, grasped after new powers 
 and privileges on the elevation of every new monarch, 
 and the ruler became a mere puppet in the hands 
 of a factious oligarchy. The great bulk of the people, 
 meanwhile, had no share in Polish rights or liberties, 
 but were in a miserably poor, degraded, and enslaved 
 condition. The choice of a King of Poland became 
 the great public scandal and danger of Europe. The 
 supporters of rival candidates assembled in Warsaw 
 resembled more in attitude and number hostile armies, 
 than electors met to perform a patriotic duty. Each 
 powerful magnate of the land — the heads of the houses 
 of Czartoryski, Zamoyski, Radziwill, Potocki, Sapeha, 
 Wielopolski, and the rest — could bring thousands of 
 votes and of spears in support of the side he favoured. 
 At the same time, the absurd law of the Lib&rum Veto, 
 by which each member of the Diet had the right to 
 annul the whole proceedings by his individual vote, 
 opened a wide door for corruption and cabal, and made 
 it almost impossible to come to a decision. Poland, in 
 fact, was " vetoed " to death. Her own children busied
 
 THE DISMEMBERMENT OF POLAND. 83 
 
 themselves in hastening her disintegration. Every 
 neighbour had a fino-er or a hand in the series of broils 
 and plots which the Poles called their national affairs. 
 Repeatedly the squabbles of the Diet ended in a civil 
 war. which spread into a general European war. 
 
 The last King of Poland, Stanislas Augustus Ponia- 
 towski, was a mere nominee of Russia, Russian troops 
 garrisoned the country, and Russian hands guided the 
 administration. It must be confessed that little sorrow 
 was expressed, even in freedom-loving England, when the 
 three Partitioning Powers proceeded to " concentrate" 
 Poland, by each cutting away a large slice of territory, 
 Russia, of course, appropriating the lion's share. The 
 Poles were at length roused to a sense of the absolute 
 necessity of a united national feeling, if their country was 
 to be saved from utter ruin. The Diet, in 1791, decreed 
 a new and liberal constitution, by which, among other 
 things, the emancipation of the serfs was provided for. 
 This gave the signal for the second partition, a private 
 burglarious arrangement between Russia and Prussia ; 
 and then followed the heroic struggle led by Kosciusko 
 to cast out the invaders, ending in the entry of Suvaroff 
 into Warsaw, over the blood-stained ashes of Prague, 
 and the complete dismemberment of 1795. 
 
 Hope rose high again in Polish bosoms when Buona- 
 parte began to humble their enemies, the Partitioning 
 Powers. No soldiers fought more bravely, or clung 
 more devotedly to the cause of the great Emperor, than 
 his Polish legions. They shared in his ruin ; and since 
 the "grand-duchy of Warsaw" was handed over to the 
 personal rule of the Czars, under the name of the King- 
 dom of Poland, as a separate monarchy, limited by con-
 
 84 BURIED, BUT NOT DEAD. 
 
 <-t 'national rights, only evil fortune lias befallen the 
 cause of the Poles. The desperate rising of 1830-31 
 was punished by the slaughter that attended Paskie- 
 vitch's capture of Warsaw ; by executions, confiscations, 
 wholesale conscription, and the transportation of thou- 
 sands of families to Siberia ; by the cancelling of con- 
 stitutional liberties and privileges, and the proscribing of 
 peculiar Polish costumes and customs, and by the sup- 
 jion of the Warsaw University and the removal of its 
 library to St. Petersburg. The savage guerilla struggle 
 of 1848 resulted in the taking away of almost the last 
 vestiges of Poland's rights. 
 
 Rash should he be, however, who would assume 
 that we have heard the last of the Polish question. 
 The nation lies bound and crushed under the weight 
 of its powerful enemies, but the national spirit is 
 not dead. On the contrary, the Polish people under 
 adversity have developed qualities that were not 
 visible in their days of prosperity. A common hate 
 and a common grief have had power, for a time at 
 least, to weld all classes and factions into patriots, 
 though it has generally happened that with the first 
 smile of good fortune on the national cause old dissen- 
 sions have broken out. Never were the bravery of 
 Polish soldiers and the devotion of Polish women more 
 splendidly shown than in those ruinous struggles to 
 regain independence. The period of Poland's degrada- 
 tion has likewise been her most brilliant literary era. 
 Well may the conspirators who have compassed her fall 
 wonder whether it is a ghost or a living nation that 
 rises persistently from the grave in which they thought 
 their victim securely laid. It would be hard to pro 

 
 THE CAPITAL OF POLAND. 85 
 
 phesy what may bo the future fate cf a race that has 
 shown so indestructible a love of independence, and 
 such elasticity of spirit under misfortune. 
 
 Meanwhile, for Russia's sins and her own, Poland is 
 an integral part of the Russian Empire, and the patriotic 
 instincts of Warsaw are held sternly in check by a large 
 Russian garrison. In the castle, to which Sigismund III. 
 transferred the royal residence from Cracow, Russian 
 authority has established its head-quarters. From the 
 citadel, built by Czar Nicolas, the length and breadth 
 of the Polish capital can be surveyed, and the Russian 
 guns could batter the city to ruins were the townsmen 
 again to rise against the Muscovite. It is the hand of 
 Russia on the throat of Poland ; and not for an instant 
 can the ruling power afford to slacken the grasp. 
 
 The left bank of the Vistula, on which Warsaw is 
 chiefly built, is high, and the city, with its stately lines 
 of streets, wide squares, and spacious gardens, is pic- 
 turesquely disposed along the brow of the cliff and on 
 the plain above. Across the broad sandy bed of the 
 stream, here " shallow, ever changing, and divided as 
 Poland itself," is the suburb of Prao-a or Prague, which 
 has never recovered from Suvaroff's savage handling in 
 1795, and where lines of houses are thinly scattered amid 
 wide spaces of waste ground. The Vistula, which is to 
 Warsaw and Poland what the Dnieper is to Kiev and 
 Little Russia, is crossed by the railway and old wooden 
 bridges; and lying against the banks are lines of timber 
 boats and rafts laden with grain, which the hardy raftsmen 
 navigate, by means of long poles, from the sources of the 
 river in the Carpathians to its mouth at Danzig, arriv- 
 ing at their destination " lean, long, and brown," having
 
 86 THE MONUMENTS OF WARSAW. 
 
 often, it is said, eaten almost nothing on their river 
 voyage. The castle also commands a view of the Sigis- 
 mund Place, where, on the 8th April 1831, the conqueror 
 of Moscow and Smolensk looked on from his marble 
 pedestal while Russian steel and lead cleared the square 
 of Warsovian citizens. The Czar Nicolas's jealous fears 
 caused the removal of Thorwaldsen's group in bronze 
 commemorating the brilliant career of Poniatowski ; but 
 the statues of Copernicus and John Sobieski still keep 
 alive memories of which Poland is proud. Other public 
 monuments in Warsaw, such as that in the Saxon 
 Square in honour of the Polish generals who remained 
 faithful to the Czar at the time of the great insurrection 
 of half a century ago, are, it is needless to say, the work 
 of Poland's masters, and on these patriots look as the 
 visible tokens of national degradation. 
 
 Many are the palaces, patrician mansions, churches, 
 and public buildings of Warsaw ; but on the whole there 
 is little that is distinctly Polish, such, for instance, as 
 one finds at the old capital, Cracow, now part of Aus- 
 trian territory. Still less is there to remind one of 
 Russia, except in the badly -paved condition of the 
 streets, and the way in which magnificence and squalor 
 are jumbled together. The architecture is showy, often 
 meretricious ; but the taste displayed is Western, and 
 founded mainly on French canons. The Zamek, the 
 palace of the old sovereigns, contains many art treasures, 
 and is redolent in the associations of the time when 
 Poland was a powerful state. Connected with it is the 
 great hall where the members of the Diet sat, and 
 squabbled and " vetoed " away their country's liberty. 
 Other palaces are reserved for the transaction of the
 
 COUNTRY HOSPITALITY AND COUNTRY INNS. 87 
 
 business of the government ; and few cities are so 
 highly favoured with public parks, drives, promenades, 
 and gardens. Most notable of these latter are those of 
 the Belvidere Palace, whence the Grand Duke Constan- 
 tine fled when all Poland rose against his harsh rule, 
 and where Prince Gortchakoff died while the country 
 was in the throes of a new rebellion. 
 
 Many of the country residences around Warsaw, 
 especially at Ujazdov, and at other spots along the course 
 of the Vistula, vie in internal magnificence, and in the 
 rich park and forest scenery that surrounds them, with 
 the environs of the proudest capitals in Europe ; and 
 the high culture, fascinating grace of manner, and warm- 
 hearted hospitality of the old Polish families who in- 
 habit these stately piles, are proverbial. 
 
 Warsaw itself, in spite of all its misfortunes and 
 humiliations, ranks as the third city, in point of popula- 
 tion, in the empire. It has excellent hotels, a brilliant 
 society, and numerous devices for killing the time j)leas- 
 antly. It is his own fault if the visitor finds his stay 
 here profitless and wearisome. Away from Warsaw, 
 however, and the country houses of the proprietor class, 
 Poland has few attractions to show. The accommoda- 
 tion for travellers at the small country inns, generally 
 kept by Jews, is execrable. The condition of the roads 
 is so notoriously bad that there is a German proverb 
 that runs, that there are " five elements" in Poland — 
 earth, air, fire, water, and slush. The scenery has so 
 much of flatness and sameness, that one sympathizes a 
 little with the French soldier who exclaimed, on seeing 
 that Poland of which he had heard the "exiles" raving 
 so ecstatically, "And these beggars call this a country !"
 
 88 SCENERY AND MANNERS. 
 
 The ground is not so heavily timbered as is the case 
 farther to the east and north, and the population is 
 more dense. But large spaces are covered with forest, 
 and the cultivated land often consists of clearings made 
 in the heart of the woods, generally near a little lake or 
 a stream. Then there are wide stretches of sand and 
 heath, where the country seems an interminable dead 
 level, though the whole land has a gentle slope towards 
 the north. Interspersed among these barren or wooded 
 tracts are areas containing some of the finest corn-bear- 
 ing soil in Europe, whence, since time immemorial, vast 
 quantities of grain have been sent for shipment to the 
 ports on the Baltic. 
 
 Polish agriculture, however, can hardly be described 
 as in a thriving condition, judged, at least, by the ap- 
 pearance of the peasantry. Picturesque enough they 
 look in their holiday costume, of which a long, braided 
 military tunic, with sash, high boots, and jaunty hat 
 with feather or tassel, frequently form part ; and their 
 bearing has a dignity and grace which their German 
 neighbours can never hope to acquire. Their everyday 
 dress, however, is often ragged and meagre enough, and, 
 like their miserable dwellings, speaks only too truly 
 of poverty and wretchedness. Still more sad is the tale 
 told by their cringing manners before superiors, when 
 they grovel on the ground and kiss the hem of their 
 lords' garments. The Polish peasant is charged with 
 being lazy and thriftless. He is said to be much too 
 fond of the potato brandy which is extensively made in 
 the country. He is as fond of flocking on pilgrimages 
 to holy shrines as his brother of Russia — with the dif- 
 ference that his petitions are addressed to the saints of
 
 THE FRONTIERS OF LITHUANIA. 89 
 
 the Roman Catholic calendar, instead of the canonized 
 of the Orthodox Church ; and there are many other 
 points of resemblance between the two peoples in char- 
 acter and habits. But the political union that has for 
 a hundred years existed has done anything but foster 
 good feeling between these two allied races. While we 
 linerer in Poland, we are on soil that is more than ever 
 it was alien to Russia. 
 
 At Warsaw is the parting of two main routes — one 
 running north-eastward to St. Petersburg ; the other 
 more to the southward, for the old capital of Ivan the 
 Terrible on the Moskva. Or we may choose another 
 road, which will carry us south-eastward to the venerable 
 precincts of Kiev, which we have lately left. By which- 
 ever route we proceed, the frontiers of Lithuania — a name 
 that once represented a great fact, but is now hardly 
 even a "geographical term " — are reached at a distance of 
 some one hundred versts from Warsaw. And then new 
 changes come to view. We are plainly a stage nearer Asia. 
 Poland was a civilized power, with a brilliant and cultured 
 court, when Lithuania, its dependency, was a semi-barbar- 
 ous state, with a population barely reclaimed from pagan- 
 ism, and when Muscovy was still crouching abjectly at the 
 feet of the Tartars. A certain brightness and lightness 
 which seem to form part of the Polish landscape, in spite 
 of its monotonous lines, gradually fade from the scene. 
 Something more harsh, neglected, and savage takes their 
 place. A corresponding eclipse is observable in the faces 
 of the people. The fiery vivacity of the " French of the 
 East " slowly obscures into Lithuanic stolidity. It is a 
 race, one can see, in whose history misfortunes have been
 
 gc AND ■ ela>:: . USSIA. 
 
 laroneiy mingled up; who have so long had to bend their 
 
 - under a h- I s that they 
 
 scare _.iten themselves up and believe that they 
 
 are men. 
 
 By the route that leads to St. Petersburg and to the 
 pushing, ambitious Russia of to-day. we cross parts of 
 the governments of Yilna, Kovno. and Vitebsk ; by that 
 which proceed ( Mas and the soul of the old con- 
 
 servative Russia that is \ assing away, Grodno. Minsk. 
 and Mosrhilev are ti: - The-- six governments 
 
 compose what is _ aerally known as Western Russia, 
 though Volhynia and Po<iolia are for departmental pur- 
 
 - 3 included. Their area extends to one hundred and 
 eighteen thousand square miles — larger than the kingdom 
 of Italy — and they have a population of six and a quar- 
 ter millioi first three are on the northern 
 I the w; - -s ".. and are drained by the Piemen 
 and Dwina ; the three latter are, for the most part, on the 
 upper streams of the Dnieper and its tributary the Pripet. 
 All were comprehended within the ancient limits of Lith- 
 uania, which in the time oi _ a&est extension also in- 
 cluded, in addition to Poland. Little Pvussia and large parts 
 da, of the Baltic Provinces, and of Austria. 
 . d districts, chiefly peopled by Slavs, are known 
 as "Whit ia;" and the western, Grodno, Minsk, 
 and A ilna, where Lithuanians mo.-t abound, as " Black 
 I ia." Mingle these two peasant races together, in 
 greater or less proportion, with an overflow of Poles on 
 that frontier, sprinkle thickly throughout with Jews, and 
 place on the top a Polish or Polanized landlord class — 
 gen rally non-resident, and seldom in sympathy either in 
 religion or race with their dependants — place them in a
 
 A BORDER LAND OF CREEDS AND RACES. 91 
 
 flat and uninteresting country, where fertile lands arc 
 mixed up with vast tracts of swamp and forest, unre- 
 claimed heath and sandy barren, and you will have an 
 idea of the population and condition of Lithuania of 
 to-day. 
 
 It is a border land of races and creeds which has 
 unfortunately no natural border. During one short 
 period of its political history, when its two neighbours, 
 Poland and Russia, were weakened, it suddenly grew 
 into the leading power in Eastern Europe, and threat- 
 ened to absorb them. But it ended in being crushed 
 between them, and was then leisurely swallowed by 
 Russia. It was the last great stronghold of pagan 
 worship in Europe, and here Western Catholicism and 
 Eastern Orthodoxy had a long, noisy, and bloody settle- 
 ment with each other, before heathenism was extirpated, 
 and the landmarks of the two Christian religions laid 
 down. In the end Russian influence triumphed in the 
 religious as in the political struggle ; and the Greek 
 Uniate body, which represented the temporary compro- 
 mise between the two Churches, has lately been dragged 
 in a very summary way into the Orthodox fold. Pro- 
 testantism, however, has here gained a footing which it 
 possesses in few other parts of the Russian Empire, and its 
 adherents are chiefly to be found in " Black Russia." 
 
 Poles and Muscovites, Turks and Tartars, Germans, 
 Swedes, and French have marched across this land, and 
 chosen it as a field on which to settle their quarrels ; 
 and whichever side won, the unfortunate inhabitants 
 were certain to be losers. Glimpses will be got of the 
 >2hief episodes in these intricate and prolonged struggles 
 is we pass along, but there is first something to be said 

 
 92 MILDEWED PROSPECTS. 
 
 of the general aspect of the country and mode of life 
 of the various peoples that occupy Western Russia. 
 
 There have been improvements of late years, and 
 especially since the abolition of serfage ; but the main 
 impression still gathered from a run across Lithuania is 
 that of a land where man has, as yet, made but feeble 
 efforts to tame the savageness of nature, and where even 
 the works of his own hands show signs of dilapidation 
 and decay. In the south of the country there is perhaps 
 more marshy land than forest, and in the north more 
 forest than morass ; towards the eastern side the little 
 townships scattered over the waste of heath and wood 
 seem to be sprinkled rather more thickly, and some im- 
 provement in the direction of tidiness and cleanliness 
 may be detected in the dress and habitations of the 
 people. 
 
 But such changes as these are proceed gradually, 
 and do not alter the sense of oppressive dulness. The 
 improvements only show how much has still to be done 
 before a decent standard of prosperity and comfort 
 is attained. The traveller draws back his head from 
 the carriage window long before the lights have faded 
 from the bare downs or the sombre shadows have 
 darkened under the pine-woods. He gets tired of 
 catching peeps of squalid groups in the dirty, crooked 
 streets of the little towns ; of long-coated peasants 
 trudging homeward by the side of their waggons ; of 
 fantastic little village spires breaking the horizon ; of a 
 stream winding its slow way seaward, or a canal with 
 a barge laden with rye or timber, bound on a similar 
 journey ; of rickety, unpicturesque bridges and roads 
 in all stages of disrepair ; in short, of a general air of 

 
 THE PAN AND THE MOUJIK. 93 
 
 blight and impoverishment-; and he wraps himself up 
 as comfortably as possible in his corner, and fervently 
 wishes that Lithuania were well behind him and Moscow 
 at hand. 
 
 Several causes might be assigned for this mildewed 
 look, which perhaps, after all, is only made specially 
 visible here from the close neighbourhood of this region 
 to the active, bustling life of Western Europe. There 
 has never, for one thing, been much sympathy between 
 the tillers of the soil and their lords and masters. Be- 
 tween the pans and the serfs there has always been a 
 great gulf fixed ; and nowhere has the yoke of servi- 
 tude pressed with more unmitigated weight upon the 
 neck of the moujik than in Lithuania. Elsewhere in 
 Russia there were close bands of religion and race unit- 
 ing the two classes. Here the landowners for centuries 
 professed a creed that the body of their people exe- 
 crated as heresy ; if they were not actually of alien race, 
 they were in language, feeling, and civilization Polish. 
 The boyards in the Volga and Oka countries differed 
 from their bondsmen mainly in social rank. Till a com- 
 paratively recent date there was little in their education, 
 their tastes, or even the surroundings of their life to 
 distinguish them from the peasantry around them. Mr. 
 Mackenzie Wallace, in his lively sketch of the " small 
 laird," such as still exists in the more out-of-the-way 
 corners of Russia, exhibits him as but little exalted in his 
 views of life or refinement of manners above his humblest 
 neighbours — that he is a Russian of the Russians : 
 bigoted in his orthodoxy, superstitious, intensely con- 
 servative of old prejudices and customs ; with many traits 
 of medieval rudeness and coarseness lingering about his
 
 94 THE WOLVES AND THE SWINE. 
 
 person and his mansion, and with his vision bounded by 
 the narrow interests of his family and his district. 
 
 But the Lithuanian nobles since the days of the 
 .la"vllons and to a great extent still, have been the 
 representatives of another culture. Their lives were 
 mostly spent amid the diversions of Warsaw, or Cracow, 
 or Vilna, where a close imitation was attempted of the 
 brilliancy and gaiety of the French court, where art 
 and literature were cultivated, and where life sped on 
 in a round of pleasure and intrigue, of which their un- 
 lucky serfs could have as little conception as participa- 
 tion. They held themselves not only as immeasurably 
 superior in social station, but scarcely even of the same 
 flesh and blood. There was little in the scenery or 
 society of their vast domains to tempt them down to 
 them. Each magnate had his dreary residence scores of 
 miles distant from that of his next neighbour of rank. 
 Sport in the forests, or the collection of the rents and 
 dues gathered with unsparing hand by his Hebrew 
 stewards, was often the only errand that brought the 
 noble down to his lands. They were not much loved 
 by their people, these Polanized noblemen, and they 
 scarcely deserved to be. The state of rich and poor 
 was very much what an American writer has some- 
 what unjustly described as that of existing Russian 
 society — a company of " wolves and swine." There 
 were risings of the peasantry in districts where their 
 tyrants were more than ordinarily cruel and rapacious, 
 but they were generally of an isolated and local char- 
 acter. There were race and religious divisions among 
 the people themselves, and their spirits were cowed by 
 long familiarity with oppression. The irksome and
 
 JEWS AND GENTILES. 95 
 
 heavy burden of Polish supremacy,, however, had an im- 
 portant effect in disposing the inhabitants to accept with 
 resignation the transfer of their country to the rule of 
 the Czar of Muscovy as the close of the long struggle 
 between that state and Poland. 
 
 But besides his Sarmatian master, another figure has 
 sat on the shoulders of the heavy-laden peasant of 
 Lithuania and White Russia, and clung to his neck with 
 the tenacity of an Old Man of the Sea. This is the 
 Jew. We found him a familiar feature of the towns of 
 Volhynia and Podolia ; and here he is in even greater 
 force. The scent grows steadily stronger as we ap- 
 proach the frontiers of Poland proper. The race has 
 been proverbially a down-trodden, persecuted, and 
 abused one for some two thousand years. Here for 
 some centuries the Jews had enjoyed comparative fav- 
 our, or at least immunity from oppression. One wishes 
 to trace some pleasant fruits of their prosperity in their 
 condition and influence. But it must be admitted that 
 even the most impartial and most well-disposed of tra- 
 vellers have been able to furnish only meagre materials 
 for so attractive a picture. 
 
 The Jew is not loved by the Gentiles among 
 whom he dwells without mingling ; and in some re- 
 spects he is even more offensive to the moral and 
 physical senses of outsiders. He is keen-witted, frugal, 
 patient, long-suffering, persevering, capable of intense 
 application and mental study ; an unrivalled hand at a 
 bargain ; learned often, after his way, in the law and its 
 " interpretation," and in many cases scrupulously guiding 
 his conduct by these lights. To his own people he is 
 generally charitable and even open-handed. He is
 
 96 FAITH AND MANNERS. 
 
 tenaciously attached to his faith, deeply reverent to- 
 wards his spiritual superiors, and cherishes a touching 
 affection for the distant land of his fathers, in which, if 
 possible, he contrives to have his hones laid. But his 
 charity seldom goes beyond the bounds of his race, or 
 rather of his sect. 
 
 The physique of the typical Israelite bears an un- 
 mistakable impress of his mode of life. He is meagre 
 and undersized of frame, with a weak chest, stooping 
 shoulders, and eager, shambling gait. He lives in stuffy, 
 unwholesome dens, cooped up with unknown swarms 
 of his relations and dependants in filthy, undrained lanes 
 and streets. The occupation of his tribe for centuries has 
 allowed no free play for the muscles or exercise of the 
 lungs. Unwholesome air, innutritious and insufficient 
 food, late vigils, and an unslaked thirst for gain, have 
 pinched and paled his features. Their dress con- 
 sists of a linen shirt and drawers, covered by a long 
 black robe dangling loosely about their legs, and fastened 
 in front by silver clasps, and on the head they wear 
 a fur cap or round broad-brimmed hat. The Jew 
 rarely learns a handicraft ; he is hardly ever known to 
 devote himself to agriculture. Attempts have been made 
 to found Jewish agricultural colonies in remote parts of 
 the Russian dominions, but they have been miserable 
 failures. The race are true dwellers in the towns, and 
 have neither calling nor pleasure in the country. Some 
 occupations are almost set apart for them — such as those 
 of butchers and innkeepers : but they are mostly such 
 as exercise the wits rather than the hands. They are 
 the stewards, the factors, and the factotums of the 
 nobility; the store and provision dealers, the post-hirers,
 
 THE "JEW'S PARADISE." 97 
 
 the ferry contractors, the distillers, the money-changers, 
 and, of course, the money-lenders of the community. 
 Ukases have been issued to prevent the wholesale im- 
 portation by them of the old clothes of "Western Europe. 
 They have a finger or a whole hand in every trade and 
 in most men's business. 
 
 When they first began to gain footing in this quarter 
 has not been accurately traced. They came from all 
 points of the compass, but chiefly, perhaps, from Ger- 
 many, during the times of persecution. The rulers of 
 Lithuania and Poland needed money for war and plea- 
 sure, and were not scrupulous as to the sources from 
 which they obtained aid. The Jews, while opening 
 their purse-strings, were able to make conditions on be- 
 half of their co-religionists. New privileges were granted 
 to them in the time of Casimir the Great of Poland, 
 whose favourite, a beautiful Jewess named Esther, exerted 
 herself, like her namesake of old, to obtain favour for 
 the chosen people ; and Poland and Lithuania became 
 the " Jew's Paradise." The race, it is said, is increasing 
 rapidly, in spite of its weakness physically, through the 
 early marriages which are contracted — the youths often 
 marrying when they are fifteen or sixteen years of age, 
 and girls still earlier. The total Jewish population of 
 the Russian Empire is now estimated at not far short of 
 three million, and is chiefly collected in these western 
 governments. They toil not, neither do they spin; th< y 
 add little directly to the producing power of the country: 
 but they exercise a great and secret influence in society 
 and in the state, and — if you take the word of a cer- 
 tain school of Russian politicians — an influence at 
 as much for evil as for good. 
 
 (718) 7
 
 98 ANTI- JEWISH RIOTS. 
 
 All this, of course, does not excuse the brutal and 
 cowardly persecution to which the Jews have recently 
 been exposed in these eastern countries. The anti- 
 Jewish riots which broke out at Kiev, Odessa, Elisabet- 
 errad, and other towns in the south-west, afterwai-ds 
 spreading to the Polish provinces, must to all right- 
 thinking minds appear as a disgrace to modern civiliza 
 tion. Men, women, and children were murdered ; the 
 houses in the Jewish quarters plundered and burned, and 
 the inmates turned homeless into the streets ; and the 
 worst scenes of the mob ferocity and intolerance of the 
 middle ages re-enacted at the end of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. There are not wanting ugly proofs that these 
 atrocities were deliberately planned, and that the anti- 
 Jewish feeling had no higher root than vulgar envy and 
 greed. A heavy share of the discredit of these scenes 
 falls on the Russian authorities, who, if they did not 
 actually encourage, took little pains to prevent, to sup- 
 press, or to punish these displays of Christian resentment. 
 
 The peasantry of Western Russia are mostly of that 
 shade of the dominant race of the empire known as 
 " White Russians." Outward appearances and popular 
 opinion do not assign them a high place among the 
 Slav peoples. They are, as a rule, smaller of stature, 
 ruder, and more ignorant than the average Russians. 
 The national faults are slightly exaggerated and the 
 national virtues slightly obscured among them. They 
 bear signs of generations of oppression by foreign masters 
 in their character, as well as in their physique and their 
 industrial and social state. Superlative cleanliness, 
 truthfulness, and temperance have never been among the 
 strong points of the Russian ; and the White Russian
 
 THE "WHITE RUSSIAN." 99 
 
 assuredly is not a shining example of any of these 
 virtues. 
 
 But there is much to excuse him. It is not 
 fair to try him by our standards. In judging of his 
 honesty of word and deed, it must be remembered how 
 short a time it is since he escaped from thraldom, how 
 much he is brought into association with low stand- 
 ards of commercial morals, and that there are already 
 signs of improvement. It may be that his indulgence 
 in strong drink is only regulated by his opportunities ; 
 and it is true that the quantities of spirits manufac- 
 tured, after making allowance for what is exported, 
 seem to provide the population with more liquor than 
 is good for them. But we ought to bear in mind how 
 monotonous is the daily routine of his life, how cheer- 
 less and comfortless his surroundings, and how few are 
 his opportunities of partaking of more healthy and in- 
 tellectual amusements, were his taste so far educated as 
 to enjoy them. 
 
 Side by side with the White Russian is an individual 
 to whom the fates have, if possible, been still more un- 
 kind. This is the Lithuanian, whose characteristic figure 
 and language are gradually, it is to be feared, becoming 
 more rare in Lithuania. At present the race count, it is 
 believed, some one million of souls in the division of Western 
 Russia, including in this number the Lett branch of the 
 family. Over half a million more— for the most part 
 Letts — are found in Livonia and other parts of the Baltic 
 provinces. The district of Augustowo, in the Kingdom 
 of Poland, and Gumbinnen, in East Prussia, are also 
 Lithuanian ; indeed, the aboriginal inhabitants of the 
 Prussian provinces bordering on the Baltic were of this
 
 100 THE LITHUANIANS. 
 
 stock, and their language has only in recent times become 
 extinct. The Lithuanians are, as a rule, tall men, of 
 rather clumsy build, blue-eyed, and fair and even flaxen 
 haired, with prominent and well-formed features, and a 
 stolid expression. The women among them possess not 
 seldom the gift of beauty, of a robust and blooming type. 
 Like their Slav cousins, they are tillers of the soil; their 
 characters and habits have been moulded in the same 
 hard school of toil and endurance. Less quick and 
 impulsive in temperament than the Russians, they are 
 credited with being even more inert and lazy at work. In 
 their capacity for hard drinking, they will not yield the 
 palm to any Slav. Many are Protestant ; some belong 
 to the Catholic faith ; the bulk of them are Orthodox. 
 But if you could take one of these big, slow-moving, 
 slow-thinking Lithuanian peasants, and analyze his reli- 
 gious beliefs and ideas, you would probably be surprised 
 to find how large is the alloy of ancient heathenism mixed 
 up with his Christianity. It is not perhaps that he is 
 more ignorant and superstitious than his Russ neigh- 
 bour. Both have in a nearly equal degree a belief in 
 signs and marvels, in dreams and omens, in magic and 
 witchcraft, in sheeted spectre and grim were-wolf. Both 
 are apt to make a " fetish " of the observances of their 
 faith, which are often relics of traditional pagan practices. 
 But to the Lithuanian the old gods are more near and 
 more real than to almost any other European people. 
 Perkun, the thunder god, the equivalent of Perun of 
 the Slavs, still exacts a secret homage ; the sacred groves 
 of their ancestors, if they are no longer objects of wor- 
 ship, are feared and shunned as spots where demoniacal 
 influences are potent ; their popular sagas, tales, and
 
 THE LAST STRONGHOLD OF PAGANISM. 101 
 
 riddles not only relate the great exploits of their national 
 heroes, but the wonderful deeds of the gods and goddesses 
 of their mythology, who are no less real to them than 
 the historical personages. 
 
 The Lithuanians were pagans for three or four cen- 
 turies after the peoples about them had been converted 
 to Christianity by apostles from the Greek or the Latin 
 Church ; and the most glorious period of their history 
 was that in which they started suddenly into power, 
 in resistance to the proselytizing efforts of the soldiers 
 of the Cross. Little is known of them till the eleventh 
 century, when we find them a rude and poor people, 
 paying tribute of birch bark and brooms, the only prod- 
 uce their woods and marshes afforded, to the Russian 
 princes of Polotsk, Smolensk, or Galitch. That they 
 were the Ostrogoths that followed Odoacer into Italy, 
 and brought back to their own wild lands some of those 
 soft musical tones that distinguish their tongue from 
 that of their kin, it would be rash to say. But it 
 seems certain that they belong to the Slavonic branch of 
 the great Aryan family tree, but several degrees farther 
 removed from the Russians than even the Poles and 
 Bohemians ; and it is said that their language has a 
 closer resemblance to the Sanscrit mother-tongue than 
 any other in Europe. 
 
 Lett, Lithuanian, Pruss, and Yatshwing, they dwelt 
 in the depths of their forests, under the rule of 
 their high priest or krive, who had below him lower 
 orders of priests and female votaries, worshipping the 
 sacred fire that burned constantly in front of Perkun 
 and the enchanted serpents ; or scouring forth on raids, 
 mounted on their hardy ponies of the breed for which
 
 102 THE SWORD-BEARERS. 
 
 this country is still famous, armed with clubs and staves, 
 and blowing barbaric blasts on their long trumpets. 
 
 Then in the Crusading times Adalbert, the Bishop of 
 Riga, in Livonia, organized his Order of the Sword-Bearers, 
 who set to work with fire and sword to Christianize these 
 heathen people ; and by-and-by the Sword-Bearers were 
 joined in the holy work by the famous Teutonic Knights. 
 Provinces on the Baltic were conquered ; towns and vil- 
 lages captured and burned far in the interior ; and the 
 people slain or enslaved. They speak of three hundred 
 thousand having been slaughtered or sold in this 
 crusade. But the Lithuanians were stubborn in their 
 attachment to their ancient divinities. Time after time, 
 after having been dragged within the pale of the Church, 
 they jumped into their rivers to wash off the stains of 
 baptism so soon as the oppressors' backs were turned. 
 The long spears of the German knights began to penetrate 
 the inmost recesses of their sacred groves. Despair 
 pricked them to action ; and they had learned something 
 of the new weapons and modes of warfare from their 
 enemies. 
 
 A certain Minclvog arose early in the thirteenth 
 century, and gathered the broken tribes into a kingdom 
 of Lithuania, and waged a not unequal strife both with 
 Germans and Russians. But it was a century later ere 
 the great Lithuanic hero Gedimin came forward to 
 avenge his race on their foes, by carrying the war into 
 their own territory. He conquered the Russian provinces 
 to the east and south, incorporated Volhynia and Little 
 Russia in his territory, and entered Kiev in triumph. 
 1 lis capital — the new capital of Russia it may be called, 
 for the Tartar now held all the Vol^a countries — he fixed
 
 LIT HU A NIC HEROES. 103 
 
 at Vilna, the centre of old Lithuania ; and here and at 
 his other residence of Novogrodsk he allowed Greek 
 churches to be built. A tolerant as well as an able man 
 was Gedimin ; and though he remained a pagan, he 
 encouraged both Roman and Orthodox Christianit}^ and 
 invited workmen and artists from the west to beautify 
 his capital and teach his people trades. When he died, 
 his body, after the manner of his ancestors, was " burned 
 in a caldron, with his war-horse and favourite groom." 
 The descendants of Gedimin share with those of Ruric 
 the right to the title of knyaz, or " prince,'' in Russia. 
 
 A still more redoubtable warrior was his son Olgerd, who 
 reduced the proud republics of Novgorod and Pskov to 
 submission, made the Crimea his vassal, cleared the lower 
 Dnieper countries of the Tartars, and marched three times 
 in triumph to the gates of Moscow. His son was 
 Jagellon, who, marrying in 1386 Hedwig, the heiress of 
 Poland, united that country to Lithuania, and was the 
 founder of a dynasty. It was he that effected the Chris- 
 tianization of his people, in the same summary fashion 
 that Vladimir some four hundred years earlier had con- 
 verted the Slavs of Kiev. " They were divided," says 
 M. Rambaud in his " History of Russia," " into groups, 
 and the priest then sprinkled them with holy water, 
 pronouncing, as he did so, a name of the Latin calendar. 
 To one group he gave the name of Peter, to another that 
 of Paul or John. He overthrew the idol Perkun, extin- 
 guished the sacred fire that burned in the castle of Yilnn, 
 killed the holy serpents, and cut down the magic woods." 
 
 But from Jagellon's days the Lithuanians count the 
 decadence of their greatness ; henceforth they were more 
 or less an appanage of Poland. One more great hero
 
 101 WITOUT AND THE TEUTONIC KNIGHTS. 
 
 they had — Witout, the grandson of Gedimin, who headed 
 the national cause, and compelled Jagellon to yield him 
 the government of the grand-duchy. Witout captured 
 Smolensk, and conceived the grand scheme of driving 
 out the Mongols, and uniting the whole of Russia under 
 his sceptre. But his great army, composed of Poles, 
 Lithuanians, Germans, and Russians, was utterly defeated 
 by the Khan of the Golden Horde on the Vorskla, near 
 Poltava, almost on the site of Charles the Twelfth's dis- 
 aster ; and the ambitious Witout turned his attention to 
 the west. At Tannenberg, in 1410, he completely broke 
 the power of the Teutonic Order, which so long had been 
 a thorn in the side of Russia. He intrigued and negoti- 
 ated with Pope and Emperor, and had strong hopes of 
 being anointed and recognized as a Catholic king. Grand 
 fetes were given by him at Vilna, where, we are told, ho 
 was attended by grand -duke and hospodar, by the 
 King of Poland and the Khan of the Crimea, the Metro- 
 politan of Moscow, the Master of the Teutonic Knights, 
 and the ambassadors of the Emperors of the East ; and 
 where each clay " seven hundred oxen, fourteen hundred 
 sheep, and game in proportion" were consumed. In the 
 midst of this revelry, the word came to the old man of 
 eighty that the crown for which he had angled and 
 fought was not to be his, and he died of the disappoint- 
 ment. With him the separate history of Lithuania came 
 to an end j it gradually merged in Poland, the Treaty of 
 Lublin completing the union in 1569. 
 
 Vilna, which has been the centre of most of the great 
 events in Lithuanian history, is still a place of consider- 
 able size, situated at the junction of the Vilia and the 
 A^ileyka rivers, tributaries of the Niemen. By that
 
 VILNA. 105 
 
 stream, and by the railway lines from Konigsberg and 
 Warsaw leading towards the old and new capitals of 
 Russia, a good deal of trade reaches Vilna, and it is also 
 the seat of large leather and textile manufactories and 
 extensive distilleries. Of its population of G 0,0 00 or 
 70,000, one-third are said to be Jews, who have got 
 the commerce of the place mainly into their hands. 
 Other importance Vilna no longer possesses. Its star, 
 like that of the other seats of empire we have been 
 visiting, has set. On the castle hill above the river are 
 the ruins of the old palace of the Grand Dukes, where 
 Geclimin, Olgerd, and Witout feasted, and where the 
 " sacred fire " was kept alive till quenched by the 
 Jagellons. The oldest of the sacred places where modern 
 Vilna worships is the Cathedral of St. Stanislas, built in 
 1367, when Olgerd was thundering at the gates of 
 Moscow. 
 
 The University of Vilna, founded first as a Jesuit 
 college in 1578, was suppressed by an imperial ukase in 
 1832, and the great library of two hundred thousand 
 volumes was transferred to St. Petersburg. Learning and 
 literature deserted Vilna in the train of political power, 
 and it has been abandoned, as has been said, to the 
 Jews. A false gleam of returning grandeur shone on 
 it for a few weeks in 1812. The "grand army" crossed 
 the Niemen at Kovno, and marched upon Vilna — the 
 Russians, whose head-quarters had been at the old Lithu- 
 anian capital, falling back before it. Napoleon entered 
 the city in triumph, the nobility crowded around him 
 with ardour, and the restoration of the old Lithuanian 
 state was proclaimed. 
 
 A far different entry was that which was wit-
 
 106 THE FRENCH AT VILNA. 
 
 nessed a few months later, when the city gates 
 opened to receive the miserable remnants of that 
 once magnificent warrior host, thus far on their way 
 back to France. Reduced to forty thousand men, they 
 had crossed the Beresina, a tributary of the Dnieper, in 
 the province of Minsk, in front of an enemy one hundred 
 and fifty thousand strong, that dared not attack the 
 desperate men. Hardly had they reached the shelter of 
 the walls of Vilna, where they hoped for a short reprieve 
 from exposure, fatigue, and fighting, when the guns of 
 the Russians were heard, and they had to continue their 
 flight, abandoning the thousands of sick and wounded, 
 who, it is said, were flung out of the windows and 
 trampled to death in the streets, while the Cossacks fell 
 upon and massacred the camp-followers. Thirty thou- 
 sand bodies, according to Rambaud, were burned on 
 piles. 
 
 There is little to attract us to Kovno, which has just 
 been mentioned. It is a place of some eight thousand 
 inhabitants, dating back to the twelfth century, contains 
 the usual large proportion of Jews, is the capital of a 
 government, and does a considerable trade by the Niemen, 
 on which it is situated. Grodno, higher up the Niemen, 
 and adjoining Vilna on the southern side, is a government 
 to which more interest attaches. The town of Grodno is 
 almost as celebrated in Lithuanian annals as Vilna itself. 
 It was one of the earliest of the cities in the grand- 
 duchy, dating back to the twelfth century. Even at 
 that early period it had become an appanage of the 
 family of Ruric ; and a church arose in this heathen 
 quarter dedicated to St. Boris and St. Gleb, the two 
 murdered sons of the apostolic Vladimir, who are so
 
 THE LAST POLISH DIET. 107 
 
 inseparably associated together in the secular and ecclesi- 
 astical legends of Russia. A convent — that of St. Basil 
 — was founded about the same time, and still exists. 
 
 The great King Stephen Batory of Poland took much 
 interest in the welfare of the Orthodox of Grodno, and 
 interfered to prevent the destruction with which they 
 were threatened by the Jesuits. There were other Polish 
 monarchs who did not scorn to make it an occasional 
 residence. The celebrated John Casimir had his chateau 
 in the neighbourhood at Bialystok, a magnificent struc- 
 ture in Italian style, once known as the Versailles of 
 Poland, but now become a ladies' school. August III. 
 built here a palace ; and it was for some time the head- 
 quarters of Charles XII. of Sweden during his Lithuanian 
 campaigns. It was at one period appointed that the 
 Polish Diet should meet here for every third session, 
 and it was at Grodno that the representatives of the 
 ancient kingdom decreed its dismemberment, and the 
 last phantom monarch, Stanislas Augustus, signed his 
 abdication. Apart from these historic reminiscences, 
 Grodno is a dull little town ; it boasts no trade to 
 speak of, and the botanic gardens, founded by Stanislas 
 Augustus, are no longer an attraction to men of science. 
 
 In this province of Grodno there is a broad domain 
 set apart for an " aborigine " of even earlier date than 
 the Lithuanian, and who probably was in full possession 
 of the deep thickets and brakes of this forest region for 
 thousands of years before the human fancy had begun to 
 people them with gods and demigods, and to set them 
 apart for the worship of Perkun and the sacred serpents. 
 The wood of Belovegie, occupying an area of many 
 square miles around the sources of the river Narev, a
 
 108 IMPERIAL HUNTING-PARTIES. 
 
 tributary of the Niemen, still protects the last repre- 
 sentatives of the aurochs, the wild ox that in the Roman 
 days had a wide range over Europe, and is believed by 
 some to be the original stock from which our domestic 
 cattle have sprung. It is supposed that a thousand head 
 of these wild cattle still rove at will in the marshy 
 recesses of Belovegie; and they are protected by strict 
 forest laws. It was a favourite hunting-ground of the 
 kings of Poland, and the Czars have occasionally visited 
 it in pursuit of royal sport after the urus and the bear. 
 
 These imperial hunting-parties, which in the government 
 of St. Petersburg have become almost a part of the state 
 ceremonials, are brilliant and imposing affairs. The appoint- 
 ments for the chase, which takes place early in the spring, 
 when Bruin has just awakened from his winter's sleep, 
 leave nothing to be desired in the matter of completeness 
 and splendour. Not only the imperial hunters themselves, 
 but the attendant nobles and great civil and military 
 dignitaries are enveloped in the richest furs, and outshine 
 each other in the stylishness of their sledges and their 
 arms. Only one feels that the poor bear has hardly a 
 fair chance among such an army of beaters and hunters. 
 The urus, however, is rarely disturbed in his retreat at 
 Belovegie. By imperial ukase it is even forbidden to 
 cut wood in the forest ; and it is to be hoped that this 
 old inhabitant, with his massy front, grand horns, and 
 tawny bison-like mane, will long be preserved as a living- 
 relic of the Europe of the past. 
 
 Another striking natural feature of this region are 
 the Marshes of Pinsk on the Pripet, in the neighbour- 
 ing province of Minsk, itself a territory larger than Ire- 
 land. There is here, perhaps, the largest extent of fen
 
 MOGHILEV AND VITEBSK. 109 
 
 country to be found in Europe. Much of this tract has 
 probably not been seen by a stranger since the beginning 
 of last century, when Charles the Twelfth fought and 
 waded his way through it with the fury of a Norse 
 Berserker, cutting a path alternately with his axe and 
 his sword, as his progress was opposed by thick forest 
 or by Russian enemies. Eastward of the marshes is the 
 Beresina, a branch of the Dnieper, famous in the mili- 
 tary annals of Charles as well as of Napoleon ; and on 
 a tributary of the Beresina is the town of Minsk, where 
 any one who strays so far out of the beaten track of the 
 tourist will be surprised to light upon a small theatre, 
 in addition to the cathedral, archiepiscopal palace, and 
 numerous churches that are the necessary features of 
 every provincial capital, and the narrow, crooked, dirty 
 streets that invariably mark an old Polish bourg. If 
 he move farther eastward to the main stream of the 
 Dnieper, and light on Moghilev, the chief town of the 
 government of that name, he will come on evidences 
 of improving conditions of industry and social well- 
 beinsr. Here he will find a considerable trade in a town 
 containing within its decayed ramparts many fine build- 
 ings grouped round the great central square, and the 
 importance of which is attested by its being the head- 
 quarters of the Roman Catholic Primate of Poland and 
 Russia. 
 
 A short step northwards by Orcha takes us across the 
 watershed to the valley of the deep and muddy Dwina, 
 on which is Vitebsk, the principal town of the most 
 northerly of the West Russian provinces. Or the journey 
 may be made by water by one of the canals which in 
 this as in other parts of Russia connect the head-waters
 
 110 THE RESOURCES OF WEST RUSSIA. 
 
 of the various streams, and are the main channels of 
 traffic. 
 
 Farther down the Dwina are Polotsk and Duna- 
 burg, important military posts in their day, holding the 
 line of the river, and often subjected to siege and assault 
 by Russians and Poles, Swedes and Livonians. Polotsk 
 is one of the most ancient of Russian towns, having a 
 history reaching back beyond the times of Ruric ; Duna- 
 burg was alternately a strong place of the German 
 knighthood and a bulwark of Russia against them. The 
 stormy past of the city of Vitebsk also may be read 
 on the ancient walls and towers along the left bank of 
 the Viteba river, and the crumbling remains of its strong 
 castle on the opposite side of the stream. The three 
 places are now rivals in collecting the raw products and 
 the manufactures of this and the neighbouring provinces, 
 and forwarding them to the port of Riga, at the mouth 
 of the Dwina. 
 
 The railways and canals have done much to stimu- 
 late the half-slumbering energies of the Western Russian 
 provinces. These countries are full of undeveloped 
 riches ; prominent among which are the immense forests 
 of pine, oak, ash, beech, and maple ; and groves of lime 
 are abundant in the government of Vilna, where bee- 
 keeping is an extensive industry. Even the marshes 
 and heaths can be made productive with a little care; 
 and this part of Russia will erelong hold a more 
 important agricultural and commercial position than it 
 does at present. 

 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE VOLGA. 
 
 FM?& 
 
 F the Dwina is followed for a little way beyond 
 Vitebsk, we are brought back to our start- 
 ing-point in the Valdai Hills. Its sources 
 are in the sequestered valleys, steep hillsides, 
 and wood-fringed lakelets of that prettily broken country, 
 and its " taproot" is within a verst or two of the lake 
 in which the great river Volga has its beginning. From 
 this point to the outlet of the Volga in the Caspian is a 
 distance of over nine hundred miles as the crow flies : 
 following its great north-eastward and eastward sweeps 
 and its many windings, we have a length of two thou- 
 sand four hundred miles — greater by nearly a thousand 
 miles than the Danube — the next largest European 
 stream. No one can fully comprehend the phenomena 
 of Russian history and civilization who does not have 
 in his mind an adequate conception of the magnitude 
 and the importance of the Volga. 
 
 With the Russians themselves it is the " Mother 
 Volga," — the great river of the world. It has moulded 
 their destinies, shaped their national character, and 
 influenced incomparably more than any other natural 
 feature of the country their social and industrial con-
 
 112 THE "SPINAL MARROW OF RUSSIA. 
 
 dition. It has been said that the history of Russia may 
 be resolved into the history of four rivers and four towns 
 in their basins — the Volkhov, and Novgorod the Great ; 
 the Dnieper, and Kiev; the Volga, and Moscow; and the 
 Neva, and St. Petersburg : and the greatest of these is 
 the Volga. It is the vertebral column, or rather the 
 spinal marrow of Russia. Two hundred years ago, prob- 
 ably nine-tenths of the subjects of the Czars dwelt upon 
 it ; and a majority of the Russian race are still settled in 
 its basin. It drains an area of five hundred and fifty- 
 eight thousand square miles, equal to five times that of the 
 British Islands. One of its affluents, the Kama, is only 
 second to the Danube among the rivers of Europe. The 
 Oka and its tributaries — on one of which is situated the 
 world-famous city of Moscow — water a territory of one 
 hundred and twenty-seven thousand square miles. 
 
 The breadth and the volume of the great stream 
 are worthy of its magnificent length. Its channel is 
 navigable to its source ; its width from bank to bank 
 in its middle course is little less than a mile ; and it 
 discharges its waters into the Caspian by over seventy 
 mouths. By the comprehensive system of canals that 
 connect the head-waters of all the important Russian 
 rivers, it communicates with the White Sea, the Baltic, 
 and the Euxine. Thus a canal from Tula, on the Upa, a 
 branch of the Oka, connects the Volga with the Don ; and 
 it is proposed to form another water-way joining the two 
 main streams at the point on their lower courses where 
 they approach within fifty miles of each other. A double 
 link unites the Volga to Kiev — through the upper Dnieper 
 and through the Oka and Desna; and by the same channels 
 there is continuous water-carriage to the Niemen and the
 
 A NETWORK OF CANALS. 113 
 
 Baltic. An alternative route to the Baltic may be chosen 
 by way of the Dwina. Most important of all are 
 the routes leading under the walls of St. Petersburg to 
 the Gulf of Finland. Leaving the Volga at Tver, the 
 Tvertza may be followed until it merges, at Vishni- 
 Volotchok, into the Msta, a canal-like stream that con- 
 ducts to Lake Ilmen and the Volkhov ; or following up 
 the Mologa, a lower tributary of the Volga, the head 
 stream of the Sias can be reached ; or, again, ascending 
 the Szektna, the Bielo or White Lake may be entered, 
 which also reaches an arm to Lake Ladoga and its out- 
 let the Neva. The Neva, indeed, has become, as it were, 
 a second or European mouth of the Volga, and the set-off 
 to its Asiatic mouth at Astrakhan. Lake Ladoga has 
 canal communication with the White Sea ; and the great 
 eastern tributary of the Volga, the Kama, has indepen- 
 dent connection with the Dwina and the Arctic Ocean. 
 
 With this bewildering network of channels all feeding 
 the main avenue with their contribution of trade, one 
 may imagine how extensive and how varied is the com- 
 merce of which the Volga is the centre. It still con- 
 tinues to be to a great extent the principal route by 
 which the products of Northern and Central Asia are 
 exchanged for those of Europe ; but it is as the medium 
 for the collection and distribution of the internal riches 
 of the Russian world itself that it possesses its chief 
 importance. No fewer than fifteen thousand vessels of 
 various classes ply upon its bosom. In the summer 
 season a quarter of a million of workmen from other 
 parts of the empire resort thither. The waters are 
 churned into foam by the paddles of five hundred steam- 
 boats. The long lines of wooden wharves arc piled with 
 
 (via) 8
 
 114 RIVER TRADE AND LIFE. 
 
 merchandise in course of being landed or shipped ; and 
 the extensive depots are being rapidly emptied and filled 
 again with grain and other produce of the rich provinces 
 on the Oka and Volga. 
 
 As the great fair at Nishni- Novgorod approaches, 
 the bustle and activity on the river and along its 
 banks become more intense. Merchants from Odessa 
 and Riga ; native and foreign speculators in every 
 variety of merchandise exchanged between the East 
 and the West ; Russian peasants and German colonists, 
 anxious to sell the surplus produce of their fields ; 
 dealers in furs and peltries from Paris or Vienna, come 
 to do business with rough trappers from the Kama or 
 Siberia ; travellers for Manchester and Sheffield houses ; 
 carriers of brick tea from the Chinese frontiers ; Per- 
 sians, Bokharians, and Turcomans, with silks or horses 
 for sale ; venders of precious stones and metals from the 
 Ural range and Tobolsk ; Finnish lumbermen ; Tartar 
 packmen ; Kirghiz and Kalmuk shepherds and horse- 
 rearers ; fabricators of axes, nets, sheepskin coats, sad- 
 dles, fur - caps, boots, each from the little villages de- 
 voted to these special industries along the Volga and its 
 branches ; with a sprinkling of professional sightseers 
 from Western Europe and America, — are all on their flight 
 by routes innumerable to the great mart that draws 
 together for a few weeks one hundred thousand strangers 
 from the ends of the earth. 
 
 The conveyance of all these passengers and their wares 
 was formerly attended by fearful toil and suffering. The 
 motive-power of the current could generally be employed in 
 transporting goods down stream, but it was different where 
 the rivers had to be ascended. The rafts of timber, the
 
 WINTER TRAVEL ON THE MOTHER VOLGA. 115 
 
 barges filled with grain, hides, bales of merchandise, and 
 cattle, were dragged by tow-ropes up the stream by ill- 
 treated, broken-spirited horses or oxen, or by the main 
 strength of the borlaks, a class of men noted for their 
 herculean frames and their brutalized condition. Steam 
 has changed all that. The human beasts of burden are 
 no longer a feature of the Volga life. Instead, powerful 
 tug-steamers will be met breasting the current, and 
 drawing behind them a whole flotilla of barges and 
 other river craft. 
 
 With the setting in of winter all this busy life is sus- 
 pended. The stream is frozen over from its source to its 
 mouth, and sometimes an icy covering extends over a 
 large portion of the salt waters of the Caspian Sea. 
 Steamers and sailing ships are laid up for a season ; the 
 quays are deserted, the storehouses are closed, and the 
 whir of the saw-mills is silenced. Traffic goes to sleep 
 until the spring freshets break up the ice, and leave the 
 channel again clear for navigation. But even in the 
 winter the Volga is the centre of such movement as there 
 is. Its frozen surface is the favourite route for travel- 
 lers whose hard fate compels them to journey in the 
 season of ice and snow ; and its ghostly white banks 
 echo night and day to the ring of the passing sledge- 
 bells. 
 
 In the ordinary season of travel, nothing specially 
 impressive can be promised to the voyager in the way 
 of natural scenery, beyond what is afforded by the flood 
 of waters itself rolling between its shores fringed by pine 
 and oak. Whatever effect this may have on the mind, 
 the interest wears off as the prospect is repeated with 
 a few changes in detail at every turn of the river.
 
 1:6 A FOREST LAND. 
 
 Though the woods are partially cleared near the margin, 
 the scenery in the upper and middle courses of the river 
 retains the features of a forest land. Scores of thriving 
 towns, hundreds of villages and hamlets, are scattered 
 alono- the stream ; but the distances are so immense that 
 plenty of room is left between the clearings for long 
 stretches of timber-covered shore. The left bank is 
 generally flat, and often marshy ; the right, against which 
 the current bears in making its wide semicircular sweep, 
 is more high and abrupt. 
 
 The upper Volga lies within the favourite habitat 
 of the fir, the larch, and the spruce, and pine-woods 
 are the predominating feature of its scenery. Then, 
 in the government of Kazan, the " Oak Belt" is reached, 
 stretching across a great part of Russia, between the 
 fifty-sixth and fifty-third degrees of latitude; and the 
 place of the dark and rigid forms of the cone-bearing 
 trees is usurped by fine specimens of the oak, the beech, 
 and the maple, that change their hues with the chang- 
 ing year. 
 
 In this part of its course the Volga cuts through 
 the Zhigulinsky range of hills, which have been highly 
 praised for their picturesque outlines and the pleasing- 
 variety of their wooded slopes. A recent visitor to 
 the region admits that the scenery here may be called 
 " pretty," especially when the trees wear the delicate tints 
 of spring, or when they are arrayed in the painted glories 
 of autumn ; but it is such an agreeable surprise to meet 
 with anything resembling a range of hills in these parts, 
 that the traveller is willing to be easily satisfied. 
 
 Lower down, the banks become bare and shingly. The 
 river receives no more important tributaries, and its chan-
 
 SCENERY OF THE LOWER VOLGA. 117 
 
 nel is interrupted by frequent sand-banks and shoals. 
 From the top of the sandy slopes that bound the view 
 from the river to right and left, the eye may range over 
 a wide steppe, from which all trace of the higher forms 
 of vegetable life has vanished, and where the short 
 grass is cropped by herds of sheep, horses, and camels, 
 guarded by their Tartar owners. Near the river are the 
 snug homesteads and well-filled granaries of the German 
 colonists, who have been settled in this country since the 
 time of the Empress Elizabeth, side by side with the 
 untidy and ramshackle habitations of the Russian peas- 
 ants — generally schismatics banished to these wilds for 
 their heresies. Here and there is a small colony of 
 Cossacks, keeping an eye over the movements of the 
 half - nomad dwellers of the steppe ; and the glaring- 
 dome of the Greek church, the neat spire of the Lutheran 
 chapel, and the blind walls of the Mohammedan mosque 
 testify to the variety of the prevailing creeds. Barer 
 and barer grows the steppe as we proceed, and more and 
 more Eastern the aspect of the scenery and the popula- 
 tion, until near the Caspian we find the river girt in 
 by an arid desert, roamed over by Kirghiz and Kalmuk 
 tribes, dwellers in tents, and — the Kalmuks at least — 
 worshippers of Buddha and his living incarnation the 
 Grand Lama of Thibet. The river is already many 
 feet below the level of the ocean, when it beo-ins to 
 break up into branches that form innumerable islands 
 before discharging themselves by seventy mouths into 
 the Caspian. 
 
 The principal industry practised on these islands is 
 the sturgeon-fishery. The Volga is the most noted 
 haunt of this noble fish, and from its source, where the
 
 lis STURGEON FISHING. 
 
 Bterlet that furnishes the caviare most prized at the 
 of the rich is bred, to the Caspian Sea, which 
 yields gigantic sturgeon of weights running up to two 
 thousand pounds, it has the full run of its waters. The 
 capture of the sturgeon is practised in many different 
 ways, according to the seat of the fishery — with the 
 hook, the harpoon, and the net, from the shore and in 
 large and small boats, by single fishers and by large 
 incorporated companies. Sometimes "flying camps" of 
 fishermen, counting many hundred tents, follow the fish 
 in their migrations up or down the river ; and they 
 are accompanied by large moving establishments for 
 extracting the roe and preparing the caviare. 
 
 When the first ice begins to cover the river, the sturgeon 
 rush for the sea ; but many of them are too late in their 
 movements, and become blockaded in deep pools in the 
 rivers Ural and Volga, where they crowd together in 
 almost solid masses. This gives the opportunity for the 
 first fishing of winter, before the ice breaks up. Crawl- 
 ing over the frozen surface, and peering through the ice 
 covering and the clear water beneath, the Cossack fisher- 
 men discover the winter hiding-place of the sturgeon, 
 which are then captured with little trouble. By tra- 
 ditional custom, the yield of this day's fishing is de- 
 spatched immediately to the palace of the " Father Czar." 
 Many other varieties of fish are taken in the Volga, and 
 they form an important item in the dietary of the 
 population. 
 
 The chase of the seal, on the shores of the Caspian, is 
 also a pursuit that yields a considerable profit to the 
 Kulmuks of the government of Astrakhan. It may seem 
 strange that an animal whose presence we are accustomed 

 
 AN ODD BLEND. 119 
 
 to associate only with Arctic and Antarctic climes should 
 be found in a sea the southern portion of which washes 
 the shores of Persia and is in the latitude of Northern 
 Africa. But in the neighbourhood of the Volga we are 
 constantly meeting with puzzling anomalies and unex- 
 pected contrasts. It carries us from under the Arctic 
 circle to semi-tropical lands ; from the feeding-grounds 
 of the reindeer to those of the camel, from the neighbour- 
 hood of the white bear to the haunts of the lion and 
 tiger ; in a word, from Northern Europe to Central Asia. 
 Asiatic and European races have alternately held sway 
 on the river ; and representatives of most of them are 
 to be met with in its neighbourhood. 
 
 The traveller is sure to chance upon some indi- 
 vidual or incident in which the past and the present, 
 the culture of Europe and the barbarism of Northern 
 Asia are oddly blended. For instance, Mr. Schuyler, 
 in journeying down the stream, discovered that one 
 of his fellow-passengers was Prince Ghenghiz, a lineal 
 descendant of his conquering namesake Ghenghiz 
 Khan. This son of the last khan of the Bukeiet* 
 Horde was found to be a polished and educated gentle- 
 man, who for the greater part of the journey was 
 deeply absorbed in the pages of a French novel. A still 
 more incongruous experience was that of Mr. Mackenzie 
 Wallace, whose hair nearly stood on end when, while 
 travelling in the steppe between the Caspian and the 
 Sea of Azov, he was accosted by a venerable person of 
 Circassian lineaments and costume in the broadest Scottish 
 dialect. It turned out that the " Circassian Scots- 
 man " was a scholar educated by the missionaries sent 
 out to this region by an Edinburgh association early in
 
 120 FINNS AND TARTARS. 
 
 fche present century, and which had thriving stations at 
 A I rakhan and Karass half a century ago. 
 
 The aboriginal inhabitants of the Volga countries, 
 peoples of the widely-spread Finnish race, are certain to 
 attract the notice of strangers by their distinctive dress, 
 language, and features. On the main stream of the Volga 
 !, and chiefly in Kazan, are the Tcherimis — whom 
 Dr. Latham would identify with the famous Arimaspi of 
 the Greek poets — the Tchuvashs, and the Mordvins, all 
 speaking distinct but allied tongues, and holding them- 
 selves strictly aloof from mixture with the surrounding- 
 Slavs. They are dark-complexioned, shy, taciturn people, 
 who seem to know that their day is hopelessly past, 
 and that their best chance of preserving their ancient 
 languages and customs lies in adopting an attitude of 
 .suspicious reserve towards all strangers. 
 
 A more promising subject is the "Tartar" inhabitant 
 of Kazan and the neighbouring provinces, who seems 
 to have laid aside most of the barbarous proclivities 
 of his ancestors, and compares not disadvantageously as 
 a merchant, an agriculturist, and a peace-loving citizen 
 with his Russian neighbour. The chances, indeed, are 
 that the Tartar village furnishes a model in cleanliness, 
 in the neat and substantial character of its architecture, 
 and the trim and well-kept condition of the surrounding 
 fields, which the adjoining Slav hamlet might do well to 
 copy. 
 
 Greek proselytism has made little way among 
 these stanch adherents of Islam, and Mohammedanism 
 is tolerated by the state ; so that the mosque of the 
 faithful may be seen in each of these timber-built 
 villages, and at morning and evening the cry of the
 
 MOHAMMEDANISM OS THE VOLGA. 121 
 
 muezzin is heard on their walls, and echoes strangely 
 amid the pine and oak avenues of the Northern forest. 
 At the stated hours for prayer a certain proportion of 
 the voyagers by the Volga steamer, or travellers waiting 
 the change of horses at the wayside post-houses, will be 
 seen to spread their strip of carpet, cast themselves 
 reverently into an attitude of prayer, and remain 
 absorbed in their devotions for several minutes ; and it 
 will be noticed probably that these are not the least 
 intelligent-looking and civilized among the motley crowd. 
 The Tartar — he is much more a Turk by descent and in 
 his physique than a Mongol — has still, however, im- 
 planted in him some of the roving tendencies of his fore- 
 fathers. He is the beau-ideal of the peripatetic mer- 
 chant of the East, and roams far and wide with his pack 
 of bright-coloured wearing apparel, wonderful jewellery, 
 and nicknacks suited to male and female taste — alert, 
 indefatigable, and full of resource, with vivacity spark- 
 ling in his keen dark eyes, and persuasion hanging on 
 his nimble tongue. 
 
 These and other races, once omnipotent on the Volga, 
 have sunk, however, into insignificance before the en- 
 croaching Slav ; but while religion will long interpose a 
 formidable obstacle to the absorption of the Tartar popu- 
 lation into the general body of the Russian people, the 
 process of Russification will probably be complete in a 
 few generations in the aboriginal Finnish districts. Mr. 
 Mackenzie Wallace has described the method and the 
 rapidity with which this change is taking place in a 
 passage which is worthy of quotation. 
 
 "During my wanderings in these northern provinces," he 
 says, "I have found villages in every stage of Russifica-
 
 L22 THE PROCESS OF " RUSSIFICATION." 
 
 fcion. In one, everything seemed thoroughly Finnish; the 
 inhabitants had a reddish olive skin, high cheek-bones, 
 obliquely-set eyes, and a peculiar costume; none of the 
 women and very few of the men could understand Russian, 
 and any Russian who visited the place was regarded as a 
 foreigner. In a second, there were already some Russian 
 inhabitants ; the others had lost something of their pure 
 Finnish type; many of the men had discarded the old 
 costume, and spoke Russian fluently, and a Russian 
 visitor was no longer shunned. In a third, the Finnish 
 type was still further weakened ; all the men spoke 
 Russian, and nearly all the women understood it ; the 
 old male costume had entirely disappeared, and the old 
 female costume was rapidly following it, and intermar- 
 riage with the Russian population was no longer rare. 
 In a fourth, intermarriage had almost completely done 
 its work, and the old Finnish element could be detected 
 merely in certain peculiarities of physiognomy and 
 accent." 
 
 Even more significant than the influence of the Volga 
 on the commercial development of Russia has been its 
 influence on the political destiny of the country in all 
 periods of its history. The capitals of no fewer than 
 nine of the modern Russian governments — Tver, Jaroslav, 
 Kostroma, Nishni- Novgorod, Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara, 
 Saratov, and Astrakhan — stand on the banks of the main 
 stream itself. Ten other seats of provincial authority in 
 Great Russia are situated on its tributaries — Perm and 
 Viatka, in the basin of the Kama ; Penza, on the Sura ; 
 and Orel, Kaluga, Tula, Riazan, Tambov, Vladimir, and 
 the great city of Moscow itself, on the Oka and its 
 branches. 

 
 THE RUINS OF EMPIRE. 123 
 
 Between the new and growing emporiums of trade are 
 scattered the mounds and ruins marking the sites of old 
 and fallen empires — Atel, the capital of the mysterious 
 Khazarian kingdom, with its Judaized monarchs and pre- 
 cocious civilization ; the head-quarters of the people who 
 founded the Bulgaria of the Danube, Bolgary, the " great 
 city," among the rubbish of which are still picked up 
 Greek, Arabic, and Armenian coins and fragments of 
 artistic pottery and carving ; Sarai, the seat of Baty 
 Khan and his descendants, lords of the Golden Horde, 
 whose swarms of Mongol horsemen devastated and wrung 
 tribute from all the provinces of Eastern EurojDe as far 
 as the Oder ; and old Kazan, the head city of the Tartar 
 khanate that held Russia in vassalage till the latter 
 half of the sixteenth century. 
 
 It was under such rough masters that the young- 
 Russian nation on the Volga grew to manhood. Something 
 has already been told of its infancy and early youth — 
 how the nomad incursions from the East into the pleasant 
 steppe lands on the Dnieper, the pressure of the rival 
 Polish, German, and Swedish peoples on the west, and 
 the chronic anarchy and civil war among the crowd of 
 princes struggling for the supreme power, drove great 
 hosts of the Slavs to seek shelter and security in the 
 deep forests of the Volga ; and how they there founded 
 new states that absorbed the Finnish peoples, and waxed 
 powerful and populous in proportion as the elder princi- 
 palities and republics were weakened, until at last they 
 were able to pluck away the palm of pre-eminence from 
 Kiev itself, and carry off the insignia of political and 
 ecclesiastical superiority to the banks of the Kliasma.
 
 124 TEE PRINCES OF SUZDAL. 
 
 It was on the banks of this stream, a tributary of 
 the Oka, that the Russian colonies in the forests first 
 began to consolidate, and the city of Suzdal erelong 
 In came the centre of power. It had many rivals — 
 Rostov and Murom (the original appanages of the mar- 
 tyred Boris and Gleb), Tver and Jaroslav, Kolomna and 
 Riazan. But Suzdal was the kernel from which the 
 great trunk and spreading branches of Russian autocracy 
 arose, though its princes soon deserted it for the neigh- 
 bouring city of Vladimir. 
 
 As yet, Moscow and Nishni- Novgorod were not. 
 1 1 was George Dolguruky of Suzdal who, while " ex- 
 ploiting " the country watered by the Moskva river, 
 was struck by the commanding site occupied by a few 
 huts on the left bank of the stream ; and slaying the 
 owner on some pretext — which the Suzdal princes had 
 never any difficulty in inventing when lands were to be 
 seized — he founded on the spot a log-built town, that 
 afterwards became the capital of the Russian Empire 
 It was this George, it may be remembered, who first 
 humbled the pride of Kiev, and his successor Andrew 
 Bogoliubski who stormed and plundered that venerable 
 city, depriving it for ever of its leading place among 
 Russian towns. Andrew also was the first Russian auto- 
 crat; for he began systematically to bring together by 
 every means, good or bad, the broken fragments of the 
 Russian power and weld them into one, and patiently and 
 mercilessly to tread down every influence both within 
 and without that could compete with that of the prince. 
 Following him in Suzdal was another George, who, de- 
 Bcending the Volga on a military excursion about 1220, 
 noticed that nature had marked out its junction with
 
 THE MONGOL INVASION. 125 
 
 the Oka as the site of a great commercial metropolis, and 
 here arose Nishni or Lower Novgorod. The traditions 
 of the Finnish inhabitants preserve the memory of the 
 rapidity with which these " backwoods " colonizations 
 proceeded. " The Russian prince," they sing, " descended 
 the Volga : where he threw a handful of earth on the 
 bank, a town sprang up ; where he threw a pinch of 
 earth, a village was born." 
 
 But an unparalleled, perhaps an irreparable calamity, 
 was about to fall upon Russia. The Mongol hosts of 
 Ghenghiz were already on the march when the piles for 
 the foundations of Nishni-Novgorod were being driven. 
 The Volga princes left their southern brethren to fight 
 alone when the Tartars first appeared on the steppes ; 
 but on their second coming, a few years later, under the 
 nephew of the Grand Khan Oktai, they followed a more 
 northerly track, and the barbarian wave broke with 
 irresistible force on the new cities of the Oka and 
 Kliasma. For three years, 1238-40, the land was sur- 
 rendered to slaughter and pillage ; Moscow, Vladimir, 
 Tver, Riazan, all the chief towns and villages, were 
 burned, and the inhabitants massacred or driven into the 
 woods. Grim tokens of Mongol success were sent to the 
 Great Khan by his lieutenants in the shape of sackfuls 
 of human ears ; princes of the house of Ruric were 
 "drowned in blood;" atrocities before undreamtof were 
 perpetrated, not in single instances, but in a wholesale 
 manner. The unfortunate Russians could not believe 
 that their terrible enemies were of the human race, but 
 regarded them as demons sent as forerunners of " Anti- 
 christ." 
 
 All Russia bent and groaned under the storm ; but
 
 THE VASSALS OF THE GRAND KHAN. 
 
 when Baty Khan withdrew from the borders of Ger- 
 many to the Lower Volga, and began to build his capital 
 at Sarai, it began slowly to right itself and adjust 
 itself to its new burden. Half of Christian Europe had 
 become the slaves of a horde of savage heathen horsemen. 
 The heads of the princely houses had to make long 
 journeys to the seat of the Khan of the Golden Horde to 
 intrigue and plot for his favour, to grovel in the dust 
 before him, to wed the daughters of the invader, and to 
 sell their own daughters and sisters to the Tartar lords. 
 Often they had to face the terrible experiences of a 
 journey to the head-quarters of the Grand Khan, on the 
 banks of the Amoor river, at Karakorum in the Desert 
 of Gobi, or at Kambalu, the modern Pekin, traversing the 
 snowy wastes, stony and sandy deserts, dense forests and 
 great chains of mountains, in the hope of securing the 
 jarlikh or investiture of their barbaric suzerain, without 
 which their title to rule in their own state was not 
 recognized. 
 
 These expeditions to the court of Mangu or Kublai 
 generally occupied two or three years. Arrived there, 
 the aspirant for favour often found that he had 
 travelled the breadth of Asia in vain, and that a 
 more nimble rival had already borne off the coveted 
 honour. Sometimes the weary voyager never returned 
 to Russia, his bones being left in some unknown spot on 
 the way, where fatigue or hunger or robbers had over- 
 taken him. Such a shameful journey was made by 
 Alexander Nevski, one of the heroes of Russian history 
 -who had defeated the Swedes on the Neva, near 
 where the famous Nevski Prospect of St. Petersburg 
 now runs, and the Livonian Knights on the frozen 

 
 MUSCOVY AND ITS GRAND DUKES. 127 
 
 surface of Lake Peipus — and his example was followed 
 by the Grand Princes of Vladimir and Moscow who suc- 
 ceeded him. 
 
 These same princely personages fell into the posi- 
 tions of farmers-general or tax-gatherers for the Tartar 
 khan. They collected his tribute for him — which was 
 in the shape of a poll-tax — gaining his countenance by 
 humbling their turbulent nobles and grinding in the 
 dust their unlucky people. There are not many noble 
 or heroic traits in their character. The gay, light-hearted 
 chivalry of the cavaliers of the Dnieper, or the stern, sober 
 patriotism of the republicans of Novgorod, is not to be 
 looked for in the early history of the Muscovite princes; 
 and as for the more modern culture that had spread 
 eastward as far as Poland, they would probably have 
 scorned it had they known of its existence. They were 
 rude, unscrupulous, ambitious, grasping men, who stuck 
 at no crime or baseness to accomplish their ends, and 
 yet who claim from us a certain admiration for their 
 remarkable astuteness, ability, and tenacity of purpose. 
 
 By such qualities the Grand Dukes of Muscovy, from 
 the time of Alexander Nevski to that of Ivan the Ter- 
 rible — but most notably of all that other Ivan surnamed 
 " the Great " and " the Binder " — extended the limits of 
 their little principality on the Moskva until it embraced 
 not only all the lands on the Upper Volga and its 
 branches above Nishni-Novgorod, but also the Upper 
 Don countries, parts of the old Slav states on the 
 Dnieper, Novgorod and its vast dominions on the slope 
 to the Arctic Sea. They had done this so quietly and 
 gradually as to excite the minimum of resistance from 
 the states absorbed, and of jealousy from their Tartar
 
 128 THE VICTORY OF THE DON. 
 
 masters. The methods they employed were fraud and 
 36, treaties, marriage alliances, assumption of guard- 
 ianship over minors, steady, persistent extensions and 
 pretensions of authority — any means rather than force, 
 but force if other means failed, as they often did. 
 
 While the vassal was becoming strong, the Tartar 
 overlord was growing decrepit. One united and chivalric 
 attempt only had been made to throw off the barbarian 
 yoke. The Mongol Horde of Baty had adopted the 
 faith of Mohammed ; had had its day of great power ; 
 and was now breaking up into contending factions, and 
 seemed on the point of dissolution. The Russian princes 
 thought their opportunity had come. A great army was 
 assembled under the Grand Duke Dimitri Donskoi, and 
 marched out to battle, amid miracles and omens and 
 priestly blessings — St. Vladimir in person, it was said, 
 appearing at their head and leading the charge. The 
 Kipchaks and their allies were totally overthrown in a 
 battle fought in 1380 in the plain of Kulikovo on the 
 banks of the Don. The victory happened in an unlucky 
 hour for Russia. Another — and the last — devastating 
 swarm from Central Asia swept over it. Again Moscow 
 and the chief cities were burned — this time not by Mon- 
 gol tribes from the Altai, but by the Turki tribes from 
 Turkestan, under the orders of the conquering Tamer- 
 lane ; and the place of the Golden Horde was taken by 
 the three Tartar khanates of Crim Tartary, Astrakhan, 
 .•mil Kazan, the last of these falling heir to Russia's 
 i nee. 
 It was not till Ivan the Terrible's time that Muscovy 
 rrong enough to throw off the last shackles of the 
 Tartar domination ; and by the conquest of Kazan in 

 
 
 THE RESURRECTION OF RUSSIA. 129 
 
 1552, and of Astrakhan in 15 54, the first substantial 
 instalments were paid of the heavy debt of retribution 
 which Asia had accumulated in Europe. The destinies 
 of Russia were again in its own hands. Europe stared 
 at the wild creature that issued forth from the woods 
 and claimed a place in the commonwealth of Christian 
 nations. There was so much that was rude and Oriental 
 in the government, the laws, the customs, the religious 
 ideas, and the superstitions of the Muscovites, that it 
 was small wonder that the western peoples hesitated 
 to admit them within the civilized pale. It was not so 
 much that Russia had not had a fair start, like the 
 others, but that it had passed through a long period of 
 suspended animation, while they were enjoying an active 
 and progressive social life. Its sudden resurrection and 
 appearance " in the councils of Europe," after three 
 centuries of hibernation in the forests of the Volga, was 
 as if a rough feudal baron of the Front-de-Bceuf type 
 had presented himself at the board of Queen Elizabeth, 
 and taken a seat between Sir Philip Sydney and Lord 
 Bacon. 
 
 Travellers, merchants, and diplomatists from the 
 west, who began to flock to the capital of the Czar, 
 wondered and laughed over the astonishing rudeness of 
 the court manners, the extreme brutality and ignorance 
 even of the highest nobility, and the primitive abase- 
 ment of the people ; and the remarkable doings of the 
 Russian ambassadors at the European courts were ob- 
 served with the half-amused, half-contemptuous interest 
 with which we would regard the behaviour of a deputa- 
 tion from the Negus of Abyssinia. The descriptions 
 given by early English travellers and traders to Muscovy 
 
 (718) 9
 
 130 MUSCOVITE COURT MANNERS. 
 
 are Bull of almost incredible details concerning the 
 manners of the capital, and even of the Czar's palace, 
 the uncouth and barbarous demeanour of personages of 
 the blood-royal, the gross savagery and turbulence of the 
 boyards, and the extreme enslavement of the peasants. 
 
 The crack of the knout was heard in the court as well 
 as in tin- humblest hut in the land; and down to our 
 own day it has continued to be an ominous symbol of 
 Russia's degradation. Not only the old Grand Princes, 
 but Czars of the Romanoff line were in the habit of pub- 
 licly whipping personages of the highest rank with their 
 own hand. Ivan the Terrible beat and slew his boyards, 
 and killed his eldest son Ivan with blows of his " iron 
 staff." 
 
 It is recorded of the Czar Alexis I., the second of 
 the Romanoffs, that so mild and easy of temper was 
 he that he never allowed himself to go beyond " kicks 
 and cuffs." His son, Peter the Great, had his first wife, 
 Eudoxia, repeatedly knouted by his orders ; and his only 
 son, the Czarevitch Alexis, died under the lash. Of an 
 aristocracy according to our notions, or of aristocratic 
 Eeelings, there was indeed none in Russia. During the 
 three hundred years of Tartar rule the blood of the noble 
 families had received large accessions from Mongol and 
 Turkish stocks, though little of such admixture had 
 taken place among the lower orders. Tartar mirzas 
 were in many cases appointed lords of the Russian soil 
 and peasantry, and gradually embraced Christianity. 
 The great noble was rather after the Eastern than of 
 the Western model. Under an autocratic government 
 every effort has been made to bridle the power of the 
 nobility and remove out of the way all danger of pos-
 
 IGNORANCE AND BARBARISM. 131 
 
 sible rivalry from this source, with the result that the 
 Czar has become, in a more literal sense than other 
 Christian sovereigns, the sole " fountain of honour," and 
 rank in Russia a matter of official position rather than 
 of hereditary claim. 
 
 With the higher and highest ranks of society so bar- 
 barous and uncultured, it may be left to imagination to 
 picture the depths of ignorance and supei-stition in which 
 the body of the Russian people were steeped. In the 
 course of three centuries the iron of the Tartar fetters 
 had entered their souls. They had broken the links of 
 foreign oppression, but the chain of ancient habit still 
 bound them. They had been shut out from all pro- 
 gressive influences, and thrown on their own resources, 
 and these had not sufficed to keep them abreast of the 
 times ; for the Russians are more distinguished for their 
 quickness in imitating the arts and industries of their 
 neighbours than in originating new movements in 
 thought or labour. If they looked towards the west, 
 they met only the averted and hostile faces of rivals — 
 Poles, Swedes, and Germans — opposed to them on 
 grounds of nationality and religion. The more distant 
 countries of Europe — England and France — which had 
 not as yet begun to feel jealousy or apprehension of the 
 new nation that had just achieved its emancipation, were 
 too remote to have a powerful influence on their develop- 
 ment, thouo - h English merchantmen beo'an to navio-ate 
 the White Sea, and our flag even floated on the Caspian, 
 while the faces of many of our countrymen — agents of 
 the Muscovy Company, under the protection of the Czar 
 — were to be seen in the crowds that thronged the 
 streets of Moscow. But away from the seats of com-
 
 132 PETER THE GREAT. 
 
 mercial movement the customs, ideas, and beliefs of 
 times anterior even to feudalism — a patriarchal type of 
 Bociety, which had elsewhere been long obliterated— 
 existed in almost unimpaired strength; and, fostered by 
 many causes, they have continued more or less in force 
 down to the present day. 
 
 The chief of all the European streams is almost the 
 only one that does not mingle its waters, with those of 
 the other rivers of the earth, in the great circumfluent 
 ocean, pouring them instead into a salt lake of Inner 
 Asia. The Russian people also — the most powerful, in 
 numbers, at least, of the European nations — had their 
 i lono- turned in the same direction as the current of 
 
 O 
 
 the Volga, and dwelt, first by reason of an evil destiny, 
 and afterwards from prejudice and ignorance, a race apart 
 from others, and taking little share in their interests 
 and aims. 
 
 At length, however, a giant in energy and intellect 
 arose in their midst — a man who had at once the 
 keenest vision for their defects and the most ab- 
 solute power over their persons and property. Peter 
 the Great seized the lagging Russian nation fiercely 
 and roughly by the throat, and dragged it from its 
 moping seclusion in the Volga forests into the full light 
 of modern civilization. Keeping a vice-like hold upon 
 it, he entered on one of the most stupendous " matches 
 against time " ever witnessed in the history of the world, 
 spurning it forward with savage blows and kicks, until 
 he had worn out in the struggle his own herculean 
 strength, but had launched his country on the track of 
 progress on which the nations of the west had already 
 embarked.
 
 OLD AND NEW RUSSIA. 133 
 
 From that moment the political supremacy began to 
 leave the banks of the Volga; but Moscow long continued, 
 and still remains, in the most essential respects, the 
 centre of Russia's social and religious life, as of its com- 
 mercial and industrial activity. In the neighbourhood 
 of the great river is still to be found all that is most 
 characteristic of Russian nature and feelings, observances 
 and prejudices. " Old Russia" — the Russia of Czar Ivan 
 the Terrible, before Peter came with his " reforms " to 
 change the fixed and venerated features of the ancient 
 national life — may be discovered with little trouble 
 under a covering, sometimes a very thin covering, of 
 modern civilization. Moscow has been robbed of much 
 of its importance by its rival, but it is still the symbol 
 and the nucleus of the conservative Muscovy of the 
 past, which is not extinct, but only slowly yielding 
 to the influences of inevitable change. St. Petersburg 
 may be the capital of Russia, but Moscow is still the 
 most remarkable, the most typical, and the most interest- 
 ing of Russian cities.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 MOSCOW. 
 
 'HERE is little in the environment of Moscow 
 that announces to the traveller his approach 
 to a populous metropolis. No large and 
 busy towns cluster round the capital, acting- 
 it 3 its feeders, and threatening to be its rivals in trade. 
 There is little trace of the increased density of popula- 
 tion and cultivated land, the quickening of the current 
 of commerce, the intersecting roads, the chimney-stalks, 
 the forges, and the villas that are usually grouped about 
 a great seat of luxury and business. The old capital of 
 the Czars comes upon the traveller as a surprise. It 
 seems to have dropped down upon the empty waste out 
 of the clouds. Around it, and almost up to its very 
 walls, stretch the interminable plain and forest — the 
 la more thinned, perhaps, and the scattered villages 
 c and more closely set than usual, but the scene 
 differing in no material feature from the ordinary aspect 
 of solemn monotony and silent and empty vastness that 
 elsewhere characterize the Russian landscape. 
 
 Moscow is the geographical as well as the political 
 and intellectual centre of Great Russia. It is situated 
 on the Moskva, chiefly on the left or northern bank,
 
 A PICTURE OF RUSSIAN HISTORY. 135 
 
 half way between the Oka and the parent stream of the 
 Volga. Around it are grouped the old Russ princi- 
 palities, which the ambition of the Grand Princes of 
 Moscow added one by one to their dominions, until they 
 had gathered in their hands a power capable of grappling 
 with their old Asiatic conquerors, and of rivalling the 
 kingdoms of Europe. Moscow grew at the cost of the 
 surrounding cities, many of which were its elders in 
 date by hundreds of years. It was the policy of its 
 princes to focus here the power, the prestige, and the 
 sanctity with which they surrounded their throne. The 
 impetus and the importance which it obtained in these 
 days have preserved to it, down to our own times, the 
 long lead that it took of its rivals. Though it has been 
 discrowned and almost deserted by its Czars, it is a city 
 of six hundred thousand souls, a metropolis that in 
 wealth and population exceeds nearly tenfold any other 
 city of Great Russia. 
 
 The aspect of Moscow is not unworthy of the 
 glorious memories and strange and terrible vicissi- 
 tudes of its past, or of the important role it still 
 plays in history. Built, like Rome, on seven hills, it 
 does not yield, in the eyes of half of Europe at least, to 
 that imperial city itself in the grandeur and sadness of 
 its associations, or in the beauty and sacredness of its 
 monumental remains. Venice does not present aspects 
 more unique, bizarre, and magnificent to the lover of the 
 picturesque. Paris has not witnessed more tragic scenes 
 of unmuzzled human passion and high-strung heroism, 
 of national glory and humiliation. Moscow is a picture 
 of Russian history and the Russian character limned in 
 timber and in stone. It is the true growth of the soil.
 
 A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW. 
 
 the highest development, so far, of the national genius; 
 for St. Petersburg — a mere European city, an imitation 
 of modern Paris — is no more to be compared with it in 
 historical interest and suggestive individuality of type 
 than it is in antiquity. The first glimpse of "Holy 
 Mother Moscow of the White Walls" surprises, delights, 
 and puzzles the visitor, however much he has familiar- 
 ized himself beforehand with the tale of its marvels and 
 its charms. 
 
 Looking down upon Moscow from the belfry of one of 
 its hundred towers, or from its flanking hills, we seem 
 to gaze on a scene that is half in the dreamland of 
 fable, and half founded on a solid base of gross earth — 
 on a city that has been the joint product of the labours 
 of Eastern afreets and unlettered rustics. Broad and 
 long, like the realms of the Great White Czar, the wilder- 
 ness of roofs stretches out below you, with wide blanks 
 here and there between the masses of building that 
 speak of space and loneliness in the midst of a teeming 
 population. 
 
 No order or plan can be traced in the arrange- 
 ment of the crooked streets and lanes, and of the 
 broad squares, crescents, and places ; and no standard of 
 taste with which we are familiar has regulated the pro- 
 portion and the form of the buildings. Bewildering 
 contrasts of colour, fantastic combinations of all styles — 
 Asiatic and European, old and new, barbaric and civilized 
 —everywhere meet the eye. The sun blazes on the 
 gilded crosses, balls, vanes, and crescents, the silver- 
 tipped minarets, and the domes — green, azure, and ver- 
 milion, or spangled with stars — of four hundred Chris- 
 tian churches, many of which might easily be mistaken
 
 MOSCOW CONTRASTS. 1:37 
 
 for Mohammedan mosques. Fortress, temple, and tri- 
 umphal arch; campanile, steeple, and cupola; grim palaces 
 of boyarcls of the old regime ; gloomy convent walls ; 
 Greek porticos of seminaries, theatres, and literary and 
 scientific institutions, and light and airy edifices for the 
 treatment of disease or the succour of the orphan or the 
 aged poor, are mingled together, as if with set purpose to 
 bring out the wonderful diversity between ancient and 
 modern canons of taste and modes of living. The green 
 painted metal roofs of the houses, the orchards of fruit- 
 trees, the avenues of lime, maple, and elm, the grassy 
 slopes and green lawns offer a grateful relief to the eye 
 that ranges over this city of palaces, hovels, and gardens. 
 Through the midst of the buildings flows the Moskva, 
 bearing barges loaded with farm produce or manu- 
 factured wares, crossed by handsome bridges, and over- 
 hung by the walls and towers and sloping banks of turf 
 and greenery of the famous Kremlin. 
 
 If we descend into the streets, and thread our way 
 through the busy, winding thoroughfares, the impression 
 made by the general view of the city is deepened rather 
 than removed. The contrasts of types and ideas is 
 visible in the people as well as in the houses, though it 
 is true that the progress of " modern improvement " is 
 every day stealing from Moscow some feature that 
 marked its half Oriental individuality. Riches and 
 poverty live " cheek by jowl." The cottage of the 
 humble citizen is next door to the spacious mansion of 
 the noble. The lowly wooden booth of the small trader 
 stands between the glaring front of the Orthodox church, 
 surmounted by its towering belfry, and the imposing- 
 residence of some great city merchant. The endeavour to
 
 L38 THE KITAI-GOROD. 
 
 u plan and symmetry in the direction and con- 
 nection of the streets is more difficult even than when 
 viewed from above. You may roam by the half-hour 
 through crooked lanes and humble thoroughfares, that 
 look as if they had been removed bodily from some 
 small and decaying country town, and suddenly emerge 
 on a broad avenue or handsome boulevard, thronged with 
 a well-dressed crowd, and lined with fashionable shops 
 that would be an ornament to any capital in Europe. 
 
 The city has been rebuilt since the great " burning " of 
 L812. The materials are new, but the old lines have 
 been followed and the old types generally perpetuated ; 
 a proof of the strong conservatism that is so striking a 
 feature in the character of the people of Moscow. But 
 though at first sight there is no more sion of method in 
 the arrangement of its streets than is shown in the 
 threads of a spider's web, a closer examination reveals, 
 if not a plan, at least indications of a process of growth. 
 
 Like a tree, it shows its age by the concentric rings 
 that surround its core — the Kremlin. Close under the 
 eastern walls of the citadel is grouped the Kitai-gorod, 
 the " Chinese City," as some translate it, while others 
 derive the name from that of the natal town of the 
 mother of Ivan the Terrible, in Podolia. This is the 
 mart and place of business of Moscow, and is filled with 
 shops, warehouses, stores, and offices, besides containing 
 the (ireat Bazaar, where the riches of Asia are exchanged 
 for the products of Western countries. Forming an 
 envelope around the Palace of the ancient Czars and the 
 Kitai-gorod, but not crossing to the right bank of the 
 river, is the Bielo-gorod, or " White City," the part of 
 the town chiefly affected by the older families of Moscow, 

 
 THE " WHITE CITY" AND "EARTHEN CITY." 139 
 
 and where are situated many of the modern public 
 buildings, such as the Town Hall, the University, the 
 Mint, and the great Riding-school, where, under a root' 
 five hundred and sixty feet in length by one hundred 
 and fifty-eight feet in breadth, unsupported by pillar or 
 prop of any kind, the troops of the Emperor may be ex- 
 ercised and reviewed during rain or deep snow. Beyond 
 the " White City " is an inner line of boulevards, marking 
 the old city boundary ; and an outer line, surrounding the 
 Kremlin at a distance of a mile and a half from that centre, 
 encloses the Zemlianoi-gorod, or " Earthen City," so called 
 from the earthen bulwarks with which it was defended. 
 In this part of the city are many of the more fashionable 
 streets and squares, and also many of the most squalid 
 and poverty-stricken localities. Outside of all these, but 
 within the modern line of fortifications, which are no 
 less than twenty-five miles in circuit, are the " suburbs," 
 where there are still great unbuilt-on spaces, occupied 
 by gardens, parade-grounds, parks, and ponds. 
 
 If Moscow is the crown of Russia, then the Kremlin 
 is the crown of Moscow. What scenes it has witnessed 
 since the site of the " Church of the Redeemer in the 
 Wood " — the most central of the group of palaces and 
 cathedrals — was part of the primeval forest ! What 
 torrents of blood have flowed here since Prince George 
 Dolguruky, coveting the land, slew the owner, and 
 stuck his spear in the grassy bluff above the Moskva in 
 sign of possession ! Here the political power that had 
 fled from Kiev, and had found temporary refuge first at 
 Suzdal and then at Vladimir, was at length established 
 in a suitable stronghold, where it could maintain itself 
 and grow in strength for many centuries. Here the
 
 140 THE KREMLIN. 
 
 kindred plants of autocratic and sacerdotal authority 
 throve and twined themselves together, sending their 
 united roots deep down into the natures of a super- 
 stitious and conservative people; and a Tartarized court 
 and a priesthood saturated with Byzantine ideas became 
 the moulders of the destinies of one of the most power- 
 ful races in Europe. 
 
 The walls of the Kremlin are two miles in circuit, 
 and the space enclosed within them is triangular in 
 shape, and bounded on its three sides by the Moskva, 
 the Bielo-gorod, and the Kitai-gorod. Seen from the 
 river, or from any point of vantage within the city or 
 in its outskirts, the high, white, crenellated walls, the tall 
 and massive palace fronts, the clustering domes and 
 spires of the cathedrals, monasteries, nunneries, arsenals, 
 treasuries, senate-houses, and patriarchal residences that 
 are crowded together on this spot, make a brave and 
 majestic show. 
 
 From the "White City" the Kremlin is separated 
 by tastefully laid out shrubberies and walks, and 
 from the Kitai-gorod by the wide space of the " Red 
 Place." It is here that the principal entrances to 
 the citadel are found, most notable of all being the 
 " Holy Gate" of Our Saviour of Smolensk, over which is 
 the miracle-working image to which all that enter, from 
 the humblest peasant to the highest in the land — the 
 < !zar himself — must do obeisance. Other celebrated 
 portals are those of St. Nicolas of Mojiask, before which 
 were taken in former times ; and the Gate of the 
 Trinity, built, like the tower over the Saviour Gate, by 
 a Scotchman named Galloway, in the pay of the C2 
 Michael Romanoff.
 
 INVADERS AT THE GATES. 141 
 
 Strange tales these walls might tell, if they could 
 speak, of the scenes they witnessed while Russian his- 
 tory was being written in blood and flame at their 
 feet. A score of times the invader battered at these 
 gates ; and often he gained an entrance, but always 
 to retire at last worsted by the patience and devotion 
 of the faithful Moscovites. In 1233 and 1293 the 
 city was sacked by the Golden Horde ; three times 
 towards the close of the fourteenth century it was 
 assailed by Olgerd and the Lithuanians; in 1381 it 
 was captured and laid waste by Tokhtamish, the lieu- 
 tenant of Tamerlane; in 1571, Devlet Ghirei, Khan of 
 Crim Tartary, seized and burned it nearly to the ground ; 
 in the "Time of Troubles" that followed the extinction 
 of Ivan the Terrible's family it was held alternately by 
 Zaporogian and Don Cossacks, Tartars, and Poles ; and 
 between 1682 and 1698 it witnessed the sanguinary 
 insurrections and massacres of the " Streltsi," or national 
 guards. 
 
 Often the guardians of the Kremlin gates watched 
 armed men fighting in eveiy street, or the whole city 
 wrapped in flames that licked the topmost pinnacle of 
 its towers, melted the lead from the roofs of the most 
 sacred churches, and brought the consecrated bells and 
 blazing rafters crashing to the pavement. In the con- 
 flagration that followed the incursion of the Nogai 
 Tartars, no fewer than one hundred thousand of the 
 citizens are said to have lost their lives. Terrible pes- 
 tilences have visited Moscow in the train of fire, war, 
 and civil commotion ; and during a visit of the plague 
 last century thousands of the people knelt day and 
 night in the Red Place before the holy image on the
 
 !42 CALAMITY A. YD TRIUMPH. 
 
 principal gate, praying in agony that the pest might be 
 removed from their homes. 
 
 Scenes of triumph and peace as well as of horror have 
 
 1 u enacted here. The vetche hell of Novgorod and the 
 
 insignia of the Grand Princes of Kiev have been con- 
 veyed hither, as was, at a much later date, the throne 
 of the Polish kings. Solemn counsel and rude wassail 
 were held within by the old Grand Princes amid their 
 Is and okolnitches ; and through the gateway of 
 the Kremlin, Sophia Palseologus, daughter of the Empe- 
 ror of the East, entered to become the wife of Ivan the 
 Great, bringing with her foreign tastes for arts and 
 refinement, artists, architects, and musicians, and the 
 germs of a renaissance in Russia such as had already 
 been transplanted from the East to Italy and France. 
 [van the Terrible bore through it the spoils of the con- 
 quered khanates of the Volga, and, with the aid of his 
 Italian artificers, erected in front of the Holy Gate the 
 famous Church of St. Basil the Blessed, in memory of 
 the overthrow of Kazan. 
 
 The triumphs of Peter the Great and Catherine II. 
 have been celebrated here ; but the supreme crisis of 
 iw's fate, the saddest and most glorious hour in her 
 eventful history, was when the "grand army" under Na- 
 poleon, cresting the " Sparrow Hills" to the west of the 
 city, came in sight of its leagues of glittering spires, and 
 filed in through the Nicolas Gate into the citadel of the 
 < V. us. It is a poor heart that can read without a thrill 
 of conflicting sympathy and pity the story of how, in 
 October 1812, the citizens of Moscow set fire with their 
 own hands to their holy and beautiful city, the pride 
 of many generations, thus offering, as has been said, the 

 
 THE BELLS OF MOSCOW. 143 
 
 grandest sacrifice ever laid on the altar of patriotism ; 
 and how the discomfited invaders, after blowing up 
 part of the buildings of the Kremlin, were compelled to 
 abandon the prize that had brought them so far only to 
 turn to ashes in their grasp, and begin that terrible 
 retreat in the dead of winter which so few of them 
 were to survive. 
 
 The central shape that lifts itself above the group on 
 the Kremlin is the Tower of Ivan Veliki — " John the 
 Great" — built, however, not by that aggressive prince, 
 but by the Czar Boris Godunoff, the chosen of the boyards 
 when the line of Ruric failed. Boris has left many 
 monuments ; for though termed a " usurper," and though 
 he fastened the yoke of serfage on the necks of the 
 people, he was a great patron of art. None of his 
 works, however, is so imposing as this. The tower, 
 measured to the top of the cross, is three hundred and 
 twenty-five feet in height, and from the uppermost of 
 its five stories a magnificent view is obtained of the city. 
 
 A great chime of bells, the largest weighing sixty-four 
 tons, is suspended in the tower; and when at midnight 
 on Easter -eve these monsters " give tongue," mingling 
 their deep voices with the fainter sounds of the innu- 
 merable other bells of Moscow and with the deafening- 
 roar of the batteries of artillery, and when all the popu- 
 lation of the city seem gathered in the " Great Place" 
 below, bearing lighted tapers in their hands, it needs an 
 effort on the part of the spectator to realize that he is 
 actually living in the latter half of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury, and that the people around him are not, as Mr. 
 Wallace almost fancied them to be, a gathering of the 
 ancient citizens " called out to repel a Tartar horde
 
 144 77/ A' CHURCHES OF THE KREMLIN. 
 
 thundering at their gates." The Russian people have a 
 passion for bells, but the most unwieldy product of this 
 national taste is the " Czar Kolokol" — the Czar of Bells 
 —whose damaged form rests on a pedestal of stone at 
 the foot of the Tower of Ivan Veliki. It is said to 
 have been tolled at the birth of Peter the Great; but for 
 y two hundred years past it has rested on the 
 around, with a piece weighing eleven tons broken out of 
 its side. The total weight of the bell is no less than 
 four hundred and forty-four thousand pounds — about 
 two hundred tons — and its height is upwards of nine- 
 teen feet. 
 
 To the west of Ivan Veliki, and between it and the 
 ancient Palace of the Czars, are the most famous of the 
 ecclesiastical buildings in the Kremlin enclosure, — the 
 Cathedral of the Assumption, where the Emperors of 
 Russia are crowned, and where are the tombs of the 
 sainted metropolitans of Moscow ; the Cathedral of 
 Michael the Archangel, where are the last resting-places 
 of the line of Czars down to Peter the Great ; the 
 Cathedral of the Annunciation, with its floor paved with 
 agates and other precious stones, and in which the former 
 rulers of Russia were baptized and married; the Church 
 of the Redeemer, the first Christian church in Moscow, 
 and where repose the ashes of Stephen of Perm, the 
 earliest Russian martyr ; and the Sacristy, or Meeting- 
 place of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church, an 
 immense building, wherein are preserved, amid other 
 curiosities and treasures, the robes, ornaments, and relics 
 of the old patriarchs, and the " sacred oil," transmitted 
 from Constantinople by the first Christian missionaries, 
 with which the Emperors are anointed.
 
 
 THE CZAR ON THE " RED STAIRCASE:' 145 
 
 It is on the occasion of this ceremony of coronation 
 that Moscow regains for a little time the semblance of 
 its old self. At other times, the halls of the ancient 
 and modern palaces on the Kremlin are silent, except to 
 the tread of the sentinel or the sight-seer. For weeks 
 and months beforehand the city has been on the tiptoe 
 of expectation, and the loyal ardour of the people has 
 been at fever heat. Civil and military officials, deputies, 
 ecclesiastics, troops, visitors from every part of the 
 empire, have gathered thither to witness or take part in 
 the fetes and religious exercises that are conducted with 
 the utmost splendour and solemnity, and with a punctil- 
 ious regard to the minutest detail of the old established 
 forms. 
 
 First, the uncrowned Czar comes to take up his 
 quarters at the Petrovsky Palace, a large Gothic struc- 
 ture outside the city, in the direction of St. Petersburg. 
 After three days comes the entry in state into Moscow. 
 The city dignitaries meet their Emperor at the Tverskaia 
 Gate ; the military authorities of the Kremlin receive 
 him at the Holy Portal, where he doffs his hat reverently 
 to the sacred figure that guards it ; the senate await 
 him in front of the Cathedral of the Assumption, and 
 the members of the Holy Synod, with the Metropolitan, 
 salute him within the porch. He makes the round of 
 the tombs of the old Czars in the Church of the Arch- 
 angel ; and then, ascending the steps of the Red Stair- 
 case leading to the palace of his ancestors, he turns 
 round upon the terrace at the top to show the people 
 I the light of his eyes." It was down these steps that 
 the " false Dimitri," Gregory Otrepief, a monk of the 
 Miracle Monastery at the Holy Gate, who simulated the 
 
 (718) ]0
 
 146 THE IMPERIAL PALACE. 
 
 murdered son of Ivan the Terrible, after being lifted 
 into the throne by the wave of popular favour, was 
 flung by the boyards, and stabbed to death in the court 
 below. The insurgent Streltsi, in the troublous early 
 s of Peter the Great, entered the palace by this 
 way, and cut to pieces the great minister Matvief, and 
 other relatives and friends of the young Czar, before the 
 eyes of his mother ; and by the Red Staircase also 
 Napoleon and his generals formally entered the imperial 
 residence. Within is the Gold Court, where was an- 
 ciently the audience chamber of the Czars, and where 
 many a turbulent and bloody scene has been enacted, as 
 when Ivan the Terrible transfixed with his iron staff the 
 foot of the messenger sent to him by his old general 
 Kurbski, after the latter had taken refuge with the 
 Poles. 
 
 Such reminiscences as these, however, are out of 
 place on an occasion like the coronation of the Emperor 
 of All the Russias ; and we pass with the stately proces- 
 sion to the portion of the palace facing the Moskva, 
 and which, like the Gold Court, and the great halls of 
 the orders of St. Andrew and St. Alexander Nevski, 
 and the picture gallery connected with them, has been 
 renovated or entirely rebuilt by the Emperors Paul and 
 Nicolas. 
 
 In the Great Palace fronting the river — a stately 
 and lofty structure, in the composition of which a 
 many diverse styles are oddly mingled — the Em- 
 peror resides while the indispensable preliminaries to 
 the coronation — the military reviews, the proclamations 
 in the Red Place, and at market and city gates, the vigils 
 and fasts at the holy shrines of the patriarchs — are duly 

 
 OLD " TEREM" LIFE. 147 
 
 gone through, and the regalia of Russia — the orb, the 
 sceptre, the imperial robes of purple, and the great and 
 little crowns — are removed in state by the grandees of 
 the realm from the Palace of Facets. This last is the 
 only portion of the old pile that has survived the ravages 
 of fire and time. Below are the banqueting hall and the 
 throne, and the upper chambers formed the " Terem," 
 where the females of the imperial family were formerly 
 immured. 
 
 In these darkling vaulted rooms did many genera- 
 tions of Czarinas and elderly spinsters of the blood- 
 royal pass their days in more than Oriental seclusion. 
 In the imperial family the old Russian ideal pi woman's 
 domestic virtues and position — an ideal derived not from 
 the Mohammedan conquerors, but from Byzantine sources 
 ■ — could be carried out to the letter. Down to the days 
 of Peter, it was treason even for high officers of state to 
 see the wife or the daughters of the Czar. If a medical 
 man were called in to prescribe for one of the ladies, the 
 windows were darkened, and he had to feel the pulse of 
 his patient through a covering of gauze. No subject 
 was thought good enough to espouse a daughter of the 
 Lord of Muscovy, and ignorance and prejudice were still 
 barriers strong enough to keep out all foreign suitors. 
 So these high-born princesses pined and soured and 
 shrivelled in loneliness ; filling up the hours by religious 
 exercises, and such small intrigues and jealousies as will 
 naturally arise among a score or so of women of any rank 
 who are cooped up together with nothing better to do ; 
 and scandal said that they occasionally solaced them- 
 selves with vodka, and even found means, in spite of the 
 guards set over them, of receiving visits from their lovers.
 
 CHOOSING A CZARINA. 
 
 It was Peter's mother — Natalie Naryskin, wife 
 of the Czar Alexis — who first, to the horror of the 
 sticklers i'<>r old customs, drew aside the corner of her 
 carriage curtains when she appeared in public; and it 
 Peter himself who opened the prison doors to these 
 forlorn captives and let in the light of day upon the 
 Terem, savagely shaving the head, knouting, banishing 
 to a nunnery, and finally divorcing his wife Eudoxia 
 because she clung stubbornly to the conservative notions 
 of the imperial family life. The Grand Dukes and Czars 
 had a singular and thoroughly Eastern method of choos- 
 ing a mistress of the Terem, and when it was thought 
 right that the "father" of the people should marry, the 
 pick of the maidens in the empire were sent to Moscow, 
 and from among these, after preparation such as Esther 
 had to undergo before being admitted into the presence 
 of Ahasuerus, and careful comparison, the royal choice 
 was made. Peter, though he chose as his second mate 
 the Livonian peasant girl who was crowned in the 
 Kremlin as Catherine I., definitely laid aside this archaic 
 practice — which was surely more honoured in the breach 
 than in the observance — and the Empresses of Russia 
 have since been chosen from the princely and royal 
 families of Germany. 
 
 This reminds us, however, that their imperial highnesses 
 are waiting in the Palace of Paul I. for the coronation 
 ceremony. Moving in grand procession, accompanied by 
 the insignia of state, and with the eyes of all Moscow 
 fixed upon them, the actors in this imposing pageant 
 descend again the Red Staircase and enter the Cathedral 
 of the Assumption. The Emperor and Empress walk 
 under a canopy supported by thirty-two general officers.
 
 THE CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION. 149 
 
 The "royal doors" are passed, and the High Priest 
 and King of Holy Russia is within the most sacred of 
 Moscow's fanes. For once the Church of the Assump- 
 tion has thrown off its air of shadowy mystery and 
 gloom, and the pictures, images, and icons of patriarch, 
 saint, and evangelist gleam in the light of a thousand 
 tapers. Small as this building is in size and grotesque 
 in decoration and arrangements, it is perhaps the most 
 interesting church in Russia, and is the central spot 
 round which Russian religious feeling revolves. " So 
 fraught is it with recollections," says Dean Stanley, " so 
 teeming with worshippers, so bursting with tombs and 
 pictures from the pavement to the cupola, that its small- 
 ness of space is forgotten in the fulness of its contents." 
 And M. Rambaud, describing its normal appearance, 
 says : " One can hardly believe that the Assumption is 
 of the same date as the luminous churches of the renais- 
 sance. The architect" — the Italian Fioraventi — " or 
 those who inspired him, has here tried to reproduce the 
 mysterious obscurity of the old temples of Egypt and 
 the East. The cathedral has no windows, but only 
 close-barred shot-holes, which admit into the interior a 
 doubtful light, like that which filters through the hole 
 of a dungeon. This pale glow touches the massive pil- 
 lars covered with a tawny gold ; on the tarnished back- 
 ground stand out, severe and grave, the faces of the saints 
 and doctors ; it dwells here and there on the relief of 
 the golden iconostase (altar-screen), covered by miracu- 
 lous images, sprinkled with diamonds and jewels ; it 
 hardly lights the representation of the ' Last Judgment' 
 and the ' End of the World' painted on the walls. All 
 the upper part of the temple is partly enveloped in
 
 150 A SELF-CROWNED AUTOCRAT. 
 
 shadow, like the crypts of the Pharaohs; the pictures 
 which cover the vault can hardly be distinguished. The 
 artist has evidently made them for the eye of God, not 
 for that of man." 
 
 In the centre of the nave, facing the high altar, a 
 platform is placed, on which are set the two thrones 
 of Ivan the Great and Michael Romanoff, and on 
 these the Emperor and Empress solemnly take their 
 seats. Then his majesty, having made his public " con- 
 fession of faith," invests himself with the robe of purple 
 and other symbols of royalty, and, as the sole fountain 
 of power and authority in the realm, places the crown 
 upon his own head. At the same moment the great 
 bell in the Tower of Ivan Veliki rolls out his ponderous 
 notes, which are responded to by the four hundred lesser 
 chimes of Moscow, the roar of the cannon, the cheering 
 of the populace, and chanting of the cathedral choir, all 
 announcing, by a deafening and impressive volume of 
 sound, that the Autocrat of the Russias, King of Poland 
 and Grand Duke of Finland, has formally assumed to 
 himself the duties of the lord and father of his people. 
 At the foot of the altar the Emperor is anointed with 
 the " holy oil," and the procession having returned to 
 the palace, the solemn ceremonies of the day end with 
 the coronation banquet in the great banqueting hall, 
 where the Czar sits enthroned, apart, clad in his imperial 
 robes and adorned with sceptre and orb, while his nobles 
 feast around him. 
 
 Behind the central masses of buildings — the palaces, 
 cathedrals, senate houses, and courts of law — and stretch- 
 ing along the side of the enclosure adjoining the Bielo- 
 gorod, are the Treasury and Arsenal of the Kremlin. The 

 
 THE TREASURY AND SACRISTY. 151 
 
 former is a vast museum of the treasures of e-old, silver, 
 and precious stones, and the objects of historical and 
 antiquarian interest, gathered here by the monarchs of 
 Russia from time immemorial. Nowhere, perhaps, can 
 such a collection of " barbaric pearl and gold " be seen. 
 Thrones, crowns, and coronation robes, crusted with 
 rubies, diamonds, and sapphires ; drinking-cups, caskets, 
 candelabra, ewers, and flagons of massive silver; jewellers' 
 and goldsmiths' work of the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- 
 turies, military standards and trophies of war, old armour 
 and weapons ; horse-trappings and antique carriages ; 
 relics of dead Czars and Czarinas, and mementoes of 
 glorious or disastrous events of Russian history, are 
 arranged in a long suite of apartments, through which 
 the visitor might roam for days and still find that he 
 had barely seen the moiety of the rich and curious 
 objects they contain. Some of these one would have 
 fancied the head of the state would have preferred 
 to have hidden from public sight as too suggestive 
 of the dark stains of Russian dynastic history and the 
 evanescence of royal splendours — such, for instance, as 
 the murderous " staff" of Ivan the Terrible, and the 
 boots with which Peter the Great kicked many a re- 
 fractory noble. 
 
 In the Sacristy is a similar collection of ecclesiastical 
 relics of great antiquity and rarity, comprising mitres, 
 rosaries, mantyases, omophorions, sakkos, and other epis- 
 copal vestments, crosses, reliquaries, panagias, images, 
 icons, church plate, croziers, and the rest of the sacerdotal 
 paraphernalia, many of them of great value and elaborate 
 workmanship, the gifts of pious Czars, boyards, or com- 
 moners to the Church or its dead patriarchs and bishops.
 
 THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL. 
 
 The most notable object in the neighbourhood of the 
 Arsenal is the Tzar-Pushka — the monster or "Czar" 
 cannon east in the reign of Feodore, brother and pre- 
 sor of Peter the Great, and which weighs nearly 
 forty tons. Along the walls are arranged the ordnance 
 captured by the Russians in Avar, many of them pieces 
 taken from the French during the retreat from Moscow. 
 But we have already lingered too long within the 
 enclosure of the Kremlin, though we have only peeped 
 into the interior of one or two of its thirty churches, 
 and barely glanced at the associations, sad and terrible, 
 glorious and revolting, with which its palaces are 
 thronged. It is time to pass out again from the deserted 
 halls of the Czars into the din of the city; and emerging 
 into the Red Place, an object strikes the eye that is fitted 
 to dazzle and stun the most phlegmatic of sightseers. 
 
 The Cathedral of Vassili Blajennoi ("St. Basil the 
 Beatified") lifts up its whimsical shape and flaunts its 
 gorgeous plumage almost in front of the Holy Gate. 
 Travellers, historians, and archaeologists have cudgelled 
 their brains to find something wherewith to liken this 
 amazing edifice. Theophile Gautier describes it as a 
 church surmounted by six or eight round cupolas, all of 
 different heights and forms, "some beaten into facets, 
 others cut; these carved into diamond points, like the 
 ananas, those in spirals; others again, marked with 
 scales, Lozenge-shaped, or celled like a honeycomb." 
 From its topmost turret to the pavement, Vassili Blajen- 
 noi is daubed with glaring and crude colours; in plan 
 and decoration it is more like the insane dream of the 
 architect of the peacock throne of Ava than a sober 
 Christian sanctuary. Rambaud figures it as "the most
 
 THE MONUMENTS IN THE RED PLACE. 153 
 
 brilliant bird of tropical forests that had suddenly taken 
 the shape of a cathedral ; " and Haxthausen compares it 
 to " an immense dragon with shining scales, crouching 
 and sleeping." 
 
 The architect was an Italian artist, well acquainted 
 with the grand, grave, and simple church edifices of 
 his own land ; but we seem to see more here of the 
 distorted and fanatical character of its founder, Ivan 
 the Terrible, and of the crude and barbarous tastes 
 of Tartarized Russia, than of any foreign genius. It 
 was built in commemoration of the conquest of Kazan, 
 above the bones of an idiot saint and miracle-worker, 
 whose shrine is shown within ; and so pleased was Ivan 
 with the work that, as tradition says, he rewarded the 
 architect by putting out his eyes, " in order that he 
 might never build another like it." 
 
 Another noticeable object in the Red Place is the " Lob- 
 noe Mesto," or tribune of stone, supposed to have origi- 
 nally been a place of execution, and from whence the Czars 
 harangued the people, and the Metropolitans blessed the 
 Muscovite armies ere they marched out to war. In front of 
 it took place a scene of blood, in which a Czar — Peter the 
 Great — wielded the axe of the headsman, — the whole- 
 sale execution of the Streltsi, that put a final end to 
 that body and their dangerous uprisings and intrigues. 
 Finally, in the Red Place, and facing the Kremlin wall, 
 is the national monument to the boyard Pojarsky and 
 the peasant - butcher Minin, whose patriotism saved 
 Russia in the terrible " time of troubles " that followed 
 the extinction of the old line of Czars, the appearances of 
 the " false Dimitris," and the invasion of the Poles, and 
 led the way to the establishment of a new royal race in
 
 154 SIGHTS OF MOSCOW. 
 
 the person of the child Michael Romanoff, the descendant 
 of a family of Prussian immigrants. The old Romanoff 
 Eouse, where Anastasia, wife of Ivan the Terrible, was 
 nurtured, where her nephew, the Patriarch Philarete, 
 lived, and his son, the Czar Michael, was born, is shown 
 in one of the neighbouring streets in the Kitai-gorod ; 
 and the curious may still see there the arrangements and 
 furnishings of an ancient boyard household. 
 
 The other sights of Moscow w T e must pass over quickly, 
 though many of them are of great interest: — for instance, 
 the chapel dedicated to the Iberian Mother of God, the 
 miraculous picture in which is to this day carried period- 
 ically through the city to heal the sick and bring bless- 
 ings ; the Church of Our Lady of Georgia, erected in 
 commemoration of the first Russian annexations beyond 
 the Caucasus ; the Temple of Our Saviour, an immense 
 structure near the stone bridge over the Moskva, beo-un 
 in 1812, to celebrate the repulse of the French, and never 
 likely to be finished, as it has been found that its foun- 
 dations have been laid on a bog ; the Suwaroff Tower, 
 erected by Peter the Great, and often the scene of his orgies 
 with his foreign favourites, and now used as a reservoir 
 of the city water supply ; the Red Gate, a grand trium- 
 phal arch erected by Peter on his return from the Azov 
 expedition, by which Russian territory was first made to 
 touch the basin of the Black »Sea ; the Empress's Palace 
 on the Smolensk road; the University, the Public Library, 
 and museums, etc. Neither must we forget that pecu- 
 liarly Muscovite institution, the Foundling Hospital, 
 where every year twelve thousand infants who have 
 been abandoned by their mothers are admitted and 
 nurtured at an annual cost to the state of some £20,000. 

 
 HISTORIC MONASTERIES. 155 
 
 Many monastic institutions are scattered round the 
 suburbs of the city, and in former times they often 
 served it as outer fortifications against the inroads of 
 Tartar and Pole. Celebrated among these is the Sunon- 
 off Monastery, founded five centuries ago by the famous 
 St. Sergius of Troitsa, who here blessed Prince Dimitri 
 before he set out to overthrow the Golden Horde on the 
 banks of the Don. From the top of the belfry (three 
 hundred and thirty feet high) of this monastery, which 
 stands on the most elevated site near Moscow, a magnifi- 
 cent sight can be had of the city and its surroundings. 
 In the Novo Deviche Monastery, close to the Moskva, 
 Boris Godunoff took refuge in the " troubles," and was 
 hence called by the boyards to reign for a time over 
 Russia ; and it was here that the Regent-Princess Sophia 
 was compelled to retire when her strong-willed brother 
 Peter was old enough to seize the power from her ambi- 
 tious hands. 
 
 But better worth study than any of the ancient monu- 
 ments or modern sights of Moscow are the citizens of the 
 old capital. They entertain many strangers. Visitors 
 come from enormous distances and settle down in their 
 midst ; and few places present such opportunities of 
 studying the costume, physiognomy, and manners of 
 Asian and European races as the Great Bazaar at Moscow. 
 The Tartar element in the population is considerable; 
 and there is a strong body of German artisans and mer- 
 chants, with a sprinkling of many other nationalities. 
 But the people of each race dwell as a rule apart, and 
 form little coteries among themselves. 
 
 The true Moscovite does not care to mingle with them 
 except in the places of trade. He is proud and not a little
 
 156 THE CITIZENS OF MOSCOW. 
 
 jealous of the honour of being a citizen of Holy Moscow 
 and a subject of the White Czar ; and he does not consider 
 that any stranger or pilgrim that is within the city's 
 is worthy of that high distinction. Even the mer- 
 chant prince of Moscow is ultra-national in political 
 9entiment, and ultra-orthodox in religion. You find 
 him, perhaps, polished and courtly in manner; shrewd, 
 well-informed, and intelligent in business; a charming 
 and entertaining companion, well read not only in 
 Russian books but in the literature of other countries; 
 and a lover of hospitality, which he dispenses with over- 
 powering lavishness. He has a pronounced taste for 
 good cheer, music, and jollity ; probably also for art and 
 science; and seems to be a man who away from business 
 heartily enjoys existence without taking too grave and 
 deep a view of its duties and burdens. 
 
 On a surface view, you might easily mistake him, apart 
 from the clumsy and archaic cut of his winter raiment 
 and the amplitude of his beard, for a favourable specimen 
 of his class as it is found in Western countries. You little 
 suspect how thin often is the crust of modern fashion, 
 and how deep the abyss of obsolete ideas and beliefs that 
 is yawning beneath. He has secretly armed himself 
 with a triple mail of prejudices — prejudices of race, of 
 nationality, and of religion — before trusting himself into 
 the paths of progress ; and guarded by this ancient 
 armour he is safe from any influence that might harm 
 the Russian spirit within. A little friction is enough 
 frequently to reveal most unexpected forms of medieval 
 enthusiasm and fanaticism; and you are puzzled to tell 
 whether the cultured gentleman who can discuss with 
 you the merits of Wagner's music, or the theories of
 
 THE HEART OF RUSSIA. 157 
 
 Darwin, is not, after all, a " survival " of the Middle Ages. 
 To the typical Moscovite the Emperor is still the "divine 
 figure," ruling by an unquestionable right that it would 
 be sacrilege to deny or oppose. With the same blind 
 fervour he cherishes the national faith, and patriotism 
 and religion have become so bound together in his belief 
 that they are inseparable. It is his boast that the great 
 " heart " of Russia throbs within the walls of his ancient 
 city, and that all truly national movements have their 
 beginning there. As the latest and not least important 
 instance, the agitation that preceded the Russo-Turkish 
 "War had its first and most significant displays in Moscow. 
 
 If the Moscovite has obsolete faults, it must also be 
 admitted that he has some obsolete virtues. Of hospi- 
 tality, as has been said, he is a royal dispenser. Within 
 his means nothing is too good to be set before his guest; 
 and there is an old-fashioned heartiness and earnestness 
 in his welcome which is rarely met with in these days, 
 when travelling is universal and hotels ubiquitous. 
 When you can penetrate to his heart of hearts, too, the 
 citizen of Moscow is said to prove a stanch friend, who 
 sticks to you through good and evil report and all 
 vicissitudes of fortune. 
 
 But changes are at work even in the ancient capital 
 of the Czars. The ferment of new ideas has worked 
 into the very centre of old Muscovy. Russia is full of 
 vague aspirations and hopes, half-formed and impracti- 
 cable theories of social and political perfection, and of the 
 restless, excited, uneasy feeling that precedes the time 
 when " the old order changes, giving place to new." 
 The bonds of the loyalty to the Czar, and to the creed 
 introduced by Cyril and Methodius, seem to be partially
 
 158 A PATRIOT CITY. 
 
 unloosed even in Moscow. Whatever may be the 
 progress of Nihilism and other monstrosities of modern 
 Russian thought, however, it will be long before the 
 idsitor who looks about him in Moscow with an under- 
 standing eye will fail to discover, still burning brightly 
 in the hearts of the townsfolk, that spirit that led them, 
 when the invader was at their gates, to burn their 
 beautiful city to the ground to save their native land.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HISTORIC SITES IN GREAT RUSSIA. 
 
 N the neighbourhood of Moscow are many- 
 interesting historical sites and pretty bits of 
 scenery — pretty at least for Russia, which is 
 not too richly endowed with the beautiful 
 in landscape. Along the banks of the Moskva espe- 
 cially, both above and below the city, there are numerous 
 pleasing views of wood and water, cultivated land and 
 handsome country seats ; and the fleets of barges, boats, 
 and rafts that ply on the stream add animation to the 
 scene without detracting from its pictorial effect. But 
 the two spots in the vicinity of the city that are, per- 
 haps, best worth a visit are associated, not with the 
 industrial enterprise of the old capital, but with the 
 ecclesiastical and religious life of the country, which in 
 every age of Russian history has been intimately mixed 
 up with all the important affairs of state, and with the 
 daily existence of the humblest peasant. One of these is 
 the Voskresenski,or Resurrection Monastery, better known 
 as the "New Jerusalem," situated about twenty -five 
 miles from Moscow, on the main route to St. Petersburg. 
 Its founder, the famous Nicon, Patriarch of Moscow, 
 sleeps here, after a busy and stormy life, which had,
 
 THE "NEW JERUSALEM." 
 
 perhaps, more influence on the development of the 
 Etusso-Greek Church than had that of any of her other 
 children. In the midst of the patriarch's labours for the 
 reform of the ritual and correction of the canonical 
 and liturgical books of the Church, and of his struggles 
 to retain that predominating political power which the 
 patriarchs had obtained under the first Romanoffs, Nicon 
 found time to build on the Istra, a little tributary of 
 tlir Moskva, a model or exact counterpart of the Church 
 of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem, copying not merely 
 its shape and dimensions, but the smallest details of its 
 construction and ornamentation, so far as they could be 
 ascertained in his clay, and working at the building with 
 his own hands like a common mason. The Istra was 
 rebaptized the Jordan, and a tributary brook the Kedron; 
 a village in the vicinity was named Nazareth ; and a 
 chapel marking the spot where the Czar Alexis I. stood 
 at the consecration of the church in 1657, Eleon. 
 
 Nicon pushed his pretensions to temporal power too far, 
 and was disgraced and banished to a monastery on the 
 White Lake, in a remote corner of the province of Nov- 
 gorod. Later he was pardoned, but died before he could 
 resume his schemes of aggrandizement and reform; and his 
 tomb is now shown in the Chapel of Melchizedek, at the 
 foot of " Golgotha," in the monastery which he raised, 
 i I is reforming zeal also was too ardent, in the view of 
 many of the Russians of his day, lay and cleric. The 
 changes that he introduced in the ancient usages of 
 the Church — especially in " crossing" with three fingers 
 instead of two, the reading of Iesous (Jesus) with 
 two syllables in place of three, the repetition of the 
 Hallelujah thrice instead of twice in the service, and the
 
 RUSSIAN SCHISMATICS. 1G1 
 
 substitution of a cross with two transverse beams where 
 formerly there were three — produced deep and terrible 
 schisms in the Russian Church, which are still unhealed. 
 
 These schismatics (raskolniks) are not to be con- 
 founded with the heretical sects that have also arisen 
 in the bosom of Greek Orthodoxy. Their contention is 
 that they are more orthodox than the Orthodox Church, 
 and alone preserve pure and undefiled from modern cor- 
 ruptions the ancient faith of their fathers. With these 
 Old Believers (Starovertsi) the shaving of the beard is 
 still regarded as a mortal sin, and the Czar himself, as 
 following in the footsteps of that arch-fiend and reformer 
 Peter the Great, is looked upon as little better than 
 Antichrist. An extreme type of the Starovertsi — real 
 Old Seceders — are the " Priestless People," the Bezpo- 
 poftschins, who despise the concession made by their 
 less stanch brethren in accepting priests ordained by 
 established bishops. 
 
 The cruelties and persecutions to which the reforming 
 zeal of Alexis and Peter subjected these unhappy schis- 
 matics only made them more fanatical and extreme in 
 their resistance. Torture, fine, and imprisonment were im- 
 posed as a penalty for wearing a beard ; and the leaders 
 of Russian nonconformity were hunted down, knouted, 
 or burned alive. Under these circumstances, the ras- 
 kolniks fled with their faithful prophets and priests to 
 the woods and solitudes, and there founded new com- 
 munities and spread abroad the Russian race. Villages 
 of them we will meet with in the depths of the forests 
 of the Dwina and Petchora and by the shores of the 
 Arctic Sea, on the southern steppes, in obscure nooks of 
 the Urals, or in remote corners of Siberia. More extreme 
 
 (718) ] 1
 
 162 THE TROITSA MONASTERY. 
 
 varieties there are of Russian schism and heresy — Philip- 
 Fugitives, Wrestlers with the Spirit, Milk-Drinkers, 
 Scoptsi, and the like — whose eccentricities of practice and 
 belief would take more time to describe than we can spare. 
 
 Still more noteworthy than the New Jerusalem Mon- 
 astery is that of Troitsa, the shrine of the holy St. 
 Sergius, the altar on which was kindled the first flame 
 of Russian patriotism in the dark days of Mongol 
 domination ; the bulwark of the nation against usurping 
 pretenders and Polish and Tartar invaders; the refuge of 
 the young Czars Peter and John, when the turbulent 
 Streltsi of Moscow, like the Praetorian bands of Rome, 
 threatened to take the fate of the empire into their 
 keeping ; and the quiet retreat where Dionysius, Politzin, 
 Platon, and other learned and pious men, studied and 
 laboured, laying the foundations of a national literature 
 and culture. 
 
 The " Trinity " Monastery, or, to give it the full 
 title, the " Crown of Saint Sergius, under the Invo- 
 cation of the Holy Trinity," is situated about forty 
 miles from Moscow — a mere stone-throw in Russia — 
 near the line of railway leading north-eastward to 
 Jaroslav on the Volga. It is ranked next in sanctity 
 after the Petschersk Monastery at Kiev, which it far 
 exceeds in richness and historical importance : in these 
 respects, indeed, it has few rivals even beyond the bounds 
 <>f Russia. Many other monastic establishments, how- 
 ever, are its seniors in age; for it was only in 1337 that 
 tin' pious Sergius, removing with a few disciples from 
 the abodes of men, built for himself here, in the heart of 
 the forest, near a little stream flowing into the Kliasma, 
 a cell and a small church of wood ■ and devotees, hearing 

 
 
 ST. SERQIUS AXD HIS SHRINK 163 
 
 of his sanctity, the miraculous cures he wrought, and the 
 beatific visions of the Virgin and holy apostles that were 
 granted to him, began to gather round the lowly hermitage. 
 
 A spectacle far different is Troitsa at the present 
 day. It stands on a high situation, overlooking its 
 domain of plain and forest and populous villages for 
 many miles. Walls varying from twenty to fifty feet 
 in height, and three-quarters of a mile in circuit, 
 protected by fosses and flanked by massive and hand- 
 some Gothic towers, surround it. Within the convent 
 enclosure are ten churches, with numerous chapels and 
 refectories, an imperial and an archiepiscopal palace, 
 hospital, libraries, a seminary for students, handsome- 
 ranges of apartments for the archimandrite, rectors, pre- 
 fects, and other monastic functionaries, with extensive 
 storehouses, kitchens, and other offices, all solidly built 
 of hewn stone. 
 
 The most celebrated church is the Cathedral of 
 the Trinity, within which is the shrine of St. Sergius, 
 weighing nearly one thousand pounds in pure silver. 
 Massive images and ornaments of silver and of gold, 
 adorned with precious stones, surround the shrine, or 
 are grouped in other parts of the church. Here 
 Dimitri Donskoi was blessed and consecrated for the 
 " holy war" against the Tartars ; and the convent sent 
 forth along with him two redoubtable champions from 
 among its alumni, who contributed much to the oft-men- 
 tioned victory of the Don. Ivan the Terrible, who has 
 left so many grim and fantastic impressions of his sign- 
 manual on the page of Russian history, was baptized in 
 the Trinity Church, and often returned hither with gifts 
 and honours in his hands; for he was a religious fanatic
 
 164 THE TREASURES OF TROITSA. 
 
 as well as a man of " blood and iron," and in all his 
 campaigns, even when under the ban of the Church for 
 his crimes, he carried about with him a small chapel 
 consecrated to St. Sergius. The "soul" of Russia may 
 be said to have transported itself to Troitsa when the 
 Poles occupied Moscow. The monastery was besieged 
 for four months, but it was gallantly defended ; and 
 then, as on all subsequent occasions, it proved impreg- 
 nable to a foreign foe. It was through the invocations 
 and reproaches of Dionysius and Politzin that the 
 Russian lords and commons, under Pojarsky and Minin, 
 were stirred up to cast out the invader and choose for 
 themselves a new national head. Under the high altar 
 the young Peter the Great lay hidden when the in- 
 surgent Streltsi attacked the place. 
 
 The Church of the Assumption, within which are the 
 tombs of the Czar Boris GodunofT, and of Dionysius, the 
 precursor of the Patriarch Nicon in the Russian Church 
 reformation, is also an immense and interesting building ; 
 and in its great belfry, rising to a height of nearly three 
 hundred feet, are hung probably the largest chime of bells 
 in the world. The most ponderous of the bells weighs 
 nearly sixty-five tons, and one of the others is nearly half 
 that weight. 
 
 The treasures of Troitsa in jewels, plate, sacred 
 relics, church robes and paraphernalia, paintings, sculp- 
 tures, and ancient books and manuscripts, are scarcely 
 less rich and varied than those of the Kremlin 
 itself, and many of them are the gifts of emperors, 
 empresses, and great nobles. The monastery is said to 
 possess two bushels of pearls, to which Mr. Lansdell 
 would add <: an estimated pint of diamonds, to say
 
 THE CITIES OF THE KLTABMA. 165 
 
 nothing of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires innumerable." 
 In palmier days than the present, ere the Empress Cathe- 
 rine II. curtailed its revenues, the monastery had no 
 fewer than one hundred and six thousand serfs attached 
 to it, and its territorial possessions were of prodigious 
 extent. Even yet it is a wealthy and powerful institu- 
 tion; and its rich revenues and broad lands, its high 
 walls binding as in a sheaf its tall spires and towers, its 
 cupolas of gilded copper covering its treasures of gold, 
 silver, and pearl, its memories of miracle and siege, of 
 martyrdom and pageant, make it, perhaps, the most 
 remarkable of the many strange manifestations of the 
 religious feelings of the Russians. 
 
 The Troitsa Monastery is on the highway to an in- 
 teresting part of Muscovy. The valley of the Kliasma, 
 at the head of which it stands, was the centre of Russian 
 history long before Moscow began to be heard of, and the 
 country between that stream and the Volga is scattered 
 over with the remains of renowned cities. Commerce has 
 found for itself more convenient channels. Moscow has 
 drained them of their fame and importance ; and now 
 Rostov and Suzdal, Pereslav and Vladimir, are left high 
 and dry, deserted by the crowds of traders that once 
 frequented their streets, and seldom visited even by the 
 wandering tourist. 
 
 Rostov, the oldest of these venerable cities, is one 
 whose modern estate is among the most reduced and 
 forlorn. It was a town of the Merians, a Finnish 
 tribe of repute in the days before the Norsemen came 
 to Novgorod to trouble the nations. Sineous, the brother 
 of Ruric, who settled on the White Lake far to the north- 
 ward, extended his sway over Rostov. No doubt there
 
 166 OLD ROSTOV. 
 
 were bloody and obstinate battles before the Finns gave 
 way to the Slavs and their Varangian leaders, but the 
 record of these is lost. But Rostov was the first appan- 
 age of the Slavs in the Volga countries, and tribute was 
 paid to it by the Emperors of the East early in the tenth 
 century. It was here that Christianity was first preached 
 in these regions, the earliest bishop being a Greek mis- 
 sionary from Byzantium ; and in 990 Vladimir the 
 Saint founded at Rostov the Abraham Monastery, which 
 still exists, and granted the surrounding territory to his 
 son, the canonized Boris. It was, however, after the 
 days of Vladimir Monornachus — grandson of Constantine 
 Monomachus, Emperor of the East, father of George the 
 Long-armed, and a famous figure in Russian history, 
 whose cap of fur, surmounted by gems, the cicerone will 
 show you in the Kremlin of Moscow as the oldest of the 
 imperial "crowns" — that Rostov became a separate prin- 
 cipality. Then it took its share in the fighting that 
 was constantly going on ; was sometimes uppermost, 
 and then again undermost ; had its share of sieges and 
 sacks by Tartars, Lithuanians, and brigands ; and grad- 
 ually waning before the rising splendour of Suzdal, 
 Vladimir, and Moscow, fell into insignificance. 
 
 Rostov has still a score of churches ancient and modern, 
 a great annual fair, some transport trade, linen and chemi- 
 cal manufactories, and gardens scattered around the little 
 lake, that supply fruits and vegetables for the tables of 
 Moscow and St. Petersburg. Otherwise there is little in 
 the flat marshy plain to attract pilgrims thither. Even 
 it 3 name has been filched from it ; and now when Rostov 
 i- mentioned, one does not think of the ancient Finnish 
 stronghold, the birth-place of the Christianity of the
 
 SUZDAL. 167 
 
 Volo-a, with magnificent churches covering the .sacred 
 bones of holy and quarrelsome saints, and the seat for 
 centuries of pious and greedy princes, but of Rostov the 
 vulgar new sea-port town on the Sea of Azov. 
 
 Suzdal, which succeeded Rostov in the supremacy of 
 the North-east, is not far off. Its Grand Dukes once 
 exercised for long a really royal sway, extending occa- 
 sionally over Kiev and Novgorod ; but to-day it has 
 dwindled to even smaller dimensions than Rostov. 
 George Dolguruky, — Long-armed George, as his grasping- 
 proclivities well entitled him to be called, — was the first 
 independent prince of Suzdal. From here he went forth 
 on his many excursions north, south, east, and west — 
 plundering and humbling Kiev, as we have seen, and 
 carrying off the grand-ducal crown of his father Mono- 
 machus from the sunny plains of the Ukraine to these 
 sombre forests ; founding Moscow, Pereslav - Zalieski, 
 Jaroslav, Kostroma, Vladimir, and other important cities. 
 It is still worth while to trace the old earthen ram- 
 parts and ditches that divided the city into three parts, 
 and glance into the interior of its vast old churches 
 that are the only remains of its former grandeur. In 
 the Assumption Cathedral, in the Kremlin of Suzdal, 
 may be read an inscription that tells how Vladimir came 
 hither in 097 to convert the people and to found this 
 church ; and the traveller who has sufficient faith may 
 believe the authenticity of the record. 
 
 Vladimir, which is only a stage or two to the south, 
 on the banks of the Kliasma, was probably selected by 
 the later Grand Dukes in preference to their first heritage, 
 both for its more convenient position and its more im- 
 posing site. It is now on a main line of railway half
 
 138 VLADIMIR. 
 
 way from Moscow to Nishni-Novgorod, and it is the 
 eh id* town of the government of the same name, and the 
 seat of an archbishopric. Nevertheless it also has fallen 
 from its former greatness ; Moscow and Nishni-Novgorod 
 have between them drained it of trade and influence. 
 For one hundred and seventy years it was the capital of 
 Russia. Even after the seat of sovereignty had been 
 transferred to Moscow in 1328, the Grand Princes up till 
 1432 came to the Cathedral of Vladimir to be crowned. 
 The palaces, churches, and humble wooden shanties 
 of old Vladimir spread for a great distance along 
 the hilly banks of the Kliasma ; and the Convent of 
 Bogolubof, now seven miles distant, is said to have been 
 once within the walls. Here, as at Moscow, there are a 
 " Bielo-gorod," a " Kitai-gorod," and a " Kremlin f but 
 the population musters in all only fifteen thousand. 
 Like its successful rival on the Moskva, Vladimir has 
 often been burned down, sometimes by accident, and 
 oftener by the hand of man. The most terrible day in 
 its annals is its capture by Baty Khan in 1238. The 
 Grand Prince George III., founder of Nishni-Novgorod, 
 was absent at the time gathering an army to repel the 
 invaders. The city was captured after four days' fight- 
 ing, and the inhabitants put to the sword. The princess, 
 with her children, and the clergy and nobles of the place, 
 shut themselves up in the Cathedral of the Assumption ; 
 and the Mongols, piling wood around the edifice, burned 
 it to ashes with all its occupants. Catherine II. re- 
 stored the church in 1774, and later monarchs of Russia 
 nave often paid marks of respect to this ancient seat of 
 their race. The Cathedral of St. Dimitri of Solun 
 (partly restored by the Emperor Nicolas) is another
 
 JAROSLAV AND V GLITCH. 169 
 
 antiquity of Vladimir, and, with its golden gate, is con- 
 sidered one of the finest specimens of the Byzantine style 
 of architecture in Russia. 
 
 The prosperity of modern Vladimir mainly depends 
 on its position as a provincial capital. Another famous 
 city, the seat of the neighbouring government of Jar- 
 oslav, has preserved its importance by reason of being 
 situated on the main artery of trade. Jaroslav is one 
 of the busiest ports of shipment and transhipment, stor- 
 age and distribution, of the multifarious commerce of 
 the Volga and its connecting canals ; has a rapidly grow- 
 ing population, counting already forty thousand ; and 
 has important manufactures of linen, wool, table drapery, 
 hardware, leather, gloves, furs, paper, and chemicals ; 
 extensive saw-mills, foundries, and tanneries ; and great 
 annual fairs, which help to spread the products of the 
 city's industry over the whole empire. But the towns- 
 people are perhaps prouder of the past distinction of the 
 place than of its present prosperity. Its annals carry us 
 back to the days of the Grand Prince Jaroslav, son of 
 Vladimir the Sainted. 
 
 The reader must be tired of hearing the reiter- 
 ated story of civil broils and Tartar sacks, of which 
 Jaroslav had its share like its neighbours. The great 
 event of its history occurred in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century. It was in this region that the 
 first note of patriotic passion was sounded that was to 
 deliver Russia from the Poles, and the wolfish bands 
 of robbers that were tearing it asunder as if it were a 
 dead carcass. Uglitch, in the same province, some dis- 
 tance farther up the Volga, was the place where occurred 
 the murder of the young Dimitri, the most tragic event
 
 170 THE END OF " THE TROUBLOUS TIME." 
 
 in its effects in Russian history, whereby the last hope 
 of the line of the old Czars was extinguished. Uglitch 
 also yielded the first contingent of Siberian exiles. The 
 usurping Godunoff, having quelled the insurrection that 
 followed on his crime, transported many of the citizens 
 beyond the Urals; and having publicly flogged and 
 broken off the ears of the great town bell that called 
 them to arms, he formally exiled it to Tobolsk, where it 
 still rings church-goers to prayers. 
 
 The patriotic Russians of the North-east — after long 
 witnessing their fatherland a prey to Crimean and 
 Cossack hordes, usurpers, pretenders, and brigands, and 
 even " Holy Mother Moscow" herself in the hands of the 
 heretical troops of King Sigismund of Poland — assembled 
 at Jaroslav and Kostroma, and having chosen Prince 
 Dimitri Pojarsky as their leader, marched on to Nishni- 
 Novgorod, followed and cheered for long distances by 
 the populations of whole districts. Then, having been 
 joined by the heroic Minin and the volunteers of Nishni, 
 they pursued their way to Moscow, where the task 
 of clearing the capital of intruders being completed, the 
 assembled nation chose for its head the young Michael 
 Romanoff, scion of a noble family whose estates lay not 
 far from Kostroma. 
 
 Among the most promising signs of the present of 
 Jaroslav may be mentioned the Science College, founded 
 and endowed by one of the Demidoffs, that great family 
 of bankers and merchants who have been called the 
 " Rothschilds of Russia." More characteristic of its past 
 are its fourscore churches ; perhaps the most interesting 
 being that of the Nativity, where, in Peter the Great's 
 time, St. Demetrius, a great clerical champion of reforms,
 
 THE NEW IMPERIAL LINE. 171 
 
 sustained arguments and superintended persecutions 
 against sectaries. 
 
 Without entering either into the church or into the 
 controversy, we will move down the broad, traffic-laden 
 stream to Kostroma, also the chief town of a Russian 
 government, and with a history and modern occupations 
 that agree pretty generally with those of Jaroslav. If we 
 glance into its curious old Cathedral of the Assumption, 
 we may see the spot where Dimitri of the Don kneeled 
 to give thanks for his safety when the Tartars were 
 wasting Moscow ; or if we walk out to the neighbouring- 
 Monastery of Ipatief, the rooms may be examined where 
 the six-year-old Michael RomanofY was living with his 
 mother when the representatives of the boyards and 
 people came to offer him the crown of Russia. A monu- 
 ment in a prominent place in the town is in memory of 
 the peasant Ivan Sussanin, whose romantic story has 
 been embalmed in music, drama, and fiction, as furnish- 
 ing the most heroic type of Russian loyalty. The Poles 
 were in search of the newly-elected monarch. Sussanin 
 offered to conduct an armed band of them to the place 
 where he was concealed, and purposely leading them 
 astray in the dark woods around Kostroma,, he died by 
 their hands — thus giving his " life for the Czar," and 
 helping to end the sorrowful " time of troubles." 
 
 This busy region is indeed the consecrated ground 
 of Russian patriotism ; and thus we find, when we 
 descend yet another stage to Nishni-Novgorod, the 
 spectacles of modern industry, and the memories of the 
 period subsequent to the Interregnum, completely blotting 
 out the recollections of the confused old barbaric times 
 ere Muscovy began to struggle out of its isolation.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 NISHNI-NOVGOROD — RUSSIAN INDUSTRY AND TOWN LIFE. 
 
 ANY to whom other Russian names that have 
 been mentioned have been strange, must be 
 familiar with that of Nishni and its great 
 fair, where the East and the West meet once 
 a year to chaffer and to exchange. A guide-book — 
 Murray's excellent publication, for instance — will inform 
 those who consult it that everything interesting about 
 this far-famed commercial city " may be seen in a day ;" 
 and though this may be taking an exaggerated view of 
 the tourist's capacity for sight-seeing and powers of 
 endurance, it is the fact that the Great Fair is no longer 
 the extraordinary spectacle that it once was. 
 
 That there is any falling away in the actual amount 
 of business done is unlikely. The trade of Nishni is 
 vast and increasing. Its situation, high on the right 
 bank of the Volga, just below its junction with the 
 Oka, is unrivalled as the site of an inland emporium. 
 Not only do all the main channels of river communica- 
 tion — the Volga, the Oka, the Sura, and the Kama — 
 feed it, but the chief routes of traffic and travel to and 
 from Siberia converge upon it. Russian colonization is 
 pressing on and rapidly filling up the country to the
 
 NISIINI-NOVGOROB. 173 
 
 eastward and northward ; and in all probability Nishni 
 is only in one of the early stages of its commercial 
 development. 
 
 But the old system of conducting trade, especially 
 since the introduction of railways, is undergoing 
 change. Occidental methods are taking the place of 
 those that have been in vogue in Eastern countries 
 from the most remote antiquity. Business can be much 
 more expeditiously and efficiently done by sample and 
 by letter than by buyers and sellers assembling from all 
 quarters of the earth with their goods in their hands. 
 Consequently, though the quantity of commodities ex- 
 posed may be smaller than in former times, the actual 
 amount of traffic conducted is immensely larger. The 
 smaller centres of trade growing up in Siberia and 
 Turkestan now collect and transmit the produce of these 
 countries ; and so strange visitors from Asia, with out- 
 landish faces and garments, and forming a Babel of 
 unknown tongues, no longer form so prominent a feature 
 of the fair as they formerly did. In the arrangements 
 of the fair itself many innovations have been introduced, 
 causing the disappearance of some of the most character- 
 istic and singular of its sights. Picturesqueness has 
 been sacrificed in the interests of cleanliness, and altera- 
 tions and additions have been made in conformity with 
 modern notions of comfort. 
 
 In spite of these changes, the view, seen from one of 
 the elevated spots in the city — the Tower of Minin, for 
 instance — is still an animated and remarkable one in the 
 high-tide of the great annual gathering. Far and wide, 
 meeting the horizon in a line only broken by a mass of 
 forest, a steep river bank, an undulating heave of the
 
 174 A CITY OF SHOPS. 
 
 land, or a glittering church spire, stretches the broad 
 plain, mostly under cultivation, and indicating, by the 
 number of hamlets and large villages scattered over it, 
 a population dense for Russia. The broad band of blue 
 stretching across the landscape from north-west to south- 
 oast is the noble Volga, and the narrower ribbon that 
 meets it at right angles at your feet is the Oka. Both 
 rivers are crowded with barges, sailing vessels, and 
 steamers ascending and descending. A thick forest of 
 masts stands opposite the wharves of Nishni, and ex- 
 tends far into the Volga, On the triangular space 
 between the two streams are long streets of booths, 
 dingy or brightly painted, with boulevards, lines of 
 restaurants, and places of amusement, and avenues of 
 trees line the river ; the new bazaar and governor's 
 residence in the centre; and a swarming population, like 
 bees, moving to and fro in this " city of shops " — the 
 fair itself. 
 
 To the southward of this scene is the town of Nishni 
 itself, with the sun gleaming from its brazen cupolas 
 and the white-washed towers of its kremlin, and 
 throwing deep shadows under the low archways and 
 the battlemented walls where the Tartars of Kazan have 
 often fought for entrance. At the present day the 
 Tartars of Nishni are a very useful and peaceable folk. 
 Vm will see their lithe, active figures busily engaged in 
 tli^ lading and unlading of o-oods, with the sweat of 
 honest toil on their foreheads ; and you are certain, while 
 wending your way to the fair, to be civilly and insinu- 
 atingly accosted by one of them who has some little 
 venture of his own strapped on his back or spread out 
 before him.
 
 THE "GREAT FAIR." 175 
 
 Arrived on the scene of business, 3*011 may direct 
 your steps to the centre of the mart, where, in the 
 lower floor of the governor's house, are displayed manu- 
 factured English goods, fancy articles from Paris, toys of 
 Niirnberg, and relics from Palestine, side by side with 
 Persian and Bokharan silks and brocades, jewel-hilted 
 knives and daggers from the Caucasus, ornaments of 
 jade and lapis lazuli from Kashgar, turquoise, malachite, 
 and other stones, spurious and real, cut and uncut, with 
 Prussian goods of all varieties. You may thence make 
 your way by a boulevard, lined principally by the shops 
 of silver and gold smiths, and dealers in fur and drapery 
 goods, and in which stand in kindly company the 
 Armenian and Orthodox churches and the Mohammedan 
 mosque, to the " Chinese row " behind, where the princi- 
 pal article exposed is the brick tea imported from the 
 northern parts of the Flowery Kingdom, by way of 
 Kiakhta, and choicest samples of which are sold at 
 " fancy " prices that would make a British housewife 
 stare. The Russians are excessively fond of tea ; but 
 contrary to our method, they drink it without milk, and 
 flavoured with lemon-juice, sucking the fragrant bever- 
 age through a piece of lump-sugar held between their 
 teeth. 
 
 The Siberian line, which skirts the Volga, is no 
 less worth a visit ; for here, along with the products of 
 the great Asiatic territory of Russia — furs and grain, and 
 precious metals and stones — may be seen the miscellaneous 
 stores designed for the Russian colonies and penal and mili- 
 tary posts scattered through Siberia as far as the Pacific. 
 Another important department of the fair is that devoted 
 to the sale and purchase of the dried fish which forms
 
 170 SIGHTS OF THE FAIR. 
 
 so important an article of Russian diet. It has been an 
 immemorial usage in the houses of the richest in the 
 land, and down through every rank almost to the lowest, 
 fco whet the appetite by some tit-bit before the principal 
 meals; and relishes suitable to all classes are purveyed at 
 Nishni-Novgorod — caviare for the aristocratic, and salted 
 cod or the coarser kinds of river fish for the vulgar palate. 
 Or if you drop into one of the numerous restaurants — of 
 which there are specimens suited to the tastes of the dif- 
 ferent races and classes that frequent the fair — you may 
 profitably spend half an hour in watching the manner 
 in which the people of various nations consume their food. 
 Fill the warehouses, the bazaar, the eating-houses, the 
 khans, the mosques and churches, the streets, the wharves 
 and the shipping with a throng of from one hundred and 
 fifty thousand to two hundred thousand strangers from 
 all quarters, added to the ordinary resident population 
 of forty thousand, not forgetting to make a prominent 
 feature of the throngs of dirty beggars and tramps, 
 greasy and tattered pilgrims and slouching monks, all 
 equally eager to profit by the generosity of the well-to- 
 do, the ignorant, and the pious, and you may gather 
 some idea of the aspect of Nishni in the time of the fair. 
 Other two fairs are held — one on the ice of the Volga, 
 in January, for articles chiefly of wooden manufacture 
 and toys ; and the other in July, for horses and cattle — 
 but neither can compare in extent with the great gather- 
 ing in September. 
 
 In the town itself there is a good deal to attract 
 notice. The citizens have not forgotten to honour the 
 patriot who was born in their midst, and in addition to 
 Mil mi's Tower, the tomb of the gallant butcher and
 
 MUROM. 177 
 
 chief magistrate of Nishni, who cast out the Poles from 
 the Kremlin of Moscow, is pointed to with much pride 
 and reverence in the Cathedral of the Transfiguration, 
 the most ancient of the city churches. Within the 
 kremlin of Nishni also is a monument, erected by the 
 Emperor Alexander I., to Minin and Pojarsky, whose 
 names are as closely and constantly associated in patriotic 
 legend as those of Boris and Gleb are in ecclesiastical 
 myth. 
 
 Murom, the famous Russ city which was the head- 
 quarters of the last-named sacred personage, may be 
 reached in a day's journey up the Oka, on the right 
 bank of which, and within the province of Vladimir, the 
 decayed old town lies. Chroniclers carry back its 
 history as far as that of Rostov, the capital of Boris; 
 and like that ancient town its population has dwindled 
 in modern times to some ten thousand or twelve thou- 
 sand. The walls of its kremlin have disappeared, but 
 it is rich in churches, in sacred relics, and in pilgrim 
 shrines ;, and what in secular eyes is of greater conse- 
 quence, it still boasts a not inconsiderable trade in grain, 
 flax, linseed, iron manufactures, and timber. Murom is 
 likely to grow in importance, for it stands in a favour- 
 able position between the fertile corn-growing lands 
 south of the Oka and the more northern provinces that 
 are less richly endowed with agricultural wealth. Its 
 mills grind much of the rye meal and flour that feed 
 the industrious artisans, wood-cutters, and fishermen of 
 the five great Russian governments through which we 
 have just glanced — Moscow, Vladimir, Jaroslav, Kos- 
 troma, and Nishni-Novgorod. 
 
 (718) 12
 
 178 WANDERING ARTISANS. 
 
 These provinces are, for the most part, within the 
 zone of pine-forests, which, broadly speaking, the Oka 
 divides from the oak-woods and deep black mould of 
 the districts farther south. They contain vast tracts of 
 fertile country, but a much larger extent of marsh land, 
 forest, and unprofitable sand and heath. On the whole, 
 they do not raise sufficient grain to support the popula- 
 tion — some six and a half million, scattered over nearly 
 one hundred thousand square miles. Their true wealth 
 lies in their fine forests of timber trees, their prolific 
 fisheries, their centres of manufacture and commercial 
 business, and, most of all, in the industry and enterprise 
 of their inhabitants. Nowhere, even among the wander- 
 ing Slavs, is the instinct of roaming more strong, or the 
 practice more common, than in these old provinces in the 
 inmost heart of Russia. 
 
 A waggoner or boatman of Vladimir, or a felt- 
 worker of Kostroma, will travel across the Urals as far 
 as the Yenisei, or perhaps even the Lena, and think 
 himself richly compensated if he bring back a few 
 kopeks in his pocket. Troops of young artisans — 
 masons, carpenters, plasterers, blacksmiths, and shoe- 
 makers — emigrate from their homes on the Volga to the 
 large centres of population, to St. Petersburg, to Riga, 
 and to Odessa, for the purpose of practising their craft 
 and saving a little money, with which they will return 
 to their native village, purchase a house and a share of 
 the communal lands, and settle down to peasant life. 
 Thousands lead a half-peasant, half-artisan life, perform- 
 ing their share of the labour of village lands in the 
 proper season, and working at their trade for the rest of 
 the year.
 
 RUSSIA'S ECONOMIC POLICY. 179 
 
 The nation is self-sufficing — that is, it strives, and 
 by the aid of prohibitive tariffs strives pretty success- 
 fully, to shut out foreign competition, and to manufac- 
 ture all that it needs for its daily wants. Thus while 
 Russia exports enormous quantities of grain and other 
 raw produce to its customers in other lands, it imports a 
 comparatively small quantity of their commodities in 
 exchange, and a great proportion of these imports con- 
 sists of articles of luxury demanded by the " educated " 
 tastes of the rich. It loses no doubt more than it gains 
 by this policy ; but to supply so enormous a population 
 as is comprised within the limits of the empire, demands 
 an extensive production on Russian soil of all that a 
 Russian requires for food, raiment, travel, and labour. 
 Economically, so far as its own needs are concerned, 
 Russia is a " world apart," a kind of Japanese Empire 
 in process of slow transition from the operation of irre- 
 sistible external and internal causes. Many of the 
 manufactured goods may, perhaps, as little bear com- 
 parison in finish and quality with the products of 
 British looms and workshops as Tula, the " Russian 
 Birmingham," and Vyska, the "Russian Sheffield," can vie 
 with the great English centres of trade ; but they quite 
 suit the home market, and meet all the simple require- 
 ments of the peasant purchaser. The employers of 
 capital in Russia have as yet been able to lie a good 
 deal on their oars and take things easy ; and so there 
 may still be seen in many parts of the country the 
 mines, factories, and mills emptying as the season of 
 seed-time or harvest approaches, and the work-people 
 streaming home by river-boat ov post- cart, or more 
 often on their own sturdy legs, to look after their
 
 1 80 VILLAGE INDUSTRIES. 
 
 little holdings, scores or perhaps hundreds of miles 
 away. 
 
 It is in this " Russia of the forests " that we have 
 been describing also that another peculiar feature of 
 Russian industrial life is most marked and frequent — 
 namely, the occurrence of villages, or groups of villages, 
 devoted to a particular branch of trade. Each village, 
 each district, and each province has some special occupa- 
 tion, to which often its people are exclusively devoted. 
 
 Thus Count Artamof tells us, in his work on Russia, 
 that if the district of Nerehta, in Kostroma, is cele- 
 brated for its axes, Chuiysk is not less noted for its 
 calicoes and its nankins, and its women are regarded 
 as the best spinners in the empire. The cutting and 
 transport of firewood, and the preparation of tar and 
 carbon, occupy the natives of Pochehonn in Jaroslav ; 
 and the people of Lubimetz are keepers of restaurants 
 and cheap eating-houses. The province of Jaroslav, in- 
 deed, supplies the waiters of the lower class to the large 
 towns of the empire ; while the Tartars of Kasimov on 
 the Oka, famous for their sobriety and honesty, are em- 
 ployed in the best hotels of Moscow and St. Petersburg. 
 The district of Miychino furnishes excellent saddlers, 
 harness-makers, and potters ; and Rybinsk is known for 
 its pilots, joiners, and carpenters. Horsebreakers come 
 mostly from the banks of the Mologa ; and no place in 
 Russia can compete with Uglitch for hams, or w T ith 
 Romanov for sheepskin coats. The market-gardeners of 
 Rostov, as has already been mentioned, carry their 
 onions and cabbages, their cherries and apples, etc., to 
 the old and new capitals of Russia ; and those of Danilov 
 are close competitors with their fruits ancj. vegetables.
 
 NEW GROUND. 181 
 
 No housewife is satisfied unless her board is spread with 
 linen from the looms of Velikoi-Selo or Viskovo. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie Wallace informs us that "in the province 
 of Vladimir a large group of villages live by icon-paint- 
 ing ; in one locality, near Nishni, nineteen villages are oc- 
 cupied in the manufacture of axes. Round about Paulovo, 
 in the same province, eighty villages produce nothing 
 but cutlery ; and in a locality named Ouloma, on the 
 borders of Tver, no less than two hundred villages live 
 by nail-making." 
 
 South of the Oka river, between it and the country 
 of the Don Cossacks, and extending from the basin of 
 the Dnieper on the west to the banks of the Volga on 
 the east, is a " huge cantle " of Russia, comprehending 
 no fewer than ten governments — Kaluga, Orel, Tula, 
 Riazan, Tambov, Kursk, Voronej, Penza, Simbirsk, and 
 Saratov — that present numerous points of contrast, be- 
 coming more marked as we move southward and east- 
 ward, to the countries we have just passed over. 
 
 Shifting away from the centre of the empire, the his- 
 toric mould becomes more shallow ; we can skim the surface 
 at greater speed. Ancient cities with chronicles reaching 
 back to the days of the introduction of Christianity, and 
 even towns that can carry their history back to the 
 more recent times of the Grand Princes or the domination 
 of the Golden Horde, become more rare. Some towns 
 of old date may be pointed to. Riazan and Kaluga, 
 Elets, Kursk, and Voronej were Russian settlements 
 before the coming of Baty Khan ; Tula and Orel played 
 important parts in the civil struggles at the close of the 
 seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries.
 
 182 THE GRANARY OF RUSSIA. 
 
 But Penza and Simbirsk, Tambov and Saratov, and the 
 vast majority of the other centres of population, are the 
 creations of the times of the Romanoffs, many of them, 
 indeed, of the last fifty years. These provinces are lands 
 recovered from the flood of Tartar immigration. Their 
 settlement belongs to the more recent period of Russ 
 colonization ; and the process is not by any means com- 
 plete. 
 
 Along the eastern skirts of this immense region — 
 which is nearly as large in area as France, and with a 
 population of between fourteen and fifteen millions of 
 souls — the inhabitants are still scantily sprinkled, and 
 there is ample room for development. Bran-new towns 
 are springing up, much as we find them doing in Minnesota 
 or Kansas, in districts teeming- with agricultural riches, 
 and whose great disadvantages are the fewness of the 
 hands for turning the furrow and reaping the crop, and 
 the great distances that separate them from a market. 
 Even in the provinces nearer to Moscow and Kiev, though 
 the country is often more densely populated than in the 
 oldest parts of the empire, the land is capable of support- 
 ing a much larger number of inhabitants than it does at 
 present ; for this is the " granary of Russia " — a store- 
 house from w r hose abundance a great part of Europe and 
 of Russia itself is fed. The conditions of soil, climate, 
 exposure, and products differ in each of these provinces, 
 as may easily be imagined, from the great extent of sur- 
 face that they cover. But they resemble each other in 
 this, that their population is almost exclusively devoted 
 to agricultural work, and that they raise a large quantity 
 of grain and other farm produce in excess of their own 
 wants.
 
 HCENERY OF THE BLACK LANDS. 183 
 
 In the northern parts of Biazan and Tula there are 
 still masses of pine forest and bare expanses of swamp 
 and sand ; farther south, fine woods of oak, maple, beech, 
 and elm, with wide clearings between, are prominent 
 features of the landscape. Beyond these, the woods 
 dwindle down to copses, or straggle away into lines bor- 
 dering the river-courses. A rich, smiling, open country, 
 with little hills and ridges tufted with trees planted 
 round the walls of some convent or country-house, with 
 hollows full of white hazels and wild cherry, apple, and 
 pear trees, and broad cultivated plains, and cheerful- 
 lookino-, white-washed village houses clustered round the 
 church — such are characteristic features of the fertile 
 "Black Lands" of Orel, Tambov, and Penza, and of 
 Kursk and Voronej, bordering on the pastoral steppes of 
 the Ukraine and the Don Cossack country. By the 
 margin of the Volga, in Saratov and Simbirsk, wide, 
 bare, sandy plains alternate with fine forests, deep, rich, 
 loam lands, bearing splendid crops of wheat and maize, 
 or patches where the painstaking German colonists rear 
 the tobacco plant, the vine, and the water-melon. 
 
 We meet with a great variety in the races and reli- 
 gions as well as in the scenery of this region, and these 
 increase the nearer we approach the Volga. Of the 
 Finnish tribe of the Mordvins there are three hundred 
 thousand established in the provinces of Penza, Saratov, 
 and Simbirsk; and the last-named province contains 
 nearly one hundred thousand of the cognate people, the 
 Tchuvashes. Side by side with these are Tartars, form- 
 ing little communities apart, each with its mollah and 
 its village mosque. The Finnish peoples, nominally 
 Christians, still follow many of the sacrificial and other
 
 184 VARIETIES OF RACE AND CREED. 
 
 ious practices of their pagan ancestry, offering horses, 
 horned cattle, sheep, and fowls to their tutelary deities, 
 and propitiating them with oblations of bread, beer, and 
 vodka, and assembling in " sacred places " in the woods 
 for these superstitious observances, of which the eccle- 
 siastical authorities know not, or knowing, wink at. 
 
 Then the Teutonic colonies remain, as has already been 
 noted, as German in tongue, manners, and religion to-day 
 as they were when their countrywoman the great Empress 
 Catherine planted them on the Volga to be light to the 
 Russian peasantry around them. The Russians have 
 learned nothing; and their Lutheran neighbours have 
 forgot nothing. 
 
 But the great cause of ecclesiastical strife and 
 heart-burning in these countries is not the alien creeds 
 of these alien peoples, but dissent in the bosom of 
 the Orthodox Church itself. To the mind of the or- 
 dinary moujik, it appears the most natural thing in 
 the world that the Finlander should be a Protestant, 
 the Pole a Roman Catholic, and the Tartar a zealous 
 folloAver of Mohammed; but it is to him a thing incompre- 
 hensible that one of his own race should be of a faith 
 different from that of his fathers and all his kin. His 
 religion is as much a matter of inheritance as his blood 
 and his name, and it would be a kind of sacrilege to 
 doubt and blasphemy to deny the faith handed down 
 from the fathers. 
 
 But, as is inevitable among a peasantry on whom 
 religious feelings, uncorrected by knowledge and re- 
 flection, have so powerful a hold ; who have intense, 
 unbounded faith in the miraculous virtues of pen- 
 ances, pilgrimages, fasting, the touch of holy relics, and
 
 DISSENTERS AND HERETICS. 185 
 
 consecrated bread ; who pay a devotion to the out- 
 ward form not less profound than to the spirit, and 
 whose memories are stored with the superstitious beliefs 
 of their ancestors in malignant spectres, fairy people, and 
 mysterious beings of the wood and the marsh, — there 
 are within the Russo-Greek Church divisions and sub- 
 divisions of doctrine and observance innumerable. Like 
 the stars, these seem to " increase with gazing." Some 
 of them reach back to the earliest discussions in the 
 Christian Church ; others, including the most important 
 of all — the sect of the Old Believers, of whom we have 
 spoken — to the times of official reform and persecution 
 inaugurated by the Patriarch Nicon and the Czar Alexis; 
 while some of the most strange and extreme forms are 
 the product of modern religious and political impulses. 
 It is said, though no official statistics can be got to bear 
 out a fact so unpleasant, that if a religious census of 
 Penza, Tambov, and the neighbouring provinces were 
 taken, there would be found to be at least as many 
 Old Believers, clinging to the ancient forms and tenets, 
 and abhorring innovation as the special work of the 
 Evil One, as members of the recognized Church. 
 
 A great part of this region south of the Oka formed 
 part of the old principality of Riazan, the last and most 
 formidable of the rivals of Moscow in the basin of the 
 Volga. The Princes of Riazan contended with the Lords 
 of the city on the Moskva for the favours of the Great 
 Khan, and fought with them in the field. Tula belonged 
 to them, and their territory extended to the neighbour- 
 hood of the Dnieper on the west; while Voronej, far 
 down the Don valley, was one of their possessions. It 
 was not till 1521, in the time of Vassili, son of the
 
 186 LUMP LET ION OF RUSSIAN UNION. 
 
 " Great," and father of the " Terrible " Ivan, that this 
 magnificent land, whose rich harvests " looked like waving 
 forests," was added to the possessions of the Grand Dukes 
 of Muscovy. The last Russ republic, Pskov, had fallen 
 ten years earlier ; and Novgorod Severski, the last 
 princely appanage, fell two years later, and thenceforth, 
 as M. Rambaud says, " there was only one Russia " who 
 could now turn her united arms against her foreign 
 enemies the Tartars and the Poles. 
 
 The town of Riazan itself is on the south bank of the 
 Oka, some distance above Murom (to which it was 
 originally subject), and about one hundred and twenty 
 miles from Moscow. The old city of the same name was 
 obliterated during a Tartar incursion, and its remains are 
 to be seen thirty miles from the present Riazan. The 
 latter was first known as Pereslav-Riazanski, a con- 
 temporary town with Pereslav-Zalieski, in Vladimir, and 
 both named after the still more ancient Pereiaslav on the 
 Dnieper near Kiev. The two little streams that fall 
 into the Oka here are the Lybed and the Trubej, so 
 called by the original emigrants after the brooks that 
 flow through the old Pereiaslav, just as Anglo-Saxon 
 colonists bestowed the familiar names of the old country 
 on their new homes — as, for example, you will find a 
 " London, on the Thames, County Middlesex," in Upper 
 Canada. 
 
 Pereslav, on the Oka, rose to fortune on the ruins 
 of Old Riazan, and appropriated its very name. Even 
 the odour of sanctity that clung to the walls that 
 the Tartars battered down has been transferred hither. 
 The imperishable body of St. Basil, first bishop of 
 Murom, made a miraculous voyage up the Oka on
 
 OLD AND NEW RIAZAN. 187 
 
 mantle, bearing in its arms a wonder-working image of 
 the Virgin, and rested a while at Old Riazan. Then as 
 the infidels would not leave the canonized corpse in peace, 
 it continued its marvellous voyage up-stream ; and bones 
 and image now attract thousands of worshippers to the 
 Cathedral of the Assumption in New Riazan, one of the 
 vastest religious edifices in Russia. Great store of 
 treasure and curiosities, including a cup, gilt with the 
 gold signet of Baty Khan, the dust of warrior-princes 
 and sainted bishops and laymen, armour and chalices, 
 quaintly painted altar-screens and icons, enrich the 
 interior of this and the other churches of Riazan. The 
 episcopal palace was once the seat of the powerful 
 sovereigns of the principality ; and the old defences of 
 the city and kremlin can still be traced. In the town 
 and neighbourhood there are numerous monasteries of 
 great extent and sanctity, as indeed we find to be the 
 case wherever a few thousand Russians are gathered 
 together ; and like all the other provincial centres in this 
 rich agricultural region, Riazan has its stated cattle fairs 
 and important grain markets, the resort of throngs of 
 sturdy, well-to-do peasantry from the surrounding dis- 
 trict, and of corn-dealers, shippers, millers, distillers, hide 
 and tallow merchants, horse-rearers, butchers, and others 
 from distant quarters where nature has not been so 
 lavish in her bounties. 
 
 Riazan's next neighbour, Tula, on the other hand, is 
 more than any other town in Russia a place of manu- 
 facture. Its pre-eminence in this respect is not a thing 
 of yesterday. For about three hundred years, since the 
 epoch when iron ore was discovered in the neighbour- 
 hood, it has resounded with the clang of the hammer and
 
 188 TULA. 
 
 the whir of the loom, and its people have been cele- 
 brated for their skill as gunsmiths and cutlers. Peter 
 the Great brought artificers from Western Europe to 
 teach the workmen of Tula the most improved methods 
 of constructing gun barrels, locks, and flints, the casting 
 of cannon, and the fabricating of swords and pikes. On 
 his way back to Moscow, after his first unsuccessful expe- 
 dition against Azov, Peter halted several clays at Tula, 
 and in the new ironworks, built by the Dane, Marselis, 
 " amused himself by hammering three large iron sheets 
 with his own hands, — every hammer blow," as Mr. 
 Schuyler says in his Life of the Great Czar, " driving 
 away a regret and fixing a resolution." 
 
 Ever since, it has been the armoury of Russia, and 
 at the present day the great bulk of its population 
 are engaged in the imperial arms factories and other 
 establishments for the manufacture of rifles, hard- 
 ware, and cutlery, while it is also noted for its pro- 
 duction of samovars, the brazen apparatus for pre- 
 paring tea which every Russian carries with him on a 
 journey. A great impetus has been given to its trade 
 in recent years by the discovery of coal deposits in the 
 neighbourhood ; and Tula, with its smoky stalks and 
 ranges of many-windowed brick factories, looks more 
 like a busy, grimy town transported from Yorkshire 
 or Lancashire, than a stiff and starched provincial capital 
 in Great Russia. 
 
 In the streets of modern Tula, where every sight 
 and sound is an evidence of the sweat and struggle 
 of industry, it is not easy to recall the times when 
 the inhabitants crowded terror - stricken behind the 
 ramparts at the rumour of the approach of devastating
 
 TROUBLOUS HISTORIES. 180 
 
 hosts of Crim Tartars or Turks, or to believe that it was 
 at one period infamous as a resort of lawless despera- 
 does. It was at Tula that Otrepief, the first and ablest 
 " false Dimitri," gathered a following about him ; and 
 the city was for a time his capital, where he received 
 ambassadors, and took possession of the royal robes and 
 treasures brought from Moscow. Again and again the 
 turbulent townsmen rose under new leaders, and the 
 place was besieged, sacked, and burned by pretenders 
 and usurpers, patriots and Poles, till at length, abandon- 
 ing the old site, they began a career for their city on a 
 new footing, having learned to some purpose the lesson 
 that there was more profit in peaceful pursuits than in 
 civil broils. 
 
 Kaluga is another town which has been compelled by 
 misfortune to shift its site and its ways ; but probably 
 the visitor and the reader will not care to undergo the 
 tedium of spending much time in hunting up the 
 souvenirs of its past within the white- washed walls of 
 its cathedrals and convents that overlook the lazy Oka, 
 and will be content also with a flying glance at the small 
 town of Malo-Jaroslavetz (Little Jaroslav) not far off, 
 where the conqueror of Europe, the lawgiver to kings, 
 the great captain of his age, drank the cup of humiliation 
 to the dregs. 
 
 Napoleon, leaving Moscow smouldering behind him, 
 and finding winter fast approaching, endeavoured first to 
 gain Kaluga, whence the way would have been open 
 for his army into a richer and more genial region, 
 which had not been swept clear of supplies by the pas- 
 sage of two enormous armies. At Malo-Jaroslavetz he 
 suffered the first defeat in the retreat; and perceiving, as
 
 190 AN HOUR OF DESPAIR. 
 
 no eye could better do, the unassailable position of the 
 Russians, he gave way to despair, and retiring, says 
 Segur, to the cottage of a weaver, " an old, crazy, filthy 
 wooden hut," and to a dirty dark room divided into two 
 parts by a ragged cloth, the master of the Tuileries fell 
 into a state of stupor from which none of his generals 
 could rouse him. Next morning the army turned their 
 backs on the bright gleam in the southern sky, and their 
 faces towards Smolensk and the chill and surly north, 
 and resumed their ever-memorable retreat. 
 
 Kursk and Voronej, outposts of yore against Tartar 
 inroads, and to - day thriving towns, embosomed in 
 orchards, the centre of busy agricultural operations, and 
 predominating wide reaches of rich grassy steppe lands, 
 might claim some notice. The former was the scene of 
 heroic struggles between Polovtsis and Kievans, Cossacks 
 and Nogais ; and the latter the station where Peter the 
 Great built his flotilla — " the first Russian fleet of war," 
 if we except the model frigates the Czar had previously 
 built and exercised on the lake of Pereslav-Zalieski — 
 with which he wrested Azov from the Turks. Voronej 
 is notable also as the birth-place of the peasant poet 
 Nikitin, and other bards and leaders of the people, and 
 as the designated seat of a " new Russian " university. 
 But apart from these, few of the places we meet with in 
 traversing the " Granary of Russia " possess any attrac- 
 tions beyond the very modest share of them common to 
 the country towns of the Empire of the Czar. 
 
 Like other things constructed for use rather than 
 show, these towns of Great Russia are eminently un- 
 picturesque. A few wide, ill-paved streets at right 
 

 
 COUNTRY TOWNS IN GREAT RUSSIA. 191 
 
 angles to each other, and united by a maze of narrow 
 crooked lanes not paved at all ; blinding dust in dry 
 weather, and mire mid-leg deep after rain; at all seasons, 
 except, perhaps, during keen frost, pervaded by " a rank 
 compound of villanous smells," among which a dis- 
 criminating nose might detect greater variety of evil 
 odours than is attributed to Cologne ; droves of cattle 
 and horses from the Don country and the Ukraine, 
 guarded by ragged Tartar and Cossack drivers ; heavy- 
 booted moujiks enveloped in greasy sheep-skin coats 
 bringing in loads of grain, hay, roots, and vegetables for 
 sale ; spruce citizens, with their wives and daughters often 
 fashionably or at least gaily dressed, stepping cautiously 
 along the dilapidated pavement, and past the refuse of 
 tanneries, distilleries, and tallow and soap works, pro- 
 foundly unconscious that there is anything to offend the 
 eye or nose or impair the pleasure of their afternoon pro- 
 menade ; — these delights may be promised to the enter- 
 prising traveller who undertakes the exploration of a 
 typical Russian town. They are not of a kind fitted to 
 stimulate the fancy; the novelty soon wears off If you 
 glance at the houses that line the principal streets, you 
 may find not a few that have a striking and even hand- 
 some and tasteful appearance. The structure of even 
 the loftiest church and most spacious town hall may be 
 of timber ; but white-wash and paint have been laid on 
 with a liberal hand. Only in spots where the hot sun 
 and the biting frost have combined to tear away its 
 disguises will the humble material of the building be 
 disclosed. 
 
 Where, following the fashion of the French, who 
 in Russia at least are regarded as in the van of civil-
 
 19:4 OFFICIALISM AND ITS FRUITS. 
 
 ization, trees are planted to form a boulevard, or 
 orchards and gardens intervene between blocks of build- 
 in--, a bright and gay effect is produced by the contrast 
 of vivid colours. These edifices, you will find, have 
 been built with ambitious aims, and are of ample pro- 
 portions. Few towns of any pretension are without 
 their advanced seminaries for males and females, their 
 military and ecclesiastical training schools, their library 
 and museum, their literary and scientific assemblies, their 
 musical and artistic coteries, often their small theatre 
 and opera house. Too frequently, however, these admir- 
 able institutions have been provided to meet wants that 
 have yet to be created. The gymnasia are sometimes 
 almost as numerous as the scholars ; the university is 
 thought flourishing that can count half-a-dozen students 
 for each member of its professorial staff. 
 
 Intelligent Russians complain that the fruits of these 
 trees of knowledge are not so fair as had been expected — 
 that the universities breed only pedants and revolutionaries. 
 But that may be the fault, not of the knowledge taught, or 
 even of the method of teaching it, but of the system that 
 has set the machinery to work. The official mind deems it 
 necessary that such and such a town should be supplied 
 with the means of higher class education or of culture 
 in art and science. In Russia the state lays upon itself 
 the burden of takino- the initiative in these matters. 
 A paternal government acts and speaks and even thinks 
 for its children, thus saving them a vast deal of trouble. 
 All the opinions, political and religious, that are held to 
 be safe are tied up in red tape, and laid away in pigeon- 
 holes. There is no scope in wide Russia for individual 
 thought, or for speech and action following upon it. All
 
 URBAN SOCIETY. 193 
 
 whose views do not conform to the official model are 
 held to be suspect and dangerous. It is not strange 
 that the attempt to guide philosophy, art, and science on 
 these hard and fast lines should have ended in failure, or 
 in eccentricities that in the eyes of the originators of the 
 system are worse than failures, and that Russia should 
 be strewn with more wrecks of abortive schemes of 
 modern improvement than with ruins caused by war and 
 revolution. 
 
 As a rule, there is little original tendency towards 
 culture in Russian urban society. The higher or official 
 class — -a military caste that will not deign to mingle 
 with those beneath — are concerned with their own 
 scandals, intrigues, and minute jealousies. Their spare 
 hours are devoted to card-playing, in which an extraor- 
 dinary amount of time is spent in Russia, to balls and 
 evening parties, to church exercises if the cast of mind 
 is religious, or to French novels if the taste is literary. 
 
 The merchant is wholly taken up with the affairs of his 
 business and his guild. If he is rich, he gives magnifi- 
 cent entertainments, at which figure champagne, Dresden 
 china, grand pianos, and costly foreign dishes, together 
 with nobles, officers of rank, and artistic and literary 
 celebrities, if these rarities are procurable. But his 
 motive is ostentation, with perhaps a dash of that real 
 desire to be hospitable which is seldom absent in a 
 Russian ; and as for the official guests, Mr. Mackenzie 
 Wallace tells us that it is perfectly well understood that 
 their presence implies no intimacy or invitation in return, 
 and it is even hinted that a high military magnate will 
 not disdain to accept a handsome present in return for 
 
 the honour of his appearing as a " table decoration " at 
 (718) 13
 
 194 MERCHANTS AND ARTISANS. 
 
 the board of a rich merchant. But when the feast is 
 over and the guests are gone, the host returns to his 
 primitive old Russ mode of life, differing little, save in 
 abundance and variety of his food and superior quality 
 of his clothes, from that of his work-people and de- 
 pendants. The luxuries and refinements of modern 
 society afford him no pleasure or amusement ; they 
 serve only as a means of displaying his wealth and 
 importance. 
 
 As for the ordinary artisans and burghers— the rank 
 and file of the town population — most of them have 
 hitherto found their time more than sufficiently taken 
 up with the struggle to provide for their daily wants in 
 food and raiment. The possibility of their having ideas 
 and opinions of their own, of being capable of forming 
 dangerous combinations and discussing the sources and 
 the objects of national power, was hardly dreamed of by 
 the bureaucracy which dictated the laws. Great political 
 and economic movements — war, emancipation, the develop- 
 ment of trade, the spread of education, the propagation 
 of revolutionary ideas— have been long working like a 
 .strong ferment below the seemingly rigid forms of 
 Russian society. If the government have failed to teach 
 the people many things, they have thoroughly taught 
 them the lesson to plot and to conceal. Socialist theories, 
 under various disguises, especially that negation of all reli- 
 gious belief and denial of the individual right in property 
 known as Nihilism, have spread, by some law of contraries, 
 with amazing swiftness and secrecy through all ranks of 
 a society heretofore distinguished for the blind intensity 
 of its faith and its deep reverence for the traditions of 
 the past. 

 
 PORTENTS OF REVOLUTION. 195 
 
 The people are becoming infected by a suspicion that 
 their temporal and spiritual guides have been misleading 
 them — that their blood has been spilt, their hard-won 
 money wrung from them, and their penances, prayers, 
 and alms exacted, only to bind faster the bandages with 
 which their masters seek to control their limbs and 
 cover their eyes. The artisan class of the towns are 
 always more exposed to outer influences than their 
 brethren in the country, and these ideas have made 
 most rapid progress among the work-people of the in- 
 dustrial centres. But no class of society seems free of 
 the taint of disaffection. The army and the clergy, the 
 nobles and the peasantry, the women more audaciously 
 than the men, even officers of the imperial household and 
 members of the body-guard of the Czar, have been shown, 
 or at least have been suspected, to have taken part in 
 the desperate and determined conspiracies against the 
 life of the sovereign and the order of Russian society. 
 
 Under the whited surface painted by officialism, 
 strange and secret processes — change and monitions of 
 change — are going on which officialism itself cannot re- 
 veal, and the tendency of which the plotters themselves 
 cannot estimate. It is no longer in the towns that we 
 now look in vain for that immobile Russia of the Middle 
 Ages that so long existed side by side with modern 
 Europe. Even in the country villages, where the Russian 
 life pure and simple may still be studied, we cannot be 
 certain how far a society, apparently so dull and stolid 
 on the surface, is mined and ready for a revolutionary 
 explosion.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PEASANT LIFE IN GREAT RUSSIA. 
 
 JO find a village of the primitive Russian type 
 — such as may be counted by the thousand 
 within the limits of Great Russia, between 
 the White Sea and the southern steppes, 
 and from the old Lithuanian frontier to beyond the 
 Ural Mountains — the best plan is to leave the beaten 
 routes of travellers, where railways and steamers, and 
 all the influences they bring in their wake, have modi- 
 fied patriarchal manners and disturbed the sleepy calm 
 of the hamlet. It will even be necessary to abandon 
 the lines of broad chaussees — some of them as fine speci- 
 mens of road-making as are to be found in Europe — 
 which have been constructed at great cost between 
 the larger towns ; and, getting as far away as possible 
 from these beaten tracks, to plunge into the depths 
 of the blank spaces, often as large as English counties, 
 that, as shown in the maps, intervene between them. 
 To reach your destination, it will be necessary to resort 
 to means of conveyance peculiar to Russia, and to 
 undergo the dire experiences of what in that realm is 
 called a country road. 
 
 Having obtained your iiodorojna, or order for
 
 POSTING IN RUSSIA. 107 
 
 horses, — nothing in Russia can be done without an 
 official permit, — you will probably find at your disposal 
 three or four instruments of torture : a telega, or spring- 
 less cart ; another cart, furnished with a hood, and called 
 a hibitka ; and a tarantass, a lighter vehicle mounted 
 on poles, and furnished with the donga, or arched bow 
 over the horses' heads, which figures so prominently in 
 Russian equipages. 
 
 Few are carried so far by their curiosity as to 
 explore these solitudes in the depth of winter'; but 
 by choosing that season, they will at least avoid the 
 terrible ruts and holes and the unfathomable abysses of 
 mud through which they must plunge and jolt when the 
 track has been softened by rain. If the journey be 
 long— and most journeys are long in the dominions of the 
 Czar — changes of horses will be necessary, and provision 
 has been made for this from time immemorial by the 
 establishment of posting-stations along the route. 
 
 A sense of melancholy and loneliness is perhaps the 
 feeling that is uppermost in the breast of the stranger 
 as he approaches a secluded hamlet in Great Russia. 
 These small rural communities have a character and an 
 organization peculiar to themselves. Glancing along the 
 single street, and peeping in at the rude doorways, you 
 detect something of the temperament and the destinies 
 of the people, and of the outward circumstances that 
 have moulded their present condition. You look in 
 vain for the fragile cottages of the Ukraine, with their 
 shade of beech and cherry trees, their flower-plots, and 
 their climbing vine or honeysuckle by the porch. 
 
 The houses are solidly built of great rough-hewn logs, 
 with roofs of scarcely less substantial structure, pitched
 
 198 A VILLAGE STREET. 
 
 hierh in order to throw off the winter load of snow. On 
 the doorway and windows little art has been expended ; 
 but, in the north especially, the end ridges of the roof, 
 the rain-gutters, and balconies are often curiously painted, 
 carved, and fretted. Instead of being scattered about 
 in " admired disorder," like the huts of the peasants of 
 Kiev or Poltava, where each house seeks to assert, by its 
 attitude and situation, its individuality and its indepen- 
 dence of the other, the dwellings in the villages of 
 Great Russia stand as rigidly in line as their clumsy and 
 loutish shapes will allow — like a Falstaffian regiment 
 of Bullcalfs and Mouldys on parade. The houses, 
 whether their number is ten or a hundred, are ranged 
 on each side of the village street, and few of them 
 stracwle from the ranks. The thoroughfare itself is 
 
 Do O 
 
 probably knee-deep in mire, and choked with filth 
 unutterable, which it is no one's business to remove. It 
 is the favourite wallowing-place of the pigs of the 
 community and the playground of the village urchins. 
 Poultry and lean mongrel curs are continually exploring 
 it in search of garbage ; and the feet of the cattle and 
 horses, and the wheels of the rude waggons, stir up anew 
 its unsavoury depths. The dwellings stand apart from 
 each other, each with its own surroundings of cart- 
 shed, byres, and other outhouses. The villager will, if 
 possible, have his cabbage-plot, and in a favourable 
 situation for fruit there will be orchards, but, as a 
 rule, little or no space is spared for such useless and 
 thriftless productions as flowers. While in Little Russia 
 the eye may range over open and smiling sky and 
 plain, in Great Russia, except in the extreme south, 
 the forest is never far distant, and the heavens are
 
 A SECLUDED LIFE. 101) 
 
 seldom long clear of cloud or of fog. On one side at 
 least, and often on all four sides, the dark wall of the 
 woods bounds the view, and seems to throw its shadow 
 over the village life. From the first flurry of October 
 snow until the hasty arrival of the belated spring six 
 months of wintry weather may be counted upon. Often 
 the storms are so heavy and prolonged that the village 
 is buried to the eaves of the houses, or even deeper, 
 under the snow, and cut off for a season from all inter- 
 course with its neighbours. 
 
 But at the best of times, when the roads are 
 hardest and harvests most plentiful, the influences of 
 the world without have difficulty in penetrating into 
 these secluded hamlets. The village elder, or some 
 other representative of the commune perhaps, carries 
 the surplus grain or other produce of the village 
 lands to the great fair held in the nearest market 
 town, and returns with a modest supply of foreign 
 luxuries — the necessaries of life are grown or woven 
 at home — and with news of the court or the camp, of 
 the latest miracle or victory; and then the village falls 
 asleep again for a few weeks. They live a narrow and 
 restricted life in the midst of almost illimitable spaces. 
 The commune and its affairs are their universe ; the 
 village elder is their Great Power ; the village council the 
 repository of political wisdom, and the village pope or 
 priest of spiritual grace. Czar and Metropolitan, Councils 
 of State and Holy Synods, the tramp of armies and the 
 march of modern progress, are things remote, undefined, 
 incomprehensible — to be viewed with awe and accepted 
 by faith, like other unseen mysteries, but, like these, in- 
 capable of being conceived by the simple peasant mind.
 
 iiOO THE OH 10 IN OF THE COMMUTE. 
 
 Such, until recently, has apparently been the men- 
 tal attitude of the Russian villager; but even in his 
 slow ears, as has been hinted, tidings of strange dis- 
 turbing import have been whispered. He has heard 
 — birds of the air have carried the matter — that 
 he is far in the rear of the race, when he might be 
 in the van ; that the other nations claiming to be civil- 
 ized have asserted and secured their rights ; that the 
 State has other duties towards him than to exact the 
 communal taxes and sweep away a proportion of the 
 village youth into the ranks of the army ; that serf 
 emancipation is but the prologue to other reforms ; and 
 that it is time to bear himself like a man and claim his 
 just rights. 
 
 In the organization of the Russian village, there is 
 something that prepares the mind for democratic if not 
 for socialistic ideas. Each little rural community in Great 
 Russia — the stronghold of autocracy and centralization 
 — is in one sense an independent republic. When these 
 lands were first settled, the immigrants had to camp, 
 and clear the soil, in the midst of enemies. They clubbed 
 together to cut down the forests and to defend their 
 hearths and fields; co-operation was equally necessary 
 to hunt down the bears and wolves, and clear away the 
 snow-wreaths after the storms of winter. Men could 
 not live apart in detached farms and crofts as in modern 
 England : and the Russian is a social creature and pines 
 for the presence of his fellows. The land itself was to 
 be had for the occupying ; the difficulty, until com- 
 paratively recent times, was to persuade or compel the 
 peasant to reside on it. 
 
 And so arose the communal rights and authority,
 
 THE TILLAGE "WORLD." 201 
 
 established by indefeasible and unwritten law, under 
 which twenty-five millions of Russian subjects hold their 
 property. Each house in a village belongs to the head 
 of the family occupying it. The land that the inmates 
 till, however, is the property, not of themselves, but of 
 the community of which the family forms a unit. It is 
 periodically redistributed by lot, under the direction of the 
 elder and the mir — the village council or "world," balloted 
 for by the inhabitants " in public meeting assembled." 
 
 A member of the commune cannot free himself of 
 his duties by neglecting them. He must work for the 
 common good ; and his laziness, waste, or intemperance 
 is a public matter, which his mir takes care to look 
 after. He cannot, without its consent, abandon his 
 family and his lot in the little " world " and go out into 
 the great world in search of fortune and freedom. 
 Even if he is allowed to settle for a time as a trader or 
 a workman in one of the large towns, he is often not 
 relieved of the burden of his duties, and is even liable 
 to be recalled and punished for real or trumped-up 
 offences against the village commonwealth. For the 
 mir, by immemorial usage, rather than by express 
 written law, possesses extensive plenary powers over 
 its subjects. It may eject them summarily from the 
 community, and from all right in house and land, and 
 turn them adrift into space ; and it may, at least it 
 does, punish them, not only by fine but by corporal 
 chastisement. The representatives of a certain number 
 of village communes- — perhaps as many as a hundred — 
 form the volost, or district authority ; and the semstvo, or 
 provincial assembly, has been vested with new powers 
 of local self-government and jurisdiction.
 
 202 LANDOWNERS AND SERFS. 
 
 Emancipation, which has changed in so many ways the 
 very foundations on which Russia's prosperity rests, has 
 but strengthened and enlarged the communal system 
 and extended its application into new fields. Not only 
 was freedom given by a stroke of the pen to the bulk 
 of the population of Great Russia, but the agricultural 
 serfs were put in the way of becoming the communal 
 owners of the lands they formerly tilled for the state 
 and for the nobles ; and from the house of bondage they 
 were suddenly raised to the dignity, so much desired in 
 some other lands, of being peasant-proprietors. As to 
 the immediate effects of emancipation on the condi- 
 tion of the Russian peasants, and on the revenues 
 of the Russian gentry, there are wide differences of 
 opinion. 
 
 As might be expected from the great variety of soil, 
 climate, and systems of agriculture, the benefits and the 
 disadvantages of the change have been felt in very 
 different proportions in different parts of the country. 
 Thus in the provinces north of the Oka, where the 
 climate is harsh and the soil so poor as hardly to repay 
 the cultivator by means of " high-farming," emancipa- 
 tion has virtually only transferred the peasants from 
 the rule of the nobles to that of the commune. The 
 dues payable to their former lords and masters exceed 
 often the rent value of the village lands ; while the old 
 proprietors themselves, deprived of part of their lands, 
 and unable from want of labour to profitably work the 
 rest, have abandoned their country seats and sought 
 commercial pursuits or official employment in the 
 towns. 
 
 In the " Black Earth " region, on the other hand, where
 
 EMANCIPATION. 203 
 
 the climate is more genial, and the land fertile and capable 
 of supporting a much larger population than at present, 
 the serf -proprietors have generally benefited largely, even 
 in pocket, by the social revolution from which some of 
 them boded overwhelming ruin ; while the peasantry 
 are in a position that demands only industry and sobriety 
 to make them comfortable if not affluent. In the one 
 instance the possession of the land is felt to be a burden, 
 and in the other it is a privilege ; but under the best 
 circumstances, the strict ties that bind the villagers 
 within the limits of their petty world, and prevent them 
 from seeking their fortunes elsewhere, or exercising their 
 individual will in the smallest matter outside their own 
 threshold, grow more and more e-allino-. In the 1oik>- 
 run, the substitution of free for serf labour must prove 
 a blessing to the country — -indeed, for good or evil the 
 change could scarcely have been longer delayed — and the 
 late Emperor Alexander II. deserves great credit for the 
 bold and energetic manner in which he grappled with, 
 and so far solved, a vast problem. 
 
 Beyond the arable land adjoining the villages are to 
 be found the pasturages where the cattle of the com- 
 mune are turned out to feed ; and probably the wood- 
 land and peat-moss to which each household resorts for 
 fuel and building material. Most of the old enemies 
 against whom the original settlers joined their forces- 
 Tartar raiders, Cossack foragers, brigands, " broken men," 
 and all the loose conflicting elements of society in a 
 state of disintegration — have passed away before the 
 inexorable march of civilization and industry. 
 
 The wolves, however, remain, though in greatly reduced 
 numbers. Packs of them haunt the forests, especially in
 
 204 WOLF HUNTS. 
 
 the m< >r< ■ n< >rthern provinces ; and after deep snow and long- 
 protracted frosts, hunger emboldens them to prowl even 
 into the village streets by night in search of prey. A 
 belated wanderer, especially if he is old and feeble or 
 fatigued by the march, would stand a poor chance of 
 escaping their fangs; and in the more remote districts, 
 even the traveller who has a couple or more of good 
 is harnessed to his sleigh may taste the dangerous 
 excitement, made so familiar to us by tale and legend, of 
 being pursued by the wolves. When the cattle and sheep 
 have been safely housed, their fierce and wily enemy, 
 coming " like a thief in the night," has been known to 
 climb upon the top of the shed, scratch away the pro- 
 tecting snow, remove the covering of boards with his 
 powerful teeth, and leaping down among the helpless 
 beasts, destroy in one debauch of blood the unlucky 
 peasant's whole stock. Then is the time for the out- 
 raged owner and his neighbours to turn out in force 
 against the common foe. An ingenious method is some- 
 times adopted for making a large "bag" of wolves. A worn- 
 out old horse is harnessed to a lumbering cart, that plods 
 heavily through the snow, as if inviting an attack from 
 the hungry prowlers that eye it from the shelter of the 
 wood, and gradually draw nearer in the confident hope 
 of obtaining an easy prey. But concealed in the cart 
 are the best shots of the village, and when the pack 
 gather together close at hand for their final rush, a 
 volley into the midst of them sends them scampering 
 back to the thicket — all save the leaders, whom the 
 keen eyes of the marksmen have singled out, and who 
 are left dead on the track. 
 
 One of the great occasions of rejoicing in the
 
 VILLAGE MARRIAGES. 205 
 
 village — fasts and " name-days " or saints' days are of 
 weekly and at some seasons almost daily occurrence — is 
 the marriage of a young couple belonging to the com- 
 munity. Marriage in Russia is a specially solemn sacra- 
 ment and consecration, attended by minute and pro- 
 tracted religious observances, and visits of ceremony 
 between the two families that are to be united. It is 
 also a matter that personally affects the whole of the 
 commune. 
 
 In former times numerous families dwelt under one 
 roof, and one male head represented them in the com- 
 munity and wielded an unquestioned authority within 
 his own household. But this patriarchal system, though 
 still existing to a great extent, is fast breaking up, 
 and every married couple now seek to set up an inde- 
 pendent family of their own, and have their propor- 
 tion of the village land duly allotted to them. The 
 young moujik who has thoughts of setting up in life 
 by no means has his choice restricted to the maidens 
 of his native place. Though the nearest hamlet may 
 be many versts away, lonely moor and gloomy forest 
 are not sufficient to keep the young people of the 
 neighbouring villages from coming into contact, and the 
 elders rather encourage the practice of going beyond 
 the bounds of the " mir " for a wife. The marriage 
 will naturally take place in the winter time, when the 
 harvest has been got in and all the work of the field 
 stopped. 
 
 When all the nuptial ceremonies are over — when 
 Dimitri Sergievitch has been crowned as " king " 
 and " head " of Natalie Ivanovna, and Natalie, in her 
 turn, has been solemnly consecrated as the " queen " of
 
 206 FESTIVE CUSTOMS. 
 
 Dimitri'a home and affections — the guests, whose religious 
 feelings have hitherto been kept in high tension, relax, 
 and begin with all their might to eat, drink, and be 
 merry. The fun, to a super-refined or even moderately 
 fastidious taste, may be coarse and uproarious ; and the 
 quantities of vodka drunk may be larger than is good 
 for the understandings of the wassailers. But in what 
 country does not such excess occasionally occur ? and 
 are we in these islands justified in flinging the first 
 stone at the Russian moujik, who has so few pleasures in 
 this life, for not rejoicing with moderation ? The drink- 
 ing propensities of the Russian peasants certainly do not 
 form a specially attractive feature of the national cus- 
 toms ; and few affairs of consequence — religious, political, 
 or even judicial — can be transacted without the aid of 
 strong spirits. But it has often been questioned whether 
 the examples of extreme insobriety that may be seen in 
 most Russian towns and villages — and more frequently, 
 it is alleged, in these post-emancipation days — may not 
 be traced as much to the weak stomachs and excitable 
 temperaments of the poorly-fed peasantry as to the 
 potency or quantity of the liquor consumed. 
 
 The feasting over, and the jokes cracked, the marriage 
 guests escort the newly-married pair to their home, the 
 horses scampering, ventre-d-terre, over the powdery 
 snow, and the shouts and snatches of choruses of the 
 excited drivers vibrating in the keen air. 
 
 It is under such exhilarating circumstances that we 
 prefer to glance at the life of the Russian peasant. To 
 perceive that his ordinary lot is a hard and laborious 
 one, you have only to look at his coarse and rude 
 garments, his toil-worn figure, his roughly-built hut;
 
 A PEASANT HOME. 207 
 
 or to thoroughly satisfy yourself on the subject, step 
 carefully across the mud puddle before his lowly door 
 and enter the sanctuary of his home. The Russian 
 home is a sanctuary in a literal sense, for it has its 
 family shrine and its household gods. The sacred icons 
 and relics, and pictures and figures of Virgin and saint, 
 are the prominent and often the only ornament of the 
 family room ; a portrait of the Czar sometimes disputing 
 the place of honour with the holy symbols. 
 
 Otherwise, the rough, undressed walls, the soot-begrimed 
 roof, the uneven earthen floor, the rude and scanty furni- 
 ture, and the close, unwholesome air, are anything but sug- 
 gestive of the holy and the beautiful. So, you will think, 
 is the appearance of your host, who, besides the stains of 
 daily labour, bears about him a savour of one who has 
 an instinctive aversion to soap and water. There can, 
 however, be no mistaking the warmth and sincerity of 
 his welcome. The seat of honour by the stove is at your 
 disposal ; and the mistress of the house brings from some 
 secret hoard, not only black bread and milk, but some 
 luxury in the shape of mushrooms or dried fish, with 
 perhaps a " nip " of vodka. The inmates are curious 
 and interested in your affairs and in the marvels of the 
 foreign world, over which they shake their heads, half 
 in wonderment and half in deprecation. They are 
 simple, kindly, hospitable ; shrewd, too, within " the 
 enchanted circle of their conceptions," as a Russian 
 writer expresses it ; and patient and long-suffering 
 almost to a fault. 
 
 With all his air of simplicity, however — which is 
 sometimes more than half -affected— it would hardly be 
 wise to trust the word of a Russian peasant, or in-
 
 208 MOUJIK VIRTUES AND FAILINGS. 
 
 deed of a Russian of any rank. In a bargain he will 
 probably cheat you, if he can. His regard for truth is 
 of the slenderest; and he will tell you a lie — "open, 
 gross, palpable " — with an air of innocence which could 
 not be surpassed by the original wearer of the sheep- 
 skin coat on his back. What can you expect ? For 
 centuries his " betters " have tyrannized over and often 
 ill-used him at their pleasure; and fraud and deceit are 
 the natural weapons of the weak. 
 
 In noting other features of his character also, while it 
 is impossible not to perceive many blemishes, it is unfair 
 not to keep in view the excuses he has for even his 
 worst faults. He is lazy, shiftless, apathetic, you say, 
 coming from the busy West; but entering the country from 
 the side of Asia — and it should be remembered that the 
 bulk of Russia lies to the east of Mecca — you wonder at 
 the energy and industry of the peasant. The Russian 
 labours hard while he is at it, and if he works spas- 
 modically — in spurts, and not by long-sustained, deter- 
 mined effort — let it be remembered that it is only 
 lately, if it is even yet the case, that he has begun to 
 work for his own behoof. His strong sentiment of 
 reverence, his friendly helpfulness to his fellow, and his 
 love of country are good points that cannot justly be 
 ignored ; though it is true that his religious beliefs shade 
 away into gross superstition, and that it is often not 
 easy to discriminate his patriotism from prejudice and 
 ignorance. But though you cannot help thinking, as 
 you shake hands with your entertainer, how much his 
 appearance could be improved with the aid of a pair 
 of scissors and some soap and water, and that you would 
 even sacrifice some portion of his piety and patriotism 

 
 THE VILLAGE CHURCH AND VILLAGE PRIEST. 209 
 
 in order to have him more truthful, honest, and sober, 
 it is impossible not to part with kindly feelings from 
 one who bears the burden of his hard lot with such 
 cheerful o-ood nature. The wonder is that so much good 
 has survived, and not that so many rank weeds of evil 
 have sprung up in so neglected a soil. 
 
 One cannot enter or leave the village without noticing 
 the timber-built church, which, however lowly, will have 
 its belfry and bell ; and bears witness of the devotion of 
 the humble worshippers in bright-painted walls and gilded 
 weather-cock, and in the carvings and decorations placed 
 about the altar. Near by is the house of the village 
 " pope " or priest. There may be little to distinguish 
 the dwelling from its neighbours, — the elder's house may 
 be larger, and the village tavern possess more rooms, — 
 and it is often the case that the worthy pastor himself 
 is in nowise distinguished from his flock in learning or 
 intelligence. 
 
 One of the causes of the backwardness of the rural 
 parts of Russia is undoubtedly the ignorance and low 
 social position of the " White " or parochial clergy. 
 Many of them are devout and hard-working men, 
 striving, not unsuccessfully, to raise and to purify 
 those who have been given into their spiritual charge. 
 Many others are "no better than they should be," even 
 in morals — a parasitical race, a little more narrow- 
 minded, lazy, and dishonest than those they live upon. 
 
 In excuse for them it must be said that these country 
 clergy are miserably ill-paid. They have no social 
 standing, and no stimulus to intellectual improvement. 
 A parish priest is " passing rich " on £30 a year. His 
 average stipend is said to be between £22 and £25, and 
 
 (718) 14
 
 210 WHITE AXD BLACK CLERGY. 
 
 a share of the glebe. On this salary he has to maintain 
 his family. He must daily rise between four and five in 
 the morning, however far below zero the thermometer 
 may be, read the liturgy before midday, and have vespers 
 at sunset. Special services are required of him on in- 
 numerable other occasions during the year — on saints' days 
 and holidays ; at births, baptisms, betrothals, marriages, 
 and deaths; in blessing processions and new buildings ; 
 and in times of harvest, pestilence, or public disaster. 
 He keeps the parish register, and a minute record of all 
 his offices for the eyes of his ecclesiastical superiors. He 
 observes the long fasts of the Church, and on the great 
 yearly festivals he goes the round of his parish, and says 
 a prayer at every house. " On these festive occasions," 
 says Mr. Lansdell, " refreshments stand on the sideboard, 
 and vodka is offered to drink." Small wonder that the 
 secular priest is often a beggar and a drunkard. 
 
 For the "White" clergy there is no hope of promotion 
 to spur them on to higher aims and efforts. Between 
 them and their " Black " brethren — the monastic orders 
 — there is a great gulf fixed. To the latter belong, as 
 to the monks of the Middle Ages, all the prizes in the 
 ecclesiastical lottery. From their ranks are drawn the 
 bishops, archbishops, and other functionaries of the 
 Church, who wield a political as well as a sacerdotal 
 authority. In the convents and monasteries are concen- 
 trated the theological learning and talent found in the 
 Russian Church. It is easy to understand that jealousy 
 and dislike exist between the " White " and the " Black " 
 ranks of churchmen. The former are naturally discon- 
 tented, and are largely suspected of sympathy with 
 schism and of the practice of the Old Ritual. The in-
 
 MONASTERIES AXD MONASTIC LIFE. 211 
 
 mates of the monasteries despise them as unlettered 
 boors, in whom there is hardly a savour of holiness. 
 The village pope is not only allowed to take a wife, but 
 it is expressly required that he should be a married man 
 or a widower, while the monks are vowed to celibacy 
 and seclusion. 
 
 Great Russia is thickly scattered over with these 
 monastic institutions, some of which we have already 
 visited, — vast and richly endowed piles, the monuments 
 of the piety, repentance, or policy of bygone generations 
 of czars and boyards. The monkish caste pass a curious 
 hybrid existence, half in a world of the past, and half 
 in the stirring present. There are among them men 
 of commanding talents and enlightened views, that hold 
 in their fingers some of the most important threads that 
 move the national policy ; and there are ascetics and 
 fanatics that keep before them an ideal of saintly per- 
 fection not a whit less eccentric than that of Peter 
 the Hermit or St. Simon Stylites. There are prelates 
 clothed in purple and fine linen, and bearing on their 
 breasts not only the insignia of their sacred office, but 
 the stars of secular orders ; and there are half -naked 
 anchorites who carry penance and mortification almost 
 as far as the religious enthusiasts of the Middle Ages. 
 
 The total number of these monastic institutions — 
 male and female — throughout Russia is about five hun- 
 dred. In discipline and general character they are 
 described as Egyptian rather than Roman. They are of 
 three kinds — the Lavra, to which rank only Kiev, Troitsa, 
 and St. Petersburg attain, Ccenobia, and Stauropegia. 
 Life is not all ease and recreation in these celibate estab- 
 lishments, as may be judged from the account of their
 
 212 MODERN MIRACLES. 
 
 daily routine given by one of the monks of the Yurief 
 Monastery at Novgorod to Mr. Lansdell : — " They rise 
 at half-past two — at one o'clock on festivals — go to 
 church till six, and from six to nine they sleep. Then 
 they go to church again for an hour and a half, and 
 afterwards breakfast. They are free to sleep or do as 
 they please till five in the afternoon, when evening service 
 brings them together for an hour and a half, after which 
 they sup and go to bed. They have but two meals a 
 day, never eat flesh, and when observing the fasts eat 
 vegetables only." 
 
 It is still the Age of Miracles in Russia. Now and again 
 there arise reports of " miraculous appearances " of the 
 Virgin, and supernatural gifts of images or relics vouch- 
 safed to some convent by the Mother of God or some 
 favourite saint — George, or Sergius, or Nicolas — in reward 
 for penance and sacrifice. Troops of pilgrims visit the old 
 shrines for the cure of diseases, the removal of the reproach 
 of sterility, the remission of sins; and if prayer and pen- 
 ance do not avail them, their faith is stimulated anew 
 by the report of a recent miracle wrought at some less 
 famous resort of the devout. In each reign a new saint 
 is discovered, and after attestation of his sainthood by 
 miracle, is duly canonized. Poor is the monastery that 
 does not possess some relics having thaumaturgic virtues ; 
 and in many are preserved the incorruptible bodies of 
 saint and martyr, still fresh and sweet as at the hour of 
 death. The monks are ready to answer for the truth of 
 all these wonders ; but, as some one asks, Who shall 
 answer for the monks ? Who shall say, also, whether 
 these same monks, living an isolated and morbid exist- 
 ence, with their minds fixed on one range of ideas, and
 
 THE RURAL GENTRY. 213 
 
 their individuality merged in that of their order, are the 
 deceivers or the deceived ? 
 
 The only other phase of country life that need be 
 glanced at is that of the large landed proprietors — the 
 gentry and nobility of Russia. It has already been said 
 that in extensive districts the proprietors, since the eman- 
 cipation of the serfs, have removed permanently into the 
 towns, abandoning their country residences to neglect 
 and decay. That, however, is a step in a process that 
 has been going on for generations. Rural life has not 
 the idyllic charms here that it is supposed to have in 
 more western countries ; and if the lord of the soil has 
 lost his most precious privileges — his absolute power 
 over his people — what attraction is there to keep him in 
 his dismal and lonely country-house ? He has acquired 
 tastes for art and literature, or for modern amusements 
 and dissipations ; like his countrymen of all ranks, he 
 has a passion for travel, or he has an ambition to win 
 distinction in the army or in official life. These desires 
 can only be gratified by abandoning the home and the 
 ways of his fathers. The tendency, for long, has been 
 for the nobility to drift farther and farther apart in sym- 
 pathies and daily life from the mass of the people. 
 
 In one sense there is little room for regret that the 
 "good old times" are coming to an end. In most respects 
 they were wicked and brutal times, that are best buried 
 out of sight. There can be no doubt that at no very 
 remote period there were members of the Russian aris- 
 tocracy who exercised their seignorial rights over the 
 persons and property of their underlings in a scandalous 
 and cruel manner ; though, as we might expect from the 
 national character, the relations existing between masters
 
 ill A LAM) LORD OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 
 
 and serfs were on the whole of a kindly nature. It is 
 still not difficult to fall in with a Russian proprietor of 
 the patriarchal type, who resides, as his fathers did, on 
 his own land and among his own people in summer's 
 heat and in winter's frost; who has gathered about him a 
 numerous array of descendants and attendants, whom he 
 rules as a father that does not believe in sparing the rod ; 
 who reads no books, or only one or two of a devotional 
 kind ; who eats and sleeps and dresses after the manner 
 and at the times hallowed by ancient usage ; who super- 
 intends and perhaps assists in the cultivation of his own 
 estate, following old-fashioned methods instead of leav- 
 ing it to some German overseer with new-fangled notions 
 of modern cropping and farm utensils ; who keeps a 
 plain but hospitable and abundant board ; who takes 
 care that his wife and daughters live the secluded and 
 contracted woman's life approved of by earlier genera- 
 tions of Russians, and who sees with dismay that his 
 sons, that have been abroad in the world, are tainted 
 with the foreign manners and ideas that are ruining his 
 country. 
 
 We would like to preserve the proprietor of the old 
 school as we would the fossil of some extinct animal. 
 But his day and generation are past, and changed times 
 have brought chano-ed manners.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ASTRAKHAN AND ORENBURG. 
 
 !HE Volga in its lower course flows through the 
 great Czarate or " Royalty " of Astrakhan. 
 That immense territory curves round the 
 northern end of the Caspian Sea for a dis- 
 tance of many hundred miles. In the map it seems to 
 hover — if a country as large as Austro-Hungary can be 
 said to hover — over the waters of that remote and deso- 
 late salt sea like a wide-pinioned bird, with one wing- 
 stretched towards the Caucasus, and the other touching 
 the Ural range. While thus bounded by two great 
 ranges of mountains, the region is a vast plain, much of 
 the surface of which is beneath the level of the outer 
 ocean. 
 
 The Caspian, as has already been said, is some ninety 
 feet below sea-level. Its shores, except where they are 
 overhung by the " cliffs Caucasian " or the buttresses 
 of the Persian plateau, are for the most part low and 
 tame. The shallow bays and inlets on its eastern si<l<- 
 are fringed with barren sand-dunes and salt-marshes ; 
 and these dismal shores, except where at long intervals 
 a Russian fort has been built, are only visited by wan- 
 dering bands of Kirghiz and Turcomans. On the west
 
 21(5 THE SHORES OF THE CASPIAN. 
 
 the white walls of a few old cities, such as Derbend and 
 Baku, overhang the blue waters ; and in the south are 
 the Persian ports of Resht and Astrabad, the rich 
 slopes of Ghilan and Mazanderan behind them, backed 
 by the lofty ranges of the Elburz, with their sides clothed 
 with forests and their highest summits crowned with 
 snow. 
 
 All this does not redeem the shores of the Caspian 
 from the reproach of sterility and baldness. From the 
 thirsty desert to the eastward, whatever may have been 
 the case in ancient times, when the Oxus is believed to 
 have flowed into it instead of into the Sea of Aral, it 
 receives no river save the Attrek. Apart from the Kur 
 and the Ural, its other secondary affluents are of small 
 consequence. It is by the Volga that the Caspian Sea 
 exists. It is the enormous volume of water brought 
 down by that great river from the forests of Russia 
 that supplies from year to year the waste of water 
 caused by evaporation under a broiling sun and by 
 absorption in swamps and quicksands. The Caspian 
 may be said to be a prolongation of the Volga — to be 
 the basin over which it spreads itself, on finding that it 
 lias wandered into a hollow from whence there is no 
 means of exit ; and it is the Volga that gives it almost 
 its whole commercial and political importance. 
 
 The ancients, and indeed the moderns, had most vague 
 and incorrect notions regarding the " Hyrcanian Sea " — 
 its size, its shape, the scenery of its shores, and its phy- 
 sical functions. They believed that a channel connected 
 it with the sea of the Hyperboreans. It may have been 
 from this misapprehension that the Volga makes so poor 
 a figure in ancient geography, only appearing in a few
 
 PREHISTORIC CHANGES. 217 
 
 doubtful passages as the " Rha." Its wide channel may 
 have been mistaken for that " inlet of the frozen ocean " 
 on the existence of which almost all of the old and the 
 medieval geographers insist. 
 
 At the same time, modern hydrographers, such as 
 the late Major Herbert Wood, have pointed out that 
 when the climatic conditions of Central Asia were 
 wholly different from what they are to-day — before 
 continual wars, with pestilence and famine in their 
 train, had destroyed the flourishing states and laid 
 waste the fine forests, the rich grain-fields, and beau- 
 tiful gardens of Turkestan, and left behind only a bare 
 and burnt-up desert ; when, as the saying in these coun- 
 tries £oes, a cat could crawl along the orchard walls 
 and spring from fruit-tree to fruit-tree from the base of 
 the Tian-shan to Khiva ; or earlier still, when the Oxus 
 and Jaxartes poured their united flood into the Caspian — 
 the level of that sea must have been much higher than 
 at present; while in prehistoric times its basin must have 
 extended far over the level steppe to the north-eastward, 
 and its surplus waters must have poured over the low 
 watershed separating it from the head-waters of the 
 Tobol and Irtish, making this isolated salt lake actually, 
 as Strabo and Pliny represented it, a branch of the 
 Polar Ocean. 
 
 The steppes that stretch away almost illimitably from 
 the banks of the Volga, from Saratov downwards, still 
 show traces of these ancient conditions. Life and motion 
 and civilization are concentrated upon the river. Re- 
 minders of the world of the West may be seen in the 
 wharves of Astrakhan, the neat churches and schools, 
 and well-trimmed vineyards, melon-plots, and grain-fields
 
 218 THE THRESHOLD OF ASIA. 
 
 of the Lutheran villages, and the trailing smoke from 
 the steamboat funnel. But when you turn your eyes 
 towards the steppe, you perceive that you are in Asia. 
 The Ural River and Mountains are usually regarded as 
 the boundaries between the two continents. The real 
 line of division, marked not only by the characteristics 
 of the landscape, but by the race affinities, habits, and 
 religions of the people, should be drawn up the Don 
 to the point where it approaches closest to the Volga 
 at Tsaritsin, thence by the latter river to the junction 
 of the Kama, and by the Kama to the Urals. The 
 lower Volga flows through what is really a section of 
 Asia ; and the Caspian is an Asiatic lake. To the 
 Russian this territory is still a foreign and partially 
 subdued country — a " land of promise," where he is only 
 beginning to obtain a firm foothold. The people are 
 nomads, living in tents, roaming over the plain with 
 their flocks and herds in search of pasturage and water — 
 Mohammedan Kirghiz on the left bank of the stream, 
 and Buddhist Kalmuks on the right. 
 
 The city of Astrakhan, built on one of the many 
 islands formed by the delta of the Volga, is the only 
 large centre of permanent habitation between the Ural 
 River and the Terek. The present town only dates from 
 the Russian conquest. It is altogether a commercial 
 place, and has already 50,000 inhabitants. It is the 
 entrepdt of the business passing between Russia and 
 Persia and India, and the centre of the Caspian trade, 
 which now employs many hundred vessels. 
 
 Few towns have a more curiously mixed and diversi- 
 fied population. Like every Russian town, Astrakhan 
 is handsomely provided with churches for the Orthodox.
 
 ASTRAKHAN. 219 
 
 whose domes and cupolas give an imposing appearance 
 to the city, whether approached by land or water. But 
 there are also mosques for the sons of Islam, and meet- 
 ing-places for the adherents of the Armenian and other 
 creeds. It was once the centre from which zealous mis- 
 sionary enterprise was carried on by British and German 
 evangelists. The Moravian Brethren had a flourishing 
 settlement at Sarepta, at the point where the Volga 
 delta begins ; and the Scotch mission, with John Mitchell 
 at its head, had its main station at Astrakhan, with 
 branches at Orenburg and Karass, and even beyond the 
 Caucasus. These operations have been stopped, but 
 many of the fruits of them remain ; and the name of 
 Englishmen, still more of Scotchmen, has a good savour 
 in the lower parts of the Volga. 
 
 The earlier cities that dominated this region — Atel, 
 the capital of the Khazar kings ; Sarai, where Baty 
 with his horde sat down like an incubus on the bound 
 and writhing carcass of Russia ; and old Astrakhan, the 
 seat of the Turkish dynasty that followed, and was 
 finally overwhelmed by Ivan the Terrible in 1554 — 
 were all situated on or near the delta of the Volga, 
 though it is now difficult to distinguish their exact 
 sites. Atel, however, is still the title given by the 
 Tartars to the great stream ; while the new city at the 
 Volga mouth preserves the name, and is built partly 
 with the stones, of the old capital founded by the suc- 
 cessors of Tamerlane. 
 
 Situated so far from the centre of Russian authority, 
 the modern Astrakhan has not escaped misfortunes from 
 civil uprisings and foreign attacks. The rulers of Tur- 
 kestan and the nomad tribes of the steppe have more
 
 220 A STORMY HISTORY. 
 
 than once tried to regain possession of their lost inherit- 
 ance. But the turbulent regiments of Cossacks of the 
 Don that guarded the country towards the Ural and the 
 Caucasus constituted a greater danger than the enemy 
 they were set to watch. The country during the seven- 
 teenth and the greater part of the eighteenth centuries 
 contained all the materials, according to Rambaud, of 
 " an immense jacquerie, being full of vagabonds of all 
 kinds, ruined nobles, disfrocked monks, military deserters, 
 fugitive serfs, highwaymen, and river pirates." 
 
 These malcontents were always ripe for revolt and 
 revolution. Thus in the " time of the troubles," under 
 their leader Zaroutski, they seized Astrakhan, and ruled 
 it in name of one of the many pretenders to the Russian 
 throne. The archbishop was bound hand and foot and 
 sent to Moscow. Seventy years later occurred the great 
 Cossack rising under the celebrated bandit Stenko Razin, 
 the Robin Hood of Russia. He overran all the Don and 
 Volga countries, ravaged the shores of the Caspian, pil- 
 laged Persian towns, and for six or seven years threat- 
 ened to wrest South-eastern Russia from the empire. At 
 Astrakhan one of the voivodes, or civil governors, was 
 thrown from a bell-tower and killed; and an imitator of 
 Stenko improved on Zaroutski's treatment of the eccle- 
 siastical authority, by stripping the archbishop of his 
 robes, half -roasting him, and pitching him headlong from 
 the belfry. 
 
 The last of the great Cossack risings was that of 
 Pugatchef, in the reign of the Empress Catherine II. 
 Pugatchef was a Cossack deserter from the regiment of 
 the Yaik, as the Ural River was then called, and a 
 rashol/mk. He gave himself out as Peter III., the mur 

 
 COSSACKS OF THE URAL. 221 
 
 dered husband of Catherine. The discontented and the 
 fanatical thronged to the pretender's standard, and the 
 Volga, as far as Kazan, which he pillaged and burned, 
 was soon in his hands. Catherine's power trembled; but 
 the imperial troops under Suvarof and Mitch elson at 
 length made headway against the rebel, hunted him into 
 the salt-steppes to the eastward of Astrakhan, and cap- 
 tured him as he was on the point of escaping into 
 Persia. 
 
 It was to blot out remembrance of this episode that 
 the name of the Yaik River was changed ; and the Cos- 
 sacks who had taken the leading part in the revolt 
 became henceforth known as the regiment of the Ural. 
 To-day they are like Cossacks generally, an industrious, 
 kindly, and hospitable race of military colonists ; hardy 
 and enterprising where warlike duties are required of 
 them, but scarcely less energetic and successful as fishers, 
 hunters, and agriculturists in time of peace. The unan- 
 imous testimony of travellers to the good qualities of 
 the Cossacks is fast removing the bad name which their 
 early turbulence and barbarity brought upon them. 
 
 Astrakhan is the great depot for the produce of the 
 sturgeon and other fisheries, on which the prosperity of 
 the lower Volga and the Caspian so much depends. 
 Great quantities of caviare are manufactured here, and 
 exported to all parts of Russia. In this, as in other 
 branches of its trade, Astrakhan owes much to Peter 
 the Great. He came hither in 1722, on the occasion of 
 his expedition against Derbend and the other cities of 
 the Caspian ; built the Admiralt}^, and founded trading 
 companies with Persia and Turkestan. The English had, 
 however, been here long before on the same mission.
 
 222 ENGLISH TRADE US ON THE CASPIAN. 
 
 In the reign of Ivan the Terrible, who encouraged 
 British trade with the White Sea and Moscow, and 
 carried his admiration of us so far as to propose 
 marriage to our Queen Elizabeth, a London merchant 
 named Jenkinson descended the Volga and hoisted the 
 English flao- on the Caspian within a year or two of 
 Ivan's capture of Astrakhan. Jenkinson landed on 
 the eastern side of this inland sea, loaded his mer- 
 chandise on camels, started boldly into the interior, and 
 reached Bokhara in safety, by a route which even to-day 
 is very imperfectly known. Other journeys were made 
 by the enterprising Jenkinson in the interests of his 
 royal mistress, of the Czar Ivan, or of his own pocket ; 
 and it was partly in recognition of his services that 
 authority was given three centuries ago to English 
 merchants to trade in the principal towns of Russia. 
 
 Leaving Astrakhan and the banks of the river behind, 
 and striking westward into the steppe, we are not long 
 in discovering: that though on the hither side of the 
 Volga, with our faces Paris-wards, we are actually in 
 Asia — among scenery and people that suggest the in- 
 terior of Mongolia rather than the neighbourhood of a 
 port frequented by passenger steamers and vessels of war. 
 The soil is sandy or saline, and the herbage scanty and 
 coarse. Fresh water is only met with at the end of a long 
 day's march ; and the bare plain, extending to the horizon, 
 bears no trace of fixed human habitation. At long 
 intervals the dingy gray expanse of the steppe is faintly 
 mottled by the still more dingy felt tents forming the 
 aid of a wandering tribe of Kalmuks ; or we come upon 
 a group of savage -looking shepherds watching flocks 
 of cattle and sheep scarcely more rough - coated and
 
 THE ASTRAKHAN STEPPES. 223 
 
 wild than their herdsmen. Then a party of Cossack 
 horsemen files past on some picketing duty, or a train of 
 camels laden with wool or felt-cloth moves slowly across 
 the waste on its way to Astrakhan. We will pass on 
 the route small basins, enclosed by sandy ridges, and 
 covered by a saline efflorescence, looking in its dazzling 
 whiteness like newly-fallen snow. In some of these 
 depressions men will be seen at work cutting up the 
 saline deposit — the residue of what once was a bitter 
 lake — into cakes, and piling them up in pyramidal form 
 for transport. On some height a rude windmill may 
 occasionally be descried spreading its ragged sails ; at 
 intervals much more remote a huraul, with its Buddhist 
 temple of Chinese design, and wooden shanties for the 
 high priest and inferior lamas, will be encountered. 
 Otherwise there is nothing to occupy eye or mind. 
 
 Near the Caspian and the Volga stagnant pools of 
 water are met with, but they are mostly brackish and 
 undrinkable. The march is a continual climbing and 
 descending of sandy hillocks, which have been blown 
 by the prevailing winds into long ridges ; or a sand- 
 storm drives the sharp gritty or saline particles into the 
 faces of the travellers, and obscures the air with whirling 
 dust. The region at no very remote date — as geologists 
 count time — has been the bed of a sea. Probably the 
 Euxine and the Caspian mingled their waters in this 
 depression. The soil and climate seem to be gradually 
 growing more arid. In quite modern times the Kouma 
 River made a small perennial contribution to the Caspian. 
 Its lower course, except in rare occasions of heavy flood, 
 is now a bare furrow between two sand-banks, with 
 jungly thickets and marshes at the mouth, where
 
 224 THE INCURSION OF THE KALMUKS. 
 
 robbei\s sometimes find shelter ; and there is no permanent 
 running stream between the Volga and the Terek. 
 
 The nomads inhabiting these steppes are for the 
 most part Kalmuks. They are a Mongolian people, 
 whose original home was in Soungaria, among the high 
 grassy valleys of the Tian-shan range, to the south and 
 east of Lake Balkash, and within the limits of what is 
 called Chinese Tartary. Their ancestors formed part of 
 a powerful confederation of Mongol tribes — the Tchoros, 
 Durbot, Hoshot, and Torgot — formed by the Soungarian 
 clans with the object of reconquering China, lost by the 
 descendants of Ghenghiz Khan. The Oirats — the Four 
 Allies — quarrelled with each other in later times ; petty 
 chiefs made themselves independent and broke away 
 from the confederation. The Kalmuks — the "remnant" 
 or " residue " of the alliance, composed chiefly of the 
 Torgot and Durbot tribes — could no longer hold their 
 old ground against their enemies, and in detached parties, 
 under various chiefs, they began their movement west- 
 ward. 
 
 This last and not least remarkable of the Mongolian 
 migrations into Europe began in 1670, and was com- 
 pleted about 1703. They crossed the steppes of the 
 Kirghiz with their flocks and herds, their women and 
 children, in spite of the opposition offered by these 
 hereditary enemies, passed the Yaik, and spread over 
 the then unoccupied plains between it and the Don. 
 There they pastured their flocks and throve in wealth 
 and numbers till the year 1771, when a still more 
 extraordinary impulse set them in motion again towards 
 their home in the east. 
 
 Through some of the secret and mysterious sources by
 
 FLIGHT OF THE "REMNANT." 225 
 
 which news travels in Asia they learned of a strange 
 revolution in Soungaria. The Mongol inhabitants — 
 their old allies and enemies — had been attacked by the 
 Emperor of China, and of six hundred thousand souls 
 not one, it was said, was left alive in the country. The 
 Kalmuks determined to return and occupy their old 
 home. They set out from the Volga in the winter of 
 1770-71, and began, on foot and on horse and camel 
 back, with all their goods and chattels, their flocks of 
 goats and sheep, their old people and their infants in 
 arms, the three thousand miles' journey through the 
 snow-covered desert. 
 
 The story of disaster and suffering has been brilliantly 
 told by De Quincy in his " Flight of a Tartar Tribe." 
 The Russian Government obtained word of the intended 
 migration, and endeavoured to intercept the tribe at the 
 Ural. They partly succeeded. The ice was not strong- 
 enough to bear the vast host of refugees, and the rear 
 portion were " headed back " beyond the Volga into the 
 present Kalmuk country. Half a million of souls, how- 
 ever, crossed the river and continued their flight across 
 the Kirghiz Steppe, pursued by the Russians, harassed 
 by the Kirghiz and other robber-tribes, and assailed by 
 cold, hunger, and fatigue ; and w r hen the forlorn and 
 destitute remnant of the " Remnant " at last reached 
 their old haunts in the basin of the Hi, they found that 
 the hope that had brought them so far had deceived 
 them. The smiling valley was already occupied by 
 Chinese military and convict colonies transported 
 thither from the Middle Kingdom ; and the choice of 
 the wanderers lay between retracing the long road 
 they had just traversed, or ascending to the cold hill 
 
 (718) 15
 
 226 BUDDHISTS IN EUROPE. 
 
 pastures and submitting to the yoke of Chinese authority 
 and taxation. They adopted the latter alternative ; and 
 their descendants, as we will by-and-by find, are still 
 in possession of the grassy uplands of the Kunges and 
 Tekes valleys, where they practise the same religion and 
 follow the same traditional pursuits of sheep and horse 
 rearing as do their kinsmen who still linger in the 
 steppes of the Volga. 
 
 In some respects, no doubt, the European Kalmuks 
 have benefited by contact with civilized neighbours. 
 In the Russian towns they have a market for the 
 wool, hides, and other produce of their flocks and 
 herds ; and many of the comforts and inventions of 
 Europe find their way to the Kalmuk tent. Their khan 
 is chosen for them by the Russian Government ; a slight 
 taxation is imposed upon them ; and they furnish some 
 companies of skirmishers to the Russian army. Other- 
 wise they are left pretty much to manage their own 
 affairs. 
 
 Devout Buddhists as they are, their lamas wield a 
 strong political as well as religious influence among them ; 
 and they help to preserve the native language, customs, 
 and dress. Nothing will induce them to settle down 
 permanently at any particular spot ; even in the kuraul 
 the high priest and his vicars have their brown felt 
 tents set up by the side of their wooden huts, and 
 remove to them in the winter. Visitors to the Kalmuk 
 country have not been complimentary in their allusions 
 to the manners and appearance of the tribe. Dr. 
 Clarke, in his " Travels," commits himself to the strong 
 statement that " nothing is more hideous than a Kal- 
 muk." " High, prominent, and broad cheek-bones ; very 
 

 
 AN UNLOVELY PEOPLE. 227 
 
 little eyes, widely separated from each other ; a flat 
 and broad nose ; coarse, greasy, jet-black hair ; scarcely 
 any eyebrows ; enormous prominent ears," are among 
 the features with which he endows them ; and he goes 
 on to tell how they prepare their favourite steak of 
 horse-flesh by placing it below the saddle and sitting 
 on it during a day's journey, and to give other broad 
 details of their domestic life and tastes, such as seldom 
 now-a-days find their way into books of travel. 
 
 A recent observer, Mr. Wallace, bears scarcely less 
 emphatic testimony to the supreme repulsiveness of these 
 poor Mongols. " To say simply that they are ugly," he 
 remarks, " is to pay them an unmerited compliment. 
 There is something infra-human in their ugliness. They 
 show in an exaggerated degree all those repulsive traits 
 that we see toned down and refined in the face of the 
 average Chinaman. As they belong to one of the recog- 
 nized races of mankind, we must assume that they have 
 souls ; but it is difficult, when we see them for the first 
 time, to believe that a human soul lurks behind their 
 expressionless, flattened faces and small, dull, obliquely- 
 set eyes." 
 
 All this is probably true, but there is evidence that 
 even the Kalmuk is improving, in look and manners, 
 with the times. According to our ideal of beauty 
 he is certainly far from handsome ; and his notions 
 about cleanliness are most rudimentary. He still 
 preserves the taste for horse-flesh which existed among 
 his ancestors so long ago as the days of Herodotus, 
 and he does not scruple to make a stew of dog, cat, 
 or rat. But judging from the descriptions of M. Mely, 
 one of the latest visitors to the country of the Kalmuks,
 
 228 A HIGH PRIEST'S ENTOURAGE. 
 
 it would now be rash to say with Clarke that " they 
 are more filthy in their persons than perhaps any 
 other nation," and that " so horrid and inhuman is 
 their appearance that it was difficult to distinguish the 
 sexes." 
 
 Instead of " gigantic figures running about stark 
 naked," M. Mely found the population rather elabo- 
 rately dressed in striking costumes of red, white, black, 
 and yellow, and the women markedly distinguished 
 in their garb from the men. By the high priest he 
 was entertained to an elaborately-served meal, which 
 included caviare, champagne, and Nantes sardines, as 
 well as mutton in every possible form ; — the hangings 
 of the guest-chamber of this celibate establishment 
 were of cretonne, and represented the amours of Louis 
 XV. On the walls of the adjoining temple were de- 
 signs of gods and goddesses, on rice paper, executed by 
 native artists, and showing no despicable skill ; and 
 hung around it was an imposing array of musical 
 instruments — enormous trumpets of brass and silver, 
 tambourines, gongs, and fifes — for the religious ser- 
 vices in honour of Buddha. From the aspect of the 
 country, the bare plains, the black tents, the flocks of 
 horses, sheep, and camels, the prayer-mills, the peak- 
 gabled temple, and the appearance of the people with 
 their flat faces, tightly-drawn eyelids, thin beards, and 
 pigtails, it was easy for the traveller to imagine that he 
 had been suddenly transported four thousand miles east- 
 ward, and was in the heart of Thibet, the Holy Land of 
 Chinese Buddhism. 
 
 The steppes between the Volga and the Ural are the 
 continuation of those between the Volga and the Don,
 
 THE LITTLE HORDE OF KIRGHIZ. 229 
 
 and repeat the same features of scenery and soil. Here, 
 also, are salt and thirsty plains, covered by a thin growth 
 of coarse grass, wandering shepherd tribes, and rivers 
 that lose themselves in the sand. 
 
 The people that occupy this tract are the Kirghiz 
 of the Bukeief tribe — the Inner Horde, as they are 
 called — who removed hither in the end of last century, 
 when the land was left vacant on the departure of the 
 Kalmuks for High Asia. They are of more peaceful 
 and settled habits than their kinsmen beyond the Ural. 
 But this is probably owing to their neighbourhood to 
 the seat of Russian authority rather than from pos- 
 sessing more industrious and honest instincts ; for they 
 are an offshoot of the Little Horde, which in past times 
 has been quite abreast of the Great and Middle Hordes 
 in deeds of plunder and murder. 
 
 The country ranged over by this tribe extends almost 
 to Orenburg and Orsk — the farthest outposts of Europe 
 towards the east. Both are comparatively new cities; 
 dusty, dreary, and formal, like all Russian towns of their 
 class, but noteworthy as starting-places for the journey 
 across the desert to Russian Turkestan and the famous 
 cities of Central Asia. A traveller bound on such an ex- 
 pedition has generally to spend some days at Orenburg- 
 laying in supplies, selecting postilions, and making other 
 preparations for the trip ; and in this way it has come 
 in for a larger share of descriptive notice than it perhaps 
 deserves. 
 
 The most interesting of the features of Orenburg, 
 as of Astrakhan, is the extraordinary diversity of type, 
 language, and dress presented by its population. On 
 the " threshold of Asia," the Tartar elements that the
 
 230 REX BURG. 
 
 traveller has already observed, if he has come hither 
 by way of Astrakhan or of Kazan, assert themselves 
 more prominently. " The wide streets crossing one 
 another at right angles," says Mr. Schuyler, " the 
 well-built wooden and plastered houses, the shops, the 
 churches, the boulevard and public square, the immense 
 o-overnment buildings used for barracks, storehouses, and 
 schools, give the place a thoroughly Russian air ; while, 
 on the other hand, the caravanserai, with its beautiful 
 mosque and minaret of white stucco — the Tartar mosque, 
 the camels, in caravans, single or harnessed to waggons — 
 the crowds of Tartars, the Kirghiz on horseback, in their 
 dirty rags, with rude caps — the bazaar with the Bokharan, 
 Khivan, and Tashkend merchants, in long robes striped 
 with many colours, and with turbans on their heads, 
 showed that the inhabitants of the place were thoroughly 
 Asiatic." 
 
 Orenburg has been marked out as the starting-point of 
 a line of railway advocated by M. de Lesseps, which the 
 promoters propose to carry to Samarcand, and ultimately, 
 perhaps, to India ; and if this scheme is ever carried out, 
 the future of the city will probably be a brilliant and 
 prosperous one. We do not propose just now, however, 
 to penetrate into Asia, either by railway train or on 
 camel-back, having still a large area of European Russia 
 to survey, and for the present must content ourselves 
 with the glimpse of its bazaars and caravanserais, its 
 desert plains and its roving horsemen, that can be ob- 
 tained from the streets of Orenburg.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE URALIAN PROVINCES. 
 
 HE flat monotony of surface presented by the 
 Astrakhan Steppe is broken long before we 
 reach Orenburg. There have been symptoms 
 that a country of running streams, and what 
 is much more rare in Russia, of mountains, is being- 
 approached. Cultivated land and permanent dwellings 
 reappear ; trees, in thin clusters and straggling lines, 
 begin again to show themselves ; the salt wastes become 
 less frequent ; and a thicker growth of grass covers the 
 sandy soil. 
 
 On the upper waters of the Yaik, it is no longer 
 possible to doubt that the lower spurs and valleys of 
 the Ural chain have been entered upon. This great 
 mountain range, one of the most important geographical 
 features of the Russian Empire, extends in an almost 
 north and south direction for between thirteen hundred 
 and fourteen hundred miles ; and for the greater part of 
 that distance it forms the boundary of Europe and Asia. 
 Few mountain systems of such extent have so low a 
 general elevation and so marked an absence of predomi- 
 nating peaks. The highest section of the Urals is the 
 northern portion — the " Barren Ural," as the Russians
 
 232 THE URAL CHAIN. 
 
 term it ; but seldom do the summits rise beyond five 
 thousand feet over sea-level, and few or none of them, 
 even in the extreme north, are covered with snow all the 
 year round. The declivity is more marked on the west- 
 ern than on the eastern side of the mountains ; but so 
 gradual is the slope in some places that, even when 
 ascending from the European side, the traveller is 
 scarcely aware that he has left the plains of Russia 
 when he is already in those of Siberia. Formerly, when 
 the passage across the mountains by the main route 
 from Perm to Ekaterinburg was made by tarantass, a 
 stone by the side of the track, bearing on one side the 
 legend " Europa," and on the other " Asia," was sure to 
 attract notice. Now the journey between these cities is 
 made by rail, and the traveller learns of his passing 
 from one continent to the other by coming successively 
 to the stations of " Europa," " Ural," and " Asia." 
 
 From its highest point the " dorsal ridge" of the range 
 gradually declines in height as it approaches the Frozen 
 Ocean, into which it projects in a long peninsula, termi- 
 nating at Vaygatz Strait, and separating the Atlantic 
 from the Kara Sea. Vaygatz Island — a sort of " Holy 
 Land" of the Samoyedes — is probably a prolongation of 
 the chain ; and the bare mountains of Novaya Zemlia 
 beyond, running in the same general direction, and pro- 
 jecting far into the " Polar pack," may be regarded as a 
 continuation of the Urals. 
 
 In the opposite direction also — towards the south — the 
 height of the chain decreases, and in the province of 
 Orenburg it separates into diverging ranges. Two of 
 these run down into the Kirghiz Steppe, gradually 
 merging into the waterless Ust-Urt Plateau, between 

 
 MOUNTAIN SOLITUDES. 233 
 
 the Sea of Aral and the Caspian, or extending east- 
 ward in a low " saddle " that forms the water-shed 
 between the Obi and the rivers of the steppe, and join- 
 ing the great Asian mountain systems of the Tian-shan 
 and Altai. Another branch follows the western bank 
 of the Ural River, giving rise to scanty and intermittent 
 streams, such as the Great and the Little Utzen, that 
 disappear in the sands or spread into salt marshes ; and 
 it ends, like its rivers, and like many a caravan that 
 has attempted to cross these wastes, by losing itself in 
 the desert. 
 
 North of Orenburg, the Ural chain sharply divides 
 the river systems of Siberia from those of Russia proper. 
 All the rain that falls on the eastern side of the range 
 finds its way into the Tobol and other branches of the 
 great river Obi ; while the streams running down its 
 western slopes are tributaries of the Kama, and drain 
 into the Caspian, or, in more northern parts, flow to the 
 Atlantic by the Petchora. Great forests of oak and 
 pine clothe the lower slopes of the range, and even the 
 higher summits are often heavily timbered with birch 
 and the hardier cone-bearing trees. Wild sequestered 
 nooks are found in these hills, about the head-waters of 
 the Kolva — the " tap-root" of the Kama — or in the 
 innumerable gorges and valleys of the feeders of the 
 Tobol, where the trapper and the mining pioneer have not 
 yet penetrated ; and in the deserted northern tracts, where 
 there are no treasures of gold or of copper to tempt 
 the prospector, the only inhabitants are a few Samoyede 
 families, who wander with their herds of reindeer from 
 dreary hill-side to barren valley in search of pasture. 
 
 The Urals, however, are rapidly becoming more thor-
 
 234 TREASURES OF THE URALS. 
 
 oughly and extensively known. Their importance con- 
 sists not only in the geographical position they occupy, 
 and the meteorological and hydrographical functions they 
 fulfil, but also in the variety and richness of their min- 
 eral wealth. Gold and silver have been found here from 
 time immemorial, but it is only since the time of Peter 
 the Great and the foundation of Ekaterinburg — named 
 in honour of Catherine I. — that they have been worked 
 in a systematic manner. Besides the more precious 
 metals, including platinum, there are rich mines of copper, 
 iron, and salt, quarries of marble, porphyry, and granite, 
 and wells of naphtha and other mineral oils. Among 
 the precious substances found are the emerald, topaz, 
 agate, chrysolite, garnet, beryl, jasper, malachite, serpen- 
 tine, and rock-crystals of great size ; asbestos, gypsum, 
 pipe-clay, sulphur, saltpetre, and nitre. Diamonds have 
 been found, as Alexander von Humboldt had predicted, 
 though none of large size. One newly discovered gem 
 — named the Alexandrite, after the emperor — has the 
 peculiarity of displaying two colours, crimson by day 
 and green by night. It was with the object chiefly of 
 throwing light on the peculiarities of their geological 
 formation that pilgrimages were made to the great 
 " Girdle" (as the name Ural means in the Tartar tongue) 
 by Humboldt, Sir R. Murchison, and other distinguished 
 scientists. The mines are partly the property of the 
 Crown, and partly belong to the great Russian families 
 Demidof, Stroganof, Lazaref, and others, who have 
 enormous possessions in Perm and the adjoining prov- 
 inces. 
 
 The Demidof mines are at Nijni Tagilsk, just beyond 
 the Urals, but within the province of Perm, which lap 
 
 ps
 
 NIJNI TAGILSK AND EKATERINBURG. 235 
 
 over into Asia. At these works thirty or forty thou- 
 sand workmen are employed. The quantity of wood 
 annually consumed as fuel at the forges, if it were built 
 in a stack, would form a pile of logs twice as large as 
 St. Paul's Cathedral. The principal minerals worked 
 ■ere are magnetic and manganese iron ores, both of re- 
 markable richness, and also copper. Magnetic iron ore is 
 found near the surface, and is dug out in terraces, and 
 luted direct to the forges. The copper lodes are reached 
 by a shaft six hundred feet deep, and in these workings 
 Mr. Lansdell, the latest English visitor to the mines, 
 dug out pieces of malachite in the natural state. 
 
 Of late years the yield from the mines of the Ural 
 has largely increased in value ; new methods of extract- 
 ino- the ore have been introduced, and wealth and 
 population have flowed into and across the mountains, 
 which have become a Russian California or Nevada. 
 In spite of scientific and practical survey, much of the 
 resources of the region have still to be discovered ; and 
 Girdle " of the empire is likely in the future to be 
 still more valuable, and indeed indispensable, to Russian 
 industry than it is at present. 
 
 Ekaterinburg, the capital of this metalliferous district, 
 has an aspect and a society such as would hardly be 
 looked for so far from the ordinary paths of commerce 
 and culture. The town is regularly built, and many 
 handsome houses line its clean and airy streets. As a 
 matter of course, there are numerous churches and other 
 public buildings, including a government mint and 
 botanic gardens. The restaurants and hotels are admir- 
 ably served ; there is an admirable hospital and an 
 orphanage supported by voluntary contributions ; and
 
 236 THE KAMA RIVER. 
 
 there are artistic, literary, and musical coteries quite 
 abreast of Western Europe in their tastes and ideas. 
 
 The whole of the inhabitants of the town are more or 
 less dependent on the forges and other mining establish- 
 ments of which it is the centre. The lapidaries are famous 
 for the artistic skill of design and delicacy of finish of 
 the work they produce. Even the ragged urchins in the 
 streets are dealers in precious stones and ores on a small 
 scale ; and the visitor unskilled in the detection of true 
 from false jewels is likely to come away from Ekaterin- 
 burg with the impression that the culture of the popula- 
 tion is more highly developed than their honesty. 
 
 The fishing, agricultural, stock-rearing, bee-keeping, 
 timber-cutting, and fur trades also rank high in import- 
 ance in the Uralian provinces ; and the Kama is the 
 great channel by which the products of the vast region 
 comprehended within the governments of Kazan, Ufa, 
 Perm, and Viatka — an area of two hundred and sixty 
 thousand square miles, and containing nearly eight 
 million inhabitants — reach the markets of Russia and 
 Western Europe. 
 
 Before noticing, however, some of the aspects which 
 nature and man present in this remote corner of Europe, 
 we must say something of the famous city of Kazan, the 
 vestibule to the Kama Valley and the key to much of its 
 history. Kazan is situated not exactly at the junction of 
 the Kama with the Volga, but some little way above, on 
 the left bank of the latter stream, where it is joined by 
 the small river Kazanka. There is little doubt, how- 
 ever, that the command it possessed of the entrance to 
 the great eastern affluent of the Volga determined the 
 choice of the site, and mainly contributed to its im-
 
 GREAT BOLGARY. 237 
 
 portance — as was the case, in like manner, with a still 
 earlier capital of this region, Great Bolgary, which once 
 rose on the river bank some distance below the Kama 
 mouth. 
 
 When part of the Bulgarian nation had migrated, 
 under their leader Aspurach, to the southern side of the 
 Danube, the power that had long ruled the Volga began 
 to fall into decay from the assaults of the Tartars on 
 one side and the Russians on the other. At the time 
 of the Mongol invasions, Great Bolgary was ripe for 
 overthrow, and the captains of the Golden Horde did 
 not spare it. The city disappeared. A few mounds of 
 ruins, among which have been found Cufic and Persian 
 inscriptions and coins bearing Armenian and Arabic 
 texts, alone attest its former importance and the extent 
 of its commerce. The heterogeneous collection of half- 
 Finnish, half-Tartar peoples inhabiting the banks of the 
 Volga and Kama fell under the power of the Khans : 
 Kazan rose in the place of Great Bolgary. 
 
 Sayn, son of Baty Khan, is said to have been the 
 founder of Kazan ; but whoever he was, he had a fine 
 eye for situation and strategic importance. The city 
 soon rose to wealth and political consequence. It broke 
 loose from the control of Serai, and formed a separate 
 khanate, that was sometimes at war and sometimes in 
 alliance with the princes of the Nogai and Kipchak 
 Hordes, and almost constantly at feud with the Grand 
 Princes of Moscow. In the palmy days of Mohammedan 
 rule it was a great seat of Oriental learning. Its mirzas, 
 or nobles, were men of culture, of dashing and splendid 
 exterior, and allied, many of them, by marriage to Russian 
 families of rank ; and its muftis, mollahs, and imauns
 
 238 THE CAPTURE OF KAZAN. 
 
 were deeply read in Arabic lore. Moscow borrowed 
 from Kazan models of aesthetic taste as well as notions 
 of polity. 
 
 At length the aggrandizing policy of the Grand 
 Princes began to have its effects, and reprisals came 
 from the side of Russia. Ivan the Great captured Kazan, 
 though he could not keep it ; and his grandson Ivan the 
 Terrible finally destroyed the power of the khans after a 
 bloody struggle, in which the Tartar city was repeatedly 
 besieged by land and water. It was the first successful 
 siege undertaken by the Russians according to modern 
 rules of war. The final assault was directed by Czar 
 Ivan himself, and led by Prince Kourbsky ; and the 
 bravery of the attacking force did not exceed the 
 desperate valour of the Tartar warriors, who retreated 
 from the walls to the palace of their prince Ediger, 
 and died fighting around him. On this memorable day, 
 the 2nd October 1552, the laws and authority of the 
 Czars were extended beyond the Volga and Kama, and 
 Russia stepped over into Asia. 
 
 The later history of Kazan has been on the whole 
 quiet and prosperous, though so late as a hundred years 
 ago it was ravaged and burned by the Cossack outlaw 
 Pugatchef, and it has suffered at other times from more 
 than its share of those destructive conflagrations that fall 
 to the lot of every Russian town. To-day it is a larger, 
 grander, and more learned city than ever it was under 
 its independent rulers. It counts some ninety thousand 
 inhabitants, famous throuo-hout Russia for their indus- 
 trial skill and enterprise. Finely placed on the steep 
 slope of a hill overlooking the Volga and the Kazanka, 
 with rich meadows spreading round it which are parti- 

 
 TRADE AND LEARNING. 239 
 
 ally inundated when the rivers are in flood, the striking 
 architectural features of the city are seen to the best 
 advantage. Tall cupolas and minarets rise above the 
 walls of the kremlin or from among the masses of 
 private buildings and gardens, and prick the air in 
 fantastic designs, in curious contrast to the ranges of 
 smoking factory chimneys that in another direction bear 
 witness to the busy industrial life of Kazan. 
 
 The chief manufacture of Kazan is its morocco or 
 " Russia " leather ; and little less important are its soap 
 and chemical works, its distilleries, and its workshops 
 for the production of cutlery, jewellery, and cloth. It is 
 the entrepot of the commerce passing into Russia from 
 the Caspian, from Central Asia, and from Siberia ; and 
 hundreds of vessels that ply on the Kama here discharge 
 their cargoes of fish, timber, minerals, and farm produce. 
 But Kazan is still more justly proud of its academical 
 distinction. Its university is one of the most thriving 
 in Russia, the Oriental languages being studied here 
 with especial success ; and the town is largely endowed 
 with other means of instruction, in the shape of libraries, 
 museums, observatories, botanical gardens, gymnasia, and 
 normal, theological, and military schools. 
 
 Few mementoes of the period of Tartar rule remain 
 in the old capital of the Khans ; and the Sumbeke 
 Tower, which is popularly attributed to this era, was 
 probably built at a much later period. Ivan the Terrible 
 did all in his power to obliterate every memorial of the 
 old regime, and even destroyed the tombs of the Tartar 
 kings. The frequent fires have also cleared away the 
 traces of the past. There are several mosques, and in 
 the Tartar quarter the houses are built after the model
 
 240 KAZAN TARTARS. 
 
 of the Mohammedan East ; but it is in its population — 
 about an eighth of which are still adherents of the creed 
 of Islam — rather than in its architecture, that Kazan 
 shows traces of its Oriental relations. 
 
 The Tartar inhabitants, however, have long ago lost 
 the restless nomadic instincts of their ancestors and their 
 passion for war and plunder. The original Mongol 
 stock that came hither with Sayn Khan has disappeared, 
 or been absorbed by later immigrants, and the language 
 and type of features of the Tartars of Kazan are those 
 of the Turki tribes that followed the banners of Tamerlane 
 from the banks of the Oxus and Jaxartes. They are 
 now the rivals of the Russians in the peaceful fields of 
 commerce and manufacture, and writers could be quoted 
 who place them above the Slavs in intelligence and 
 industry. There can be little doubt that the Tartar is 
 at least the more sober and more honest, and many of 
 the highest positions of trust in the land are filled by 
 individuals of the old dominant race. In their habits 
 and domestic arrangements they strive to follow the 
 laws of the Koran. In the interior of the houses of 
 the better off a multiplicity of carpets, cushions, and 
 divans take the place of tables and chairs, and the guest 
 is treated with patriarchal hospitality and courtesy. 
 Polygamy is recognized, though not generally practised ; 
 the women among the richer classes are kept apart in 
 the harem, and though they now move abroad without 
 the veil, they still shroud their faces in a shawl when a 
 Giaour gazes at them too curiously. 
 
 The Government treats its Mussulman subjects with 
 tolerance and equity. Attempts were made in ear- 
 lier times to proselytize the Tartars to the Orthodox
 
 TARTAR AND RUSSIAN. 241 
 
 Church. These were partially successful, so long as out- 
 ward conformity to the Christian faith only was required, 
 and large bribes were held out as the reward of con- 
 version. But it soon appeared that the nominal converts 
 were in secret as much attached as ever to their old 
 customs and creed ; and when ukases were issued, order- 
 ing that means should be taken " to pacify, imprison, 
 put in irons, and thereby unteach and frighten from the 
 Tartar faith, those who, though baptized, do not obey 
 the admonitions of the Metropolitan," the utter failure 
 of the official propaganda came fully to light. The 
 Mohammedan population are now freely allowed to have 
 their own ecclesiastical organization and to practise the 
 rites of their faith, though the loss of civil rights and 
 deportation to the Siberian mines is still the penalty of 
 any attempt to persuade a Christian to apostatize to 
 Islam. 
 
 In the villages of the province of Kazan, Mr. Wallace 
 tells us, the two populations — Russian and Tartar — live 
 together in perfectly good fellowship, in spite of their 
 past rivalry of race and creed. " Near one end of the 
 village stands the Christian church, and near the other 
 the little metchet, or Mohammedan house of prayer. 
 The whole village forms one commune, with one village 
 assembly and one village elder ; but socially it is com- 
 posed of two distinct communities, each possessing its 
 peculiar customs and peculiar mode of life. The Tartar 
 may learn the Russian language, but he does not on that 
 account become Russianized." To the simple Russian 
 peasant there is nothing in the fact of his Tartar neigh- 
 bour being an " infidel " to excite fanatical hatred such 
 as would be aroused by the appearance of heretical 
 
 (718) 16
 
 242 BASHKIRS. 
 
 opinions among people of his own kith and kin. As one 
 of them explained : " The Tartars, you see, received their 
 faith from God, as they received the colour of their 
 skins ; but the Molo-kani ; ' (Milk Drinkers, who do not 
 observe the Orthodox fasts and reject the worship of 
 images) " are Kussians who have invented a faith out of 
 their own heads." 
 
 The Bashkirs, a race closely allied in language, cus- 
 toms, and type to the Kazan Tartars, and also professing 
 the Mohammedan faith, are as yet but half broken in to 
 stationary and agricultural life. There are nearly half 
 a million of them, compared with a million and a quarter 
 of the " Tartars proper," in the provinces of the Ural 
 and in the Orenburg steppes ; a people partly living in 
 tents and partly settled in villages, where they breed 
 cattle and keep bees. The Bashkir is generally an in- 
 telligent and pleasant fellow, and the traveller may, as a 
 rule, rely on his skill and trustworthiness if he engages 
 him for the onerous duty of yemstchik, or postilion ; for 
 he will not get drunk, as a Russian or a Finnish driver 
 probably would, and as a rule he will be careful, honest, 
 and civil. Schools have been for some time established 
 in the Bashkir country. The race are taking kindly to 
 agricultural pursuits, and it is probable that they will 
 ere long entirely give up their pastoral and nomadic life ; 
 and their example will probably be followed by the 
 neighbouring tribes of Meshtcheriaks, Teptiars, and 
 others, as Russian colonization encroaches upon their 
 domains. 
 
 While the tribes of Turkish descent are for the most 
 part found on the steppes, or on the margin of the forest 
 region, seeming never well at ease while at a distance 
 
 1 
 
 : 

 
 UGRIAN MIGRATIONS. 243 
 
 from the open country, the still more numerous Finnish 
 races of these parts prefer to hide themselves in the 
 gloom of the deep woods. No ethnologist has ever suc- 
 ceeded in unravelling to his complete satisfaction the 
 ancestry and race affinities of these aboriginal peoples of 
 Russia. That a thousand years ago they had things 
 pretty much their own way in the northern and eastern 
 parts of Russia ; that they are more closely connected 
 by blood and language with the Turanian races of 
 Northern Asia than with the Aryan peoples of modern 
 Europe, and themselves form a division of the human 
 stock that includes populations so widely separated and 
 so diverse in culture as the Magyars of Hungary and 
 the Samoyedes of the Obi, are doctrines pretty generally 
 admitted. 
 
 As long ago as 886, the Magyars, under their leader 
 Arpad, left their homes in the Ural, and passing the 
 Carpathian Mountains, overthrew the barbarian power 
 that Huns and Avars had established on the ruins of 
 the Roman rule in Pannonia. The language and many 
 of the legends of the dominant race of the Danubian 
 plains still attest how closely they are akin to the rude 
 peoples beyond the Volga. But the entangled relation- 
 ships between Tcherimis and Tchuvash, of Votiak with 
 Mordvin, of Permian and Zyranian, Voghul, Ostiak, and 
 Samoyede, who shall unravel ? 
 
 Some of these races are rapidly losing their pecu- 
 liar type by amalgamation with the Russian colonists 
 and adoption of their language and habits ; and in a 
 generation or two the old Permian and Zyranian dialects, 
 into which St. Stephen of Perm translated the Scrip- 
 tures five hundred years ago, may, like many of the
 
 244 RETIRING FINNS AND ENCROACHING SLAVS. 
 
 other Finnish dialects, cease to be spoken as a living- 
 tongue, just as has happened with the Cornish and 
 Cumbrian languages in our own country. Others of 
 them, such as the Yoghuls, are found on the Asiatic side 
 of the Urals, in remote swampy and forest districts into 
 which Slav immigration has hardly begun to penetrate, 
 and are still a people almost in a state of nature, living 
 by the chase of the elk and bear, the trapping of fur 
 animals, such as the marten, the sable, and the beaver, 
 and by fishing, and who acknowledge the authority of 
 the Czar by an annual tribute of undressed skins. 
 
 The Samoyede lives far away, beyond even the limits 
 of the birch woods, on the desolate tundra lands adjoin- 
 ing the Icy Sea, in a region where no one is likely to 
 disturb him or envy him his heritage. On the other hand, 
 the Votiaks, Tchuvashes, and Tcherimis are surrounded 
 by Russian populations. They live in little communities 
 apart, forming, as it were, islands, promontories, and 
 peninsulas in the encroaching ocean of Slav immigration. 
 Here they still speak their ancestral tongue, and practise 
 their semi-pagan rites, and dress, eat, and live after the 
 manner of their Finnish forefathers. " Their true 
 habitat," says Latham, speaking specially of the Tcher- 
 imis, " is the oak-tree forest, with its underwood of 
 buckthorn, spindle-tree, and hazel," occupying the ridges 
 between the streams that feed the Volga and the Kama. 
 
 The limits of the region where Finnish customs and 
 languages still prevail may be traced by the clearings 
 and the river-courses — colonization, as in other countries, 
 having followed the channels and valleys of the rivers. 
 But it is not to be supposed that the enclosure and iso- 
 lation of these aboriginal peoples mean that they have
 
 COLONIZATION AND CHRISTIANIZATION. 245 
 
 been exterminated or driven forcibly back into the wil- 
 derness, as is the case in countries colonized by the 
 Anglo-Saxon. The Russian has not our unconquerable 
 pride and sense of national superiority. He does not con- 
 sider himself so infinitely exalted above the people among 
 whom he makes his home as to disdain to intermarry 
 with them, or to feel it intolerable that they should 
 occupy the same social footing with himself. A natural 
 process of absorption of the original elements of the popu- 
 lation has therefore been an accompaniment of Russian 
 colonization ; and throughout the northern parts of the 
 empire there are large admixtures of Finnish blood, even 
 in districts that now seem most characteristically Slav. 
 
 In the Kama Valley this process may be seen in 
 active operation, and something has already been said 
 of the rapidity with which the " Russification " of the 
 country is proceeding. The " religious difficulty " does 
 not interpose as an obstacle to the mixture of Russ and 
 Finn, as it does in the case of Russ and Tartar. Offici- 
 ally the whole of the Finnish populations, with the ex- 
 ception of a few tribes that in earlier times were con- 
 verted to Islam, are classified as Orthodox Christians. 
 In reality, however, the nominal adoption of the " Russian 
 gods " has made but little change in the religious beliefs 
 of these races. Their observances, so long as their 
 paganism was undiluted, consisted chiefly of magical 
 rites performed by their " medicine men " to ward off the 
 evil influences of the spirits of the wood, the river, and 
 the snow, and to keep the unquiet ghosts of the dead in 
 their graves, and familiarly-worded prayers to their gods, 
 accompanied by presents for good harvests and successful 
 fishinsf.
 
 246 FINNISH PAGANISM. 
 
 It was no difficult task to induce these primitive 
 pagans to add the Virgin Mother and St. Nicolas to 
 their pantheon, and even place them in the first rank 
 of the invisible powers that dispense blessings and 
 calamities among the children of men ; but they did not 
 think it necessary to lay aside their old divinities, to 
 whom they still put up petitions and offer sacrifices. 
 According to Wallace, Tchuvash peasants have been 
 known to pray first to their own deities and then to the 
 Greek saints for the good things of this life, or for ven- 
 geance on a neighbour. A Tcherimis, after recovery 
 from illness, will sacrifice a young foal to Our Lady of 
 Kazan, whose miraculous image was found unscathed in 
 the ashes of a great conflagration, and whose shrine in 
 the Bogoroditsky Convent, close by the kremlin of the 
 old Tartar capital, is the most sacred spot in Eastern 
 Russia. After all, this curious piebald faith of the Finns 
 differs in form rather than in kind from the superstitious 
 beliefs and practices of the Russian peasantry, and among 
 the lower orders of both races Christianity and paganism 
 blend insensibly into each other. 
 
 To reach the localities where the Votiak and Tcheri- 
 mis are thoroughly " at home," it is necessary to make 
 a long trip up the Kama or some of its tributaries. 
 The Kama is a fine, deep, and swift-running stream, with 
 scarcely a shoal or a cataract throughout its twelve or 
 fourteen hundred miles of length ; while many of its 
 affluents — particularly the Viatka and the Bielaya — are 
 also adapted for navigation. Its principal riches hitherto 
 have been the fish that abound in its waters, the fine 
 timber that clothes its banks, and the mineral treasures 
 found around its springs in the Ural range. But agricul-
 
 A CHARMING PICTURE. 247 
 
 ture is now taking a prominent place among the occupa- 
 tions of the region; extensive clearings are found along 
 its course, and large quantities of grain are grown and 
 cattle raised on the rich deep soil from which the virgin 
 forest has been cleared. 
 
 M. Armengaud has given a brightly-coloured picture 
 of the " smiling villages and fertile fields " of the 
 government of Viatka. " Fine churches of brick, of an 
 architecture at once grave and graceful ; labourers' houses 
 of two stories, with ornaments carved in the wood ; a 
 population healthy, robust, alert, with figures full of 
 freedom, eyes sparkling with gaiety, and a laugh 
 sonorous and communicative ; peasants clad like bour- 
 geois ; domestic animals well cared for and well nour- 
 ished ; active little horses, full of fire and vigour," arc 
 among the signs of progress and prosperity enumerated. 
 Nor is this all. " For the first time astonished Russia 
 sees her plebeian children careful of their persons, and 
 attentive to the demands of the toilet and hygiene. 
 Much more, she discovers them occupying themselves 
 with education, and finds them with books in their 
 hands. The peasant possesses the songs of Beranger 
 translated into Russian ; and if you watch the young 
 daughter of the house, you will surprise her in some 
 solitary corner with a novel of Dumas pere in her 
 hand." 
 
 This is all very charming, and perhaps generally 
 true, but the colours of the sketch may be heightened a 
 little in order to bring out more effectively the contrast 
 offered by Finnish village life, to catch a glimpse of 
 which a long and rough drive through the oak and pine 
 forests is necessary. Writers differ in opinion on the
 
 248 VOTIAK AXD TCHUVASK 
 
 question whether the Tcherimis or the Votiak is the 
 dirtier in his person and dwelling and the more uncouth 
 in his garb. Where " doctors disagree " on so fine a point, 
 it would be unjust to pronounce an opinion; and it 
 will probably be thought enough to know that the filth 
 and squalor amid which the Finnish peasant of either 
 tribe contentedly lives are inconceivable, and intolerable 
 to a moderately fastidious eye and nostril. 
 
 It is generally admitted that the Votiaks, who number 
 two hundred thousand in Viatka, of which probably 
 they were the original occupants, surpass all competitors 
 in their taste for strong drink. A large proportion — 
 perhaps the majority of them — have fiery red or auburn 
 tresses ; while the ordinary type of Finn is swarthy of 
 skin and lank and dark of hair. The broad, flattened 
 face, however, bears testimony of relationship to Turk 
 and Tartar ; while, like the rest of their kin, the Votiaks 
 are generally undersized, and clumsy in their movements, 
 and somewhat slow in intellect. They are a saturnine, 
 sad-mannered people while among strangers, whatever 
 they may be with their intimates and over their cups, 
 and more than half conscious of their backward condi- 
 tion, and glad to skulk back again to their woods with 
 their little purchases and gains. They are said to be 
 revengeful and moody in temperament ; and their re- 
 sentment takes odd forms. 
 
 M. Rambaud, with a Frenchman's passion for a 
 generalization, says that when the Tchuvash " wish to 
 revenge themselves, they hang themselves at their 
 enemy's door." At the same time, these ancient peoples 
 are not without virtues to set against their blemishes : 
 and they are said to compare favourably with their
 
 QUAINT COSTUMES. 249 
 
 Russian neighbours in truth-telling and honesty. To 
 their costumes, however, little commendation can be 
 paid. They are antediluvian and ugly. Their legs are 
 swathed in innumerable folds of filthy rags that even 
 a Neapolitan lazzaroni would be ashamed to wear. The 
 Votiak women bear about on their heads a prodigious 
 structure, chiefly composed of white birch bark, bound 
 with linen bands, and adorned with silver trinkets, 
 coins, streamers, fringes, and embroidery. The Tchu- 
 vash ladies don a peaked helmet, and have their backs 
 cased in a covering of leather and metal, " like the 
 trappings of a war-horse." Their sisters among the 
 Tcherimis, says Rambaud, " wear on their breasts two 
 plates forming a cuirass, and ornamented with pieces of 
 silver, transmitted from generation to generation. A 
 numismatist would make wonderful discoveries in these 
 walking museums of medals." 
 
 Poor Finnish folk ! We may smile at their antique 
 notions of the beautiful and the becoming, but there is 
 something tragic in the thought that they are condemned 
 thus to mould and rust in the damp nooks of their 
 woods, or to be transmuted and absorbed by the con- 
 quering race. Their day of grandeur dates at least a 
 thousand years back. This basin of the Kama, and all 
 Northern Russia from Lapland to the Urals, formed in 
 medieval times the powerful state of Biarma, or Beorma, 
 a name that survives in the modern Perm. It seems to 
 have been a kind of Finn confederation, in which the 
 dominant tribe was the Tchuds, now nearly extinct. 
 They carried on commerce with India and Persia by the 
 Volga and the Caspian Sea, and repelled many an incur- 
 sion of Norse and Icelandic rovers. England held com-
 
 250 BTARMA-LAND AND ITS GODS. 
 
 munication with Great Biarma long before the name of 
 Russia was heard of in these islands. Other of Helgo- 
 land, one of the sea-captains of King Alfred, made a 
 voyage of discovery to this hyperborean power ; and the 
 king, with his own royal hand, wrote an account of the 
 expedition in Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 The capital of Biarma is believed to have been 
 situated high up the course of the Kama, probably 
 near Tcherdyn, where considerable ruins are still seen, 
 and gold and silver ornaments, wrought with Indian 
 and Persian designs, have been exhumed. The exist- 
 ence of the precious metals seems to have been known 
 even at this time, and Biarma was a sort of El Dorado of 
 the Scandinavian pirates. Marvellous tales were told of 
 the treasures of gold and precious stones in the palace of 
 the Biarmian kings, and in the magnificent temple of 
 their god Yumala. This structure was said to be built 
 of odoriferous woods, richly carved, and so thickly set 
 with precious stones that it gleamed like a sun over the 
 adjacent country. As for Yumala himself — the Zeus, 
 the Jove, the Odin of the Finns — he bore on his head a 
 crown of jewels, round his neck an immense collar of 
 gold, and in his hand a chalice worth a king's ransom. 
 
 By-and-by came the " Good Companions " of Great 
 Novgorod, ascending and descending the streams, draw- 
 ing their skiffs over the low water-sheds, spreading over 
 the whole north and north-east of Russia, and conquer- 
 ing the Finn peoples by means of the " arms of preci- 
 sion " of the day. The first Novgorodian colony was 
 founded in the twelfth century. A commercial city 
 sprang up at Khlynof — now Viatka — and a nourishing 
 republic was established, and maintained its indepen-
 
 BACKWOODS SOCIETY. 251 
 
 clence till after the downfall of the parent city on the 
 Volkhov. The conquests of the Tartars of Kazan; the 
 proselytizing zeal of St. Stephen, who, about 1372, built 
 the first Christian church, drove out the sorcerers, stopped 
 the sacrifices of reindeer, and cast down the " Old 
 Golden Woman" who had usurped the place of Yumala; 
 and, lastly, the aggrandizing policy of Ivan the Great 
 and Ivan the Terrible, completed the overthrow of the 
 Russ republic and the Finnish state. By the fall of 
 Kazan, the authority of the Czars was extended to the 
 Urals, and soon crossed them. 
 
 At the modern town of Perm, and the villages and 
 hamlets sparsely scattered along the Upper Kama and 
 its tributaries, there are few attractions to detain the 
 traveller who may choose to enter Siberia by this route. 
 Society is in an inchoate state. The face of the country 
 is only beginning to assume a civilized look, as the 
 shaggy growth of forest is pruned away and the marshes 
 are rudely drained. The population is composed to a 
 large extent of the same rough and strangely assorted 
 materials that one may find in a newly-settled western 
 state of America — miners and forgemen, trappers and 
 hunters, raftsmen and woodcutters, fishermen and pio- 
 neers, dwelling in rude wooden shanties, and clearing 
 the virgin forest in order to lay down their crops of 
 rye and barley. You may meet here Leatherstocking, 
 clad in Russian national garb of sheepskin coat and 
 heavy boots ; or witness at some " mining camp " in the 
 spurs of the Urals the grim humour and still grimmer 
 tragedy of Poker Flat, or Red Dog, repeated with appro- 
 priate local colouring. 
 
 Still more wild and chaotic is the world of thought
 
 252 A CAVE OF ADULLAM. 
 
 and passion .seething beneath the surface, invisible to 
 the official eye. The government of Perm has been a 
 place of banishment for political offenders, and men and 
 women who have come under the ban of the ecclesiastical 
 law. It has been a Cave of Adullam for the oppressed, 
 the discontented, the restless, and the fanatical. There 
 are communities of Poles, banished thither for taking- 
 part in the risings of 1832, 1848, and 1864; and 
 not far off hamlets of raskolniks (champions of the 
 Old Ritual), the solitary cabins of Priestless People, 
 or colonies of schismatics and heretics of still more 
 extreme types, with incarnate " Messiahs " and " Virgins " 
 among them to whom they pay a blind devotion ; 
 while beneath, spreading their secret mines far and wide 
 under all sections of society, are Socialist and Nihilist 
 associations, uniting men who perhaps have little else in 
 common than the universal feeling of discontent and 
 unrest.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
 
 HE Province of Russia," says the worthy 
 Marco Polo in his Travels, " is an exceed- 
 ingly cold region, of vast extent ; and I 
 have been assured that it extendeth even 
 unto the Northern Ocean, and bordereth upon the 
 Region of Darkness, because during most part of the 
 winter months the sun is invisible, and the atmosphere 
 is obscured to the same degree as that in which we find 
 it just about the dawn of clay, when we may be said to 
 see and not to see." 
 
 Over this darkling hyperborean land, whose features 
 even in the brief summer are half hidden by dense 
 woods and Arctic fogs, we have now to cast our eyes. 
 The quaint words of the Venetian traveller indicate the 
 vague and misty notions that prevailed regarding the 
 northern parts of Europe in his day — the close of the 
 thirteenth century. It cannot be said that our know- 
 ledge of the region has even yet wholly left the twilight 
 stage. The contour of the coasts, the courses of the 
 streams, the positions of the villages and little towns 
 thinly sprinkled over a vast territory, and the names of 
 most of the lakes and fens, have long been known. It
 
 254 WINTER LIFE IN THE NORTH. 
 
 is seldom, however, that either business or pleasure 
 brings a stranger into the forest-wildernesses of Vologda 
 or Olonetz, except while traversing the well-beaten routes 
 leading from Archangel to St. Petersburg and to Moscow. 
 Still fewer are the visits paid to the bleak, treeless wastes 
 extending along the shore of the Arctic Ocean from the 
 Asiatic frontier across the mouths of the Petchora and 
 Mezen to the White Sea, or to the lichen-covered hills 
 and dark mossy tarns of Lapland that stretch westward 
 of that gulf to the neighbourhood of the North Cape. 
 
 And if these gloomy forests and solitary coasts have 
 few attractions even in the brief but fierce summer, how 
 forlorn and forbidding must they be during the long, dark 
 Arctic nio-ht, when the woodman or the fisherman is cut 
 off from his fellows not only by wide distances and deep 
 thickets and marshes, but by the masses of snow, yards in 
 depth, that encumber the rough footpath or waggon-tracks; 
 when the bare tundra -lands are swept by the Polar 
 tempests, bombarded by hail-storms, and besieged by the 
 heavy pack-ice, and Lapp and Samoyede cower in under- 
 ground burrows, and pray to their divinities for the 
 speedy return of spring ! 
 
 But even the most remote and desolate tracts are 
 not without traces of the presence of man — for a por- 
 tion of the year at least. How thin the population is in 
 some parts, however, may be judged from the fact that 
 in the three northern governments of Archangel, Olonetz, 
 and Vologda — a territory with an area exceeding that 
 of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom combined 
 — there are only about a million and a half of inhabi- 
 tants, or less than three to the square mile. You will 
 find on this northern slope, as in the Uralian provinces 

 
 
 HYPERBOREAN CONTRASTS. 255 
 
 we have just quitted, examples of all the stages of civ- 
 ilization. A fine, sturdy Slav peasantry — a population 
 as vigorous and well grown as any in Europe — is in con- 
 tact and in contrast with the diminutive, half -nomad 
 peoples that dwell within the Arctic Circle. At Mezen, 
 one of the most northerly inhabited spots in Europe, are 
 political exiles, some of them men of birth and education, 
 living in the midst of a semi-barbarous race that range 
 from place to place in search of food for their flocks of 
 reindeer, or pick up a precarious livelihood by fishing in 
 the streams, hunting the white bear, walrus, and seal on 
 the ice, or searching along the shore for the remains of 
 a stranded whale. Races addicted to the grossest pagan 
 practices are in contact with the fiercest zealots for 
 Orthodoxy and the strict letter of traditional faith that 
 are to be found in Christendom. Religious fanes, blessed 
 not only with the possession of miracle-working bones 
 and images, and the undecayed bodies of sainted thau- 
 maturgists, but with official and autocratic favour — it 
 might almost be called patronage — may be discovered 
 in lonely islands of the White Sea. But to reach them, 
 forests have to be traversed that have for centuries been 
 the retreat of uncompromising schismatics, who look on 
 monkish piety as an abomination and monkish learning 
 as blasphemy. 
 
 Archangel was the first Russian port ; and it is still 
 in some sense the only place of large maritime trade 
 where the soil, the language, and the customs are 
 thoroughly Russian. The commercial community at 
 the mouth of the Northern Dwina has been for a longer 
 period than any other in contact with European, and 
 particularly with English, influences, commercial and
 
 256 A FOREST LAND. 
 
 social. But in the country immediately behind it, the 
 primitive Russian life has continued down to our day 
 little changed by inward movement, and almost un- 
 contaminated by innovation from without. The boyards 
 were never able to exercise an oppressive authority over 
 the farmers, wood-cutters, and fishermen thinly sprinkled 
 throughout this vast and almost inaccessible region of 
 forests and lakes. The institution of serfage never took 
 root here ; and when the day of emancipation came, it 
 was found that there were only five bondsmen in this 
 northern area to set free. 
 
 On crossing the water-shed from the Kama to the 
 Dwina — the great drainer of the lands inclining towards 
 the Northern Sea — one sees, at least at first, little change 
 in the scenery or in the occupations of the inhabitants. 
 The forests, lakes, and morasses are, perhaps, on a larger 
 scale ; and so, too, are the trees, some of them monster 
 larches, firs, and spruces of two hundred and three hun- 
 dred years' growth. The first beginnings of the Dwina 
 and its tributaries are buried under the dense shades of 
 these ancient woods. The resinous odour of the pines 
 fills the air ; the surface may here and there be diversi- 
 fied by knolls and glens, but everywhere the sombre 
 plumes of the coniferous trees assert themselves as the 
 prevailing features of the landscape with implacable 
 monotony. The clearings are smaller and more widely 
 separated. In the more remote localities, towards the 
 base of the Urals, the inhabitants — Zyranians mostly 
 — are peltry hunters, who follow their furry prey in 
 moccasins of half-dressed deerskin, like Hiawatha — 
 
 " Over river, hill, and hollow, 
 Through interminable forests, 
 Through uninterrupted silence,"
 
 AN "ARCTIC PARADISE:' 257 
 
 and of whose simple scheme of existence the hewing of 
 the forest or the tilling of the land forms no part. 
 
 Nearer the sea, in the central districts of Vologda, 
 wood-cutting and rafting, the distilling of turpentine and 
 tar, fishing and fish-curing, the raising of cattle and expor- 
 tation of hides and tallow, form the occupations of the in- 
 habitants. Villages, and even considerable towns — such, 
 for instance, as Veliki Oustioug, an old Novgorodian post, 
 now a town of eight thousand inhabitants — are met with 
 on the banks of the streams, which are the main and often 
 the only means of communication. These sequestered 
 communities often enjoy not a little comfort and com- 
 mercial prosperity, and have their full share of public 
 "institutions," including churches. Thus Vologda, the 
 capital of the province of that name, is provided with 
 some sixty churches ; and, in spite of its high latitude 
 and rigorous climate, it is possessed of so many amenities 
 that it has been termed an " Arctic paradise." In Kar- 
 gopol, a town of two thousand souls, in Olonetz, Mr. 
 Hep worth Dixon says he counted twenty spires. 
 
 In some spots specially favoured by southern exposure 
 and fertile soil a little barley, rye, oats, and buckwheat are 
 grown, but not nearly enough for the needs of the popu- 
 lation. As in the times of Master Richard Chancelor of 
 the ship Edward Bcmaventura — the first from our own 
 shores to visit these quarters ! — the people still draw their 
 supplies of corn from the more fertile countries to the 
 south. The English mariner, in the year after the taking 
 of Kazan, journeyed by land and water from the mouth 
 of the Dwina to Moscow, which he found to be a city 
 "greater than London with the suburbs, but very rude, 
 and standeth without order ; " and he would meet in a 
 
 (718) 17
 
 258 SUMMER OX THE NORTHERN DWINA. 
 
 morning many hundred sledges, some carrying corn and 
 some fish, going to and from " the north part of the 
 Duke's dominions, where the cold is so extreme that it 
 will suffer no corn to grow." 
 
 In the lower course of the Dwina, within the govern- 
 ment of Archangel, and near the shores of the White Sea, 
 even such partial attempts at cultivation are abandoned, 
 and the population are traders, fishermen, lumbermen, 
 and sailors. Spring and autumn are brief intervals of 
 deluging sleet and rain and thick fogs interposed be- 
 tween nine months of grim winter, when land, river, and 
 sea are bound together under a thick covering of ice and 
 snow, and three months of scorchingly hot summer. 
 
 "With the coming of the genial warmth man seems 
 to imitate nature, and to strive by energetic and cease- 
 less activity to make up for the long period of enforced 
 inaction. As soon as the streams are clear of ice, 
 rafts of timber begin to descend the Dwina and its 
 tributaries ; and the river and its banks present a scene 
 in strange contrast to the white and silent desolation 
 that had reigned a few weeks before. The banks and 
 islands are moist, and green with grass and rashes ; the 
 pines, that had during the winter looked like a forest 
 of crystal, have shaken the snow from their branches, 
 and the lighter tints of the new shoots show in beau- 
 tiful contrast to the sombre shade of the older foliage; 
 and the young leaves begin to sprout on the birch and 
 willow. The stream itself, instead of a silent white 
 avenue of ice, is a fine broad rushing current, down 
 which lines of rafts and praams bear the lumbermen 
 with goods and a few ragged pilgrim passengers to the 
 sea. The praam is a rudely constructed craft, hurriedly 

 
 KHOLMOGORY. 259 
 
 put together for the single voyage down the Dwina 
 to Archangel with its cargo of oats and rye, where it 
 is generally sold and broken up, the strength of the 
 current preventing these clumsy vessels from ascendino- 
 the stream. 
 
 The mouths of large tributaries, such as the Vichegda, 
 the Vaga, and the Pinega, each leading to extensive but 
 little known districts, are passed in the downward course, 
 and some thirty or forty miles above Archangel the 
 village of Kholmogory is reached. It is now a small 
 place, but is convenient for taking a survey of the 
 past history and settlement of this northern region. 
 
 In later times Kholmogory has derived notoriety from 
 being the place of banishment and death of the Empress 
 Anne Leopoldovna, on the accession of her cousin Eliza- 
 beth, daughter of Peter the Great. But it has an earlier 
 title to fame. Some writers conjecture that it was the 
 site of the capital of Biarma-land, and of the far- 
 renowned temple of the god Yumala. The Northmen 
 came hither to trade and to fight before the days of 
 Kuric ; and Holmgaard, the " Great City," as they called 
 it — which has been corrupted by Puss tongues to Khol- 
 mogory — makes a great figure in Norse and Icelandic 
 satms. 
 
 It is in the narrative of the voyage of Other, written 
 by King Alfred about the year 890 — about the time when 
 the Varangian princes were transferring the seat of their 
 authority from Novgorod to Kiev — that we have the 
 first sober and authentic record of the navigation of the 
 White Sea, and, perhaps, of the discovery of the mouth 
 of the Dwina. The description of this Ancient Mariner 
 agrees with remarkable accuracy with the condition of
 
 260 OTHER OF 11 ALGOL ANUS VOYAGE. 
 
 the northern coasts and their inhabitants down to the 
 present hour. 
 
 Other or Ochter of Halgoland, in Norway, as appears 
 from the quaint old narrative, was " once upon a time " 
 seized with the desire " to find out how far the country 
 extended due north, and whether any one lived to the 
 north of the wastes occupied by the Northmen." He 
 proceeded on his adventurous voyage — the first expedi- 
 tion of Polar discovery in modern times — at first north, 
 then due east, along a waste shore, until he found the 
 coast bowing directly towards the south, and the sea 
 opening into the land, he could not tell how far ; and up 
 this gulf he sailed with a northerly wind for five days. 
 " A great river lies up this land, and when they had 
 gone some way up this river, they returned, because they 
 could not proceed far on account of the inhabitants being 
 hostile," — the " Biarmas " having well peopled the country 
 on one side of the stream. On the right of the navi- 
 gator during his voyage, up till this point, " the land 
 was a desert, and without inhabitants, except fishermen, 
 fowlers, and hunters, all of whom were Finnas ; and he 
 had a wide sea on his left." 
 
 It was not long before the merchant adventurers of 
 Novgorod made their presence felt in this region ; and 
 they settled themselves at Kholmogory and other con- 
 venient points near the mouth of the Dwina, and had 
 even a post at Mezen, on the Arctic Circle. Thriving 
 trading-stations began to be established on the banks of 
 the great lakes and rivers of this northern land, and 
 commerce to pulse through the arteries of the Volkhov, 
 the Svir, the Onega, and the Dwina, and Lakes Ladoga 
 and Onega, between Great Novgorod and the White Sea. 
 
 oga 
 Sea.
 
 WHITE LAKE AND WHITE SEA SHRINES. 2G1 
 
 Anchorites wandered into these countries in search of 
 " deserts " and waste places where they could build their 
 little cells and chapels and live entirely secluded from 
 the world. Missionaries went forth under the protec- 
 tion of the republic to preach the gospel to Finn and 
 Samoyede ; and the bands of Good Companions zealously 
 strove, as was their wont, to drive home Christianity at 
 the pike's point. 
 
 Sometimes the authority of Bielozersk, on the banks 
 of the White Lake, nearly equidistant from Novgorod 
 and Archangel, extended over a great part of the region. 
 This remote principality had been a seat of warlike 
 and monkish renown since the days when Sineous and 
 Truvor, the brothers of Ruric, established themselves 
 there ; and in later times its possession was often con- 
 tested between Novgorod and the Grand Princes of 
 Suzdal, Vladimir, and Moscow, before it finally fell into 
 the power of the latter. The neighbourhood is still 
 thickly sprinkled with monasteries, churches, and shrines; 
 and the sandy shores of the White Lake are annually the 
 resort of pilgrims on their way northward to the still 
 more sacred soil of Solovetsk, on an island in the White 
 Sea. 
 
 The invasions and civil commotions in the south, and 
 the religious persecutions of Nikon, helped to people 
 the territory. During the Interregnum, in 1G13 — the 
 year that young Michael Romanoff was chosen Czar — the 
 Poles penetrated to Vologda, which they pillaged and 
 burned; and at a still later date Bielozersk was destroyed 
 by a band of Lithuanians and Cossacks of the Ukraine. 
 But as a rule there was profound stillness and peace in 
 the recesses of these northern forests, as there is in the
 
 262 SIR HUGH WILLOUGHBY. 
 
 depths of the ocean when storms are chafing its surface ; 
 and within them a free and hardy race grew up, in- 
 tensely Russian in their instincts and prejudices. 
 
 It was the English that first taught Russia the uses 
 of her northern sea-board, and opened up the country to 
 international commerce. In the reign of Edward VI. 
 the " Mystery and Company of Merchant Adventurers," 
 the nucleus of the Muscovy Company, was formed in 
 London, with the great navigator Sebastian Cabot, then in 
 extreme old age, at its head, the original purpose being 
 to explore the northern parts of Europe and " Great 
 Tartary," and to discover " regions, kingdoms, islands, 
 and places unknown and unvisited by the highway of 
 the sea." 
 
 Three ships were fitted out, and sailed from the 
 Thames in May 1553, under Sir Hugh Willoughby, 
 Richard Chancelor, and Cornelius Durforth, and were 
 charged with letters from the kino- addressed to " all the 
 princes and lords, to all the judges of the earth, to who- 
 ever possesses any high authority in all the regions 
 under the vast sky." It was hoped that they would be 
 able, by following this northern track, to round the 
 Promontorium Tabin of Pliny — the " uttermost part of 
 the earth " — and thence make easy sailing to China and 
 the Indies, towards which all the Western nations were 
 then running a breathless race. Tempests overtook the 
 vessels in the wild seas beyond the North Cape and 
 drove them far from their course. Willoughby and 
 Durforth rejoined each other, took shelter with their dis- 
 abled ships in a haven on the coast of Lapland, whence 
 they sent out parties to the east, west, and south without 
 discovering a trace of inhabitants. " Vpon the maine," says
 
 CHANCELORS VOYAGES. 263 
 
 Sir Hugh's journal, as quoted by Hakluyt, "wee saw 
 beares, great deere, foxes, and diuvers strange beasts, as 
 ellons (elks) and such other ; which were to us unknown 
 and also wonderfull. Seeing the yeare farre spent, and 
 also very euille wether, as frost, snow, and haile, as 
 though it had been the deepe of winter, wee thought 
 best to winter there." 
 
 Here, alongside the remains of the goodly vessels, 
 the frozen bodies of the brave seamen were discovered 
 next spring by Russian fishermen, all having died 
 miserably of cold and hunger. Chancelor held on his 
 way in the Edward Bonaventura, entered the White 
 Sea, discovered, or rediscovered, a great river, the Dwina, 
 on the banks of which were already two monasteries — 
 those of St. Nicolas and St. Michael the Archangel, near 
 which the new port of the north was afterwards to rise 
 — and found, to his astonishment, that all this country 
 was under the Grand Duke of Muscovy, Ivan the 
 Terrible. 
 
 The enterprising sea-captain ascended the Dwina to 
 Vologda, and thence made his way to Moscow — a jour- 
 ney about as long and arduous as a trip across Siberia 
 would be to-day — and successfully carried out his 
 mission, obtaining leave for English ships to trade 
 with the Dwina. On a second voyage, agents of the 
 Company were established at Kholmogory and Vologda, 
 and Chancelor returned home with the governor of 
 the latter town as the first Russian ambassador to 
 England. He perished, however, with his ship in a storm 
 on the Scottish coast, though the envoy was saved, and 
 was received with high honours in London. 
 
 A crisis in the history of Archangel — whose painted
 
 264 ARCHANGEL. 
 
 spires and wooden shanties soon began to rise on the 
 swampy river bank — arrived a century and a half later, 
 when Peter the Great was founding his new capital on 
 the Neva. He wished to close the port of Archangel in 
 order to encourage the trade of St. Petersburg. This blow 
 was averted, and Peter instead took the town under his 
 especial care. " He fetched," says Mr. Hepworth Dixon, 
 " masons from Holland to erect lines of bastions, maga- 
 zines, and quays. A castle rose from the ground on the 
 river bank ; an island was reclaimed from the river and 
 trimmed with trees ; a summer palace was built for the 
 Czar ; and a fleet of ships was sent to command the 
 Dwina mouth." 
 
 Though Riga and St. Petersburg have carried away 
 the bulk of the commerce from the centre of the empire — 
 which in the early times, when Russia was shut out 
 from the Baltic, found its way to the White Sea — 
 Archangel has maintained, and is likely to maintain, a 
 respectable position as the outlet for the wealth and 
 trade of Northern Russia. 
 
 The modern aspect of Archangel has been picturesquely 
 sketched by Mr. Hepworth Dixon, and its social life 
 and manners humorously and pithily described by Mr. 
 Edward Rae. The former speaks of it as " a camp of 
 shanties, heaped around groups of belfries, cupolas, and 
 domes. Imaoine a vast Q-reen marsh alono- the bank of 
 a broad brown river, with mounds of clay cropping here 
 and there out of the peat and bog ; put buildings on 
 these mounds of clay ; adorn the buildings with frescoes, 
 crown them with crosses and cupolas ; fill in the space 
 between church and convent, convent and church, with 
 piles and planks so as to make ground for gardens,
 
 ON ENGLISH SOIL. 265 
 
 streets, and yards ; cut two wide lanes from the church 
 called Smith's Wife to the monastery of St. Michael, 
 three or four miles in length ; connect these lanes and 
 the stream with a dozen clearings ; paint the walls of 
 church and convent white, the domes green and blue ; 
 surround the log-houses with open gardens ; stick a 
 geranium, a fuchsia, an oleander, into every window ; 
 leave the grass growing everywhere in street and clear- 
 ing,^ — and you have Archangel." 
 
 The English traveller who lands here may feel that in 
 one sense at least he is on his native soil. The strand 
 all along the river bank is formed of the ballast that has 
 been discharged from the hundreds of vessels, chiefly 
 British, that every year come to Archangel to load 
 cargoes of grain and flax, tar and turpentine, tallow, 
 hides, oil, whalebone, fish, wax, timber, and spirits, furs 
 and reindeer-tongues — everything, in fact, which the 
 thrifty Russian has to sell ; while he purchases the 
 minimum of foreign luxuries in exchange. The twenty 
 thousand inhabitants of the place are wholly devoted to 
 trade or to religion. Archangel long held a high repu- 
 tation for honesty in business transactions, and perhaps 
 it still compares favourably with other Russian trading 
 communities. But the traveller, and still more the 
 merchant or shipmaster, will have frequent occasion for 
 observing here, as elsewhere in the empire, that the 
 standard of commercial morality is not superfluously 
 high. In spite of the abundance of public buildings and 
 educational institutions — " cathedral, fire-tower, town- 
 hall, court of justice, governor's house, and museum," with 
 numerous seminaries — municipal enterprise and literary 
 life do not seem to thrive ; and Mr. Rae remarks that
 
 266 ORIENTAL CURIOSITIES. 
 
 the only branch of science to which he found the 
 inhabitants attached was " the collection of coins — 
 modern coins." 
 
 Still more curious to those who forget that the 
 Dwina is to the eastward of the Euphrates, and that 
 they must consequently look for Oriental as well as 
 Arctic conditions, is the fact that in a port which is so 
 much frequented by strangers there does not exist any- 
 thing that in a Western city would be called a hotel. 
 Other evidences of Eastern taste, and perhaps of ancient 
 intercourse with the civilization of the Arabs, are to be 
 seen in the design and workmanship of the silver crosses 
 and other ornaments worn by the peasantry of these 
 northern districts. Many of these are figured in Mr. 
 Seebohm's book ; and Mr. Rae, who was also an industri- 
 ous collector of them, declares that so closely do the 
 Northern and Eastern types harmonize, that it is im- 
 possible to tell, in certain classes of work, whether the 
 ornaments come from Russia, Iceland, or Barbary. Mr. 
 Howorth, in his " History of the Mongols," accounts for 
 the Eastern character of the northern silver art by the 
 intercourse of Arab traders with the Khazars, Bulgars, 
 and Biarmas of the Volga countries, and the incursions 
 of the Norsemen in the Levant ; and the Byzantine 
 origin of the Russian Church has also had its influence. 
 
 One reminiscence the summer sojourner at Archangel or 
 in any of the countries around the White Sea is sure to 
 bear away with him — the bite of the mosquitoes. Myriads 
 of these insects awake to life in the short hot season of 
 almost perpetual daylight ; and they make up for the 
 briefness of their opportunities by ubiquitous activity. 
 The natives seem to have become partially used to them ; 

 
 MOSQUITOES. 267 
 
 but they " smell the blood of an Englishman " or other 
 foreigner with unfailing acuteness, and are unremitting 
 in their attentions to the stranger. Mr. Cornelius Stone 
 mentions in his account of his travels in New Guinea 
 that neither there nor in Persia, India, Burma, Java, 
 America, or any other country he had visited, had the 
 number of mosquitoes " exceeded one-tenth of what they 
 did in travelling through Lapland, from the Arctic Circle 
 to the Gulf of Bothnia, during the summer months." On 
 this journey, he says, " I once counted on my right arm 
 alone one hundred and thirty ; two pairs of trousers were 
 scarcely sufficient protection ; and I was always compelled 
 to wear a couple of veils round my head, made into a sort 
 of bag. I never wish to visit that part of Lapland again 
 in summer." 
 
 Mr. Rae's account of his sufferings is even more 
 pathetic ; in short, such is the universal testimony of 
 travellers by land and sea in these regions regarding the 
 remorseless and intolerable assaults of these pests, that 
 to give a description of the White Sea shores and omit 
 all mention of them would be like presenting a melo- 
 drama with the part of the " villain " left out. 
 
 Dropping down the Dwina, threading the way between 
 the marshy flats, shifting mud-banks, and low green 
 islands, partly covered by scrub, that divide the streams 
 forming the delta of the river, catching a glimpse now 
 and then of the walls of a church or convent, a custom- 
 house or a ferryman's cottage, or a humble cross set up 
 by some pious sailor in token of his deliverance from 
 peril by sea or his safe return from a whaling cruise 
 among the Polar ice, having always in sight on the right 
 and on the left the dark wall of pines bounding the
 
 268 WINTER AND SUMMER ASPECTS. 
 
 course of the river and stretching back interminably into 
 the interior, we reach the buoys marking the entrance to 
 the navigable channel, and are afloat in the waters of 
 the White Sea. 
 
 The materials are few for supplying a picture of the 
 aspect of this inlet of the Northern Ocean during two- 
 thirds of the year, when it is bound from shore to 
 shore with frost and invaded by heavy drift-ice ; when 
 swamp and forest and heath are alike buried under 
 heavy snow, and the sparse population hibernate like the 
 bears, cowering over the fires in their log-cabins or in their 
 sod-built gammer. Not many travellers have been found 
 devoted enough to brave the rigours and discomforts of a 
 winter among the Lapps or the Samoyedes, or even of 
 testing the amenities of life at that season of the year 
 in the trading-ports of Archangel, Onega, and Kem. 
 
 In summer the shores of the White Sea are in a few 
 spots picturesque and even pretty. Fogs hang over the 
 water, and for days shroud the land from sight ; sharp 
 frosts and cutting showers of hail and sleet not only 
 " chill the lap of May," but intrude in the hot sum- 
 mer weather of July, if the wind shift to the north- 
 east. But in the bright sunshine even the shores of Lap- 
 land put on a kind of flickering smile. 
 
 On the southern shore of the long Gulf of Kandalaks, 
 a district inhabited by Karelians, a quiet, kindly-man- 
 nered Finnish race of fishermen, there are some charming 
 bits of forest and river scenery. " A clearing on the 
 forest edge, a small box-shaped log-hut, with blue smoke 
 wreathing from it, a few racks for drying nets, a boat 
 drawn up on the shingly beach, another afloat, an appa- 
 ratus for drawing salmon nets, a cross standing on a
 
 THE SOLOVETSK ISLANDS. 269 
 
 rock, a sea-eagle sailing overhead, a sunny sky and a 
 sunny sea, a background of spruce and birch, a strip of 
 fir near the beach — gray and blasted as if by some 
 poisonous breath," — such, says Mr. Rae, are the usual 
 surroundings of the fisherman's isba on the western side 
 of the White Sea. Every summer these poor people 
 make a journey of a thousand miles to the fishings on 
 the desolate Murman coast, in Northern Lapland, or to 
 Finmark, or hire themselves for the still longer trip to 
 Novaya Zemlia and Spitzbergen after seal, whale, and 
 walrus. In the interior they are woodmen or small 
 farmers, and they compare favourably with the Russians 
 in honesty and sobriety. " The sociable, tipsy, thriftless 
 Russian," says the traveller just quoted, " will not shut 
 himself up as a squatter in the lonely backwoods. The Finn, 
 Quain, or Karelian prefers solitude and independence." 
 To the voyager sailing from the mouth of the Dwina 
 to the southern extremity of the White Sea, the Solo- 
 vetsk Islands on his right arrest the eye by their fresh 
 verdure and the pleasing diversity of their rocky bights 
 and wooded slopes, from amid which rise the spires, cupo- 
 las, and roofs of numerous churches, convents, and her- 
 mitages. " Each height," says Hepworth Dixon, who has 
 given a long account of the place, " is crowned by a 
 white church, a green cupola, and a golden cross. A line 
 of wall, with gates and towers, extends along the upper 
 quay ; and high above this line spring convent, palace, 
 dome, and cross. Within, the convent looks more dur- 
 able and splendid than without ; wall, rampart, guest- 
 house, prison-tower, and church are all of brick and 
 stone." "One of the few tidy spots in Holy Russia," says 
 Mr. Rae.
 
 270 THE MONASTERY AND ITS FOUNDERS. 
 
 This lonely group of islets in the Northern Sea has 
 been famous for centuries in the ecclesiastical annals 
 of the Russian Church, and is haunted by warlike as 
 well as monkish memories. In its early days, Solovetsk 
 was the secure retreat of pious monks from Novgorod, 
 who fled hither from the pleasures of the world, in 
 search of a desert solitude where they could wholly 
 give themselves up to prayer and penance. Two of 
 these anchorites — St. Savatie, or Sabbatheus, and St. 
 Zozima, the founders of the Solovetsk monastery— pecu- 
 liarly distinguished themselves by their devotion and 
 the severity of their ascetic regimen. After their death, 
 miracles were performed at the touch of their conse- 
 crated dust, and the monastery became the greatest and 
 most celebrated in Northern Russia. 
 
 When the English first came to the White Sea, its 
 fame was already bruited abroad, and Ivan IV. paid it 
 especial reverence. That reputation has continued down 
 to the present day, and has even grown with the lapse 
 of time ; and every year pilgrims flock hither from all 
 parts of Russia to kneel at the shrines of Zozima and 
 Savatie, and before the wonderful image of the Virgin, 
 who dispenses here the gift of healing, and has in all 
 times taken Solovetsk under her peculiar care. Peter 
 the Great paid more than one visit to the monastery ; 
 and his example was followed by the late Emperor. 
 
 It has not, however, invariably received favours from 
 the civil and ecclesiastical powers as by law established. 
 At the time of Nikon's reforms, Solovetsk was the 
 stronghold, the citadel of the raskolniks. It sustained 
 a siege of ten years before it was reduced ; and the 
 zealous monks who had pointed the cannon and wielded
 
 A MIRACLE. 271 
 
 the pike in the defence of the Old Ritual did not miss 
 the crown of martyrdom. 
 
 The last warlike event in the history of the convent was 
 its bombardment, during the Crimean War, by a British 
 squadron, under Admiral Ommanney, in retaliation for 
 the guns of the monastery having been fired at an Eng- 
 lish vessel. Shells were dropped through the roof of the 
 principal church, and the buildings set on fire at different 
 places, while the archimandrite and monks sang mass in 
 front of the sacred tombs and the miraculous picture of 
 the Virgin. Not a soul within the walls was injured ; 
 and on the strength of this, to the Russian mind, most 
 indubitable proof of divine favour, the fame of Solovetsk 
 rose higher than ever in the estimation of the faithful. 
 In another sense, the existence of a rich, powerful, and 
 prosperous community on this unkindly soil, and amid 
 surroundings so desolate and forbidding, seems little short 
 of miraculous. In spite of their inclement skies, the 
 monks assiduously till the ground, and gather from it 
 not only the grain and herbs, but even the fruits of 
 warmer climes ; and notwithstanding their isolation from 
 the world, there are found among them men who cultivate 
 also art and literature with a success that has made their 
 lonely convent a " lamp of learning " in the northern 
 darkness. 
 
 Leaving behind us Solovetsk, with its soil so strangely 
 dinted by pilgrims' knees and cannon-balls, we resume 
 our voyage along the shores of the White Sea. We 
 coast, on the left, a low peninsula, with sandy shores and 
 marshy inlets — a barren and solitary foreground backed 
 by pine woods. Where the large rivers discharge them- 
 selves into the Bay of Onega, and for some distance up the
 
 272 THE LIMIT OF TREES. 
 
 western coast, the forests are of larger growth and more 
 widely spread. Farther inland, the country is blotched 
 by shallow ponds and marshes, large and small, which 
 are drained by sluggish streams, or joined to each other 
 after heavy rains, but are stagnant and isolated during 
 the rest of the year. Fish of many varieties ascend 
 these rivers and swarm in the lakes, and they form the 
 staple article of diet. Small patches of barley, oats, and 
 rye are grown, and potatoes and other garden vegetables 
 are sometimes raised. 
 
 Before the Arctic Circle is reached, timber begins to 
 fail. The spruce-fir will not grow beyond the sixty- 
 seventh parallel of latitude, and the extreme limit of 
 the Scotch fir is found about 69° north. The birch and 
 alder, however, are found growing to respectable dimen- 
 sions in the extreme north-western nook of Russia — at 
 the mouth of the Pasvig in 70° north latitude. 
 
 The birch forest fills the glens that run between the 
 gray rocks in Lapland and the Samoyede country, and 
 its bright green foliage and ghostly white stem and 
 branches cover the southern slopes of the hill-sides. Low 
 ranges of hills traverse the country, offshoots apparently 
 of the Ural chain, seeking to establish communication 
 with the great mountains of the Scandinavian peninsula. 
 They feebly mark the water-shed between the Dwina 
 and the Petchora and Mezen rivers, that flow directly 
 into the Arctic Ocean, and they divide the north- 
 flowing and south-flowing rivers of Lapland. 
 
 On either side of Lake Imandra, in the " neck " of 
 the great White Sea peninsula, these hills rise to a height 
 of three thousand feet, and are always clad with snow. 
 Under their shelter fine forests rise, and a profusion of 

 
 THE SAMOYEDES. 273 
 
 wild flowers carpet the sod. On the northern slopes, 
 exposed to the full onslaught of the Polar storms, even 
 the birch finds it hard to gain foothold and sustenance. 
 Grass gives place to a scanty growth of moss and dwarf- 
 willow. In some places the hills are clad with a snow- 
 like covering of the white reindeer moss, and in search 
 of these pastures the Mountain Lapp moves from place 
 to place with his herd. 
 
 Of the two desert tracts into which the northern part 
 of the government of Archangel is divided by the White 
 Sea, the country of the Samoyedes, stretching from Cape 
 Kanin to the confines of Asia, is the more extensive and 
 the more desolate. The Samoyecle people only number 
 a few thousand souls, and the interest attaching to them 
 is very far from arising from any attractiveness in their 
 persons or their manners. They claim notice simply on 
 account of the enormous range of country over which 
 they are scattered, and the fact that, living within the 
 bounds of Europe, they are yet essentially idolaters and 
 savages. 
 
 They are a stunted, ill-favoured race, with dull, flat 
 faces, small eyes, high cheek-bones, scanty beards, and 
 depressed foreheads ; and their low physical type does not 
 belie their intellectual deficiency. The Orthodox Church 
 claims most of them as her children ; but it has not won 
 them from their heathenish practices, and has conspic- 
 uously failed to teach them the virtue of cleanliness. 
 
 One of the most recent observers of Samoyede life — 
 Professor Nordenskiold — found a tribe professing Christ- 
 ianity, whom he visited near Vaygatz Strait in 1878, still 
 worshipping their idols. Nothing can better illustrate 
 the poverty and degradation of these people than the 
 
 (718) 18
 
 271 SAMOYEDE SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 primitive appearance of their "gods." "One consisted of 
 a stone which, by the he]p of brightly-coloured patches, 
 had been made into a sort of doll ; another was a similar 
 doll, with a piece of copper-plate for a face ; and a third 
 was a little skin doll ornamented with ear-rings and 
 pearls. In general they resembled the rag dolls which 
 peasant children make for themselves without the help 
 of the toy-shops of towns." Of their mode of life and 
 their burial customs Nordenskiold says : — " The Samoyede 
 tent is formed of deer-skins, and is of quite the same 
 form as the Lapp kota. There is always to be found 
 in the neighbourhood of the tent a large number of 
 dogs, which are employed in winter for general 
 purposes, and in summer for tracking boats against 
 the current. At a simovie (fishing-place) where we 
 landed, we found, as usual, a burying-place. The bodies 
 were placed in large coffins above ground, with a cross 
 nearly always erected beside them. At one of the graves 
 a sacred picture was affixed to the cross, which must be 
 regarded as a further proof that a Christian reposed in the 
 coffin. Notwithstanding this, some clothes which had 
 belonged to the deceased were found hanging on a bush 
 at the grave, together with a bundle containing food, 
 principally dried fish. At the graves of well-to-do natives, 
 we learned that the survivor even places some rouble 
 notes beside the food, that the departed may not be 
 altogether devoid of ready money on his entrance into 
 the other world." 
 
 On the breaking up of the winter ice the whole 
 of this "Siberia in Europe," from the Mezen to the 
 Ural range, is entirely cut off from communication 
 with the rest of the world. The land is a vast half-
 
 SPRING TRAVELLING. 275 
 
 thawed, wholly impassable swamp. The rivers are 
 impetuous torrents full of floating ice. Two British 
 naturalists, Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie Brown, travelled 
 eight hundred miles in sledges over the Government post 
 road from Archangel to Ust Zylma, on the Petchora, in 
 April 1875, and found the track through the forest a 
 f diabolical " series of ups and downs. " Sometimes the 
 sledge would be on the top of a steep hill, the first horse 
 in the valley and the third horse on the top of the next 
 hill. The motion was like that of a boat in a chopping 
 sea, and the sledge banged about from pillar to post to 
 such an extent that we scarcely felt the want of exercise." 
 
 Suddenly this snowy covering begins to melt, and then 
 for weeks it is almost impossible to move about out of 
 doors. The Petchora, in its lower course, is a magnificent 
 stream — " fifteen times as broad as the Thames at Ham- 
 mersmith ; " the dark forests of pine are impressive in 
 their stately solemnity, the bare level tundra lands 
 spread away to the horizon without break or bound. 
 Wherever the eyes are turned the landscape is vast and 
 mournful and silent ; and we look away from scenes so 
 sublime and so solitary with a feeling of relief. 
 
 Russian Lapland, the country between the White Sea 
 and Varanger Fiord, where the Norwegian coast be- 
 gins, is a little less rigorous in climate, and somewhat 
 more green and habitable, than the Samoyede wastes. 
 The Lapps, too, are neither so low in stature nor so 
 poverty-stricken, neglected, and isolated as their neigh- 
 bours to the east of the White Sea. The seasons are a 
 trifle less unkindly to them, and they have the good 
 fortune to be placed many hundred miles nearer to the 
 influences of civilization. All this is reflected in the
 
 27G THE LAPLANDERS. 
 
 comparatively high social and intellectual condition which 
 the Lapp occupies. The race have partially given up 
 their nomad habits. 
 
 In the interior the reindeer is still their mainstay 
 and their comfort; their beast of burden and their 
 dairy animal ; the source on which they depend for 
 food and shelter, clothes and companionship. But 
 many Laplanders devote themselves exclusively and 
 successfully to fishing; they make long voyages as 
 sailors and hunters with the whaling and sealing ships, 
 and bring home roubles in their pockets and new no- 
 tions in their heads. Their communities have a fixed 
 range, with some nucleus of huts on a sheltered river 
 bank or by the side of a lake, where, in the interior, they 
 make diligent attempts to cultivate patches of grain and 
 potatoes, and they are gradually accustoming themselves 
 to agriculture and settled habits of life. 
 
 Education has made some progress among them, and 
 they have been found not unapt to learn. If the visitor 
 can conquer his prejudices to dirt, grease, and smoke, he 
 will have no difficulty in discovering attractive traits in 
 the Laplanders. Mr. Du Chaillu and Mr. Rae have 
 lately made great friends with them, and are warm in 
 praise of their honesty, gentleness, and intelligence. 
 
 The Russian Lapp is officially classed as a Russian 
 Churchman. Soon after Martha, the possadna of Nov- 
 gorod, founded Kem, Novgorodian bands expelled the 
 Norsemen from what is now Russian Lapland, and ere 
 long began, by their own forcible weapons of argument, 
 to recommend their religion to the heathen natives. A 
 small monastery — that of Boris-gleb — was planted on 
 the west bank of the Pasvig, where it still exists, a
 
 LAPP "MAGIC" 277 
 
 minute but precious excrescence of a great empire. The 
 Lapp faith, though purer than that of their Samoyede 
 brethren, is still largely and curiously mixed up with 
 their ancient idolatrous rites. The worship of Yumala 
 is not quite extinct ; in the northern lights, often wit- 
 nessed with great splendour in these latitudes, the waver- 
 ing conflict of the spirits of the air is seen — the portent 
 of dire calamity ; the Prince of Evil is still a secret 
 power, though reindeer are no longer sacrificed to him. 
 There is an awful and mystic significance in the enclo- 
 sures, formed of birch and fir boughs, which the Lapps, 
 like some of the Finn peoples on the Volga, set apart in 
 honour of the old gods. 
 
 The Lapps have not quite forgotten the practice of the 
 "black arts" for which they were once famed and feared 
 throughout Europe. Foul weather, instead of having its 
 origin in America or in the Atlantic, accordino- to some 
 modern notions, was then believed to be brewed in Lap- 
 land by the devilish charms of " secret black and mid- 
 night hags," whose shapes, as they rode through the air 
 maliciously rejoicing in the havoc they had let loose, could 
 often be dimly discerned by the superstitious scudding 
 through the rack of storm-clouds or whirling snowflakes. 
 A great place of gathering of these wizards, or noauls, 
 was the Sviatoi Nos (Holy Cape), near where Willoughby 
 and his men perished. Here, at the turning-point of 
 many a voyage, they practised their incantations, with 
 aid of the magic drum and libations of reindeer blood. 
 and made a good profit by selling a "capful" of fair 
 wind to English sailors bound to the White Sea. 
 
 The witches and wizards of Lapland now-a-days are 
 much more humble and restricted in their field of opera-
 
 278 SNOW-SKATES AND SLEIGHS. 
 
 tions. Their most potent charms are only employed to spoil 
 a neighbour's fishing, to lame his pet reindeer, or to cast 
 upon himself and his family the " evil eye." These sup- 
 posed powers, however, give to the " magicians " among 
 the Lapps, as among the Samoyedes, a considerable influ- 
 ence ; and the Russians, Norwegians, Swedes, and Fin- 
 landers dwelling in their vicinity are by no means free 
 of the infectious dread that they inspire. If the Lapp no 
 longer scours through the clouds on a broomstick, he has 
 other means of progression in the winter-time that are 
 almost as unfamiliar to the experiences of more southern 
 climes. On foot, on his skids or snow-skates, six feet in 
 length, the Laplander skims the snow-covered surface 
 of the lake, or darts down the frozen slopes, with the 
 rapidity and agility of a swallow on the wing. Seated 
 in his light reindeer-sleigh, and muffled up to the eyes 
 in fur as a defence against the intense cold, he makes 
 long journeys across the icy waste with speed and safety, 
 managing his " horned steed " with admirable skill and 
 address. 
 
 Their language and many physical traits and customs 
 show that the Laplanders are allied to the neighbouring 
 population of Finland. The two peoples indeed so blend 
 into each other, through intermarriage and gradual ap- 
 proximation of pursuits, that it is not easy to draw a line 
 of demarcation between Finland and Lapland ; and the 
 opinion has been hazarded that the Lopari, as the 
 Russians style them, are simply the northern section 
 of the Finnish people who have been squeezed " out into 
 the cold " by the pressure of stronger races from the 
 south. Their rigorous climate and their isolation would 
 explain their diminutive stature and the backwardness
 
 THE FINLANDERS. 279 
 
 of their condition. They are Finns in spite of their 
 stature, just as the dwarf -birch of their heaths is a birch 
 in spite of its stunted growth and gnarled and twisted 
 stem. 
 
 It is not necessary to enter into a full description 
 of Finland and the past history and present condition 
 of its people. Like Poland, though part of the Czar's 
 European dominions, it is outside of Russia. It has its 
 peculiar language, religion, and nationality, all presenting 
 strong marks of contrast to the prevalent Russian type ; 
 and it has a separate organization and special laws. 
 
 The Finns of Finland are not like their kin on the Volga, 
 surrounded on all sides by a Slav population, which is 
 gradually absorbing and " Russifying " them. Only 
 within the present century has the country been united 
 to the empire ; and on any disruption of the autocratic 
 power Finland would be at least as likely to try to join 
 itself to a neighbouring nation, or form itself into a 
 separate state, as to willingly take part in a new reor- 
 ganization of Russia. It has received its Lutheran faith 
 and its civilization from Sweden. A large infusion of 
 the population, especially on the sea-coast, are of Scan- 
 dinavian descent. The language, the customs, the 
 national character and sympathies, have been essentially 
 modified by contact and old association with Sweden ; 
 and the aspirations of an intelligent people naturally 
 turn towards a constitutional monarchy rather than a 
 despotism, however " benevolent." Education has made 
 considerable progress ; and until within the last two or 
 three generations Finland and Sweden had a " common 
 fund " of literary as well as of military glory.
 
 280 YOUNG FINLAND. 
 
 Too scattered and weak a nation to be able to maintain 
 their independence in the gigantic struggles between the 
 two great northern powers that lay on either side of 
 t 1m in, the Finlanders showed themselves, under the banner 
 of Charles the Twelfth, and in more recent conflicts as 
 soldiers of the Czar, possessed of splendid soldierly 
 qualities. Intellectually, too, they have shown that they 
 need not be ashamed of a comparison with other northern 
 peoples ; and recently a vigorous " Young Finland" school 
 has arisen that has assiduously explored the rich stores 
 of Finnish poetry and folklore, and has raised the 
 native language to the dignity of being one of the 
 literary tongues of Europe. In no part of the dominions 
 of the Czar are the people more fit for self-government, 
 and nowhere could that experiment, which cannot be 
 much longer delayed, be tried with better prospects of 
 success. 
 
 The inhabitants, numbering some two million in a 
 territory of one hundred and forty-four thousand square 
 miles, are an intelligent, hard-working race of agri- 
 culturists and fishermen, simple and frugal in their 
 habits, though rather fond, like other northern peoples, 
 of strong spirits, and presenting in many features of their 
 character and daily life marked resemblances to the 
 Swedes, with whom they were so long politically united. 
 This resemblance, as might be expected, is most observ- 
 able in the western districts, especially along the coast 
 of the Gulf of Bothnia, where the tidy little villages 
 lining the shores of the fiords, with their quaint wooden 
 houses, the modest Protestant church, the troops of 
 school children, the alertness, intelligence, and homely 
 courtesy of the inhabitants, their costume and often their
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE GRAND DEC J IV. 231 
 
 dialect, might make a visitor fancy that he was sojourn- 
 ing in Scandinavia rather than in Russia. 
 
 As the traveller proceeds eastward and approaches St. 
 Petersburg, a change, not for the better, is perceptible. 
 The symptoms of taste and contrivance fade from the 
 exterior of the dwellings, and comfort from their inte- 
 riors ; the tokens of brain and industry having been at 
 work in the cultivation of the thin sandy soil, the drain- 
 ing of the marshes, and the clearing away of trees and 
 boulders, become less evident ; dirt accumulates in the 
 streets ; beards, boots, and overcoats grow in dimensions, 
 and the natives become more fawning and subservient 
 in maimer, while losing the frank, hearty hospitality of 
 their western kin, until at length we reach the old 
 familiar dead-level of the Russian village. 
 
 Not only are these eastern districts of Finland, com- 
 prehended in the province of Viborg, and partly incor- 
 porated in the governments of St. Petersburg and Olonetz, 
 more exposed to Russian influences by reason of their 
 situation, but they have been much longer under the rule 
 of Russia than the other portions of the Grand Duchy. 
 They formed part of the extensive dominions on the 
 eastern and southern side of the Baltic conquered by the 
 great heroes of Swedish history, from Torquil Knutson 
 in the thirteenth century down to Charles the Twelfth. 
 These embraced not merely what is now known as 
 Finland, but Ingermanland — the isthmus between Lake 
 Ladoga and the Gulf of Finland, on which the Russian 
 capital now stands — the " Baltic provinces " of Esthonia 
 and Livonia, and Pomerania ; in fact, the Baltic was a 
 Swedish lake. 
 
 Many were the battles, the sieges, the doughty deeds
 
 282 FINLAND LA XL) SCAPES. 
 
 by sea and land, that were accomplished before these 
 spoils were won for Sweden ; and then the most martial 
 and intrepid of her sons, grasping at still wider con- 
 quests, lost the choicest of those that had already been 
 secured. In the course of less than a century Sweden 
 was deprived of all her hard-won possessions to the east 
 of her present boundary, the river Tornea. The Peace 
 of Nystadt in 1721 secured for Russia the province of 
 Viborg and her conquests in Ingria and Esthonia ; the 
 Peace of Abo, twenty-two years later, gave her another 
 slice of Finland ; while by the Peace of Fredrikshamm, 
 in 1809, the rest of the Grand Duchy, with the Aland 
 I -lands, was absorbed by the Empire. 
 
 While the jagged and broken coast of Finland, with 
 its deep firths, still reaches of enclosed water, storm- 
 chafed capes, and innumerable outlying islands and 
 rocks — what in Scotland are called sherries — resemble on 
 a diminished scale the Atlantic coast-line of Norway, the 
 interior of the country has nothing corresponding to the 
 great mountain backbone of the Scandinavian peninsula. 
 There are some ranges of low hills in the centre of the 
 country which form the nucleus of its drainage system, 
 but the general character of the surface is flat or gently 
 undulating. Forests of fir and larch, far-stretching 
 fens, heaths, and sandy barrens, huge lichen -covered 
 boulders that have floated thither in the Ice Age, at long 
 intervals a patch of cultivation and a human habitation, 
 and in the less sparsely inhabited parts traces here and 
 there of what may by courtesy be called a road, make up 
 the characteristic scenery of Finland. But if, even in 
 the cheerful spring season, there are suggestions of lone- 
 liness and sadness in the aspect of their native land,
 
 A WATERY LABYRINTH. 283 
 
 this only endears it the more to the hearts of its loyal 
 children. 
 
 Chief, however, among the natural features of Finland 
 are its lakes. Indeed, no country in the Old World is 
 so abundantly, so superfluously supplied with fresh-water 
 reservoirs. Any one who glances at a map of the 
 Grand Duchy cannot help being struck by the bewilder- 
 ing distribution of earth and water, the lace-like pattern 
 of the multitudinous peninsulas, isthmuses, and islands 
 that represent the solid land, and the fantastic filigree 
 work of lakes, rivers, and fens covering thousands of 
 square miles of surface. This part of Finland looks 
 more like a great lake that has got entangled, as in a 
 net, among an infinite number of fine threads of land, 
 than an ordinary piece of terra firma. If it is puzzling 
 on the map, what must it be in actual travelling experi- 
 ence ! How is one to make a cross-country march over 
 this " crude consistence " of moist and dry, unless he is 
 provided with the travelling apparatus of Milton's fiend, 
 who , _ , , , , 
 
 O er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
 With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way, 
 And swims or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies " ? 
 
 Fortunately the dwellers in those parts have long ago 
 discovered the shortest and easiest cuts through this 
 labyrinth of lake and land ; and in former times these 
 morasses and islands protected Finland's independence, 
 as the fens of Ely preserved the last liberties of the 
 Saxons. Strong places were established at the fords, 
 at the narrows between lake and lake, and on islands 
 that had easy communication between either shore. 
 Roads have been constructed, and causeways and bridges 
 built, so that with water on either side of him for a
 
 284 TEE ROUTE TO ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 great part of the route, the traveller can traverse the 
 country from north to south or from east to west with 
 little interruption. 
 
 Apart, however, from the railway line that now crosses 
 Finland, almost the only route familiar to tourists is 
 that which follows the coast, past the chief towns of 
 historical and commercial note — Nystadt; Abo, the old 
 capital ; Helsingfors, the new seat of administration and 
 learning, defended by the strong fortress of Sveaborg. 
 bombarded by the Allies in 1855; Lovisa ; Fredrik- 
 shamm ; and Yiborg — to St. Petersburg. On this 
 journey we cross the Saima Canal, which connects the 
 lake of that name with the Gulf of Finland, while the 
 river Saima unites the lake with the greater reservoir of 
 Lake Ladoga. 
 
 Lake Saima presents all the features of the Finland 
 meres on an exaggerated scale. Low islands are scat- 
 tered over every part of its surface ; long tongues 
 of land pierce it to the centre from every side ; still 
 longer and curiously intricate branches and channels 
 join it to other great ponds of exactly similar design — 
 Orevesi, Kuopio, Pielisjarvi, and others — and altogether 
 this Briareus of lakes might perhaps compete with any 
 other body of fresh water in length of coast-line. By 
 canal and river Lake Saima is connected with the two 
 " keys " of Finland — Viborg, by the salt waters of the 
 Gulf of Finland,, and Kexholm, on an island of Lake 
 Ladoga — of which Peter the Great possessed himself in 
 1710, when, having planted his feet firmly on the 
 isthmus of Ingria, and laid the foundations of the future 
 capital, he began his conquests on the Grand Duchy.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ST. PETERSBURG. 
 
 HE shores of Lake Ladoga are still, for the 
 most part, girt with swamp and forest. The 
 clearings are partial and widely scattered, 
 the population is sparse, and the woods are 
 dense and tall. Much commerce, it is true, passes through 
 the lake, and there are thriving communities of fisher- 
 men, lumbermen, pitch-distillers, and agriculturists. But 
 it is of vast extent — indeed, the largest collection of fresh 
 water in Europe ; and its fleets of barges, rafts, and 
 sailing craft make but a small figure in the wide vista 
 of waters enclosed in the dark frame of pine-forest. 
 
 The climate is rude and boreal, and the soil generally 
 sandy or marshy. There are few sites suitable for patri- 
 cian towers or the villa residences of rich city merchants. 
 It is a semi-arctic lake and a semi-arctic landscape, and 
 few would suspect that not many miles from these sombre 
 shores stands one of the richest, gayest, and most mag- 
 nificent of European capitals, the metropolis of the most 
 extensive of modern empires. 
 
 Yet little more than a century and a half ago the banks 
 of the Neva were as lonely and desolate as the most 
 sequestered nooks of Ladoga are to-day. The dismantled
 
 286 LAKE LADOGA AND THE NEVA. 
 
 little Swedish fort of Nienschantz stood on the north 
 bank of the Neva, where it discharges itself by several 
 mouths into the Gulf of Finland. A few wretched 
 fishers' cabins were scattered over the islands and along 
 the margin of the stream on the sites now occupied by 
 the palaces of St. Petersburg. At the outlet of the river 
 from Lake Ladoga was the fortified island of Noteburg, 
 or Orekhovo (the "Nut"), — "a hard nut to crack," Peter 
 wrote, — which had just been captured from the Swedes, 
 and re-named by the Czar, Schlusselburg — the "Key 
 Fortress." 
 
 All else was morass and forest. The situation had, 
 however, decided natural advantages, counterbalancing no 
 less obvious defects. The river which flows out of Lake 
 Ladoga, though insignificant in length — only some forty 
 miles — is one of the first in Europe in its great breadth 
 and volume and in the depth and limpidity of its cur- 
 rent. Nature itself had already partially formed water- 
 ways, which could, with some aid from art, connect the 
 Neva with Novgorod, with Moscow, with Archangel, and 
 with the interior of Finland. 
 
 Peter the Great, casting his eagle glance around his 
 dominions, his busy brain filled with the most far-reaching 
 schemes of ambition, and his mind fixed, especially, on the 
 design of making Russia a great commercial and maritime 
 power, with a leading voice in the councils of Europe, 
 marked and appreciated the commanding position offered 
 by the Neva. He determined, — and with him to will 
 and to execute were one, — that here he would build the 
 future seat of imperial government, the Northern Rome, 
 the " eye " by which Russia should look out upon Euro- 
 pean affairs, and the portal by which the riches, the
 
 THE FOUNDING OF ST. PETERSBURG. 287 
 
 arts, and the civilization of the West should enter into 
 the rude heart of Muscovy. The obstacles to his designs 
 were such as would have appalled a less powerful 
 intellect and less iron will. The soil had only lately 
 been conquered by Russia from the Swedes ; the two 
 powerful northern nations were still grappling fiercely 
 for its possession. The site was low, marshy, and un- 
 healthy, and subject to periodic inundation. The climate 
 was of Arctic rigour, and the country around desolated 
 by war and incapable of productive cultivation. Rus- 
 sian prejudices and national feelings were passionately 
 opposed to the removal of the Czar from his old capital ; 
 and the nations of Europe were jealous of this strange 
 half-wild figure from the East that suddenly appeared 
 in their midst and claimed to be of their company. 
 Peter's savage impetuosity overcame all obstacles. 
 
 In May 1703, the first stakes were driven of a 
 bastion which was constructed on an island of the Neva, 
 afterwards called Petersburg, opposite the site where the 
 imperial palace now stands. Here the beginnings were 
 formed of the present citadel, and a small wooden church 
 dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul arose. A portion of 
 the army was first employed in the labour of founding 
 the capital ; but afterwards no fewer than forty thou- 
 sand Finnish and Russian peasants were drafted into 
 the work of draining, pile-driving, digging, and building. 
 Streets of wooden houses began to line the river, and 
 broad avenues were cut extending back into the marsh 
 and forest ; for the new city was not to be after the old, 
 filthy, confined, and irregular type, but to be the model 
 of symmetry as well as the crown of grandeur for the 
 rest of the empire.
 
 288 EARLY STRUGGLES. 
 
 Little by little trade and population came and took 
 root. Foreign vessels arrived at the new port formed 
 at Cronstadt, and at the wharves on the Neva, the first 
 arrival curiously enough being a Dutch ship freighted by 
 Peter's old friend Cornelius Kalf of Zaandam, where the 
 Czar had worked as a journeyman carpenter. Extraor- 
 dinary inducements were held out to the nobles, mer- 
 chants, and artisans to settle at St. Petersburg. Where 
 these failed, recourse was had to compulsory measures. 
 Every vessel arriving at the port, whether barge from 
 the northern lakes, or merchant ship from the high seas, 
 was bound to bring a certain quantity of stones, brick, 
 or gravel to strengthen the unstable foundations of the 
 city, to form streets, and to build new edifices of granite. 
 Nay, to draw masons thither, a ukase was issued forbid- 
 ding the erection of buildings of stone in any other town 
 of the empire. The first rude draft, as it were, of the 
 Czar's ambitious plan — the unpaved miry streets, lined 
 by squalid shanties, and the churches, palaces, and for- 
 tresses of wood — began to be transformed into a stately 
 structure of more durable material. 
 
 During the early period of its history a perfect tem- 
 pest of war beat around the young community. Peter 
 was assailed by the united military strength of Sweden 
 and Poland, led by the great captain of his time, 
 Charles XII., and was frequently, nay, almost constantly, 
 worsted. The whole of his resources were needed to 
 withstand the ungovernable rage of the Swede ; and 
 there was rebellion, open or smouldering, throughout his 
 own dominions. But he never relaxed from his purpose 
 to found a great port and capital on the Neva. At 
 every breathing-space in the struggle he returned to the
 
 PETER'S LABOURS. 289 
 
 prosecution of his inflexible design ; and when at last his 
 arch-enemy was overthrown, and the tide of battle 
 rolled northwards into Finland, he was able to devote 
 himself with renewed energy to the task. Fires wasted 
 the budding capital. When a strong easterly wind blew, 
 driving the waters of Ladoga into the channel of the Neva, 
 the river rose, inundating and devastating the newly- 
 formed streets. Owing to the low and marshy situation, 
 epidemics were frequent and fatal. The variations of 
 temperature were so rapid and excessive that the Russian 
 courtiers, inured to extremes of cold and heat as they 
 were, grumbled at being compelled to live in a city more 
 hyperborean in latitude and climate even than Stockholm. 
 Peter was inexorable to the obstacles of nature and 
 to the complaints of his subjects. He did not spare 
 others, but he spared himself least of all. When the 
 work of founding the city began, he built for himself 
 a small cottage of wood, which may still be seen by 
 the curious, on the river bank over against the splendid 
 Winter Palace. Here, says Rambaucl, Peter installed 
 himself, and superintended the growth of the infant 
 capital, " sometimes piloting with his own hands the 
 first Dutch ships that ventured into these waters, 
 sometimes giving chase to the Swedish vessels which 
 came to insult him. He decorated the church of the 
 fortress with carvings of ivory, the work of his own 
 hands, hung it with flags conquered from the Swedes, 
 and consecrated there his little boat, ' ancestor of the 
 Russian fleet ;' and, breaking through the tradition that 
 insisted on the princes being buried in St. Michael at 
 Moscow, chose out in St. Peter and St. Paul his own 
 tomb and that of his successors." 
 
 (713) 19
 
 290 CRONSTADT. 
 
 There was a singular appropriateness in the manner 
 of Peter's death, from the effects of a chill caught by 
 flinsnncc himself into the ice-cold waters of the Neva to 
 save a boat in distress. When the great Czar was gone, 
 it seemed at first doubtful whether his successors would 
 carry out his wishes with regard to St. Petersburg, and 
 its fate long hung trembling in the balance. But Cath- 
 erine II., a princess scarcely inferior to Peter in ambi- 
 tion and strength of character, thoroughly understood 
 and sympathized with his great plans ; and since her 
 time the growth of the capital in population, riches, and 
 magnificence has been almost unchecked. 
 
 Let us now approach St. Petersburg, not from the side 
 of Ladoga and the frozen wastes of the north, but from 
 the side of the Baltic, and examine what manner of city 
 this is that, in the space of a hundred and eighty years, 
 has arisen out of a desolate marsh to be the worthy 
 capital of a great military empire. First, there heave in 
 .sight the frowning bastions, the forest of masts, and the 
 painted spires of Cronstadt, the port and defence of St. 
 Petersburg — the eyelid, it might be called, that guards 
 the " eye " of Russia from harm. The sights and sounds 
 of Cronstadt are all suggestive of military, naval, and 
 commercial life. A very large proportion of the forty 
 thousand inhabitants consists of the garrison. In the 
 busy "open" season, between May and November, the 
 docks are crowded with shipping, the quays encumbered 
 with merchandise, and the throngs of people in the 
 streets are cosmopolitan rather than specially Russian. 
 
 A brief sail brings us to the mouths of the Neva and 
 the first houses of the capital. As has already been 
 indicated, the Neva, about the centre of St. Petersburg,
 
 THE CAPITAL OF RUSSIA. 291 
 
 breaks up into several channels. The first of these to 
 leave the main stream is the Nevka, which branches 
 off on the right, and itself splits up into the Great and 
 the Little Nevka. The main body of the river also 
 separates itself lower down into the Great and Little 
 Neva, and between these principal streams there are 
 subsidiary channels, forming a series of islands, great 
 and small. Chief among these islands are St. Peters- 
 burg, where the city had its first beginnings, surrounded 
 by the waters of the Neva and the Great and Little 
 Nevka, and Vassili Ostrog, between the Great and Little 
 Neva. 
 
 On these islands, and on the north bank of the 
 stream, the older buildings of St. Petersburg arose ; but 
 for a long period the mass of the population has shifted 
 with the court to the southern bank. Here there are 
 further subdivisions of water, by means of four lines of 
 canals, so that altogether, within the city boundaries, we 
 find some fourteen water-courses, a lake, eight canals, 
 and nineteen islands. Like Venice or Amsterdam, there- 
 fore, St. Petersburg is an amphibious city; only, her walls 
 are washed by the fresh rushing waters of the majestic 
 Neva, instead of by the salt sea. The Neva is the pride 
 of the Russian capital and the greatest of all its sights. 
 It is no dead, muddy, evil-smelling ditch, like the 
 Thames at London or the Seine at Paris, but a broad, 
 clear, and powerful stream that looks worthy of its 
 mission as the highway of commerce and the seat of 
 empire. Its breadth opposite the Winter Palace, where 
 it is crossed by a bridge of boats, is about three quarters 
 of a mile, while its depth in its lower channels is fifty 
 feet.
 
 292 A CITY OF PALACES. 
 
 St. Petersburg may claim, equally with the " Queen 
 of the Adriatic," with which it has so often been com- 
 pared and contrasted, the title of the City of Palaces. 
 No other capital has so many royal and princely resi- 
 dences. In none have the situation, the grouping, and 
 architectural features of the buildings been so studiously 
 arranged, so as to produce an imposing and magnif- 
 icent scenic effect. As the Neva is the glory of St. 
 Petersburg, so the city turns all its beauties towards the 
 river, and views them reflected in its waters. Every 
 bend of the stream reveals a coup d'ceil which it seems 
 impossible to rival, until a little farther on a new vista 
 is opened up of lofty palace fronts, adorned by Doric, 
 Ionic, and Corinthian columns surmounted by massive 
 friezes, entablatures, and sculptured groups ; temples of 
 Byzantine, Grecian, or Gothic design, overtopped by 
 swelling cupolas in green and gold, stiletto-like spires, 
 or vast square towers ; endless ranges of public and 
 private buildings, monuments, warehouses, and docks, 
 with quays thronged with passengers and vehicles ; 
 spacious and splendid streets, stretching away in far 
 perspective for two or three miles ; gardens and boule- 
 vards, relieving with their fresh green foliage the uni- 
 formity of lines and colour in the masses of stone- work : 
 and broad canals and channels branching off to the right 
 and left. And in the midst of all, giving an air of space, 
 freedom, and dignity to the whole scene, flows the wide 
 stream of the Neva, thronged by craft of all kinds and 
 sizes, from the tiny gondola to the man-of-war, and from 
 the rude barge, laden with timber, grain, or flax from 
 the Volga, to the largest class of sea-going merchant 
 ships.
 
 BRIDGES AND QUAYS. 293 
 
 Ascending the channel of the Great Neva, we have 
 on the left the stately fronts of the School of Mines, the 
 School of Marine Cadets, the Academy of Arts, the Obser- 
 vatory, and the Academy of Sciences, lining the river wall 
 of Vassili Ostrog (Basil's Island) ; while on the right, or 
 southern side, are docks and admiralty yards, succeeded 
 by the handsome range of churches, hotels, places of 
 business, and residences of merchant princes known as 
 the English Quay. Nearly opposite to the Grecian 
 portico of the Imperial Academy of Arts, and about the 
 middle of the English Quay, is the celebrated Nicolas 
 Bridge, where the only permanent roadway over the 
 Great Neva is carried across the river on eight colossal 
 iron arches resting on piers of granite. The architect 
 of this work, Stanislas Herbedze, had to contend not 
 only with a stream of great width, depth, and strength 
 of current, but with a shifting bottom and marshy soil, 
 and to guard against dangers from floods and ice. Its 
 successful completion, after fifteen years' labour, is one of 
 the triumphs of engineering. Higher up are the Palace, 
 the Troitski, and. Liteinoi floating bridges. The second 
 of these, extending from opposite the military parade- 
 ground of the " Czar's Meadow " across the broadest part 
 of the Neva to the fortress on the island of St. Peters- 
 burg, is three-quarters of a mile in length. 
 
 It is between the Nicolas and Troitski Bridges, and 
 particularly at the point where the river separates itself 
 into the channels of the Great and Little Neva, that 
 the principal buildings of the capital are grouped, and 
 the finest pictorial and architectural effects are found. 
 Isaac's Place is the " Place of St. Mark " of St. Peters- 
 burg — the centre of interest, the starting-point from
 
 294 COLOSSAL STATUE OF PETER. 
 
 which the sightseer naturally begins his exploration of 
 the city marvels, and probably the goal to which he 
 returns at the close of his clay's labours. The spacious 
 open square looks out upon the Neva with a frontage of 
 some three hundred yards, and its farther end is closed 
 by that stupendous mass of marble and bronze, the 
 Cathedral of St. Isaac. On the margin of the river, half- 
 way between the Senate House, which ends the line of 
 the English Quay, and the Admiralty, is the celebrated 
 equestrian statue of Peter the Great. 
 
 This most famous of the monuments of St. Petersburg- 
 was executed by the orders of Catherine II., and was the 
 work of a French sculptor, Falconet. Peter, astride a 
 mighty charger, is represented as reining his steed back 
 upon its haunches on the brink of a precipice, while he 
 stretches his sceptre over the river, and seems to survey 
 with proud triumph the wonderful growth of the city of 
 which he is the " posthumous creator," while underneath 
 the horse's feet writhes a serpent, emblematic of the diffi- 
 culties that were encountered and overcome in founding a 
 capital on a quaking bog. The statue is of bronze, and of 
 colossal size, the horse being seventeen feet in height and 
 the rider eleven feet. It stands upon a pedestal formed 
 of a block of granite weighing fifteen hundred tons, and 
 transported with infinite labour from the neighbouring 
 plains of Finland. An error of taste has been committed 
 in smoothing and planing away the natural angles of 
 the rock, and shaping the rough boulder into a conven- 
 tional form altogether inappropriate to the symbolic 
 meaning of the monument and to the rude herculean task 
 that it commemorates ; but the attitude and expression 
 of the great Czar, the spirited action of the charger, and
 
 THE ADMIRALTY. 295 
 
 the general idea and effect of the whole group, are worthy 
 of the subject and of the site. 
 
 After all, Isaac's Place is only a slice of a much larger 
 open space in the heart of the city — the Admiralty 
 Square. In the centre of this grand square is the 
 Admiralty building itself, one of the largest and most 
 notable edifices in the Russian capital. The front of the 
 Admiralty, facing the south, is a third of a mile in length, 
 and the two wings, stretching to the margin of the Neva, 
 are each six hundred and fifty feet. Enclosed between 
 these wings, and extending along the river bank, are 
 the Government dockyards, where vessels of the Russian 
 navy are constructed, with slips, wharves, moulding and 
 engine sheds, anchor and cordage stores, blacksmiths', 
 carpenters', and joiners' sheds, and all the other necessary 
 apparatus for an establishment of the kind ; while the 
 vast building itself contains the offices of the naval 
 department of the Government, with a museum in which 
 are conserved the many objects of interest connected with 
 the maritime history of the empire. Formerly the Ad- 
 miralty was enclosed by a moat and ramparts, but the 
 place of these is now occupied by a shady line of 
 boulevards. The chief entrance in the south front is 
 through a grand archway, on either side of which are 
 gigantic representations of the terrestrial and celestial 
 globes, and overhead frescoes emblematic of Russia's 
 naval power. Above rises a square tower, supported by 
 columns ; and surmounting this are the lantern, and the 
 tall, slender, richly-gilt spire which forms one of the 
 most prominent features in a general view of St. Peters- 
 burg, from whatever side it is surveyed. 
 
 Opposite the Admiralty is a crescent of lofty build-
 
 296 THE MACHINE OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 ings of uniform architecture, and pierced in the centre 
 by a colossal archway, — the Foreign Office of Russia ; 
 while separated from it by an open space corresponding 
 to Isaac's Place, and standing on the quay of the Neva, 
 is the Winter Palace, the official town residence of the 
 emperors. 
 
 In the buildings grouped around and within this 
 square — in the Winter Palace, the Senate, the Foreign 
 Office, the War Office, the Synod, and the Admiralty — 
 are concentrated almost the whole of the vast and com- 
 plicated machinery by which the executive government 
 of Russia is carried on. The mainspring of the whole is 
 within the palace itself, centred in the person of the Auto- 
 crat, the sole source of initiative action in legislative, judi- 
 cial, and administrative affairs, as w T ell as of honours and 
 dignities. The vehicle of the Emperor's will is his 
 " Private Cabinet," the various sections of which direct 
 the executive government and the making and promulga- 
 tion of the law, the control of the army and police, and 
 the conduct of educational and ecclesiastical affairs. The 
 actual functions of government are intrusted to four 
 great Boards — the Council of the Empire, with its three 
 great departments having the superintendence of legisla- 
 tion, civil administration, and finance respectively ; the 
 Directing Senate — or PraivitelstiL'vjusehtscJu Senat, if any 
 one cares to have its official title — whose committees sit 
 both at St. Petersburg and at Moscow, and whose duties 
 arc partly executive and partly deliberative, while it is 
 a court of last resort in certain judicial cases ; the Holy 
 Synod, composed of the dignitaries of the Church, and 
 having control of the religious affairs of the empire ; and, 
 lastly, the Council of Ministers, divided into eleven
 
 BUREAUCRACY IN DISREPAIR. 297 
 
 departments— to wit, the Imperial Household, Foreign 
 Affairs, War, Navy, Interior, Public Instruction, Finance, 
 Justice, Imperial Domains, Public Works, and General 
 Control. 
 
 Subordinate to this central authority are the various 
 local governments of the fourteen viceroyalties, fifty- 
 one governments, and three hundred and twenty dis- 
 tricts into which the empire is subdivided, each elabo- 
 rately organized, and many of them regulated by special 
 laws and constitutions. It would occupy a large volume 
 to describe adequately in detail the functions and rela- 
 tions of this enormous and intricate machine, which, in 
 theory at least, unites the vast resources and strength of 
 Russia, her army of three millions of men, her power- 
 ful navy, the still more influential moral force of the 
 Church, and the whole organization of civil life from the 
 highest officer of state to the humblest member of the 
 village " mir," and places them in the hands of one man, 
 for the expression of his will over ninety millions 
 of people. It is the less necessary to enter into 
 the subject, as bureaucracy has probably seen its best 
 days in Russia. The apparatus — as was only to be 
 looked for — in spite of theoretic perfection, is rusty in 
 part, in others defective, and in not a few respects an 
 instrument of oppression. It is constantly being altered 
 in details ; and probably will soon have to be altered in 
 essentials, if the dangers threatened from a people who 
 have had so much of officialism that they are growing- 
 sick of order itself are to be avoided. 
 
 A voluminous work also might be written — many 
 books, indeed, have been written — on the court ceremonies 
 and etiquette and the manner of life within the charmed
 
 298 THE WINTER PALACE. 
 
 circle of fashion of which the imperial family is the 
 centre, and which, like the Government, are systematized 
 and regulated in the minutest details. It will be more 
 profitable and interesting perhaps to say something 
 instead of the Winter Palace itself. The site of the 
 official residence of the emperors was originally occupied 
 by a house belonging to Count Apraxin, Peter's high 
 admiral, who first taught the Russians to conquer at sea. 
 The Empress Anne first took up her town residence here ; 
 and in 1 702 it was rebuilt, under the direction of the 
 Empress Catherine, after a design by Count Rastrelli. In 
 1837 it was burned to the ground ; but two years later 
 it had risen in its present magnificent form. 
 
 The structure, which is rich and ornate, even to 
 heaviness, in its style of architecture, is four stories in 
 height, and stands proudly apart from the other build- 
 ings on the Great Quay of the Neva, from whence a grand 
 flight of marble steps leads up to the principal entrance. 
 The frontage to the river is four hundred and fifty-five 
 feet, and that facing the Admiralty three hundred and 
 fifty feet. Who shall describe with appropriate elabora- 
 tion the glories of the clusters of Ionic and Corinthian 
 columns and pilasters, the richly-carved capitals and 
 entablatures, the ornamented architraves, flowers, fes- 
 toons, and arabesques, the corniced and pedimented 
 windows, and balustraded roof surmounted by vases 
 and statues ? Whatever fault may be found with the 
 style — and public buildings of St. Petersburg, like those 
 of some other capitals, are by no means free of the re- 
 proach of meretriciousness — there can be no question of 
 the imposing general effect, and the situation of the 
 building is one of the finest in Europe. The interior
 
 IMPERIAL UPHOLSTERY. 299 
 
 of the palace is furnished and embellished in the most 
 sumptuous style. The whole resources of the art of the 
 carver, decorator, and upholsterer have been expended 
 on it ; and the higher branches of art, painting and 
 sculpture, are worthily represented. 
 
 The visitor is led through a maze of banqueting-halls, 
 drawing-rooms, audience-chambers, corridors, and galleries, 
 and up and down magnificent flights of stairs, until he 
 gets bewildered by the blaze of gilt and bronze, the 
 columns of marble and porphyry, the gorgeous draperies, 
 carpets, and mosaics, the huge mirrors and candelabra, 
 the richly-carved cornices and painted ceilings, and the 
 thousand and one rare and precious works of art that 
 have here been gathered together. In the lower story 
 alone there are nearty a hundred principal rooms, and 
 the area of the different apartments is not less than four 
 hundred thousand square feet. The most famous among 
 the rooms in the Winter Palace are the great banqueting - 
 hall, which measures one hundred and eighty-nine feet in 
 length by one hundred and ten in breadth ; the hall of 
 St. George, a still more magnificently decorated apart- 
 ment, in which the chapter of the military order named 
 after the popular saint of Russia is held ; the white 
 hall ; the throne-room ; the gallery of field-marshals ; 
 and the portrait-gallery ; and the curious may see the 
 crown jewels of Russia, and many other objects of artistic 
 and historical interest. 
 
 Most people, however, will choose to devote more time 
 to the splendid collection of paintings — one of the 
 most extensive and precious in the world — in the ad- 
 joining picture-galleries, museums, and libraries of the 
 Hermitage Palaces, than to an exploration of the wonders
 
 300 THE HERMITAGE COLLECTION. 
 
 of the Imperial Palace. Here, by the care and public 
 spirit of successive emperors, have been gathered examples 
 of all the great schools of painting, including a large rep- 
 resentation of the great names in English art. The Great 
 and Little Hermitage and the Hermitage Theatre are con- 
 nected with each other and with the Winter Palace by 
 covered galleries, and, like the imperial residence, are ranged 
 along the Grand Quay of the Neva, to which they present a 
 frontage of nearly eight hundred feet. If we add to this 
 the Winter Palace itself, we have a continuous range of 
 imperial palaces more than a third of an English mile in 
 length, impressive in their vast size and stately proportions, 
 enriched within and without with all that wealth could 
 supply or taste suggest to please the fancy of generations of 
 autocratic sovereigns, and bursting with all kinds of superb 
 ornaments and costly furniture, and with still more price- 
 less treasures of art, science, and literature — chefs d'eeuvre 
 of Eaphael, Titian, and Correggio, of Greuse, Poussin, and 
 Claude, of Rembrandt, Cuyp, and Paul Potter; statues 
 in marble and bronze by the great sculptors of ancient 
 and modern times ; collections of engravings, jewellery, 
 cameos, and antiquities of every kind, and a library con- 
 taining many thousands of rare works on archeology, 
 and manuscripts reaching back to the earliest beginning 
 of Russian literature and history. The principal literary 
 treasures of the Russian capital have, however, been 
 removed to the Imperial Public Library, on the Nevski 
 Prospect, where has been brought together one of the 
 richest and most extensive collections of books in the 
 world, embracing nearly a million of printed volumes. 
 
 The line of palaces on or near the Neva does not end 
 with the Hermitage ; for beyond it is the Marble Palace,
 
 PALACES AND MONASTERIES. 301 
 
 originally a present from the Empress Catherine to her 
 favourite, Prince Orloff, and then behind the extensive 
 lawns and shrubberies of the Summer Gardens are the 
 Summer Palace, once occupied by Peter the Great ; the 
 quaint structure named the Castle of St. Michael, built 
 by the Emperor Paul, and where he met with his tragic 
 death ; and the magnificent modern Michael Palace, close 
 to the walls of which the late Emperor fell, shattered by 
 a Nihilist bomb, as he was about to enter his carriage. 
 
 3 o 
 
 Higher up the river we find the Taurida Palace, sur- 
 rounded by extensive grounds, the gift of Catherine 
 to another of her numerous favourites, the celebrated 
 Marshal Potemkin, and now reserved for dowagers of 
 
 3 O 
 
 the imperial family, while members of the reigning 
 house have their residences scattered through other 
 parts of the city. 
 
 On this southern side of the Neva also are two far- 
 famed monastic piles that are palatial in their extent and 
 splendour — the Smolnoi Church and Convent, with the 
 attached institutions for the education of ladies of noble 
 birth and of the daughters of simple citizens, and the 
 Monastery of St. Alexander Nevski. The Smolnoi 
 Church is of white marble, and surmounting it are five 
 domes of blue, blazing with golden stars. The Nevski 
 Monastery ranks next after those at Kiev and at Troitsa 
 near Moscow, in precedence, sanctity, and importance, and, 
 like the other two mentioned, is the seat of a metropoli- 
 tan. Here, in their shrine of solid silver, rest the bones 
 of the canonized Grand Duke Alexander, the conqueror 
 of the Tchuds on Lake Peipus, and of the Swedes on the 
 Neva, who had afterwards to bend his neck under the 
 foot of the Tartar Khans.
 
 302 ST. ALEXANDER NEVSKI. 
 
 Alexander Nevski is a saint in high repute on the 
 hanks of the Neva, where a political as well as a re- 
 ligious purpose is fulfilled by keeping up the memory 
 of his exploits ; and many are the rich gifts that have 
 been brought hither to enrich his shrine and the church 
 that contains it by successive emperors, princes, priests, 
 envoys, and courtiers. Within the precincts of St. 
 Alexander Nevski some of the greatest and noblest of 
 Russia's sons are buried : it is the Westminster Abbey, 
 the Pere-la-Chaise of St. Petersburg. In a small side 
 chapel in the Church of the Annunciation are the tombs 
 of the Naryshkin family, the kin of Peter the First, and 
 near by are the monuments of the celebrated generals 
 Suvaroff, Rumiantsof, and Miloradovitch. In the adjoin- 
 ing cemetery a white marble column rises to the memory 
 of Lomonosof, the father of Russian poetry — a sign of 
 the uprising of a new literature, and that a higher and 
 grander fame than can be won in war is receiving the 
 recognition of the nation. 
 
 The most notable of the ecclesiastical edifices of St. 
 Petersburg:, however, is the new Church of St. Isaac the 
 Dalmatian in Isaac Place. Surrounded on every side 
 by colossal and splendid public buildings, this " moun- 
 tain of bronze and granite " seems, by its vast bulk 
 and height, to fill the greatest space in the eye while 
 taking a panoramic glance over the Russian capital. 
 There was a church on this spot in Peter's time, which 
 Catherine afterwards caused to be reconstructed of 
 marble ; but the present magnificent building, which 
 occupied nearly forty years in construction, owes its 
 existence to the munificence of the Emperors Alex- 
 ander I. and Nicolas. Like that of most Russian 

 
 CATHEDRAL OF ST. ISAAC. 303 
 
 churches, the ground plan forms a Greek cross. The 
 length is three hundred and forty feet, and the breadth 
 three hundred feet. The architect, M. Montferrand, has 
 sought to attain his effects by the grand simplicity of 
 the lines combined with the stupendous magnitude of 
 the scale and the richness of the materials of the build- 
 ing. The great central dome surmounts four grand 
 porticos, forming the entrances to the church. Access to 
 these is obtained by four broad flights of steps, each 
 step composed of a single block of granite. The two 
 principal porticos are supported by sixteen polished 
 granite columns of the Corinthian order, each hewn 
 from the solid rock, while the side porticos have eight 
 columns each. These gigantic monolithic pillars are 
 sixty feet in height and seven feet in diameter ; and 
 they are set on bronze pedestals, and crowned by mas- 
 sive capitals of bronze and friezes of fire-polished stone. 
 High above this rises the great central cupola, a vast 
 burnished dome of copper, resting on a peristyle of 
 thirty columns ; and above it, " like a chapel on a hill- 
 top," the rotunda, bearing aloft, at a height of three 
 hundred and seventeen feet. from the ground, the golden 
 cross that is one of the great " landmarks " of the 
 stranger in the city. Two smaller domes, similar in 
 design to the main cupola, surmount each of the two 
 principal porticos. 
 
 All the resources that the Russian genius and re- 
 ligious feeling can employ have been lavished on the 
 interior of this great fane of the Orthodox faith ; but 
 with so much yet to describe, we must not linger over 
 marble pavements and richly - gilded roofs, the paint- 
 ings and carvings, the precious shrines, screens, and
 
 304 ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL. 
 
 altar furniture, and the pillars of malachite, lapis-lazuli, 
 and porphyry, that may be seen by the curious or the 
 devout in St. Isaac's. Before leaving its neighbourhood, 
 however, mention may be made of a work by the same 
 architect that stands not far off, in the Admiralty Square. 
 This is the Alexander Column, a single shaft of red 
 Finland granite, eighty-four feet in height and fourteen 
 feet in diameter, and the largest monolithic monument 
 of modern times. The base consists of another huge 
 block of granite twenty -five feet in height ; while the 
 capital, which is surmounted by a winged figure of 
 Hope, consists of bronze smelted down from Turkish 
 cannons captured by the generals of Alexander I., in 
 whose honour the column has been erected. 
 
 Beyond the Neva, and opposite to the Hermitage 
 Palace, is a church of more venerable and interesting 
 associations than have yet gathered round St. Isaac's — 
 the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul. Its slender, 
 needle-like spire alone, shooting up into the air to the 
 height of three hundred and eighty-seven feet, will not 
 allow the visitor to St. Petersburg to pass it by un- 
 noticed. It is the highest pinnacle in the capital, and 
 almost in Russia, surpassing considerably in altitude 
 the spire of the Admiralty and the cross of St. Isaac's, 
 the two city landmarks that dispute with it for pre-emi- 
 nence. Beneath this conspicuous monument, that, seen 
 above the sea of buildings, looks more like " the mast 
 of some great admiral " than a structure of stone, 
 rests the dust of the great founder of the city, and 
 grouped around, as he had decreed, are the tombs of 
 his successors on the throne of Russia. The walls of 
 the church are covered with trophies won in wars 

 
 A FIT RESTING-PLACE. 305 
 
 against Prussian and Austrian, Frenchman, Swede, and 
 Turk, each marking a step in an astounding career of 
 conquest and aggrandizement. The building itself is 
 encircled by the strong walls and bastions of the for- 
 tress of St. Petersburg, where the first germ of the 
 capital was planted. In the rear, a few hundred yards 
 off, the small wooden cottage where Peter laboured 
 and thought still stands entire. Opposite, beyond the 
 broad Neva, and athwart its ascending and descending 
 streams of trading and pleasure craft, is seen the stately 
 line of palaces where his descendants, the heirs of one 
 of the most extensive empires known in history, live 
 surrounded by treasures of art and taste undreamed 
 of in the Russia of a century and a half ago. On 
 Vassili Island, beyond another wide reach of water on 
 the right, at the parting of the Great and Little Neva, 
 is the wide and open space on which stand the Exchange, 
 where crowds of merchants do daily congregate, the 
 busy docks, Custom House, and old and new bazaars, 
 the Academy of Sciences, and the long line of the 
 University front ; while on the left, across the Great 
 Nevka, and on the north bank of the main river, are 
 the arsenals, graving-docks, shipbuilding yards, manu- 
 factories, and workmen's quarters, and all the signs of 
 the industrial activity and naval power of Russia. 
 Truly, so far at least as the choice of the great Czar's 
 last resting-place is concerned, — 
 
 " After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well." 
 
 It was in this fortress, now used as a state prison, 
 that the Czarevitch Alexis, the only son of Peter that 
 reached man's estate, died under the knout, as the 
 
 (718) 20
 
 30G FAMILY TRAGEDIES OF THE ROMANOFFS. 
 
 punishment of his insubordinate opposition to his 
 father's reforms. There are few of the imperial resi- 
 dences that do not contain some such ugly skeleton in 
 the closet as a witness of the terrible penalties that 
 wait upon greatness. Peter's granddaughter, the Prin- 
 cess Tarakanof, was drowned in one of the dungeons 
 of the fortress by the overflowing of the Neva. His 
 grandson, Peter III., was done to death at Rapcha, near 
 Peterhof, " a secluded spot, but very pleasant," to make 
 a way to the throne for his ambitious wife, the Em- 
 press Catherine II. Ivan VI. died under the hands of 
 assassins, after having been bereft of reason by his long 
 confinement in the fortress of Schlusselburg, from the 
 cradle to the age of twenty-one. Catherine's son, the 
 Emperor Paul, great-grandfather of the present Czar, 
 was murdered under circumstances of peculiar atrocity 
 in the sumptuous new palace he had reared for himself, 
 while his eldest son, afterwards Alexander I., lay trem- 
 bling and listening to the progress of the bloody work 
 in the room above. 
 
 The stately courts and halls of the Winter Palace 
 itself have seen their share of tragic incidents. From 
 the front of it the Emperor Nicolas harangued the rebel 
 soldiers of the Guards, in the " December Insurrection " 
 that marked his accession to the throne. The conspirators 
 who raised the standard of revolt in the name of the Czar's 
 elder brother Constantine, who had renounced the succes- 
 sion for the love of the Polish lady whom he married, shot 
 down the governor of the capital, Miloradovitch, " the hero 
 of fifty-two battles," in the Place du Senat, massacred 
 some of their officers, and fired on the metropolitan, and 
 were only scattered by repeated rounds of ball-cartridge.
 
 AMUSEMENTS OF THE CAPITAL. 307 
 
 Perhaps the most startling event, however, in the history 
 of the Winter Palace is the recent diabolical attempt to 
 blow up the imperial family with dynamite stored under 
 the state dining-room. Little more than a year after — 
 on the 13th March 1881 — another and successful 
 attempt on the life of the head of the Russian state 
 closed for the present the long list of tragedies in the 
 Romanoff family, — the scene of Alexander the Second's 
 murder, however, being, as has been said, not the Win- 
 ter Palace, but the public roadway skirting the Catherine 
 Canal, near the Michael Palace. 
 
 Much might be said of the street sights and 
 sounds and the domestic life of the Russian capital. 
 Whole chapters might be written on the picturesque 
 variety and startling contrasts in the types of manners, 
 from the ultra-French polish and profuse display in the 
 upper circles, to the extreme poverty and primitive 
 simplicity of the lower ranks of citizens and the peas- 
 antry ; of the trade, manufactures, and employments of 
 the capital ; of its official, scientific, literary, and artistic 
 coteries ; of the musical and theatrical representations 
 that fill so large a space in the thoughts of St. Peters- 
 burg society ; of the popular amusements and recrea- 
 tions — the winter sports on the Neva, the montagnes 
 russes that do duty for the ice -hills in the milder 
 seasons of the year, and the rude humours of the 
 carnival ; of the busy scenes to be witnessed in the 
 markets ; of droskies and diligences, with their bcfurred 
 and shaggy-bearded drivers ; of sledges and gondolas ; 
 of floating fairs and ice-festivals ; and of the excessive 
 solicitude with which a paternal government watches 
 over all the pleasures and occupations of its children,
 
 308 BAZAARS AND MARKETS. 
 
 carrying espionage and supervision to lengths which, 
 according to English notions at least, are intolerable. 
 
 For one desirous of studying Russian character and 
 habits, no more profitable way of spending the time 
 could be chosen than in visiting the numerous bazaars 
 and markets in the city. In the Siennaia, or hay- 
 market, he will find not hay alone, or chiefly, but poul- 
 try, flesh, and fish — frozen, dried, salted, and fresh ; and 
 all manner of vegetables, fruits, and other provisions are 
 exposed for sale among an eager and gesticulating but 
 good-humoured throng of buyers and sellers. It is, in 
 fact, a combination of Billingsgate and Covent Garden, 
 with features that are peculiarly Russian. The penalties 
 of visiting these places of public resort are not to be 
 measured only by the roubles and kopeks which the 
 unwary stranger is wheedled into expending on the 
 tempting wares exposed. Dr. Granville, an English 
 traveller, who has given a most minute account of St. 
 Petersburg as it was fifty years ago, describes a rag 
 fair, where the humours of low Russian life may be 
 studied, as a dense and unsavoury gathering of 
 " hawkers, old clothesmen, sellers of kvass, sbitine 
 (popular beverages), gingerbread, horse-flesh, and black 
 cabbage soup, thick and nasty, of which the poorer 
 people are fond," and richly deserving, from the crowd- 
 ing and pushing, its nickname of Tolkonchoi Rynoh — 
 the Shoving-market. In all its main features the pic- 
 ture is true to-day. 
 
 The Great Bazaar of St. Petersburg — the Gos- 
 tinnoi Dvor, or Strangers' Market — is in the Nevski 
 Prospect, at no great distance from the haymarket. 
 The huge building is celled like a honeycomb with
 
 THE NEVSKI PROSPECT. 309 
 
 shops, stalls, booths, and warerooms, in which goods of 
 the most diverse and miscellaneous kinds, from the 
 most rich and rare to the most coarse and common, are 
 exposed for sale ; and the streets, lanes, passages, and 
 staircases are thronged with a swarm of purchasers 
 more dense and more busy than bees in a hive. The 
 business of the Gostinnoi Dvor has overflowed and in- 
 vaded the neighbouring thoroughfares, which are lined 
 with shops and stores in which generally merchandise 
 of inferior descriptions are sold. 
 
 Of course no account of the Russian capital would 
 be complete without something being said of its great 
 promenade — the Nevski Prospect. Starting from the 
 centre of the city in the Admiralty Place, this spacious 
 street extends for a distance of some two miles, till it 
 nearly reaches the Neva again at the Monastery of St. 
 Alexander Nevski, thus cutting off from the rest of the 
 city the most fashionable quarter and the imperial resi- 
 dences, round which the river sweeps in a wide curve. 
 The Nevski Prospect is not throughout straight, being- 
 interrupted at about two-thirds of its length by the 
 Moscow Railway station ; but its spacious breadth, the 
 magnificent buildings that line it on either side, the 
 never-ending current of foot-passengers, equestrians, and 
 carriages that stream through this main artery of the 
 city, the roar of commerce, and the gay colouring of 
 fashion, justify the comparisons that have been made 
 between it and Regent Street in London and the Boule- 
 vards of Paris. At the same time, there is a pic- 
 turesqueness in the semi-Oriental buildings that here 
 and there break the line of more familiar architecture, 
 in the rich and motley costumes of the people, and the
 
 S10 ST. PETERSBURG IN WINTER. 
 
 strange shapes and caparisons of the flights of vehicles 
 that neither the French nor the British capital can 
 boast of. 
 
 Most striking, however, is the aspect of the Prospect 
 in winter, when the whole capital, in its white and 
 ghastly draperies, has an unreal and fantastic appear- 
 ance, more like the " sheeted spectre " of a city, such as 
 might haunt the solitudes of the Pole, with walls of 
 iceberg and streets of snow, and fretted ornaments of 
 frost and rime, rather than a busy metropolis with 
 warm currents of human life flowing through it. The 
 Neva is a bewildering spectacle at these times, with 
 skaters skimming and wheeling like flocks of swallows 
 over its white surface — groups gathered here and there 
 watching or taking part in the ice-sports, eating and 
 drinking, buying and selling — and innumerable sledges, 
 drawn by horses or pushed by the hand, speeding to 
 and fro, with only a thin frozen board between them 
 and the deep waters. But the aspect of the crowded 
 and fashionable Nevski Promenade, where beauty and 
 fashion are wont to sun themselves in their gaudiest 
 plumage, is perhaps even more weird and strange ; for 
 the ordinary sounds of traffic are hushed by the thick 
 carpet of snow, against which every object stands out 
 with silhouette-like sharpness — the familiar wheeled 
 vehicles have disappeared, and their place has been 
 taken by sledges, that flit past noiselessly, save for the 
 tinkling of the bells attached to the horses' necks and 
 the muffled monotone of the " runners " over the hard- 
 pressed snow. The owners of the sleighs lean back 
 amid the luxurious wrappages of fur and down that 
 bury them to the eyes ; while the drivers, also thickly
 
 "TOLERATION STREET." 311 
 
 padded against the cutting northern blast, lean eagerly 
 forward as they pilot their horses through the mazy 
 flights of sliding chariots, and the drifting clouds of 
 powdery or feathery flakes in which they finally dis- 
 appear. Even the foot-passengers, encased in their 
 heavy garments of fur, have an uncouth and gnome- 
 like air, that suits well the bizarre aspect of this singular 
 winter city 
 
 We have not mentioned any of the interesting build- 
 ings that line the Nevski Prospect, with the exception 
 of the Great Bazaar, but many of them are well 
 worthy of notice. Chief among these is the Church of 
 Our Lady of Kazan, with its dome and colonnade in 
 imitation of St. Peter's at Rome. Within it are the 
 miraculous image of the Virgin, brought hither from the 
 banks of the Volga, and, what to many perhaps will be 
 an object of greater interest, the tomb of Kutusoff, the 
 " Saviour of Russia " on the occasion of Buonaparte's 
 invasion. The Nevski has been dubbed " Toleration 
 Street," for here in friendly neighbourhood are found 
 churches of the Dissident Russian sects, of Roman 
 Catholics, Protestants, and Armenians, and even a Mo- 
 hammedan mosque. The Foundling Hospital, the Alex- 
 ander Theatre, an imperial palace, and part of the 
 facade of the Foreign Office are also among the architec- 
 tural ornaments of this great promenade. Other fine 
 streets radiate out like it from the Admiralty Square 
 and the quays to the extremity of the city, and in these 
 and the busy connecting thoroughfares the life and 
 traffic of St. Petersburg arc largely concentrated. 
 
 Taking the city as a whole, however, the streets seem 
 a " world too wide " for the population. Its growth,
 
 312 THE CITY'S FUTURE. 
 
 enormous as it has been, is not yet sufficient to fill out 
 the ambitions plan of the founder. It is a young giant 
 that has not reached its full stature and strength. 
 Rapidly, however, the great capital of the Russian Em- 
 pire is filling up the unbuilt-on spaces within its cincture, 
 and populous suburbs are forming around it. Already it 
 boasts itself to be the fifth, in point of population, of the 
 capitals of Europe ; and in art and science, in culture and 
 fashion, in trade and political influence, it struggles for a 
 foremost place among the most famous and formidable 
 of its rivals. Its history since first it secured a firm 
 foothold on the treacherous morass, in a wasted and 
 unfruitful region, under the cold skies of the north and 
 amid the clearing smoke of battle, has been a magnifi- 
 cent tribute to the bold and far-seeing sagacity of its 
 great Czar, who more than saint or apostle seems the 
 real presiding genius and patron of the city. 
 
 Yet clear-sighted observers are not wanting who hold 
 that St. Petersburg's sun is approaching its meridian, 
 and soon will move towards its setting. The capital of 
 the Czars is a thing extraneous to Russia. Its Italian 
 architecture and French fashions are the expressions of 
 tastes that have never truly become acclimatized ; its 
 very site is on foreign soil. It is the work of arbitrary 
 will, not the natural outgrowth of Slav energies. There 
 is a party of growing numbers and influence with whom 
 jealousy of the foreigner and love of country are accepted 
 as almost synonymous. Too long, say the Slavophils, 
 has Russia been copying foreign models ; it is time that 
 it took its destinies into its own keeping. St. Peters- 
 burg has had its uses, as a model ; but the Slavs have 
 passed their probationary period, and can dispense with
 
 PRESAGES OF EVIL. 313 
 
 it. If autocracy is to continue to guide Russia on in the 
 fulfilment of its "mission," it must intrench itself again 
 in the centre of the empire — at Moscow. 
 
 But the presence of the court, with all that that 
 presence implies, is as the breath of St. Petersburg's life. 
 '• Take away," says Schuyler, " the army of the court 
 and the officials, and it will sink into a third-rate town." 
 It would no longer be able to make a successful fight 
 against the efforts of nature to obliterate it. The treach- 
 erous bog over which it is built already yields under 
 the intolerable weight of its palaces. It needs constant 
 tinkering and mending to close the yawning gaps and 
 keep the buildings in repair. When court favour deserts 
 St. Petersburg, the swamp will be in a fair way to have 
 its own again. In evil days may come about that con- 
 junction — often predicted, but hitherto postponed — a 
 westerly gale and high tide in the Gulf of Finland, and 
 a breaking up of the ice and floods on the Neva. Then, 
 indeed, might we see the splendid capital built up by 
 Peter and his successors falling away into immeasurable 
 ruin and dissolution, as may some day happen to their still 
 greater work, the Russian Empire itself. Meanwhile it 
 is still permitted us to hope better things of the future 
 of St. Petersburg. 
 
 There are many places of note in the environs of 
 St. Petersburg, but they owe their attractions to art 
 rather than to nature. The surrounding country, like 
 the province generally, is flat and uninteresting ; and 
 the soil, swampy, or sandy, or covered with funereal- 
 looking pine-forests, does not make amends by fruitful- 
 ness and cheerful colour for its tameness of contour. 
 But along the banks of the Neva, on the shores of the
 
 314 IMPERIAL COUNTRY-SEATS. 
 
 Gulf of Finland, and on every " eligible site " near the 
 capital, rise the chateaux and country-houses of the rich 
 city merchants, the high officials of court, and of the 
 great nobles, and the residences of royalty itself — splen- 
 did edifices surrounded by rich and beautiful gardens, 
 parterres, and parks that belie both the climate and the 
 soil. 
 
 Without playing the part of cicerone in these past or 
 present country seats of the imperial family, or under- 
 taking the endless task of describing the artistic treasures 
 and luxuries with which they are stored, and the histori- 
 cal and romantic events of which they have been the 
 scene, a passing glance may be thrown at the palace at 
 Tsarskoe-Selo, where the villa originally erected by 
 Catherine, the lowly -born consort of Peter the Great, 
 has grown under later sovereigns to an immense pile, 
 which, with its superb suites of rooms, the minor palaces 
 and royal arsenal grouped about it, and the spacious 
 grounds extending around it for many miles, is worthy 
 to be the favourite resort of emperors and their courts. 
 In another direction, not far from Cronstadt, are Peter- 
 hof, the retreat from whence Peter I. watched the 
 growth of the Russian fleet, and his descendant, the 
 Emperor Nicolas, the operations of the Anglo-French 
 squadron before Cronstadt ; Oranienbaum, where the ill- 
 starred Peter III. frittered away his time in reviewing 
 his famous " Holstein Guard," sailed his mimic fleet on 
 the pond, and raised his Liliputian fortifications ; and not 
 far off' the humble cottage where his ambitious spouse, 
 the Second Catherine, was wont to retire when she de- 
 sired a little release from the cares of state and the 
 dissipations of court. 

 
 GATCHINA. 315 
 
 Lastly, there is the Palace of Gatchina, within which 
 Alexander the Third, the Autocrat of spacious Russia, has, 
 since the death of his father, dwelt in strict seclusion, 
 surrounded by Cossack guards and elaborate precautions 
 against treasonable attempts on his life.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE BALTIC PROVINCES. 
 
 'HE traveller who leaves St. Petersburg by the 
 Riga Gate will pass under the " Triumphal 
 Arch of Narva " before leaving the south- 
 western outskirts of the city behind him. 
 This massive gateway of metal is surmounted by a co- 
 lossal group, representing Victory drawn in a car by 
 six steeds, and holding aloft laurels and other insignia 
 of triumph in war. The road leads through the heart 
 of the sea-board provinces of Russia between the Gulf of 
 Finland and the Prussian frontier — a region that has 
 had only too frequent and bitter experience of war and 
 its glories — and ultimately to Warsaw and to the capitals 
 of Western Europe. It introduces us, in short, to the 
 "Baltic Provinces," and to their strangely "conglomerate" 
 history and population. 
 
 It is not inappropriate, and probably not unintentional, 
 that the name of Narva should be thus connected with 
 Russian triumph. The arch commemorates the safe 
 return of the troops of the Czar after the occupation of 
 Paris by the Allies in 1815. Narva is a pleasantly 
 situated little fortified town, distant some one hundred 
 miles from the Russian capital, on the river Narova, 

 
 NARVA AND DORP AT. 317 
 
 which here falls into the Gulf of Finland, after a course 
 of forty miles from Lake Peipus — the "Lake of the 
 Tchuds" — the great fresh -water basin on whose sedgy 
 banks so many heroic episodes in Russian history have 
 been enacted. The Narova is the western boundary of 
 the government of St. Petersburg ; and though St. Peters- 
 burg is officially accounted one of the Baltic Provinces, 
 its history and position only partially connect it with 
 the other maritime governments — Esthonia, Livonia, and 
 Courland. 
 
 It is only after having crossed the Narova that we 
 feel we are treading the soil that has been so fiercely 
 battled for by successive invaders, and may yet be the 
 scene of a still more gigantic struggle of rival ambitions ; 
 where Russian and Pole, Swede and Dane, Lithuanian 
 and German, have each left indelible marks on the 
 manners, language, and social condition of the people, 
 but have failed to destroy the primitive type of Livonian 
 character, or even to eradicate the beliefs, memories, and 
 observances that have been handed down from father to 
 son from times anterior to the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 On a sluggish stream that falls into Lake Peipus 
 stands the town of Dorpat, whose university, founded 
 by the great Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, is still, says 
 Mr. Gallenga, " the best in the empire," and the nucleus 
 of such learning and culture as are to be found in the 
 Baltic Provinces. Due west of Narva, and not far within 
 the entrance of the Gulf of Finland, is Reval, the capital 
 of Esthonia, a busy seaport, with the aspect of an old 
 Rhenish town, and whose history for six hundred years 
 is full of stirrinp; incidents of sieo-e and civil broil.
 
 318 BALTIC CITIES. 
 
 Riga, the chief town of Livonia, at the mouth of the 
 Dwina, a much more important place, — indeed, one of 
 the leading cities of the empire in trade and population, 
 — has the same German air in its architecture, its 
 municipal organization, the very names of the burghers, 
 and the language in which its extensive business is 
 conducted. A little distance beyond is Mittau, the pro- 
 vincial capital of Courland, whose glory departed with 
 its last duke, Biren, the favourite of the Empress Anne 
 Ivanovna, though a transient gleam returned to it for 
 the six years that Louis XVIII. made Mittau his residence 
 during his exile from France. 
 
 Around these five towns — Riga, Reval, Mittau, Dorpat, 
 and Narva — the great events in the history of this .re- 
 gion have mainly centred. They are still the chief seats 
 of population and of commercial movement. To none 
 of them, however, need we go if we wish to feel the 
 pulse of the people of these provinces. Some of them 
 are busy seaport towns, crowded with foreign shipping 
 and foreign seamen. The street sounds are a perfect 
 Babel of diverse tongues, in which round British oaths 
 are plentifully interlarded. There is little at first 
 sight to remind the traveller that he is in the Czar's 
 dominions. Here and there a dome or a minaret, in the 
 familiar Byzantine taste, reminds one that the Greek 
 Orthodox faith has numerous adherents amidst the pre- 
 vailing Lutheranism. 
 
 The superior officials will probably be found to be 
 Russian ; and many classes of tradesmen — shoemakers, 
 carpenters, and the like — are mainly recruited from the 
 interior of the empire. The clumsy rafts and boats that 
 descend the Dwina with their freights of timber, grain,
 
 TEUTONIC INFLUENCES. 319 
 
 hemp, flax, and tallow are manned to a large extent by 
 crews whose physiognomy, dress, and habits mark them 
 as true sons of Holy Russia. But this is only a fluctuating 
 and intermittent population. The Slav is not at home 
 on the shores of the Baltic. He does not, except in the 
 extreme north, take kindly to the strong fresh breath of 
 the sea ; his tastes and occupations are essentially those 
 of the inland country, where the level plains stretch on 
 all sides to the horizon's edge. 
 
 Much more in keeping with the situation are the 
 evidences of German influences which have leavened 
 the Baltic Provinces from one end to the other. In the 
 counting-houses, in the exchanges, on the quays, the 
 strong, guttural tones of the Teutonic tongue are heard. 
 The names inscribed on the sign-boards of the most 
 flourishing shops, and on the door-plates of the great 
 merchant houses, unmistakably tell of the German origin 
 of their owners. Riga, for instance, is a city where the 
 commercial and higher grades of social life are essen- 
 tially German. It has its Burgermeister and its Rath- 
 haus, its Domkirche and its picturesque groupings of 
 brick gables and high-pitched roofs, as if it were a ver- 
 itable ancient city of the Fatherland. The streets and 
 public places are mostly designated by German titles ; 
 and indeed over a great part of the Baltic Provinces the 
 nomenclature of the towns and villages is, as a rule, 
 Teutonic in sound and sense, and tells of past conquest 
 and long possession by the " superior race." The bour- 
 geoisie tenaciously retain with the language and national 
 character many of the old customs and manners which 
 are going out of fashion in their ancestral home itself, 
 so that in some respects they may be said to be more
 
 320 SWEDES, POLES, AND JEWS. 
 
 German than the Germans. Add to this that the great 
 seignieurs — the nobles, landed proprietors, and persons 
 of consideration in the provinces — are, as a rule, of 
 German descent, and it will be seen that the influence 
 of Russia's powerful neighbour in this part of the world 
 is much greater than can be measured by the mere 
 numerical strength of the Teutonic element. 
 
 Along the coasts of Livonia and Courland there is a 
 considerable sprinkling of Swedes, mostly hardy fisher- 
 men and seamen ; and in few places are the primitive 
 traditions and manners of the Scandinavian race preserved 
 more pure from the contamination of modern change than 
 in the islands of Dago and Oesel. In the south, espe- 
 cially in Courland, the spare, cadaverous figures with 
 Jewish traits, looking the very image of meagre and 
 hungry care, that haunt the shadows of the narrow, vilely- 
 smelling streets, tell of the close neighbourhood of Poland. 
 Poles, too, there are, and representatives of many other 
 nations ; but none of all those that have been enumer- 
 ated have much relationship either by blood or sym- 
 pathy with the true natives of the country. 
 
 In reality there are two aboriginal peoples in the 
 Baltic Provinces — the Letts, a branch of the Lithuanian 
 race, who inhabit Courland and Southern Livonia; and 
 the Esthonians, and remnants of other tribes of Finnish 
 origin, that occupy the northern districts. One needs 
 to rummage far back into obscure antiquity before dis- 
 covering any race affinity between these two peasant 
 peoples. The languages bear no resemblance to each 
 other. There are broad distinctions of temperament, 
 physiognomy, and traditional beliefs. It is only by a sort 
 of geographical accident that they have been placed 

 
 LETTS AND ESTHONIANS. 321 
 
 side by side, and subjected to the same hard discipline 
 of fate. 
 
 Misfortune alone has made them brethren. Centuries 
 of harsh usage and hard fare have developed a won- 
 derfully close likeness between Lett and Esthonian, at 
 least on a first and superficial view. Glancing at the 
 social condition of these lowly husbandmen and wood- 
 men, we might compare them to a dingy, well-worn 
 carpet, where the original brightness of colour and diver- 
 sity of pattern have been obliterated by being con- 
 stantly trodden on. Lithuanian and Finn, they have 
 been trampled upon by heavy-footed masters from their 
 first appearance in medieval history. They have borne 
 their destiny on the whole patiently and uncomplainingly, 
 bending their shoulders to the yoke of German, Swede, 
 Pole, and Russ, meekly submitting to the " whips and 
 scorns " of their haughty superiors, and bearing, as part 
 of the order of things, the chains that bound them to 
 the land like beasts of burden. Since the early part of 
 the present century, serfage has been abolished in the 
 Baltic Provinces, and well-meant attempts have been 
 made to ameliorate the condition of the peasantry ; but 
 the whip is still an " institution " in the land, and the 
 dulled and lustreless eye, the rude features, the awk- 
 ward movements, and the slavish demeanour of the poor 
 Livonian or Esthonian boor show that the stamp of ser- 
 vitude is still upon body and spirit. The old saying- 
 runs that "Esthonia is an Elysium for the noble, a heaven 
 for the clergy, a mine of gold for the stranger, and a 
 hell for the peasant ; " and though this needs some modi- 
 fication in the present day, it is still too true that the 
 agricultural classes are deplorably poor and degraded, 
 
 (718) 21
 
 322 FOREST SCENERY IN LIVONIA. 
 
 In Esthonia the soil is fruitful, and the scenery often 
 cheerful and picturesque. But in the more southern 
 provinces, where the dull, flat features of the country 
 are only broken by lugubrious masses of pine woods ; 
 where forest, sandy down, and marsh alternate in monot- 
 onous succession ; and where in many places the thin 
 soil only grudgingly yields enough to satisfy the daily 
 wants of the cultivator, the picture of peasant life is 
 still more depressing. 
 
 The Livonian peasant, unlike his Russian brother, 
 prefers, as a rule, to build his house apart from his 
 fellows, instead of joining with his neighbours to form a 
 little village. His lowly cabin will be found sheltered 
 behind some rising ground that breaks a little the force 
 of the terrible blasts of winter, and overlooking a meagre 
 little patch of grain-land or flax plantation which he 
 cultivates, or nestling in some clearing of the inter- 
 minable forest of fir and larch, whence he daily sallies 
 forth with axe on shoulder. 
 
 The roads are execrably bad ; and unless one travel 
 by railway or over the Government post -routes, the 
 tedious journey in the rude, springless vehicles over 
 sandy hillocks, rough heaths, and deeply furrowed tracks 
 through the pine forests fills every bone of the body 
 with aches. There is a stately grandeur about these 
 silvan glades when the flickering winter sunlight streams 
 down on the path between the tall trunks, or, better 
 still, when the stars are seen shining with unearthly 
 magnitude and splendour between the snow -laden 
 branches. In the summer season a resinous perfume 
 fills the air; the road is strewn with the fallen cones and 
 needles of the larch, spruce, and fir ; thickets of oak 
 
 '
 
 LETTISH PEASANT LIFE. 323 
 
 ash, hazel, maple, and beech vary with their lighter green 
 the sombre colouring of the forest ; and a profusion of 
 wood-flowers and berries adds to the wild charms of the 
 scene. But a more than usually severe jolt, as the teluga 
 strikes against some log or stone, or a sudden halt, as 
 the wheels stick in a deep rut, soon recalls the mind to 
 the miseries of travel in the Baltic Provinces. 
 
 The human habitations encountered at intervals do 
 little in the way of enlivening the scenery. As a rule, 
 they tell only too plainly not only of rustic plainness and 
 poverty, but of squalid wretchedness and want. The 
 thatched roof of bent or grass is ragged and moss-grown ; 
 the rude log walls have chinks through which the keen 
 winds and sifting snows of winter find a way to the 
 dark and smoky interior. M. D'Henriet, in his lively 
 account of the Baltic Provinces, furnishes us with a vivid, 
 though perhaps slightly overdrawn, sketch of the deso- 
 late and pitiable aspect of Lettish peasant life. 
 
 " The people," he says, " have an aspect of degradation, 
 and at the same time of gloomy resignation, mournful to 
 see. Near the villages, on little eminences that are called 
 hills, the cemeteries have a desolate air. The cabins are 
 tumbling in ruins, if one can call ruins these heaps of 
 pieces of wood, rudely squared, disjointed by humidity, 
 frost, and storms, the courtyards noisome, the doors badly 
 fitting, with holes in the roof serving for chimneys, and 
 in place of windows, shutters that are open during the 
 day, and are entirely closed in the evening against in- 
 discreet glances." 
 
 Within the dwelling it is equally vain to search for 
 marks of comfort. The diminutive cattle and the 
 human inmates are housed together, with often hardly
 
 324 THE PEASANT AND HTS "MASTER." 
 
 a partition separating them. Tables and chairs are 
 luxuries which only the rich can dream of. A rude 
 bench, or perhaps the hard clay floor, is the couch on 
 which the family huddle together for warmth and com- 
 panionship during the bitter nights of winter. But not- 
 withstanding his hard life and fare, and the discomforts 
 of his " smoky crib," the Lettish peasant sleeps soundly 
 on the bosom of his mother earth. Sleep and — when he 
 can get it — strong liquor are his great resorts in which 
 he seeks and finds forgetfulness of his wrongs and his 
 miseries. 
 
 In the north of the Baltic Provinces, where the 
 natural fertility of the land is greater, some rays of 
 prosperity may be seen reflected in the condition of the 
 population — touches of colour enlivening the outsides 
 of the cottages, and traces of comfort in their internal 
 arrangements ; suggestions of coquetry and luxury in 
 the holiday attire, and a less heavy-laden and hopeless 
 expression on the faces of the people. It is no easy 
 task to penetrate the thick rind of suspicion, timidity, 
 and reserve with which the peasant guards the thoughts 
 of his soul from the view of the stranger. Once behind 
 these guards, and fully admitted to his confidence, one is 
 surprised to discover how much true beauty and pathos 
 are hidden under the dull mask which the Livonian or 
 the Esthonian cultivator wears before the S<<<oi — the 
 "Saxon," the master. 
 
 Lett or Finn, he preserves with a kind of religious 
 tenacity the remembrances of the remote past of his race. 
 Fragments of the heroic songs of their pagan ancestors are 
 still chanted at the firesides of the peasant people, and keep 
 alive the memory of the " days of the past," when they 

 
 THE K A LEVY POEG. 325 
 
 were independent and warrior nations. The dwellers 
 round the " Lake of the Tchuds " (Peipus), sing mourn- 
 fully the dirges of their buried freedom — the glorious 
 period ere " the banners of the strangers waved, ere the 
 intruders made us slaves, enchained us as the serfs of 
 tyrants, forced us to be their servants." The " Kalevy 
 Poeg," the national Epos of Esthonia, tells in a strain of 
 profound sadness of the stupendous deeds of valour of 
 their hero, the " son of Kalev," who uprooted trees, ex- 
 terminated the beasts of prey, explored the waste regions 
 of the north, and fought the spirits of the snow and fire, 
 and overthrew all enemies until the " men of iron " came 
 up from the south, and at the close of one terrible day 
 of slaughter the liberties of Esthonia lay prostrate at 
 the feet of the mysterious strangers. " Long," says 
 Rambaud in his paraphrase of this remarkable poem, 
 " his sons trusted that Mana, the god of death, would 
 give the hero back his liberty, and that once again the 
 iron men would feel the weight of his arm ; but, like 
 King Arthur, he has never appeared, bringing to his 
 people the liberty that the Germans have taken from 
 them." 
 
 It was in the closing years of the twelfth century 
 that the German crusade against these heathens of the 
 Baltic was begun, under the spiritual guidance of Bishop 
 Albert. Missionaries of the Latin Church, and mer- 
 chant adventurers of the Hanseatic League, which had 
 stations at Novgorod and elsewhere, had already pene- 
 trated into this region ; but the natives, discerning the 
 danger to their independence, had cast them out. In 
 1200 the town of Riga was founded ; and in the follow- 
 ing year the Order of the Sword-Bearers was instituted,
 
 326 THE RULE OF THE MILITARY ORDERS. 
 
 and then began that extraordinary process of " conver- 
 sion " that made the natives of the Baltic Provinces at 
 once Christians and slaves. By their superior arms and 
 discipline the Brethren of the Sword slaughtered the 
 unhappy people in thousands, seized on their lands, and 
 reduced the survivors to a state of abject servitude ; 
 cities, fortified posts, and baronial keeps arose on the 
 Dwina, the Aa, and the Narova ; Reval, and other coast 
 towns that had been conquered by the Danes in the 
 days of Canute the Great, were purchased or wrested 
 from the Northmen ; and Dorpat, founded by the famous 
 Grand Duke Jaroslav of Kiev, with the rest of the pos- 
 sessions of the Russians in these parts, fell into the hands 
 of the Livonian Knights. 
 
 In 1237 the Order was amalgamated with that of the 
 Teutonic Knights, who had been promoting the spread 
 of the faith by similar " mild" methods in the Lithuanian 
 Provinces. Then followed the periods of the power, the 
 decadence, and the fall of the " unnatural institution " 
 founded by these warrior priests ; and the fierce struggles 
 of Lithuanians, Poles, Danes, Swedes, and Russians for 
 their possessions. In the latter half of the seventeenth 
 century the supremacy of Sweden was established over 
 the greater part of these provinces ; and it was in their 
 time that the Reformed faith was introduced, and has 
 since continued to be the prevailing creed, though, as in 
 the parallel cases where the tenets of the Greek and 
 Roman Churches have been imposed by authority on 
 these aboriginal races, Christian doctrines are strangely 
 and apparently inextricably mixed up with primitive 
 pagan superstitions. 
 
 The turn of Russia came when Peter the Great resolved
 
 RUSSIAN CONQUEST. 327 
 
 to break out his " window towards Europe," through the 
 Swedish possessions on the Gulf of Finland. The beginn- 
 ing was disastrously discouraging. In 1700 the Russian 
 army was completely destroyed by a Swedish force, not 
 a seventh of its strength, before Narva. Four years later, 
 however, after Peter had laid the corner-stone of his 
 new capital on the Neva, Narva was taken by storm ; 
 and Sheremetief s conquering host of Cossacks, Tartars, 
 and Russians spread over the Baltic Provinces, burning, 
 pillaging, and massacring, and seizing, among other loot, 
 a Lettish damsel, the servant of a Swedish pastor at Ma- 
 rienburg, who became the wife of Peter, and his successor 
 on the throne of the Czars. Since the Russian conquest, 
 the lot of the Livonian and Esthonian peasant has been 
 somewhat ameliorated, and the provinces have been allowed 
 to retain a certain measure of self-government. There 
 have been " servile risings " and snatchings at indepen- 
 dence, but never on the large scale or with the deter- 
 mined spirit shown by the Poles. Early in the century 
 serfage was abolished ; but the land is still mainly the 
 heritage of the German nobles, who have managed to 
 hold it through every change of government. 
 
 A word or two upon the most important seats of 
 commerce and population — Reval and Riga — must close 
 our notice of this interesting country and people. Reval, 
 as it is approached from the sea, has an appearance 
 which leads the visitor to look for great things, — an 
 expectation which, as in the case of many other cities, 
 is hardly fulfilled on a closer view. Yet, in spite of the 
 many narrow and filthy streets, lined by tumble-down 
 wooden houses, and thronged with passengers that wear 
 but too many indications of the rude and poverty-
 
 328 REVAL. 
 
 stricken condition of the lower classes, it is a place that 
 is crammed with the souvenirs of an eventful past, 
 reaching back through seven centuries, and not without 
 hopeful signs of modern wealth, power, and culture. 
 
 The port, defended by an outlying line of reefs and 
 islands, and strongly fortified, is a station of the Russian 
 Baltic fleet. On shore, the most prominent feature is 
 the Bom quarter of the town, perched along the ridge 
 of a rocky height, with steep slopes descending to the 
 quays and warehouses, the streets of artisans' and mer- 
 chants' houses, the sandy shores, and the harbour thronged 
 with the masts of shipping that lie in front and in flank. 
 On the Dom no plebeian edifice may rear its head. By 
 situation and association its inhabitants stand apart from 
 the vulgar herd. Under this rock sleeps Kolyvan, the 
 half-fabulous Finnish hero, whose name was borne by 
 the spot before it took its Danish title of Refwell — the 
 "Reef." Upon it rose the first fortifications and religious 
 houses built by the Danes when they took possession of 
 the locality 
 
 The hand of successive occupiers — the Brethren of 
 the Sword, the Swedes, and the Russians — may be traced 
 on the castle and the group of churches and aristocratic 
 dwellings clustered on the ridge. The great landmark 
 of Reval from seaward is the tower of St. Oluf, the 
 highest in Russia. The architecture of the church be- 
 low carries us back to the early part of the fourteenth 
 century ; but of still older date is the Church of St. 
 Nicolas, within which are preserved part of the original 
 frescoes of Holbein's " Dance of Death." The desiccated 
 body of the Duke de Croy, the defeated general of the 
 Russian army at Narva, whose remains, seized upon by 
 
 •
 
 RIGA. 329 
 
 his disappointed creditors as the only thing substantial 
 they could find to represent his enormous debts, lay in 
 the Church of St. Nicolas without obtaining the rites 
 of sepulture for more than a century and a half, and 
 was regularly exhibited to the curious. A few years ago, 
 however, the Russian Government had the remains de- 
 cently interred. In the Domkirche, or Cathedral, rest 
 the bones of Admiral Greig, one of the heroes of Russian 
 naval annals. Other notable buildings of Reval are the 
 Schwarzen-haupter-haus, the House of the Black-heads, 
 or military association of young citizens for the defence 
 of the town, an ancient institution also found at Riira 
 and Dorpat ; the Ritterschafts-haus, or place of meeting 
 of the provincial council ; " Long Hermann," the lofty 
 circular tower crowning the Dom rock ; and the Lust- 
 schloss, or Imperial Palace. " The city is strewn," says 
 the writer of " Letters from the Baltic," " with the 
 ruined remains of convents and monasteries, and the 
 outer circumference is bound in with walls and towers 
 of every irregular form." 
 
 The effacing hand of time and the exigencies of com- 
 mercial development have done more to blot out the 
 traces of ancient Riga than has happened in the case of 
 its old competitor Reval, which it has long passed in the 
 contest for wealth and business. Its position on the 
 deep, navigable Dwina, and its communications by canal 
 and railway with the interior of the empire, have made 
 the fortune of the capital of Livonia. The entrance to 
 the river is defended by the fortress of Dunamimde ; and 
 vessels ascend the sluggish stream several miles before 
 they come opposite the wharves of Riga. Nearly a 
 million tons of shipping — mostly British and German
 
 330 A GERMAN CITY. 
 
 enter the port in the year, to bear away the vast quan- 
 tities of grain, timber, flax, and other Russian produce 
 collected here. 
 
 The city has a population of one hundred thousand, 
 and is rapidly growing. A bridge of boats connects the 
 two banks of the river, here half a mile broad, during 
 the open season, and is continually thronged with streams 
 of passengers and goods. Riga rises on the north bank 
 in amphitheatre form. The general features, as has 
 already been said, are rather those of a German than a 
 Russian town. Its present rulers have honoured it with 
 special favours; and it has been called the "darling child 
 of the Czars," who, after their coronation at Moscow, are 
 wont to pay a visit to the commercial city on the Baltic. 
 
 It retains many of its ancient privileges, and is the 
 only Russian city that possesses a municipal guard. 
 It has its full share of literary, artistic, scientific, and 
 technical organizations, of charitable institutions, and 
 ecclesiastical edifices. Under the lofty tower of the 
 Domkirche are the bones of Bishop Albert, the founder 
 of Riga. The palace, now the residence of the governor- 
 general of the province, was once the seat of the Grand 
 Masters of the Teutonic Order. In the Ritter-haus the 
 nobility of Livonia hold their assemblies, in a hall em- 
 blazoned with their coats of arms. But perhaps the 
 most remarkable building of old Riga is the Schwarzen- 
 haupter-haus — where the " Black-heads" assembled for 
 solemn ceremonial or active duty — whose quaint and 
 lowering features seem stamped with the grim character 
 of that remote period in which the city took its rise, while 
 within it are stored the relics of its history from those 
 fighting times down to its busy and peaceful present.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RUSSIA ON THE BLACK SEA THE CRIMEA. 
 
 f is time to change the scene to a new and 
 warmer clime and a brighter sky. The dark 
 lines of the pine forests retire into the back- 
 ground, and for a while we bid farewell to 
 the deep morasses and dreary heaths that border the 
 northern seas, and the heavy cloak of snow and ice that 
 muffles land and water for many months in the year. 
 The sad-coloured life of man also takes some fresher 
 and livelier tints under a warmer sun. 
 
 Scenery and accessories begin to wear a semi- Oriental 
 stamp. The green steppe lands stretch inimitably to the 
 horizon ; the camel and the dromedary are among the 
 beasts of burden, and the buffalo drags the primitive 
 wooden plough over the land, in the spots where force 
 of circumstances has compelled a race of roving and 
 pastoral proclivities to adopt a settled agricultural life. 
 Over whole districts of Southern Russia, Tartar faces 
 and Tartar speech, the flowing robe, the fez, and the 
 slippers, khans, mosques, shrines of Mohammedan saints, 
 and flat-roofed houses turning their " blind side " to the 
 narrow and crooked lanes and opening into spacious 
 inner courtyards, are as much the characteristic features
 
 332 NEW RUSSIA. 
 
 of existence in town and country as they are across the 
 Black Sea in Asia Minor. These signs of Eastern life 
 increase with every step of progress that we take ; for 
 henceforward we move farther and farther from Europe 
 and familiar European manners. 
 
 Historically we find ourselves in a more recent era of 
 Russia's development than any that has hitherto been 
 reached. It is not easy to realize — so firmly and broadly 
 has the encroaching foot of the Slav been planted on the 
 Euxine — that it is scarcely a century since the command 
 of the northern coasts of the Black Sea was wrested 
 from the Turk. It may well bear traces of the close 
 neighbourhood of Asia, seeing that a hundred years ago 
 the Crimea was still, politically speaking, a part of that 
 continent, and a stronghold, isolated but intact, of the 
 widespread dominions of Islam. In the history of this 
 New Russia of the south, Peter the Great and his 
 " eaglets " flit into the background. Their forms are only 
 a little better defined through the mists of time and dis- 
 tance than those of their ruder forefathers; and their real 
 " field of fame," like that of the older Czars, was in the 
 north. The great figures in the task of conquering and 
 organizing, and, it may almost be said, creating out of 
 chaos, the provinces of the Black Sea, are that imperial 
 and imperious dame Catherine II., her minister and fav- 
 ourite the magnificent Potemkin, and her famous general 
 Suvaroff, whose stomach for hard fighting and hard work 
 surpassed even that of the founder of St. Petersburg and 
 victor of Poltava. 
 
 Perhaps no better standpoint could be chosen for 
 taking a brief survey of the changeful fortunes of South- 
 ern Russia, as a necessary preliminary to describing its 

 
 A SURVEY FROM CHERSONESUS. 333 
 
 aspect of to-day, than the rocky promontory at the 
 south-western corner of the Crimea — " a peninsula of 
 a peninsula " — on which stand the ruins of Chersonesus. 
 
 The early history of the old Greek city carries us back 
 two thousand five hundred } T ears ; while within sight is 
 the scene of one of the most important struggles that 
 modern Europe has witnessed. Sixty dynasties have 
 within the cognizance of history held sway in this 
 distracted corner of the world since the Greek colonists 
 from Heraclea settled here anions; the savage and mhos- 
 pitable Tauri, whose caves may still be seen in the 
 Inkerman valley and other parts of the Crimea. Emi- 
 grants from Miletus had already established themselves 
 at Panticapseum, the modern Kertch, at the eastern 
 extremity of the " Tauric Chersonese," and founded the 
 famous kingdom of Bosphorus. 
 
 Earlier and more illustrious visitors may have come 
 hither from the iEgean Sea. Commander Buchan Telfer, 
 whose book is a perfect storehouse of interesting facts 
 bearing on the history and archaeology of the Crimea, 
 gives reasons for identifying Cape Aia, not far from 
 Chersonesus, with the place where Iphigenia found refuge 
 with the Tauri, and the inlet of Balaclava as the scene 
 of Ulysses' adventures with the monstrous Lsestrigons. 
 
 Of the long quarrel between colony and colony, 
 republic and monarchy, Greek of the peninsula and 
 Scythian of the mainland, it is needless to speak; nor 
 of the conquests of Mithridates Eupator, of the ex- 
 tension hither of the Roman rule, or of the rich and 
 troublesome inheritance that this province became to 
 the Eastern Empire. Chersonesus in those days was 
 a wonderfully rich and beautiful city, as the remains
 
 334 BARBARIAN INVASIONS. 
 
 of its splendid temples, baths, arches, aqueducts, am- 
 phitheatres, and other monuments attested down to a 
 recent date ; and it had many rivals in wealth and 
 population among the other Greek cities on the Euxine. 
 Pope Clement I. worked as a slave in the neighbouring 
 quarries, and preached the gospel in its streets, and so 
 by degrees the city became converted to Christianity. 
 
 Then from their vantage-ground on the strongly-forti- 
 fied point the Christian city heard of, and almost saw, the 
 " march of the nations " across the great highway of the 
 steppes — Huns, Goths, Vandals, and Sarmatians, follow- 
 ing on one another like waves of the sea, each overtopping 
 that which went before, overwhelming old empires, cast- 
 ing down the labours built up by hands and brains 
 during thirty generations of growing civilizations, and 
 spreading immeasurable change over the western world. 
 In spite of the supposed impregnability of their position, 
 the citizens must have trembled with a foreboding of 
 approaching ruin on seeing these destructive and ruthless 
 forces passing so close to their doors. 
 
 At length the turn of Chersonesus came. The Grand 
 Prince Vladimir of Kiev marched his conquering host of 
 half -clad Slavs down into the Crimea. The pagan prince 
 swore an oath- — an illogical one it seems in our day — 
 that if he captured this Christian town, he himself and 
 his whole people would embrace the faith of the Cross. 
 Capture it he did, and the first Christian ruler of the 
 Russians was baptized, and celebrated his nuptials with 
 the sister of the Emperor of the East, on the spot now 
 covered by the Church of the Holy Mother of God at 
 Chersonesus. 
 
 Huns, Khazars, Petchenegs, Cumanians, Polovtsis 

 
 THE KHANS OF CRIM TARTARY. 335 
 
 afterwards descended on the Black Sea countries, and 
 seized and sacked the cities. Adventurers from the 
 growing Italian republics pushed thither, and founded 
 colonies on the coasts of the Euxine and Sea of Azov. 
 Venetians and Genoese quarrelled for supremacy, as the 
 Milesians and Heracleans had done eighteen centuries 
 before. 
 
 The great horde of Mongols had meanwhile descended 
 and settled like a troop of locusts on the countries to 
 northward. The Nogai tribe of Tartars established them- 
 selves on the steppes north of the Black Sea, and when 
 the power of the Golden Horde dissolved, the Khanate of 
 Crim Tartary rose into prominence. 
 
 A khan of the Nogais, a descendant of the great Gen- 
 ghiz, adopted the surname of Ghirei, out of gratitude to 
 a humble peasant of that name who had saved his life. 
 The Ghireis, righting for plunder and empire, established a 
 semi-barbaric rule on the Crimea, and in the close of the 
 fifteenth century planted their capital at Baktchi-Serai, 
 separated by a range of hills from Chersonesus ; and by 
 the aid of the Turks, and at the price of acknoAvledging the 
 suzerainty of the Porte, the Tartars expelled the Genoese 
 from the peninsula. A long succession of bloody and 
 ruthless raids into the heart of Russia, as far as Moscow 
 and Nijni, and even farther, signalized the period of Tar- 
 tar power in the south. 
 
 At length came Nemesis, slow-footed but sure. Already 
 Chersonesus was a ruin. Olgercl, the Lithuanian, nephew 
 of Gedimin, leaving Kiev smoking behind him, had, in 
 13G8, swept with his conquering host through the isth- 
 mus of Perecop, beat down the walls of the grand old 
 Greek city, and reduced it to a heap of broken masonry.
 
 336 RUSSIAN ENCROACHMENT. 
 
 The Crimean khans, aided by their overlord at Con- 
 stantinople, fought desperately to preserve their posses- 
 sions, and up to the last were able to take the offensive 
 against their implacable northern foe. But the limits 
 of their power gradually and surely contracted, as that of 
 Russia enlarged. Peter the Great had among his many 
 schemes one of establishing himself on the Black Sea, 
 and driving Turk and Tartar beyond the Danube, if not 
 beyond the Bosphorus. He built a fleet at Voronej on 
 the Don, gained the first Russian naval victory at the 
 mouth of that river, captured Azov, and founded the 
 seaport of Taganrog, on the Palus Mseotis. But an over- 
 whelming repulse on the Pruth compelled him to sur- 
 render his southern conquests. 
 
 The growing empire of the Czars was not ripe enough, 
 nor the Ottoman power sufficiently rotten, for the ambi- 
 tious project to succeed; and the more immediate neces- 
 sity of opening up a way to the Baltic had to be 
 attended to. Peter, however, had dealt a fatal blow to 
 the Cossack commonwealths on the Don and Dnieper, 
 who, from faithful watch-dogs guarding the house against 
 infidel robbers, had become wolves preying on friend and 
 foe alike. 
 
 A long stride in advance was taken in the reiem of 
 the Empress Anne, whose famous generals, Munich and 
 Lascy, twice forced the lines of Perecop in the war of 
 1736—9, devastated the Crimea, and compelled the Khan 
 and the Sultan to cede the steppe country between the 
 Dnieper and the Boug. The ceded territory, called New 
 Servia, was organized by the Empress Elizabeth into a 
 military and agricultural colony, and settled with Bul- 
 garian, Servian, Hungarian, and Wallachian refugees, 

 
 SEVASTOPOL FOUNDED. 337 
 
 who replaced the old Cossack associations, and the last 
 relics of the Zaporogian bands were scattered by Cathe- 
 rine the Great. This powerful sovereign proved a more 
 formidable foe to Turkey than even Peter. In the war 
 of 1767-74, her generals Galitsyne and Rumantsof 
 overran the Sultan's dominions as far as the Balkans. 
 Dolguruky broke through the "lines of Perecop," and 
 extinguished for ever the rule of the Grand Khalif in the 
 peninsula ; and a Russian fleet appeared in the iEgean, 
 and ravaged the Turkish coasts and islands. 
 
 By the Treaty of Kainardji (1774), the mouths of the 
 Don and the Dniester were ceded to Russia, the Crimea 
 was made independent, Russian merchantmen were 
 allowed free access to the Black Sea, and a kind of 
 Russian protectorate was established over the Christian 
 subjects of the Porte. Nine years later the last khan 
 of the Crimea, Chahin Ghirei, was dethroned, and the 
 peninsula was formed with the adjoining mainland into 
 the new Russian province of Taurida. 
 
 The revenge of the Slav upon the Tartar was almost 
 
 complete. Turkey also was rapidly going to the wall in 
 
 the long struggle for predominance in the East. Potem- 
 
 kin, created Prince of Taurida, established a naval arsenal 
 
 at Kherson, the new port established at the mouth of 
 
 the Dnieper, and named after the old Greek city from 
 
 whose ruins we are taking our survey. With the stones 
 
 of Chersonesus itself were laid the foundations of the 
 
 strong fortress that be<xan to rise close at hand at Sevas- 
 
 topol ; while all over the southern steppes emigrants 
 
 poured in and flourishing colonies sprang up. From 
 
 1787 to 1792 raged another war with Turkey, of which 
 
 Suvaroff was the presiding genius, and the capture of 
 (718) 22
 
 338 PERECOP. 
 
 Ismail the crowning event. By the Peace of Jassy 
 (1792) the frontiers of Russia were extended to the 
 Dniester ; and shortly after, the Empress in person, at- 
 tended by the magnificent Potemkin, laid with extraor- 
 dinary pomp the foundations of the great emporium of 
 the Euxine — Odessa. 
 
 The later phases of this prolonged conflict between 
 Puss and Turk, in which the latter has had to let go his 
 hold bit by bit of his conquests in Europe, are of too 
 recent date to call for recapitulation in detail. The 
 wars of Alexander I. against the Porte terminated with 
 the Treaty of Bucharest in 1812, which gave Bessarabia 
 to the Czar, and brought the Russian frontier to the 
 Pruth. The events of the Crimean War — when the bare 
 plateau behind Chersonesus became the scene of the 
 struggle between Russia and the Western Powers — and 
 of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877, are still fresh in 
 most memories. 
 
 The modern traveller by land will probably follow in 
 the steps of the ancient invaders, and enter the Crimea 
 by the Isthmus of Perecop, unless, indeed, he journeys by 
 the new line of railway from Moscow and the Don regions, 
 which crosses the shallows of the Sivash, or " Putrid 
 Sea." Perecop will not detain him long, in spite of its 
 memories of great sieges and assaults connected with 
 the names of Munich, Lascy, and earlier military heroes. 
 
 The white walls of the fortifications guard the neck 
 of land, only five miles in breadth, and glisten far over 
 the surrounding waters and scarcely less flat and 
 monotonous steppes. The deep fosse cut across the 
 isthmus by the Tartar khans is still preserved, and is 
 
 i
 
 THE CRIMEAN STEPPES. 339 
 
 crossed by a bridge with an imposing gateway — the 
 portal of the Crimea. The minarets of a mosque rear 
 themselves beside the bulkier form of a Greek church ; 
 and in the modest retirement of a back street hides a 
 synagogue of the Jews. The population consists of 
 Russians, Tartars, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews of the 
 Karaim sect : these strangely assorted peoples will be 
 found in greater or less proportion in almost every 
 Crimean town. 
 
 Leaving Perecop — the " Gate of the Neck " — behind, 
 and advancing over the broadening steppe, a stranger 
 will find it difficult to believe that he is still on 
 European ground, far less in that famous Tauridian 
 peninsula whose luxuriant beauty has been so highly 
 extolled. The plain is destitute of tree or of stream ; no 
 cliff or hill breaks the level expanse, save by-and-by a 
 pale blue line of mountains far on the southern horizon. 
 
 The soil is impregnated with salt ; the shallow lakes 
 are brackish, or covered with a white efflorescence. The 
 creeks and marshes that branch and wind among the 
 sand-hills on the margin of the " Putrid Lake " are 
 bitterly salt. The fetid smell that rises from the 
 stagnant surface of that shallow inlet of the Sea of 
 Azov justifies its evil-sounding name. The villages are 
 small, half ruinous, and scattered widely apart. The chief 
 signs of traffic are long trains of waggons, laden with 
 raw salt, on their way to Perecop, whence this sole 
 product of the Crimean lakes is distributed over the 
 Czar's empire. 
 
 These waggons are chiefly drawn by oxen, but 
 sometimes double-humped camels of the Bactrian breed 
 are the beasts of burden. The progenitors of the
 
 340 TARTAR LIFE. 
 
 uncouth-looking creatures were doubtless brought from 
 the deserts of Central Asia by the forefathers of their 
 no less shaggy drivers. The Tartar cultivator of the 
 Crimea has indeed given up the roaming life of his 
 ancestors ; but he still clings to the ancestral religion 
 and customs, and his dress is a compromise between 
 Western and Eastern tastes. Flocks of fat-tailed 
 sheep pasture the waste, and seem to find the saline 
 herbage toothsome and fattening. Around a well by 
 the roadside loose-robed turbaned shepherds may be 
 seen watering their goats, camels, and sheep from a 
 trough, in the patriarchal fashion of Syria. The village 
 streets are narrow crooked alleys between the blind 
 walls of courtyards, which screen the half-ruinous flat- 
 topped houses, provided in the case of the richer citizens 
 with harems and fountains and shady porches ; and 
 there are the mosque for the faithful, and the khan for 
 the traveller, as in other Mohammedan lands. 
 
 These tokens of the long predominance of Tartar rule 
 in the peninsula are gradually disappearing. Russian 
 colonies and Russian ideas are slowly ousting the old 
 race from Crim Tartary, or changing it after their own 
 image. But generations probably will elapse before the 
 peninsula loses its character as a country distinctively 
 Mohammedan in manners and faith. 
 
 As the head-waters of the Salgir River are approached, 
 the country begins to rise, and the soil and scenery to 
 improve. The peaks and richly-wooded slopes of the 
 Tchatir Dagh, or " Tent Mountain," the highest summit 
 of the rano-e which lines the southern coast of the 
 peninsula, stand out in bold relief. A region forming 
 in every respect a contrast to the dreary steppe lands
 
 S1MPIIER0P0L AND ITS "LIONS." 341 
 
 behind is reached. Small streams — mere brooks in 
 summer, but roaring torrents after the melting of the 
 mountain snows — pour down from these hills to join 
 the Salgir, through fertile valleys and past villages sur- 
 rounded by corn-fields and orchards and overhung by 
 bold bluffs of limestone. 
 
 By-and-by we come to Simpheropol — anciently Ak 
 Metchet, or the " White Mosque" — the modern capital 
 of the Crimea, and the residence of the Governor of the 
 Province of Taurida. Like other Crimean towns, it 
 presents a strange jumble of the old and the new ; but 
 here, perhaps, the new is gaining ground more rapidly 
 than elsewhere. The width of a street only separates 
 the Russian town, with its huge cathedral, barracks, 
 boulevards, and gymnasia, from the Tartar city, with its 
 mosques and bazaars and curiously mixed population of 
 Nogais, Greeks, and Jews. 
 
 The principal " lions " of Simpheropol, however, are too 
 new and raw to compete in interest with those of Baktchi- 
 Serai, one stage distant to the south-west. Again groves 
 of oak and beech, fine gardens of plum and apple trees, 
 and rich grassy meadows with numerous villages are 
 passed, as we descend the little river Alma to the old 
 Tartar capital. It still preserves all the main features 
 which it possessed when it was the headquarters of the 
 warlike dynasty of the Ghireis, and the gathering-place 
 of the hosts of horsemen who were accustomed for many 
 centuries to devastate Russia and Poland, and return 
 thither loaded with plunder, and dragging in their train 
 crowds of unfortunate captives, who were regularly sold 
 as slaves in the markets of Kaffa and other Crimean 
 towns.
 
 342 A TARTAR CITY. 
 
 The Palace of the Khans still stands surrounded 
 by walls and gates, in the centre of beautiful gardens 
 with fountains, terraces, baths, arbours of vines, and 
 other evidences of the taste of the old possessors. Close 
 by are the Grand Mosque and the Mausoleums of the 
 Tartar Khans. Most famous of the three hundred foun- 
 tains in the city is the Seyl-sybyl — the " flood of tears " 
 — that commemorates the grief of Krim Ghirei on the 
 death of the lovely Christian captive who refused to 
 conform to the faith of her enamoured master, as is 
 sung by Alexander Pushkin in an immortal poem. 
 
 Baktchi-Serai is still to all intents a Tartar city, 
 being almost exclusively inhabited by the Nogais, with 
 a sprinkling of Jews and Armenians. It is crowded 
 with mosques and Mohammedan schools; and from the 
 wonderful beauty of its situation, in a narrow valley 
 overhung by a precipitous mountain, with the tall and 
 slender minarets and palace turrets rising from groves 
 of orchard trees, mulberries, and poplars, it is one of the 
 most unique and romantic spots in Russia. 
 
 In the neighbourhood are some curious excavated rock 
 dwellings, probably the work of the ancient troglodyte 
 inhabitants of this region. A little way up the valley 
 is Tchufut Kale — the Jews' Fort — where, perched on 
 the summit of a precipitous rock, accessible only on one 
 side, is the synagogue, still, or till lately, used by the 
 Karaim Hebrews, and underneath are the rock-hewn 
 chambers where the persecuted race have, it is said, 
 found shelter since before the Christian era. 
 
 In another narrow defile is a Greek monastery, dedi- 
 cated to the Virgin, the dim crypts and chapels of 
 which, wholly or in part excavated in the face of the 

 
 THE PLAYGROUND OF RUSSIA. 343 
 
 cliff, are reached by a narrow zigzag staircase, up which 
 hundreds of pilgrims from all parts of the Crimea toil 
 on the day of the Assumption to pay their devotions at 
 the rock-hewn shrine. Not far off is a lofty crag sur- 
 mounted by ruined walls — once the capital of the Tetrax- 
 ite Goths, afterwards the Genoese fortress of Mangup, 
 later a sheltering-place of the Karaim sect, but now 
 abandoned to the bats and the owls. 
 
 It is not alone in the vicinity of Baktchi-Serai that we 
 find rock staircases and cave-dwellings formed by the 
 hand of nature or of man ; mouldering ruins of fortresses 
 and castles built by Greek, or Goth, or Genoese crown- 
 ing some high cliff and beetling over a fertile valley or 
 a gorge green with the foliage of the laurel, the olive, 
 and the fig ; hillsides covered with vineyards, and 
 hamlets surmounted by the towers of mosque or Chris- 
 tian church, with the grand dome of the " Tent Moun- 
 tain " and its neighbour giants looking down from their 
 cold heights on the smiling scene. These are character- 
 istics of the Southern Crimea, from Chersonesus to Kaffa, 
 and entitle it to the name which has been bestowed on 
 it of the " Italy " of Russia. 
 
 On the southern side of the Tauric Alps, especially, 
 where the mountain range interposes a barrier to the 
 cold blasts that sweep across the steppes, the climate is 
 peculiarly mild and suited to the growth of a semi- 
 tropical vegetation. The hills slope down steeply or 
 descend in abrupt steps from a height of four or five 
 thousand feet to the level of the waters of the Black 
 Sea, which in many places wash the bases of great preci- 
 pices hundreds of feet high, and hollow out the soft 
 calcareous rock into fantastic shapes. Between the pro-
 
 344 THE T AURIC ALPS. 
 
 jecting capes are lovely bays ; and at the head of these 
 are mountain streams rushing down green valleys, or 
 brawling through deep ravines, overhung with the foli- 
 age of walnut and oak trees, and frequently making- 
 sheer plunges over the rocky ledges in their channels. 
 Little towns of villas with hotels and bathing-places 
 shelter themselves in these bights, on the margin of the 
 bright blue waters of the Euxine ; and splendid palaces 
 and country seats, many of them surrounded by mag- 
 nificent parks, gardens, and vineyards, are strewn over 
 the mountain side. For this is the playground of Eussia 
 — the only available spot in the wide empire where the 
 rigorous hand of winter can be escaped — and the wealthy 
 and the noble and the valetudinarian crowd thither in 
 the " season," as their brethren in the West hasten to the 
 Riviera. 
 
 The eastern, the central, and the western districts of 
 the Tauric chain possess three distinct sources of inter- 
 est. To the eastward from Sudak or from Theodosia, 
 and along the minor peninsula of the " Cimmerian 
 Chersonese " to the Strait of Yenikale, where the Sea 
 of Azov communicates with the Black Sea, the range 
 dwindles in height and grandeur, and the country be- 
 comes comparatively bare and sterile. But it is a region 
 in which the antiquarian and archaeologist would find 
 an exhaustless storehouse of treasures. Great mounds 
 of pottery, extensive catacombs, fragments of aqueducts, 
 roads, and fountains mark the sites of the ancient 
 Greek colonies. Cyclopean walls and dolmens tell of the 
 rude labours and probably of the bloody sacrificial rites 
 of the savage Tauric and Scythian peoples who lived 
 here when the strangers from Miletus and Heraclea 

 
 KERTCH AND ITS MONUMENTS. 345 
 
 landed twenty-four centuries ago. The ruins of Greek 
 temples, Byzantine churches, and Tartar mosques tell 
 of the introduction and the decay of new forms of faith, 
 as the remains of old moles and feudal castles com- 
 manding the harbours speak of the glorious period of 
 the predominance and rivalry of the maritime republics 
 of Genoa and Venice in this region. 
 
 Most famous among these places of former note, now 
 more or less fallen into decay, may be mentioned Kertch, 
 the ancient Panticapreum ; the tumuli that mark the 
 sites of Nymphseum and Kimmericum ; Kaffa, now called 
 by its old Greek name of Theodosia, the headquarters for 
 centuries of the power of Genoa in the Euxine : Saduk, 
 which, as Soldaya, was for long a bone of contention 
 between that republic and Venice ; and more inland, 
 Stari-Krim, the seat of the Tartar khans before they 
 removed their capital to Baktchi-Serai. Kertch is still a 
 place of some trade ; indeed, after the fall of Sevastopol, 
 it became the chief emporium of the Crimea. But the 
 modern " Russified " town contains scarcely any trace of 
 the Milesian city which became the seat and the burial- 
 place of Mithridates, the conqueror of Greece and 
 Scythia, and at a later date the capital of the renowned 
 Kingdom of the Bosphorus, for many centuries the Great 
 Power in the Black Sea. Above the town, on the 
 " Golden Mountain," the last spur of the Tauric Alps, are 
 the remains of the Acropolis — the " arm-chair of Mithri- 
 dates" — and from thence, looking eastward, may be 
 surveyed the mounds strewn with broken pottery and 
 funeral urns, and fragments of walls and gateway^, 
 underneath which lie buried the glories of Panticapreum. 
 
 Theodosia has still a population of nearly ten thou-
 
 346 KAFFA, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 
 
 .sand souls, and a considerable trade. Here there are no 
 relics of the Grecian era ; for, as Mr. Seymour says in 
 his " Russia on the Black Sea," during " a period of ten 
 centuries the plough passed over the site of Theodosia." 
 But when, at the close of the thirteenth century, the 
 Genoese purchased the spot from the Tartars, and 
 obtained the monopoly of the Crimean trade, the still 
 more splendid city of Kaffa arose, and took the place of 
 Panticapceum as the beacon of civilization in the Euxine. 
 
 So rich and populous did the city become, that it was 
 known as the " Crimean Stamboul ; " and even after it 
 had been bombarded and taken in 1475 by a great 
 Turkish fleet of four hundred and eighty-two sail, and 
 the Italian colonists had been slaughtered or sold into 
 slavery, it is said to have possessed under the Tartar 
 regime no fewer than eighty thousand inhabitants and 
 an almost unrivalled trade. Barbarous " improvements " 
 by its latest masters have worked terrible havoc among 
 the antiquities of Theodosia. " Of all the splendid 
 edifices of the Genoese colony," says Mr. Seymour, " only 
 two churches have escaped the Russian vandalism, having 
 been granted to the Catholics and Armenians, and pre- 
 served by them. In spite, however, of the depredations 
 of the authorities and the stupid ignorance of the 
 governors, Kaffa has never been completely metamor- 
 phosed into a Russian town. Its principal monuments 
 have been demolished, its walls razed to the ground, its 
 later population expelled, but the general appearance 
 of the town, the private dwellings, the streets paved 
 with large flags, all announce a different people." 
 
 It should not be omitted to state, when speaking of 
 the remains of Hellenic and Italian colonization in the 

 
 CRIMEAN COAST SCENERY. 347 
 
 Crimea, that many observers have noticed traits of 
 character and physique in the rural population, now 
 speaking the Tartar tongue and professing the Moham- 
 medan faith, that have led them to believe that the old 
 Greek and Genoese colonists were not exterminated, but 
 were blended with their Mussulman conquerors. 
 
 Westward of Saduk — the capital of the Cumanians, 
 when that roaming people were the masters of Southern 
 Russia — antiquarian lore becomes forgotten in the in- 
 creasing loveliness and wildness of the scenery. Here, 
 and for nearly a hundred miles along the Crimean coast, 
 is the " Garden " of Russia. Nearer and nearer to the 
 Euxine approaches the Yaila — the lofty table-lands form- 
 ing the crest of the Tauric Alps ; and as the strip of land 
 between the mountains and the ocean grows narrower 
 with each mile of westing, the country becomes more 
 abrupt, broken, and rugged, and at the same time more 
 verdurous. 
 
 It has been compared to the finest bits of the coasts 
 of Italy or of Greece. In many places it resembles a 
 prolonged " Trosachs," but with rocks and trees on a 
 grander scale than in the Highland pass, with a southern 
 stamp of vegetation, and with a sparkling blue sea 
 showing itself at intervals on the one hand, and hills 
 towering to twice the height of Ben Venue on the 
 other. The sea generally washes the bases of tall cliffs 
 of schistose rock ; higher up the slope come sandstone 
 formations ; and above all, the limestone of which these 
 mountains are mainly composed. Each of these belts 
 has its own peculiarities of soil and productions, but all, 
 except the higher summits, are clothed in a rich garment 
 of green, sometimes so dense and so intermingled with
 
 348 VILLAS AND WATERING-PLACES. 
 
 crag and boulder, and broken up by gorges, as to form 
 a " labyrinth of verdure." 
 
 Of late years much has been done by human skill 
 and taste to increase the natural loveliness of this 
 Russian paradise. In the reign of the late Emperor it be- 
 came the chosen retreat, during a great part of the year, 
 of the Imperial Court ; and the great families of the 
 realm followed suit, and spent enormous sums in acquir- 
 ing property and building magnificent villas under the 
 shadow of the Tchatir Dagh, and in the exalted neigh- 
 bourhood of the Czar's palace at Livadia. Some of the 
 most notable personages in Russian history have left the 
 impress of their tastes and their eccentricities on the 
 mansions and pleasure-grounds that stud even the most 
 rugged portions of these Southern Crimean shores ; and 
 memories of the Potemkins, Richelieus, Vorontzofs, 
 Galitzins, Naryshkins, De Witts, Potockis, Diebitchs, 
 and others whose names are continually appearing in 
 the later annals of the empire, are met with every few 
 miles. Utility has been combined with beauty ; and 
 the vineyards, which are so sedulously cultivated, now 
 yield a considerable revenue to their noble possessors, 
 and the Crimean wines are known over the length and 
 breadth of Russia. 
 
 The whole district is now easily accessible both by 
 land and water ; for in addition to the railway facilities 
 and the fine road which for many years has traversed 
 the coast region, steamers ply regularly to Alushta, 
 Yalta, and other little towns on the coast, and bring 
 crowds of visitors and sightseers of much humbler rank 
 than the high-born personages who formerly monop- 
 olized all the delights of this genial clime. The pretty
 
 THE PALACE OF LIVADIA. 349 
 
 little town of Yalta is the headquarters of these birds 
 of passage. It is a regularly-organized "tourists' town," 
 having its hotels with French cuisine, its esplanade, and 
 its sea-bathing apparatus. A little to the eastward of 
 Yalta are the imperial " Botanical Gardens," which are 
 described as " a vast establishment for experiments on 
 acclimatization and practical studies on the plants and 
 trees which might be profitably introduced into the 
 Crimea." 
 
 A few miles to the westward and we reach Livadia, 
 a small Greek village, close to which, as most people 
 know, are situated the charming grounds and tasteful 
 palace which Alexander II. made his resort whenever 
 he could escape from the too cumbrous and ceremonious 
 grandeur of the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg. The 
 original royal residence in this district was a mile or so 
 off at Orianda. Nicolas built a huge pile (lately burned 
 to the ground), well according with the mind of that 
 "Don Quixote of autocracy." This is now the pro- 
 perty of the Grand Duke Constantine ; and the present 
 Palace of Livadia was only purchased in 1861, on the 
 death of its owner, Count Potocki, and presented by the 
 State to the late Empress. Great sums have since been 
 expended in its improvement. 
 
 It is built in the Oriental style of architecture, and 
 ornamented after the model of the palace of the old khans 
 of Crim Tartary at Baktchi-Serai. Within, all the fur- 
 nishings and decorations are chaste, simple, and elegant ; 
 while the parks, gardens, and vineyards surrounding 
 the palace are laid out with the most exquisite taste. 
 Neither in extent nor magnificence, however, can the 
 imperial residence compare with the vast Moorish palace
 
 350 THE GATE OF BAIDAR. 
 
 — the work of an English architect — built at Alupka, 
 a few miles farther to the -west, and under the frown- 
 ing front of Aipetry, which rises behind almost perpen- 
 dicularly to a height of three thousand seven hundred 
 and ninety-eight feet. The late Prince Vorontzof, Gover- 
 nor-General of New Russia and Lieutenant of the Cau- 
 casus, entertained the Prince and Princess of Wales at 
 Alupka in 1869, and two wellingtonias in the gardens 
 of the palace were planted by their Royal Highnesses as 
 memorials of their visit to the Crimea. There are other 
 mansions and castles on the same coast that scarcely 
 yield in beauty of situation or surroundings to Livadia 
 or to Alupka. 
 
 At the extreme south-western corner of the Crimea is 
 the Pass of Phoros, or the " Gate of Baidar," where, by a 
 steep ascent through a defile, a projecting spur of the 
 mountains is crossed, and the region of " perpetual 
 spring" is left behind. A fine macadamized road is 
 now carried over the pass ; but half a century ago, when 
 Dr. Henderson visited this region, the traveller bound 
 eastwards had to scramble at the peril of his neck down 
 a series of " prodigious natural stairs," well deserving the 
 name of the <; Devil's Staircase." The charms of the 
 coast scenery are not lost sight of at Phoros ; on the 
 contrary, immediately below it opens up the famous 
 Valley of Baidar, which has been extolled as the 
 " Crimean Tempe," and where, says Seymour, the 
 cottages of the Tartar villagers are " overshadowed by 
 an exuberant vegetation of the walnut, the mulberry, 
 the vine, the fig, the olive, the pomegranate, the peach, 
 the apricot, the plum, the cherry, and the tall black 
 poplar ; all of which, intermingling their clustering 
 
 ■
 
 THE CRIMEAN WAR. 351 
 
 produce, form the most beautiful and fragrant canopies 
 that can be imagined." 
 
 The land now, however, begins to have a western 
 exposure, and the mountains no longer wholly shut 
 out the winter blasts from these delicious scenes. 
 Frost and snow pay visits to the luxuriant Yale of 
 Baidar ; and still more rigorous, as we know to our 
 cost, is the winter climate on the bare plains immedi- 
 ately adjoining, between the land-locked harbour of 
 Balaclava and the long inlet on the southern shore of 
 which are the ruins of the fortress of Sevastopol. For 
 we have now reached a corner of the Crimea which no 
 Englishman can regard without feelings of pride and 
 sadness. Here was the arena where the deadly struggle 
 was fought out between the Western Powers of Europe 
 and the " Colossus of the North," while the whole world 
 looked breathlessly on. Here French elan and stubborn 
 British valour were pitted in not unequal combat against 
 the patient, stoical resolution of the Russian defenders ; 
 and the engineering skill of Todleben, and the heroism 
 of Istomin, Kornilof, and Nakhimof, kept at bay for 
 nearly twelve months the most determined assaults of 
 the Allies, but could not avert the humiliation of Russia 
 and the destruction for the time of her far-reaching- 
 plans on the Black Sea. 
 
 Sevastopol, as has been said, is built on the southern 
 side of the long deep haven which, with the inlet of 
 Balaclava, helps to form the Heracleotic Chersonesus, and 
 occupies the shores of two branch creeks that run in 
 between the high stony ridges of which the peninsula is 
 formed. Eupatoria, where the allied forces landed on 
 the 14th September 1854, is sixty miles to the north-
 
 352 THE SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL. 
 
 ward ; and the heights of Alma, where, six days later, 
 the battle was fought that opened the way to Sevastopol, 
 lies about half-way between the two places. Marching- 
 round the head of the bay, and crossing at this point the 
 Tchernaia, flowing between the steep ridges and cliffs 
 of Inkerman, honeycombed with the dwellings of the 
 ancient cave-dwellers, the invaders took up their posi- 
 tions on the landward side of the fortress, — the British 
 troops with their base on Balaclava, and the French to 
 the eastward, near the site of ancient Chersonesus. 
 
 It is not necessary to recount in detail the incidents of 
 that memorable siege — how the defenders sunk their fleet 
 at the entrance of the harbour, between the great batteries 
 of Forts Constantine and Alexander, on which the fire 
 of the allied fleet was directed, and laboured night and 
 day raising new redoubts and earthworks ; how the 
 besiegers gradually drew the lines of trenches nearer, 
 while beating off the assaults of the land army under 
 Gortschakof at Balaclava and at Inkerman, and endur- 
 ing the cruel privations of the terrible winter of 1854-5 ; 
 and how a hotter and ever hotter rain of shot and shell 
 was directed upon the doomed city, until, on the 8th 
 September 1855, the Malakof redoubt having been 
 carried by the French, the Russian flag was hauled 
 down and the heroic defence was at an end. " In the 
 last twenty-eight days of the siege," says Rambaud, 
 " the Russians lost eighteen thousand men by the bom- 
 bardment alone ; a million and a half of bullets, bombs, 
 shells, and grenades had been thrown into the town." In 
 one single day seventy thousand projectiles were thrown 
 into Sevastopol, and the thunder of the cannonade was 
 heard for sixty miles around. One of the most singular
 
 A DISMANTLED STRONGHOLD. 353 
 
 illustrations of the enormous waste of money and material 
 during the siege is the fact mentioned by Sir E. J. Reed, 
 that the Russian Government, by imposing a tax of six- 
 pence per hundredweight on the " old metal " picked up 
 by the townspeople after the bombardment, were able 
 to realize the handsome sum of £15,000. 
 
 The town of Sevastopol is slowly clearing away the 
 wreck, and recovering some of its former trade and 
 importance. Its population, however, is still probably 
 not half what it was before the siege ; and it is doubt- 
 ful whether it will ever again be the formidable naval 
 and military stronghold which it was previous to 1854. 
 
 At the time of Mr. Reed's visit in 1875, the destruction 
 that had befallen this fair city — " fair by the beauty of 
 its site, the glory of its climate, and the magnificence 
 of its edifices " — was not obvious at first sight to one 
 approaching from seaward. The noble flight of land- 
 ing stairs, called after the great Catherine who founded 
 the town near the site of the squalid Tartar village of 
 Aktiar, and formed the scheme of making it the nucleus 
 of Russian power on the Black Sea, and the columned 
 portico, the statues, and the monuments to which they 
 lead, are almost uninjured. But as you penetrate into 
 the town, tokens meet you at every step of the ruin and 
 desolation caused by the " iron shower " which so long 
 beat down upon the city from the heights above, while 
 as seen from the hills themselves the view is " simply 
 appalling." 
 
 The signs of the presence of the armies which so 
 long marched and countermarched, and fought, and dug- 
 trenches and laid mines, on this bare plateau, are 
 rapidly being obliterated by the hand of time. The 
 
 (718) 23
 
 354 
 
 RELICS OF BATTLE. 
 
 position of the different camps is chiefly to be dis- 
 tinguished by the remains of provision tins and broken 
 bottles. Other memorials there are, however, which will 
 always be places of pilgrimage to those of our country- 
 men who visit the Crimea — the cemeteries in which 
 rest the bones of the valiant British dead and of their 
 gallant allies and enemies.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 NEW RUSSIA AND ITS PORTS. 
 
 HE first naval success of the Russians was won 
 in Black Sea waters — or, more properly 
 speaking, in the Sea of Azov — when, at the 
 capture of the fortress of Azov in 1696 by 
 Peter the Great, part of the flotilla which had been 
 built at Voronej seized and sank a number of Turkish 
 galleys at the mouth of the Don. That was the first 
 " palpable hit " in the return innings which Russia has 
 now been playing against the Turk for two hundred 
 years past, the latest additions to its long score of 
 triumphs securing the retrocession of Bessarabia and the 
 establishment of the Czar's authority from the Danube 
 to Batoum. 
 
 That earliest little gleam of victory opened up the 
 prospect of a new source of strength. Ambition and 
 necessity have gone hand in hand, and the rulers of 
 Russia have never missed an opportunity of extending 
 their sway over the countries of the Black Sea, and 
 building up in these comparatively open waters a 
 formidable naval power. The Empresses Anne and 
 Elizabeth in their time made large additions to their 
 territory in this direction, and prepared still more
 
 356 THE GROWTH OF NEW RUSSIA. 
 
 effectually for the end by breaking the power of the 
 Cossack republics, and settling in the steppes skirting 
 Turkey and Little Tartary colonies of refugees and 
 immigrants of many nationalities — Greeks, Georgians, 
 Servians, Wallachians, and Hungarians — all united in 
 their hatred of the Mussulman, and ready to take up 
 sword at any moment against their old oppressors. 
 
 It was reserved, however, to the Empress Catherine to 
 deal the decisive blow. It was in her time that the 
 Zaporogian setch on the cataracts of the Dnieper was 
 finally suppressed, and the remnants of that freebooting 
 brotherhood were banished to the eastern shore of the 
 Sea of Azov, where they now form the community of the 
 " Cossacks of the Black Sea." Her great commanders 
 beat back the Turk beyond the Dniester, and put an end 
 to the Crimean khanate. Thenceforth, an era of peace- 
 ful progress began for Southern Russia, and continued 
 almost unchecked down to our own day, even during 
 the times when war has been raging on both flanks of 
 the newly-acquired territory. 
 
 There is nothing elsewhere in Europe to compare 
 with the marvellous rapidity with which the soil of 
 this " New Russia " — so long a mere field for hostile 
 armies marching across and fighting in — has been 
 occupied and brought under cultivation, and wealthy 
 commercial cities have sprung up in the bare steppe or 
 on the deserted inlets of the Black Sea. For an analogy 
 we must go to America or to our own Australian colonies. 
 
 In this region we must not look for venerable churches 
 and other monuments of ancient culture. The chief 
 antiquities are those relics of Scythian and other nomad 
 peoples long since disappeared that are found buried
 
 
 BLACK SEA EMPORIUM. 357 
 
 under the tumuli that everywhere break the otherwise 
 level plains. Civilization here is barely a century old, 
 and is not yet fully acclimatized. Country life, like 
 country scenery, is bald and uninteresting. The towns 
 have only two titles on which they can base their claims 
 to notice. Either they are strong fortresses — such as 
 Kishenef, Bender, Akerman, Otchakov, and Kinburn — 
 about which cling memories of famous episodes in mili- 
 tary and naval history ; or they are nourishing empo- 
 riums of trade — depots like Balta, Nicopol, Elizabetgrad, 
 and Ekaterinoslav — where the wheat, oats, and rye, the 
 timber, linseed, and hemp, the wool, tallow, and hides, 
 and other products of Russia, are collected ; or seaports — 
 like Odessa, Nicolaiev, and Kherson on the Black Sea, 
 and Berdiansk, Marioupol, Taganrog, and Rostov on the 
 Sea of Azov — where these homely but valuable articles 
 are shipped to Western Europe. 
 
 Sometimes, as in the cases of Nicolaiev and Kherson, 
 commerce and war have combined to give importance to 
 these new cities. The two last-mentioned ports are both 
 reached by the wide estuary formed by the union of the 
 Dnieper and the Boug, the entrance to which is defended 
 on either side by the fortresses of Otchakov and Kinburn, 
 both much spoken of during the Crimean War, and by a 
 large " midwater " battery. Nicolaiev, since the fall of 
 Sevastopol the imperial naval station on the Black Sea, 
 is situated some twenty miles up the Boug, a deep mag- 
 nificent river a mile and a half broad. Kherson is forty 
 miles distant on the still larger stream of the Dnieper, 
 here spread over many miles and flowing between 
 numerous islands. 
 
 It was at Kherson where Catherine may be said to
 
 358 KHERSON. 
 
 have laid the corner-stone of the Russian power in the 
 Black Sea, though Ekaterinoslav — the " glory of Cath- 
 erine " — and the Greek colony of Marioupol were founded 
 in the same year — 1778. It was the handiwork of 
 the magnificent imperial favourite Prince Potemkin, 
 the " Creator of New Russia," the conqueror of the 
 Turks, and the subjugator of the Taurida. The site 
 was chosen and the name conferred because it was 
 then supposed that it was here, and not, as we have 
 seen is the case, at Sevastopol, where the ancient Greek 
 metropolis of Chersonesus had stood. Here was 
 founded, on a humble enough scale, the nucleus of the 
 Black Sea navy, which now embraces some of the 
 most formidable and ponderous "floating citadels" that 
 modern ingenuity has constructed. 
 
 When Catherine made her progress through her 
 recently conquered domains, in extraordinary state and 
 splendour, christening new towns and organizing vast 
 provinces on her march, receiving the homage of Polish 
 pans and Tartar princes, and waited upon by no less a 
 personage than the Emperor Joseph II. of Austria, she 
 made Kherson her headquarters for nearly a week. 
 
 Already the town, though only " a child of eight 
 years," had made wonderful progress. The Czarina, 
 entering the city through a gateway on which were 
 written, in Greek characters, the words, " By this the 
 way leads to Byzantium" was amazed to find that 
 a large population— including skilled carpenters, black- 
 smiths, and other artisans, attracted thither from all 
 parts of Europe — had been settled in this desolate 
 spot ; that military buildings, storehouses, and a 
 cathedral had been built of freestone ; that a dockyard 

 
 POT EM KIN AND HOWARD. 359 
 
 had been constructed, and three large vessels of war were 
 on the stocks ; that the trade of the place was increasing 
 in "leaps and bounds," and the Russian flag already- 
 floated in the harbour of Marseilles. Sumptuous were 
 the fetes held in her honour, and great the rewards 
 reaped by Potemkin and his helpers from their imperious 
 but indulgent mistress. 
 
 In the Cathedral of St. Catherine the body of 
 Potemkin was buried by the direction of the Empress ; 
 but her successor, Paul, who systematically threw dis- 
 grace on all that his mother delighted to honour, ordered 
 the bones of the founder of Kherson to be exhumed, and 
 huddled away in an obscure nook, where they no doubt 
 rest as peacefully as under their massive sarcophagus. 
 
 On the outskirts of the town is a monument which 
 begets quite other memories — that of the prison philan- 
 thropist Howard. It is a simple pyramid, standing in 
 the midst of a bare plain, and surrounded by a dilapi- 
 dated wall and a few poplar trees. By last accounts it 
 presented an appearance of sad neglect and decay, a 
 melancholy reflection on the gratitude of mankind, in 
 whose cause Howard toiled so zealously. He died here 
 in 1790 — a year before Potemkin — not from having 
 caught jail-fever while engaged in his humane labours, 
 but from having caught cold by indiscreetly riding out 
 in thin pumps and light evening dress to an evening 
 entertainment in the neighbourhood. 
 
 Kherson to-day has a population of about fifty 
 thousand souls. Its commerce is extensive, and on the 
 whole increasing ; but younger rivals, more favourably 
 situated, have robbed it of its former predominance. 
 Nicolaiev is now the chief naval station on the Black
 
 360 NICOLAIEV. 
 
 Sea; and Odessa has long- been the principal sea-port 
 of Southern Russia. When the Russians captured the 
 strong fort of Otchakov, on the feast-day of St. Nicolas, 
 1789, inflicting a loss of twenty thousand men on the 
 Turks, it was thought only due to the saint for his 
 services to name a town in his honour. Accordingly, 
 Nicolaiev rose. From the first it was designed to be the 
 headquarters of the Russian fleet in the Euxine, and for 
 lono- it was nothing other than a vast arsenal and depot 
 of naval and military stores. Latterly, however, it has 
 been doing an extensive trade in the export of grain and 
 other produce, and threatening to become a formidable 
 rival to Odessa. 
 
 Great quantities of shipbuilding timber are brought 
 thither down the Dnieper and Boug ; and from the 
 earliest days of its existence Nicolaiev has had a large 
 share in the construction of the Russian men-of-war. 
 From the first wooden frigate built here ninety years 
 ago, to the circular ironclads launched under the superin- 
 tendence of Admiral Popoff and the Grand Duke Con- 
 stantine, late Lord High Admiral of the Russian fleet, its 
 dockyards have supplied illustrations of all the changes 
 which modern science and ingenuity have effected in 
 naval warfare. 
 
 The late Emperor and other members of the Russian 
 imperial family exhibited a warm interest in naval 
 affairs, and have repeatedly taken up their residence for 
 a short time at Nicolaiev. Evidence of the kindly 
 concern shown for the comfort and improvement of 
 the Russian soldier and sailor may be observed on all 
 hands ; — in the fine " Naval Hospital," which Sir E. J. 
 Reed considered to be unequalled by any institution of 

 
 THE BLACK SEA WAR FLEET. 361 
 
 the kind he had seen elsewhere ; in the elementary and 
 technical schools, reading-rooms, etc., attached to the 
 barracks ; and, more especially, by a visit to the Leski 
 quarter, where cottages and plots of ground are allotted 
 rent free, or, under certain conditions, as freeholds, to 
 officers and seamen invalided by wounds or by age, and 
 where, among other means of recreation provided for these 
 disabled "tars," are a beautiful park and pleasure-grounds. 
 
 The Leski quarter was originally the idea of Admiral 
 Greig, one of the many distinguished officers of English 
 extraction who have served in the Russian navy. 
 Few families have done more for the improvement of 
 Russian administration in the naval and in other services 
 than the Greigs, the head of which house was lately in 
 charge of the Imperial Ministry of Finance. To them, 
 among: other debts, Nicolaiev owes its fine lines of 
 boulevards, and other improvements in its streets and 
 buildings which make it one of the handsomest cities in 
 Russia. 
 
 The town has the natural advantage of being built 
 on a healthy and elevated site, overlooking the con- 
 fluence of two noble rivers — the Boug and the Jugul. 
 The broad and regularly-built streets, and extensive 
 gardens and parks, cover an enormous extent of ground ; 
 and the handsome structures, the Cathedral, Town House, 
 Admiralty, Observatory, and other public buildings de- 
 tach themselves as prominently from the ranks of the 
 one-storied brick houses around them as the huge hulls 
 of the "popoffkas," and other war-ships which make 
 Nicolaiev their rendezvous, predominate over the merchant 
 shipping in the docks and harbour. 
 
 Seventy miles farther to the south-westward, over a
 
 362 ODESSA. 
 
 steppe as dreary and barren of interest as that between 
 Perecop and Kherson, or between Kherson and Nicolaiev, 
 and intersected by long, narrow salt lagoons and marshes, 
 is the great trading city of Odessa, the second commer- 
 cial port in Russia. Like Kherson and Nicolaiev, it 
 marks an immense stride in the progress of the Russian 
 arms and influence in the direction of Constantinople. 
 Like them, it has sprung up within a hundred years, 
 absolutely from nothing ; for when Suvaroff's most san- 
 guinary feat of arms, the capture of Ismail, had in 1790 
 laid Turkey practically at Catherine's feet, and opened 
 the way to the Treaty of Jassy, by which the lands 
 between the Boug and the Dniester were ceded to Russia, 
 there were only a miserable cluster of Tartar hovels and 
 the small fort of Hadji Bey near the site where now 
 stands the fourth city in point of population in the 
 empire. It was only in 1794 that the Admiral de 
 Ribas, who had captured the Turkish fort, and who was 
 the first Russian commandant, was granted permission to 
 found a commercial town at the bay adjoining the 
 estuary of the Dniester. 
 
 The true era of Odessa's prosperity, however, dates 
 from 1804, when the Duke de Richelieu, the first 
 Governor-General of New Russia, took up his residence 
 here. Odessa owes at least as much to this distin- 
 guished French emigre as Kherson does to Potemkin 
 or Nicolaiev to Greig. Odessa formed itself under his 
 hands ; the features which distinguish it from other 
 Russian towns — that cheerful " civilized " aspect which 
 gives a stranger the impression that he is in a mer- 
 cantile city of Western Europe — were stamped on it by 
 Richelieu. He laid out, paved, and lighted the principal
 
 RICHELIEU AND YORONTZOF. 363 
 
 streets ; built a quarantine in the old fortress, a mole, 
 and warehouses ; instituted a bank, a bourse, a tribunal 
 of commerce, and a theatre ; organized a postal system 
 and scientific and industrial schools ; settled the town 
 and suburbs with skilled artisans and other immigrants 
 from the West ; and, in a word, promoted everything 
 that tended to develop the intellectual and commercial 
 activity of the place. During the fourteen years of his 
 administration the population increased from nine thou- 
 sand to thirty thousand ; and its wealth and trade, under 
 the encouragement of the special privileges which it 
 possessed as a free port, had developed in still greater 
 proportion. It is told, in proof of the generous and dis- 
 interested spirit in which the first governor of New 
 Russia worked, that when he left Odessa he carried with 
 him only "a small portmanteau, containing his uniform 
 and a couple of shirts." 
 
 Another great benefactor of Odessa, whose labours are 
 also extant in the substantial form of valuable and 
 handsome public buildings and works, was Prince 
 Vorontzof. Odessa has not been ungrateful. The two 
 chief monuments which the town possesses are statues 
 of Richelieu and Vorontzof. The Lyceum, founded by 
 Richelieu, has developed into the University of Odessa, 
 one of the most important educational institutions in 
 Russia. A great place of public resort is the " Duke's 
 Garden," which was laid out by the direction of Vorontzof, 
 who also built the Great Staircase, which leads from the 
 level of the harbour to the summit of the limestone cliff 
 on which the city stands. Lines of poplars forming a 
 boulevard skirt the cliff and traverse the city in various 
 directions ; and though the soil and climate are not
 
 364 THE ODESSA BAZAARS. 
 
 favourable to vegetation, the handsome suburbs and 
 country houses clustering around the town have a fair 
 sprinkling of trees. In the centre of the town another 
 oasis of green surrounds the cathedral, in the " Grand 
 Place ; " but Odessa in the summer, in spite of all that 
 has been clone for it, is a hot, arid, and dusty place, 
 while at other seasons the unpaved back streets, like 
 those of the other towns of New Russia through which 
 we have passed, are almost impassable with mud. 
 
 Singular is the collection of nationalities to be met 
 with in the streets and quays of Odessa, and stupifying 
 the Babel of tongues to be heard in its bazaars and ex- 
 changes ; even in the theatre, plays in three or four 
 different languages are produced and understood. Odessa 
 is the outlet for the products of a great part of Little 
 Russia, Poland, and Galicia, as well as of the neighbour- 
 ing districts of New Russia. Representatives of all the 
 races inhabiting these border countries visit its market- 
 places to buy or to sell, and to mingle with the throng 
 of sailors of different nations, who have strolled carelessly 
 thither from the harbour in search of amusement, or 
 with Greek, Armenian, Italian, and Jewish traders who 
 are here, eagerly intent on business. 
 
 The province of Bessarabia alone furnishes the Odessa 
 bazaars with a strange medley of languages and costumes 
 — Roumanian peasants and German colonists with fruit 
 and grain from the villages that nestle in charming 
 valleys, bounded by broad hilly spurs, between the 
 Dniester and the Pruth ; Jewish dealers in wool or flax 
 from the capital town of Kishinef , which already reckons 
 over one hundred thousand inhabitants ; Bulgarian, Ser- 
 vian, and Greek cultivators with the produce of their 
 

 
 GIPSIES AJVD JEWS. 365 
 
 little fields ; Cossacks and Tartars from the flat marshy 
 tracts along the Pruth or at the mouths of the Danube ; 
 most noticeable of all, the Tsiganis or gipsies, who while 
 leading as usual a wandering life, moving with tents and 
 waggons from town to town, and subsisting by juggling, 
 fortune-telling, and partly by pilfering, have managed to 
 preserve here more than elsewhere the customs, dress, 
 and beliefs which they are supposed to have originally 
 brought from India. 
 
 It is the Jews, however, who put in motion and who 
 regulate the currents of business life that set to and 
 from Odessa. In the city their numbers have been 
 estimated at sixty thousand. Deprived of Jewish enter- 
 prise and capital, the trade of New Russia would collapse. 
 They show an example of thrift and sobriety which 
 their Christian neighbours are slow to imitate ; and to 
 the jealousy and hatred aroused by the spectacle of their 
 superior talents and wealth are to be attributed the 
 scenes of riot and outrage that have recently disgraced 
 Odessa and other towns in this region. 
 
 During the Russo-Turkish War, when the Bosphorus 
 was blockaded by the Turks, the trade of Odessa was 
 temporarily paralyzed. The extraordinary development 
 of the American grain traffic has also had a material 
 effect on the business of the Black Sea. There is little 
 danger, however, of the commerce of this great city 
 retrograding. Its inhabitants already number nearly two 
 hundred thousand ; the value of its trade is estimated at 
 many millions sterling a year ; there are still unlimited 
 capabilities for growth in the countries behind it ; and 
 its progress in the future will probably be scarcely less 
 remarkable than in the past.
 
 366 THE SEA OF AZOV. 
 
 The harbours in the Sea of Azov have the advantage 
 over Odessa and its neighbour ports on the Black Sea 
 proper, in being nearer to the great centres of Russian 
 wealth and population on the Volga. But there are 
 other circumstances that much more than neutralize the 
 shorter land carriage between Taganrog and the "granary 
 of Russia." 
 
 First, the shifting sandbars of the Strait of Yeni- 
 kale have to be passed before the shallow half-fresh 
 waters of the " Palus Mseotis " are reached. Skilful 
 piloting is needed in threading a way between the shoals, 
 and making headway against the currents which set from 
 the mouths of the Don and from the outlet of the 
 " Sivash " towards the Strait. Long peninsulas — mere 
 spits of sand or mud — project into the turbid waters or 
 line the coasts, the most remarkable being the Peninsula 
 or " arrow " of Arabat, which for forty miles interposes 
 a barrier between the " Putrid Sea " and the Sea of 
 Azov. 
 
 In other places abrupt cliffs of sandstone or marshes 
 line the shore. Everywhere, however, the environs of 
 this shallow, muddy basin of brackish water are flat 
 and stale, though not unprofitable ; for on both shores 
 of the Gulf of the Don especially fine crops of grain 
 are raised, and large flocks of cattle are reared by the 
 Cossack communities on the eastern coast. Berdiansk 
 is the only decent port, and even that harbour is rapidly 
 silting up. Vessels trading to the higher ports in the 
 Sea of Azov have to lie several miles off-shore and take 
 on board cargo. There is hardly any import trade, and 
 the ballast is generally flung overboard, and helps to in- 
 crease that accumulation of rubbish with which the Sea 

 
 THE DON PORTS. 367 
 
 of Azov is gradually choking itself. "When a strong 
 wind is blowing from the northward, the water near 
 Taganrog is sometimes forced bodily off-shore, leaving a 
 great expanse of sand and mud, with vessels sticking in 
 it like flies in a pot of honey. Then for many months 
 the greater part of the sea is frozen over ; and immense 
 hummocks and ridges of ice, " as high as a house," give 
 the Palus Mseotis the appearance of an inlet of the Polar 
 Ocean. Mr. Seymour says that in 1854 a " regular 
 mountain-chain, many miles in length," stretched partly 
 across the entrance to the Gulf of the Don, and that an 
 English vessel that had been lost there for several weeks 
 " was only discovered by one of her masts sticking above 
 the rida;e." 
 
 The most notable places in the Sea of Azov are clus- 
 tered about the mouths of the Don — Azov, the scene of 
 Peter the Great's first success over the Turks, near which 
 was the site of the old Greek colony of Tanais ; the sea- 
 port of Taganrog, first founded by Peter so early as 
 1706, rebuilt by Catherine in 1769, and the place 
 where the Emperor Alexander I. died in 1824; and 
 lastly Rostov, like Taganrog, the seat of a large trade 
 in grain, tallow, wool, and fish. There is little other- 
 wise noticeable about these busy towns, except perhaps 
 that the mud and filth accumulated in their streets 
 are somewhat above the average, even for Russian cities. 
 
 To reach Rostov we must ascend one of the channels 
 of the Don, between reedy islands and mud-banks, to the 
 head of the delta. Except in the season of floods, the 
 Don is a shallow stream, with a volume of water ridicu- 
 lously out of proportion to the great length of its course 
 and to the breadth of its shingly channel. It is navi-
 
 368 DON COSSACKS. 
 
 gated by flat-bottomed steamboats, drawing only a couple 
 of feet of -water ; and Mr. Mackenzie Wallace says that 
 on each voyage a free passage is given to a number 
 of Cossacks, on the understanding that when the vessel 
 runs aground, as is constantly happening, it becomes 
 their duty to get into the water and haul her off by 
 main strength. He mentions also that the steamer by 
 which he was travelling had on one occasion to come to 
 a dead halt, in order not to run down a mounted Cossack, 
 who was leisurely crossing her bows in wading from 
 bank to bank ; and that a passenger, finding that no stop 
 was to be made at his village, quietly slipped over the 
 side and walked ashore. 
 
 These Cossack villages or stanitzas are dotted at 
 intervals alonff the maro-in of the Don. Their in- 
 habitants divide their time between the sturgeon and 
 other fisheries, agriculture, and military life. The old 
 military organization of the Don Cossacks has been in 
 a large measure broken down of recent years. There 
 is no longer an ataman or " hetman " at Tcherkask 
 clothed with semi-independent power ; the civil and 
 military officials alike receive their appointments in the 
 ordinary way ; and the Cossacks of the Don are simply 
 a community of agriculturists, holding their lands on 
 condition of military service when called upon, and thus 
 forming an irregular cavalry force which is a powerful and 
 valuable adjunct to the Russian army. The Cossack 
 frontiersmen are scattered along the whole southern 
 margin of Russia from the Danube to Behring Strait ; 
 and besides their uses in actual war, especially in such 
 duties as scouting and foraging, they serve as a police 
 force for overawing and keeping in order the tribes 

 
 NOYO-TCHERKASK. 369 
 
 which have only recently come under Russian rule. In 
 times of peace they break up new soil and raise laro-e 
 quantities of grain, though the roving instincts inherited 
 from their forefathers make them disinclined to devote 
 themselves steadily to agriculture, when it is possible to 
 make a living by hunting or by fishing. 
 
 Each group of Cossack communities — there are some 
 dozen of them in all — has had its own special origin, 
 history, and organization. The Cossacks of the Don are 
 the most numerous of all, and have been longest under 
 settled government. Their stage of civilization differs 
 little from that of the ordinary Russian peasant. They 
 are perhaps better educated and more intelligent, and more 
 cleanly in their houses and persons, than their fellow- 
 countrymen who are impressed into the regular army. 
 They are, as a rule, taller in stature and more powerful 
 in frame ; " schism " has made wider progress among 
 them, — in fact they are raskolniks almost to a man ; and 
 in their costume and many of their habits they differ 
 from the ordinary Russians. In the main, however, they 
 are the same race, mingled in the course of centuries 
 with infusions of Tartar, Polish, and Circassian blood, 
 and modified by the wilder and freer life of the steppe. 
 
 Their capital, Novo-Tcherkask, stands on high ground 
 
 on the banks of two little streams, and commands a 
 
 wide view of the valley of the Don, which flows close at 
 
 hand, and of the level plains stretching to the eastward. 
 
 The headquarters of the Don Cossacks were removed 
 
 to Novo-Tcherkask from the old town of Tchcrkask, 
 
 built on a muddy island in the Don, and subject 
 
 to periodical inundations, in the time of the famous 
 
 hetman Platoff, whose palace and the triumphal arch at 
 (718) 24
 
 370 BLACK SEA COSSACKS. 
 
 the entrance to the broad main thoroughfare are the chief 
 architectural features of the new city. The list of the 
 public buildings of New Teherkask — which include, 
 besides schools, churches, and hospital, a club-house and a 
 theatre — shows what progress these rough-riders of the 
 Don, who were only brought under subjection in the 
 time of Peter the Great, are making in modern art 
 and taste. In spite of these attractions, of its wide 
 clean streets, and of the neighbouring vineyards which 
 yield the celebrated wine of the Don, Novo-Tcherkask 
 is too parched and dusty, too exposed to violent vicissi- 
 tudes of temperature, to be an ideal place of residence. 
 
 Next neighbours to the Cossacks of the Don are the 
 Tchernomorski — the Cossacks of the Black Sea — who 
 hold the plains on the eastern side of the Sea of Azov 
 and along the course of the Kuban river up to the very 
 base of the chain of the Caucasus. These are descen- 
 dants of the Zaporogian bands of the Dnieper, the rem- 
 nants of which were deported hither a century ago. 
 Their later experiences have not been so conducive to 
 peaceful industry as have those of their kinsmen on the 
 Don. Many a sharp brush have they had with the Tcher- 
 kess and other tribes of the Caucasus, in the memory of 
 men who are not yet past middle age ; and the neighbour- 
 hood of their capital, Ekaterinodar, on the banks of the 
 Kuban, has been recommended as the most likely place 
 extant for collecting materials for an authentic modern 
 tale of adventure of the Fenimore Cooper class. 
 
 The Black Sea Cossacks are not particularly fond of 
 tilling the land ; but they rear large flocks of cattle and 
 sheep ; they are successful fishers, and daring hunters 
 of the wild boar, the wolf, and the bear. 

 
 TMOTJTARAKAN. 371 
 
 Between the mouths of the Kuban is a singular island 
 or peninsula — it is difficult to say which — that stretches 
 out towards the Strait of Yenikale. Here are the little 
 town of Taman, and many small fishing-villages on the 
 bights, sand-spits, and creeks that intersect this maze 
 of fresh and salt water, marsh and dry land ; and here, 
 on the site of an early Greek colony, within view of 
 the capital of the Bosphorus on the Crimean side of the 
 strait, and almost under the shadow of Mount Elburz, 
 Mstislaf, son of St. Vladimir, more than eight hundred 
 years ago, founded the Russ state of Tmoutarakan, and 
 was the ancestor of a line of Buss princes who, centuries 
 before St. Petersburg or even Moscow had been heard 
 of, carried on wars with Huns and Avars, entered into 
 alliances with the Greek emperors to destroy the Khazar 
 kingdom, then all-powerful between the Black Sea and 
 the Caspian, and thus were the pioneers of Slavonic 
 aggression in the Caucasus, and paved the way for the 
 more abiding conquests that were to come.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE CAUCASUS AND TRANSCAUCASIA. 
 
 EW parts of the great plains of Russia are 
 more empty, desolate, and " monotonous with 
 an intensity almost rising into grandeur," 
 than the steppes lying between the mouths 
 of the Don and the Caspian. The traveller bound 
 southward can now take advantage of the line of rail- 
 way which, passing through Novo-Tcherkask, is carried 
 on, past Stavropol, as far as to Vladikavkas, at the 
 entrance to the defile of Dariel, and at no distant date, 
 no doubt, will be continued to Tirlis, the capital of the 
 Russian territories in the Caucasus. But under what- 
 ever conditions the journey is made, the landscape of 
 these " Sarmatian wastes" becomes insupportably tire- 
 some loner before it is over. One does not wonder that 
 the Sauromati, the Alans, and the Huns, who of old 
 had these plains as their inheritance, did not make them 
 an abiding resting-place, but hastened on to more smiling 
 regions in Poland and Germany ; or that their modern 
 conquerors, the Russians, have left them pretty much 
 to the occupation of Kalmuks and Tartars, and, placing 
 a Cossack cordon to watch over these nomad tribes, have 
 also pushed forward to fairer scenes beyond. 

 
 THE PLEASURES OF POSTING. 373 
 
 The posting-stations are few and far between, and 
 the fare and lodging bare and rude as the surrounding 
 wilderness. In summer the dust and heat are stifling : 
 the sun shines down on the burnt-up herbage, and the 
 atmosphere is like the air over a furnace, and the level 
 surface seems to throb and palpitate with the heat. In 
 winter time the cold is as excessive. The traveller 
 buries himself in his heap of furs, knowing that exposure 
 even for a few minutes will lay him open to the risk of 
 frost-bite. 
 
 Perhaps one of the storms that are common in this 
 region suddenly sweeps down and envelops the sledge 
 and horses in clouds of powdery snow. On such occa- 
 sions, even with the most skilful " yemstchik," the danger 
 of losing the way and being buried in the snow-drift 
 is no mere imaginary terror. Describing these winter 
 hurricanes, which are known to the natives of the steppe 
 as the "boura" or "metel," Mr. Seymour says: — " When 
 the wind blows with violence, and the snow is drifted 
 about in eddies, the storm has a singularly bewildering 
 and stunning effect. The inhabitants themselves lose 
 their way ; and the herds of horses, cattle, and sheep 
 that happen to be surprised by it become seized with 
 a panic, and rushing headlong before the gale, defy every 
 obstacle that presents itself to their wild career. They 
 are then inevitably lost ; and overcome by fatigue, they 
 either perish in the snow, or meet their death by falling 
 down the precipitous side of some ravine." 
 
 The night brings little comfort to make amends for 
 the fatigues of the day; for the company that share with 
 the traveller the shelter of the little Cossack station are 
 more noisy than select, and insect life is active and
 
 374 THE CAUCASUS. 
 
 abundant. But some fine morning he awakens to dis- 
 cover that he has reached the confines of a new land — 
 a region of sublimity and romance. Rugged hills rise 
 ahead in loftier and loftier tiers, separated by valleys 
 clad with trees — the first wood met with for five hun- 
 dred or six hundred miles — and by cold mountain 
 streams, branches of the Kuban or the Terek. The next 
 stage brings him to thriving Cossack, Russian, and Ger- 
 man colonies sheltering themselves behind these slopes. 
 amid cornfields and vineyards ; or perhaps to a health- 
 resort, with hotel and baths clustered round a mineral 
 spring in approved European fashion. High above all 
 rise the gleaming summits of a mountain chain, grouped 
 about some giant, like Elburz or Kazbek, raising itself, a 
 stupendous pyramid of snow, to a height of two thou- 
 sand or three thousand feet above the highest peak of 
 the Swiss Alps. It is the Caucasus. 
 
 This great mountain range stretches from the Euxine 
 to the Caspian waters, like a barrier between Europe 
 and Asia, for a length of eight hundred miles. Its 
 highest peaks are near its central region, and the general 
 elevation diminishes on either side as it approaches its 
 two bounding seas, into each of which it projects a sort 
 of outwork in the form of a peninsula. The general 
 direction, as any map will show, is not directly across 
 the narrowest part of the isthmus, but transversely, in a 
 west-north-west to east-south-east direction, thus leav- 
 ing at either extremity a tract of mountainous country 
 — Abkhasia on the west, and Daghestan on the east — 
 wedged in between the main rido-e of the Caucasus and 
 the sea, and traversed only by a narrow, and on the 
 Black Sea coast almost impracticable, pass between the 

 
 LEGEND AND ROMANCE. 375 
 
 hills and the water, into which the cliffs suddenly shelve 
 down. 
 
 Other remarkable features of the Caucasian chain 
 are its comparative isolation from other mountain sys- 
 tems, the absence of lakes, the steepness of its accliv- 
 ity, especially on the northern side, the compactness of 
 its mass — its subsidiary spurs and offshoots being of 
 small extent, and its greatest breadth only about one 
 hundred and fifty miles — and the nature of its " dorsal 
 ridge," which is composed of two parallel ranges of peaks, 
 not, however, separated by deep valleys, but connected 
 by a lofty table-land, which seems to unite them as 
 summits of one massive mountain. 
 
 In the Caucasus is found the highest land in Europe or 
 in Western Asia. Ancients and moderns have alike had 
 their imaginations impressed by its transcendent height, 
 its singular position, and the savage loveliness of its 
 scenery. It has been made a chosen realm of legend 
 and romance. Ea, to which Jason and the Argonauts 
 fared in their quest for the Golden Fleece, has been 
 identified with Kutais, now a Russian military post and 
 trading town, containing little of interest to a modern 
 seeker for adventure. Colchis, where Medea wove her 
 spells and worked her horrid deeds of blood, is thought 
 to correspond with the coast district on either side of 
 the Rion — the ancient Phasis — at the mouth of which 
 stands the port of Poti, now the starting-point of the 
 railway which has already been carried to Tiflis, and 
 will ere long reach Baku on the Caspian. It was to a 
 crag of Elburz, still looking serenely down on Kutais 
 and the Rion valley, or of Kazbek, dominating the 
 Dariel Pass, that Prometheus was chained by the angry
 
 376 ELBURZ AND THE FIRE-WORSHIPPERS. 
 
 lord of Olympus for bringing down the fire of the gods 
 to earth, while, according to the old myth, Europe and 
 Asia, and the nymphs of the sea and the woods, met to 
 soothe the torments of the benefactor of the race of 
 men. 
 
 The Greeks were not the only people to whom the 
 Caucasus, and more especially Elburz, the " shining" 
 or ' : sublime," were full of awe-inspiring suggestions — 
 associations in which the terrible and beautiful were in- 
 extricably mingled. In Arabian legend " beyond Mount 
 Kaf " was the region of mystery and enchantment, where 
 the spells of the genii had full power. 
 
 To the Zoroastrians — the fire- worshippers of early 
 Persia — Elburz was the highest and most ancient moun- 
 tain in the world, and the most sacred spot on earth. 
 It was their Sinai, the mount where Zoroaster received 
 the law. But it was more : they regarded it as " the 
 throne of Ormuzd, the mount of the congregation of the 
 celestial spirits, the pure region of light, where there is 
 neither enemy, darkness, nor death, but all is light, 
 peace, and felicity." " Yonder on Elburz," says the 
 Zend-Avesta, " is neither gloomy night nor cold wind, 
 nor heat nor corruption, nor evil, the creature of wicked 
 genii ; yonder the enemy dare not ascend as the domi- 
 neering lord ; for yonder walks the great king — the sun 
 — the source of peace and life." 
 
 Alas for the ancient faiths ! The adorers of the 
 everlasting fire have disappeared in Persia, supplanted 
 and exterminated by the believers in the Prophet and 
 his son-in-law Ali — the Shiite sect of Mohammedans. 
 Our countrymen, Freshfield, Tucker, and Moore, who 
 were the first who succeeded in the attempt to ascend
 
 BAKU AND ITS NAPHTHA SPRINGS. 377 
 
 Elburz, unsustained by the devouring ardour of reli- 
 gious faith, but led on merely by scientific zeal or by 
 traveller's curiosity, discovered no abodes of beneficent 
 spirits ; and found darkness — in the shape of fog — cold, 
 and hunger very disagreeable realities. A good spice of 
 danger, also, may be counted upon by the mountain- 
 climber in the Caucasus, not only from the precipices, 
 crevasses, and avalanches of these Alpine heights, but 
 from the brigand tribes that infest the valleys below. 
 
 Only at Baku, at the Caspian extremity of the chain, 
 do any traces of the ancient fire-worship survive. The 
 whole peninsula of Apsheron, on which the town of 
 Baku stands, is saturated with naphtha ; and the oil, 
 which exudes freely from the soil at various spots, forms 
 the chief riches of the place. One of these "naphtha 
 wells" has sometimes been known to catch fire by acci- 
 dent, and to continue to burn for years, throwing up its 
 pillar of flame to mark the farther outpost of the Cau- 
 casus. Occasionally the phenomenon may be witnessed 
 at Baku of a " sea in flames." The oil floats like a 
 scum on the waters near the shore, and on a light be- 
 ing applied to the torpid waves, pale blue flames start 
 up and flicker far and near in snaky undulations over 
 acres of the surface of the Caspian. 
 
 A few miles from Baku is the Guebre temple of 
 Atesh-gah, where the eternal fires are fed by the miser- 
 able remnant of the worshippers of the source of life 
 and heat that linger in these parts. The temple itself 
 is a small building with crenellated outer walls surround- 
 ing a central dome built over the chief altar. Not 
 only upon the altar itself, but from every turret and 
 battlement, and from the ground without and within the
 
 378 MUD VOLCANOES AXD EARTHQUAKES. 
 
 enclosure, gouts of flame rise and burn unceasingly, fed 
 by the naphtha springs below. The priests, or priest 
 — for by last accounts only one remained in charge of 
 the temple — is supported by the alms of the Parsee 
 devotees, who make pilgrimages from places so distant 
 as Bombay and Delhi to the holy fane where the lamp 
 of the ancient faith is still trimmed in the midst of 
 Christian, Mohammedan, and heathen tribes. 
 
 The mud volcanoes at Taman, the opposite extremity 
 of the Caucasus, and at points along the range, bear 
 testimony that Plutonic agencies have been at work 
 along its whole length in raising this mighty mountain 
 wall. No active volcanoes exist in the range, but 
 extinct craters and lava streams have been found on 
 Elburz, Kazbek, and other peaks ; hot, sulphur, and 
 other mineral springs are common ; and the whole region 
 is still subject to earthquake shocks, one of which, in 
 quite recent years, rendered uninhabitable the old city 
 of Shamaka, the capital of the province of Shirvan, 
 where now is the chief seat of the important silkworm- 
 rearing and silk-manufacturing industries of the Cau- 
 casus. 
 
 The sun does not shine on a land more beautiful 
 and luxuriant than that which lies along the southern 
 slope of the mountains from Shirvan to Circassia. Benef- 
 icent Nature seems to have striven to provide a contrast 
 to the cold splendours of the icy peaks and the savage 
 gloom of the " dark Iberian dales" by spreading the 
 whole store of her treasures at the foot of the Caucasian 
 cliffs. Sheltered from the freezing breath of the north 
 wind, and exposed to the fervid rays of a semi-tropical 
 sun, the rugged sides of the mountains are covered with 

 
 PRODUCTS OF THE CAUCASUS. 379 
 
 the most rich and varied vegetation, which struggles up 
 to an extraordinary altitude, and almost mingles with 
 the perpetual snow. Dense forests of the oak, beech, 
 hazel, walnut, cedar, birch, cypress, pine, box, and alder 
 clothe the slopes of the valleys ; lower down are waving 
 grain-fields of temperate climes, the olive, the vine, the 
 fig, the melon, the orange, and other fruits of warm 
 latitudes, and crops of tobacco, rice, maize, cotton, sugar, 
 tea, and indigo, that form an important part of the 
 wealth of this greatly favoured land. 
 
 The marshy flats near the Caspian are overgrown with 
 a jungly vegetation reminding one of the lowlands of 
 India ; and the banks of the Phasis, and other streams 
 in Mingrelia and Imeritia adjoining the Black Sea, are 
 covered with a magnificent semi-tropical forest, wreathed 
 into a nearly impenetrable mass by twining convolvuluses 
 and lianas. Within a distance of a few leagues one 
 seems to pass from Arctic scenery through a temperate 
 clime to almost torrid warmth and luxuriance. Few 
 regions contain such extraordinary richness and variety 
 of plant life ; the simple enumeration of the species fills 
 no fewer than eighteen quarto pages of the botanical 
 work of Guldenstadt, who declares that the Caucasus 
 produces everything necessary for the existence and even 
 the luxurious accommodation of man. 
 
 Still more strangely assorted are the races inhabiting 
 the Caucasus. Perhaps in no part of the world of equal 
 extent are so many distinct peoples and languages 
 grouped together. It was once a favourite theory that 
 the purest type of the Aryan or Indo-European family 
 of nations — the "Caucasian race" — was to be found in 
 these mountains. That idea has long been exploded.
 
 380 CAUCASIAN RACES. 
 
 It arose from the accident that the finest and most 
 characteristic skull in the collection of the German 
 ethnologist Blumenbach was that of a Georgian. Never, 
 probably, as Dr. Latham says, has a single skull brought 
 so much confusion into the domain of science as in this 
 case. 
 
 The " Caucasian" is not even the predominating race 
 in the Caucasus. Its peoples are of curiously and 
 obscurely mingled blood, but the Mongolian type is 
 thought to be the prevailing one. This strange assort- 
 ment of nations has been explained by supposing that 
 after the passing of each of the innumerable Asiatic 
 migrations which have chosen this pathway into Europe, 
 representatives of the races composing it have been left 
 behind, like stranded driftwood on the ebbing of a flood. 
 
 The Caucasus might thus be likened to a mighty sieve, 
 through which the peoples of the northern world have 
 been sifted from the earliest times. Tradition connects 
 the rano-e and the neia'hbourino- summits of Ararat with 
 the first peopling of the earth after the Deluge ; and its 
 2;eolo£ical formation shows that it must have been one 
 of the earliest mountain upheavals in the Old World. 
 When the " wrack of nations" caught in its intricate 
 valleys and deep woods has been thoroughly and scien- 
 tifically examined, an important light will doubtless be 
 thrown on the origin, primitive condition, and prehistoric 
 wanderings of mankind. 
 
 It has been proposed by Dr. Latham to group the 
 inhabitants of the Caucasus under the title of " Dios- 
 curian," for the quaint reason that at Dioscurias, one of 
 the principal early Greek settlements on the Colchian 
 coast, identified with Iskurias, some seventy miles north- 
 
 *
 
 MEDLEY OF TONGUES AND CREEDS. 381 
 
 ward of the Phasis, thirty interpreters were needed in 
 Strabo's days to conduct the business cf the place with 
 the natives of the region. To-day it is estimated that 
 about a score of distinct languages and over a hundred 
 dialects are spoken in and about the Caucasus. In the 
 streets of Tiflis six languages are constantly and three 
 or four others occasionally in use ; though here, as else- 
 where, a mongrel Tartar tongue is employed as a lingua 
 franca, understood by all the motley throng of the 
 market-place. 
 
 It is no easy task to group these different races in 
 any satisfactory way, so puzzling are the points of con- 
 trast and resemblance which they present in physical 
 type, religion, language, and race. The most important 
 division, however, is that which embraces the Georgian 
 race, who may be said to be the only portion of the in- 
 digenous inhabitants of the Caucasus who have settled 
 industrial habits, a history, or a literature. The native 
 of Mingrelia is a kind of handsome " ne'er-do-well " and 
 rather disreputable relation of the more civilized and 
 energetic natives of Georgia proper, Imeritia, and Gouria. 
 All these are Christians of a more or less — generally 
 more — corrupt type ; but other allied peoples — like the 
 Lazes of the newly-acquired district near Batoum — are 
 rabid Mussulmans, with an incurable taste for brigandage ; 
 while the Suanes, a rude tribe of mountaineers living 
 on the slopes of Mount Elburz, whose curious little 
 commonwealth has been fully described by Commander 
 Telfer, have no religious beliefs at all beyond some 
 superstitious practices, and a veneration for the memory 
 of the famous Georgian queen of the twelfth century, 
 Tamara.
 
 382 THE CIRCASSIANS. 
 
 The Tcherkess and the Lesghian were the guardians 
 of the western and eastern Caucasus respectively before 
 the coming of the encroaching Russ. The day of the 
 Tcherkess — or the Circassian, as he is more generally 
 called in Western Europe — is nearly past. The moun- 
 tain home, which the tribes defended so long with 
 ferocious bravery, is no longer theirs. Whole clans are 
 extinct or scattered, shot down by Russian musketry, or 
 deported to distant lands. 
 
 During their protracted struggles with the Russians, 
 the sentiment of the West elevated these freedom- 
 loving mountaineers to the rank of heroes. There is 
 no doubt that they possess some of the savage virtues 
 in remarkable strength — that they are courageous, 
 hospitable, and passionately fond of liberty. It must be 
 confessed, however, that the savage vices are to be found 
 in even greater development than the virtues ; and that, 
 on the whole, the world would be no great loser if this 
 survival of the Middle Ages were to become completely 
 extinct. Essentially they are men of war, but, with all 
 their bravery and the advantages of their country, they 
 have never been able to offer a united front to the 
 invader. 
 
 Only the sternest necessity will persuade the Tcherkess 
 to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow ; he leaves 
 the females of his family to perform the vulgar labours 
 of the house and the field, and is himself a hunter 
 and a brigand by profession. He lives, or lived — for 
 the old ways of life have been terribly broken in 
 upon — under an organization which is a singular com- 
 pound of the feudal and the patriarchal system. There 
 are chiefs, with their " fighting tail" of retainers, duinhe-
 
 MEDIEVAL COSTUMES. 3«3 
 
 wassails, and serfs ; but the bulk of the nation are free- 
 born, exercising despotic sway within their own families, 
 and brooking control from none. Passionately revenge- 
 ful, deceitful, and cruel, the Circassian is a remorseless 
 foe and a fickle ally. His strongest attachment, per- 
 haps, is reserved for his horse, and his gun ranks second 
 in his affections. He carries other weapons of a more 
 antique cast — a spear and bow and arrows — and his belt 
 is quite an armoury of knives and daggers. 
 
 The dress of some of the tribes of the Caucasus bears 
 a startling resemblance to that of the knights of medi- 
 eval times : to see a company of these horsemen riding 
 gallantly along, clad in chain-mail and helmet, with a 
 tunic over all, it is easy to imagine that they are a 
 Crusading host resuming their march to Jerusalem after 
 an enchanted sleep of seven centuries in these wild 
 mountains. This is especially true of the Hessurs — not, 
 however, strictly a Tcherkess tribe — who have actually 
 red crosses wrought upon their breasts, and declare that 
 they are descendants of the Crusaders, though their wor- 
 ship now is given to the gods of war and the spirits of 
 the earth, the oak, and the hills. 
 
 The Circassians are fanatical Mohammedans, though 
 they are grossly ignorant of the faith they so ardently 
 espouse, and their religion is mixed up with Christian 
 and pagan beliefs and practices. The only branch of 
 trade in which they have ever engaged with any seri- 
 ousness is one which from time immemorial has been 
 carried on — that of kidnapping or selling the female 
 members of their own families to supply the demand 
 in the slave-markets and harems of Turkey for the 
 beauties of the Caucasus. Tt must be said that when
 
 384 CIRCASSIAN EMIGRANTS. 
 
 this and other traits in the Circassian character are kept 
 in view, it is hard to get up any very strong sympathy 
 over the ruinous misfortunes that befell them. 
 
 The Russians, tired of repressing their turbulent out- 
 breaks, at length offered them the choice of removing 
 from their mountain recesses to the valleys, where they 
 could be placed under efficient Cossack control, or of emi- 
 grating from the country altogether. Thousands of them 
 closed with the latter alternative, and the Sultan offered 
 them an asylum among the faithful. It was not a suc- 
 cessful experiment either for Turkey or the Circassians. 
 There was terrible mortality among the refugees, from 
 epidemics and other diseases, on the long overland march 
 to the coast and in the sea-passage to the Turkish ports. 
 They were scattered in small parties over the length and 
 breadth of the Ottoman Empire ; small communities of 
 them are met with from the Dead Sea to the environs 
 of Erzeroum, and from Erzeroum to the banks of the 
 Danube — armed bands of needy and desperate men 
 accustomed to live by plunder, among an unarmed peas- 
 antry often of alien faith. The consequence has been 
 that the Circassians have had a red hand in most of the 
 massacres in Bulgaria and Syria which have horrified 
 Europe, and are one of the acute causes of the misery 
 and misrule that reign throughout the Sultan's terri- 
 tories. 
 
 Much need not be said about the Abkhasians, a de- 
 generate kind of Circassians living in the narrow strip 
 of country between the ridge of the Caucasus and the 
 Black Sea — the Tcherkesses proper, occupying for the 
 most part the northern slope of the range — beyond 
 the fact that an abortive rising took place among them 
 
 "
 
 PETER THE GREAT AT DERBEXD. 385 
 
 during the Russo-Turkish War. The tribes of Daghestan, 
 however, and more particularly the Lesghians, who also 
 inhabit a territory enclosed between the mountains and 
 the sea, but on the northern side and at the Caspian end 
 of the chain, have played a part in recent history that 
 cannot be passed over so hastily. 
 
 This, and not Circassia, as is often supposed, is the 
 country of Schamyl. Only for a few years, and in a 
 loose kind of way, did the western tribes join those 
 of the east in their resistance to the Russian power. 
 Daghestan may be described as a triangle, the three 
 sides of which are formed by the Caspian, the main 
 range of the Caucasus, and a lofty spur which it 
 throws off to the north-eastward, terminating at the 
 " iron gates " of Derbend. The pass between the 
 marshy seaboard and the mountain has always been 
 the easiest and most frequented pathway between the 
 north and the south of the Caucasus. The remains of 
 ancient walls and towers, extending from Derbend along 
 the crest of the hills, are believed to be the traces of 
 fortifications built to keep at bay the roving hordes of 
 the steppe ; and it is thought probable that the narrow 
 way, like the " Caucasian gates" at Dariel, was once 
 closed by iron bars and gates. Russia's first advances 
 towards the Caucasus were made in this direction ; cau- 
 tious approaches by the Czars Ivan and Feodor, folloAved 
 more than a century later — in 1722 — by a sudden spring 
 of Peter the Great, who seized upon Derbend, where the 
 little hut occupied by the autocrat will be shown to you 
 on the outskirts of the strange-looking Eastern city 
 whose white flat-topped houses, climbing stair-like up 
 
 the steep slope from the water's edge, are in glaring con- 
 (718) 25
 
 386 CONQUEST AND REVOLT. 
 
 trast to the dark masses of the old khan's palace, the 
 mosques, and the encircling walls and towers. 
 
 After a pause of more than half a century, Russian 
 aggression again began ; but it was not till 1824 that 
 the conquest of Daghestan and Tchetchnia was com- 
 plete. There came a deceitful calm of a few years, and 
 then a fierce outbreak of insurrection, that spread like 
 a conflagration from one end of the Caucasus to the 
 other, and for thirty years occupied the energies of the 
 Russians in suppressing it. 
 
 The movement was as much a religious as a poli- 
 tical one. Among so many disjointed nations there 
 could scarcely be a real national movement ; while there 
 was, on the other hand, the common bond of faith. 
 Schamyl himself, with all his military talents, was more 
 of a prophet-seer than a warrior : his adherents still 
 couple his name with that of Mohammed in their prayers. 
 Three forerunners of Schamyl — Mullah Mohammed, 
 Ghazi-Mullah, and Hamzak Bek — preached the doctrines 
 of " Mirdism," or strict obedience to the book of the 
 moral law in the Koran, stirred up the fierce moun- 
 taineers to a pitch of religious and patriotic frenzy, 
 and completely destroyed the authority of the khans 
 whom the Russians had left in charge of the dis- 
 tricts. Ghazi-Mullah was killed at the storming of the 
 Avarian village of Ghoumri, Schamyl's birthplace, in 
 1832, and Hamzak Bek was assassinated ; and Schamyl, 
 the son of a poor shepherd, and who had himself been 
 in turn a pedler, a travelling fishmonger, a ballad-singer, 
 and a juggler, took the leadership of the confederated 
 tribes by sheer force of character and ability. Driven 
 from Daghestan, Tchetchnia, on the northern slope of
 
 THE LAST OF SCHAMYL. 387 
 
 the Andi spur of Caucasus, was made the centre of 
 insurrection. 
 
 The fortress of Dargo became his headquarters, and 
 from thence he reorganized the tribes on a democratic basis, 
 imposed military service on all adult males, and stimu- 
 lated the enthusiasm of his followers and kept together 
 the jealous clans by miraculous messages from heaven, 
 and the odour of extreme sanctity with which he sur- 
 rounded himself. Through all this he had to fight des- 
 perately against the Russians, and often against the 
 Tcherkess and other Caucasian tribes. In 1845 Dargo 
 was captured ; but Schamyl simply removed to the 
 neighbouring fortress of Veden. While the Crimean 
 War was raging, the Lesghian chief was left in peace ; 
 but on its conclusion, and the appointment of Prince 
 Bariatinsky as Governor of the Caucasus, the Russians 
 resumed, with greater determination than ever, the task 
 of subjugating the independent tribes. 
 
 Narrower and narrower became the territory within 
 which the brave Schamyl was able to hold his enemies 
 at bay. Some of the tribes fell away from him, but 
 others of his followers clung devotedly to their leader, 
 and fought with splendid courage. He made his last 
 desperate stand at Gounib, where he surrendered to Bari- 
 atinsky in August 1859, and the Caucasus at last was in 
 the undisputed power of the Czar. Schamyl outlived 
 for many years the conquest of his mountains and the 
 humiliation of his religion. He was sent to St. Peters- 
 burg, where the late Emperor treated him with his 
 usual kindness, and with the respect which his heroic 
 deeds deserved, and appointed him and his family a 
 residence at Kaluga. He died only recently at Mecca.
 
 388 PASSES OF TEE CAUCASUS. 
 
 The Tchetchens, whom we have just seen in confedera- 
 tion with the Lesghians, are also zealous bandits and 
 Sunni Mohammedans, but of different race from their 
 Daghestani neighbours, belonging to a group to which 
 infatuated ethnologists have given the impossible name 
 of Mzhdzhedzhi — a word which most readers will prob- 
 ably regard as a sufficient specimen of their language, 
 and perceive at the same time a measure of poetic 
 justice in their subjugation by the Russian Prince 
 Tzytzyanoff. 
 
 Some of the tribes occupying the Terek valleys — such 
 as the Ingush — are almost pure heathens; while others, 
 like the Kabardians and the Ossets, possess a faith in 
 which paganism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity are 
 jumbled together. The Tartar tribes — Kumuks, Turk- 
 men, and the like, simple wandering people, half-high- 
 waymen, half-shepherds, and carriers — and, to the south 
 of the mountains, Armenians, Persians, Kurds, and Jews, 
 with what Professor Bryce calls a " top-dressing " of 
 Russians (military people and colonies of schismatics 
 generally), and pushing traders and merchants from other 
 European countries, complete the strange hotch-potch of 
 nations inhabiting the Caucasus and Transcaucasia. 
 
 These are best studied, perhaps, in the streets of 
 Tiflis ; but to reach Tiflis we must thread our way for 
 one hundred and twenty miles through the devious pass 
 of Dariel, the Porta Caucasia of the ancients. A fine 
 military road has been constructed, at a cost of four 
 million sterling, through this defile, which is the only 
 regular passage of the Caucasus throughout the whole 
 length of the chain, the Mannisson Pass to the westward 
 not being available for wheeled vehicles.
 
 THE GORGE OF THE TEREK. 389 
 
 The entrance to the pass is at the railway terminus 
 Yladikavkas — the "key of the Caucasus," built by 
 Potemkin to control this whole region ; and after a 
 glimpse of the mountains, with their line of far-receding 
 snowy peaks, the traveller plunges into the black jaws 
 of the ravine of the Terek, and pursues his way, mile 
 after mile, at the foot or along the flanks of tremendous 
 precipices. Professor Bryce, in his brilliant account of 
 his travels in this region, says: " Clothed, wherever there 
 is room for a root to hold, with the richest deciduous 
 woods, the limestone mountains rise in wonderful preci- 
 pices five or six thousand feet above the valley, ledge 
 over ledge, and crag over crag ; while at the bottom they 
 press the river so close that at some points the road 
 has been cut out in the overhanging cliff face, and the 
 streamlets from above break in spray over it." 
 
 This is only the beginning of the defile ; grander and 
 more savage scenes lie beyond. At Lars and other points 
 Russian forts, occupying the sites of Georgian or Persian 
 castles, command the pass; and now and then a miser- 
 able Osset hut or two are seen, but there is no other 
 sign of life. " Sixteen miles from Vladikavkas," says 
 Mr. Bryce, " the valley seems suddenly to come to an end, 
 and the track to vanish among the tremendous crags 
 out of which the river descends in a succession of cata- 
 racts. The road crosses to its eastern bank, and mounts 
 rapidly along a shelf cut out of the mountain. At the 
 bottom of the gorge there is a furious torrent ; on each 
 side, walls of granite, rising vertically, one would think, 
 four thousand feet above it. Behind are still loftier pin- 
 nacles, broken, jagged, and terrible, their topmost sum- 
 mits flecked with snow, not a bush, flower, or blade uf
 
 390 MTZKHET. 
 
 green to relieve their bare sternness." A turn of the 
 defile brings us in view of the black precipice and glori- 
 ous snowy crest of Kazbek, rising to a height of about 
 sixteen thousand feet above sea-level, and forming, with 
 another stupendous mountain over against it, the " pil- 
 lars " of the " Caucasian gates." 
 
 It seems probable enough that in early times an iron 
 gateway was built here to keep out the northern bar- 
 barian from the Persian, Macedonian, or Roman Empire. 
 It marked the farthest flight of the Roman eagles in 
 this direction, for Pompey's conquests in Georgia stopped 
 short at the wall of the Caucasus. The only dangers 
 now to be feared are from landslips or from avalanches 
 of snow falling on the track in the winter time, such as 
 in 1855 overwhelmed part of the troop of General Bar- 
 tolomei, who, in charge of a convoy of prisoners, was 
 traversing the " Valley of the Devil " — an appropriately 
 named gorge reached when, leaving the Dariel proper 
 behind, and passing the watershed at a height of eight 
 thousand feet, the road begins to descend the Aragwa 
 River, under the shadow of the Cross Mountain, towards 
 the lowlands of Georgia. These gorges of the Aragwa 
 have been described as resembling Killiecrankie, " only 
 on a far vaster scale." 
 
 By-and-by, where the Aragwa joins the Kur, we come 
 upon another atrocious example of Caucasian nomencla- 
 ture — the village of Mtzkhefc, which, if we are to accept 
 the tradition that it was founded by the great-grandson 
 of Japheth, gives one an alarming idea of the primal lan- 
 guage spoken before the Tower of Babel was built. A 
 miserable place enough now, it was famous in its day 
 as the capital of Georgia, and a number of the Georgian 

 
 GEORGIAN HISTORY. 391 
 
 kings and queens are buried in its fortified church. Here 
 much of the early troubled history of Georgia " trans- 
 acted itself." Three centuries before Christ, Pharnavaz, 
 governor of the town, founded the Georgian kingdom, 
 compiled the Georgian alphabet — with the aid, doubtless, 
 of hints from his Armenian neighbours — and laid the 
 beginning of the Georgian literature ; and about the year 
 325 A.D. Christianity was introduced hither by the female 
 saint Nina. 
 
 Even the circumstance that Japheth's great-grandson 
 had chosen its site could not preserve the supremacy of 
 this town with the unpronounceable name, and fourteen 
 centuries ago the capital was removed to Tiflis. Georgia 
 continued to stagger forward on its appointed career, 
 occasionally raised to a high pitch of fame, but generally 
 in very bad case. Thus Bagrat III. was a great con- 
 queror and encourager of learning in the tenth century ; 
 David II., a centu^ later, restored the glory of the 
 kingdom, which had paled through the devastations of 
 the Seljukian Turks ; and the splendid era of Queen 
 Tamara (1184-1212) is the Golden Age of Georgia, 
 alike in literature and in feats of arms. The ancient 
 churches whose remains are scattered over Transcaucasia 
 are mostly attributed by legend to the pious zeal of this 
 royal lady, as the ruined castles, resembling Scottish 
 Border keeps, which are found in all directions crowning 
 the rocks of this mountainous land, are supposed to have 
 been built by the national hero, " Black Oghlu." 
 
 But what with the ravages of Mongols, Turks, and 
 Persians, and internal divisions, Georgia gradually sank to 
 a deplorable state ; Georgian literature and Christianity, 
 especially, were placed, as it were, " between the devil
 
 392 WARS AN J) ANNEXATIONS. 
 
 and the deep sea," by having the wild mountain banditti 
 on one side, and invading Moslem hosts on the other. 
 
 The Empress Catherine extended the protection of 
 Eussia over the rickety state, which had been divided 
 and subdivided until it had nearly thirty princes exer- 
 cising independent rule. The venerable King Heraclius 
 fled before a new Persian invasion, led by Aga Mo- 
 hammed, the first of the reigning dynasty of the Shahs ; 
 and the country falling into complete anarchy, Eussia 
 stepped across the Caucasus, made pensioners of the pre- 
 tenders to the throne of the Bagratides (who, being able 
 to trace their descent back to King Solomon, and, of 
 course, to Adam, were the oldest royal family in the 
 world), and found herself, in the first year of the present 
 century, face to face in Asia with Persia and Turkey. 
 
 Since then, repeated wars with Sultan and Shah have 
 had one constant result — the extension southward of the 
 Czar's dominions. By 1810, Imeritia, Mingrelia, and 
 Gouria had been annexed ; and the campaigns of Ermolof 
 and Paskievitch in 1826-28 ended in the Treaty of 
 Turkmanchai, by which the Persian provinces of Erivan 
 and Nakhchevan were ceded to the Emperor Nicolas, 
 who thus became master of Etchmiadzin, the ecclesias- 
 tical capital of Armenia, and carried forward his frontier 
 to the Araxes and Mount Ararat. Lastly, by the late 
 war another slice of Armenia, with the strong town of 
 Kars, twice captured and twice surrendered by Eussia, 
 and the seaport of Batoum, were added to the ever- 
 growing empire of the Czars. 
 
 Tiflis has had its share in the misfortunes of Georgia, 
 as well as the older capital, and has been at least 
 eight times destroyed by invaders. Instead of being
 
 TEE CAPITAL OF TRANSCAUCASIA. 393 
 
 a miserable village, however, it is a city of about ninety 
 thousand souls; probably it is more rich and more 
 populous to-day than at any time since King Vakh- 
 tang founded it, in the fifth century. It lies in a 
 hollow among bare and dusty hills ; and the rapid, 
 muddy current of the Kur, now crossed by three 
 handsome bridges, flows under its walls, separating 
 it from a suburb on the south bank which is chiefly 
 inhabited by an industrious German colony of market- 
 o-ardeners and artisans, the descendants of emigrants 
 who fled hither from Swabia many years ago, rather 
 than accept a new hymn-book. 
 
 Tiflis proper — the suggestion of orthographical purists 
 to spell the name Tbylysys (" the hot ") will be re- 
 jected with contumely — contains at least two distinct 
 " towns." There is the Russian quarter, with broad, 
 regular, and dusty streets, and many handsome houses, 
 and with public gardens and theatres and other appurte- 
 nances of the civilization of the West. On a high site 
 is the citadel, with the prison, the ancient Georgian 
 cathedral, and near by the barracks of the Russian 
 garrison. Facing the principal street is the palace of 
 the Lieutenant of the Caucasus — perhaps the most 
 onerous military command in the empire. Here, of 
 course, are wont to assemble the rank and beauty of 
 Transcaucasia. Georgia is notably well supplied both 
 with beauty and with rank. The country literally 
 swarms with " nobles," some of them ragged and 
 needy enough, and ready — and no shame to them 
 to do the humblest labour for a small fee; others 
 handsome and dashing-looking fellows, and highly 
 ornamental figures in the public promenades or the
 
 394 GEORGIAN BEAUTIES. 
 
 dancing assemblies, where the national dance — the 
 lesghynski — is still indulged in with ardour. It is 
 whispered, however, that the exterior of the Georgian 
 is the best of him ; that there are very few solid 
 qualities — often little else than a consuming thirst 
 for his native wines — to be found under his gold 
 brocaded frock-coat and jewelled belt ; and the national 
 history seems to bear out the reproach. Something 
 almost as ungallant has been said of the Georgian 
 dames, whose charms have been so loudly extolled. 
 " A Turk may think them perfection," says Mr. Bryce ; 
 <; but it may be doubted whether any one who has seen 
 the ladies of Cork and Baltimore would take pleasure 
 in their society." Many of them are admirable pieces 
 of Nature's handiwork, so far as mere colour and form 
 are concerned ; but features, however regular, that are 
 entirely wanting in expression, soon become insipid. 
 
 The native town is a complete contrast to the Euro- 
 pean quarter. The narrow, dirty, and crooked streets 
 of one-story houses are blocked by strings of camels 
 and donkeys, loaded with fruit, and bullock-carts full 
 of huge skins of Khaketian wine. In the crowds that 
 throng these lanes are seen the most puzzling varieties 
 of feature and dress, and the ear is confounded with a 
 jargon of unknown tongues. Each leading trade has 
 its allotted street and its covered bazaar. There are 
 thoroughfares set apart for the cooking-shops and the 
 wine-seller, for the dealers in leather, in jewellery, in 
 carpets, and in furs ; for the blacksmiths, and silver- 
 smiths, and armourers, and musical instrument makers ; 
 for the tea-dealers, and sandal-makers, and fabricators 
 of turbans, of papacks, of Bokharan lambskin, of the 

 
 THE BAZAARS OF TIFLIS. 395 
 
 tall sugar-loaf hats affected by the Persians, and of all 
 the other varieties of head-dress worn near the Caucasus. 
 " The ground-floor of the house," again to quote Pro- 
 fessor Bryce, " is open to the street, from which it is 
 generally raised a step or two : here the dealer squats 
 on a piece of matting, surrounded by his assistants, with 
 his wares hung or stowed round the walls behind, and 
 in the room which is visible at the back. If he prac- 
 tises a handicraft, he works at it here in the sight of 
 all men." Many beautiful native fabrics are exposed 
 in the Tiflis bazaars — most noteworthy, perhaps, being 
 the rugs and carpets of quaint and wonderful patterns 
 from Persia, Kurdistan, and Shirvan ; but what chiefly 
 makes them worthy of a visit are their frequenters, the 
 representatives of a score of different races and reli- 
 gions — Russian and German, Armenian and Persian and 
 Georgian, Kurd, Tartar, Circassian, and Kabardan — that 
 mingle here, as throughout this party-coloured region, 
 with scarcely a sign of blending. 
 
 On a high ridge overlooking Tiflis are the picturesque 
 ruins of the old Persian fortress, behind which are the 
 wooded lower spurs of the Caucasus, while in clear 
 weather the snows of Kazbek are temptingly visible 
 to the dwellers in the hot valley of the Kur. In sum- 
 mer the denizens of the fashionable world of Tiflis 
 escape from the stifling atmosphere of the city, and 
 take refuge at Kajori and other charming health-resorts 
 in the neighbouring mountains. There are, apart from 
 the old capital and its tombs, numerous spots within 
 reach of the town where the members of the Archae- 
 ological Congress that met last autumn at Tiflis were 
 able to glean a rich harvest of antiquarian lore. Thus
 
 396 TRANSCAUCASIAN PORTS AND FORTRESSES. 
 
 Gori and its old castle, perched like an eagle's eyrie on 
 a crag, and the wonderful rock-hewn chambers and 
 columned halls of Uphlos Tzikhe, the "Petra of the 
 Caucasus," might invite a visit. Or excursions might 
 be made eastward over the bare, brown, solemn steppes, 
 by way of Elizavetpol to the Caspian port of Lenkoran, 
 where, in the latitude of Lisbon, the winter temperature, 
 chilled by the parching icy winds from Siberia, is no 
 higher than that of Reykjavik in Iceland, and the sea 
 is often blocked with ice. Much more attractive will 
 be found the leafy and richly-watered country westward 
 of Tiflis, beyond the pass of Souram, where the only 
 railway in Transcaucasia ascends the ridge that separates 
 the basins of the Kur and the Rion by one of the 
 steepest gradients in the world. The latter river, from 
 its head-streams in the district of the Suans, under the 
 double peak of Elburz, to its mouth at Poti, runs un- 
 interruptedly through scenes of natural beauty and 
 historic note ; and farther south, in Gouria and in the 
 mountains of Lazistan, are innumerable objects of in- 
 terest. Again, we might follow the fine military roads 
 that conduct to what were formerly the frontier for- 
 tresses of Akhalzik and Alexandropol, and that con- 
 verge on a " place of arms " famous in military annals — 
 Kars — which, after much bloody fighting, has at length 
 been wrested from the Turk. But, as Mr. Bryce's trav- 
 elling companions urged, when, on his way to Tiflis, he 
 proposed to halt and examine the antiquities of Mtzkhet, 
 " Let us get to our journey's end ; the world is a big 
 world, and you cannot see everything in it." 
 
 One short trip, however, we must make before 
 leaving this part of the Czar's domains. It leads us 

 
 ERIVAN AND ETGHMIABZIN. 397 
 
 from Tiflis through the orchards and fields of German, 
 Molikani, and Mordvin colonists ; across a steppe where 
 groups of low, round earthen hovels suggest the dwelling- 
 places of moles rather than of mankind — even Tartar 
 mankind ; then up a river valley between ridges of stern, 
 red-hued mountains, where in actual travel the tourist 
 still runs an unpleasant risk of being stopped by brigands, 
 till we reach the Goktcha lake, a lonely basin of fresh 
 water, fifty miles in length, lying at a height of nearly 
 six thousand feet above sea-level, and surrounded by 
 lofty and barren hills patched with snow. On the only 
 island of the lake is an old and famed Armenian monas- 
 tery ; and dominating the scene is the enormous bulk 
 and triple peaks of Ala-gos, thirteen thousand four hun- 
 dred and thirty-six feet above the sea. But sites more 
 ancient than Sevan and summits surpassing Ala-gos lie 
 ahead ; for following down the stream that flows from 
 Goktcha to the Aras, we come in sight of the minarets 
 and gardens of Erivan, and over against us the majestic 
 forms of Great and Little Ararat. Here, indeed, we 
 are in a locality with associations which carry us back 
 to the beginnings of history, and with magnificent natural 
 attractions that show no signs of decay. Farther down 
 the fertile valley of the Aras is Nakhchevan, which 
 boasts itself the oldest city in the world; for there 
 Noah, as the name of the town signifies, made his " first 
 descent " on dry land. Erivan, a delightfully char- 
 acteristic Eastern town, as yet little spoiled b}^ Russian 
 varnish, and possessing, in its mosques and ancient 
 sirdar's palace, beautiful specimens of Persian art in 
 mosaics of glazed and coloured tiles, claims to have 
 been the residence of Noah before the Delude. Etch-
 
 398 ARARAT. 
 
 miadzin, near at hand, is the cradle of the Gregorian 
 Church, and its renowned monastery, the seat of the 
 Patriarch, is a spot of surpassing interest to the keen- 
 witted and enterprising Armenian race, who, though 
 still divided between Turkish and Russian masters, 
 cherish warmly the hope of restoring their old national 
 independence. 
 
 But our last look must be reserved for the twin 
 mountains that, rising from a common base, overlook 
 this region of marvel, and are themselves the greatest 
 marvel of all ; for the elegant cone of Little Ararat, 
 whose clear-cut pyramid rises ten thousand feet above 
 the plain, and nearly thirteen thousand feet above the 
 sea ; and the bulkier and loftier brother-peak of Great 
 Ararat, whose black precipices, crowned with perpetual 
 snows, rise to a height of over seventeen thousand feet. 
 They mark the utmost confine of the Czar's possessions 
 in this direction, and the point of junction of Russian, 
 Turkish, and Persian territory — a magnificent corner- 
 stone for three empires ! 

 
 ^
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 RUSSIA IN ASIA. 
 
 N loosely following, in this survey of the 
 dominions of the Czar, the process by which, 
 from small beginnings, the Russian Empire 
 has steadily grown all around its vast cir- 
 cumference like an enormous snowball, we have already 
 been carried at different points across the " stony girdle " 
 of mountains that divide Europe from Asia. It is now 
 necessary to step boldly across the barrier of the Urals, 
 look around, and examine what may be the extent, the 
 aspect, and the value, present and prospective, of those 
 possessions of Russia in Northern and Central Asia re- 
 garding which there prevail such strange, confused, and 
 alarming impressions. 
 
 There are few names of such magic virtue as Siberia. 
 The mere mention of it seems to chill the air on the 
 warmest summer day. It has compressed within it all 
 the associations of immensity of space and intensity of 
 cold — the utmost poverty of nature and the deepest 
 misery of man. The picture that it calls up in most 
 minds is a waste, white plain, brooded over by fogs, or 
 with Arctic gales ruffling its snows ; bounded by black 
 masses of pine forests, with snow lying heavy on their
 
 400 A WINTER-RIDDEN LAND. 
 
 frigid branches ; here and there great mile-broad rivers 
 rolling slowly from under the shadow of the woods 
 northwards into regions ever drearier and more empty, 
 where at length the dwarf willow and birch cease to 
 grow, and the soil is frozen all the year round to a depth 
 of two hundred or three hundred feet below the surface, 
 until the solitary waters find a fit resting-place among 
 the icebergs of the Polar Sea. 
 
 Between post-station and post-station, even on what 
 may be called the frequented routes of travel, hundreds 
 of versts, it is thought, may be passed over without 
 a human habitation being seen ; at the most, the 
 rough log-huts of trappers and fishermen on the edge 
 of the forest or the stream, the " yurtas " or tents of 
 birch-bark or reindeer-skin belonging to some wander- 
 ing tribe of savages, cowering in some hollow, or the 
 mournful train of convicts and political refugees, with 
 their Cossack guard, making their long last journey to 
 the mines or fortresses of Eastern Siberia, are the only 
 signs of the presence of man. 
 
 These sights are actually to be seen in Siberia, they 
 are even characteristic and peculiar to it, and they have 
 naturally influenced most powerfully the imaginations 
 of those who have written and read about the country. 
 Siberia truly is a terribly "winter-ridden " land. The frost 
 comes early, bites fiercely, and lingers long. There is 
 scarcely a locality where the thermometer does not fall 
 many degrees below zero in winter, and there are some 
 where snow covers the ground at midsummer. It is 
 true also that the general features of the scenery — its 
 boundless plains and forests and its mighty streams — 
 though impressive in their magnitude, are sad and
 
 THE SIBERIAN PLAINS. 401 
 
 sombre in colouring, and are repeated with wearisome 
 monotony ; also, that the country is most sparsely popu- 
 lated, even compared with Russia proper, seeing that 
 there is barely a human inhabitant for each square mile 
 of territory. 
 
 But, let it be remembered, Siberia is more a continent 
 than a single country, in point of the extent of the 
 earth's surface that it covers ; that, excluding from view 
 the Central Asian possessions of Russia, it far exceeds 
 in area Australia, the United States, or Europe ; and 
 that, including Turkestan and the Steppes, Asiatic 
 Russia contains six million square miles of territory 
 — larger than the whole of South America. There is 
 plenty of room within its frontiers for its desert spaces, 
 and also for fertile and fruitful countries admirably 
 suited for colonization. Cutting away the rough selvage 
 of tundra lands, stony mountains, and sandy steppe 
 that form its borders north, east, south, and west, there 
 remain vast plains and river valleys, covered with fine, 
 deep, rich loam, stretching across nearly the whole breadth 
 of the Asian continent, and capable of supporting a dense 
 and thriving agricultural population. One of the latest 
 and most keen-eyed of the travellers who have visited 
 Siberia — Professor Nordenskiold — says that a belt of 
 this rich agricultural land, six hundred miles in breadth, 
 extends from the Ural chain to the neighbourhood of the 
 Sea of Okotsk. 
 
 These magnificent, stone-free plains arc still unde- 
 veloped. On the upper waters of the Obi and Irtish 
 and their tributaries, much of the land has been taken 
 up, and heavy crops of grain are raised. In the si ill 
 richer Yenisei valley there is a thin sprinkling of 
 
 (718) 2fi
 
 402 RUSSIAN COLONIZATION. 
 
 settlers, who have recently found a new outlet for their 
 produce by that great river ; but to the eastward from 
 Krasnojarsk stretch nearly uninhabited plains, covered 
 with the deep tcherno-sem, the famous " black earth " 
 of Middle Russia — " equal," says Nordenskiold, " with- 
 out doubt, in fertility, to the best parts of Scania, and 
 in extent surpassing the whole Scandinavian peninsula." 
 
 Another authority, M. de Lesseps, who has cast a 
 prospector's eye over Siberia, has declared that it is 
 the richest country in the whole world, in respect alike 
 of the produce of the animal, vegetable, and mineral 
 kingdoms. As yet, however, it is only a Land of 
 Promise — the "great North-East" of Russia, capable 
 of exercising the surplus energies and absorbing the 
 surplus population of the Slav race, as the United States 
 and the Canadian Dominion have done for the Anglo- 
 Saxon peoples. 
 
 The comparative slowness and want of success of 
 Siberian colonization are to be attributed partly to the 
 ignorance, and perhaps also to the inferior intelligence 
 and enterprise, of the Russian peasant ; but they are due 
 also to social and political causes, that, though still 
 potent, must in time have an end, and leave the country 
 to the free development of its splendid resources. 
 
 Chief among the obstacles referred to is the notorious 
 fact that for a couple of centuries Siberia has been the 
 penal settlement of Russia. It has been populated much 
 as Australia was in the earlier days — first by needy 
 and unscrupulous adventurers, seeking freedom from the 
 control of the law ; then by eager fur-hunters and gold- 
 seekers, desperately searching for short cuts to wealth, 
 which was generally spent as rapidly as it was won ; 

 
 A MIXED POPULATION. 403 
 
 and by refractory serfs, deported thither by the govern- 
 ment, or by the nobles, who had, under the old law, the 
 power of transporting as well as of whipping their unlucky 
 vassals. 
 
 With these began to flow a constantly growing- 
 stream of convicts — criminals guilty of the. blackest 
 crimes, and political prisoners, often men and women of 
 the highest rank and culture, and suspected merely of 
 disaffection towards a despotic government. Prisoners 
 of war, and rebels found in arms against the Czar, were 
 added to the throng — from the Swedish soldiers taken 
 in the wars with Charles the Twelfth, who established 
 the first Siberian school at Tobolsk, and built several of 
 the churches at Irkutsk, down to the patriots captured 
 during the last Polish insurrection. Schismatics and 
 religious visionaries of the most extreme type, and 
 Nihilists and Socialists of equally violent political views, 
 have been stowed away in this vast receptacle for the 
 vagabondage, the crime, and the bold and lofty aspira- 
 tions of Russia. All degrees of guilt have been con- 
 founded together, with the innocent and the unfortunate. 
 It is not strange that there should be a confusion of the 
 moral perceptions in the popular mind, and that the 
 malefactor and the patriot should alike be objects of 
 pity and sympathy. It is also natural that in the eyes 
 of the expatriated the place of their enforced exile 
 should have no charms, that they would exaggerate its 
 discomforts and hardships and underrate its amenities ; 
 and that to their friends and relatives in Europe, from 
 whom they were hopelessly parted, Siberia should be 
 the most stern and forbidding of wildernesses, and the 
 " mines " the scenes of more than inquisitorial torture.
 
 404 PENAL SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 The Russian Government, in short, have clone all in their 
 power to give to what is perhaps their most precious 
 possession the worst possible name. 
 
 Whatever may have been the case in former times, 
 however, there is now good reason to believe that the 
 condition of the " exile in Siberia " is not so forlorn and 
 pitiable as we are apt to suppose. He is no longer 
 dead to the outer world from which he is separated by 
 a thousand leagues of forest and marsh ; on the con- 
 trary, if he chooses he may be an active and useful 
 member of the community. The brutal whippings and 
 tortures that formed part of the punishment in the days 
 of Catherine and Paul have gradually been abolished in 
 later reigns, though a murderous weapon— the plete — 
 is used in exceptional cases at the penal colony on 
 Saghalien and other prisons of Eastern Siberia, where 
 the most desperate class of prisoners are confined. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Lansclell, who visited all the more 
 important Siberian penal settlements, has shown that 
 the regimen and discipline are far from severe ; that 
 the prisons are clean, airy, and well managed, and the 
 general method of treatment at least as humane as in 
 Western countries. Only the worst class of criminals 
 are confined within walls. Even murderers, who, owing 
 to the abolition of capital punishment, form a large 
 proportion of the prisoners, have a license given to them 
 which seems hardly consistent with public tranquillity. 
 Approaching after nightfall the penal settlement of 
 Kara, near Nertchinsk, Mr. Lansdell passed through 
 droves of labouring men returning from work, and was 
 • lisngreeably impressed on being told by the commandant 
 that these were convicts who were permitted to live in
 
 SIBERIAN SOCIETY. 405 
 
 their own houses, and that there were eight hundred 
 murderers about the place. 
 
 In the milder class of offences the convicts, after 
 a short probation, are allowed a pretty full exercise of 
 their liberty — to acquire property, and to settle down if 
 they choose as prosperous traders or husbandmen ; a 
 watch, which is not always effective, being kept over 
 their movements to prevent their slipping back into 
 Europe. 
 
 The regulations are still more lenient, as a rule, in 
 the case of political prisoners. Siberian society is not 
 censorious ; it does not inquire too curiously into the 
 antecedents of the new members that come to join it, 
 nor draw fine distinctions between mere political faults 
 and moral wrong-doing. The free settlers, of course, 
 largely predominate ; but the convict element, either 
 in the shape of those actually transported or of their 
 descendants, permeates the population too generally for 
 strict ideas of caste to prevail. Consequently the soci- 
 ety of a Siberian town of any consequence is apt to be 
 strangely mixed. The most refined taste and culture 
 and the grossest depravity are found side by side ; 
 scions of the oldest families in Russia are thrown into 
 association with parvenus of yesterday ; mysterious con- 
 spirators and exalted enthusiasts are mingled with vulgar 
 swindlers and scamps. 
 
 All this gives a romantic and peculiar tone to town 
 life in cities like Omsk, Krasnojarsk, or Irkutsk ; and 
 the opportunity of beginning afresh in a new field has 
 .turned many a worthless or dangerous member of 
 Russian society into a useful citizen of Siberia. But 
 the country has need of a less doubtful class of settlers
 
 406 RUSSIA'S COLONIAL EMPIRE. 
 
 than those which the government have bestowed on it ; 
 and the whole penal system, like many things else in 
 Siberia, stands thoroughly in need of reform, if not of 
 abolition. Untold misery and flagrant injustice are still 
 inflicted, even under the milder regulations of modern 
 times, especially on the class of exiles who are banished 
 to the desolate wildernesses of Eastern Siberia. And it 
 will be a great clay for Russia when she begins in 
 earnest to turn to account that magnificent colonial 
 empire which has too long been used as the prison- 
 house of her refractory children.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE DISCOVERY AND CONQUEST OF SIBERIA. 
 
 Y whose hands, by what process, and at what 
 time did this vast and splendid possession 
 fall into the hands of the Czars ? The story- 
 has never been told in accurate detail — per- 
 haps never will. The names of the great discoverers, 
 conquerors, and colonizers of the continents of America, 
 Africa, and Australia are in every one's memory. Their 
 good and their evil fame are alike imperishable : their 
 audacious marchings and fightings, their temptations 
 and failures and triumphs, their far-reaching plans and 
 their mighty achievements, are they not written in the 
 books of the chronicles of the discovery and conquest ? 
 But who can run over in his mind the list of out- 
 standing names in the adventurous band that, in the 
 course of less than a century, overran Siberia from tho 
 Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and set the stamp of 
 Russian domination indelibly on Asia ? The tale of tho 
 discovery and exploration of the Amazon, the Nile, and 
 the Mississippi has often been told ; but who can mention 
 offhand the man who first lighted upon the rivals of these 
 famous streams in Northern Asia — the Obi, the Yenisei, 
 the Lena, and the Amoor ? "We know all about tho
 
 408 UNWRITTEN HISTORY. 
 
 exploits of Columbus and Magellan, Cortez and Pizarro; 
 but who is familiar with the career, or has even heard 
 of the existence of Irmilof and Deshnef, Staduchin and 
 Kupilof ? 
 
 The records of their deeds, where any record is still 
 extant, are for the most part mouldering in obscure re- 
 cesses of the government bureaux at St. Petersburg and 
 Moscow, or in the " chanceries " of Irkutsk and Tobolsk, 
 tied up tightly in red tape, and covered with dust and 
 cobwebs, which it would be sacrilege for the unofficial 
 fino-ers to disturb. Some of these archives have been 
 
 O 
 
 rummaged, and from the " unimaginable dust-heap " 
 interesting facts have been fished up and classified ; but 
 much more remains to be done, and at the best, the 
 narrative of Siberian discovery, like the " story of Cam- 
 buscan bold," will probably remain to the end of time 
 half told. 
 
 The Russian conquistadors were inspired by the same 
 spirit of bold and restless adventure that animated their 
 brethren in the New World. But they were rude and 
 unlettered peasants ; their leaders were not skilled diplo- 
 matists, warriors, and writers constantly in communica- 
 tion with the most enlightened courts of their time, and 
 with professional historians and learned ecclesiastics in 
 their train. They had not time or taste, even if they 
 had had the skill, for the making of books ; and liter- 
 ary talent would have been quite unappreciated in the 
 Russian court of the time. Their government took no 
 interest in the manner in which the new conquests 
 were achieved, being content to accept the fruits of them 
 without troublesome inquiry ; and all the world outside 
 Russia was ignorant or careless of what was going on 

 
 COSSACK PIONEERS. 409 
 
 The eyes of the nations were turned in another direc- 
 tion, where more brilliant and attractive prospects were 
 being opened up. By contrast with the richness, warmth, 
 and variety of the productions of the East and West 
 Indies and America, the snows and pine-forests of Siberia 
 must have seemed singularly forbidding. Here were no 
 pagan empires, crumbling with age and burdened with 
 wealth, waiting to be seized by the first bold intruder ; 
 or treasure-chambers filled with silver and gold, ready to 
 open at the touch of the Christian spear. Out of the 
 wreck of the Kipchak empire only one principality 
 retained any cohesiveness — the Khanate of Turan, on 
 the Tobol and Irtish ; all to the eastward seems at the 
 time to have been almost uninhabited. The sole attrac- 
 tion was the furs of the wild animals, and the yassak or 
 tribute that could be wrung from the wretched wander- 
 ing nomads. The discovery of a new river, lake, or 
 mountain system seemed to these rough Cossack pioneers 
 hardly an occasion for reporting to the remote central 
 authority, who paid so little regard to their doings. 
 
 It was only, therefore, when some dispute arose among 
 them about the right to trapping or fishing ground, or 
 when some specially strong opposition was offered to the 
 little band by a combination of native tribes, that it "was 
 thought worth while to let their " Father " at Moscow 
 know what was happening. So, for example, it came 
 about — that is, from petitions and memorials sent home 
 by rival claimants to a korga or sand-bank at the mouth 
 of the Anadir River, " the resting-place of multitudes 
 of sea-horses" — that we learn of the discovery oh' that 
 great stream in 1G49, by Michael Staduchin, who led a 
 party across the mountains from the river Kolima ; and
 
 410 EARLY JOURNEYS. 
 
 of the still more remarkable voyage of Simon Deshnef, 
 who set sail upon the Icy Sea from the Kolima, in three 
 tiny vessels, and, as his memorial tells, " after having been 
 forced back by the ice, and driven about by furious 
 tempests in this strange ocean, and after great danger, 
 misfortunes, and with the loss of part of his shipping, 
 arrived at last at the mouth of the Anadir" thus doubling 
 for the first time the eastern extremity of Asia, and 
 proving the complete severance of that continent from 
 America. 
 
 It has already been told how, when the Grand Dukes 
 of Muscovy were under the yoke of the Great Khan, 
 more than one of them, sorely against their will, made 
 the dreadful journey across the Siberian Steppes to the 
 Chinese frontier, to do fealty to their Mongol lord. 
 Similar journeys were made, by a more southerly route, 
 by monks and merchants from the West, the most not- 
 able being the Polos of Venice, during the Middle Ages ; 
 and something was thus known of the magnificence 
 of the court of Cathay under the descendants of Gen- 
 ghiz, of the deserts and lofty mountains by which it 
 was separated from Europe, and of the communities of 
 Nestorian Christians that were to be met with on the 
 way. 
 
 But when the Mongol Empire broke up, a thick dark- 
 ness again fell on these regions. The Ural Mountains 
 were like an impenetrable curtain drawn between them 
 and the European countries, down till almost exactly 
 a hundred years ago. Before that time there had been 
 some little intercourse between the Novgorodian con- 
 querors of Perm and their wild neighbours ; and in 
 1499 a Russian expedition was led across the moun- 

 
 THE FIRST CONQUESTS. 411 
 
 tains against the Voghuls and the Ostiaks living on 
 the lower Obi, and returned with a rich spoil of furs 
 and tribute, thus leading the Grand Dukes soon after to 
 adopt, as one of their designations, " Lord of Obdoria," 
 a title still held by their successors the Czars. Then 
 the enterprising merchant who founded the family of 
 the Stroganofs began to exchange the Russian wares, 
 and the salt from the mines he had opened near the 
 sources of the Kama, for the furs brought in by the 
 " savages " on the other side of the mountains. By- 
 and-by it was noted and bruited abroad, according to 
 Vsevolojsky, that these peltries were infinitely superior 
 in quality to those ordinarily brought to market ; and 
 the " Leather-stockings " of the Volga began to make 
 longer and longer excursions into the forests in search 
 of this hidden source of wealth, and military bands 
 followed them as far as the Irtish to collect tribute. 
 
 The conquest of Siberia, however, really dates from 
 the year 1580. Like other great events in history, 
 accident rather than design brought it about. About 
 this time the depredations of the Cossacks of the Don 
 were carried on upon a scale of unexampled magnitude. 
 Not only did the robber horsemen scour the land in 
 search of plunder ; they seized the command of the 
 rivers and fitted out piratical expeditions on the Volga 
 and Caspian, and held the command of South-Eastcrn 
 Russia. The Czar Ivan the Terrible sent a strong body 
 of troops, who descended the Volga, beat and dispersed 
 the river-pirates, and killed or captured their chiefs. 
 
 One leader, however, Yermak Timotheivitch, — a fugi- 
 tive from justice, like many of his rough companions, — 
 finding his retreat to the Don cut off, continued to as-
 
 412 YERMAK'S CAMPAIGNS. 
 
 cend the Volga with six thousand followers; then striking 
 up through the valley of the Kama, he found shelter, 
 near its head-waters, with the family of the Stroganofs. 
 Here Yermak's brain was set on fire by the strange tales 
 he heard of the marvellous richness of the unknown land 
 on whose frontier he had now arrived. He formed a 
 sudden resolution, and gathering together the remains 
 of his way-worn band, he marched boldly across the 
 border. In those days the lands on the courses of the 
 great rivers Irtish, Tobol, and Tura, and as far as the 
 main stream of the Obi itself, formed the Tartar Khan- 
 ate of Turan, the ruler of which was Kutchum Khan, a 
 descendant of the conqueror Genghiz. His capital was 
 Isker, a fortified town on the right bank of the Irtish, 
 not far from the site of the modern Tobolsk ; and the 
 neighbouring people were known as the " Sibir," a name 
 that has been extended to include the whole of Northern 
 Asia. Terrible were the toils and the sufferings of the 
 Cossack adventurers in passing the mountains, fording 
 the streams, threading the forest labyrinths, and fight- 
 ing the enemy. They were invariably successful ; but 
 when at last the banks of the Irtish were reached, Yer- 
 mak's band had dwindled from six thousand to five 
 hundred. Nevertheless, he boldly gave battle to the 
 Khan, and in the month of October 1581 completely 
 defeated him and entered his capital in triumph. 
 
 Yermak was prudent as well as valiant. He knew 
 that he could not hold this new possession with his own 
 hand, and he determined to make his peace with the Czar. 
 He sent a deputation to Moscow, bearing a present of 
 priceless furs and a selection of captives of the different 
 races that had been subdued, and with an offer of the
 
 FIRST SIBERIAN TOWNS. 413 
 
 conquered territory to the ruler of Russia. Ivan Mas 
 not a prince to look narrowly for flaws in the title, 
 when a new country and a fresh instalment of retribu- 
 tion on the Tartar were proffered him. He accepted 
 the charge with joy ; and Yermak the refugee became 
 by letters patent Yermak, Prince of Siberia. His 
 government was not a bed of roses. His men mutinied, 
 and the Tartars rose in insurrection. Within three 
 years he was drowned in attempting to swim the Irtish, 
 being dragged to the bottom by the weight of a suit 
 of armour which the Czar had graciously bestowed on 
 him in acknowledgment of the gift of Siberia to Russia. 
 At first the progress of the Russians in their Asian 
 dominions was slow, and marked with frequent disasters. 
 But gradually they made good their hold in the Obi 
 region, and then the process of the agglutination of new 
 territory went on with amazing rapidity. Tiumen, on 
 the Tura, half-way between Ekaterinburg and Tobolsk, 
 was the first town built by the Russians in Siberia. 
 Its site had been occupied as a Tartar hold dating 
 back to the time of GenQ-hiz : it is now noted for its 
 tanneries and soap-boiling establishments. In the fol- 
 lowing year, 1587, the foundations of an ostrog were 
 laid at the junction of the Tobol and the Irtish, a 
 spot now occupied by Tobolsk, the capital of the exten- 
 sive government of Western Siberia. Within the next 
 fifteen years a foothold was obtained on the upper 
 course of the Obi, and Tomsk was established in 1604, 
 and became in turn the chief town of an immense prov- 
 ince, embracing the rich mining regions of Barnaul and 
 the Altai, the greater part of the fertile corn-growing 
 Baraba Steppe, and districts where the climate is so
 
 414 DISCOVERT OF THE YENISEI. 
 
 warm and mild that great crops of excellent grapes are 
 grown. 
 
 The next step brought the invaders to the magnifi- 
 cent river Yenisei. What particular Cossack captain 
 first led his band to its waters is not exactly known. 
 The first we hear of is Feodor Dyakof, who was sent 
 from Tobolsk to collect yassah from the tribes in 1598. 
 In 1618 a party of Cossacks began driving piles for a 
 new fort at Yeniseisk, on the banks of the stream ; and 
 in 1628, Krasnoyarsk, the capital of the Yeniseisk prov- 
 ince, and one of the handsomest and most attractively 
 situated towns in Siberia, was built as a defence against 
 the Kirghiz incursions. By-and-by the Kirghiz became 
 tired of the incessant fighting, and moved southward 
 into the wide steppes about the head-waters of the Irtish 
 and the Ishim, thus removing a great obstacle to Russian 
 advance to the east. 
 
 Meanwhile, equally rapid progress was being made in 
 the north. Berezov, on the lower Obi — afterwards the 
 place of exile of the famous Menchikof, and of other 
 ambitious and unfortunate courtiers — became at an 
 early date an entrepot where the Ostiaks and Samoyedes 
 assembled to pay their tribute, and exchange their furs 
 for Russian manufactures. On the Tas river, which, as 
 a map will show, falls into a deep bay in the Gulf 
 of Obi, there was fixed in 1600, for a like purpose, a 
 wintering station called Mangaseia, a Russian corruption 
 of " magazine ;" and a few years later this was removed 
 eastward to a new Mangaseia, or Turukhansk, at the 
 union of the Lower Tunguska with the Yenisei. Here, 
 by-and-by, rose a cathedral-church and a monastery, 
 which became renowned and rich, and a great centre 

 
 THE COSSACKS ON THE PACIFIC. 415 
 
 for the spread of Christianity among the native races. 
 At the time of Nordenskiold's visit it -\vas tenanted 
 by a single monk, and contained as its choicest posses- 
 sion a picture of the Emperor Paul in powdered hair and 
 military uniform, which the superstitious Skoptsi, who 
 have been driven by Orthodox persecution into these 
 cold wastes on the Arctic Circle, worship as a likeness 
 of their holy prophet, the murdered Czar Peter III. 
 
 The mouth of the Yenisei was first reached in 1610, 
 and without delay a party of fur-hunters from Manga- 
 seia fitted out an expedition for discovery and trade, 
 which embarked in their kotschi, or flat-bottomed, decked 
 boats on the " Cold Sea," and explored the Siberian 
 shores as far as the Piasina River. From the same 
 centre, also, the Tunguska was ascended and the im- 
 portant discovery made of the Lena, the third in rank 
 of the Siberian streams, and the first permanent settle- 
 ment was founded on its banks in 1631. Five years 
 afterwards the Cossack Busa, setting out from Yeniseisk 
 in search, as usual, of peltry and yassaJc, made his way 
 to the Lena, and after adding forty fur-hunters to his 
 band at Olekminsk, descended the river to its mouth 
 in the Polar Ocean; and in 1638 he lighted upon the 
 Iana, simultaneously with the discovery of a still larger 
 stream, the Indigirka, by Ivanof, surnamed the " Observer 
 of Fasts." Next year Kupilof crossed the Aldan Moun- 
 tains and sighted the Pacific waters in the Sea of 
 Okotsk, and heard at the same time of a great river 
 called the Amoor ; and within the next decade Ya- 
 kutsk had been founded ; the Russians, led by Michael 
 Staduchin, had planted themselves firmly on the 
 Kolima, the last of the great rivers flowing into the
 
 416 THE PROMYSCHLENL 
 
 Polar Sea ; and, as we have seen, had in their frail 
 craft actually sailed round the extreme eastern cape of 
 Asia and landed on the shores of Kamschatka. 
 
 Thus within seventy years from the time when they 
 crossed the threshold of Asia, the Russians had carried 
 their discoveries and conquests to within sight of the 
 shores of America. Nowhere in history has the pro- 
 cess of subjugation been more rapid and continuous. 
 The invaders " came, saw, and conquered." The natives 
 of the country tried to resist them ; but they were 
 scattered and weak, and for the most part soon recon- 
 ciled themselves to their Russian masters. The serious 
 difficulties that the little Cossack bands had to encounter 
 arose from the enormous distances that had to be tra- 
 versed, and the danger of being lost in the icy deserts 
 and trackless forests, where often no food could be 
 procured for many days' march; or of suffering shipwreck 
 in their frail little vessels. Government in Moscow 
 left them pretty much to their own devices, and seldom 
 accurately knew how far the Russian dominions ex- 
 tended. Private adventurers — Promyschleni, as they 
 were called — started on enterprises for plunder or for 
 trade ; and, if they happened to be fortunate, proved 
 often the avant couriers of the Cossack militia. These 
 Promyschleni, according to Burney, were <: hunters and 
 adventurers who made excursions for profit by the 
 chase, by traffic, or by whatever accident might throw 
 in their way, whether they went with or without 
 authority from, or the knowledge of, their government, 
 and who, when they came among a strange people and 
 found their strength adequate to making the demand, 
 failed not to require of them to acknowledge them"
 
 PLUNDER AND PIETY. 417 
 
 selves subjects of the Russian Empire, and to pay 
 tribute." 
 
 Generally the two classes acted amicably together, and 
 formed a kind of " thieves' league," for the spoiling of 
 the heathen in the cause of the Czar and the holy 
 religion. They made no boast of their exploits. A 
 trip to the Arctic Circle in a comfortable yacht is now 
 thought sufficient occasion for the production of a thick 
 volume. Busa, Kupilof, or Staduchin never thought of 
 writing a thrilling narrative of their marvellous ex- 
 periences and splendid discoveries. There was no pub- 
 lic to write for — no Geographical Societies to award 
 them honours ; it is very doubtful if these sturdy 
 pioneers had even the gift of penmanship. Their 
 stories would hardly bear the light of day. Like the 
 contemporary Spanish adventurers, they were deeply 
 religious men after their lights. Seldom did they 
 escape from a danger, or touch on a new shore, that 
 they did not erect a cross as a memorial. The " Ob- 
 server of Fasts " was not the only one among them 
 noted for his pious adherence to the forms of the faith ; 
 and not to mention the interior, the coasts of the Polar 
 Sea are dotted with "sacred promontories," — Sviatoi 
 Nos, — and with bays and headlands named after favour- 
 ite saints. Towards their fellow-men, however, the rule 
 of might was their only law. They slew and plundered 
 and burned their way from one side of Asia to the other 
 without pity or remorse. Their most intrepid marches 
 and voyages were sullied by some act of cruelty or 
 rapacity committed on the unfortunate. 
 
 Thus Deshnef had no sooner completed his daring 
 voyage to the Anadir than he proceeded to levy yossah 
 
 (718) 27
 
 418 SIBERIAN COAST EXPLORATIONS. 
 
 from a people called the Anauli, whom he found living 
 on its banks. " As the tribe, though not numerous, was 
 nevertheless stubborn," — that is, in the matter of paying 
 tribute, — " they were in a short time exterminated," is 
 the simple statement of the narrator of the transaction, 
 who has evidently a high sense of the merits of the 
 method pursued. "When Captain Billings was de- 
 spatched by the Empress Catherine in 1785, to discover 
 or take possession of such unappropriated " coasts and 
 islands " as he might discover in the neighbourhood of 
 the North Pacific, he found the same ruthless process of 
 Russification still going on, though the scene had been 
 shifted as far east as the Aleutian Islands. " The un- 
 fortunate islanders," he reported, " are living in a state 
 of abject slavery under the Promyschleni. There is 
 no name so dreadful to the natives as that of a pere- 
 vodshik, or leader of a band of hunters. Immediately 
 on their arrival they send the natives out on the chase, 
 and then take by force the youngest and most hand- 
 some of the women. The barbarity of these subduers 
 to the Crown of Russia is not to be described." 
 
 More honourable to Russia and her hardy sons is 
 the record of explorations by land and sea by which 
 were traced the long outline of the Siberian coast, the 
 great estuaries, the low shelving shores, and shallow 
 bays full of grounded drift-ice, the off-lying islands, and 
 the headlands jutting far out into the heavy " Polar 
 pack." Here there was seldom any living thing to 
 dispute their progress save an occasional bear or walrus ; 
 the cold and darkness, the hunger and exposure, the snow- 
 storms and " ice-nips," the scurvy and the snow blind- 
 ness, the lonely isolation and hopelessness of succour,
 
 THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE. 419 
 
 supplied quite enough of the elements of peril and hard- 
 ship to suit the keenest appetite for adventure without 
 the prospect of meeting a human foe. 
 
 The Russians were not first in the field in prosecuting 
 this important section of Arctic exploration, nor had they 
 the honour of placing the finishing touch to the work 
 of discovery. The most famous of the early voyages of 
 the English and Dutch navigators are those of Stephen 
 Burrough, who in 155G reached Vaygatz Strait; of 
 Pet and Jackman, who in 1580 passed through another 
 entrance to the Kara Sea, between Vaygatz Island and 
 the mainland; and of Willem Barents, who in 1594 
 pushed a little distance into the Kara Sea, until, as he 
 conjectured, " he was not far from Cape Tabin, which 
 is the exterior angle of Tartary, whence the coast 
 declines towards the kingdom of Cathay," and two 
 years later perished with part of his ship's company 
 in a little hut, which only the other day was found 
 standing almost intact at the northern extremity of 
 Novaya Zemlia, and has been removed bodily to a 
 museum at Amsterdam; also, Henry Hudson, in 1607-9, 
 made unsuccessful attempts to pass round the northern 
 end of Novaya Zemlia. 
 
 In all these enterprises the prime object was to dis- 
 cover a " North-East Passage " to India, by which the 
 Hollanders and English dreamed they might out-distance 
 the Portuguese and Spaniards in grasping the riches of 
 the East, which had been laid open to their southern 
 rivals by the discovery of the sea-passage round the 
 Cape of Good Hope. They succeeded only in peering, 
 as it were, through the grating into the weltering chaos 
 of ice that filled the seas to the north of Siberia, and
 
 420 EARLY RUSSIAN VOFAGES. 
 
 in convincing the old navigators that no practicable 
 channel of trade could be found to the northward of 
 the dominions of the " Duke of Muscovy." Half a 
 century after Hudson's time the attempt was renewed 
 by the Danes. In 1676 Captain John Wood, an Eng- 
 lishman, encouraged by a story told him by a Dutch 
 skipper, who had been in captivity in Corea, that 
 whales were taken in the Sea of Tartary, in which were 
 found European harping-irons, and by the fact that " he 
 had heard a Dutchman relate that he had been under 
 the Pole itself, and that it was as warm there as it was 
 at Amsterdam in summer time," followed in the same 
 track ; and then for exactly two centuries the problem 
 of finding a North-East Passage was abandoned as 
 visionary. 
 
 Even in Burrough's days Russian loddies or fishing- 
 vessels were found frequenting the entrance to the Kara 
 Sea. The first authenticated instance of the Cossacks 
 having launched upon the Siberian seas took place, as 
 has been mentioned, from the Yenisei. Then the 
 Kolima — where, in 1644, Michael Staduchin built a 
 simovie or winter station on the site now occupied 
 by the town of Nishni-Kolimski — became the centre 
 from which numerous adventurous voyages were made 
 along the coasts to the east and west, the first ex- 
 pedition being under the leadership of a fur-hunter 
 named Ignatief, who brought back exciting news — 
 " the existence of a nation rich in sea-horses' teeth " — 
 that made the teeth of the restless conquerors of Siberia 
 themselves water with envy. Though walrus ivory — 
 not the hope of fame or zeal for discovery — was the 
 vulgar allurement that tempted the fur-hunters on from 

 
 THE ''GREAT NORTHERN EXPEDITION." 421 
 
 cape to cape, between the threatening pack-ice and the 
 barren rocks, their achievements may compare in patient 
 endurance and determination with the most heroic deeds 
 in maritime history. The sluttihi employed in Deshnef's 
 days were clumsy boats hollowed from the trunk of: a 
 tree, or formed of planks sewn together by twisted osiers, 
 fastened to the timbers by leathern straps, and calked 
 with moss, the cordage composed of thongs of elk leather, 
 the sails of reindeer-skin, and the anchor of the knotty 
 root of a tree weighted with a large stone. 
 
 In these primitive craft, however, before 1734, the 
 mouths of all the rivers flowing into the Polar Ocean 
 had been visited, and expeditions made in narti or light 
 dog-sledges over the ice in search of a " great land " con- 
 taining trees and human inhabitants and herds of rein- 
 deer, supposed to exist to the northward. In that year 
 began the series of scientific investigations, at the instance 
 of the Russian Government, to clear up the obscure geog- 
 raphy of the north coast of Asia. The Empress Anne 
 sent forth, under the directions of the Dane Behring, four 
 expeditions, most of which were incessantly employed 
 for ten years in surveying the Siberian coasts. In every 
 instance the leaders first appointed succumbed to fatigue 
 or gave up the enterprise in despair, and success was 
 only attained after repeated and disastrous failures. 
 Mouravief sailed from Archangel for the Obi in 1734; 
 but it was not till 1739 that the vessels returned to the 
 Dwina, under their third set of commanders, after visit- 
 ing the Obi. Simultaneously Ovzyn started from the 
 Obi to reach the Yenisei and double Cape Taimyr ; and 
 his mate Minin, in the close of 1740, brought back the 
 expedition, which had turned while only a degree short
 
 422 ARCTIC DISASTERS. 
 
 of the goal, the crew fearing, from the dazzling blaze of 
 the sim on the snow, that they would become blind. 
 
 The division of the survey that sailed westward from 
 the Lena was attended with fortunes more tragic and 
 more brilliant. The commander, Prontchistchef, and 
 his young wife who accompanied him, died of fatigue 
 and exposure. But a new chief, Lieutenant Chariton 
 Laptef, pushed on till his vessel was wrecked in 1741 
 near the northern extremity of the continent ; whence, 
 crossing the Taimyr Peninsula, he marched his party 
 safely to Mangaseia, on the Yenisei, whence next year 
 he despatched to the north his assistant Tchelyuskin, 
 who ascertained that the Siberian coast is bounded 
 throughout by the ocean, and had the honour of giving 
 his name to the " uttermost part of the earth " in the 
 Old World. The duty of the fourth expedition was, by 
 proceeding eastwards from the Lena, to reach Behring 
 Strait. The original party, with their leader Lassinius, 
 perished almost to a man of scurvy. Another Laptef — 
 Demetrius — carried on the enterprise, and persisted with 
 it until 1743. Deshnefs exploit, of a hundred years 
 earlier, still remained unapproached. 
 
 Not more successful, so far as regards the discovery of 
 a navigable water-way to the north of Siberia, were the 
 Russian naval expeditions that prosecuted the work of 
 exploration from the side of the Pacific. It was about 
 the year 169G that the Cossacks of Anadirsk began a 
 series of expeditions, under their chiefs Morosko, Atlassof, 
 Staritzin, and Kobelef, by which, within ten years, the 
 peninsula of Kamschatka was subdued and annexed; and 
 a Russian merchant named Kolessof, fitting out in 1713 
 an expedition in little vessels of skin, braved the dangers
 
 PACIFIC VOYAGES. 423 
 
 of these cold and foggy eastern seas, and was rewarded 
 with the discovery of the Kurile Isles, and brought back 
 accounts of a people habited in silk and bearing swords. 
 
 Word of this reached St. Petersburg, where already 
 the active brain of Peter the Great was exercised with 
 schemes for turning to account the literally boundless 
 possessions of Russia in Asia. "With his own hand he 
 drew up a few days before his death instructions " for 
 examining the coasts to the north and east, to see whether 
 they were not contiguous to America, since their end was 
 not known ; " and in accordance with the directions of 
 the dead Czar, Behring in 1728 built a vessel at Okotsk, 
 and conveyed his party to the Kamschatka River, there 
 transporting himself to another vessel, in which he sailed 
 through the strait that has since borne his name, with- 
 out, however, suspecting, owing to the thickness of the 
 weather, that the American coast was so near. Curiosity 
 was aroused anew at the Russian court by a Japanese 
 junk laden with silks being cast away on the Kamschatkan 
 coast, the crew of which were massacred by the Cossacks. 
 Vessels were sent out in 1739 to visit, and open trade 
 with, these new neighbours ; and the Japanese heaped 
 "coals of fire" on the heads of their first visitors from 
 Russia by showing them every token of good will, enter- 
 taining them at banquets where they were served with 
 fruit, confections, and wine, in vessels of porcelain, and 
 paying for all they received in their brass money. 
 
 Then, a year later, Behring made his second voyage, 
 steering first for " Teixara," a great land in the North- 
 ern Pacific which a Portuguese, Dom Joao da Gama, had 
 declared he had seen; and failing to find Teixara, as 
 has been the lot of every navigator since, he pushed on
 
 424 BEHRING AND COOK. 
 
 eastward until he arrived under the lee of a stupendous 
 mountain range, including one snow-covered peak, than 
 which, says Behring, " I have not seen in all Siberia a 
 more lofty mountain." In point of fact he had reached 
 the North American coast at Mount St. Elias ; and from 
 this point northward the land was claimed for the Czar 
 by right of discovery, and formed till the other day 
 the great " fur preserve " of the Imperial Fur Company, 
 the Russian equivalent of the Hudson Bay Company. 
 On this voyage, which, as we shall see, ended most dis- 
 astrously, the high land of one of the Aleutian Islands 
 was first sighted, looming through fogs. Forty years 
 later our own Captain Cook followed in the track of 
 Behring, and entering the strait, reported his vessel 
 the Discovery "on the 11th of August 1778, at noon, 
 midway between the two continents of Asia and America, 
 each being seven leagues distant." Cook pushed west- 
 ward in short boards between the ice and the Siberian 
 shore, having in sight " prodigious numbers of sea-horses," 
 that " lay in herds of many thousands on the ice, huddling 
 one over another like swine, and roared or brayed very 
 loud, so that at night or in foggy weather they gave the 
 first notice of the ice." But in spite of the guidance of the 
 walruses, he found the ice closing in on him so fast that 
 he gave up the attempt to reach Europe by this route. 
 
 Subsequent exploring ships — Russian, British, and 
 American — that entered the seas north of Behring 
 Strait have fared no better ; indeed, such had been the 
 constant impediments encountered by navigators beyond 
 "Cook's farthest," that Burney, so late as 1819, was 
 positively convinced that somewhere between this point 
 and Cape Chelagskoi there must exist an isthmus, form- 

 
 THE FROZE X SEA. 425 
 
 ing a continuous land communication between Asia and 
 America. 
 
 Meanwhile the Cossack adventurers on the Lena and 
 the Kolima had found something new to stimulate their 
 spirit of daring. A rich store of mammoth bones had 
 been discovered in 1750 by the merchant Liakho v in the 
 tundra. Twenty years later this same enterprising trader, 
 happening to be on business on the shores of the Polar Sea 
 between the Iana and Indigirka rivers, saw a large herd 
 of reindeer approaching over the ice from the north. The 
 traditions of a " great land " to the north occurred to him, 
 and an expedition was fitted out that led to the discovery 
 of the Liakhov Islands, better known as New Siberia. 
 
 This remote group, with its " wooden mountains " 
 and mounds of driftwood and mammoth bones strewing 
 its shores, was thoroughly and scientifically examined 
 by Hedenstrom in 1809, and by Lieutenant Anjou in 
 1821—3 ; while, simultaneously with Anjou, Liitke com- 
 pleted the examination of Novaya Zemlia, and Von 
 Wrangell established the continuity of the sea from the 
 Atlantic to Behring Strait, and made the first organized 
 attempts to reach a high latitude in dog-sledges. 
 
 These, and other explorers who have tried to advance 
 northward over the ice from Siberia, have invariably 
 found, at a certain distance from the coast, one impassable 
 obstacle to their progress. The horizon to the north 
 would be covered with dense vapour, and the winds 
 from the same quarter come laden with moisture. Flights 
 of geese and other water-fowl would also be seen wend- 
 ing their way south, as from some favourite resort under 
 the Pole, while the ice under foot would become thin and 
 moist and broken up by lanes of water. At length, when
 
 426 NORDENSKIOLD'S VOYAGE. 
 
 sorne coigne of vantage on an ice-hummock would open a 
 prospect ahead, there would be seen, in Von Wrangell's 
 words, " a wide, immeasurable ocean spread before the 
 gaze — a fearful and magnificent but to us a melancholy 
 spectacle — an agitated ocean, where fragments of ice of 
 enormous size floated, or were thrown with awful violence 
 against the edge of the ice-field." 
 
 From this time the "great Polynia" or " open water" 
 began to cut a considerable figure in the discussions of 
 geographical societies and schemes of Polar discovery. 
 If an entrance to it could be found from the Atlantic, it 
 was said, a fair sail might be made to the Pacific, and 
 the North-East Passage become an accomplished fact. 
 The daring voyages recently made by skippers of the 
 Norwegian whaling-craft, such as Carlsen and Johanni- 
 sen, who sailed round the north of Novaya Zemlia, and 
 found an apparently limitless open sea stretching to the 
 eastward, seemed to hint that the problem that had 
 baffled Burrough and Barents was about to be solved. 
 
 Solved at length it was, though the " Polynia " only 
 contributed indirectly to the result. Professor Norden- 
 skiold, one of the princes of Arctic discovery, an expe- 
 rienced seaman and profound scientific inquirer, concen- 
 trated his attention on the difficulty which the ice had 
 so long presented to the navigation of the Siberian seas. 
 Two preliminary voyages, in which he forced a passage 
 through the Kara Sea, which Yon Baer had in 1837 
 pronounced an " ice-cellar," convinced him that if he 
 started late in the year, when the autumn floods in the 
 rivers had moved the ice out to sea — room for it being 
 found in the " open water " to the north — the whole dis- 
 tance to the Pacific might be run in a single season. 

 
 THE "NORTH-EAST PASSAGE" AT LAST. 427 
 
 On the 4th of July 1878 the little steamer Vega sailed 
 from Gothenburg. Before the end of the month she 
 had passed the gates of the Kara Sea. On the 19th of 
 August flags were hoisted and a salute fired as Cape 
 Tchelyuskin or Severo — the northernmost point of the 
 Old World — was rounded, the sun coming out from the 
 fog, and glinting on land and sea alike free from ice; on 
 the 6th of September, Cape Chelagskoi the " impassable," 
 which no keel had visited since Deshnef had passed in 
 1G48, was cleared; the North Cape of Cook was left 
 behind on the 12th; and on the 27th of September 
 the Vega was frozen in, within a few miles of the open 
 water in Behring Strait. 
 
 In two months the professor had cleared at a rush 
 the space which previous explorers had been laboriously 
 occupied in mapping out for three hundred years. He 
 had bided his time, and caught fortune literally " at the 
 flood." The sliding doors of the ice moved back to let 
 him pass, and were again jammed hard against the shore 
 just before he had time to escape. Next year, however, 
 he extricated himself, and sailed prosperously home to 
 Europe by the Suez Canal, thus circumnavigating the 
 continent of Asia, and establishing by his splendid skill 
 and courage the soundness of his contention that the 
 navigation of the seas from Norway to Japan is practi- 
 cable, if not safe. It is a galling reflection to Russia 
 that she has by her own act lost the credit of placing 
 this magnificent copestone on her work of discovery. 
 Nordenskiold is a Finlander, a born subject of the Czar ; 
 but while still a youth at Helsingfors University, he was 
 expatriated and compelled to carry his fortunes and his 
 talents elsewhere, for daring to hold "liberal " opinions.
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THE CHINESE FRONTIERS. 
 
 N the southern frontier of Siberia, marching 
 for thousands of miles with the dominions of 
 the Emperor of China, Russia is still engaged 
 in the task of defining the limits of her ter- 
 ritory, by means of scientific expeditions and diplomatic 
 missions, and occasionally, though only in cases of 
 emergency, by the despatch of a military force. 
 
 The relations between these two Asiatic Powers have 
 always been of a peculiar kind. Russia has played 
 her game with admirable patience. While cautiously 
 avoiding a collision with China, she has constantly 
 enlarged her frontiers at the expense of her neigh- 
 bour, and has peacefully secured commercial and dip- 
 lomatic privileges which other Western nations have 
 only obtained at the price of costly wars. China began 
 by arrogating the rights of suzerainty over the Czar, and 
 has ended by falling gradually under the ascendency of 
 the Northern Power. Russia has bit by bit established 
 herself along the whole northern slope of the Altai chain. 
 Few of the streams draining to the Arctic Ocean have 
 now their rise within the territory of the Celestials. The 
 wild and rugged scenes in which the tributaries of 
 
 LlltJ 
 
 the
 
 RUSSIA ON THE ALTAI RANGE. 429 
 
 Irtish and the Obi take their rise among the precipices, 
 glaciers, and frozen tarns of Cholsoun and the Little 
 Altai, with the untold mineral wealth of these mountains, 
 and the rich and beautiful valleys into which their dark 
 gorges open up, are now in the undisputed possession of 
 the Czar. So likewise are all but the most remote 
 feeders of the Yenisei, and the whole of the fertile 
 region surrounding Lake Baikal. 
 
 Beyond the snow-clad summits of the Altai, Russia 
 has not cared to go, at least as yet. There is little to 
 tempt her in the sterile steppes of the great table-land 
 beyond, dotted over with isolated salt lakes, round 
 which the fragments of Mongol tribes, Kalmuks, Eleuts, 
 and Kalkas nomadize and find scanty pasture for their 
 flocks and herds, and merging into the desolation of 
 the great Desert of Gobi, the "Dry Sea" of the Chinese, 
 which is more perilous to traverse than the Frozen 
 Ocean itself. But Russia has already planted a foot 
 within the fruitful valley of the Hi, thus, as it were, 
 turning the western flank of the Altai, and opening a 
 road to Yarkand and Kashgar. She has drawn her 
 frontier along the northern bank of the Amoor, and, 
 crossing that stream near its mouth, has pushed forth a 
 long inquiring finger towards Corea. 
 
 It was about the year 1G40 that Russia began to 
 come into contact with the Chinese in these regions. 
 For twenty years previous the Cossack adventurers had 
 been engaged in desultory conflict with the tribes on the 
 Upper Yenisei and in the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal, 
 more especially with the Buriats, who had rendered 
 themselves independent of China. Already the Buriats 
 had imported the Buddhist religion and the civilization
 
 430 COSSACK AXD CIIIXAMAN. 
 
 of the Middle Empire, and possessed a written language 
 and literature. To this day this people, who form a 
 numerous and influential section of the population of 
 the Transbaikal region, dress themselves in resplendent 
 robes of flowered silk, and are more Chinese than 
 Russian in type and customs, and perhaps in sym- 
 pathies. In 1643 a band of adventurers, under Michael 
 Poyarkof, crossed the Yablonnoi range and descended on 
 the Amoor; and a few years later they were followed by 
 the Cossack hetman Khabarof, who traced the river to 
 its outlet, and expelling the original Tungus possessors, 
 fortified himself at a place called Albassin, on the north 
 bank of the stream, about a hundred miles below the 
 junction of its two great branches, the Shilka and the 
 Argun. 
 
 Albassin became the theatre of a struggle that lasted 
 many generations between the Cossack and the China- 
 man for the possession of the Amoor. Needy and greedy 
 adventurers thronged hither, attracted by a milder 
 climate and a richer and more varied vegetation than 
 anything they had found farther north, but chiefly by 
 the great abundance of game and fur animals, and the 
 prosperous forays that could be made across the river 
 into Mantchuria. The Chinese, who had never sur- 
 rendered their claims, determined to root out this den 
 of freebooters. An army from the Flowery Land 
 captured Albassin in 1658, after a two years' siege, and 
 carried part of the garrison prisoners to Pekin. Even 
 this loss became Russia's gain ; for the little band of 
 exiled Albassins became the foundation of the notorious 
 " Ecclesiastical Mission," on whose account the Russians 
 have claimed and obtained the right to erect churches
 
 DISCOVERY OF PRECIOUS ORES. 431 
 
 and schools for the Orthodox in the Middle Kingdom. 
 Twice Albassin was rebuilt by the Cossacks, and twice it 
 was recaptured and destroyed by military forces sent out 
 by the Pekin Government ; and at length it was secured 
 to China, along with the whole territory on the north 
 bank of the Amoor, by the first international treaty 
 entered into between the two Powers, signed in 1G89 
 at Nertchinsk. 
 
 Other objects than mere plunder were beginning to 
 attract the notice of the Russians on this southern 
 frontier. The existence of rich ores of gold, silver, 
 copper, and other precious metals, had been discovered 
 in the Altai Mountains and in Daouria, as the resion 
 to the south-east of Lake Baikal was then generally 
 called. The sands of the Nertcha, near the junction of 
 which with the Shilka Nertchinsk is situated, were by- 
 and-by washed for gold, and the occupation of spoiling 
 the mandarins lost its attractions. Gems of great 
 brilliancy and size, amethysts and topazes, garnets and 
 emeralds might be picked up by the industrious treasure- 
 seeker. Mines of malachite, porphyry, and lapis-lazuli 
 were discovered and worked ; beautiful blocks of green, 
 cream-coloured, and purple jasper were met with among 
 the chasms and precipices of the Altai, waiting only 
 transportation to Europe to make the fortunes of the 
 finders. 
 
 The great works at Barnaul, where later all the ores 
 extracted from the mines of the Altai and Eastern 
 Siberia were brought to be smelted, were established. 
 When our countryman Atkinson visited the place twenty- 
 five years ago, he found that six caravans annually left 
 Barnaul for St. Petersburg laden with the precious metals,
 
 432 AMENITIES OF SIBERIAN TOWNS. 
 
 and that to his eyes the mining population of the Altai 
 appeared "more wealthy, more cleanly, and surrounded by 
 more comforts than any other people in the empire." Con- 
 vict labour had not then been introduced into the Altai 
 mines ; and the change that has since taken place, if it 
 has helped to develop the mineral wealth of the region, 
 has scarcely improved its society. Mr. Lansdell, on his 
 visit in 1881, found that from twelve hundred to fifteen 
 hundred men (not convicts) were engaged in the Crown 
 mines, that supply five smelting-works — four for silver, 
 and one for copper. The smelting of gold is carried on 
 in a small room, about twenty feet square, at fires not 
 larger than those in a laundry copper ; and in the strong 
 room are sometimes stored as much as four or five tons 
 of gold, worth, say, half a million sterling. 
 
 Barnaul possesses, among other amenities, an interest- 
 ing museum of minerals. In its shops may be bought 
 Edinburgh ale, Dublin porter, and French champagne, of 
 course at exorbitant prices. On the other hand, beef 
 may be had at a halfpenny per pound, and grouse at 
 twopence a brace, and cleared black land hired at three- 
 pence-halfpenny per English acre. 
 
 In Siberia whole towns disappear in a twinkling in 
 some great fire that runs its course among the wooden 
 dwellings, and rise again from their ashes with magic 
 rapidity. The " inflammable materials " contained in 
 them have been largely increased since the Government 
 have begun to export Nihilists thither ; and the great 
 fires which have recently caused such damage at Kraal 
 nojarsk, Irbit, Irkutsk, and other places, have been con- 
 fidently attributed to the presence of these irrepressible 
 incendiaries. By the great conflagration at Irkutsk last
 
 IRKUTSK. 433 
 
 year, it was estimated that three million worth of prop- 
 erty was destroyed and twenty thousand person- 
 dered homeless. 
 
 Irkutsk was not founded till the close of the seven- 
 teenth century, and the earlier and finer of its public 
 buildings were the work of the Polish and Swedish 
 captives sent hither by Peter the Groat after Poltava. 
 As befits the official capital of Siberia, it occuj i 
 commanding position on the banks of the broad and deep 
 Angara, some distance below the point where it flows 
 out of Lake Baikal to join the Yenisei. It is in the 
 centre of a fertile, richly- wooded, and well-wal 
 country, full of the most charming scenery ; it contains 
 a fair share of the manufacturing industries in which 
 the Siberian towns are energetically engaged : in the 
 suburbs are the mansions of weak: ian merchants, 
 
 who have surrounded themselves in this distant 
 with all the luxuries of Europe, and whose gardens in 
 summer are ablaze with blossom ; and on the whole it 
 deserves the praises that have been so profit >wcd 
 
 on it by travellers. 
 
 The commercial importance of Irkutsk is due to its 
 neighbourhood to the Eastern Siberian mines, and to 
 the traffic with China. The Russians were not lonsr 
 in convincing themselves that a much more profitable 
 mode of dealing with the Chinese than their first i 
 method of plundering them would be to open up a 
 peaceful trade. To attain this end, 
 had employed all his diplomacy \ there v. v and 
 
 pretty fencing between tl negoti □ either 
 
 and wordy and interminable discus 
 
 etiquette, "ko-towing," and the exchange of refi 
 
 •_-
 
 434 LAKE BAIKAL. 
 
 deserters. It was two years after Peter's death that 
 the important Treaty of Kiachta was settled between 
 the Count Vladislavitch Ragousinsky and the plenipoten- 
 tiaries of the " Bogdo Khan : " and it remained for about 
 a hundred and thirty years the basis of the commercial 
 and diplomatic relations of China and Russia. Under 
 it, marts for the exchange of Russian and Chinese goods 
 were established at the adjoining towns of Kiachta, in 
 the territory of the Czar, and Maimatchin, within the 
 frontier of the Descendant of the Sun. Through this 
 channel the great bulk of the overland trade with China 
 has continued to flow. Furs and manufactured goods 
 from Europe are collected at Irkutsk, and are forwarded 
 to the frontier by way of Lake Baikal. 
 
 This magnificent lake — the " Holy Sea" of the sur- 
 rounding peoples — is girded in by high mountains, and 
 the basaltic cliffs along its shore rise in some places from 
 deep water to a height of seven or eight hundred feet. 
 It is subject to terrific storms ; and it was with feelings 
 of astonishment that the Siberians and Mongolians saw 
 the first steamer, built by an enterprising merchant 
 named Menchnikof, making her way across the lake with 
 a cargo of goods destined for Pekin, in the teeth of a 
 heavy gale. The wares are conveyed to the frontier on 
 horseback in summer or in sledges during winter, and 
 stored in the government magazines at Kiachta or in the 
 neighbouring custom-house at Troitskosavsk ; while tea 
 in chests and bricks, rhubarb, silks, and other goods 
 brought for barter by the Chinese merchants, are carried 
 through the Great Wall at Kalgan, and across the sandy 
 desert by way of the holy Buddhist city of Ourga in cara- 
 vans of camels, guided by shaggy Khalka drivers, to Mai-
 
 A CHINESE FRONTIER MART. 435 
 
 matchin. Free intercourse is permitted from sunrise to 
 sunset between the two border emporiums : after that 
 hour the Chinese shut the gate of Maimatchin, and the 
 Cossacks close the egress from Kiachta. The merchants 
 from Moscow and other distant places in Russia usually 
 reach Kiachta in the beginning of February ; and before 
 the middle of March their transactions are completed, 
 and long caravans are on their march towards Irbit and 
 Nishni-Novgorod. 
 
 There is every outward and visible sign that this in- 
 ternational trade is profitable to both parties. The stores 
 of Maimatchin — a genuine Chinese town of houses of 
 unburned brick, faced with wooden screens painted over 
 with grotesque monsters — are bursting with valuable 
 wares ; and the owners are portly, pig-tailed personages, 
 who think nothing of laying a pair of chopsticks for 
 their guest and setting before him a banquet of sixty- 
 four dishes. That the Russian merchants of Kiachta 
 are likewise liberal and well-to-do may be judged from 
 the fact that they have built a cathedral — the finest in 
 Eastern Siberia — at a cost of £150,000, and adorned it 
 with an altar-screen of gold, with doors weighing two 
 thousand pounds in solid silver. 
 
 The Russians did not permanently remain satisfied 
 with the advantages they had gained by the Treaty of 
 Kiachta. By 1848, it is known, the Government had 
 made up their mind to recover their hold on the Amoor, 
 and preparations towards that end were made. While 
 these were being completed, they operated actively by 
 means of scientific expeditions. Russian officers ascended 
 the highest summits of the Altai chain, explored its most 
 accessible gorges, made excursions into the steppes within
 
 436 DISINTERESTED AGGRESSION. 
 
 the Chinese frontier, and brought back interesting infor- 
 mation regarding the routes available for trade or mili- 
 tary operations. 
 
 One of the latest and most distinguished of these 
 explorers is Prejevalsky, who has traversed Mongolia 
 and the Kokonor district, visited the half -fabulous Lake 
 Lob, which receives the drainage of Eastern Turkes- 
 tan, and to whose banks he found a wandering party 
 of " Old Believers " had preceded him in search of the 
 " New Jerusalem," and who has just returned from a 
 journey into a part of Thibet never before reached by 
 a European traveller. 
 
 The accounts that were brought back of the extreme 
 beauty and fertility of Amoorland stimulated the zeal of 
 the Siberian officials for the enlargement of their frontier 
 in this quarter. In 1854 General Mouravief, Governor- 
 General of Eastern Siberia, himself undertook an explora- 
 tion of the river on a scale so imposing that the Chinese 
 dared not oppose it, and exploration merged gently into 
 acquisition. In 1857 the first regular colony was settled 
 on the river, and the Tientsin Treaty of the year follow- 
 ing formally secured the command of this great water- 
 way, two thousand two hundred miles in length — the 
 only outlet which Siberia possesses into an unfrozen sea. 
 " Such," in the words of Professor Martens of St. Peters- 
 burg, " has been the recompense found for the patience, 
 the indulgence, and the disinterestedness, of which 
 Russia has given proof in regard to China." A later 
 step in this " disinterested" process was the acquisition of 
 a strip of the Mantchurian sea-coast south of the Amoor 
 by the Treaty of Pekin in 18G0, negotiated by General 
 Ignatief, afterwards Russian ambassador at Constanti-
 
 THE A MOOR REGION. 437 
 
 nople, and now, since the removal from office of Loris 
 MelikofF, the most powerful man in Russia after the 
 Czar. 
 
 The expectations formed of the Amoor region have 
 scarcely been fulfilled. Atkinson, Lansdell, and others 
 have described with enthusiasm the extraordinary beauty 
 and grandeur of its scenery, and its exhaustless animal, 
 vegetable, and mineral wealth. In regard to the pre- 
 cious metals, it is represented as a second California ; 
 for cotton growing, more suited than the choicest parts 
 of Africa, if not of America. The dense forests of the 
 maple, lime, pine, and oak constitute a source of incal- 
 culable future wealth ; the pastures of deep grass, never 
 cropped except by wild animals, are capable of support- 
 ing numberless flocks of cattle ; and the river teems with 
 fish. In spite of all this luxuriance, the banks have 
 a desolate aspect. Nowhere in 18G2 was to be seen 
 token of man or his work, save here and there on the 
 lower course the hut of a Tungus or Giliak fisher or 
 hunter, or, near the Soungari river, a few Chinese junks, 
 temples, and villages. It was prophesied that, within 
 ten years of the annexation, " the aspect of the region 
 would be materially changed : flourishing towns would 
 be seen on the banks; the vessels moored by the shore 
 would show that the people were actively engaged in 
 commerce and other industrial pursuits; while the white 
 churches with their numerous turrets and green domes 
 would prove that religion and civilization had taken the 
 place of idolatry and superstition." 
 
 Twenty years have passed, and the fortunes of the 
 province of the Amoor do not yet seem absolutely 
 assured. Colonists have come in considerable numbers,
 
 438 DIPLOMACY IN HIGH ASIA. 
 
 but some of them have gone again. Towns have been 
 built, and lines of steamers established; but it is com- 
 plained that the amount of trade is not always sufficient 
 to keep them profitably employed. The great disadvan- 
 tage is the remoteness from markets where the produce 
 of the region could be disposed of. What is the use, 
 it is said, of raising magnificent crops, when no merchant 
 would pay the enormous cost of bringing the grain to 
 his doors, even if he got the article for nothing ? Then 
 it has to be remembered that while the climate of the 
 middle Amoor is temperate, its sources and its mouth 
 are practically in the Arctic regions. All this will not 
 prevent the district from having a great future ; it only 
 proves that some of the expectations regarding it were 
 formed prematurely. 
 
 The latest diplomatic passages between Russia and 
 China threatened at one time to end in war. In a 
 corner of High Asia, where the Altai and Tianshan 
 ranges overlap each other, is the valley of the Hi River, 
 flowing down to the sandy waste in which lies the great 
 salt lake Balkash, through the province of Kuldja, the 
 most highly prized of all the possessions of China west 
 of the Great Wall. This district of Soungaria, as it is 
 also called, is supposed to have been the cradle of the 
 Teuton races. From it the Kalmuks migrated to the 
 Lower Volga; and thither the remnant of them returned 
 again on the occasion of their famous exodus in 1771 — 
 a circumstance that nearly led to a rupture between the 
 Empress Catherine and China. The frontiers of the 
 Flowery Land had not long before been extended by 
 the conquests of the great emperor Kien Lun, until they 
 embraced not only Soungaria, but the whole of Eastern 
 
 ■.
 
 REBELLION IN KULDJA. 439 
 
 Turkestan, up to the borders of Bokhara ; and the wan- 
 derers from Europe, finding- their old home in the valley 
 already settled by military colonists from Mantchuria 
 and the banks of the Amoor, deported criminals from the 
 Middle Kingdom, and Tarantchis, " millet-growers " or 
 agriculturists from Kashgar, retired to the high rich 
 pastures above, where they still live under the name of 
 Torgots. 
 
 The centre of authority was at Hi, or New Kuldja, 
 where the Mantchu Governor-General of Chinese Tartary 
 lived in great state, though the turbulent character and 
 many quarrels of the score of nationalities under his 
 charge made his office anything but a bed of roses. 
 Among the other races were the Dungans, a people 
 of rather mysterious origin — Mohammedan in religion, 
 Chinese in nearly every other respect — who are widely 
 scattered over the empire from Pekin to Yarkand. 
 
 About twenty years ago, China was seized with tre- 
 mors and convulsions throughout its whole bulk, and 
 seemed on the eve of dissolution. Insurrection spread 
 like a wave of fire from one end of the Emperor's 
 territory to the other; and the central government 
 seemed powerless to arrest it. Kashgar and the neigh- 
 bouring cities fell into the hands of the bold Khokan- 
 dian adventurer Yakoob Beg, who set up an inde- 
 pendent principality, which he maintained intact for 
 twelve years. The Dungans had led the insurrection 
 in Kuldja, and, assisted by the Tarantchis, massacred 
 the whole Mantchu garrison. The Dungan leader told 
 Mr. Schuyler, with a chuckle, how they had captured 
 the city of Hi after a two years' siege. " That morning 
 there were in it seventy-five thousand people, with the
 
 440 A CORNER OF C II IS A. 
 
 army ; that evening not a soul was left alive." The 
 Chinese governor, after the manner of Chinese governors, 
 had composedly applied a lighted match to a mine in his 
 palace, and had blown himself up with his family. 
 
 At the time of the American traveller's visit nothing- 
 was left of the fine city except heaps of ruins of 
 temples, covered with fragments of pottery and charred 
 human bones that encumbered the broad streets. The 
 remains of Chinese industry and art have not wholly 
 disappeared, however ; and one coming to a town on 
 the Hi from Russian Turkestan is struck by the change, 
 even in the present reduced circumstances of Kuldja. 
 " Instead of narrow, crooked streets, there were broad, 
 straight avenues shaded by trees ; instead of windowless 
 houses built of mud, the blank walls of which stared 
 one in the face at every turn, there were fine buildings 
 of brick, beautifully carved and moulded, roofed with 
 tiles, and with latticed windows and porticos. Instead 
 of female forms swathed in long shapeless dressing- 
 gowns, and with faces hidden by black horse-hair veils, 
 there were stout, healthy, and smiling women chatting 
 over their marketing, the bright orange-coloured mari- 
 golds in their wonderful coiffures, or their coquettish 
 little caps, contrasting well with the indigo blue of their 
 gowns. Instead of Sarts and Uzbegs in gowns and 
 turbans, there were Chinese and Dungans in wadded 
 petticoats, short jackets, long moustaches, and pig-tails." 
 
 The valley, irrigated and planted with grain crops, 
 fruit trees, and artificial forests, was a paradise; but for 
 several years it became a Pandemonium. The Dungans 
 and Tarantchis took to massacring one another, the latter 
 getting the better of the struggle ; Yakoob Beg seemed 
 

 
 CHINESE CONQUESTS. 441 
 
 on the point of invading it; and the population had been 
 reduced by constant butcheries to about a fourth of 
 what it was a few years before, when General Kolpa- 
 kowsky stepped in, and almost without resistance occu- 
 pied the province, declaring that Russia intended to hold 
 it only temporarily until China could re-establish her 
 authority. 
 
 China showed more vitality and tenacity of purpose 
 than some of her neighbours had expected, or perhaps 
 even hoped for. One by one her rebellious provinces were 
 brought again into subjection, amid terrible slaughter- 
 ings and devastation. An army under the victorious 
 General Tso set out on the march across the deserts to 
 reduce the revolted districts of the west, planting corn 
 and waiting to reap the crop when supplies failed, and 
 doing his work leisurely and thoroughly. Yakoob Beg 
 died while preparing to resist the shock of the Im- 
 perialists' advance, and Kashgar fell an easy prey to 
 the Chinese, who were now again complete masters in 
 Eastern Turkestan. 
 
 In the high humour naturally aroused by such feats, 
 they demanded from Russia restitution of the province 
 that had been seized. Negotiations were entered into, 
 and under a treaty signed by the Chinese ambassador 
 Chung How at Livadia, Russia retained possession of a 
 substantial part of Kuldja, and China agreed to pay a 
 heavy indemnity to meet the costs of Russia's occupa- 
 tion. Great was the wrath at Pekin when the terms of 
 this bargain were made known : the government refused 
 to ratify the treaty ; the too complying Chung How was 
 thrown into prison and condemned to death; and there 
 were preparations for war all along the Chinese frontier.
 
 442 RETROCESSION AND RECONCILIATION. 
 
 Fortunately, however, for China more moderate counsels 
 prevailed, due greatly, it is believed, to the remonstrances 
 of Colonel Gordon — " Chinese Gordon " — who rushed out 
 to the East to use his influence in the cause of peace ; to 
 the St. Petersburg Court, also, is due the credit of being 
 willing to reopen negotiations. Under a new treaty, 
 negotiated by the Marquis Tseng, China obtains restitu- 
 tion of all but a small fragment of her Kuldja territory ; 
 Russia receives concessions of important commercial priv- 
 ileges in Mongolia, and an indemnity ; and the curtain 
 falls, meanwhile, on the two Powers again reconciled. 

 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 LIFE IN THE TUNDRA AND THE FOREST. 
 
 T is an open secret that it is not in every part 
 of Siberia that one can persuade the vine to 
 grow ; that the gardens of the Hi valley, and 
 the sheltered pastures and glades of rich loam 
 on the banks of the Amoor, are not to be found through 
 the whole vast expanse of Russia's Asiatic dominions ; 
 and that even these favoured localities are visited by 
 extremes of temperature which would be trying to a 
 European constitution. But even the Siberian climate 
 admits of something being said in its favour. Every- 
 where, it is true, the winters are long and cold. Snow 
 lies for many months in the year over the whole region 
 in an unbroken sheet from the Frozen Ocean to the 
 Altai Mountains, and from the Ural range to Behring 
 Strait. The thermometer ranges excessively low, even in 
 the extreme southern districts. But throughout most of 
 the region fitted for colonization the cold is of a " dry " 
 kind, like that of the North-West Territory of Canada, 
 and therefore neither so prejudicial to health nor so 
 painful to endure as it would be in a moisture-laden 
 atmosphere like ours. 
 
 Winter is the season when long journeys may be
 
 444 WINTER ON THE TUNDRA. 
 
 made most expeditiously, and often most comfortably. 
 The livers from the Obi to the Amoor are covered 
 with a thick crust of ice, and become the highways for 
 sledge-traffic. The inequalities of the land, also, are 
 smoothed over by the snow, and the sledge glides easily 
 alono" tracks where at other seasons the traveller's bones 
 are threatened with dislocation from the jolting of the 
 telega. Winter is also a favourite time for the 
 trapper and hunter. The furs of the sable and gray 
 squirrel are in their finest condition, and the herds 
 of wild reindeer, elk, and moufflon may be tracked with 
 ease as they roam in search of the scanty herbage which 
 they scrape from under the snow with their feet. The 
 cattle, which form the chief source of the wealth of the 
 Yakut and other tribes on the Lena and Yenisei, 
 are generally housed for the winter ; but their troops of 
 hardy horses are left to pick up their living like the 
 beasts of chase, and like them regularly cast their 
 shaggy coats and get a new winter suit when the cold 
 weather returns. 
 
 Spring— if the brief period that intervenes while 
 the snow melts, and the Arctic cold suddenly gives 
 place to the semi-tropical warmth of summer, can 
 be called by that name — is a much more disagreeable 
 season. The streams are all now running in heavy flood, 
 and their overflow converts large tracts of the lowlands 
 on their banks into temporary lakes. Masses of ice, 
 great forest trees, and driftwood of every description 
 are hurried along with the current ; and the quantity 
 of water brought down is sufficient to loosen the grip 
 of the Polar ice on the northern coast, to float away 
 the floes and bergs to some distance from the shore,
 
 MIGRATORY BIRDS. 445 
 
 and to freshen the waters of the Polar Ocean for hun- 
 dreds of miles. 
 
 The swamps of the tundra lands thaw, on the surface 
 at least, and become impassable for man or beast ; even 
 the splay-footed reindeer and elk sometimes sink through 
 the miry moss and flounder into more hopeless depths 
 with each effort to escape. Only the birds of the air 
 can pass over them in safety. This is the season when 
 they come in countless flocks from the warmer southern 
 countries, even from the Indian lowlands, to breed and 
 rear their young under the shadow of the birch and pine 
 forests, or along the margin of the rivers and the sea. 
 Colonel Prejevalsky watched them at Lake Lob — the 
 central hollow of the great basin of Eastern Tur- 
 kestan—as the myriads of birds of different species, 
 chiefly swimmers and waders, arrived in regular succes- 
 sion, and rested a few days by the lake to recruit their 
 strength after the exhausting passage of the Himalayas, 
 and before resuming their flight across the arid steppes 
 of Mongolia and the snowy heights of the Altai. 
 Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown, who have lately 
 studied the movements of the migratory hosts on the 
 Petchora, found that their arrival on the breeding- 
 grounds and their departure thence are also accurately 
 timed by each species of bird. 
 
 For a while the northern forests and tundra lands 
 are no more empty and silent ; they actually swarm 
 with bird life. " Although," remark the latter authors, 
 " the number of species breeding within the Arctic 
 Circle is comparatively small, the number of indi- 
 viduals is vast beyond conception. Birds go to the 
 Arctic regions to breed, not by thousands, but by
 
 446 AN ARCTIC " LOO VERY? 
 
 millions." Captain Markham gives a still more surpris- 
 ing account of the marvellous abundance of guillemots 
 and other birds on the cliffs of Novaya Zemlia early in 
 June, when the snow was only clearing away from the 
 slopes of the hills. On the ledges of the limestone cliffs 
 overlooking a bay in the " Matyushin Shar " — the strait 
 separating the north and south islands — he says, could be 
 seen " myriads of looms, so thickly clustered that the com- 
 bination of their dark and white plumage made the face 
 of the cliffs assume a 'pepper-and-salt' hue ; whilst the 
 water was dotted with numbers of these birds feeding, and 
 the air was so thick with them, as they flew backwards 
 and forwards, that it reminded me more of the swarming 
 of hundreds of hives of bees than anything else. On the 
 first discharge of our guns, a perfect cloud rose in front 
 of us, completely obscuring the face of the cliff. The 
 sound caused by this sudden flight can only be likened 
 to the fall of water from some gigantic cascade. As 
 they flew outward they actually struck us in the boats, 
 whilst our victims tumbled about us like hail." 
 
 The cause of this great incursion of birds into the 
 Arctic area is the extraordinary prodigality with which 
 nature has provided for them their favourite food. No 
 sooner has the ice broken on the river than salmon and 
 other fish begin to make their way from the deep sea 
 to their spawning-grounds up-stream in extraordinary 
 shoals. The fish-eagles and lesser birds of prey, and the 
 whole tribe of waders and swimmers, are busy from 
 morning till night gorging themselves with food. When 
 the winter snow clears away from the mossy heaths and 
 low, scrubby forest, great stores of wild fruits, whortle- 
 berries, cloudberries, crowberries, bilberries, rasps, and 

 
 ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. 447 
 
 currants are uncovered, and a rich feast is spread for the 
 titmice, wheat-ears, thrushes, and other familiar birds 
 that venture into these solitudes. Clouds of mosquitoes 
 hover over the fens, and the insect-eating birds have 
 only to open their bills to be satisfied. 
 
 The other denizens of the tundra are also awake and 
 active, and eager in their outlook for food after their 
 lono- winter abstinence. The white bear is abroad, 
 hungry and lean after his sleep of three or four months, 
 during which he has "lived on his own fat." He ven- 
 tures out on the rotting ice-fields, cautiously stalking the 
 keen-scented seals ; or roams along the sea-beach or the 
 river margin, seeking what he may devour. The herds 
 of reindeer are out feeding on the young grass and 
 herbs, and rapidly taking on fat. 
 
 Abundant and succulent pastures are to be found 
 even in the dreariest parts of Siberia. Nordenskiold 
 found the banks of the Yenisei, in about seventy 
 degrees north latitude, covered with grass " of a luxuri- 
 ance to which he had seldom seen anything comparable ; : ' 
 and even at Cape Taimyr, the most northerly extremity 
 of Asia, the mountains, two or three thousand feet in 
 height, were free of snow to their summits, and animal 
 and vegetable life was abundant. A brief touch of col- 
 our and beauty even visits the lugubrious tundra in the 
 early summer, when the turf is often thickly strewn 
 with bright blue, yellow, and pink flowers. Many 
 flowering and other species of plants, indeed, have a 
 more northerly range in Siberia than in the Scandinavian 
 peninsula ; and an improvement in the climate and vege- 
 tation may be looked for as cultivation spreads north- 
 ward.
 
 448 HARVEST TIME IN THE TUNDRA. 
 
 At this season it is not to be supposed that man, who 
 makes his prey impartially of fish, flesh, and fowl, 
 remains inactive. He, too, bestirs himself after the 
 enforced inaction of the winter's cold and darkness, and 
 sets to work to gather in his store of food against the 
 returning time of scarcity. In these latitudes the 
 summer is too brief for crops coming to maturity. The 
 limit of grain-growing land stops short long within the 
 limit of forests ; though in some favourably situated 
 spots corn may be raised close to the Arctic Circle, and 
 the citizens of Yakutsk are able to boast of a few 
 meagre vegetables in their " gardens." The sea, the 
 river, and the heath are the harvest-fields of the 
 Siberian, whether he is an indigenous inhabitant of the 
 tundra or a Russian colonist. When the great flights of 
 birds arrive, every inhabitant turns out in some districts 
 with flintlock, bow and arrows, and other old-fashioned 
 fowling implements, and immense numbers of wild geese, 
 ducks, and swans are killed and " cured " for future use. 
 
 A Siberian village at these times resembles a hamlet in 
 St. Kilda : there are feathers everywhere — in the air, in 
 the water, on the ground, in the houses, and in the very 
 food. The skins of the birds are stitched into warm 
 winter garments by some of the tribes ; where the eider- 
 duck abounds, the down is a valuable article of com- 
 merce. The creatures of the land and water also yield 
 trading wares, as well as food and raiment. 
 
 For the fish, indeed, that visit the Siberian streams in 
 incredible numbers there is scarcely any market as yet. 
 Even the salmon, the sturgeon, and other more valuable 
 sorts, cannot be transported at a profit from the Obi and 
 Yenisei until regular sea or railway communication has
 
 SIBERIAN FISHERIES. 449 
 
 been opened with these rivers. But for the inhabitants 
 on their banks, and on the lower courses of the Lena and 
 other streams draining into the Glacial Ocean, the " runs " 
 yield a harvest without which it would be impossible to 
 support life all the year round. Wooden stagings are 
 erected along the river margins, and here the crews of 
 fishermen collect, and, with extraordinary assiduity, ply 
 their calling with net and boat, basket, line, and spear, 
 for the short time that the fishing lasts, capturing in the 
 early part of the season thousands of salmon and sea- 
 trout, and in the autumn the herrings that come in vast 
 quantities into the mouths of the streams. 
 
 Fish is the " staff of life " within the Arctic Circle ; 
 the very dogs live on it. Salt is precious in these coun- 
 tries, and the fish is generally preserved in a dried or 
 frozen state, and is rarely' cooked before being eaten. 
 The visitor to a hospitable native yurta on the Lena or 
 Kolima is regaled on frozen sturgeon's roe, dried rein- 
 deer tongue, and other tid-bits reserved for festive occa- 
 sions ; and though he may make a wry face or two at 
 first, he soon learns to relish this hyperborean fare. He 
 can never hope, however, to approach the natives in the 
 quantity which they devour at a meal when food is 
 abundant. A Russian traveller has asserted that he has 
 seen a Yakut eat sixty fish at a sitting, when, as he naively 
 remarks, he had himself much ado to dispose of ten. 
 The inner bark of the larch is stripped off in the spring, 
 and is kneaded up with the fish into a kind of cake, or 
 made into a broth which, in spite of its turpentine flavour, 
 is highly appreciated by those who have never partaken 
 of anything more delicate. Other vegetable food the 
 inhabitant of the tundra has seldom a chance of tasting. 
 
 (713) 29
 
 450 WALRUS-HUNTING. 
 
 The hardiest kinds of kitchen vegetables refuse to come 
 to maturity so near to the Polar Ocean, and he has 
 nothing better than a few aromatic herbs and edible 
 roots to flavour his stew. 
 
 There are enterprising spirits who regularly venture 
 out among the ice-floes in quest of the walrus and seal. 
 Great boldness, as well as wariness and skill, is needed 
 in these encounters ; for the sea-horse, with all his clumsi- 
 ness of build, is an ugly antagonist in his own element. 
 A blow from his down-hooked tusks might shatter a 
 strong boat, much more the frail baidars — made of seal- 
 skin or reindeer hide, and sewn with reindeer sinew 
 — in which the Tchuktchis and other tribes of Eastern 
 Siberia hunt the walrus. On the other hand, a fat 
 walrus, harpooned and safely brought to shore, is a 
 grand prize for the needy fisherman's family. Every 
 part of the carcass, even the bones and offal, is turned 
 to account. The inmates of the lucky hunter's hut 
 gorge themselves with the raw blubber and fat ; the oil 
 serves to keep the lamp alive during the winter dark- 
 ness, and the rough skin is cut up into thongs for the 
 reins and harness of the sledge, or fashioned into boots 
 and leggings ; out of the intestines light upper water- 
 proof garments for summer wear are made, and a strong 
 durable thread is prepared from the sinews. The fine 
 ivory of the tusks can be turned to many uses — forming 
 tips to spears and harpoons, ornamental bowls to pipes, 
 and neck adornments for the women ; but it is chiefly 
 prized as an article of barter, by means of which the 
 poor Samoyede, Yukahir, or Tchuktchi can provide him- 
 self with a few of the luxuries of warmer climes, too often 
 only in the shape of the fieriest brandy and most pun- 

 
 THE MAMMOTH AND HIS AGE. 451 
 
 gent Caucasian tobacco. The stranding or capture of a 
 whale is an event which gives joy, not to a single yurta, 
 but to a whole village ; and practised hunters become 
 men of weight and wealth in their own sphere by their 
 success in the pursuit of the white bear, which they 
 courageously follow over the hummocks, bring to bay, 
 and skilfully despatch with their spears. 
 
 There are modes of gaining richness in " ivory," horn, 
 and hide without braving the dangers of deceitful ice- 
 fields and the teeth and claws of infuriated walrus and 
 bear. Spread over a wide area of Siberia are spots 
 where, heaped confusedly together, are found in vast 
 deposits the remains of the strange creatures that 
 roamed the forests at a time when, it is believed, the 
 region enjoyed a much milder climate than at present. 
 Many of the animal forms thus preserved are now ex- 
 tinct, or are represented by species found only in warm 
 inter-tropical countries. Chief among these is the 
 mammoth, a creature closely allied to and probably the 
 progenitor of the Indian elephant, but larger even than 
 that huge beast, bearing longer tusks with a marked 
 upward curve, and covered with a thick fell of reddish 
 hair, which seems to show that at its best the Siberian 
 climate was much more severe than that of Southern 
 Asia now is. 
 
 Remains of the rhinoceros, buffalo, and other large- 
 boned animals of southern latitudes are also found, to- 
 gether with the bones of beasts like the bear, elk, and 
 musk ox, which are still mainly confined to the cold 
 north. It is after the rains and floods of spring that 
 the mammoth " finds " are made. Sections of the clay 
 banks forming the subsoil of the tundra are uncovered,
 
 452 ISZAXDS OF FOSSIL IVORY. 
 
 and portions of the shingly and sandy strata along the 
 course of the rivers are washed away, and the great 
 bones and tusks of the mammoth are left projecting 
 through the freshly -washed earth, in the spot where 
 some prehistoric flood had stranded them. It is supposed 
 that the tundra was not actually the haunt of these 
 hairy antediluvian monsters ; that in fact in the days 
 when they trampled the forests with their heavy steps, 
 the tundra formed part of the ocean bed, and that it has 
 been gradually formed by the receding of the sea and 
 the washing clown of soil by the Siberian rivers — a pro- 
 cess which may still be seen in operation along the 
 whole coast from the Kara Sea to Behring Strait. 
 
 However that may be, these remains are of extreme 
 antiquity, and the wonderful thing is that not only are 
 the bones of these extinct animals found embedded in 
 the soil, but also portions of the hide and hair, and even 
 the flesh in such a state of preservation that dogs have 
 partaken of it. The explanation of this is that, as has 
 already been stated, the soil in the northern parts of 
 Siberia is hard frozen, even in the heat of summer, from 
 a little way below the surface to an unknown depth ; and 
 specimens of earlier animal life of the region have thus 
 been preserved for ages by the action of frost, to the 
 edification of men of science, and the profit of the Cos- 
 sack and Yakut ivory-seekers. The largest accumulations 
 of mammoth bones have been found in the New Siberia 
 or Liakhov Islands, lying to the north of the continent, 
 between Cape Taimyr and the mouth of the Kolima. 
 
 One of these islands is said to be actually com- 
 posed of skulls, ribs, and tusks, including, in addition 
 to the remains of the animals already mentioned, bones
 
 SIBERIAN FUR-TRAPPERS. 453 
 
 of horses, oxen, and sheep. For nearly a century and a 
 half the fur-hunters have been in the habit of resorting 
 to these islands from the mainland and bringing away 
 sledge-loads of the " fossil ivory ; " and the store seems 
 as far as ever from being exhausted. It is said that the 
 sea, after long-continued storms from the east, washes up 
 a fresh supply of the bones from some hidden store in 
 its bed to replace what has been carried away. It is 
 even doubtful whether these most remote of Asiatic 
 territories should be regarded as solid land, or as a 
 crystallization of Siberian history. Sections of cliffs 
 have been exposed, consisting of alternate layers of sand, 
 and ice, and mammoth bones, and fossilized wood, and 
 trunks of trees and other brushwood, — forming some- 
 thing between an island, a lumber raft, a museum of 
 natural history, and a stranded iceberg. 
 
 Excursions after mammoth tusk and rhinoceros horn 
 are, of course, only incidental events in the fur-hunter's 
 life. The real business of the Cossack and native trappers 
 is the setting of snares and traps for the many valuable 
 fur animals that frequent the forests, the plains, and the 
 rivers of Northern Siberia — chief among these being the 
 sable, the stone marten, the ermine, the gray squirrel, 
 the black, silver, and blue fox, the wolverine, the beaver, 
 and the otter. Thousands of traps are annually baited 
 along the streams and in the localities most frequented 
 by the furry game, and long journeys are made to visit 
 these and bring home the spoils. Yassak is still paid to 
 government in the shape of sable and other skins by 
 outlying tribes, and the surplus furs are eagerly bought 
 up by the Russian merchants and agents from Yakutsk, 
 Yeniseisk, and other Siberian towns.
 
 454 A REINDEER BATTUE. 
 
 When the summer is sufficiently far advanced for the 
 ground to become consolidated, elk and reindeer himting 
 is in vogue on the tundra. After drought, a thin crust 
 of hard earth is formed by the heat on the surface of the 
 morasses, and over this the reindeer can make their way 
 lightly and safely when changing pastures or fleeing 
 from the hunters, who, if not accustomed to cross these 
 quaking bogs, would be in imminent danger of slipping 
 through into the miry gulf beneath. 
 
 A favourite time for attacking a herd is when it 
 is crossing a stream. This has been described as a 
 most exciting and even dangerous sport ; and it is gener- 
 ally followed in autumn, when the deer have acquired 
 their warm winter coats of fur, and begin to migrate in 
 herds of many thousands from the plains to the shelter 
 of the forests. When the herd is fairly in the water, 
 the hunters break cover, and the most experienced dash 
 into the stream in light canoes and attack the deer with 
 short spears, while the rest of the party keep guard on 
 the shore to despatch any wounded animals that may 
 struggle to the bank. It is no easy task, according to 
 Baron von Wrangell, who has been a witness of these 
 scenes, to keep the frail craft afloat among the dense 
 crowd of swimming deer, more especially as the males 
 attack the boat with horns, teeth, and hind legs, while 
 the females try to capsize it with their fore feet. Yet 
 accidents rarely occur ; and when, as often happens, the 
 herd is rendered helpless by the antlers becoming en- 
 tangled together, a good hunter may kill a hundred or 
 more in less than half an hour. The spectacle on these 
 occasions is indescribably wild and strange. " The 
 throng of thousands of swimming reindeer, the sound
 
 REINDEER AND DOG TEAMS. 455 
 
 produced by the striking together of their antlers, the 
 swift canoes dashing in among them, the terror of the 
 frightened animals, the danger of the huntsmen, the 
 shouts of warning advice or applause of their friends, the 
 blood-stained water, and the surroundings of the scene, 
 form a whole which none can picture to himself without 
 having witnessed it." 
 
 With the nomad of the tundra the tame reindeer 
 is, if possible, a more priceless possession than with 
 the Lapp and Samoyede of the province of Archangel. 
 Without its aid he could not support his wandering life 
 over these lonely prairies and desert hills. While the 
 snow lies on the ground, it bears him from place to place 
 in his light sledge. In summer his whole care is to 
 drive his herd where they will find fresh and abundant 
 pasture. The milk of the reindeer is an important part 
 of the food of his family; and its skin hangs at the 
 entrance of his tent or is spread on his couch. The 
 owner of the largest flock of reindeer would never 
 dream of killing one for his subsistence, unless driven 
 to the direst straits by famine. But often a Tungus 
 or Tchuktchi loses his herd from disease, or a whole 
 tribe are stripped of their wealth by their enemies, 
 and then they have to settle down in some suitable 
 locality for fishing and hunting, and give up their roving- 
 unfettered mode of life along with their dearly-prized 
 " reins." They descend from the rank of " reindeer " to 
 that of " dog " Tunguses or Tchuktchis ; the shaggy wolf- 
 like hound of these latitudes becoming the beast of 
 burden on journeys and the domestic pet. 
 
 The custom of sledging with dogs is believed to be of 
 comparatively recent growth in Northern Siberia, and is
 
 456 NATIVE RACES. 
 
 supposed to have been borrowed from the Kamschadales. 
 It is one of the marks of propinquity to the Eskimo 
 tribes of North America, to whom the natives of the 
 eastern extremity of Asiatic Russia approach more closely 
 in physical type, habits, and dress the nearer we draw to 
 Behring Strait and the Aleutian Archipelago, just as in 
 the opposite direction the Samoyedes and Lapps gradually 
 blend into the Finns and Norwegians, whom they adjoin 
 to the westward. As we move eastward, therefore, 
 through these dreary Arctic lands, not only do we pass 
 into regions colder and more remote, but we proceed from 
 semi-civilization to barbarism and to complete savagery, 
 and from corrupted Christianity to absolute heathenism. 
 The native races dwelling on the shores of the Arctic 
 Ocean are of different stocks, speak a variety of languages, 
 and present many sharp points of contrast. But the 
 stamp of the long Polar winter is upon them all. Ostiak, 
 Yoghul, Samoyede, Yakut, Yukahir, Tungus, Tchuktchi, 
 Koriak, Lamut, and Kamschadale, all seem to have had 
 their features blunted and cramped, and their very 
 stature, like that of the dwarf willows and poplars of the 
 tundra, contracted by the extreme cold. Exposure to a 
 hot unsetting sun during the summer, alternating with 
 confinement in their dark smoky wigwams during the 
 months of winter, has probably given them their sallow 
 complexion. The face, as a rule, is broad, with high 
 cheek-bones and small black eyes. Their hair is black, 
 coarse, straight, and scanty, and whiskers and beard are 
 thin and often entirely wanting. Judging by their 
 expressionless faces, one would say that the frost had 
 benumbed their mental faculties ; and no doubt the 
 hard necessities of their life have made it almost im-
 
 OUTDOOR SPORTS AND WIGWAM INTERIORS. 457 
 
 possible for them to rise above their present wretched 
 condition. 
 
 But in their hunting and fishing expeditions they give 
 token of extraordinary astuteness and readiness of resort, 
 which is partly instinctive and partly acquired by long 
 training:. Though not so robust as the Russian, the 
 Samoyede or Tchuktchi often displays a vigour and 
 an activity which none would dream of, looking at his 
 clumsy shape and diminutive stature. A favourite game 
 among the latter tribe is the foot race; and visitors who 
 have been present at their festivals tell of the competitors 
 in these trials of speed, swaddled in clothes until they 
 looked like round balls of fur, covering the ground with 
 incredible ease and swiftness, and running a distance of 
 seven or eight miles without showing signs of fatigue. 
 
 Within doors, only the lightest garments are worn; often 
 the occupants of the hut go entirely naked, even when 
 the temperature outside is such that they do not venture 
 into the open air unless protected by the thickest furs. 
 The smoke and filth and foul odours of these miserable 
 dwellings are indescribable. Dirt among these people 
 is supposed to be a protection against the cold ; and 
 it would be hard to say which of the Siberian tribes 
 are most repulsively filthy in their habits. Yet the 
 occupants of these fetid dens do not appear to suffer 
 inconvenience or loss of health by breathing an atmos- 
 phere that would sicken and almost suffocate an inhabi- 
 tant of Europe in half an hour ; and children of the 
 tenderest year's are to be seen running out from the 
 steaming hut and rolling in the snow in a temperature 
 of forty or fifty degrees below zero, and showing no 
 sio-ns of having "cauo-ht cold." Doubtless, however,
 
 458 MEN OF IRON. 
 
 many die from the sudden changes of climate and other 
 hardships in their lot; and their contempt of sanitary- 
 laws is punished by the fearful epidemics that now 
 and again sweep away thousands of these fast-dwindling 
 races. 
 
 Only the strong and active are able to continue the 
 struggle for existence ; and the law of the " survival of 
 the fittest " is carried out with extraordinary rigour. 
 The stories told of the privations which an inhabitant of 
 the tundra can support without showing signs of exhaus- 
 tion sound almost fabulous. The Yakuts are known, 
 even among the tribes of Northern Siberia, as " iron 
 men." So thoroughly have they become inured to cold 
 and exposure that their skins seem almost impervious to 
 the icy blasts that would in a few minutes chill the in- 
 habitant of a more temperate clime to the bone. When 
 travelling from place to place, says Yon Wrangell, " a 
 Yakut wears only his usual indoor clothing, and at night 
 spreads a horse-cloth on the snow, which, with a saddle 
 for a pillow, forms the whole of his bedding ; his only 
 covering is the fur jacket which he has worn during the 
 day, and which he pulls off and puts over his back and 
 shoulders, while the front of his body has hardly any 
 covering and is turned to the blazing fire. When he has 
 lain for some time in this way, and feels so warm that 
 he is nearly perspiring, he stops up his nose and ears 
 with little bits of fur, and covers his face so as to leave 
 an exceedingly small aperture for breathing ; and this is 
 all that he requires in the most intense cold not to be 
 frozen during sleep. I have seen Yakuts in the severe 
 cold of this country, and when the fire had long been 
 extinguished, and the light jacket had slipped off their 

 
 KEENNESS OF VISION. 459 
 
 shoulders, sleeping quietly, completely exposed to the 
 heavens, with scarcely any clothing on, and their bodies 
 covered with a thick coat of rime." 
 
 As an instance of the extraordinary keenness of vision 
 possessed by this people, M. von Anjou relates that during 
 his explorations in the neighbourhood of the Lena and 
 Indigirka rivers in 1822, a middle-aged Yakut assured 
 him, pointing to the planet Jupiter, that he had several 
 times seen that blue star swallow up another very small 
 star and afterwards send it forth again. Doubtful as it 
 may appear that a Siberian can perceive with the naked 
 eye the movements of Jupiter's satellites, which arc only 
 made visible to others through a powerful telescope, it is 
 certain that their acuteness of sight and their retentive- 
 ness of memory enable them to ascertain their where- 
 abouts and accurately guide a way through the most 
 featureless wastes ; and this power of vision also makes 
 credible the statement that the islands lying to the 
 north of Siberia were known by sight to the inhabitants 
 of the mainland long before they were visited by civil- 
 ized discoverers. 
 
 The Siberian tribes are either remnants of races the 
 main bodies of which have moved southward and west- 
 ward to more favoured climes, or the fragments of 
 people who have been driven northward and eastward — 
 forced " out into the cold " by the pressure of more 
 powerful and warlike nations. It would be hard to say 
 which of these experiences has been the fate of the 
 Yakuts, their history consisting only of a few misty 
 traditions ; and Latham's profound conjecture that "there 
 was, some time or other, some one on the parts about the 
 Lena who called some one Yakut," does not help us much,
 
 460 YAKUT DOMESTIC ECONOMY. 
 
 however far it may be regarded as confirming his other 
 impression, that the Tungus derive their name from 
 " donki," meaning " a man." 
 
 The Yakut language proves them to be a people of 
 Turkish race ; and they are the most northerly branch 
 of that widely-spread stem, being scattered over a vast 
 extent of territory, from the eastern tributaries of the 
 Yenisei to the neighbourhood of the Kolima, and from 
 the Polar Sea to the upper streams of the Lena. It is 
 chiefly on the latter river, however, that they are settled. 
 They are a pastoral people, but are seldom, properly 
 speaking, nomads. Some of them indeed are remark- 
 ably well-to-do, possessing large flocks of cattle and 
 horses, and the most highly-developed society could not 
 show themselves more fond of money or more litigious. 
 Cattle-rearing and horse-breeding are varied by fur- 
 trapping, fishing, and indulgence in the excitement of the 
 chase. Their habitations are of two kinds — one for the 
 summer weather, and the other suited for winter use. 
 The former is called the uross, and is a light circular 
 tent formed of poles covered with strips of birch bark, 
 softened by boiling, and sewn together, with the bright 
 silvery skin outside. These can be taken down and 
 moved from place to place as the tribe shifts in search 
 of better pasturage, fishing, and hunting ; but on the 
 approach of winter each family returns to the shelter of 
 its yurta, or permanent dwelling — a log-built, pyramid- 
 shaped cabin, thickly covered outside with branches, grass, 
 and mud, with a small aperture for the admission of 
 light. Formerly these windows were closed by plates of 
 ice, but these have gradually been giving way to sheets 
 of oiled paper or fish membrane ; and such has been the
 
 SIBERIAN SAMOTEDES. 461 
 
 march of progress among the Yakuts that yurta.s may 
 now be found which possess the luxury of glass. 
 
 In other respects the Yakuts are beginning to imitate 
 the example of their more civilized Russian masters. 
 Fish, horseflesh, larchbark broth, sour cow's milk, mare's 
 milk, and " Yakut butter " — a kind of cheese or curd 
 with a sourish taste — are still the main articles of diet ; 
 fat, in the solid or liquid form, and fresh or rancid, is 
 their great delicacy ; and kumyss, or fermented mare's 
 milk, still forms their chief beverage, and is drunk lit- 
 erally by the pailful. But a taste for less coarse viands, 
 and especially for bread, is beginning to spread ; and 
 there is a likelihood that a part of the Yakut nation 
 will settle down as cultivators of the soil. 
 
 To the west and north-west of the Yakut country, on 
 the lower parts of the Obi and Yenisei, and along the 
 coasts of the Kara Sea and the Polar Ocean as far as 
 the Khatanga River, is the wide area over which are 
 thinly sprinkled Samoyede tribes, and kindred Ostiaks, 
 Voghuls, Youraks, and other races of Finnish origin. 
 Some description of the appearance and ways of life of 
 the Samoyedes in the government of Archangel has been 
 given in a previous chapter. The Siberian branches of 
 the race differ only from those of Europe in being per- 
 haps a few degrees more barbarous, ignorant, and 
 wretched. Like their kinsmen west of the Urals, the 
 Samoyedes of the Obi and Yenisei are keepers of rein- 
 deer. Carrying with them their light tents of skin, they 
 rano-e during the season over an enormous extent of 
 ground; and Captain Markham in 1879 found a number 
 of families who had wintered in Novaya Zemlia, 
 
 The Ostiaks are for the most part a fisher folk, taller in
 
 462 OSTIAKS AND VOGHULS. 
 
 stature and a step higher in civilization than the dwarf- 
 ish Samoyedes. Like the Yakuts, they have summer 
 and winter cabins — the former of birch-bark and the 
 latter of timber. Their district lies partly within the 
 region of forest ; and when the frost has bound up the 
 rivers, and the first snows have fallen, the Ostiak trappers 
 make long excursions on snow-shoes in search of fox, 
 sable, and squirrel, the pelts of which they know well 
 how to barter at a good figure in the markets of Berezov 
 and other fur emporiums. The Voghuls dwell wholly 
 within the limits of the deep woods, and they are almost 
 to a man foresters, fur-trappers, and hunters. Their 
 little villages consist of six or seven cabins, huddled 
 close together on the bank of some stream that flows for 
 scores of miles under the shadow of the sombre pine- 
 branches before the next scanty signs of human occupa- 
 tion are met with. In the hunting season, the owners 
 of these huts are seldom to be found at home. They 
 are far away on solitary journeys scouring the wooded 
 and boggy wildernesses around them, with gun or bow 
 on shoulder, looking for the tracks of elk, reindeer, and 
 bear, or visiting the traps they have baited for the marten 
 and silver fox. 
 
 The time will no doubt come when these magnificent 
 forests, which stretch in a broad belt across the whole 
 length of Siberia, and follow the valleys of the rivers 
 and the southern slopes of the mountain ranges almost 
 to the borders of the Icy Sea, will no longer stand cum- 
 bering the ground, useful only as hunting-grounds for a 
 few thousands of half-savage fur-trappers. The fine 
 timber of these woods is a rich and undeveloped source 
 of wealth, which will be turned to account as soon as
 
 FORESTS OF THE YENISEI. 463 
 
 sea communication has been fairly established between 
 Western Europe and the Gulf of Obi. 
 
 In the meantime these almost impenetrable masses of 
 forest are neither cheerful to the view nor favourable to 
 the progress of the traveller longing to reach the end of 
 one of the long Siberian stages. Nordenskiold, in his voy- 
 age up the Yenisei, saw rich prairies and hillsides covered 
 with bright green turf and interspersed with clumps and 
 thickets, giving the country the aspect of a beautiful 
 park, carefully kept and watered; and then suddenly the 
 prospect would be darkened by the ancient forest leaning 
 over the river-bank, and stretching away without break 
 or limit that the eye could discover. " The forest," he 
 says, " consisted mainly of pines already, from a point 
 north of the Polar Circle, often of the most colossal 
 dimensions, but in such cases many times gray and half 
 withered with age. Between these the ground was so 
 covered with fallen branching stems, some of them fresh, 
 others half rotten or wholly changed into mould, held 
 together only by the bark, that one could only force a 
 way with difficulty, and with the danger of breaking his 
 legs in the thicket of logs. Besides, the fallen stems 
 were everywhere covered, many times even concealed, by 
 an uncommonly luxuriant moss vegetation, while lichens 
 occurred only very sparingly, in consequence of which 
 the pines wanted the shaggy covering common in Sweden, 
 and the bark of the birches, which were visible here and 
 there among the pines, had an uncommon blinding white- 
 ness. When one goes into this unvaried forest a little 
 way from the river, he ought to see that he has a correct 
 knowledge of the points of the compass ; a mistake 
 here might carry him in a direction where for a hundred,
 
 464 ORTHODOXY IN THE TUNDRA. 
 
 perhaps two hundred leagues, there is no chance of meet- 
 ing with an inhabited place." 
 
 The tribes from the Urals to the Lena, whether Yakut 
 shepherds or Ostiak fishers, Samoyedes of the tundra or 
 Yoghuls of the forest, are officially supposed to be con- 
 verted to Christianity; and churches have been built and 
 priests appointed to retain these wandering and scattered 
 flocks in the fold. It would be rash to say that they 
 are less superstitious now than in the days of undiluted 
 paganism. A furtive worship is paid to the old deities, 
 even where the saint days and church fasts are most 
 rigidly observed ; and stories are even told of priests 
 getting themselves " doctored " by a native magician 
 before daring to set out on a journey. Still the new 
 faith is no doubt slowly exerting a beneficial influence 
 on the morals and manners of the races brought in con- 
 tact with it. 
 
 In the parts beyond the Lena, however, and through- 
 out that enormous territory bordering on the Pacific, 
 and known as the Maritime Province, the Greek Ortho- 
 dox Church has scarcely even a nominal hold on the 
 beliefs of the native races. At the simovies or winter 
 residences of the Cossack and Pmssian traders dotted along 
 the courses of the rivers and the sea-coast, in the ostrogs, 
 or military posts for the collection of tribute and pres- 
 ervation of order, or around the penal settlements that 
 are sprinkled over the savage wastes of Eastern Siberia, 
 a devout profession of Christianity is made. The har- 
 bours on the Pacific shore — the line of naval stations, 
 trading-ports, and places of call for whaling- ships, which 
 extends from Petropaulovsk in Kamschatka to Vladivos- 
 tock on the frontier of Corea — boast not only of hand- 

 
 SUA MAX ISM. 465 
 
 some churches, but of club-houses, promenades, and other 
 appurtenances of civilization, and look hopefully forward 
 to the time when they will rival in wealth and energy 
 the commercial cities of California, Oregon, and British 
 Columbia. But the indigenous peoples cling to their 
 ancient Shamanist faith, and prefer the unfettered life 
 of their ancestors, the privilege of roving at will over 
 their wilderness of bog, rock, and forest, to being " im- 
 proved out of existence." 
 
 Shamanism is one of the most primitive forms of 
 religious belief, and its rites are probably not greatly 
 changed from those practised by the wild forefathers 
 of the Western nations before they left their original 
 homes, before the influence of Buddhism, Mohammedan- 
 ism, and other more highly organized creeds, had begun 
 to penetrate into Central and Northern Asia. It pos- 
 sesses almost no abstract ideas or dogmas, and boasts of 
 few outward symbols of worship in the shape of idols, 
 altars, or temples. It might be resolved into a belief 
 in magic — in the malign influence of demons that must 
 be propitiated or baffled by wild dancings, grimacings, 
 drumming, and conjuring ; an art only known to the 
 initiated priests or shamans, to whom resort is made 
 before any important action is taken, or when misfortune 
 has befallen an individual or a tribe. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the frenzied gestures of these pro- 
 fessors of the black art as they wrestle with the powers 
 of darkness. The shamans are only admitted into the 
 order after long vigils and painful ordeals ; and by the 
 common herd they are looked upon with profound awe, as 
 something more than men, and partaking of the powers 
 and attributes of the mysterious spirits with whom they 
 (718) 30
 
 466 SHAMAN INCANTATIONS. 
 
 are in communication. Many of them, no doubt, are 
 self-conscious impostors, who maintain the ascendency 
 over their dupes by the practice of tricks of jugglery and 
 impudent lying. This, however, does not explain the 
 full influence or behaviour of the shamans. They are 
 deceived as well as deceivers. The harsh and gloomy 
 aspects of nature with which they are familiar, and the 
 melancholy music of the great lonely rivers rushing 
 between their " palisades of pine-trees," have darkened 
 their imaginations. The cruel needs and sufferings of 
 their daily life have impressed on them the idea that the 
 malevolent powers have the ruling of the world ; and 
 their fasts, their midnight incantations, and the use of 
 narcotics and stimulants, keep their nerves strung to a 
 pitch of excitement akin to madness, in which they are 
 subject to the wildest delusions and most extravagant 
 actions. " Whenever I have seen them operate," says M. 
 de Matiuschkin, " they have left me with a long-continued 
 and gloomy impression. The wild look, the blood-shot 
 eyes, the labouring breath, the convulsive utterance, the 
 seemingly involuntary distortion of the face and the 
 whole body, the streaming hair, even the hollow 
 sound of the magic drum, all contributed to the effect ; 
 and I can well understand that the whole would ap- 
 pear to the uncivilized spectator as the work of evil 
 spirits." 
 
 The Shamanist tribes that wander over the wastes of 
 Eastern Siberia belong mostly to the Tungus race — a 
 family of peoples closely allied to the Mongols. They 
 occupy an enormous range of country — from the Great 
 Wall of China to Behring Strait, and westward to the 
 neighbourhood of the Yenisei ; but except the Mantchus 

 
 "REINDEER" AND "DOG" TUNGUS. 467 
 
 are to be accounted as part of this stem, they are no- 
 where formidable in numbers or power. In Siberia they 
 can hardly be said to have a settled home. Their occu- 
 pation varies with the locality in which they are placed. 
 The Lamuts of the Sea of Okotsk are fishers, and the 
 Tchuktchis near the East Cape carry on an active transit 
 trade in furs and European articles with the inhabitants 
 of the North American continent. The Tungus proper 
 are divided, according to the districts they occupy, and 
 their favourite draught animals, into the " horse," the 
 "reindeer," and the "dog" sections. But everywhere 
 they are a roving race, wandering sometimes in large 
 companies, and sometimes in single families, and ex- 
 tracting more pleasure from their existence than in the 
 circumstances seems possible. Indeed, travellers have 
 spoken of the nomadizing Tungus, and of the Yukahir, 
 an allied tribe lying farther to the northward, now 
 sadly reduced by disease and wars with the Tchuktchis, 
 as among the most contented, careless, and happy set 
 of people they ever met. 
 
 The great mass of territory east of the Lena which 
 these races scour on their hunting excursions or in their 
 search for forage differs greatly from the tundra lands 
 in the possession of the Yakuts and Samoyedes. A 
 long mountain chain — the Stanovoi range — thrown off 
 from the Altai traverses the country to the neighbour- 
 hood of Behring Strait. The region has been very im- 
 perfectly explored, and a scientific expedition recently 
 discovered that part, at least, of a range of mountains 
 known as the Yablonoi had no existence, its place being 
 occupied by a tableland of moderate elevation. 
 
 The general features of Eastern Siberia are known to
 
 468 THE "NORTH POLE OF COLD." 
 
 be in strong contrast to those of the western plains. 
 Almost everywhere it is broken and intersected by hilly 
 ridges. There are, of course, extensive morasses and 
 level wastes of stones and sand, but at intervals, on the 
 water-sheds between the main streams flowing to the 
 Polar Ocean or the Pacific, the steep slopes of the sub- 
 sidiary ranges of the Stanovoi Kherbet have to be as- 
 cended — the summits in some places covered with snow 
 all the year round. The most notable of these perhaps 
 is the Verkhoiansk Mountains, which separate the valley 
 of the Lena from that of the Iana, and mark the far- 
 thest limit of the fir-tree, and where, according to meteor- 
 ologists, is found the " North Pole of cold" in the Old 
 World. The southern sides of these ranges are gener- 
 ally thickly covered with forest and brushwood, while 
 the other slopes, swept by the icy blasts from the north, 
 are bare, and the courses of the streams flowing between 
 the rocky ridges are bordered by deep marshes. 
 
 In these rough places sledging is often impracticable, 
 and the journey is made on horseback. The actual 
 suffering endured on these stages, says a traveller (Baron 
 von Wrangell) well qualified to bear testimony, is such 
 as cannot be imagined by those who have not experi- 
 enced it. Covered from head to foot in stiff and cumbrous 
 furs weighing thirty or forty pounds, one cannot move ; 
 and under the thick fur hood, fastened to the bear-skin 
 collar, and covering the whole face, a little of the external 
 air can only be drawn in, as it were, by stealth, and so 
 keenly cold is the atmosphere that it causes a peculiar 
 and painful sensation to the throat and lungs. The dis- 
 tances from one halting-place to the next occupy about 
 ten hours, and all this time the traveller must continue 

 
 BELOW ZERO IN THE TUNDRA. 469 
 
 on horseback, as it is impossible, in his heavy, cumbrous 
 dress, to wade through the snow. The horses suffer as 
 much as the riders, for, in addition to the general effects 
 of the cold, they are tormented by ice forming in their 
 nostrils and stopping their breathing. When they indi- 
 cate this by a distressed snort and a convulsive shaking 
 of their head, the drivers relieve them by taking out 
 the pieces of ice to save them from being suffocated. 
 When the icy ground is not covered with snow, their 
 hoofs often burst from the effect of the cold. The 
 caravan is always surrounded by a thick cloud of vapour. 
 It is not only living bodies that produce this effect ; even 
 the snow smokes ! These evaporations are instantly 
 changed into millions of needles of ice, which fill the air, 
 and cause a constant slight noise resembling the sound 
 of tearino- satin or thick silk. Even the reindeer seeks 
 the forest to protect himself from the intensity of the 
 cold. In the tundra, where there is no shelter to be 
 found, the whole herd crowd together as closely as 
 possible to gain a little warmth from each other, and 
 may be seen standing thus quite motionless. Only the 
 dark bird of winter — the raven — still cleaves the icy air 
 with slow and heavy wing, leaving behind him a long- 
 line of thin vapour marking the track of his solitary 
 flight. The influence of the cold extends even to in- 
 animate nature. The thickest trunks of trees are rent 
 asunder with a loud sound, which in these deserts falls 
 on the ear like a signal-gun at sea; large masses of rock 
 are torn from their ancient sites ; the ground in the 
 tundras and in the rocky valleys cracks and forms wide 
 yawning fissures, from which the waters that were 
 beneath the surface rise, giving off a cloud of vapour,
 
 470 THE POLAR NIGHT. 
 
 and become immediately changed into ice. The effect 
 of this degree of cold extends even beyond the earth : 
 the beauty of the deep-blue Polar sky, so often and so 
 justly praised, disappears in the dense atmosphere which 
 the intensity of cold produces ; the stars still glisten in 
 the firmament, but their brilliancy is dimmed.
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 THE PACIFIC SHORES. 
 
 EYOND the Kolima and Anadir rivers is a 
 region more desolate and savage than any 
 we have yet visited. The peninsula which 
 stretches in a series of hilly ridges towards 
 Behring Strait, where it is separated by only fifty miles 
 of sea from the American continent, is the most remote 
 corner of the Russian Empire, and it is the nook where 
 the Czar's authority is the weakest. In Siberia, at least, 
 the rule does not hold good that " distance lends enchant- 
 ment to the view." Russian and Cossack settlers arc; 
 sparsely scattered in the Tungus country, but in the land 
 of the Tchuktchis they scarcely venture to come at all. 
 
 The Tchuktchis have been able to maintain them- 
 selves in practical independence ; the Autocrat of Russia 
 claims that the land is his, but he cannot, except at the 
 cost of a military expedition, collect the tribute of the 
 natives. This redoubtable people are, for the most part, 
 left unmolested by their nominal masters, and neither 
 party, perhaps, has cause to regret the arrangement that 
 keeps them separate. In the Tchuktchi Peninsula the 
 conditions of the Siberian climate reach the maximum of 
 severity. Partly from the more northerly position of
 
 472 A TRIBE WITH AN ILL NAME. 
 
 the territory and the high elevation of the surface, and 
 partly from its position between two ice-encumbered 
 seas, the winters are longer and colder, and the summers 
 shorter and more interrupted by violent snow and sand 
 storms and thick cold fogs, than elsewhere. Hardly a 
 month of decently mild weather can be counted upon 
 in the year. " Before the 20th of July," says Billings, 
 "there is no symptom of summer; and on the 20th of 
 August winter sets in again." In 1879 the snow cov- 
 ered the ground till the beginning of July ; and on the 
 lGth of that month a heavily-laden sledge passed over 
 the ice from the frozen-in Vega to the shore. What 
 roots and berries the niggard soil yields are used as food, 
 and the natives, as Nordenskiold mentions, are fain to 
 use " the green spinach-like contents found in the paunch 
 of the newly-killed reindeer " in lieu of vegetable food. 
 
 The Tchuktchis, notwithstanding, are a vigorous people, 
 both in bodily frame and in intellect. Very different 
 estimates have been formed of them by the travellers 
 and voyagers who have visited their encampments. 
 Burney, who accompanied Captain Cook when he an- 
 chored off the Tchuktchi country in 1778, considered 
 them " as fine a natural sample of mankind as any on 
 the globe." Cook himself found them civil and oblig- 
 ing, and noticed that their weapons and articles of dress 
 displayed a degree of ingenuity and beauty " surpassing 
 what one might expect in so northern a people." The 
 Russians, and their immediate neighbours the Koriaks 
 and Yukahirs, with whom they were often engaged in 
 desultory warfare, naturally viewed them in quite a 
 different light, regarding them as a folk incorrigible, 
 ferocious, and obstinately rebellious. " They are bad 

 
 ANARCHY AND BROTHERLY LOVE. 473 
 
 and dangerous," says a writer of a century ago ; " savage, 
 coarse, proud, refractory, thievish, false, and revengeful." 
 But this people seem to have lost their evil qualities 
 along with their martial spirit. The crew of the Vega, 
 from whose experiences we have the latest impressions of 
 the Tchuktchis, found them anything but unfriendly. 
 They were the first natives that had been met with in 
 coasting the whole northern shore of Siberia, and during 
 the long winter which the Swedes spent when frozen 
 in so near to their goal in Behring Strait, the tribe 
 were very helpful and attentive in supplying the voy- 
 agers with game and fish. The Tchuktchi country 
 seems to be the true home of " liberty, equality, and fra- 
 ternity." None among them was of more authority 
 than his neighbours ; yet among this " literally anarchic 
 and godless crew" there was shown "the greatest pos- 
 sible hospitality and kindness," both towards the stran- 
 gers and each other. 
 
 Traces of the neighbourhood of America, and of the 
 visits of the United States whalers who hunt the fur- 
 seal in these seas, were observable in the furnishings of 
 their tents and their ornaments and weapons. In one 
 tent a large cast-iron was observed hanging over the fire ; 
 and the needles, knives, axes, bright-coloured linen and 
 woollen shirts, and other articles of foreign manufacture 
 found among them, had all come from American sources. 
 So also had the brandy and tobacco, of which the tribe 
 are inordinately fond. While not a Russian word waa 
 spoken, a boy was found who could count correctly up 
 to ten in English. The Tchuktchi country, as has been 
 hinted, has from time immemorial been a place of barter 
 for the products of the lands lying to the east of Behring
 
 474 BARTER BETWEEN TWO CONTINENTS. 
 
 Strait. Many of the finest beaver and otter skins that 
 reach the markets of Irbit or Kiachta, and are thence 
 forwarded to Europe or China, have been trapped in the 
 neighbourhood of the Yukon or other Alaskan rivers, and 
 passed on to the Tchuktchis, and thence from hand to 
 hand across the measureless deserts of Eastern Siberia. 
 The island of Ilir, in Behring Strait, is the spot 
 where the Tchuktchis and the Eskimos of North-west 
 America exchange their wares ; but even this is only an 
 intermediate station, for, according to the Russian tra- 
 veller Dittmar, a beaver skin is sometimes exchanged for 
 a single leaf of tobacco — brought, perhaps, from the 
 Caucasus — at the most remote markets in Polar America. 
 But this traffic will probably be diverted into other chan- 
 nels by the purchase of Russian America — a territory of 
 nearly six hundred thousand square miles — by the United 
 States. 
 
 These sea trips are made in baidars — boats of whale 
 or seal skin stretched on a frame, strongly resembling 
 the skiffs used by the Greenland and other tribes of 
 Eskimos. In another direction visits have, it is be- 
 lieved, been made by this people to Polar lands lying 
 to the northward of the Tchuktchi Peninsula, and the 
 existence of which was first known through the re- 
 searches of Kellett and Long. On charts of the world, 
 on Mercator's Projection, this hyperborean country has, 
 as Wrangell Land or Kellett Land, made an imposing 
 appearance, stretching, a great undefined blotch, from the 
 neighbourhood of the Siberian coast almost to the Pole. 
 In point of fact nothing was known of it beyond the 
 report that its highlands had been sighted on the horizon 
 by the enterprising voyagers who had penetrated into 

 
 THE "JEANNETTE" EXPEDITION. 475 
 
 these icy seas. It was believed that it would be found 
 to have inhabitants ; that the lost tribes of Tchuwanzes 
 and Omoki, that had been driven from the mainland by 
 the warlike Tchuktchis, had found an asylum on this 
 remote shore ; and that here was the original home of 
 the musk-ox. 
 
 Recent Arctic expeditions have dissipated these fanci- 
 ful notions. The exploring ship Jeannette, sent out to 
 explore this part of the Arctic regions by the New 
 York Herald in the autumn of 1879, was caught in 
 the ice of the Polar Sea, and after drifting with the 
 pack for two seasons, and passing several desolate Arctic 
 islands, was nipped in the summer of 1881 to the north- 
 east of New Siberia. Her crew, abandoning her in three 
 boats, made for the mouths of the Lena, which, after 
 many weeks of terrible sufferings, two of the boats' com- 
 panies reached in safety ; only, however, to lose them- 
 selves — in the case of some hopelessly and finally — in 
 the waste tundra. 
 
 Meanwhile relief expeditions had been sent from the 
 Pacific, who landed on Wrangell Land, and even pro- 
 claimed it United States territory. It is no great Arctic 
 continent and pathway to the Pole, only a barren island 
 of moderate size. It has no inhabitants of greater con- 
 sequence than the white bears. 
 
 On the Anadir river and in the peninsula of Kam- 
 schatka we come among races — the Koriaks and the 
 Kamschadales — who are thought to approach even closer 
 than the Tchuktchis to the Greenlanders in habits and 
 appearance, and even in language. The long string of 
 islands that stretch in a semicircle between the penin- 
 sulas of Alaska and Kamschatka has probably served as
 
 476 A FOGGY ARCHIPELAGO. 
 
 a " train " by which Eskimo blood and customs have 
 been conveyed from America to Asia. With Alaska 
 itself this Aleutian archipelago has now passed over to 
 the great American Republic, which may possibly dis- 
 cover some means of turning them to better purpose 
 than Russia has done. Dreary and ghostly islands these 
 appear in the records of the voyagers who have dropped 
 anchor off their rocky shores, or passed them on the 
 way northward to Behring Strait, shrouded generally 
 in thick mists that hid or distorted their outlines, and 
 looking like 
 
 " The haunt of seals and ores, and sea-mews' clang," 
 
 but not spots that human beings would choose for their 
 residence. 
 
 A scanty population, however, does occupy the larger 
 islands of this chill, foggy archipelago ; and the group 
 is well stocked with fur animals and visited by myr- 
 iads of clamorous sea -fowl, and herds of seal and 
 walrus, whose skins and flesh supply the natives with 
 clothing and food. Many of the islands are unin- 
 habited, and this is also the case with an island named 
 after the discoverer of the group lying detached from 
 the Aleutian chain, near the coast of Kamschatka. It 
 was at Behring Island that the bold Danish navigator, 
 sent out by Peter the Great to emulate the Spanish, 
 Dutch, Portuguese, and English seamen in their renown 
 as discoverers of new lands, was wrecked on his second 
 voyage, after he had visited the strait that separates 
 Asia from America, and with the greater part of his crew 
 perished miserably of cold and hunger. A sandy hollow 
 in the barren rock was all the shelter that the explorer
 
 THE FATE OF BEIIllING. 477 
 
 had in his last moments from the cold damp mists and 
 piercing northern gales. He may be said to have been 
 buried alive, for when the sides of the pit fell in and 
 covered the lower part of the body, he prayed his men 
 not to remove the sand, as it helped to preserve warmth ; 
 and so, as if he had been some gallant ship hopelessly 
 stranded on a quicksand, the loose soil " silted " around 
 and engulfed him almost before his dying eyes closed 
 on the wild sky and stormy sea which he had been 
 among the first to brave. 
 
 A monument to Behring has been erected at Petro- 
 paulovsk, the chief Russian settlement in the peninsula 
 of Kamschatka, and near it is a memorial of another 
 great navigator, the French La Perouse, who traced the 
 shores of the Gulf of Tartary and the adjacent islands, 
 and afterwards, with his men, met a lonely and mys- 
 terious death on an island in the wide Pacific. 
 
 At Petropaulovsk, too, is buried Captain Clarke, the 
 companion of Cook in his last voyage of discovery. 
 Petropaulovsk has lost much of its importance since the 
 chief naval station of Russia in the Pacific was removed 
 to the mouth of the Amoor. It has still, however, some 
 three thousand inhabitants, which, in Eastern Siberia, 
 raises it to the rank of a great centre of population. It 
 was founded by the Cossacks in 1740, and first bore 
 the name of Avatcha, from the stream that here falls 
 into the bay. The chief event in its annals is the ill- 
 advised attempt of the French and British squadrons 
 to demolish the fortress during the Crimean War. The 
 inhabitants are naturally proud of having foiled the 
 attack of the two great sea Powers, and it is their 
 custom, on the anniversary of the engagement, to march
 
 478 PETROPA ULO VSK. 
 
 in procession " round the town and over the hill from 
 which the storming party were thrown, chanting hymns 
 of joy and praise for the victory." The Bay of Avatcha 
 is a magnificent sheet of water, capable, it is said, of 
 accommodating the united fleets of all the nations of the 
 world. It is surrounded by grand and lofty mountain 
 outlines, while a rich belt of luxuriant vegetation skirts 
 the bay, struggles up the branching valleys, and sur- 
 rounds the red-roofed log cabins of the village. 
 
 Petropaulovsk is in latitude only a little distance north 
 of London, and the peninsula of Kamschatka lies within 
 much the same degrees of latitude as the British Islands, 
 while its area is pretty nearly the same as that of En- 
 gland and Scotland. On the other hand, its population 
 — native and Russian — has been put down, on the most 
 liberal estimate, at some twenty thousand souls, or one 
 for each four square miles of territory. Early last 
 century, it is believed, the number of Koriaks and 
 Kamschadales inhabiting the peninsula was not short 
 of one hundred thousand. Long and bloody quarrels 
 with the Russians and with each other, and the diseases 
 and vices introduced along with Cossack civilization, 
 have thinned away these people till barely a twentieth 
 of their number remain ; and these are not in a much 
 higher condition, morally or physically, than when, in 
 1G50, the vessel of the Cossack Alexeief, Deshnef's 
 companion in the celebrated voyage from the mouth of 
 the Kolima round the East Cape to the mouth of the 
 Anadir, was cast ashore on this inhospitable coast, and 
 the unfortunate crew were massacred by the dwellers 
 on the Kamschatka river. 
 
 Of late years the miserable remnant of these races 

 
 KAMSCHATEAN AMENITIES. 479 
 
 have mainly supported themselves by fishing, though 
 some of them possess reindeer, and engage in fur-hunt- 
 ing, disposing the skins to the Russian agents at Petro- 
 paulovsk, Nishni Kamschatka, and Penjinsk. As in 
 habits and manner of life they differ only for the worse 
 from other Siberian tribes already described, we may be 
 excused from penetrating into the interior of their half 
 subterranean wigwams, and pursuing too curious inquiries 
 into their domestic arrangements, in an atmosphere so 
 highly impregnated with smoke and the odour of train-oil. 
 
 Kamschatka, in the opinion of many of the travellers 
 who have paid it a flying visit, is fitted to support a 
 much larger population than it now possesses. There 
 are many sheltered places along its coasts where there are 
 a fine srowth of forest trees, and meadows rank with 
 nourishing grasses. The valley of Kamschatka river, in 
 its upper portion especially, contains a large extent of 
 fertile land, and crops of barley, rye, and oats, with the 
 potato and several hardy species of vegetables, have been 
 raised. 
 
 These visitors have for the most part, however, only 
 seen the peninsula during the warm period of the year, 
 when for a brief space it dons a summer dress. Were 
 they compelled to pass a few consecutive winters in 
 Kamschatka, and personally make the experiment of 
 growing corn on a soil where, in addition to the short- 
 ness of the summer, blights, frosts, and vermin combine 
 to make the chance of reaping a harvest very proble- 
 matical, they would probably see cause to change their 
 minds as to the resources of the country. 
 
 There is no room, however, for difference of opinion 
 as to the scenery, which vies in grandeur with that
 
 480 VOLCANOES AND GLACIERS. 
 
 of the Caucasus, and has some elements of stern sub- 
 limity which can hardly be paralleled in any other part 
 of the world. The peninsula is traversed throughout 
 its whole length by a range of lofty volcanic moun- 
 tains, which gradually diminish in height towards the 
 north, until they merge into the bare and dreary steppes 
 between the Anadir and Penjinsk rivers, and join the 
 long Stanovoi chain and the main mountain system of 
 Eastern Siberia. In the south, the summits of the 
 range vie in height with the most elevated peaks of the 
 Swiss Alps, and embrace no fewer than twenty-one 
 volcanic cones, mostly active. A short distance north of 
 Petropaulovsk the main range throws off a branch tow- 
 ards the north-east, which encloses the southern side of 
 the basin of the Kamschatka river; and it is in this short 
 subsidiary chain that the grandest and loftiest summits 
 of the Kamschatkan Alps occur, including several vol- 
 canoes, and culminating in the smoke-capped cone of 
 Kliuchevsk, 15,762 feet high, over against which, guard- 
 ing the northern side of the valley of the Kamschatka 
 river, is the rival volcanic peak of Shivelutch. No 
 member of the Alpine Club has yet bethought himself 
 of scaling the shining sides of these giants ; and it will 
 be long before a " Cook's tourist " can gaze, from the 
 blackened fields of scorise scattered round the mouths of 
 the craters where frost and fire maintain their drawn 
 battle, on the vast and lonely prospect spread beneath. 
 The interior of the peninsula, indeed, is an almost unex- 
 plored wonderland of snow-fields, glaciers, and lava-beds, 
 sloping clown to the deeply-trenched gorges where cata- 
 racts gleam in the shade of the pine forests, or to deep 
 fiords overhung by precipices.
 
 THE KURILE GROUP. 481 
 
 It is on the eastern side that the coast has this bold, 
 deeply indented character. On the west, towards the 
 shallow Sea of Okotsk, the mountains are farther from 
 the shore, which is much more tame and level. From 
 the southern extremity — Cape Lopatka — the Kurile 
 Islands stretch in a bold sweep towards Japan, like a 
 barrier separating these inland waters from the Pacific. 
 
 The Kuriles, like the Aleutian group, have lately passed 
 from the possession of the Czar to another power, having 
 been ceded to Japan in exchange for the Mikado's claims 
 to the island of Sagalien. No great sacrifice was im- 
 plied in this relinquishment, for the islands, notwith- 
 standing that they are in the latitude of France, are 
 dismally cold, damp, and dreary. The Kuro Siwo — the 
 " Black Stream," or equatorial current that washes the 
 shores of Japan, bestowing on that country its mild sum- 
 mer and autumn climate — is deflected eastward by the 
 coast of Yesso, and the more northern lands derive little 
 benefit from the warmth which it carries from the 
 tropics. 
 
 On the other hand, meeting with the cold Polar 
 stream flowing southward, those raw sea-fogs are raised 
 which wrap about the Kurile Islands like a wet blanket 
 for a great part of the year, and the coasts are beset 
 by drift-ice so late in the season as June. The group 
 is subject to earthquake shocks and other plutonic 
 disturbances, and marks the line of that volcanic belt 
 which, starting from the Philippine Islands, passes 
 through Japan, Kamschatka, and the Aleutian Islands 
 to the shores of America. A little to the eastward of 
 the Kuriles, and in the track of the " Kuro Siwo," the 
 bed of the Pacific sinks to a profound depth, and the 
 
 (H8) 31 

 
 482 A HAIRY PEOPLE. 
 
 deepest ocean sounding — five and a quarter English miles 
 — has been registered not far from Iturup, one of the 
 most southerly of the archipelago. 
 
 Barren as those islands are, or covered with a dense 
 scrub of dwarf oak and birch, giving shelter only to 
 foxes, wolves, bears, and some species of marten, the 
 seas around them are extraordinarily rich in life, and 
 the shoals of herring and other fish attract innumerable 
 flocks of birds of different species, including the great 
 white-tailed sea-eagle, whose nests Captain St. John found 
 in the stunted fir-trees of Kunashir, the island nearest 
 to Yesso. 
 
 The region, however, boasts a more rare and curious 
 specimen of natural history in the aboriginal human 
 inhabitants — the Ainos. Regarding this strange race 
 we have recently had the testimony of two clever and 
 charming writers on Japan — Miss Bird and Captain St. 
 John — who paint on the whole a favourable picture of 
 these poor " hairy people." Originally, there is reason 
 to suppose, possessors of the whole Japanese archipelago, 
 since the invasion of the present Mongolian inhabitants 
 of Japan they have been pushed northward, until now 
 they count only a few scattered thousands, sheltering 
 themselves in the virgin forests of Yesso and Sagalien, 
 or in the swampy islands of the Kurile group, whence 
 no one has hitherto thought it worth while to eject them. 
 
 The Aino is not very strong either in physique or 
 intellect, but he is generally a gentle, inoffensive kind of 
 creature, extremely anxious to keep out of sight of the 
 world if the world will but let him alone. The average 
 height of the men is not much over five feet, and they are 
 of spare, light make, with copper-coloured skins, rather 

 
 AINOS AND JAPANESE. 483 
 
 regular and expressive features having nothing of the 
 high-cheek-boned Mongol type, and large dark eyes, in 
 which Miss Bird was able to read a world of melancholy 
 meaning. Their great peculiarity, however, is their hair, 
 which is black, long, and in great profusion, the men 
 having beards and moustaches flowing to their breasts, 
 and the women great masses of hair flung back on their 
 necks and shoulders like manes. " The entire body," 
 says Captain St. John, " is entirely covered with hair, 
 very frequently to an extraordinary degree. The chil- 
 dren are also hairy little things." Great as is this 
 people's " capacity for sorrow " — stimulated, perhaps, by 
 their history and their neighbourhood to a peculiarly 
 melancholy ocean — they are easily pleased, and kindly 
 disposed and obliging towards strangers, though their 
 hospitality might be more appreciated if they were more 
 cleanly in their habits, and if it were not the custom 
 — at least in Sagalien — to preserve at home the body of 
 any notable man for a whole year after death, the widow 
 having the privilege of daily washing the remains, and 
 lying under the penalty of being herself killed if she 
 fails to cure her lord properly by the end of the twelve 
 months. 
 
 In a few generations, probably, this " mild - eyed, 
 melancholy " race will be extinct. Owing to the hard, 
 exposed life they lead, few survive to the age of fifty ; 
 and the Japanese speak of them as an order of in- 
 ferior beings, and work them as slaves. The Ainos, 
 for their part, accept the situation with perfect good 
 faith ; and as their proud masters will not own brother- 
 hood with the hairy race, they fraternize with the 
 shaggy brown bears of their forests, numbers of which,
 
 484 SAGALIEN AND ITS USES. 
 
 while cubs, are kept as pets in their houses, and are even 
 suckled by the women. Captain St. John was much 
 struck by the polite manner in which one of those 
 aborigines did the honours of his hut, and the English- 
 man's dog was still more astonished on being also greeted 
 with a profound obeisance, and formally asked, as a dis- 
 tinguished guest, to partake of some dried flesh. 
 
 In Sagalien the arrival of Russian convict settlers of 
 the worst class and their military guard is a further 
 warning that the time of the Ainos is short on the earth. 
 Hopes are entertained that the soil and climate of this 
 attenuated island will be found suited to the growth of 
 barley and other cereals, and it is also known to con- 
 tain coal and other mineral riches. Possibly something- 
 may be made of Sagalien, which has hitherto been 
 slightly regarded as a piece of useless lumber ; but its 
 harbourless coasts, enveloped by the cold Polar current 
 from Behring Sea, its central mountains covered nearly 
 all the year round with snow, and its dense swamp 
 forests, do not hold out very enticing prospects to the 
 intending agriculturist or trader. 
 
 The preciousness of Sagalien in the eyes of the Rus- 
 sians, however, does not lie so much in its coal-beds, its 
 promise of future harvests, its uses as a penal colony, or 
 its six hundred miles of length, but in its situation com- 
 manding the northern entrances to the Sea of Japan, and 
 guarding, like a huge breakwater, the mouth of the great 
 river Amoor. The position of Russia on the Pacific has 
 been industriously strengthened of late years ; and the 
 politicians who believe they can see farther into a mill- 
 stone than others, think they have detected designs on 
 the part of the great Northern Power of crushing Japan, 

 
 RUSSIA ON THE PACIFIC. 485 
 
 appropriating Corea, dominating China, and striking a 
 deadly blow at British commerce in these Eastern seas, 
 if not of snatching at our colonies in Australia and the 
 South Seas and our Indian Empire. 
 
 It has been mentioned how Russia, by the year 1861, 
 had completed the " consolidation " of her conquests on 
 the Amoor, and acquired a long strip of coast territory 
 south of the river, projecting southward in the direction 
 where, according to the wisdom of the Russophobists, 
 she means her armies to march. This has been incor- 
 porated in Primorsk — the Coast Province — a territory 
 which, from Behring Strait to the Corean frontier, has 
 the inconvenient length of two thousand ' three hundred 
 miles, while in places it is only thirty miles in breadth. 
 
 The seat of the governor of Primorsk was removed 
 from Petropaulovsk to Nikolaevsk, on the northern bank 
 of the Amoor, near its mouth, where a little town of 
 four thousand or five thousand inhabitants has rapidly 
 sprung up. Nikolaevsk makes a rather imposing show 
 from the river — here a mile in width — with its wharves, 
 its churches, and military barracks, its wide streets, 
 sparsely lined with bright -painted timber houses, and 
 public "garden," where a band occasionally discourses 
 music to the fashionable world of the little capital, all 
 set against a dark background of forest. 
 
 Alon£ the coast of Lower Primorsk, south of the 
 Amoor, are a number of magnificent harbours, and 
 Vladivostock, near the extreme southern point, is one of 
 the chief stations of the Russian Pacific fleet. This 
 thin-drawn slip of territory, in fact, i.s regarded as tin 
 extreme outside filament of the great complicated web 
 of the "Eastern Question," and needing therefore to be
 
 486 VLADIVOSTOK 
 
 watched with peculiar care. The utility to Russia, how- 
 ever, of the fine bays which she has acquired in the 
 Gulf of Tartary and the Japan Sea is materially injured 
 by the circumstance that they are all closed by ice 
 during the winter and spring. Vladivostock itself, in 
 nearly the same latitude as Rome, is blocked by ice up 
 till the beginning of April ; and it is the singular fate of 
 Russia that in all her enormous coast-line in Europe and 
 Asia she has no port that is open all the year round. 
 Hence the anxiety, with which she is credited by her 
 watchful censors, to move a single step farther south- 
 ward and seize upon Corea with its fine ice-free harbours 
 and command of the Yellow Sea. 
 
 Apart from these vague possibilities, the district has 
 resources and attractions which can be immediately 
 turned to account. It is a hilly country, finely wooded, 
 for the most part, with groves of oak, elm, walnut, and 
 maple, disposed in such a way as to give the scenery 
 near Vladivostock quite an English aspect. A few tribes 
 of Mantchus were formerly its only occupants, but 
 Russian and German colonists are beginning to settle 
 in the country. In the hills and woods fine sport can 
 be had after deer and bear, and for those who fly at 
 still nobler o-ame there is the Mongolian tiger. The 
 streams are abundantly stocked ; indeed the quantity of 
 salmon and other fish that ascend the rivers flowing 
 into this part of the Pacific is almost fabulous. In a 
 single river in Yesso, for example, six thousand tons of 
 salmon are caught and salted every year during the few 
 weeks of the fishing season ; and the fishers declare 
 that when the first rush over the bar at high tide takes 
 place, the backs of the salmon are visible, and the water 

 
 SALMON RUNS IN THE A MOOR. 487 
 
 rises along the banks ! So, on the Amoor, the salmon 
 and sturgeon come in from the great deep in such myriads 
 that they seem to form almost a solid mass as they 
 ascend the stream. 
 
 But we have already anticipated these lordly swim- 
 mers, who are on their way to the upper course of the 
 great river, and have completed, in a fragmentary way, 
 the wide circuit of Siberia.
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 RUSSIAN TURKESTAN. 
 
 HE political and the geographical boundaries of 
 Russian Turkestan are by no means identical. 
 In the official sense its borders are reached 
 when, leaving the half-Tartar town of Serni- 
 polatinsk — the " Seven Palaces " — we cross the range of 
 hills forming the watershed of the streams that drain 
 into the Upper Irtish, and descend into the basin of Lake 
 Balkash and the province of Semiretchensk — called after 
 the " seven rivers " which find their way by the main 
 channel of the Hi into that great inland sea. 
 
 Balkash is a typical lake of the steppes. It is three 
 hundred and thirty miles in length, and at one point 
 sixty miles in breadth. But there is hardly a perma- 
 nent human habitation on its shores. It is hemmed in 
 either by hungry deserts of sand or salt marshes. No 
 river flows into it on the northern side, which is formed 
 of sandy terraces rising one above another to the level 
 of the steppes, which are the pasturing grounds of the 
 Middle Eorde of the Kirghiz. On the south the water 
 shoals so gradually that it is impossible to tell whore 
 lake ends and dry land begins; and in these swamps the 
 rivers that flow down from the Ala Tau and other spurs
 
 LAKE BALK ASH AND THE ILL 489 
 
 of the Altai mountains lose themselves after wandering 
 disconsolately through a dreary desert thinly sprinkled 
 with saline vegetation. The Hi is the only river that 
 brings down any considerable body of water to the lake, 
 which must at one time have been of much larger 
 dimensions than at present, and is even being slowly 
 dried up, the bays along its margin being changed into 
 lagoons, and then filled up with the sand drifted by the 
 winds from the surrounding waste. 
 
 The Russian Government have placed vessels on the 
 lake, which ascend the Hi, on the fertile banks of which 
 the population of the district is mainly congregated. 
 Kopal, on the outermost skirts of the Ala Tau range, here 
 rising to a height of 14,000 to 17,000 feet, north of the 
 valley, was at one time the place of chief note in this 
 province ; but since the seat of authority has been fixed 
 at Vierny, on a little stream falling into the Hi, the 
 latter town has in great measure supplanted it. Vierny, 
 under the administration of its active and able governor 
 General Kolpakofsky— surnamed by his admiring men, 
 for his tirelessness in the saddle, the " Iron Seat " — has 
 rapidly developed into a flourishing town of over 12,000 
 inhabitants, though it is possible that its trade and im- 
 portance will be injured by the retrocession of Kuldja 
 and the upper part of the Hi valley to China. In the 
 district around many thriving Russian and Cossack 
 colonies have been planted, and it is to this region that 
 we must understand reference to be made when we hear 
 of emigration from the Don and the Volga to " Tur- 
 kestan." 
 
 Neither the climate, the -life, nor the scenery of Semi- 
 retchensk, however, partakes in any degree of the char-
 
 490 VIERNY AND ISSYK-KUL. 
 
 acteristics of Turkestan, though the advances of Russia in 
 this quarter in 1853 were simultaneous with her earliest 
 conquests on the Sir Daria, and the two provinces were 
 in 1867 incorporated, for reasons that had official weight, 
 in the new governor-generalship, which, with its head- 
 quarters at Tashkend, has so long been administered by 
 General Kaufmann. Vierny itself is described by Schuy- 
 ler as essentially a Siberian town, with wide and regular 
 streets, shops with glaring and picturesque signs, large 
 official buildings of brick, dirty little hotels, and a curi- 
 ously mixed population of Asiatic races — Sarts, Tartars, 
 Kirghiz, Kalmuks, and Chinese. Saw-mills, brick-kilns, 
 distilleries, and breweries, technical and primary schools, 
 public gardens, and dancing assemblies, bear token to 
 the influence of European ideas ; while Chinese mer- 
 chants in flowered silks and cottons, and Kalmuk herds- 
 men with queues and brown faces, riding on oxen, tell 
 of the neighbourhood of the Celestial Empire. 
 
 Not far from Vierny is Uzan-Agatch, where, in Octo- 
 ber 1860, Kolpakofsky, with eight hundred men, in- 
 flicted a crushing defeat on a Khokandian force of nine- 
 teen thousand, which had marched through the passes of 
 the range on the south side of the valley in order to 
 oust Russia from the Hi. The only result was that the 
 victors, following up their advantage, crossed the moun- 
 tains and seized from the ruler of Khokand the region 
 about Lake Issyk-kul and the course of the river Chu 
 — thus taking a long step towards the appropriation of 
 the Central Asian khanates. Issyk-kul lies five thou- 
 sand three hundred feet above sea-level — a beautiful 
 blue expanse of water, over one hundred miles in length, 
 wedged in between two lofty ranges of the Tian Shan,
 
 TIAN SHAN PEAKS AND PASSES. 491 
 
 and fed by numerous streams that flow down from its 
 glaciers. The neighbourhood of the lake is almost 
 deserted, except by roving parties of the Kara Kirghiz, a 
 tribe of much purer Tartar lineage than their brethren 
 of the steppes beneath — the Kirghiz Kaisaks of the 
 three Hordes, with whom we have already made ac- 
 quaintance. Sculptured remains of ancient cities have, 
 however, been found on its shores, and for miles along 
 the margin at one place the beach is thickly strewn 
 with skulls and fragments of human bones, marking, 
 say the tribesmen, the site of a bloody battle now for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Passes lead from this point over the main ridge 
 of the Tian Shan into Eastern Turkestan, and these 
 have been seized by the Eussians, who have for many 
 years had munitions of war collected at Fort Naryn, 
 near the summit of the range, in expectation of troubles 
 with Yakoob Beg or his successors the Chinese. The 
 culminating peak of this great mountain system, Mount 
 Khan Tengri, lifts its head far into the snows at no 
 great distance south-east of Issyk-kul ; and close under 
 it runs the Muzart Pass, by which a precarious com- 
 munication was kept up by a road carried over glaciers, 
 moraines, and yawning fissures, crossed by temporary 
 wooden bridges, between the Chinese possessions on the 
 Hi and in Kashgar. 
 
 The Chu River, rising among the snows of these 
 terrific defiles, flows close past the western end of the 
 lake, and communicates with it by an arm, which 
 is sometimes an effluent and sometimes an affluent of 
 Issyk-kul, and then makes its way through rocky and 
 precipitous gorges, with an occasional border of flowery
 
 492 CLASSIC GROUND. 
 
 meadows and clumps of forest, into the bare steppes 
 below. As it bends westward along the skirts of the 
 Alexandrofsky range, it receives many little tributaries 
 that stream down the slopes and recruit its failing waters 
 before they are finally lost in the sands, or in swampy 
 brakes of rushes, where tigers and lynxes have their 
 haunts. 
 
 This is a classic ground. Here are the " Thousand 
 Springs" of the Chinese geographers; through it led 
 the highway by which the medieval travellers passed 
 eastward on their way to the court of the Great Khan. 
 It was the centre of the power of the Kara Khitai, 
 whose rule extended over both Eastern and Western 
 Turkestan, and whose capital, Bala Sagun, stood near 
 the banks of the Chu. That more than half-mythical 
 personage, Prester John, is believed to have been a khan 
 of the Kara Khitai, who may have professed Christianity 
 at the time that the Nestorian faith extended widely 
 over Central Asia and China. Genghiz Khan, emerg- 
 ing into the Hi valley from the deserts of Mongolia, 
 took this way, and threw in the dust the power of 
 Prester John, as he did greater and lesser potentates that 
 tried to withstand his conquering march. Near Tokmak 
 are the ruins of the capital of the principality of Kip- 
 chak, which furnished the name for all the western 
 conquests of the Mongols. Aulieta, the principal town 
 of the district, is supposed to be on the site of Talas, 
 another great city of the descendants of Genghiz. Near 
 it is a mountain where Noah's ark is thought to have 
 rested, and mounds and piles of immense stones; believed 
 to have been built by the "jins;" and within is a 
 sacred tomb, in great repute among the followers of the 
 
 he
 
 A NEW WORLD. 493 
 
 Prophet, built over the bones of a descendant of Sheik 
 Akhmed Yasavi, the patron saint of the Kirghiz, in whose 
 honour Timur built the great mosque that is the pride 
 of the city of Turkestan. It was at Aulieta that Gen- 
 eral Tchernaieff began his campaign against Khokand 
 in 1864, which ended within a few weeks in the cap- 
 ture of Tashkend and the annexation of the greater part 
 of the khan's territory ; and General Kaufmann had it 
 at one time seriously in his mind to fix here the capital 
 of the Russian possessions in Central Asia. 
 
 Still, so long as we are on the northern side of the 
 Alexandrofsky Mountains, we are outside the magic 
 circle of Turkestan. A current of Western life and 
 ideas flows here ; Russian colonization has spread along 
 the well-watered hill-sides, and well-to-do farmers come 
 down to market at Aulieta, dressed in the garb and 
 speaking the tongues of Europe ; the climate is health- 
 ful and invigorating; even the Kirghiz, to one who, 
 like Schuyler, has been sojourning among the fanatical 
 peoples to the south, appear " patterns of simplicity, 
 manliness, and virtue." 
 
 A journey through the passes or across the steppe 
 into the valley of the Sir brings us to a new world — 
 into an atmosphere charged with doubt, mystery, and 
 suspicion. In this region Russia has now planted down 
 her foot firmly, and made her presence felt in the most 
 remote corner. The boundaries of Western Turk 
 are marked out very plainly by nature. To the east- 
 ward it is defined by the huge wall of the Tian Shan 
 and the Pamir Steppe — the outward supports of the 
 great table-land of Thibet and Chinese Tartary. Near 
 the sources of the Amu River is a mountain knot,
 
 494 BOUNDS OF TURKESTAN. 
 
 where the Pamir, the "Western Himalayan ranges, and 
 the Hindoo Koosh join ; and at this point also is the 
 meeting-place of the Chinese dominion, of the Afghan 
 possessions in Turkestan, and of the territory of the 
 Maharajah of Kashmir, who is under the protection of 
 the Empress of India. On the south the limits of Tur- 
 kestan are marked by the Hindoo Koosh, which gradu- 
 ally merges into the Kopet Dagh range of mountains, 
 separating Northern Persia from the Turcoman Oasis, 
 and extends to the shores of the Caspian Sea. 
 
 Thus shut in on two sides by lofty mountains, Tur- 
 kestan is bounded on the west by the waters of the 
 Caspian, and on the north by the steppes pastured by 
 the Kirghiz. The general character of the region thus 
 shut off from the rest of the world by rocky walls, 
 deserts, and salt water is that of a waste of sand, shift- 
 ing and barren like the sea. Great peninsulas and prom- 
 ontories jut out from the bounding mountain masses 
 into this ocean of sand, and oases of marvellous fertility, 
 brilliantly green with fruit trees and grain fields, are 
 dotted on its surface like islands. 
 
 The rivers rise in the uplands — at the foot of glaciers, 
 or in little mountain tarns surrounded by snow all the 
 year round. Such is the source of the Oxus or Amu 
 Daria, found by Captain John Wood in the Sari-kul 
 Lake, situated at a height of sixteen thousand feet above 
 sea-level, in one of the most remote corners of the Pamir 
 Steppe. Descending from these cold naked heights on 
 the " Poof of the World," where, owing to the great 
 elevation, even breathing is a difficulty, the muddy and 
 rapid streams cut their way through narrow valleys to 
 the lower levels. Numerous side gorges join the main
 
 TRADE ROUTES IN HIGH ASIA. 495 
 
 channel ; and wherever there is room for plants to grow, 
 there is a rich vegetation, and a little tribal community 
 maintaining itself on its flocks and herds, and, when 
 opportunity offers, on those of its neighbours. 
 
 This is particularly the case in the district of the Upper 
 Oxus, which is still imperfectly explored — or at least im- 
 perfectly described. Russian scientific expeditions have 
 penetrated into the broken and difficult region of Kara- 
 tegtin and Hissar, and jottings of the routes taken and 
 the places visited have reached geographical circles in 
 Europe ; but the remark which Vilkievitch, the Czar's 
 agent at Kabul, made to Sir A. Burnes forty years ago 
 still holds c;ood : " It is not the custom of Russia to 
 publish to the world the results of her researches in 
 foreign countries." Trade routes ascend these intricate 
 valleys, and surmount the ridges of the broad blocks of 
 mountain that separate the Amu from the Zerafshan, 
 and the Zerafshan from the Sir, sometimes at heights 
 of ten thousand and twelve thousand feet above the 
 sea ; but the merchants and travellers who have busi- 
 ness to do in the great marts of traffic in Turkestan 
 prefer coasting along the foot of the hills by tracks 
 comparatively safe, and beaten by the feet of camels 
 and horses, to undertaking the toilsome ascents of the 
 passes, and submitting to the black-mailing of robber- 
 chiefs. 
 
 Farther westward the mountains sink down to the 
 level of the plain, or are continued merely as ranges of 
 low dusty hills. The last drop of water has been wrung 
 from the highlands, and the rivers are left without guid- 
 ance to wander forth into the desert. In places where 
 there is a clay subsoil to retain the rains, little patches
 
 496 DESERTS AND THEIR DENIZENS. 
 
 of green are found in the thirsty plain, and wells are 
 dug, around which the kibitkas of roaming tribesmen 
 are pitched, and where the trade caravans crossing the 
 Kizil Kum or Kara Kum — the " Red " and the " Black " 
 Sands — make their evening halt. 
 
 Strips of cultivated land, vineyards, and groves of 
 fruit-trees are found on the banks of the streams where 
 it is found possible to draw off the water by canals 
 for purposes of irrigation. A dusty vegetation of camel- 
 thorn and other desert plants covers large expanses, 
 and affords pasturage for the flocks of hardy sheep, 
 camels, and horses kept by the Turcoman and other 
 nomadizing tribes. Herds of wild asses also frequent 
 the waste : Mr. O'Donovan, accompanying General Sco- 
 beleff's recent expedition to the Tekke country, de- 
 scribed a countless host of these graceful creatures bear- 
 ing suddenly down upon him with the swiftness of the 
 wind, and having satisfied their curiosity by surveying 
 him at a distance of some yards, wheeling round and 
 disappearing as swiftly as they came in the cloud of 
 dust raised by their nimble heels. Lions, which vere 
 hunted in this region in Alexander the Great's time, are 
 no longer found, except, perhaps, that one may make an 
 occasional foray into the desert from Northern Persia ; 
 but tigers of small size, bears, wolves, and several species 
 of antelopes manage to pick up a living. 
 
 Nearer the Caspian the rivers disappear, and with 
 them almost every sign of life ; the country becomes 
 utterly naked and desolate. Great changes must have 
 come over the physical condition of this region within 
 the historical period. The part which this region has 
 played in the history of the world seems inexplicable
 
 LOST III VERS. 407 
 
 except on the supposition that it once was capable of 
 supporting a much larger population than it now 
 contains. 
 
 The positive statements of ancient geographers, that 
 the Oxus and Jaxartes emptied themselves into the Cas- 
 pian, have also opened a rich field for theory and conjec- 
 ture. We know now, of course, that both these great 
 rivers — each with a course of some fifteen hundred miles 
 — debouch into the shallow Sea of Aral, which, in spite 
 of its great length and breadth — two hundred and sixty- 
 five miles by one hundred and forty-five miles — is little 
 more than an overgrown lagoon of the steppe. The 
 other rivers of what was known to our fathers as Inde- 
 pendent Tartary have not even so honourable an end 
 to their career as the Aral Sea. 
 
 The Zerafshan, for instance, hurries with much noise 
 and turbulence down its rough mountain channels, and 
 sets out briskly from the hills as if to join the Amu. 
 Then the hot sands begin to drink up its waters and 
 to choke its bed with silt ; streams are carried away 
 to irrigate the rice-fields and apple and peach orchards 
 of Samarcand and Bokhara ; the river spreads itself 
 abroad in devious and intricate channels, and stag- 
 nates in marshes and pools, and it is completely ex- 
 hausted while its apparent goal is still many miles dis- 
 tant. It is the same with the rivers that flow into 
 the hollow of Turkestan from the Hindoo Koosh. The 
 rivers of Khulm and of Balkh exhaust themselves in tin' 
 gardens of these two ancient Bactrian cities ; the Siri- 
 pul and the river of Meimana water the oases on their 
 banks, but have not strength left to cross the desert 
 beyond ; the Murghab loses itself a little way beyond 
 
 (718) 32
 
 493 OLD COURSES OF THE OXUS AND SIR. 
 
 Merv, the dilapidated old metropolis of Margiana ; and 
 the Heri-rud, the river that flows past Herat, descends 
 from the hills to the plain only to dissipate itself in 
 the Tejend swamp. So also in the north, the steppe 
 rivers shoal and throw off branches instead of deepen- 
 ing and receiving tributaries as they flow onward ; they 
 stumble aimlessly about among mud-flats, sandy hillocks, 
 and beds of rushes, and end, after a course of hundreds 
 of miles, in some insignificant salt marsh. 
 
 It is conjectured, with much probability, that these 
 fragmentary streams once formed parts of one grand 
 river system. The theory is that when the climate of 
 Turkestan was moister than it is to-day, and the rain- 
 fall, of course, heavier and more regular, the great lake 
 Issyk-kul sent a large body of water into the bed of 
 the Chu, keeping the channel of that now useless stream 
 well scoured and running full ; that a further reinforce- 
 ment came, perhaps, from Lake Balkash, bringing the 
 surplus drainage of the Hi valley, while the Sari-Su and 
 other rivers now lost in the Kirghiz Steppe flowed in 
 further on. A still more important contributor was 
 found in the Jaxartes, which is believed to have joined 
 the main stream near where Fort Perovsky now stands, 
 and the further course of the united body of water is 
 still marked by the Yani Daria, a channel through the 
 sands of Kizil Kum, down which in flood-time part of 
 the water of the Sir still flows straight towards the 
 Oxus. The last-named stream was the lowest and 
 greatest of the affluents of the ancient river ; and it 
 then held its way from the southern extremity of the 
 Sea of Aral to the Caspian Sea at Balkan Bay, through 
 the deep wide furrow in the sands known as the Usboi,
 
 THE SHORES OF THE ARAL SEA. 499 
 
 or old course of the Oxus, down which the Russians are 
 just now said to be endeavouring to induce the waters to 
 resume their flow, in the hope of opening up water com- 
 munication with their new possessions in Khiva, Bokhara, 
 and Khokand. 
 
 It is more than doubtful whether this curious experi- 
 ment will be successful. They may persuade, indeed 
 they have already persuaded, a considerable body of 
 water to leave the Oxus and flow for some distance alona* 
 the dry bed of the old river ; but it is quite another 
 thing to get it to discharge itself into the Caspian, much 
 more to preserve such a depth of channel that vessels 
 could ascend. The trunk stream that once may have 
 given freshness to the desert is hopelessly withered and 
 dead, and only in some of the outer twigs and boughs 
 does the sap still run. The Amu Daria, according to the 
 late Major Herbert Wood, who made a minute hydro- 
 graphical survey of the region, is rapidly silting up its 
 bed, owing to the quantity of water drawn off to irrigate 
 the oases of Khiva, and is finding increasing difficulty in 
 travelling even so far as the Aral Sea. The Sir also, in its 
 lower course, divides into narrow, tortuous channels, and 
 is so obstructed by mud and sand banks as to be nearly 
 unnavio-able. 
 
 The Sea of Aral itself is filling up, clear water, bays, 
 and inlets changing to marshes, and marshes to dry land, 
 within living memory. Its shores are utterly deserted 
 except by water-fowl. On the east, sandy beaches 
 covered with shallow pools shelve into the brackish 
 waters, and on the west, the low shingly bluffs of the 
 Ust-urt plateau run out into the lake. On a fine day 
 beautiful atmospheric effects may, according to Schuyler,
 
 500 THE " GOOD OLD TIMES." 
 
 be seen, when, with a pale blue sky and fleecy clouds 
 overhead, the sun lights up the clear pools of water 
 and shore and sea with silver and pearly hues, and the 
 coloured stems of the low leafless shrubs give to the 
 desert an aspect of purple, rose, and yellow, mingling 
 with the yellow-brown of the sands. There is nothing 
 else, however, admirable about Aral : it is subject to 
 heavy storms, and possesses no harbour of refuge for 
 the vessels of the " Aral flotilla," conveyed thither in 
 pieces, and launched at an enormous cost to the Russian 
 Government ; and the officers of the little fleet must 
 have found this most isolated of naval stations neither 
 so lively nor so serviceable for purposes of war or com- 
 merce as was at one time expected. 
 
 What Turkestan needs in order to regain its past 
 prosperity is a moister and more equable climate, a more 
 regular rainfall, and a more industrious population. In 
 these respects, it may be feared, things are retrograding 
 rather than improving. For many generations past it 
 has been in "reduced circumstances." After remaining 
 long in obscurity, a flood of light has been poured in 
 upon it at the moment of collapse and humiliation. Its 
 former glory was won by ruthless, predatory warfare, 
 and it became rich and powerful on the spoils of weaker 
 neighbours. Now it is being plundered and annexed in 
 its turn. A few of the more isolated mountain tribes 
 and Turcoman clans may still kidnap and rob on a petty 
 scale, but their power for evil is every year being cir- 
 cumscribed. The time for conquest and slaughter on 
 the grand scale seems to be past ; Timurs and Babers 
 are no longer bred in the Mavera-ul-Xehr — the " land 
 between the rivers." The khans of Tartary remind us
 
 ALEXANDER OF MACEDON. 501 
 
 of nothing more than the giants Pope and Pagan, who 
 sat at the entrance of their dens surrounded by the bones, 
 ashes, and blood of dead men, biting their nails in impo- 
 tent rage as Bunyan's pilgrims passed by. Not only can 
 destroying hosts no longer issue like clouds of locusts 
 from these deserts and spread terror and desolation to 
 the gates of Moscow, Smyrna, and Delhi ; the khans 
 must submit to see the stranger and the infidel pass by 
 their gates with richly-laden caravans, and dare not 
 lay a finger upon him. 
 
 The first clear glimpse obtained into the interior of 
 this region is afforded by the famous expedition led 
 thither by Alexander the Great more than two thousand 
 two hundred years ago. The Macedonian conqueror 
 passed the Hindoo Koosh with his army, hunted the 
 fugitive Persian satrap Bessus across the Oxus — which 
 was crossed, as is still sometimes done at the present day, 
 on skins — and, after laying waste Maracanda, the modern 
 Samarcand, and other towns, advanced as far as the 
 banks of the Sir. Here he left a colony of his invalided 
 soldiers — one of half a dozen Alexandrias planted as 
 memorials of the Greek conquests in Sogdiana and 
 Bactria ; and he had sundry brushes with the Scythian 
 hordes on the northern bank of the stream, which the 
 flatterers of the conqueror declared to be the Don, a 
 geographical discovery as remarkable as that afterwards 
 made by Alexander himself when he pronounced the 
 Indus to be the Nile, on the strength of seeing crocodiles 
 swimming in the Indian river. The Padishah Iskender 
 is to this clay one of the great mythical personages of 
 Central Asia; legends regarding him hang about the 
 mountains, lakes, and rivers of Turkestan ; many of the
 
 502 THE ARAB CONQUEST. 
 
 chiefs still trace their descent to him ; and the Khokan- 
 dians point out at Marghilan the tomb where, as they 
 believe, the horned hero lies buried. The Bactrian 
 kingdom that he founded survived for several centuries, 
 and coins bearing the names of a long line of monarchs — 
 Heliocles, Eucratides, and the rest—and silver plate en- 
 graved with Bacchic processions and other subjects taken 
 from classic mythology, are still found in Kunduz, Balkh, 
 and Badakshan, to attest the degree of culture attained 
 in this distant colony of the Greeks. 
 
 The Scythians on their way to the Indus over- 
 whelmed the Bactrian empire ; and Persians, Parthians, 
 and Chinese by turns asserted their supremacy. Then 
 came the Arabs of the Khalifate, who early in the eighth 
 century proselytized busily with fire and sword, and 
 planted the roots of Mohammedanism so deeply that to 
 this hour the most orthodox champions of Islam are to 
 be found in the medressahs of Khiva and Samarcand, 
 and Bokhara is accounted one of the holiest cities of 
 the Mussulman world. 
 
 Hitherto the countries on the Oxus and Jaxartes had 
 had no title to the name of " Turkestan." They had 
 mainly been peopled and governed from the south, and 
 the predominant races are believed to have been of 
 Iranian origin. But now began a current of emioration 
 and conquest from another quarter. The Seljukian 
 Turks burst in from the north-east, and traversing the 
 land from corner to corner, selected as the seat of their 
 power Khorassan, behind the mountain screen of Northern 
 Persia. Here their renowned leaders, Togrul Beg and 
 Alp Arslan, engaged in tremendous struggles for mastery 
 with the Turcomans of the steppes, and with the succes- 

 
 GHENGH1Z AND TAMERLANE. 503 
 
 sors of Malimoud of Ghuzni, the son of a Bokharan slave, 
 who had just conquered India, and carried away to his 
 rock-fortress in Afghanistan the " Great Gates " of Delhi, 
 brought back in triumph eight centuries later by a 
 British army. 
 
 The shahs of Kharezm — the modern khanate of Khiva 
 — had established themselves at Samarcand as the ruling- 
 power in Turkestan, when the horde of Genghiz was on 
 the march. The proud Kharezmian shah, disdaining the 
 offered alliance of the Mongol chief, was defeated and 
 slain; his capital was laid waste and his people mas- 
 sacred, and the remnants of his army were chased through 
 the Afghan passes and across the Indus. When Gen- 
 ghiz parted Asia among his sons, Turkestan fell to the 
 share of Jagatai ; but as is often the case in family set- 
 tlements where there is a large property to divide, the 
 heirs were not contented with their portions. Long and 
 cruel wars were waged between the Jagataicles and their 
 strong kinsmen and neighbours, the lords of the Golden 
 Horde. 
 
 The family quarrel was brought to an issue in the 
 time of the notorious Timur Leng (Timur the Lame — 
 corrupted by our forefathers into "Tamerlane"). This 
 formidable personage was an almost perfect type of the 
 Tartar conqueror — insatiably ambitious, of indomitable 
 will and energy, brave and skilled in warfare, uttcvlv 
 ruthless in the shedding of human blood, the idol of a 
 savage soldiery, and the terror of the world. In the case 
 of the other great figures in Central Asian history before 
 and after his time, Turkestan was only the starting-place 
 whence they set out to seek their fortunes in other 
 lands; or it was a prize which, coming from Greece,
 
 504 BAD ELI AND X A Dili SHAH. 
 
 Persia, or Mongolia, they struggled to reach. But Timur 
 was born in the Mavera-ul-Nehr — at Shehr-Sebz, no 
 loner distance south of Samarcand — and after all his 
 marchings and wanderings, his campaigns against Tokh- 
 tamish on the Sir, on the Volga, and in the Caucasus, his 
 expeditions to the Dnieper and the Oka, his two descents 
 into the plains of India, and his still more bloody, loudly- 
 trumpeted victories in Persia, Syria, and Asia Minor, he 
 returned to his dearly-loved capital among the fruit- 
 groves of the Zerafshan valley, and died " between the 
 rivers " when about to set out for the conquest of China. 
 The pillage of the rich countries to the south and west 
 was lavishly expended in rearing and beautifying the 
 palaces, mosques, and colleges of Samarcand, which under 
 his care became the centre of power and learning in 
 the Eastern world. Another flood of invasion from the 
 northern steppes sapped and overthrew the rule of the 
 successors of Timur in Bokhara and Khokand. The 
 famous Baber was prince of the latter province, then 
 known as Ferghana, and twice he established himself in 
 Samarcand ; but with all his military genius and political 
 skill he was unable to withstand the onset of Sheibana 
 and his Uzbegs, and fleeing by the familiar road through 
 Afghanistan to India, he became the founder of the 
 Mogul empire. 
 
 The subsequent history of Turkestan has largely con- 
 sisted of struggles for ascendency between the three 
 khanates, civil wars, and family quarrels, plots, and 
 murders. There has been no successful organized assault 
 by its warlike people either on Russia or on India. The 
 last — perhaps the last possible — of the great " scourges 
 of humanity " reared in these deserts was Nadir Shah,
 
 CHANGED TIMES IN TURKESTAN. 505 
 
 a Turcoman freebooter, who, less than a century and a 
 half ago, overthrew the Persian and Mogul empires, and 
 was assassinated in the height of his fame while returning, 
 after the manner of his kind, laden with spoils of Delhi 
 and the Punjab. 
 
 As a fellow-countryman of Nadir's, following the 
 same esteemed occupation of highwayman, regretfully 
 told Colonel Baker in 1873, — "Things are changed: 
 we cannot stand against your new guns ; and we have 
 no training." The tide of Russian conquest is rolling 
 swiftly back upon the countries of Turkestan, and pro- 
 mises soon to engulf the whole. Let us see when this 
 encroaching movement began, and how far it has already 
 extended. 

 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 LATEST CONQUESTS IN CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 RUSSIA hesitated long before venturing her 
 hand into this Central Asian wasp's nest, 
 which she is now engaged in rifling, with 
 more prospect of getting stings than honey. 
 The learned Professor Grigorief shows that there were 
 commercial relations and interchanges of missions be- 
 tween Muscovy and the khanates so far back as 1G20. 
 The early military expeditions of Russia in this quarter 
 were directed against Khiva, and were not attended with 
 encouraging results. Peter the Great sent a small army 
 to subdue the Khivan khan ; but the latter, though un- 
 able to overcome the enemy in the field, was more than 
 a match for him in artifice, and Prince Bekovitch and 
 his men were massacred or perished miserably in the 
 desert between Lake Aral and the Caspian. A force 
 under Perovsky, despatched by Czar Nicolas in 1829, 
 met with even more signal failure — they had not even 
 a barren victory to repay them for their sufferings in 
 attempting to cross the steppes in winter. The excellent 
 people of Khiva, besides quarrelling with the neighbour 
 khanates, continued merrily the old-fashioned practices 
 of piracy and robbery, dreaming that the arm of retribu-
 
 THE KIRGHIZ STEPPE. 507 
 
 tion was not long enough to reach across the desert. 
 Stray Russians were picked up by them, or by these 
 professional adepts in kidnapping, the Turcomans, until 
 there was quite a considerable collection of subjects of 
 the Czar pining in slavery. 
 
 At last, after hesitating for one hundred and forty 
 years on the northern side of the Kirghiz Steppe, 
 Russia determined to stride across it, and see with her 
 own eyes what was going on in the strange world 
 of Turkestan. This momentous movement was so far 
 completed in 1847 that a Russian fort was built on 
 the Sir Daria — some four hundred miles from the old 
 frontier near Orsk — and two vessels were placed on the 
 river. No determined opposition was offered by the 
 Kirghiz, though an irregular struggle was kept up for 
 ten years longer by the bandit chief Isset Kutebar, " the 
 Rob Roy of the steppe," from places of refuge in the 
 plateau of Ust-urt. The post road across the steppe 
 from Orsk to the Sir is now practically as safe as a 
 European highway. Station-houses, for resting and 
 change of horses, are placed at convenient distances along 
 the route, and the traveller is made as comfortable as 
 is consistent with the presence of filth and fleas. The 
 Kirghiz are settling quietly down to pastoral pursuits, 
 and along the Sir they are beginning to cultivate the 
 land. Projects have been formed of bridging over the 
 distance between Orenburg and Tashkend by a railway, 
 and were the finances of Russia, and especially those of 
 the government of Turkestan, in a more healthy state, 
 the work would no doubt soon be carried out. 
 
 Once established on the Jaxartcs, Russian annexations 
 in Turkestan went on by a kind of natural process. The 

 
 508 FERGHANA AND ITS RULERS. 
 
 juncture was a favourable one for such encroachments. 
 There was bad blood between the khanates, as usual, 
 and Khokand, the nearest of the three, was torn by civil 
 commotions. Kipchak, Uzbeg, and Sart factions alter- 
 nately struggled into power, and the Khan Khudayer 
 was a vicious and bloodthirsty creature — judged even by 
 the Central Asian standard — who murdered his minister 
 and best friend, the Kipchak chief Mussulman Kuli, and 
 was repeatedly turned out of the throne by his disgusted 
 subjects. The Russian conquests began in 1853 by the 
 capture of Ak Musjid — now Fort Perovsky — after a 
 resolute defence by the celebrated Yakoob Beg, who after- 
 wards crossed the Tian Shan with a band of Khokandians, 
 and became the ruler of Eastern Turkestan. 
 
 On the lower Sir the climate is rigorously cold ; the 
 river is hemmed in between sandy deserts, and is frozen 
 for four months in the year. Better things were to be 
 found farther up stream. Under the shelter of the 
 mountains was the valley of Ferghana, with its running- 
 streams and its fruit-groves, the pears, melons, and 
 grapes of Andijan, and the delicious apricots and pome- 
 granates of Marghilan, celebrated by the Emperor Baber. 
 Turquoises and other precious stones, gold dust, and 
 copper ore were to be found ; and the populous towns of 
 Tashkend, Khojend, and Khokand were famous in Central 
 Asia for their manufactories of rich cloths and their 
 workers in brass and jewellery. 
 
 Beyond these mild inviting regions, lying so tempt- 
 ingly near at hand, were places of still greater interest 
 — Samarcand, Bokhara, Khiva, and Merv — about which 
 the English had been manifesting much curiosity. A 
 long series of British travellers — Moorcraft, Burnes, Ab-
 
 TRAVELLERS AND MILITARY ADVENTURERS. 509 
 
 bott, Thomson, Shakespeare, Connolly, Stoddart, and Wolff 
 — had penetrated into the region, and gathered great 
 store of information. Russian travellers were not behind 
 in enterprise and daring. Demaisons visited Bokhara in 
 1834 in the dress of a Tartar mullah, and Vikievitch in 
 the year following disguised as a Kirghiz, — feats that, as 
 M. Grigorief points out, demanded no less boldness and 
 adroitness than the Hungarian Vambery's more recent 
 visit made in the disguise of a dervish. In 1841, about 
 the time that Connolly and Stoddart were basely mur- 
 dered at Bokhara by the Ameer Nasrullah, Khanikoff and 
 Lehmann made an interesting journey to Samarcand, 
 which had remained almost totally unknown to Euro- 
 peans since the time of Timur. 
 
 Service in Turkestan became popular in the Russian 
 army ; it opened up to young officers prospects of " show- 
 ing their paces " and obtaining promotion, honours, and 
 decorations. Tchernaieff, Scobeleff, Romanofsky, Lazareff, 
 and other notable military commanders, made their repu- 
 tation — some of them afterwards lost it — in Central Asian 
 campaigns. So far from the seat of government, civil 
 and military officials were necessarily left with a large 
 amount of discretion, and they took large advantage of 
 their opportunities of spreading their own and the White 
 Czar's fame. 
 
 After nibbling away for years morsels of Khokand, 
 General Tchernaieff, in the campaigns of 18G4-GG, cap- 
 tured the cities of Turkestan, Tchimkend and Tashkend, 
 and stripped Bokhara of the conquests which it had made 
 from its rival khanate in the hour of its extremity ; and 
 his successor, Romanofsky, followed up these advantages 
 by advancing into Bokharan territory, inflicting a signal
 
 510 ANNEXATION OF KHOKAND. 
 
 defeat on the troops of Mozaffur Edclin at Irjar, and 
 established Russian garrisons at Ura-tepe, Jizakh, and 
 other places south of the Sir. General Kaufmann was 
 nominated Governor-General of Turkestan in 1867, with 
 the city of Tashkend as his headquarters ; and next 
 year another war broke out with Bokhara, resulting in 
 the annexation of Samarcand and the Zerafshan valley, 
 and the political subjection of the rest of that khanate 
 to Russia. In 1875 there was a last despairing effort 
 by the Khokandians, led by Abdurrahman Aftobatcha, the 
 son of Mussulman Kuli, to eject the intruders, but after 
 a fierce struggle the resistance was thoroughly quelled 
 by Scobeleff; and in 1876 the remaining portion of 
 Khokand was formed, under the ancient title of Ferghana, 
 into a province of Russian Turkestan. 
 
 For fifteen years past the progress of the Russian 
 arms and influence in Central Asia has been presided 
 over by General Kaufmann.* No name has been so 
 much identified with Muscovite aggrandizement in this 
 region, and no one has copied more faithfully the morals 
 and the methods of Asiatic rulers in the management 
 of an Oriental dependency. He has never shown any 
 surpassing genius either for war or for diplomacy. His 
 position, however, far removed from effective control, 
 with the whole power of the empire behind him, and a 
 tempting field for ambition in the weak and distracted 
 countries lying in front, has given him a great influence 
 for good or for evil, which he has scarcely used in the 
 way best fitted to enhance the reputation of Russia for 
 open dealing, or to improve the relations between his 
 
 * Genoral Kaufmann has just (May 1882) been superseded by General 
 TchernaicfT as Governor-General of Turkestan.
 
 GENERAL KAUFMANN. 511 
 
 country and our own. The Governor-General of Tur- 
 kestan has been the type of the " prancing proconsul " 
 of the time; at Tashkend he has maintained a s< mi- 
 regal state and ceremonial, which has gained for him 
 among the native populations the title of the Yarim 
 Padishah, or " half king." He never rides out, Mr. 
 Schuyler was informed, without a select guard of Cos- 
 sacks ; and even his wife and children had at one time 
 their escorts, until a newly arrived officer turned the 
 practice to ridicule by innocently asking why the lady 
 was under arrest. At the public receptions to which 
 the gay and fashionable world of Tashkend are ad- 
 mitted the etiquette of the Winter Palace is observed ; 
 and if the Governor-General condescends to shake the 
 hand of a guest, the latter is immediately courted as a 
 rising light in society. When his excellency returns 
 after an absence to Tashkend, triumphal arches are 
 erected and cannon fired in his honour. 
 
 In spite of these imposing displays — partly, perhaps, 
 on account of them — the administration of the province 
 is not so successful as could be desired. Turkestan, apart 
 from the costs of the wars, entails a heavy annual drain 
 on the finances of Russia, which are little able to bear 
 the burden. The population are heavily taxed, and have 
 other causes of discontent. The tone of morals in civil 
 and military circles is not exalted. Peculation and job- 
 bery are rife, and drinking and gambling fill up the 
 spare hours in high society. There are generally flitting 
 about the " court" a number of pensioners, or applicants 
 for pensions, claimants and pretenders to Central Asian 
 crowns, or dethroned or expelled ameers and khans, of 
 which there is always a large supply on hand. Kim-
 
 512 RUSSIAN INTRIGUES IN CENTRAL ASIA. 
 
 dayar Khan of Khokand had to take shelter with 
 General Kaufmann, but got tired of that sheltering 
 wing, and took flight to India. Abdur Rahman, the 
 present Ameer of Afghanistan, came here in 1870, after 
 being expelled from Kabul by his uncle, the late Shere 
 Ali. Afterwards he removed to Samarcand, where he 
 lived quietly till a new turn of fortune's wheel carried 
 him again to the top of affairs in Afghanistan, with no 
 great feeling of gratitude in his heart, it is said, for the 
 Yarim Padishah. General Kaufmann loves to play with 
 these puppets, and in the alarm which their movements 
 excite in India and England perhaps has his reward. 
 The approach of Russia towards our Indian Empire has 
 led to long correspondence and interchanges of opinion 
 between our own Government and that of St. Peters- 
 burg, and in 1872 an arrangement was come to between 
 Lord Granville and Prince Gortschakof by which Afghan- 
 istan was declared to be " outside of the sphere within 
 which Russia should be called upon to exercise her influ- 
 ence." The Oxus was laid down as the boundary of the 
 territories of the Ameers of Bokhara and Kabul, and of 
 the legitimate influence of Russia and Eno-land, and a 
 limit was set for the time to Kaufmann's ambition. 
 This did not prevent him, in 1878 — a time, however, 
 when Russia and England were " diplomatically at war " 
 — from sending the notorious StoletofF mission to Kabul ; 
 and we have thus to thank him, in part, for the cost and 
 trouble of the Afghan War, and the unfortunate Shere 
 Ali, who died near the Oxus while fleeing for refuge to 
 his faithless " friend," for the loss of his kingdom. 
 
 The new or Russian town of Tashkend, though the 
 seat of government, is by no means a typical city of
 
 TASHKEND. 513 
 
 Turkestan. Schuyler, viewing it first by moonlight, 
 could scarcely believe that he was in Central Asia. " The 
 broad dusty streets, shaded by double rows of trees ; the 
 sound of rippling water in every direction ; the small 
 white houses set a little back from the streets, with 
 trees and a palisade in front ; the large square full of 
 turf and flowers, with a little church in the middle," all 
 combined to give him the impression that he was in one 
 of the quiet little towns of Now York State! By day- 
 light it resembled more a new prairie town — " Denver, 
 for instance, though lacking in the busy air that per- 
 vades that place, and with Sarts, in turbans and gowns, 
 in place of Indians and miners." The native town, how- 
 ever, presents an admirable abstract of all that is quaint, 
 bizarre, and characteristic in Central Asian architecture 
 and city life. We cannot do better than quote part 
 of the excellent description of the American author : — 
 
 " The streets are rarely straight, and in rambling about 
 the town we go up and down hill, turning to this side 
 and that, sometimes between high walls, sometimes be- 
 neath the wooden portico of a mosque which mounts 
 high in the air, now along the edge of some deep ravine, 
 and now crossing some rushing stream on a low wooden 
 bridge. Everywhere trees are leaning over the walls, 
 for everywhere there are gardens, and we can leave the 
 street and take a by-path up the edge of somo stream 
 where an old wooden mill-wheel is busily turning, and 
 feel ourselves almost in a country nook. Sometimes we 
 pass into the garden of some medressah or college, where 
 are shady walks., and where the turf about a shady pond 
 is covered with idlers from the town, for the pupils are 
 mostly in their little rooms reading or reciting their 
 
 (718) 33 

 
 514 KIIOKAND AND TURKESTAN. 
 
 lessons. Outside the walls — and the town is about six 
 miles across — the gardens extend for several miles. 
 These gardens, which are thickly planted with trees, and 
 at a distance entirely conceal the town, are still very 
 "beautiful, though they have suffered greatly since the 
 Russian occupation. Beyond the gardens we find the 
 open steppe, which stretches from the Sir Daria, here 
 some forty miles distant, to the mountains." 
 
 Such another city of closely-packed buildings of clay 
 and of wood, surmounted by the melon-shaped domes of 
 mosques and medressahs, covered with blue and white 
 enamelled tiles forming texts from the " Koran," and 
 half hidden in the brilliant green of gardens and or- 
 chards, is Khokand, though the population, some sixty 
 thousand, is only half as large as that of Tashkend. 
 
 Neither of these places can lay claim to exceeding 
 antiquity, or possesses any structure of such note and 
 sanctity as the ruined mosque, begun by Timur in 1397, 
 built over the tomb of the patron saint of the Kirghiz, 
 the Sheik Akhmed Yasavi, in the decayed old town of 
 Turkestan. This building, still grand in its decay, must, 
 we are told, have been at one time wondrously beautiful. 
 The front consists of an enormous arched portal, at least 
 one hundred feet high, flanked by rounded windowless 
 towers with crenellated tops. Under the great dome is 
 a vast hall, ornamented with rich alabaster and mosaic 
 work, after the Moorish style; and in adjoining apartments 
 are the tombs of the saint, of the descendants of Timur, 
 and of the Kirghiz sultans of the Middle and Little 
 Hordes. 
 
 No spot in Central Asia, not even Bokhara, can, how- 
 ever, vie in interest with Samarcand. It is reached
 
 SAMARCAND. 515 
 
 from Tashkend by passing the Sir Daria at Tchinaz, 
 crossing a parched and arid waste known to the Russians 
 as the " Famished Steppe," and entering the far-famed 
 Zerafshan valley by a mountain pass — the " Gates of 
 Tamerlane " — commanded by the fortress of Jizakh, from 
 which Tchernaieff was repulsed in 1866, but whose gates 
 opened in the autumn of the same year to Kryzhanofsky, 
 the governor-general of Orenburg. Beyond the defile, 
 on the rocky walls of which are engraved inscriptions 
 recording triumphs gained over invading hosts from 
 the north by Timur's warlike grandson, Ulug Beg, and 
 by the last of the great sovereigns and benefactors of 
 Samarcand, Abdullah Khan of Bokhara, the valley of the 
 Zerafshan — the " gold-strewing" river — is reached. The 
 road leads through fields and gardens and numerous 
 villages, and over streams crossed by ancient bridges, 
 until, in the middle of the valley, the lofty blue domes 
 and red brick towers of Samarcand are seen rising, 
 as they have done for so many changeful centuries, 
 above the green foliage of its fruit-trees. 
 
 Thouo-h it has lon^ ceased to be the centre of the 
 world, the city preserves some remains of its former 
 magnificence. Among the common people its prestige 
 is not quite gone. It is still accounted the " head of 
 Islam ; " and the proud saying is not yet forgotten among 
 the faithful, " Samarcand is the face of the earth, Bok- 
 hara the marrow of Islam ; were there not at Meshed 
 an azure dome, the whole world would be a ditch for 
 ablution." Meanwhile, it is only a small district town 
 of some thirty thousand inhabitants, in an empire whose 
 capital is four thousand miles away. 
 
 You enter the gate of Shah Zindeh — no Tartar spi
 
 516 THE TOMB OF TIMUR. 
 
 men barring the way — and find yourself in a new boule- 
 vard, with an excellent pavement, where,, like Mr. Schuyler, 
 you may hire a drosky and drive to the citadel, where, 
 in 186G, the Russian garrison, under Major Stempel, 
 offered a heroic resistance to the attempt of the people 
 of Shehr Sebz to recover the city. You look down on 
 the great mosques and medressahs, the bazaars, canals, 
 and water-tanks, planned and built by Timur and his 
 successors ; on the sea of verdure beyond, and across at 
 the snow-covered mountains that hem in the valley ; and 
 acknowledge that Samarcand has not wholly been de- 
 spoiled of her beauty and romance. The ameer's palace 
 within the fortress has been turned into the Russian 
 military hospital. 
 
 In the courtyard, formerly used on occasions of 
 ceremony, is the Koktash, a block of gray marble, carved 
 with arabesques, that, according to the tradition of 
 the place, fell from heaven to form the foundation of 
 the throne of Timur. The tomb of the Tartar con- 
 queror is covered by a mosque that crowns a small 
 hill on the south side of the citadel. Under the central 
 dome, which is richly ornamented with alabaster work, 
 and the walls inlaid with " hexagonal plates, closely 
 set together, of finely carved transparent gypsum," is 
 a slab of a greenish-black stone, six feet long, fifteen 
 inches wide, and fourteen inches thick, covering the 
 vault where this arch-destroyer, for whom the world 
 once seemed too narrow, now lies gathered into very 
 small space. Over the tomb, on the side towards Mecca, 
 an ancient standard, with floating horsetail, hano-s as a 
 memento of his victories. Under adjoining slabs sleep 
 Ulug Beg and other descendants of Timur, and an
 
 MOSQUES AND MEBRESSAHS. 517 
 
 honourable place beside him is occupied by his teacher, 
 the learned Mir Seid Belki. The ashes of the wives 
 of the conqueror are accommodated in an adjoining 
 building. 
 
 The chief architectural glory of Samarcand is the 
 mosque of Shah Sindeh, the " Living King," built by 
 Timur on the spot where a great promulgator of the 
 faith suffered martyrdom. By the local legend, the 
 " Living King " was due to appear again in the flesh in 
 18G8, to cleanse the city of the infidel, and his non- 
 fulfilment of the appointment has rather injured his 
 repute. The mosque, an immense structure, ranking in 
 sanctity and splendour close after the Hazret Mosque 
 at Turkestan, is now much out of repair ; but the lofty 
 portals and domes, faced with blue and white porcelain 
 tiles forming mosaic patterns and texts, the marble and 
 tiled staircases, the interior walls overlaid with ara- 
 besques, the arches and ceilings covered with pendent 
 alabaster work, and the finely carved wooden pillars that 
 support them, make it worthy of being a type of the 
 palmy era of Samarcand. In the Mosque of Hodja 
 Akbar was long preserved, as the most precious relic in 
 the city, the Koran of Othman, the third khalif. The 
 book has now been removed to the Imperial Public 
 Library at St. Petersburg — a small instalment of historical 
 revenge for Timur 's act, the carrying away into Tartary 
 the great library of Greek authors at Brussa, some traces 
 of the existence of which Mr. Schuyler thought he dis- 
 covered at Bokhara. 
 
 On a hill close by are the ruins of the Observatory 
 — the first erected in Asia — founded by the " Shadow 
 of the Almighty," Ulug Beg ; and within the walls
 
 518 TUB BAZAAR OF SAMARCAND. 
 
 are the crumbling remains, still surmounted by a min- 
 aret one hundred and fifty feet in height, of the college 
 which that prince prepared as the home of the astron- 
 omers and mathematicians whom he attracted to his 
 capital. In still finer taste are the other great medressahs 
 of Samarcand — that of Bibi Khanym, built by and 
 named after Timur's favourite wife, and daughter of the 
 Emperor of China ; and the colleges of Shir-dar and 
 Tilla-kari, dating three hundred years later, erected by 
 the Uzbeg, Yalang Tash, who rifled the shrine of the 
 Imaum Reza at Meshed, in order to embellish his works 
 in Samarcand. 
 
 The latter two buildings, as well as the Ulug Beg 
 medressah, are in the centre of the bazaar. Here, as in 
 the other bazaars of Central Asia, a most heterogeneous 
 collection of different races assemble for trade and barter. 
 A skilful ethnologist might find traces of the different 
 waves of emigration and conquest which have passed 
 over Turkestan in the dress, features, and customs of the 
 people who crowd the narrow crooked alleys, or spend 
 the night as well as the day in the little niches where 
 their wares are exposed. The two great elements of the 
 population are the Tajiks or Sarts and the Uzbegs : the 
 former the representatives of the Iranian population 
 who occupied the country before Turkestan became the 
 " land of the Turks ; " and the latter of the Turanian 
 tribes that from time to time descended upon the basin 
 of the Sir and the Amu since the days of Genghiz. Mr. 
 Schuyler thus discriminates between the two races : — 
 
 " The Tajiks and Uzbegs are readily distinguished 
 from each other, not only in appearance, but also in 
 character. The Tajik is larger and fuller in person, 

 
 TAJIKS AND UZBEGS, 519 
 
 with an ample "black beard, and an air of shrewdm 
 and cunning. He is fickle, untruthful, lazy, cowardly, 
 and boastful, and in every way morally corrupted. The 
 Uzbeg is taller and thinner, with a scanty beard, and 
 a longer and more strongly-marked face. He is simple 
 in his manners and dress ; while the Tajik is devoted to 
 his personal appearance, and fond of adorning himself. 
 The Uzbegs look upon the Tajiks with contempt, but at 
 the same time they are dependent upon them. The 
 Tajiks treat the Uzbegs as fools and children of nature, 
 and smilingly say that they have them entirely in their 
 power." 
 
 The Tajiks constitute a large proportion of the town 
 population, while the nomads are chiefly Uzbegs. The 
 former speak a dialect of Persian, but most of them 
 are also acquainted with Turki, the language of the 
 Uzbeg tribes. Other peoples, of whom representatives 
 will be found in the bazaars, are Persians, Hindus, Jews, 
 gipsies, and probably a sprinkling of Russians. A 
 wandering dervish, known in Samarcand as a kalendar, 
 a name delightfully suggestive of the " Arabian Nights," 
 may be met with. He is making a round of the holy 
 cities, and his next place of pilgrimage may be Bok- 
 hara. 
 
 Thither we will not follow him, for that metropolis of 
 Central Asia, though dependent on Russia, not only 
 politically, but for the life-streams of water from the 
 Zerafshan that keep its fields and gardens green, has not 
 yet been included within the dominions of the Czar. 
 Neither has Khiva, though there is a widespread notion 
 that the Cossacks are in actual possession of that Uzbeg 
 khanate. The khan, taking no warning from the fate
 
 520 THE KHIVA EXPEDITIONS. 
 
 of his neighbours, and encouraging- and profiting by the 
 slaving and marauding propensities of his Turcoman 
 subjects, it was determined in high council at St. Peters- 
 burg to put an effectual end to his power of annoyance. 
 
 The expeditions organized against him started in 
 1873, from five different points — from Jizakh, under 
 Kaufmann's own command ; from Kazala, on the Sir, 
 under the Grand Duke Nicolas Constantinovitch ; from 
 the Emba, under General Yerevkin ; from Mangishlak, 
 on the Caspian, under Lomakin ; and from Tchikishlar, 
 on the Attrek, under Markozoff ; and they closed in on 
 the khanate from the east, north, west, and south. All 
 the difficulties lay in getting there, for by the nearest 
 route there were four hundred miles of desert to cross. 
 Many privations were suffered from heat and drought, 
 and Markozoffs column had to fall back to the Caspian 
 a miserable wreck. More than enough of men and guns 
 and camels, however, reached the lower Oxus to beat down 
 the feeble opposition of the khan, and Kharezm fell 
 into the hands of the invaders. Afterwards the fertile 
 portion of the oasis, lying on the south side of the river, 
 was surrendered again to Mohammed Khan, while the 
 desert northern bank was annexed to Turkestan, as the 
 Amu Dana district. 
 
 While abolishing slavery, and taking other guarantees 
 for the future good conduct of Khiva, Russia thus took 
 care to reward herself for carrying out this part of her 
 civilizing mission by placing herself in a position to ex- 
 ercise an all-powerful control over the native state. Her 
 troubles and annexations in this part of the world did 
 not, however, stop here. The Turcomans could hardly 
 be expected immediately to reform their ways because
 
 TEN hi-] TURCOMANS. 521 
 
 their old confederates and customers in Khiva had been 
 bound and muzzled. The Yomud tribes, nomadizing 
 between Khiva and the Caspian Sea, were thoroughly 
 cowed by the primitive operations, disgraced by barbar- 
 ous massacres " in the Circassian style," carried out by 
 General Golovatchef ; and the Goklan clans on the 
 Attrek have given comparatively little trouble. 
 
 Not so the Tekkes, whose two divisions, the Akhal 
 and the Merv Tekkes, occupy respectively the fertile 
 strip of country along the foot of the Kopet Dagh rang*?, 
 and the oasis which the river of Herat forms before it 
 is dissipated in the desert of Turcomania. These hardy, 
 restless frontiersmen are possessed of an admirable breed 
 of horses, with which they can cover great distances when 
 out on their kidnapping and pillaging forays. They are 
 more at home in their felt tents than in permanent habi- 
 tations, and in the saddle than out of it. Robbing seems 
 to come more natural to them than their ostensible occu- 
 pations of shepherds and horse and camel rearers. 
 
 Rude in their manners and savage in their tempers, 
 the English travellers who have visited the Tekke 
 Turcomans — and, in addition to their most recent guest, 
 Mr. O'Donovan, special correspondent of the Daily Xnus, 
 quite a series of officers in the Indian army, Colonels 
 Baker and Macgregor, Major Butler, and Captains Napier 
 and Gill, among others, have within the last few years 
 taken the trouble of exploring the Tekke country — have 
 discovered among them some primitive virtues, and 
 especially a manly frankness and rough sense of humour 
 that may be set against their manifold sins. The 
 Persians do not appreciate them as neighbours ; and " in 
 their eyes," according to M. Ferricr, " a Persian is simply
 
 522 LATEST RUSSIAN SUCCESSES, 
 
 a mercantile and marketable commodity, and not worth 
 taking care of after it has been injured." 
 
 Seeing that Russia has spoiled their best market for 
 these human wares, it is only natural that they should 
 bear a special grudge against the northern infidel. 
 Since the capture of Khiva, expeditions have been sent 
 against them almost every year, each ending in more or 
 less decisive failure. Markozoff, Lomakin, Tergukasoff, 
 Dolgorouki, and Lazareff have in turn been discomfited 
 by the valour of the Akhals and the hardships of the 
 march. At length an expedition on a more extensive 
 scale was fitted out, and placed under the command of 
 General Scobeleff: to insure success, a railway, intended 
 to extend across the desert from Krasnovodsk on the 
 Caspian, at the foot of the mountains, was begun, and 
 has since been completed to Kizil Arvat. The Tekke 
 stronghold of Geok Tepe was captured in spite of a 
 heroic defence, and the Turcoman oasis was added to 
 the Empire of the Czars in the spring of 1881. 
 
 A treaty was concluded in the spring of 1882 between 
 Persia and Russia, by which it was agreed that the 
 frontier between their respective territories should be 
 drawn along the lower course of the Attrek river and 
 the range of the Kopet Dagh eastwards to a point 
 about a hundred and twenty miles from the Persian 
 fortress of Sarakhs. 
 
 The new Russian outpost station of Askabad is in 
 the neighbourhood of Nadir Shah's original stronghold, 
 Kelat, a stupendous natural fastness, twenty-five miles 
 in length by from five to seven broad, shut in by walls 
 of rock from eight hundred to one thousand feet high, 
 with a sheer perpendicular scarp between three hundred
 
 
 Til E CENTRAL ASIAN PROBLEM. 523 
 
 and six hundred feet. On the other side of the moun- 
 tains is the holy city of Meshed, where thirty thousand 
 pilgrims assemble annually to visit the shrine of the 
 Imaum Reza, and the mausoleum of the khalif of the 
 " Arabian Nights," Haroun el Raschid; and not far off 
 is Nishapur, the old capital of the Seljuk empire in 
 Khorassan. Alp Arslan, the heroic figure of that dynasty, 
 is buried at Merv, separated by a strip of desert from 
 the new Russian frontier. 
 
 From the fertile oasis of Merv, according to one set of 
 military critics, from Khorassan, according to others, a 
 dash might be made at Herat — the "key" of India — 
 by a designing enemy of England ; while a third body 
 of authorities are of opinion that Russia, from her posi- 
 tion on the Oxus and in Bokhara, has for many years 
 been in possession of the best available strategic base 
 for carrying out the scheme, which she is so persist- 
 ingly suspected of entertaining, for invading and con- 
 quering Hindustan. 
 
 To the most Chauvinist of Russian generals, to the 
 most nervous and credulous of Russophobists, the enor- 
 mous difficulties and risks of such an undertaking must 
 be manifest on any attempt to calmly consider the situa- 
 tion. Yet neither obstacles nor a wise regard for the 
 real interests of Russia have hitherto availed to stop the 
 progress of Russian arms in Central Asia, Should a 
 collision take place on this distant frontier between two 
 nations that need only to know each other more thor- 
 oughly in order to be friends and fellow-workers in re- 
 storing these Eastern countries to more than their former 
 prosperity and civilization, it is only necessary to considei 
 the contrast which the rivals present in all that con-
 
 524 A ROCK AHEAD. 
 
 cerns the health and stability of their political, social, 
 and commercial condition to judge which shall be the 
 greater sufferer of the two. While the young Czar has 
 just added to his overgrown dominions several thousand 
 square miles of desert and several thousand head of 
 Turcoman robbers, he dare not show himself outside the 
 palace grounds of Gatchina. A hostile meeting in Asia 
 would be a misfortune to Britain ; it would probably be 
 ruin to the Russian Empire.
 
 nb ex. 
 
 Ainos, 4S2. 
 
 Aleutian Islands, 41S, 424, 476. 
 
 Alexander I., 304, 338, 367. 
 
 Alexander II., 203, 270; murder of, 301, 
 
 307. 
 Alexander III., 315, 524. 
 Alexander of Macedon, 501. 
 Alexander Nevski, 126, 301. 
 Alexis, Czar, 47, 130, 160; Czarevitch, 130, 
 
 305. 
 Alma, 341, 352. 
 Altai Mountains, 429, 489. 
 Amoor, 415, 429, 436, 485. 
 Amu (Oxus), 494, 499, 512. 
 Andrew of Suzdal, 64, 124. 
 Anne Ivanovna (Empress), 298, 31S, 336, 
 
 355, 421. 
 Anne Leopoldovna (Empress), 259. 
 Aral, Sea of, 497, 499. 
 Ararat, 3S0, 392, 398. 
 Archangel, 255, 264. 
 Armenia, 392, 398. 
 Astrakhan, 128, 217. 
 Azov, 336, 355, 367 ; Sea of, 366. 
 
 Baber, 504. 
 
 Baidar, Pass of, 350. 
 
 Baikal, Lake, 429, 434. 
 
 Baktchi-Serai, 335, 341. 
 
 Baku, 377. 
 
 Balaclava, 333, 352. 
 
 Balkash, 488, 498. 
 
 Baltic Provinces, 316 
 
 Barents, 419. 
 
 Barnaul, 413, 431. 
 
 Bashkirs, 242. 
 
 Batoum, 381, 392. 
 
 Baty Khan, 65, 126, 168. 
 
 Behring, 421, 423, 47G; Strait, 423, 427, 476. 
 
 Bessarabia, 338, 355, 364. 
 
 Biarma, 249, 259. 
 
 Bokhara, 509, 517. 
 
 Boris and Gleb, 100, 124. 
 
 Boris Godunoff, 143, 170. 
 
 Bosphorus kingdom, 333, 345. 
 Boyards, 93, 130, 213. 
 Bulgarians of the Volga, 57, 123, 237. 
 Buriats, 429. 
 
 Caspian Sea, 118, 215, 223, 498. 
 Catherine I., 148, 234, 314, 327. 
 Catherine II. (the Great), 82, 168, 220, 290, 
 
 298, 301, 306, 314, 332, 337, 356, 358, 392, 
 
 418. 
 Catholics, 109. 
 Caucasus, 374 ; scenery of, 378, 397 ; races 
 
 of, 380, 388 ; languages of, 381 ; religions 
 
 of, 381 ; passes of, 388. 
 Charles XII. of Sweden, 45, 70, 109, 281, 
 
 288. 
 Chersonesus, 333, 337. 
 China, 225, 428, 433, 436, 441, 492. 
 Christianity introduced, 334. 
 Circassians, 382. 
 Cook, Captain, 424, 472. 
 Cossacks, 51, 71, 118, 221, 337, 356, 368, 370, 
 
 409, 416, 464, 478, 489. 
 Courland, 31S, 320. 
 Crimea, 332; khans of, 12S, 141,335, 337, 
 
 342, 356; scenery of, 339, 343, 347; war 
 
 in, 338, 351. 
 Cronstadt, 288, 290. 
 Cyril and Methodius, 58. 
 
 Daghestan, 374, 385. 
 
 Dariel, Pass of, 385, 388. 
 
 Derbend, 385. 
 
 Deshnef's voyages, 40S, 410, 417. 
 
 Dimitri of the Bon, 128, 155, 168. 
 
 Bimitri, murder of, 145, 169. 
 
 Dnieper, 56, 77. 
 
 Dolguruky, Grand Prince George, 01. 124, 
 
 139, 167. 
 Don, 367. 
 Dorpat, 317, 326. 
 Dwina, 109; northern. 250. 
 
 Ekaterinburg, 235.
 
 526 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Elburz, 374, 390. 
 
 Elizabeth, Empress, 336, 355. 
 
 English in Russia, 222, 262, 265. 
 
 Erivan, 392, 397. 
 
 Esthonia, 320-324. 
 
 Etchmiadzin, 392, 39S. 
 
 Feodore Czar, 385. 
 
 Finland, 279. 
 
 Finn races, 16,120, 125, 243-249, 269, 27S, 320. 
 
 Fires, 29, 142, 432. 
 
 Fire-worshippers, 376, 378. 
 
 Fisheries, sturgeon, 118, 449; seal, 118, 269, 
 
 450; salmon, 449, 486. 
 Forests of Great Russia, 44, 116, 178, 256, 
 
 272 ; of Lithuania, 92 ; of Livonia, 322 ; 
 
 of Siberia, 462. 
 Fur-hunters, 256, 411, 444, 453, 462, 474. 
 
 Gatchina, 315. 
 
 Gedimin, 102. 
 
 Genoese in Crimea, 335, 343, 345. 
 
 Georgia, 3S1, 391, 393. 
 
 German colonies, 117, 184, 393, 397 ; influ- 
 ences of, 319, 330. 
 
 Ghenghiz Khan, 65, 119, 125, 410, 412, 492, 
 503. 
 
 Gipsies, 365. 
 
 Gokteha lake, 397. 
 
 Golden Horde, 65, 104, 123, 126, 128, 141, 
 219. 
 
 Goths, 334, 343. 
 
 Gouria, 381, 392. 
 
 Greek colonies, 333. 
 
 Greig, Admiral, 329, 361. 
 
 Grodno, 106. 
 
 Howard, John, 359. 
 Huns, 15, 243, 334, 372. 
 Hunting bear and urus, 108; wolf, 204; 
 reindeer, 454; walrus, 420, 450; sable, 453. 
 
 Imeritia, 381, 392. 
 Inkerman, 333, 352. 
 Irkutsk, 405, 432. 
 
 Ivan III. (the "Binder"), 38, 127, 238. 
 Ivan IV. (the " Terrible "), 38, 128, 130, 142, 
 140, 153, 104, 222, 238, 263, 270, 385, 411. 
 Ivan VI., 306. 
 
 Jagellons, 81, 103. 
 
 Jaroslav, Grand Prince, 62, 109, 326; town 
 and province, 169. 
 
 Jeannelte expedition, 475. 
 
 Jews in Little Russia, 74; in Poland, 95; 
 persecutions of, 98 ; in Baltic provinces, 
 320; in Crimea, 339, 341; of Odessa, 365. 
 
 Kabwlians, 38S. 
 
 Kaffa (Theodosia), 341, 345. 
 
 Kainardji Treaty, 337. 
 
 Kalmuks, 222-22S, 372, 438, 490. 
 
 Kaluga, 189. 
 
 Kama river, 112, 233, 236, 245. 
 
 Kamschatka, 416, 422, 477. 
 
 Kara Sea, 426. 
 
 Kars, 392, 396. 
 
 Kaufmann, General, 490, 510. 
 
 Kazan, 116, 123, 236. 
 
 Kazbek, 374, 390, 395. 
 
 Kertch, 333, 345. 
 
 Kharkov, 72. 
 
 Khazars, 57, 123, 334. 
 
 Kherson, 337, 357. 
 
 Khiva, 503, 506, 519. 
 
 Khokand, 490, 504, 508, 510, 514. 
 
 Kholmogory, 259. 
 
 Kiachta, 434. 
 
 Kiev, 52, 59 ; history, 61 ; catacombs, 66. 
 
 Kipchak, 65, 128, 409, 492. 
 
 Kirghiz, 225, 229, 414, 48S, 491, 507, 514. 
 
 Kishenef, 357, 364. 
 
 Kolima river, 409, 415. 
 
 Kosciusko, 83. 
 
 Kostroma, 171. 
 
 Kovno, 106. 
 
 Krasnojarsk, 405, 414, 432. 
 
 Kuban river, 371, 374. 
 
 Kuldja, or Hi, 225, 429, 43S, 489. 
 
 Kur river, 390, 393. 
 
 Kurile Islands, 423, 481. 
 
 Kutais, 375. 
 
 Ladoga, Lake, 285. 
 Lapland, 262, 271, 275. 
 Lazes, 381. 
 Lena river, 415, 449. 
 Lesghians, 382, 385. 
 Letts, 320, 323. 
 Lithuania, 89, 92. 
 Lithuanians, 58, 09, 99, 320. 
 Livadia Palace, 349. 
 Livonia, 320. 
 
 Mammoth ivory, 425, 451. 
 
 Mazeppa, 72. 
 
 Menchikof, 71, 414. 
 
 Merv, 498, 523. 
 
 Miloradovitch, 302, 306. 
 
 Mines, 234, 339, 403, 431. 
 
 Mingrelia, 381, 392. 
 
 Minin and Pojarsky, 153, 170, 170. 
 
 Minsk, 108. 
 
 Mirdism, 386. 
 
 Mithridates, 333, 345. 
 
 Mittau, 318. 
 
 Moghilev, 109. 
 
 Mohammedanism, 120, 240, 331, 340, 3S1, 
 
 384, 502, 515. 
 Mongol invasion, 65, 125. 
 Mordvins, 120, 1S3, 397. 
 Moscow, 17, 124, 134; views of, 130; Krem-
 
 INDEX. 
 
 527 
 
 lin, 139 ; churches and bells of, 143 ; 
 
 palaces of, 145 ; citizens of, 156. 
 Mosquitoes, 267. 
 Mstislaf the " Brave," 33, 46. 
 Mtzkhet, 390, 396. 
 Munich, 336, 338. 
 Murom, 177. 
 
 Muscovy, Grand Dukes of, 127. 
 Myths and superstitions, 12, 31, 100, 245, 
 
 274, 277, 325, 464. 
 
 Nakhchevan, 392, 397. 
 
 Napoleon's invasion, 45, 47, 83, 105, 142, 
 189. 
 
 Narva, 316, 327. 
 
 Neva, 286, 291, 310, 313. 
 
 New Siberia Islands, 425, 452. 
 
 Nicolaiev, 357, 360. 
 
 Nicolas, Emperor, 86, 306, 314, 392, 506. 
 
 Nicon, 159. 
 
 Nihilists, 53, 157, 194, 252, 307, 403. 
 
 Nishni-Novgorod, 125, 172 ; fair of, 114, 175. 
 
 Nogai Tartars, 335. 
 
 Nordenskiold, 273, 401, 426, 447, 463, 472. 
 
 North-East Passage, 14, 262, 419, 426. 
 
 Novaya Zemlia, 38, 232, 419, 425, 446. 
 
 Novgorod, province of, 26 ; city and repub- 
 lic of, 27, 32, 36; fall of, 38; "Good 
 Companions " of, 37, 250, 261, 276. 
 
 Novo-Tcherkask, 369. 
 
 Obi river, 233, 411. 
 
 Odessa, 338, 357, 362. 
 
 Oka river, 112. 
 
 Okotsk, 415, 423. 
 
 Oleg, 59, 61, 70. 
 
 Olga, Princess, 40, 61. 
 
 Olgerd, 103, 141, 335. 
 
 Orenburg, 229. 
 
 Orloff, Prince Gregory, 301. 
 
 Orthodox Church, 16, 55, 5S, 91, 100, 209 - 
 
 212, 241. 
 Ossets, 38S. 
 Ostiaks, 461. 
 Otchakov, 357, 360. 
 Other's voyage, 250, 259. 
 
 Pacific Ocean, 415, 422. 
 
 Panslavism, 53, 312. 
 
 Paul, Emperor, 359; murder of, 301, 300. 
 
 Peasant life and customs, 29, 41, 54, 8S, 93, 
 
 98, 17S, 106-209, 241, 269, 323. 
 Peipus, Lake, 41, 317, 325. 
 Perecop, 336, 338. 
 Perm, 234, 243, 251. 
 Persia, 392, 522. 
 Perun, 26, 31, 01, 100. 
 Petchora river. 275. 
 Peter the Great, 17, 130, 132, 14S, 15), 1SS, 
 
 190, 221, 264, 270, 336, 3S5, 423, 433, 506 ; 
 
 wars with Sweden, 45, 70, 109, 284, 288, 
 
 327; founds St. Petersburg, 2-0; cottage 
 
 of, 2S9; death of, 290; tomb of, 305; 
 
 statue of, 294. 
 Peterhof, 314. 
 Peter III., 120, 300, 314. 
 Petropaulovsk, 177. 
 Podolia, 73. 
 
 Poland, 79, S7; partitions of, S2. 
 Polar Sea. 254, 420, 425, 452. 
 Poles, 68, 73, 82, SS; insurrections of, 73, 
 
 84, 252. 
 Polotsk, 110. 
 Polovtsi, 64, 65, 334. 
 Poltava, 70, 104. 
 Popoff, Admiral, 360. 
 Poteinkin. Prince, 301, 332, 337, 358, 389. 
 Poti, 375. 
 Prester John, 492. 
 Protestantism, 91, 2S0, 326. 
 Pskov, 40. 
 
 Pushkin, Alexander, 41, 342. 
 Putrid Sea, 339, 366. 
 
 Railways and canals, 28, 110, 112, 230. 
 
 Reval, 317, 327. 
 
 Piazan, 185. 
 
 Richelieu, Duke de, 362. 
 
 Riga, 318, 319, 329. 
 
 Rion (Phasis), 375, 379, 390. 
 
 Romanoffs, 81, 130, 154, 170. 
 
 Rostov, Old, 165; port of, 357, 367. 
 
 Ruric, 28, 34, 57, 261. 
 
 Russia, growth of, 10, 123, 129, 410, 506; 
 races of, 18, 241 ; scenery of, 19, 28; phy- 
 sical features of, 20 ; climate of, 22, 50, 
 256,343, 444; millennium of, 33; Little 
 Russia, 50 ; " White " and " Plack " Rus- 
 sia, 90; Great Russia, 190; education in, 
 192; travelling in, 196, 373; machinery 
 of government of, 23, 296 ; future of, 24, 
 313, 523. 
 
 Sagalien, 404, 484. 
 
 Samarcand, 501, 504, 515. 
 
 Samoyedes, 244, 273, 461. 
 
 Sarai, 123, 125. 
 
 Schamyl, 385, 387. 
 
 Schismatics, 161, 185, 252, 369, 415, 436. 
 
 Sehliisselburg, 286, 306. 
 
 Scobeleff, General, 51". 
 
 Scythians, 56. 
 
 Serfs, 29, 93, 131 : emancipation of, 33, 202. 
 
 Sevastopol, 337, 351. 
 
 Shamanism, 465. 
 
 Shirvan, 378. 
 
 Siberia, 11, 399; society in, 403, 10 
 
 exiles in, 400, 400 ; mines of, 403, 431 ; 
 
 conquest of, 407, 429; climate of, lit, 
 
 456, 469, 472. 
 Simpheropol, 341. 
 Sir river, 193
 
 528 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Slav race, 15, 22, 26, 34, 52, 56, 121, 255. 
 
 Smolensk, 44 ; sieges of, 46, 81. 
 
 Sobieski, John, 82. 
 
 Solovetsk, 261, 269. 
 
 Stephen of Perm, 114, 243, 251. 
 
 Steppes, 51, 117, 217, 222, 339, 372. 
 
 St. Petersburg, 17; site of, 2S6; founding 
 of, 257; general aspect of, 292; quays 
 and bridges of, 293; churches of, 294- 
 304 ; palaces of, 298 ; monasteries of, 301 ; 
 bazaars of, 308 ; Nevski Prospect, 309 ; 
 winter aspect of, 310 ; the future of, 312. 
 
 Streltsi, 141, 146, 153, 162. 
 
 Stroganof family, 411. 
 
 Suanes, 381. 
 
 Suvarorf, 83, 302, 332, 337, 362. 
 
 Suzdal, 64, 124, 167. 
 
 Swedes in Puissia, 70, 109, 2S1, 320. 
 
 Sword-Bearers, 102, 325. 
 
 Taganrog, 336, 357, 367. 
 
 Tamerlane, 128, 503, 515. 
 
 Tartars, 13, 64, 117, 120, 174, 183, 230, 240, 
 
 501, 519 ; in Crimea, 321, 340, 346. 
 Tashkend, 490, 511. 
 Tchelyuskin, Cape, 422, 427, 447. 
 Tcherimis, 120, 248. 
 Tchernaieff, General, 509. 
 Tchernigov, 69. 
 Tcherno-sem (Black Earth districts), 54, 
 
 1S3, 202, 402. 
 Tchuktchis, 455, 471. 
 Tchuvashs, 120, 183, 24-:. 
 Teutonic Knights, 40, 102, 104, 326, 330. 
 Tianshan, 491. 
 Tiflis, 381, 388, 391, 393. 
 Tobolsk, 413. 
 Tokhtamish, 141. 
 Tomsk, 413. 
 Town life, 191. 
 Troitsa monastery, 162. 
 Tsarsko'i-Selo, 314. 
 Tula, 187. 
 
 Tundra lands, 254, 275, 400, 443, 409. 
 Tungus, 430, 455, 467. 
 Turan khanate, 409, 412. 
 Turcomans, 496, 505, 521. 
 
 Turkestan, 217, 4S8, 494; history of, 500; 
 
 races of, 518 ; city of, 493, 514. 
 Turkey, wars with, 337, 355, 365, 392. 
 Tver, 43. 
 
 Ukraine, 51, 73. 
 Ural Mountains, 231. 
 
 Valdai Hills, 25, 39. 
 
 Vassili the Blind, 46, 1S5. 
 
 Venetians, 335, 345. 
 
 Viatka, 37, 247, 250. 
 
 Vilna, 104. 
 
 Vistula, 85. 
 
 Vitebsk, 109. 
 
 Vladikavkas, 389. 
 
 Vladimir, Grand Prince, 35, 61, 166, 334 ; 
 
 town and province of, 167. 
 Vladivostock, 485. 
 Voghuls, 244, 462. 
 Volga, 111, 216. 
 Volhynia, 73. 
 Volkhov, 27. 
 Vologda, 257. 
 Voronej, 190, 336, 355. 
 Vorontzof, Prince, 350, .",03. 
 Votiaks, 24S. 
 
 Warsaw, 79, 85. 
 
 White Lake, 160, 165, 261. 
 
 White Sea, 131, 268. 
 
 Willoughby's voyage, 262. 
 
 Witout, 104. 
 
 Wrangell, Baron, 425, 454, 458, 46S. 
 
 Wrangell Land, 474. 
 
 Yablonnoi Mountains, 430. 
 Yakoob Beg, 439, 491, 508. 
 Yakuts, 444, 458. 
 Yakutsk, 415, 448. 
 Yalta, 349. 
 
 Yenesei river, 414, 429, 447. 
 Yeneseisk, 414. 
 Yermak, 411, 413. 
 
 Zerafshan river, 497, 515. 
 Zyranians, 256.
 
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