ii >>t M !' 1 K ni {) I iiiiii i|iii:H!lli 1 ! l-,,i fil iiltli EUBIK. Thi History of Russia From the Karliest Times to 1877 BY ALFRED RAMBAUD TRANSLATED BY LEONORA B. LANG ilibrarv coition Complete in Two Volumes Volume I NEW YORK: Thf. Pttrt.tshrrs Plati', Rent INC, Co, °^/5T]oo70 v,/ PREFACE. This Translation of M. Alfred Rambaud's "Historie de la Rus- sie" (Paris, 1878) contains a number of emendations by the Au- thor. M. Rambaud has also written many additional pages : on Russian ethnography ; on the Esthonian Epic ; on the early rela- tions of England and Russia ; and on the Emperor Paul's project of attacking England in India. The Translator has to express a grateful sense of M. Rambaud's constant and courteous aid. In whatever is hasty or inaccurate in these volumes, he has no share. The Translator has compiled Genealogical Tables, of which M. Rambaud has approved. The French book has no index, and an attempt has been made to supply this deficiency. The Translator regrets that, by a too close following of the French spelling of the ancient tribal names, new varieties have been introduced, where variety was already too plentiful and confusing. There seem, for example, to be about thirteen ways of spelling " Patzinak." A list of some of these names as here printed, and of the forms used by Dr. Latham ("Russian and Turk," London, 1878), is subjoined: Dr. Latham. Tchouvach - - - Tshuvash. Tcheremiss - - Tsherimis. Mordvians . - - Mordvins (otherwise Mordwa). Tchoud - - - Tshud. Dregovitch - - - Dragovitsae, Dregoviczi. Polovtsi - - - Polovcszi. latvegues - - - Yatshvings. Pat.-.inaks - - - Petshinegs. Zaporogues - - - Zaporogs. CONTENTS, VOL. I. THE BEGINNINGS OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIA. Eastern and Western Europe compared : seas, mountains, climate — The four zones — Russian rivers and history — Geographical unity of Russia, .__.--- 13-33 CHAPTER II. ETHNOGRAPHY OF RUSSIA. Greek colonies and the Scythia of Herodotus — The Russian Slavs of Nestor — Lithuanian, Finnish, and Turkisli hordes in the 9tli cent- luy — Division of the Russians proper into three branches — How Russia was colonized, ..... 24-87 CHAPTER III. PRIMITIVE RUSSIA : THE SLAVS. Religion of the Slavs — Funeral rites — Domestit; and poHtical cus- toms : the family, the nur or commune, the uoZo.s^ t r canton, the tribe — Cities — Industry — Agricnilture, - - . 38-44 CHAPTER IV. THE VARANGIANS : FORMATION OF RUSSIA ; THE FIRST EXPEDITIONS AGAINST COXSTANTINOPI-E, 802-972. The Northmen of Russia — Origin and customs of the Varangians — The first Russian princes : Rurik, Oleg, Igor — Expeditions agamst Constantinople • — Olga — Christianity in Russia — Sviatoslaf — The Danube disputed between the Russians and Greeks, 45-57 PRINCELY RUSSIA. CHAPTER V. THE CLOVIS AND CHARLEMAGNE OF THE RUSSIANS : SAINT VLADIMIR AND lAROSLAF THE GREAT, 972-1054. Vladimir (972-1015) — Conversion of the Russians — laroslaf tlie Great (1010-1054) — Union of Russia — Si)leud()r of Kief — Varan- gian-Russian society at the time of laroslaf — Progress of Chris- tianity — Social, political, literary, and artistic results, - 58-71 viii. CONTENTS. CHAPTER VI. RUSSIA DIVIDED INTO PRINCIPALITIES — SUPREMACY AND FALL OF KIEF, 1054-1169. Distribution of Russia into principalities — Unity in division — The successors of laroslaf the Great — Wars about the riglit of head- ship of the royal family, and the throne of Kief — Vladimir Mon- omachus — Wars between the heirs of Vladimir Monomachus — Fall of Kief, 72-«3 CHAPTER VII. RUSSIA AFTER THE FALL OF KIEF — POWER OF SOUZDAL AND GALLICIA, 1169-1224. Andrew Bogolioubski of Souzdal (1157-1174), and the first attempt at autocracy — George II. (1213-1338) — Wars with Novgorod — Bat- tle of Lipetsk (1316) — Foundation of Nijni-Novgorod (1330) — Roman (1188-1305) and his son Daniel (1305-1364, in Gallicia, 84-94 CHAPTER VIII. THE RUSSIAN REPUBLICS : NOVGOROD, PSKOF, AND VIATKA, UP TO 1334. Novgorod the Great — Her struggles with the princes — Novgorodian institutions — Commerce — National Church — Literature — Pskof andViatka, 95-106 THE INVASIONS FROM THE 13th TO THE 14th CENTURY. CHAPTER IX. THE LIVONIAN KNIGHTS : CONQUEST OF THE BALTIC PROVINCES BY THE GERMANS. Conversion of Livonia — Rise of the Livonian knights : union with the Teutonic knights, ----- 106-111 CHAPTER X. THE TATAR MONGOLS : ENSLAVEMENT OF RUSSIA. Origin and manners of the Mongols — Battles of the Kalka, of Ria- zan, of Kolomna, and of the Sit — Conquest of Russia — Alexan- der Nevski — The Mongol yoke — Influence of the Tatars on the Russian development, ----- 113-139 CHAPTER XI. THE LITHUANIANS : CONQUEST OF WESTERN RUSSIA (1340-1430). Tlie Litluianians — Conquests of Mindvog (1340-1363), of Gedimin (1315-1340), and of Olgerd (1345-1377) — JageUon — Union of Li- thuania with Poland (1386) — The Grand Prince Vitovt (1393-1430) — Battles of the VorsUa (1399) and of Tannenberg (1410), 130-137 CONTENTS. ix. MUSCOVITE RUSSIA. CHAPTER XII. THE GRAND PRINCES OF MOSCOAV : ORGANIZATION OF EASTERN RUSSIA (1303-1462). Origin of Moscow — Daniel — George Danielovitch (1303-1325) and Ivan Kalita (1328-1341) — Contest with thehouseof Tver — Simeon the Proud and Ivan the Debonnaire (1341 — 1359) — Dmitri Dons- koi (1363-1389) — Battle of Koulikovo — Vassili Dmitrievitch and Vassili the BUnd (1389-1462), - - - - 138-160 CHAPTER XIII. IVAN THE GREAT, THE UNITER OF THE RUSSIAN LAND (1462-1505). Submission of Novgorod — Annexation of Tver, Rostof , and laro- slavl — Wars with the Great Horde and Kazan — End of the Tatar yoke — Wais with Lithuania — Western Russia as far as the Soja reconquered — Marriage with Sophia Palaeologus — Greeks and Itahans at the Court of Moscow, . - - - 161-174 CHAPTER XIV. VASSILI IVANOVITCH (1505-1533). Annexation of Pskof , Riazan, and Novgorod-Severski — Wars with Lithuania — Acquisition of Smolensk — Wars with the Tatars — Diplomatic relations with Europe, ... 175-181 CHAPTER XV. IVAN THE TERRIBLE (1533-1584). Minority of Ivan IV. — He takes the title of Tzar (1547) — Conquest of Kazan (1552) and of Astrakhan (1554) — Contests with the Li- vonian Order, Poland, the Tatars, Sweden, and the Russian aris- tocracy — The English in Russia — Conquest of Siberia, 182-208 CHAPTER XVI. MUSCOVITE RUSSIA AND THE RENAISSANCE. The Muscovite government — The kin and the men of the Tzar — The i^rikazes — Rural classes — Citizens — Commerce — Domestic slavery — Seclusion of women — The Renaissance : Literature, popular songs, and cathedrals — Moscow in the 16th centvury, 209-230 CHAPTER XVII. THE SUCCESSORS OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE : FEODOR IVANOVITCH AND BORIS GODOUNOF (1584-1605). Feodor Ivanovitch (1584-1598) — The peasant attached to the glebe — The patriarchate — Boris Godounof (1598-1605) — Appearance of the false Dmitri, 231-241 X. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE TIME OF THE TROUBLES (1605-1613). Murder of the false Dmitri — Vassili Chouiski — The brigand of Touchino — Vladislas of Poland — The Poles at the Kremlin — National rising — Minme and Pojarski — Election of Michael Ro- manof, 242-253 CHAPTER XIX. THE ROMANOFS: MICHAEL FEODOROVITCH AND THE PATRIARCH PHILARETE (1613-1645). Restorative measures — End of the Polish war — Relations with Eu- rope — The States-general, .... 254-262 CHAPTER XX. WESTERN RUSSIA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. The political union of Lublin (1509), and the religious Union (1595) — Complaints of White Russia — Risings in Little Russia, 263-271 CHAPTER XXI. ALEXIS MIKHAILOVITCH (1645-1676) AND HIS SON FEODOR. Early years of Alexis — Seditions — Khmelnitskl — Conquest of Smolensk and the Eastern Ukraine — Stenko Razine — Ecclesiasti- cal reforms of Nicon — The precursors of Peter the Great — Reign of Feodor Alexievitch (1676-1582), - - - 272-290 CHAPTER XXIL PETER THE GREAT ■. EARLY YEARS (1682-1709). Regency of Sophia (1682-1689) — Peter I. — Expeditions against Azof (1695-1696) — First journey to the West (1697) — Revolt and destruction of the streltsi — Contest with the Cossacks: revolt of the Don (1706); Mazeppa (1709), - . - 291-309 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIA. Eastern and Western Europe compared : seas, mountains, climate— The four zones — Russian rivers and history— Geograpliical unity of Russia. EASTERN AND WESTERN EUROPE COMPARED : SEAS, MOUNTAINS, CLIMATE. Europe may be roughly divided into two unequal parts. If we give 4,000,000 square miles to the whole of Europe, only 1,800,- 000 belong to the western, 2,200,000 to the eastern part. The former division is shared between all the monarchies and repulv lies of Europe, Russia excepted; the latter is united under the Russian sceptre. Nature, not less than policy or_ religion, has established a strong opposition between the two regions, between Eastern and Western Europe. The shores of the latter are everywhere broken up by inland seas, pierced by deep gulfs, jagged with peninsulas, isthmuses, capes, and promontories; islands and crowded archipelagos are thickly sprinkled along the coasts. Great Britain and the Greek peninsula particularly, which have a coast-line out of all propor- tion to their area, contrast with the impenetrable compact mass of Eastern Europe. This strongly-marked outline of the western lands is the characteristic feature of European geography, while the immense spaces of which Russia is composed seem the con- tinuation of the plains and plateaux of Northern and Central Asia. No doubt Russia is washed by many seas : in the north by the Icy Ocean, which bites deep into the country through the great fissure of the White Sea ; in the south by the Caspian, the 1 4 HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA. Sea of Azof, and the Black Sea ; in the north-west by the Baltic and the gulfs of Bothnia, Finland, and Livonia ; but, wiih all these seas, it has only a comparatively meagre share of sea- board. While the rest of Europe has about 15,525 miles of coast, Russia, with a much more considerable surface, possesses onlv 5514 miles of coast; and of this nearly half (2680 miles) belongs to the lev Ocean and the White Sea. Now, these two seas are only navigable during a few months of the year, from June to September, at furthest. The Baltic, in its two most northern gulfs, freezes easily; armies have been able to cross on the ice, with all their artillery supplies ; navigation is stopped from the month of November to the end of April. The Caspian often freezes, especially in its northern half, which includes Astrakhan, its most flourishing port. The Sea of Azof, here and there, is little better than a marsh. It may be said that, with the exception of the Euxine, the Russian seas have an anti-European character; they cannot be of the same use as our western seas. From this point of view Russia is worse endowed by nature than any other European country ; compared with the privileged lands of the West, she might be styled conthiental Europe, in opposition to mari/ivie Europe. Western Europe, so jagged in its contour, is no less broken in its surface. Without speaking of the vast central mass of the Alps, there is not one European land which does not possess, either in its length or breadth, a great mountain system forming the scaffolding or the backbone of the country. England has her chain of the Peak and her Highlands ; France has her Cevennes and her central support in Auvergne ; Spain her Pyrenees and the Sierras; Italy her Apennines; Germany her ranges in Suabia, Franconia, and the Hartz ; Sweden her Scan- dinavian Alps ; the Greco-Slav peninsula has the Balkan and Pindus. What mountains Russia possesses on the other hand, are banished, as it were, to the extremities of her territory. She is bounded on the north-west bv the granitic svstem of Finland, on the south-ea^ by the branches of the Carpathians, to the south by the rocky plateaux of the Crimea with the Yalia and Tchardyr-Dagh (5183 feet), by the Caucasus, extending over 687 miles, where Elburz (18,000 feet) surpasses by more than 2000 feet the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc. To the east is the Oural range, the longest chain of mountains (1531 miles) in Europe or Asia, running parallel to the meridians of longitude, with peaks 6233 feet high. In the Tatar language, the word Oural signifies girdle, but it is not only the Ourals which may be called the mountain girdle ; all the mountains of Russia deserve this name. They bound her, they confine her, but have only a blight influence on the configuration of her mterior and the dis- HTSTORY OF RUSSIA. 15 tribLition of her waters. From the Carpathians and the Cauca- sus only secondary rivers flow, while the four great Russian streams take their rise in hills not 300 feet high.* \\'e must ob- serve also that none of these great mountains form a seijarate system ; they are nearly all fragments of systems belonging to other countries. The empire of the Tzars is thus a huge plain, which is continued on the west by the level lands of Poland and Prussia, and on the east by the limitless steppes of Siberia and Turkestan, and is in striking contrast with the rugged and multi- form soil of the west. From this point of view, Russia may be defined as the Europe of plains, in opposition to the Europe of mountains. Uniformity of surface is never quite complete, and Russia does present inequalities of soil, though these are far less notable than the depressions and elevations of the ^^'est. In the faintly- marked soil of Russia, we must notice, in the centre of the country, a kind of square table-land, called the central plateau, or the plateau of Alaoune, from the name of its northern part. The north-eastern angle is formed by the heights of the Valdai plateau, where the hills are 300 feet- high ; the western side of the central plateau by the small hills of the Dnieper, which ex- tend as far as the GrArrrtt-Zx/ the southern side by the heights which reach from Koursk to Saratof ; the eastern side by the sandy stretches which extend along the right bank of the Volga and the Kama ; the northern side by the undulations of the land which separate the basin of the Volga from the rivers that drain into the Icy Ocean. The central plateau is besides divided into two unequal parts by the deep valleys of the Upper Volga, of the Oka, and their tributaries. Considerable depressions correspond to this swelling in the centre of the Russian plateau : — i. Between the plateau of the Valdai and the north-east slope of the Carpathians lies a deep valley, in which during the quaternary age the Baltic and Euxine mingled their waves. It is traversed on the north bv the southern Diina or Dwina, and the Niemen ; on the south by the Dnieper, and its affluents ; it reaches its lowest level in the wide marshes of Pinsk. 2. Between the low rocks on the right bank of the Volga and the spurs of the Oural (obc/ifc/iiisirt), the soil gradu- ally sinks throughout the whole length of the Volga, and reaches the level of the sea at the Caspian, which is 80 feet lower than the Black Sea : here are the steppes of Kirghiz, the lowest part of European Russia, formerly the bed of a great inland mere which was gradually dried up, and of which the Caspian, the Lake of Aral, and other sheets of water are only the remains. ♦ HOC feet above the level of the sea. l6 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. If the Caspian could only regain the level of the Black Sea, a large part of this sterile plain, now covered with saline efflores- cence, would be inundated anew. 3. The third great depression of the Russian soil is the slope of the north, covered with lalas of the peasants. Russian villages, and most of the towns, are a collection of combustible materials : hence the fires which break out periodically, and justify the saying that Russia, as a rule, was burned every seven years. Ijiiildings of such materials cannot assume the colossal propor- tions of the castles of the Isle de France, or of the Rhenish cathedrals ; the old churches of Russia are small. It is only since the conquest of the Baltic and the Black Sea that the em- ])ire has had cities of stone. Peter the Great gave Russia her first stone capital. From the geological point of view, then, Russia may be defined, according to the expression of M. Solo- vief, as the Europe of woody in opposition to the Europe 0/ stone. l8 HIS TOR Y OF K l/SS/A. RUSSIAN RIVERS AND HISTORY. In a country so extensive and so destitute of seaboard as Russia, rivers have an immense importance, and with rivers Eastern Europe is well endowed. It is her watercourses which prevent Russia from being a continent closed and sealed, like Africa or Australia. In place of arms of the sea, she has great rivers which penetrate to her centre, and have sometimes almost the proportions of seas. In the level plains they have not the impetuous current of the Rhone, they flow peacefully through great beds cut in the sand or clay. The rivers were for a long while the only means of communication. When the Russian princes Vv^ished to make a progress through their dominions, or begin a campaign, they had either to take advantage of winter, which from the Dnieper to the Oural gave them a flat surface for their sledges, or await the thaw and follow the course of the rivers. Boats in summer, sledges in winter, were the only means of conveyance ; in spring, the thaw and floods, which transformed the plain into a marsh, brought the raspoutitsa (the season of bad roads). Commerce followed the same routes as war or government. The rivers which, in Russia especially, are " the roads that run," explain the rapidity with which we see the characters of Russian history traverse immense spaces, and go as easily from Novgorod to Kief, from Moscow to Kazan, as a French king from his good city of Paris to Rheims or Or- leans. Tiie rivers are the allies of the Russians against what they call " their great enemy " — space. Russian conquest or colonization has evervwhere followed the course of the waters ; it was on the banks of the Oka, the Kama, the Don, and the Volga, that the Russian element of the population chiefly gathered, the aboriginal races everywhere retreating into the thickness of the primitive forests. The plateau of Valdai is the dominant point in the river-sys- tem of Russia. It is near this plateau, in the lake Volgo, that the Volga, w'hich ultimately falls into the Caspian, takes its rise. In this neighborhood also are the sources of the Dnieper (flowing to the Black Sea), the Niemen, the Dwina, which falls into the Baltic, the Velikaia, a tributary of the Peipus, the rivers forming lake Ilmen, and those which feed the lakes Ladoga and Onega, w'hence rises the Neva. The hydrographic centre of Russia being at the north-west angle of the central plateau, it follows that the slopes are turned to the south and to the east ; a disposition which has had its influence on the development of the national history. This history, indeed, begins in the north- west, near the VaUlai" plateau ; on the Peipus and the Ilmen the old commercial cities of Pskof and Novgorod are established. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. J9 What is their opening to the sea ? Not the Narova, which falls out of lake Peipus, and of which the course is broken by cata- racts, but the network of rivers and lakes which terminates in the Neva, the Thames of Russia, a river of little length but im- mense breadth, on which St. Petersburg, the Novgorod of the i8th century, w^as afterwards to be built. In primitive times Novgorod was safer in the centre of this network of rivers and lakes than she would have been on the Neva. By the VoJkhof her vessels sailed from the Ilmen to the Ladoga, and by the Neva from the Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland, and the great Baltic Sea. Other small rivers put her in communication with the lake Onega and the White Lake (Bie'loe-Ozero) ; by the Soukhona and the northern Dwina she had relations with the White Sea, where later the port of Arkhangel arose. By the tributaries of the Dwina the Novgorod explorers penetrated deep into the northern forests, peopled by aboriginal races, on whom they imposed tribute. The watersheds between the slope to the ^Vhite Sea, the basin of the Novgorod lakes, and the basin of the Volga, are scarcely marked at all. The rivers seem to hesitate at their rise between two opposite courses : some of them never make up their minds, lilZ Khazars, the shores of the Sea of Azof and of the Caspian, while tlie Finns of Esthonia lield the Lithuanians in check. The Turkish races, on the contrary, made their appearance much later in Russia. In the glh century the Lower Volga and I he Lower Oural began to fall a prey to the Patzinaks, incor- rigible brigands who marched over the bodies of the Khazars to establish themselves on the Lower Dnieper. After them ap- peared the Polovtsi or Koumans, the Ouzes or Torques. The invasion of the Tatars was more Turkish than Mongolian. The nomads vanished or, according to Nestor, were absorbed by new arrivals, namely the Nogais, formed in the 13th century of the remnants of the Polovtsi, and of the Turko-Kanglis, at present numbering 50,000; the Kirghis, who entered Europe about 1721, and to-day amount to about 82,000 souls ; the Kalmucks, wiio are Mongols not Turks, belong to the (Eleutes or Western Mongols, invaders of Russia in 1636, number 87,000 in the provinces of Astrakhan, Stavropol, and the Don, and in spite of the efforts of Christians and Mussulmans have remained La- maists. As to the Tatars, properly so called, or sedentary Turks (more or less a mixture of Finnish and Mongol elements), who inhabit the governments of the Volga, Kazan, and Astrakhan, as well as those of Stavropol and the Crimea, they number altogether about 1,420,000 heads. DIVISION OF THE RUSSIANS OF TO-DAY INTO THREE BRANCHES — HOW RUSSIA WAS COLONIZED. In the time of Nestor (end of the nth century), the Russian Slavs confined between the Lithuanians on the west, the Finns on the north, and the Turks on the east, hardly occupied one- fifth part of Russia in Europe. To-day we see the Russian race extend from Finland to the Oural, from the Icy Ocean to the Caucasus and Crimea, amounting to 56,000,000 men, be- sides 3.000,000 colonists in the Asiatic provinces. The Letto- Lilhuanians on the contrary are reduced to 2,420,000 souls; the Finns, including the inhabitants of Finland, to less than 4.000,000 ; and the Turko-Tatars to less than 2,000,000. The Russians form six-sevenths of the population of Russia. The proportions are more than reversed. What a change has been wrought in ten centuries ! The present Russians may be divided into three branches, deriving their names from certain historical circumstances, i. Tlie name of White Russia is given to the provinces conquered from the 13th to the 14th century by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. These were the ancient territories of the Krivitches, Polotchans, Dregovitches, 34. /riSTORY OF RUSSIA Drevlians, Doulebes, now forming the governments of Vitepsk, Mohilef, and Minsk. The governments of Kovno, Grodno and Wilna, at present unequally Russicized, were originally Lithu- anian. The Lithuanian territories of Grodno, Novogrodek and Belostok were sometimes called Black J^iissia. 2. Little Russia includes the country of the ancient Severians and Polians in- creased by colonies; that is, the governments of Kief, Tcher- nigof, Pultowa, Kharkof, Volhynia, and Podolia. It even ex- tends beyond the frontiers of the empire into Jicd Hassia or Old Gallicia (Galitch, laroslavl, Terebovl, Zvenigorod, Lemberg, or Lvof), belonging to Austria, and peopled by 3,000,000 ot Ruthenians or Russians. 3. Great /•Russia grouped around the ancient Muscovy, and occupying the place lield in the gth cen- tury by many Turkish or Finnish tribes. To Great Russia be- long Northern Russia (Arkhangel), Eastern Russia (the Volga, Kazan, Astrakhan), and New Russia or South Russia (Cherson, Ekaterinoslaf, Kharkof, Odessa, the Crimea). Great Russia as a whole, apart from Novgorod and Pskof, was won from foreign races by Russian colonization. It was a colony of Kievian Russia, and, though for a time subjugated by the Tatars, was able to shake off their yoke, while Kief still remained a Lithu- anian province. It continued to extend its conquests in the East ; then turning to the West in the 17th and i8th centuries, was able to recover White Russia and Little Russia. In the empire the White Russians number 3,000,000, the Little Russians 12,000,000, and the Great Russians 41,000,000. There are dialectical differences between the idioms of these three families, which historical and literary influences easily ex- plain. Some writers have been anxious to establish the existence of a profound difference between Great Russia and her two neighbors. They have reserved the name of Russians and the character of Slavs for the White Russians and the Little Russians, and have pretended to see in the " Muscovites " nothing but descendants of Finns, Turks and Tatars, in a word Turanians, Russian only in language. The Muscovite Empire, founded in the midst of Vesses, of Mouromians, and of Merians, extended at tlie expense of the Tchouvaches, the Mordvians, Tatars and Kirghiz, with its two capitals Moscow and St. Petersburg in the Tchoudic region, is not, if these writers are to be trusted, even a European state. A more careful study shows us that Muscovy was formed in the first place by the migrations of Russian col- onists, in the second place by the assimilation of certain foreign races, i. When the steppes of the south became the prey of Asiatic nomads, tlie Russian population flowed back in a vast wave, from the banks of the Dnieper to the Upper and Middle Volga. We see the princes of Souzdal calling to their aid the MIS TORY OF RUSSIA. 35 inhabitants of the banks of the Dnieper, while in the forests of the north new cities are constantly founded by the people of Novgorod. The Russia of Kief once destroyed, a new Russia begins to form itself, almost out of the same elements, at the opposite extremity of the Oriental plain. Tiie names given to the new towns of Souzdal and Muscovy must be noticed. There is a Vladimir on the Kliazma as there is a Vladimir in Volhynia, a Zvenigorod on the Lloskowa as on the Dniester, a Galitch in Souzdal as in Gallicia, a laroslavl on the Volga as on the San. Souzdal and Riazan, like Kief, have their Pereiaslavl ; that of the former bears the title of Zaliesski, or " bevond the forests." In a different land and under another sky the emigrants clearly tried to restore the name, if they could not find the image of their native countrv. Is it not thus that the English in America founded New York, and the French New Orleans ? Moreover, when we have seen a population of 3,000,000 Russians gather in the Caucasus and in Siberia — when we see that the steppes of the south which were deserts in the time of Catherine II. reckon to-day their 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 inhabitants, — it is easy to un- derstand how, at a more distant epoch, the basin of the Volga was colonized. As for saving that ihe inhabitants of New Russia are nothing but Finns and Russified Turks, one might as well pretend that the 30,000,000 or 40,000.000 of North America are Red-skins who have learnt English and embraced Protestantism. We must recognize that the Russian, almost as much as the Anglo-Saxon, has the instinct which drives men to emigrate and found colonies. The Russians do in the far East of Europe what the Anglo-Saxons do in the far West of America. They belong to one of the great races of pioneers and backwoodsmen. All the history of the Russian people, from the foundation of Moscow, is that of their advance into tiie forest, into the Black Land, into the prairie. The Russian has his trappers and set- tlers in the Cossacks of the Dnieper, Don, and Tereck ; in the tireless fur-hunters of Siberia ; in the gold-diggers of the Oural and the Altai ; in the adventurous monks who ever lead the way, founding in regions always more distant, a monastery which is to be the centre of a town ; lastly, in the Raskolnicks, or Dissen- ters, Russian Puritans or Mormons, who are persecuted by laws human and divine, and seek from forest to forest the Jerusalem of their dreams. The level plains of Russia naturally tempted men to migration. The mountain keeps her own, the mountain calls her wanderers to return; while the steppe, stretching away to the dimmest horizon, invites you to advance, to ride at advent- ure, to "go where the eyes glance." The flat and monotonous soil has no hold on its inhabitants ; they wiU fiud as bare a landscape anywhere As for their hovel, 3D UISTOR Y OF k USSIA. how can they care for their hovel? it is burned clown ft often. The Western expression, the " ancestral roof," has no meaning for the Russian peasant. The native of Great Russia, accustomed to live on little, and endure the extremes of heat and cold, was born to brave the dangers and privations of the emi- grant's life. VViih his crucifix, his axe in his belt, and his boots slung behind his back, he will go to the end of the Eastern world. However weak may be the infusion of the Russian element in a:i Asiatic population, it cannot transmute itself nor disappear — ■ it must become the dominant power. History has helped to make this movement irresistible. When the Russian took refuge in Souzdal, he was compelled to clear and cultivate the very worst land of his future domain, for the Tchernoziom was then overrun by nomads. How could he escape the temptation to go and look in the south for more fer- tile soil which without labor or manure would yield four times as great a harvest? Villages and whole cantons in Muscovy have been known to empty themselves in a moment, the peasants marching in a body, as in the old times of the invasions, towards the " Black Soil," the "Warm Soil" of the south. Government and the landholders were obliged to use the most terrible means to stop these migrations of the husbandmen. Without these re- pressive measures the steppes would have been colonized two centuries earlier than they actually were. The report that the Tzar authorized the emigration— a forged ukase, a rumor— any- thing was enough to uproot whole peoples from the soil. The peasant's passion for wandering explains the development of Cossack life in the plains of the south ; it explains the legis- lation which from the beginning of the i6th centurv chained the serf to the glebe and bound him to the soil. In 'the 13th cen- tury, on the other hand, the peasant was free. His prince encouraged him to emigrate, and hence came the colonization of Eastern Russia. 2. The Russian race, it is true, has the facultv of absorbing certain aboriginal stocks. The Little Russians assimilated the remnants of Turkish tribes, the Great Russians swallowed up the Einnish nations of the East. There must, however, be no religious barrier between the conquerors and the conquered, for the Tchoud, while still heathen, is easily assimilated; but once converted to Islamism, he is a refractory element that can scarcely be brought to order. A baptized Tchouvach inevitably becomes a Russian, a circumcised Tchouvach inevitably be- comes a Tatar. We have seen the Vesses, the Mouromians, the IMerians disappear without leaving a trace ; the Tchouvaches, the Mordvians, the Tcheremisses become more Russian every day. The successive stages, and the steps which lead to the HIS TOR y OF K USSIA. 3 7 accomplishment of this change, were lately observed by Mr. Wallace, an English traveller : — " iJuring my wanderings in these northern provinces I have found villages in every stage of Russification. In one every- thing seemed thorousfhlv Finnish : the inhabitants had a reddish- ^live skin, very high cheek-bones, obliquely-set eyes, and a pe- culiar 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 al- ready 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 the intermarriage with the Russian population was no longer rare. In a fourth, intermarriage had almost com- pletely done its work, and the old Finnish element could be de- tected merely in certain peculiarities of physiognomy and ac- cent " (vol. i. p. 231). The density and resisting power of these ancient peoples, scattered over such immense spaces of the continent, must have been comparatively slight, while the Russian emigrants came on in vast waves, or stole in like the constant dropping of water. The aboriginals must often have recoiled and concen- trated their forces, thus leaving room and verge for the pure Slavonic element. The more or less considerable mixture of races, on the other hand, cannot but have influenced the physi- cal type, character, and powers of the Great Russian in a pecul- iar wav. The bright Slavonic nature, when blended with tribes of a duller cast, gained in strength and weight what it lost in vivacity. Hence, of all the Slavonic peoples, the Great Rus- sian alone has been able to create and to maintain, in face of 3very obstacle, a vast and durable empire. 38 HISTOR Y OF R CrsSSA. CHAPTER ITT. PRIMITIVE RUSSIA : THE SLAVS. Religion of the Slavs — Funeral rites — Domestic and i)olitical customs . the family, the w/> or commune, the volost or canton, the tribe — Cities — In '.us- try — Agriculture. RELIGION OF THE SLAVS FUNERAL RITES. The religion of the Russian Slavs, like that of all Aryan races, was founded on nature and its phenomena. It was a pantheism which, as its original meaning was lost, necessarily became a polytheism. Just as the Homeric deities were pre- ceded by the gods of Hesiod, Ouranos and Demeter, or Heaven and Earth, so the most ancient gods of the Russian Slavs seem to have been Svarog, the heaven, and " our mother, the dank earth." Then new conceptions appeared in the first rank in the historic period, i. Ancient poets and chroniclers (see the Song of Igor, and Nestor) have preserved to us the names of Dagh- Bog, god of the sun, father of nature ; Voloss, a solar deity, and, like the Greek Apollo, inspirer of poets and protector of flocks ; Pcnm^ god of thunder, another personification of the Sun at wai with the Cloud ; Stribog^ the Russian ^olus, father of winds, protector of warriors ; Khors, a solar god ; Seviargl ^.Ttdjlfokoc/i, whose attributes are unknown. 2. In some of the early hymns they sing of Koupalo or larilo, god of the summer sun, and Did- Laih), goddess of fecundity. 3. In the epic songs are celebrated Sviaiogor, the giant-hero, whose weight the earth can scarcely bear; Mikoula Selianhiovitch, the good laborer, a kind of Slav Triptolemus, the divine personification of the race's passionate love of agriculture, striking with the iron share of his plough the stones of the furrow, with a noise that is heard tliree days' journey off ; Volga VseslaviicJi^ a Proteus who can take all man- ner of shapes; Polkan, a centaur; Doiuiai, Don Ivanoviich, Dnieper Korolevitch^ who are rivers ; then a series of heroes, conquerors of dragons like Ilia of Moii7'07n, who seem to be solar gods degraded to the rank of paladins. 4. In the stories which beguile the village evening assemblies, a]5pear Aforena, god. dess of death; Kochtchei imA Aforoz, personifications of the bit- ter winter weather ; Jyaba-Yaga, an ogress who lives on the edge of the forest, in a hut built on the foot of a fowl, and swayed by the winds ^ and the King of the iSca, who entices sailors to his HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 3^ watery palaces. 5. Popular superstition continues to people nature witli good and baci spirits : the Russalki, water sprites ; rodianoi, river genii ; the Licchii and the IJcsnik, forest de- mons ; the Domovoi (ires, ghosts who steal by night from their tombs, and suck the blood of the living during their sleep. Since Mythology reproduces under so many forms the strug- gle of the heroes of the light with the monsters of darkness, it is possible that she may have admitted a bad jjrinciple at variance with a good principle, an ill-doing god, of whom Morena, Koch- tchei, Baba-Yaga, the dragon, the mountain-serpent, are only types. We cannot find any positive confirmation of this hypo- thesis, as far as the Russian Slavs are concerned, but Helmold asserts that the Baltic Slavs recognize Biclibog, the White God, and Tc/wnioliog, the Black God. The Russians do not seem to have had either temples or priests in the proper sense of the word. They erected rude idols on the hills, and venerated the oak consecrated to Perun ; the leaders of the people offered the sacrifices. They also had sorcerers, or magicians, analogous to the Tatar Shamans, whose counsels appear to have had great weight. It has been the study of the Russian Church to combat pa- ganism by purifying the superstitions she cannot uproot. She has turned to account any similarity in names or symbols. She has been able to honor Saint Dmitri and Saint George, the slay- ers of dragons ; Saint John, who thunders in the spring; Saint Elias, who recalls Ilia of Mourom ; Saint Blaise or Vlaise, who has succeeded to Voloss as guardian of the Hocks; Saint Nich- olas, or Mikoula, patron of laborers, like Mikoula Selianino- vitch ; Saint Cosmas, or Kouzma, protector of blacksmiths, who has taken the place of kouzucts, the mysterious blacksmith forger of the destinies of man in the mountains of the north. In some popular songs the Virgin Mary replaces Did-Lado, and then Saint John succeeds to Perun or larilo. Who can fail to recog- nize the myth of the spring and the fruitful rains accompanied by thunder, in this White Russian song that is repeated at the festival of St. John ? "John and Mary — bathed on the hill — while John bathed — the earth shook — while Mary bathed — the earth germinated." The Church has taken care to consecrate to the Saints of her calendar or to purify by holy rites the sacred trees and mysterious wells to which crowds of pilgrims contin- ued to flock. Russian Slavs certainly had visions of another life, but, like all primitive peoples, they looked forward to a life which was gross and material. In the 7th century among the Wends, Ger- man Slavs, women refused to survive their husbands, and burned 40 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. themselves on their funeral pile. This ancient Aryan custom must have been in vigor among the Russian Slavs at an equally early epoch. The Arabic writer, Ibn-Foszlan, gives an account of the Russian funeral rites which he himself witnessed in the 9th century. For ten days the friends of the deceased bewailed him, and intoxicated themselves over his corpse. Then the men-servants were asked, which of them would be buried with his master? One of them replied in the affirmative, and was in- instantly strangled. The same question was also put to the women-servants, one of whom likewise devoted herself. She was then washed, adorned, and treated like a princess, and did nothing but drink and sing. On the appointed day the dead man was laid in a boat, with part of his arms and his garments. The man-servant was slain with the favorite horse and other do- mestic animals and was laid in the boat, to which the young girl was then led. She took off her jewels, and with a glass of kvass in her hand sang a song that she would only too willingly have prolonged. " All at once," says the eye-witness, " the old woman who accompanied her, and whom they called the angel of death, ordered her to drink quickly, and to enter into the cabin of the boat, where lay the dead body of her master. At these words she changed color, and as she made some difficul- ties about entering, the old woman seized her by the hair, drag- ged her in, and entered with her. The men immediately began to beat their shields with clubs to prevent the other girls from hearing the cries of their companion, which might prevent them from one day dying for their masters." While the funeral pile blazed, one of the Russians said to our narrator, " You Arabs are fools : you hide in the earth the man you have loved best, and there he becomes the prey of worms. We, on the contrary, burn him up in the twinkling of an eye, that he may the quicker enter paradise." Nestor found the rite among the Russian Slaves. The excavations made in a great number of koiirgans (barrows) confirm his testimonv. The discoveries recently made in the tombs of Novgorod by M. Ivanouski, prove that the Slavs of Ilmen had preserved or adopted the custom of bury- ing their dead. In these tombs are found a great quantity of arms, instruments, jewels, animals, bones, and grains of wheat ; from which we may conclude that the Russian Slavs expected the future life to be an exact continuation of the present one, and that they surrounded the dead with all the objects that here contributed to his happiness. The examination of the human bones preserved in the kourgans also confirms the historical ac- counts, and proves that servants and female slaves were sacri- ficed over the corpse. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 4« DOMESTIC AND POIJTICAL CUSTOMS : THE FAMILY ; THE MIR OR COMMUNE ; THE VOLOST OR CANTON J THE TRIBE. The Slav family was founded on the patriarchal principle. The father was the absolute head, and after his death the power passed to the eldest of the members composing it.: first, to the brothers of the deceased, if he had any under his care, then successively to his sons, beginning with the eldest. The chief had the same rights over the women who entered his family b); marriage, as over its natural members. Their domestic manners seemed to have been very barbarous. The monk Nestor may be suspected of exaggeration wherever he describes the condition of pagan Russia, which baptism was to regenerate. There is no exception to this exaggerated censure but in the case of the Polians. " The Drevlians," he tells us, " lived after the manner of wild beasts. They cut each other's throats, ate impure food, declined all marriage-ties ; they ra\- ished and stole voung srirls who came for water to the foun- tains The Radimitches, the Viatitches, the Severians lived like wild animals in the forests, were fed on all sorts of horrors, and spoke of all kinds of shameful things in the presence of their sisters-in-law and relatives. . . . They captured women, who were willing parties to the transaction, often two or three at a time." Tiie charges which Nestor chiefly urges against the Slavs, are the capture of women and polygamy. This latter charge is completely established ; as to the capture, it might be symbol- ical. In the text quoted above we see the women "came" to the fountain, and that they were parties to the transaction. This capture, if we take it for a simple ceremony, may imply, in very early times the existence of abduction by violence. To- day, the marriage-customs of Russia still preserve traces of these ancient usages. There is still a pretended capture of the woman ; a custom to be found in the Germany of the 8th cen- tury, where the very name of marriage has a pointed significa- tion — Braiiilaiift, the flight of the bride. The songs at Russian weddings also imply the existence of a time when the maiden was bought. One of these songs accuses the kindred of avarice : " Thy brother — the accursed Tatar — has sold his sister for a piece of silver." Some historians have thought, with Karamsin, that the Slavs held women in less consideration than the Germans did, and in fact " treated them as slaves." We may doubt if there was so great a difference between the two nations. The chronicles speak of Lybed, sister of Kii, the fabulous founder of Kief, dividing her paternal inheritance with her brothers, and of 42 HISTORY OP RUSSIA. Princess Olga becoming heir and avenger of her husband and guardian of his son. The epic songs show us many bold heroines side by side with the heroes of the Kievian cycle, and mothers of heroes surrounded with wonderful luxury and extraordinary honors. The excavations of the kourgans show us skeletons of women richly ornamented with jewels. The commune, or ;;///•, was only the expansion of the family ; i'v was subject to the authority of the elders of each household, who assembled in a council or vctcIiL'. The village lands were held in common by all the members of the association ; the in- dividual only possessed his harvest, and the dvo?- or enclosure immediately surrounding his house. This primitive condition of property, existing in Russia up to the present day, was once common to all luu'opean peoples. The communes nearest together formed a group called volosi ox pagost (canton, parish). The volost was governed by a council formed of the elders of the communes : one of these elders, either by hereditary right, age, or election, was recognized as more powerful than the rest, and became chief of the canton. His authority seems much to have resembled that of Ulysses over the numerous kings of little Ithaca. In times of danger, the volosts of the same tribe could elect a temporary head, but de- cline to submit to a general and permanent ruler. The Kmper- or Maurice had already observed that passion for liberty among the Slavs, which made them detest all sovereignty. The Rus- sian Slavs easily rose from the idea of a commune to that of a canton, with a chief chosen from the elders of the family; in an emergency they might permit a temporary confederation of all the cantons of one tribe (dlemia), but we never find that there was a prince of the Severians, Polians, or Radimitches. Only princes of the volost could exist among them, like the prince of Korosthenes in the legend of Olga. The idea of the unity of a tribe, and a fortiori the unity of the Russian nation, was abso- lutely foreign to the race. I'he ideas of government and of the State had to come to them from without. TOWNS — TRADE — AGRICULTURE, Nestor declares that the Russian Slavs, for the most part, " lived in forests like the wild beast." Karamsin and Schloezer have concluded from this that they had no towns. Now there exist a number of monuments in Russia which have for long puzzled archaeologists. There are the gorodichtchifs (from gorod, town), enclosures formed by the earth being thrown up, and these we find invariably on the steep bank of a watercourse, or on a HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 43 » small hill. M. Samokvassof, who has explored this very country of the Severians, described by Nestor as living wholly in forests, has been able to prove that these gorodic/itc/ies are the oppida, the primitive towns of Russia. In the government of Tcherni- gof alone, M. Samokvassof has reckoned 160 ; in that of Koursk. 50. We may calculate from this that numbers exist in Russia, and that every volost had at least one. About these earih-en- closures, which were capped by wooden palisades or hedges of osier, and were the common means of defence for each group of families, we usually find grouped, as in a cemetery, the kourgaus or tumuli of the dead. The excavations made, either in iho. kourgaus or in the soil of the gonhiic/itch.'s, have shown us the Slavs were more civilized than Nestor supposed. Vessels of potiery, tolerably well de- signed, iron and bronze, gold and silver objects, glass, false pearls, rattles, prove that they had a certain amount of trade, and a fairly extensive commerce, particularly with Asia. Orien- tal coins have been dug up, dating from 699, or near two hun- dred years before the arrival of the Varangians. There are a great number of these coins in the country. Near Novgorod a vase was discovered, containing about 7000 roubles' worth of this earlv monev. The fame of the swords made bv the Russian Slavs extended to Arabia. Nestor relates that the Khazars im- posed a tribute of swords on the Polians. When the latter brought the arms to the Khazars, they were afraid, and said to their princes, " Our swords have only one edge — these have two. We tremble lest one day this people should levy a tribute on us and other tribes." Agriculture was the favorite occupation of the Slavs. Nearly all their deities are of an agricultural character. The favorite heroes of their epic cycle, Mikoula and Ilia, were the sons of laborers. Thev had the more likino; for field life, as the serfasG of the glebe was still unknown amongst them. It has been said that the Germans borrowed the plough from the Slavs, and that the German name oi pJJug is derived from the ^]a.\ ploug. With the wax and honey of their hives, the corn of the Tchernoziom, and the furs of the north, the Russians carried on a great trade. Their need of strangers, together with a sociable instinct, natu- ral to primitive races, made them very hospitable ; it was even permitted to steal for the benefit of the unexpected guest. A peaceful race, devoted to liberty, music, and dancing, appears in the idyllic picture painted for us of the early Slavs. The Emperor Maurice, on the contrary, who had had dealings with all kinds of adventurous tribes, assures us that they were war- like, cruel in battle, full of savage wiles, able to conceal them- selves in places where it seemed impossible their bodies could ^ HISTOR Y QF R USSIA. be hidden, or to lie in ambush in streams for hours together, the "Vater over their heads, breathing by means of a ^(z^i^'j.. Their armor was defective, they had no breast-plates, they fought on foot, were naked to the waist, and had for weapons, pikes, large shields, wooden bows, poisoned arrows, and lassoes to catch their victims. This sketch specially applies to the invaders of the Roman provinces of the Danube. It is probable that_ these ag- ricultural races had in general a military organization inferior to that of their Turkish and Scandinavian neighbors who lived by plunder. The imperfection of their political condition, their minute division into clans and volosis, the incessant warfare of canton with canton, delivered them up, defenceless, to their in- vaders. Whilst the Slavs of the south paid tribute to the Kha- zars, the Slavs of Ilmen, exhausted by their divisions, decided on calling in the Varangians. " ' Let us seek,' they said, ' a prince who will govern us and reason with us justly.' Then," continues Nestor, " the Tchouds,* the Slavs (Novgorod), the Krivitches, and other confederate races, said to the princes of Varangia, ' Our land is great and fruitful, but it lacks order and justice ; come and take possession, and govern us.' " *The Tchouds here mentioned are rather Slavs who had coloniaed the Tchoud country about Pskof and Izborsk. HIS TOR Y OF R USS/A. 45 CHAPTER IV. THE VARANGIANS : FORMATION OF RUSSIA ; THE FIRST EXPEDI- TIONS AGAINST CONSTANTINOPLE, 862-972. The Northmen of Russia — Origin and customs of the Varangians — The first Russian princes: Rurik, Oleg, Igor — Expeditions against Constantinople — Olga — Christianity in Russia— Sviatoslaf — The Danube disputed be- tween the Russians and Greeks. NORTHMEN IN RUSSIA — ORIGIN AND CUSTOMS OF THE VARAN- GIANS. Who were these Varangians ? To what race did they be- long? No questions in the early history of Russia are more eagerly debated. After more than a century of controversy, the various views have been reduced to three : — 1. The Varangians were of Scandinavian origin, and it was they who imposed the name of Russia on the Slav countries. A most weighty argument in support of this theory is the large number of Scandinavian names in the list of Varangian princes reigning in Russia. The Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus, speaking of Russia, makes a distinction between the Slavs and the Russians proper. Describing the cataracts of the Dnieper, he gives to each the Russian and the S/a7' name. Now these Russian names may nearly all be understood by reference to Scandinavian roots. Liutprand, speaking of the Russians, ex- presses himself in these terms : — " Grceci vocant Russos . . . iios vero A'ormannos." The Annals of Saint Bertimis say, that the Emperor Theophilus recommended some Russian envoys to Louis le De'bonnaire, but he, taking them for Norman spies, threw them into prison. Finally, the first Russian Code of Laws, compiled by laroslaf, presents a striking analogy with the Scan- dinavian la'ws. The Partisans of this opinion place the mother country of the Russians in Sweden, where ihey point particulaHy to a spot called Roslog, and associations of oarsmen called Ros- lagen. At the present dav the Finns call the Swedes Rootzt. 2. The Varangians were Slavs, and came either from the Slav shores of the Baltic, or from some Scandinavian regiou where the Slavs had founded a colony. The word Russia is not of Swedish origin ; it is applied very early to the country of i-ho Hnieper. To come from Rouss or to go to Rouss are ex- 46 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. pressions to be met with in tlie ancient documents, and Rousi there signifies the country of Kief. Arabic writers give the name of Russians to a nation they consider very numerous, and they mean in this case, not Scandinavians, but indigenous Slavs. 3. The Varangians were not a nation, but a band of war- riors formed of exiled adventurers, some Slavs, other Scandina- vians. The partisans of this opinion show us the Slav and Scandinavian races from very early times, in frequent commer- cial and political relations.' The leaders of the band were generally Scandinavian, but part of the soldiers were Slav. This hypothesis, which diminishes the Norman element in the Varangians, serves to explain how the establishment of these adventurers in the country but little affected the Slavs of Jhe Ilmen and the Dnieper. It explains, too, the rapid absorption of the new comers in the conquered race, an absorption so com- plete that the grandson of Rurik, Sviatoslaf, already bears a Slav name, while his great-grandson, Vladimir, remains in the memory of the people as the type of Slav prince. Whether the Varangians were pure Scandinavians, or whether they were mingled with Slav adventurers, it seems certain that the former element predominated, and that we may identify these men from the North with the sea-kings so celebrated in the West during the decay of the Carolings. M. Samokvassof has lately opened, near Tnhernigof, the black iovib containing the bones and arms of an unknown prince who lived in the 10th century, and was probably a Varangian, His coat-of-mail and pointed helmet completely resemble the arms of the Norman warriors. The Russian princes that we find in the early miniatures, are clothed and armed like the Norman chiefs in the Bayeux Tapestry of Queen Matilda. It is therefore not surprising that, in our own age, art has made almost identical representations of Rurik on the monument lately erected at Novgorod, and of William the Conqueror on the monument at Falaise. The Varangians, like the Normans, astonished the nations of the South by their reckless courage and gigantic stature. " They were as tall as palm-trees," said the Arabs. Bold sailors, ad- mirable foot-soldiers, the Varangians differed widely from the mounted and nomad races of Southern Russia. Hungarians, Khazars, Patzinaks, whose tactics were always Parthian. The Russians, according to Leo the Deacon, who was an eye-witness of the fact, fought in a compact mass, and seemed like a wall of iron, bristling with lances, glittering with shields, whence rang a ceaseless clamor like the waves of the sea — the famous bar- ditiis or harritus of the Germans of Tacitus. A huge shield covered them to their feet, and, when they fought in retreat. HISTOR Y OF R USSIA. 4 7 they turned this cnonnous buckler on their backs, and became invuhierable. The fury of battle at last made them beside themselves, like the Bersarks. Never, says the same author, were they seen to surrender. When victory was lost, they stabbed themselves, for they held that those who died by the hand of an enemy were condemned to serve him in another life. The Greeks had for long highly esteemed these heroes worthy of the Kdda. Under the name of Kos or Varangians, they formed the body-guard of the Emperor, and figured in all the Byzantine armies. In the expedition of 902 against Crete, 700 Russians took part; 415 in that of Lombardy in 925; 584 in that of Greece in 949. The Russian Varangians readily took the pay of foreign nations of Novgorod as well as Byzantium. This is one more feature of resemblance with the Normans of France, whom the Greek emperors also employed in their wars with the Saracens of Italy. Sometimes, instead of fighting for others, they made war for themselves. This was the case with the Danes in Eng- land, the Normans in Neustria, the descendants of Tancred in Naples and Sicily, the companions of Rurik in Russia. As they were usually a very small number, they blended rapidly with the conquered nations. Tiius the descendants of Rollo quickly became Frenchmen, and those of Robert Guiscard, Sicilians. In the Varangian bands, Slavs as well as Scandinavians were mixed ; but we likewise know that in the bands of Northmen that ravaged the country of France, there was a large number of Gallo-Romans, renegades from Christianity, who thirsted more for pillage and murder than did the Vikings themselves. This mingling of the adventurers and the indigenous race ex- plains the rapidity with which both the Normans of Russia and the Normans of P'rance lost their language, customs and re- ligion. The Varangians only retained one thing, their military superiority, the habit of obeying the chosen or hereditary chief. Into the Slav anarchy they brought this element of warlike and disciplined force, without which a State cannot exist. They im- posed on the natives the amount of constraint necessary to drag them from their isolation and division into gorodichtche's and volosts. The Slavs of the Danube also owe their constitution to a band of Finno-Buigarian adventurers under Aspar Asparuch ; the Polish Slavs to the invasion of the Liakhs or Lechites; the Tcheques to the Frank Samo, who enabled them to shake off the yoke of the Avars. The spontaneous appeal of the Slavs to the Varangian princes may seem to us strange. We might believe that the annalist, like the old French historians, has tried to disguise the fact of a conquest, by representing that the Slavs submitted 48 H/SrOR Y OF R USS/A. voluntarily to the Varangians of Rurik, as the Gauls are sup« posed to have clone to the Franks of Clovis. In reality there was no conquest, a statement which is proved by the fact that the muncipal organization remained intact, that the 7'(f/^/// con- tinued to deliberate by the side of the prince, the local army to fight in conjunction with the band of adventurers. The laws of laroslaf established the same wer-gild for the murder of either Slav or Varangian, while the Merovingian laws recognize a great difference between a Gallo-Roman and a Frank. The defence of the country, the administration of justice, and the collection of the tribute were the special cares of the prince, the last being considered his legitimate reward. He played in the Slav towns a role similar to that of the Italian podestas in the 15th century >, who were called in to administer justice impartially, or that of che leaders of condotticri, to whom the cities entrusted their defence. As early as 859 the Varangians exacted tribute from the Slavs of Ilmen and the Krivilches, as well as the Tchouds, Ves- ses, and Merians. The natives had once expelled the Varan- gians, but as divisions once more became rife among them, they decided that they needed a strong government, and recalled the Varangians in 862. Whether the name of Russia or of Rouss was originally derived from a province of Sweden, or from the banks of the Dnieper, the fact remains that with the arrival of the Varangians in Slavonia, the true history of Russia commences It was the 1 000th anniversary of this event that was commem- orated at Novgorod in 1862. With the Varangians the Russian name became famous in Eastern Europe. It was the epoch of brilliant and adventurous expeditions; it was the heroic age of Russia. The Varangians of Novgorod and Kief are not unworthy mates of the Normans of the West — the bold conquerors who sought their fortunes from the coasts of England, Sicily, and Syria. They are to be found nearly at the same time under the walls of Constantinople and at the foot of the (Caucasus, where they captured the town of Berdaa from the Arabs (944). Nes- tor, the monk of the Petcherski convent at Kief, whose history extends to 11 16, adds to his conscientious accounts many legen- dary traits, which seem an echo of Scandinavian j^r^rt-J and early Russian hylinas. His Annals, which Greek and French author- ities enable us to check, and which are tolerably exact in all es- sentials, seem at times, like the first books of Livy, to be epic poetry converted into prose. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 49 THE EARLY RUSSIAN PRINCKS : RURIK, OLKO, IGOR — EXPEDITIONS ACAINSr CONSTANTINOPLE. At the call of the Slavs, Rurik, Sineous and Trouvor, three Varangian brothers, whose Scandinavian names signify the Peaceful, the Vidorioi/s, and the Fait/ifnl, gathered together " tlieir brothers and tiicir families," that is, their warriors or r//7;///7«ifj (resembling the irnste oi the Frank kings), crossed the Bailie and took up th.eir positions on the borders of the terri- tory they were summoned to defend. Rurik, the eldest, estab- lished himself on the lake Ladoga, near to which, on the southern side, he founded the city of Ladoga ; Sineous on the White Lake (Bieloe-Ozero), in the Vess country; Trouvor at Izborsk, to hold the Livonians in check. When the two latter died, Rurik established himself at Novgorod, where he built, not a town as Nestor would have us believe, but a castle. It is thus we must explain the pretended foundation by his orders of Polotsk and of Rostof, which had existed long before the ar- rival of the Varangians. What he probably did was to trans- form ZiX\c\Q\\\ gorodiclitchcs with ramparts of mud into fortresses. Two other Varangians, Askold and Dir, who were not of the familv of Rurik, went down to Kief, and reigned over the Pol- lans. It was they who began the expeditions against Tzargriui (Byzantium), the queen of cities. With 200 vessels, says Nestor, they entered the Sound, in old Slav Soud (the Bosphorus or the Golden Horn), and besieged Constantinople. But the patriarch Bholius, according to the Byzantine accounts, took the wonder- working robe of Our Lady of Blachernes, and plunged it in the waves. A fierce tempest instantly arose, and the whole Russian fleet was destroyed. Rurik's successor was not his son Igor, then a minor, but the eldest member of the family, his fourth brother, the enterprising Oleg. At the head of an army composed of Varangians, Slavs and Finns, he marched to the south, received the submission of Smolensk and Loubetch, and arrived under the walls of Kief. 15y means of treachery he took Askold and Dir prisoners, and put them to death, observing: "You are neither princes your- selves, nor of the blood of princes ; this is the son of Rurik," point- ing to Igor, The tomb of Askold is still shown near Kief, ^^leg was charmed with his new conquest, and took up his abode t^'iere, saying, " Let Kief be the mother of Russian cities." The Va- rangian chief held communication both with the Baltic and, the Black Sea by means of Novgorod, Smolensk, and Kief. He subdued the Novgorodians, the Krivitches, the ]\Ierian», the Drevlians, the Sevcrians, the Polians, the Radimitches, and thus 50 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. united nearly all the Russian tribes under his sceptre. It was about this time that the Hungarians crossed the Dnieper near Kief, and invaded Pannonia. The Magyar chronicles speak of their having defeated Oleg ; Nestor is silent on the subject. In 907 Oleg collected a large army from among the tributary races, equipped 2000 boats, and prepared to invade Tzargrad by land and sea. Russian legends have embellished this expe- dition with many wonderful details. Oleg built wheels to his vessels, and spread their sails ; blown by the wind they reached the gates of the city. Leo VI. the Philosopher, horror-stricken, agreed to pay tribute, but the Greeks tried to get rid of the Russians by offering them poisoned food. Oleg divined their perfid}'. He imposed a heavy contribution, a commerical treaty advantageous to the Russians, and suspended his shield on the Golden Door. To his subjects Oleg was more than a hero. Terror-stricken by his v.'isdom, this "foolish and idolatrous people " looked on him as a sorcerer. In the Scandinavian sagas we find many in- stances of chiefs, such as Odin, Gylf and Raude, being at the same time great warriors and great magicians. It is strange that neither Greek, Frank, nor Venetian historians allude to this campaign. Nestor cites the names of the Russian envoys who negotiated the peace, and gives the text of the treaty. A magician had predicted to Oleg that his favorite' horse would cause his death. It was kept apart from him, and when, five years after, the animal died, he insisted on being taken to see its body, as a triumph over the ignorance and imposture of the sorcerers. But from the skull of the horse issued a serpent which inflicted a mortal sting on the foot of the hero. Igor led a third expedition against Tzargrad. The Dnieper conducted, as it were of her own will, the Russian flotilla to the seas of Greece. Igor had 10,000 vessels according to the Greek historians, 1000 according to the more probable calcula- tion of Liutprand. This would allow 400,000 men in the first case, and only 40,000 in the second. Instead of attacking the town, he cruelly ravaged the Greek provinces. The Byzantine ' admirals and generals united, and destroyed the Russian armv in a series of engagements by the aid of Greek fire. N-stor has not copied the numerous details the Byzantine historians give of this battle, but we have the evidence' of Liutprand, bishop ol Cremona, derived from his father-in-law, the ambassador of the king of Italy at Constantinople, who saw with his own eyes the defeat of Igor, and was present at the sacrifice of prisoners, be- headed by order of the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus. In 944 Igor secured the help of the formidable Patzinaks, and organizeG^ an expedition to avenge his defeat. The Greek Lmperor, now ins TORY OF RUSSIA, S» seriously alarmed, offered to pay tribute, and signed a new com- mercial treaty, of which the text is given by Nestor. Byzantine and Western writers do not mention this second expedition of Igor. On his return from Russia, he was assassinated by the Drcvlians, from whom he had tried to exact tribute. Leo the Deacon, a Greek writer, says he was torn in pieces by means of two young trees, bent forcibly to the earth, and then allowed to take their natural direction (945). OLGA — CHRISTIANITY IN RUSSIA. Olga, widow of Igor, assumed the regency in the name of her son Sviatoslaf, then a minor. Her first care was to revenge herself on the Drevlians. In Nestor's account it is impossible to distinguish between the history and the epic. The Russian chronicler relates in detail how the Drevlians sent two deputa- tions to Olga to appease her, and to offer her the hand of their prince, and how she disposed of them by treachery, burying some alive, and causing others to be stifled in a bathing-house. Next, says Nestor, she besieged their city Korostiienes, and she offered them peace on payment of a tribute of three pigeons and three sparrows for each house. Lighted tow was tied to the tails of the birds, and they were set free. They flew straight home to the wooden town, where the barns and thatched roofs instantly took fire. Lastly the legend relates that Olga massa- cred part of the Korosthenians, and the rest became slaves. This vindictive Scandinavian woman, in spite of all, was des- tined to be the first apostle of Russia. Nestor relates that she went to Tzargrad to the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogeniius, astonished him by the strength and adroitness of her charar*^er, and was baptized under the name of Helen, the Greek Tzar be- ing her godfather. Only two facts in Nestor's account are historical, namely, the reception of Olga at the imperial palace of Constantinople, related in detail in the ' Book of Ceremo- nies,' and perhaps her baptism. If the Greek historians do not mention it in the contemporary chronicles, it is because they did not perceive the important consequences of this event. If writers allude to it in the chronicles of the nth and 12th cen- turies, it is because the consequences of the event had by that time been completely developed. * Even in Russia (Jlga's conversion passed almost unnoticed. Christianity had made but little progress in that country. No doubt since Cyril and Methodius had invented the Slavo/iic alphabet, and translated the Holy Books for the BulgaK. ,% p A. Rambaud, / L'Empire grec au dixieme siecle,' p. 383. 52 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. Christianity, which had already triumphed over some Slav peoples, was being handed on from one to the other. Some missions were already established in Russia. The Byzantines say, that alarmed by the miraculous defeat of Askold and Dir, and seized with a respectful awe of the Christian talismans of the Patriarch Photius, the Russians " sent envoys to Conslanti- nople to ask for baptism." The Emperor Basil the Macedonian then gave them an archbishop, who performed a miracle before them. He threw a copy of the Gospels into a brazier, and drew it out unharmed. According to this account, Askold v\as the first Russian prince who became a Christian. Hence the wor- ship rendered to his tomb and memory. In the list of Byzar- tine Eparchies under Leo VL, the Bishopric of Russia figures, of which no doubt Kief was the metropolis. These missions, however, do not seem to have been very successful ; at the time of the treaty concluded between Oleg and Leo VI., the Rus- sians still swore by their swords, by Voloss and Perun. In the treaty concluded bv Igor, when the Russians swore at Kief be- fore the Emperor's envoy, to confirm it, some ascended the hill of Perun and performed the vows in the ancient way ; others went to the chapel of Saint Elias, and laid their hand on the Gospel. There existed then, in the " mother of Russian cities," a Christian community, though a very weak one, if it is true that Olga refused to be baptized in Kief "for fear of the pagans." The mass of warriors kept Christianity at a distance. In their expeditions against the B\zantine provinces, we find them at- tacking monasteries and churches by preference, giving them up to the flames, and finding a peculiar pleasure in torturing priests and monks by driving nails into their heads. It was thus that the Normans of France, the fanatics of Odinism, treated the ecclesiastics with refinements of cruelty, boasting that they " sang them the Mass of lances." " When one of the soldiers of the Grand Prince wished to become a convert," says Nestor, " he was not prevented, but only laughed at." The efforts of Olga for the conversion of her son Sviatoslaf, who had assumed the reins of government on reaching his majority, were fruitless. He did not like exposing himself to the ridicule of his soldiers by embracing a new faith. " My men will mock me," he replied tf) the prayers of his mother. " And often," Nestor affirms sadly, " he became furious with her." Olga vainly assured him that if he would be baptized, all his subjects would soon tollow his example. The public mind was not yet in a condition for the example of the prince to be all-powerful. The Chtrsuan Olga, canonized by the Church, " the first Russian who i^ uo,nt- ed to the heavenly kingdom," remained an exception, i.\L\z noticed or t-kought of in the midst of the pagan aristocracy HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 5^ SVTATOSLAF — THE DANUBE DISPUTED BETWEEN GREEKS AND RUSSIANS. The reign of Sviatoslaf, 664-972, though short, was signaliz- ed by two memorable events : the defeat of the Khazars, and the great war against the Bvzantine Empire for the possession of Bulgaria. About the former event the annalist gives few de- tails ; but Sviatoslaf must have gained a complete, victory, if it be true that he look the White City, capital of the Khazar Em- pire on the Don, and that he exacted tribute from the lasses or Ossets of the Caucasus, and the Kassogans or Tcherkesses. The Russians had no reason to rejoice in their success, for the decline of the Khazars, who were a civilized people, favored the progress of the Patzinaks, the most ferocious of all barbarians. The Arabs spoke of them as wild beasts and Matthew of Edessa calls them "a greedy people, devouring the bodies of mei^ corrupt and impure, bloody and cruel beasts." During one ol the frequent absences of Sviatoslaf, the Patzin?ks suddenly ap- peared under the walls of Kief, where the mother and children of the Grand Prince had taken refuge, and reduced it to the last extremit}'. The bold manoeuvre of a voievode saved the Kievians, who were starving. On his return to his capital, Sviatoslaf was horritied at the risks it had »^ncountered. It was at the hands of these same Patzinaks that he was one day to perish. On the subject of the Bulgarian war the narrative of Nestor is confused and incomplete. He is silent about the Russian defeats, and legend mixes largely with historical facts. Nestor relates that the Greeks wished to ascertain what sort of man Sviatoslaf was. They sent him gifts of gold and fine tissues, but the Grand Prince looked on them with disdain, and said to his soldiers, " Take them away." Then they sent him a sword and other weapons, and the hero seized them and kissed them en- thusiastically. The Greeks were afraid, and said, " This must be a fierce man, since he despises wealth and accepts a sword for trilnite." Happily the very minute account of Leo the Deacon appears both exact and impartial, and we are enabled to follow this campaign, where a chief of infant Russia crosses that Danube which the Russian armies are not again to see till the reign of Catherine H. and Nicholas. The Greek Emperor Nicephorus Phocas, in order to avenge himself on Peter the Tzar of Bulgaria, had recourse to the dangerous expedient so frequent in Byzantine policy. He called in the barbarians. A certain Kalokyr was sent as envoy to Sviatoslaf with a sufficient sum of money to allow him to take the field. It was thus that these two Slav races — 54 HTSTORY OF RUSSIA. who owned their constitutions, one to the Varangian droujintx of Rurik, the other to the Turanian droujina of Asparuch — were urged to conflict by Greek diplomacy, Sviatoslaf descended on Bulgaria with a thoroughly-equipped fleet, reassured the Byzan- tines by bringing 60,000 men to their assistance, took Pereiaslaf, the Bulgarian capital, and all their fortresses. The Tzar Peter yielded to his evil destiny at the moment the Patzinaks were besieging Kief. This lesson was, howeyer, lost on Sviatoslaf. He was everjoyed at his conquest, and wished to transport his capital to Pereiaslaf on the Danube, a city distinct from Pereiaslaf orPrislaf, the modern Eski-Stamboul, which was the capital of the Bulgarians in the loth century. "This place,'' he said to his mother, " is the central point of my possessions, and abounds in wealth. From Greece come precious stuffs, wine, gold, and all kinds of fruit ; from the country of the Tcheques and Hungarians, horses and silver ; from Russia, furs, money, wax, and slaves." This resolution of Sviatoslaf was fraught with immense danger to the Greek Empire. If Byzantium feared the neighborhood of an enfeebled Bulgaria, how was she to resist a power that extended from the Baltic to the Balkans, and which could add to the Bulgarian legions, disciplined after tlie Roman fashion by the Tzar Simeon, the Varangians of Scandinavia, the Russian Slavs, the Finnish hordes of the Vesses, Tchouds, and Merians, and even the light cavalry of the Patzinaks ? The formation of a great Slav J^m.pire so close to Constanti- nople would have been rendered more formidable by the ethno- graphical constitution of the peninsula. Ancient Thrace and ancient Macedon were peopled by Slav tribes, some of whom were offshoiDts from the Russian tribes ; for example, Drego- vitches and Smolenes were to be found there as much as at Minsk and Smolensk. Thessaly, Attica, and the Peloponnesus were invaded by these emigrants, who became the subjects of the Greek Empire. The famous mountain Taygetus, in Laconia, was inhabited by two Slav tribes, still unsubdued — the Milingians ■ and the Ezerites. We must not forget that Bulgaria extended as far as the Ochrid, and that the ancient provinces under the names of Croatia, Servia, and Dalmatia, had become almost entirely Slav. This great race extended then almost unbroken from the Peloponnesus, already called by the Slav name of INIorea, to Novgorod. Thus, if the town of Pereiaslaf on the Danube had really become the centre of the Russian dominions, accord- ing to the wish of Sviatoslaf, the Greek race and the Roman domination in the Balkan peninsula would speedily have come to an end. The Greek emperors had been able to resist Askold, Oleg, and Igor. The Russians of their day had lived far from the Empire, and were obliged to go by water, which limited HISTORY OF RUSSIA. S5 Efreailv the number of their armies. With their canoes hollowed out of the trunks of trees, such as are now to be seen in the Russian villages, they had to descend the Dnieper, disembark at each of the seven cataracts, carry canoes (monoxyles) till they could re-embark further on, and all the while gave battle to the Patzinaks, who were in ambush behind the rocks. After they had escaped these perils, they had to brave with their frail barks the tempests of the Black Sea, the powerful Roman galleys manned by the best sailors of the East, and the mysterious Greek fire which filled them wiih terror. Few reached the walls of Constantinople, and their defeat was certain. Now, on the con- trary, masters of the Danube, masters of the land-route, they could precipitate on Constantinople all the hordes of Scythia. Fortunately for the Greek Empire, it then chanced to be re- newing its youth. A series of great captains succeeded each other on this tottering throne. In John Zimisces the Russian prince was to find an adversary worthy of him. Sviatoslaf, re- called to Bulgaria, had been obliged to reconquer it. It was at this moment that Zimisces summoned him to execute the condi- tions of the treaty concluded with his predecessor; that is, to evacuate the country. Sviatoslaf, who had just taken Philippopolir and exterminated the inhabitants, replied haughtily that he hoped soon to be at Constantinople. Zimisces then began his prepara- tions. In the beginning of March 972, he despatched a fleet to the north of the Danube, and himself marched to Adrianople. He surprised the Russians, who had not expected him so soon, in the defiles of the Balkans ; appeared suddenly under the walls of Pereiaslaf, defeated a bodv of manv thousand Russians, and obliged them to retire within the walls ; then he gave the order for the assault, and took the town by escalade, fjght thousand Russians shut up in the royal castle made a frantic resistance, refused to capitulate, and perished in the flames. When the news of this disaster reached Sviatoslaf, he advanced with the greater part of his army to meet the Emperor, and came up with him near Dorostol (Silistria). The Greek historians make the Russian army to have consisted of at least 60,00c men ; Nestor only reckons 10,000. Here a bloody battle took place, and twelve times victory appeared to shift from one side to the other. The solidity of the Russian infantry defied the charges of the cava' rv— "the Ironside" (Karac^paKTot). At last they gave way under a desperate charge, and fell back on Dorostol. 'Phere they were besieged by the Emperor, and dis- played a wild courage in their sallies. Even their women, like the ancient Amazons, or the heroines of the Scandinavian sagas or Russian songs, took part in the vieh'e. The Russians slew themselves rather than ask for mercy. The night following on £6 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. an action, they were seen to leave the town by moonlight to burn their dead. On their ashes they sacrificed prisoners of war, and drowned in the Danube cocks and little children. Provisions failed, and Sviatoslaf stole out one stormy night with canoes manned by 2000 warriors, rowed round the Greek fleet, collected millet and corn in the neighboring villages, and, falling suddenly on the Greeks, re-entered the town victoriously. Zimisces then took measures to prevent any boat from getting out. This epic siege was signalized by some strange combats. One of the bravest of the Russian chiefs was slain by Apemas, a baptized Arab, son of an Emir of Crete, and himself one of the guards of Zimisces. Sviatoslaf resolved to make one last effort, and issued from the town with all his forces. Before the battle Zimisces proposed to Sviatoslaf to terminate the war by a duel between themselves. It was the barbarian who refused : " I know better than my enemy what I have to do," said Sviatoslaf. " If he is weary of life, there are a thousand means by which he can end his days." This battle was as obstinate and blood v as the former. Sviatoslaf came near being slain by Apemas. At last the Russians gave way, leaving on the battlefield, says Leo the Deacon, 15,500 dead and 20,000 shields. The survivors retired into the town. They were forced to treat. Zimisces allowed them to retire from Bul- garia, and they swore by Perun and Voloss never again to invade ihe empire, but to help to defend it against all enemies. If they broke their vows, might they "become as yellow as gold, and perish by their own arms." Nestor gives us the text of this convention, which was really a capitulation, and confirms the account of the Greek historians rather than his own. These relate that Zimisces sent deputies to the Patzinaks to beg them to grant a free passage to the remnant of the Russian army. It is certain that the barbar- ians awaited the Russians at the Cataracts, ox porogs oi the Dnie- per. They killed Sviatoslaf, cut off his head, and his skull was used by their Prince Kouria as a drinking-cup. Sviatoslaf was, in spite of his Slav name, the very type of a Varangian prince of the intrepid, wily, and ambitious Northmen. Nestor boasts his good faith. When he wished to make war on a people, lie sent to warn them. " I march against you," he said. After the surrender of Dorostol, he had an interview with his enemy Zimisces. Leo the Deacon profits by the occasion to give us his portrait. The Emperor being on horseback by the shore, Sviatoslaf approached him by boat, handling the oar like his companions. He was of middle height, but very robust ; he had a wide chest, a thick neck, blue eyes, thick eyebrows, a flat nose, long mustaches, a thin beard, and a tuft of hair on his shaven head as a mark of his nobility. He wore a gold ring in II IS TOR y OF /V C'SSIA . SJ one of his ears, ornamented with rubies and two pearls. Let us notice this portrait ; we shall have to searcli far into Russian annals to find another. Between the description given by Leo the Deacon and those of the Russian annalists, there is the same difference as between the eikon of a saint and an authentic likeness. «8 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER V. THE CLOVES AND CHARLEMAGNE OF THE RUSSIANS: SAINT VLADIMIR AND lAROSLAF THE GREAT 972-IO54. Vladimir (972-1015 ) — Conversion of the Russians — laroslaf the Great (1016- 1054 — Union of Russia — Splendor of Kief — Varangian-Russian society at the time of laroslaf — Progress of Christianity — Social, political, literary, and artistic results. VLADIMIR (972-1015) — CONVERSION OF THE RUSSIANS. The Slav tribes owe their organization to a twofold conquest — a military conquest which came from the North, and an ecclesias- tical conquest which came from the South. The Varangians sent them chiefs of war, who welded their scattered tribes into a nation ; the Byzantines sent missionaries, who united the Slavs among themselves and to their civilized neighbors by the bonds of a common religion. The man destined to conclude the work of propagandism be- gun by Olga did not at first seem fitted for this great task. Vladi- mir, like Clovis, was at first nothing but a barbarian — wily, voluptuous, and bloody. Only while Clovis after his baptism is not perceptibly better than he was before, and becomes the assassin of his royal Frankish relations, the Russian annalist seems to wish to establish a contrast between the life led by Vladimir prior to his conversion and the life he led after it. Sviatoslaf left three sons : laropolk at Kief, Oleg ruler of the Drevlians, Vladimir at Novgorod. In the civil wars which followed, and which recall the bloody Merovingian anarchy, laro- polk slew Oleg, and in his turn died by the hand of Vladimir. He fell in love with Rogneda, laropolk's betrothed, and demand- ed her in marriage from the Varangian Rogvolod, who ruled over Tololsk. The princess answered, that she would never marry the son of a slave, in allusion to Vladimir's mother having been a servant, though he himself had alwavs been treated bv his father as his brother's equal. Maddened by this insult, Vladimir sacked Polotsk, killed Rogvolod and his two sons, and forced Rog- neda to marry him. After the murder of laropolk, Vladimir also tof)k the wife whom laropolk had left enceinte, a beautiful Greek nun,cajJtured in an expedition against Byzantium. These two wo- VLADiMlK. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 59 men he had deprived, one of her husband, ihe other of her faiher and brothers. He had, besides, a Bohemian and a Bulgarian wife, and another, all of whom bore him sons. Finally this bas< tard, this " son of a slave," was so abandoned in his profligacy, that he kept 300 concubines at Vychegorod, 3000 at Bie'lgorod, near Kief, and 200 at Berestof, Lusting no less after war and plunder, he reconquered Red Russia from the Poles, quelled a revolt of the Viatitches and Radimitches, and exacted tribute from the Lithuanian latvaguians, and Livonian tribes of Letts or Finns. The soul of the sensual and passionate barbarian was trou- bled, notwithstanding, by religious aspirations. At first he turned to the Slav gods, and his reign was inaugurated by anew growth of paganism. On the high sandy cliffs of Kief, which tower above the Dnieper, he erected idols ; among them one of Rerun, with a head of silver and a beard of gold. Two Varan- gians, faiher and son, both Christians, were stabbed at the feet of Rerun. But the day of the ancient gods was passed ; Vlad- imir was undergoing the religious crisis in which all Russia labored. He felt other faiths were necessary to him ; so, ac- cording to the testimony of Nestor, he took it into his head, like the Japanese of to-day, to institute a search after the best re- ligion. His ambassadors forthwith visited Mussulmans, Jews, and Catholics : the first represented by the Bulgarians of the Volga, the second probably by the Khazars or the Jewish Khar- aites, the third by the Poles and Germans. Vladimir declined Islamism, which prescribed circumcision and forbade "the wine, which was dear to the Russians ; " Judaism, whose disciples wandered through the earth; and Catholicism, whose cere- monies appeared wanting in magnificence. The deputies that he sent to Constantinople, on the contrary, returned awe- stricken. The splendors of Saint Sophia, the brilliancy of the sacerdotal vestments, the magnificence of the ceremonies, heightened by the presence of the Emperor and his Court, the patriarch and the numerous clergy, the incense, the religious songs, had powerfully appealed to the imagination of the bar- barians. One final argument triumphed over the scruples of Vladimir. "If the Greek religion had not been the best, your grandmother Olga, the wisest of mortals, would not have adopted it," said the boyards. The proud Vladimir did not in- tend to beg for baptism at the hands of the Greeks — he would conquer it by his own arms, and ravish it like a prey. He de- scended into the Taurid and besieged Cherson, the last city of this region that remained subject to the Emperors. A certain Anastasius, possibly from religious motives, betrayed his coun- try. Rendered prouder than ever by this important conquest, 6o tfIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. Vladimir sent an embassy to the Greek Emperors Basil and Constantine, demanding tlieir sister Anne in marriage, and threatening, in case of refusal, to marcli on Constantinople; It was not the first time the barbarians had made this proposal to the Greek Caesars, and Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself teaches his successors how to get rid of these inconvenient de- mands. But on this occasion the Emperors, who were occupied with revolts in the interior, thought themselves driven to con- sent, on condition that Vladimir was baptized. It was in Cher- son that the Russian prince received baptism, and celebrated his marriage with the heiress of the Emperors of Rome. The priests he brought to Kief were his captives ; the sacred orna- ments, the holy relics with which he enriched and sanctified his capital, were his booty. When he returned to Kief it was as an Apostle (Jsapostolos), but as an armed Apostle that he cate- chized his people. The idols were pulled down amid the tears and fright of the people. Perun was flogged and thrown into the Dnieper. They still show on the side of the Kievan cliffs the rock called " The Devil's Leap ; " and further away, the the place where Perun was thrown up by the waters on the shore. The people instantly rushed to worship him, but the soldiers of Vladimir cast him back into the river. Then, b\- Vladimir's order, all the Kievans, men and women, masters and slaves, old people and little children, plunged naked into the consecrated waters of the old pagan stream, while the Greek priests standing on the bank with Vladimir read the baptismal service. After a sturdy resistance, the Novgorodians were in like manner forced to hurl Perun into the Volkhoff, and enter it themselves. We have already seen that the Russians had not lost all recollections of their ancient gods, and that nature was still the home of a whole world of deities. A long time had to pass before Christianity could penetrate into their hearts and cus- toms. M. Bouslaef assures us that, even in the 12th centurv, Christian rites M^ere only practised by the higher classes. The peasants kept their old pagan ceremonies, and continued to contract their marriages " around the bush of broom." They preserved even longer their faith in magicians and sorcerers, who were often of more authority than the priests. Vladimir, at any rate, wished to prepare the transformation. It does not appear that he persecuted the idolaters, but he occupied him- self in adorning the churches of his capital, which he had shorn of its idols. On the spot where Perun stood he built the church of Saint Basil, the Greek name which he had taken at his bap- tism. On the place where the two Varangian martyrs had been elaiw by his orders he raised the church of the D^ciatine or the HISTOR Y OF R USSTA. ^1 Dime, embellished and ornamented with Greek inscriptions by artists who came from the South. He founded schools, where boys studied the holy books translated into Slavonic, but he was obliged to compel the attendance of the children, whose parents, convinced that writing was a dangerous kind of magic, shed tears of despair. Nestor cannot sufficiently praise the reformation of Vladimir after his baptism. He was faithful to his Greek wife, he no longer loved war, he distributed his revenues to the churches and to the poor, and, in spite of the increase of crime, hesitated to inflict capital puhishment. " I fear to sin," he re- plied to his councillors. It was the bishops who had to recall to him the fact that " criminals must be chastised, though with discretion," and that the country must not be left a prey to the Patzinaks. Vladimir, who reminded us formerly of a Northman of the type of Robert the Devil, suddenly becomes the " good King Robert " of Russia. His wars with the Patzinaks are recorded by Nestor with all kinds of episodes borrowed from the epic poetry. There is the Russian champion who tears in pieces the furious bull, or stifles a Patzinak giant in his arms; there are the inhabitants of Biel- gorod, who, having been reduced to famine by the barbarians, let down into wells two large caldrons, one full of hydromel and the other of meal, to make the Patzinaks believe these were nat- ural productions of the soil. We see in the popular songs of what a marvellous cycle of legends Vladimir has become the centre ; but in these bylinas he is neither Vladimir, the Baptist, nor the Saint Vladimir of the orthodox Church, but a solar hero, successor of the divinities whom he destroyed. To the people, still pagans at heart, Vladimir is always the " Beautiful Sun " of Kief. lAROSLAF THE GREAT (1016-IO54) UNION OF RUSSIA SPLEN- DOR OF KIEF. Vladimir died in 1015, leaving a large number of heirs by his numerous wives. The partition that he made between them of his states tells us what was the extent of Russia at that epoch. To laroslaf he gave Novgorod ; to Isiaslaf, son of Rogneda, and grandson of the Varangian Rogvolod, Polotsk ; to Boris, Rostof ; to Gleb, Mouroni (these two principalities were in the Finn country) ; to Sviatoslaf, the Drevlians ; to Vsevolod, Vladimir in Volhynia ; to Mstislaf, Tmoutorakan, the Tamatarchia of the Greeks; finally, to his nephew Sviatopolk, the son of his brother and victim laropolk, the principality of Tourof, in the country of Minsk, founded by a Varangian named Tour, who did not be- 6a HISTORY OF RUSSIA. long to the "blood of princes " any more than Askold and Dir. The history of Vladimir's successors recalls that of the heirs of Clovis. The murder of the sons of Clodomir is paralleled by the assassination of Boris and Gleb, sons of Isapostolos, by the order of Sviatopolk, who usurped the throne of Kief. His two victims were canonized, and henceforth became inseparable, and are, as it were, the Dioscuri of orthodoxy. The prince of the Drevlians perished by the same hand. laroslaf resolved to avenge his brothers and to save himself. At this moment, how- ever, he had alienated his Novgorodian subjects, having en- ticed the principal citizens into his castle, and then treacher- ously slain them. When he learnt the crimes of Sviatopolk, he trembled for his own life, and threw himself on the generosity of those he had so cruelly outraged. He wept for his sins be- fore them, and besought their help. " Prince," replied the Novgorodians, with one voice, " you have destroyed our breth- ren, but we are ready to fight for you." After a bloody war, in which Boleslas the Brave, king of Poland took part, the usurper fled, and died miserably in exile. laroslaf had still to defend himself against the Prince of Polotsk and Mstislaf of Tmou- torakan. The latter had acquired great fame from his wars with the Khazars, whom, with the aid of the Greek Emperor, Basil n., he finally annihilated, and with the Tcherkess, whose chief, a giant named Rhededia, he slew in single combat. At last, laroslaf remained the sole master of Russia, and reigned gloriously at Kief. He recalls Charles the Great by some suc- cessful wars, but particularly by his code of laws, his taste for building, and his love of letters in a barbarous age. He owes part of his reputation to the anarchy which followed his death, and which caused his reign to be regretted as the climax of Kievian greatness. In Poland laroslaf revenged on the son of Boleslas the Brave the invasions of his father, and took from him the towns of Red Russia. He fought a bloody battle with the Patzinaks under the walls of Kief, and in their flight part of the van- quished barbarians were drowned in crossing the rivers. It was as fatal a blow to the Patzinaks as that struck by Sviatoslaf at the Khazars : they never recovered it. But in the same man- ner as the defeat of the Khazars opened the way to the Pat- zinaks, the ruin of the Patzinaks opened the way to the Polovtsi. The steppes of the Don were incessantly filled by new hordes from Asia. laroslaf also fouiiht airainst the Finnish and Lilhu- anian tribes. In the country of the Tchouds he founded lounef (Saint George) on the Embach, near the Pei'pus (the Germans called it Dorpat) ; in the country of the Merians, he founded laroslavl on the Upper Volga. Finally, his reign was marked HIS TOR V OF A' USS/A. 63 by a new war wiih Greece, brought on b}' mercantile disputes. His son Vladimir, leader of the expedition, rejected proudly the propositions of the Emperor Consiantine Alonomachus. A naval battle was fought in the liosphorus ; Greek fire and the tempests of the Black Sea dispersed the Russian armament. Part of the army, a body of 8000 men, which was retreating into Russia bv land, was attacked and exterminated bv a Greek force : 800 prisoners were sent to Constantinople, where their eyes were put out. Notwithstanding the bonds of religion which had been riveted between the Byzantines and their neophytes on the Dnieper, the Russians were always dreaded by Constan- tinople. An inscription hidden in the boot of one of the eques- trian statues of Byzantium announced that the day would come when the capital of the empire would fall a prey to the men of the Nortli. The decay of Kievian Russia after the death of laroslaf, adjourned or nullified the fulfilment of this prophecy. The legislation of the Russian Charlemagne is comprised in the Code entitled J^ousska'ia Fravda the Rtissian right or verity. This Code strangely recalls that of Scandinavia. It consecrates private revenge, and the pursuit of an assassin by all the rela- tives of the dead ; it fixes the wcrgehi for different crimes, as well as the fine paid into the royal treasury ; it allows the judi- cial duel; the ordeal by red-hot iron and boiling water; the oath corroborated by those of the compurgaiorcs ; it also estab- lished by the side of the judges nominated by the Prince, a jury of twelve citizens. In the " Rousskaia Pravda," there is not, properly speaking, any criminal law. Capital punishment, death by refinements of cruelty, corporal chastisement, torture to wring out confessions, even a public prison, were all unknown. These are Scandinavian and German principles in all their purity. At this period Russia had almost the same laws as the West. laroslaf occupied a glorious place among the princes of his time. His sister Mary was married to Casimir, king of Poland ; his daughters also became the wives of kings : Elizabeth, of Harold the Brave, king of Norway; Anne, of Henry I., king of France ; Anastasia, of Andrew I., king of Hungary. Of his sons, Vladimir, the eldest, is said to have married Githa, daugh- ter of Harold, king of England; Isiaslaf, a daughter of Micislas II., king of Poland ; Vseslaf, a Greek princess, daughter of Constantine Monomachus ; Viatcheslaf and Igor, two German princesses. laroslaf gave an asylum to the proscribed princes. Saint Olaf, king of Norway, and his two sons ; a prince of Sweden ; Edwin and Edward, sons of Edmund Ironside, king of England, expelled from their country by Knut the Great. The Varangian dynasty was thus mingled with the families of the 64 HTSTOR Y OF RUSSIA, Christian princes, and we may say of the Russia of the nth century, what we can no longer say of the Russia of the i6th century, that she was a European State. To Kief was destined the lot of Anchen, the capital of Charles the Great, which, glorious in his life, after his death fell into decay. Under laroslaf, kief reached the highest pinnacle of splendor. He wished to make his capital the rival of Con- stantinople ; like Byzantium, she had her cathedral and her Golden Gate. The Grand Prince also founded the monastery of Saint Irene, of which only a few ruins now remain, and those of Saint George and the Catacombs, the latter made illustrious by the virtues of its first superiors, Saint Theodosius and Saint Antony. He repaired the church of the Dime, and surrounded the city with ramparts. The population began to increase, and the lower town to grow at the feet of the upper. Kief, situated on the Dnieper, the great road to Byzantium, seemed to be part of Greece. Adam of Bremen calls her ceniula sceptrl Constatifino- folitani et clarissimuin dcciis Gnecice, She was the rendezvous of the merchants from Holland, Hungary, Germany, and Scandi- navia, who lived in separate quarters of the town. She had eight markets, and the Dnieper was constantly covered with merchant-sliips. laroslaf had not enough Greek artists to dec- orate all the churches, nor enough priests to serve them, for Kief was at that time " the city of 400 churches," so much ad- mired by the writers of the West. What she was then we may partly realize by seeing what she is still at certain seasons of the year. The Monastery of the Catacombs, with the incor- ruptible bodies of its ascetics and thaumaturges, some of whom bricked themselves up while living, in the cell which was to be their sepulchre, draws annually, and especially at the Assump- tion, 50,000 pilgrims. Saint Sophia was the pride of Kief ; the mosaics of the time of laroslaf still exist, and the traveller may admire on the " indestructible wall " the colossal image of the Mother of God, the Last Supper, with a double apparition of Christ, presenting to six of His disciples His body, and to six others His blood, the images of Saints and Doctors, the Angel of tlie Annunciation of the Virgin, The frescoes which have been preserved or carefully restored are still numerous, and everywhere cover the pillars, the walls, and the vaults floored with gokl. The inscriptions are not in Slavonic, but in Greek, laroslaf did not forget Novgorod, his first residence, and there he built another Saint Sophia, one of the most precious monu- ments of the Russian past. Like Charles the Great, he set up schools. Vladimir had founded one at Kief; laroslaf instituted that of Novgorod for 300 boys. He sent for Greek singers from Byzantium, who taught the Russian clergy. Coins were struck HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 65 for him by Greek artists, with his Slavonic name in Slav on one side, and his Christian name, loury (George), on the other Like all other barbarian neophytes, laroslaf pushed devotion into superstition. He caused the bones of his uncles, who had died unconverted, to be disinterred and baptized. He died in 1054, and his stone sarcophagus is one of the most precious ornaments of Saint Sophia. VARANCJIAN-RUSSIAN SOCIETY AT THE TIME OF lAROSLAF. Varangian-Russian society presents more than one analogy '\ith tlie society which was developed in Gaul after the Frank conquest. The government of the Varangian princes some- wiiat resembled that of the Merovingian kings. The germ of the future State lay in the droi/Jifia, the band of warriors surrounding the prince, as in Gaul it lay in the tricste. The droi/Jinniki, like the antrustions, were the faithful followers, the men of the prince. They formed his guard, and were his natural counc'l in all affairs, public or private. He could constitute them a court of justice, nominate them individ- ually vo'ievodes or governors of fortresses, or possadniks or lieutenants in the large towns. In the same way as the body surrounding the Merovingian kings was not composed so entirely of Franks, but that shortly Gallo-Romans crept into the antrus- tions, so the droujina of the Russian princes admitted many different elements, not only Varangian but Slav. INIstislaf, prince of Tmoutorakan, had enrolled lasses and Kassogans ; a Lithuanian latiague is mentioned as being in the droujina of Igor, a Hungarian in that of Boris. The military class did not form at that time a caste apart in Russia anymore than in Gaul ; Saint Vladimir took into his service the son of a leather-worker who had vanquished the Patzinak giant ; his maternal uncle Dobrvna was not even a free man, I'he prince in the middle of his d}-ouji7ia seems to be only the first among his equals ; all that he had seems to belong to his men. We see them eat at the same table, and listen to- gether to the songs of the blind poets who accompanied them- selves on the gouzzla. It was as it were a family of soldiers, from which one day the Russian administration was to come. The prince had great respect for the demands of his men. Those of Vladimir complained one day that they had to eat from wooden bowls. He gave them silver ones, and added, " I could not buy myself a droujina with gold and silver ; but with -^drou- ii/ia I can acquire gold and silver, as did my father and my grandfather," The prince did nothing without P'^nsulting \\is 66 IflSTORY OF RUSSIA. droit jinniki. It was this that prevented Sviatoslaf from listening to the exhortations of Olga ; he said that " his d)-oujina would mock him " if he became a Christian. The administration of the Varangian princes was very elemen- tary. Let us see what the Arab writer Ibn-Dost says of the way they distributed justice : " When a Russian has a grievance with another, he summons him before the tribunal of the prince, where both present themselves. When the prince has given sentence, his orders are executed ; if both parties are displeased by the judgment, the affair must be decided by arms. He whose sword cuts sharpest gains his cause. At the moment of the combat the relations of the two adversaries appear armed, and surround the space shut off. The combatants then come to blows, and the victor may impose any conditions he pleases." After justice, the most important of the princely functions was the collection of the tributes. The amount was fixed by the prince himself. Oleg imposed on the Drevlians a tax of a marten's skin for every house. The raising of taxes was always very arbitrary. Nestor's account of the death of Igor is a lively picture of the political customs of the time ; we might imagine ourselves reading a page of Gregory of Tours about the sons of Clovis, for example the expedition of Thierry in Arvernia. " In the year 945 the droiijhia of Igor said to him, 'The men of Sveneld are richly j^rovided with weapons and garments, while we go naked ; lead us, prince, to collect the tribute, so that thou and we may become rich.' Igor consented, and conducted them to the Drevlians to raise the tribute. He increased the first imposts, and did them violence, he and his men ; after having taken all he wanted, he returned to his city. While on the road he bethought himself and said to his droujina. ' Go on with the tribute ; I will go back to try and get some more out of them.' Leaving the greater part of his men to go on their way, he re- turned with only a few, to the end that he might increase his riches. The Drevlians, when thev learnt that Igor was re- turning, held council with Mai their prince. ' When the wolf enters the sheepfold he slays the whole flock, if the shepherd does not slay him. Thus it is with us and Igor ; if we do not destroy him, we are lost.' Then they sent deputies and said to him, ' Why dost thou come anew unto us.' Hast thou not col- lected all the tribute ?' But Igor would not hear them, so the Drevlians came out of the town of Korosthenes, and slew Igor and his men, for they were but a few." For the government and defence of the country the prince established the chief of his droiijinniki in different towns, sup- ported by adequate forces. Tims Rurik distributed the towns of his appanage : he gave to one of his itten Polotsk, to anothei HTSTOKY OF RUSSIA. 67 Rostof, to a third Bielozersk. A principality was in some sort divided into fiefs, but the fiefs were only temporary, and always revokable. For the defence of the frontiers new towns weie built, where native soldiers kept watch. Social conditions from the 9th to the 12th century were as unequal as in the West. The droujina of the prince, which speedily absorbed all the Slav and Finn chiefs, constituted an aristocracy. Siiil we must distinguish in it those who were only simple guards or gridi (gi/din among the Scandinavians), the vioiiges or men {vir in Latin, baron in French), and the boyafds who were the most illustrious of all. The freemen of the Rus- sian soil were " the people " or lioudi. The gosti or merchants were not at this period a class apart ; it was in fact the warriors or the princes who pursued commerce with arms in their hands. Oleg was disguised as a merchant when he surprised Kief and slew Askold and Dir; the Byzantines mistrusted these terrible guests, and assigned them a separate quarter, closely watched, of Constantinople. The rural population, on whom the weight of the growing State was beginning to rest, was already less free than in primi- tive times. The peasant was called jwtvv/t' (perhaps derived from smerdief, to stink), or jnougik, insulting diminutive oimouge, man. Later he became the Christian par excellence, krestianine. Below the peasant, whose situation recalls that of the Roman colonus, were the slaves properly so called, rain or kJinlopy. The slave might have been taken in war, bought in a market, born in the house of his master, or have lost his liberty by the mere fact of fulfilling certain ofiices, such as that of house-steward. War was, however, the principal source of slavery. Ibn-Dost relates that the Russians, when they marched against another people, did not depart without having destroyed everything; they carried off the women, and reduced the men to slavery. They main- tained a great slave-trade with foreign nations. " From Russia," said Sviatoslaf, the conqueror of Bulgaria, " will be brought skins, wax, honey, and slaves." PROGRESS OF CHRISTIANITV — SOCIAL, POLITICAL, LITERARY, AND ARTISTIC RESULTS. Russia had become Christian : it is the chief event in her primitive history. An important fact is that her Christianity was received not from. Rome, like that of the Poles and other Western Slavs, but from Constantinople. Although the separa- tion between the Churches of the East and West was not yet fully consummated, it was evident that Russia would be engaged 6g HTSTO/^Y OF RUSSIA. in what the Latins called " the schism." It is usually considered in the West that this fact exercised an evil influence on Russia, Now let us see the opinion of a Russian historian, M. Bestoujet- Rioumine, on the subject. "What is no less important is that Christianity came to us from Byzantium, where the Church put forth no pretensions of governing the State, a circumstance which Dreserved us from struggles betv.een the secular, a national, and the spiritual, a foreign power. Excluded from the religious unity of the Romano-Germanic world, we have perhaps gained more than we have lost. The Roman Church made her ap- pearance with German missionaries in Slavonic lands ; and if she did not everywhere bring with her material servitude, she at least introduced an intellectual slavery by forcing men to support for- eign interests, by bringing among them foreign elements, and by establishing in all parts a sharp division between the higher classes who wrote and spoke in Latin, and the lower classes who spoke the national tongue and were without literature." No doubt an ecclesiastical language which, thanks to Cyril and Methodius, mingled with the national language, and became intelligible to all classes of society; a purely national Church, which was subject to no foreign sway; the absolute independence of the civil power and of national development, were the ines- timable advantages that Byzantine Christianity brought into Russia. But if the Russian State was free from all obligations to Rome, she had nothing to hope for from her. She could not reckon in her days of peril on the help that Spain received when she grappled with the Moors; Germany in her crusades against the Slavs and Finns ; Hungary in her national war with the Turks. Separated from the West by difference of faith, Russia in the time of the Mongols, like Greece at the epoch of the Ot- toman invasion, saw no Europe arming in her defence. Her princes were neither laid under the pontifical interdicts, like Robert of France, nor reduced to implore pardon at the feet of a Gregory VII., like Henry IV. of Germany; humiliations always followed by a swift revenge, as on the day when Bar- barossa expelled Alexander III. from Italy, and Philip the Hand- some caused Boniface to be arrested in Anagni. Humiliations still more cruel awaited the Russians at the court of the Mongols. Another misfortune attending the entrance of the Russians into the Greek Church is, that they found themselves separated by religion froir> the races to whom they were bound by a cominon origin, and who spoke almost their own tongue. It was the difference of religion which inflamed their long rivalry with the Poles, and which at present deprives them of much influence over part of the Slavs. This same difference of religion delayed for them the benefits of civilization resulting from the RenaiS' nrSTORY OF RUSSIA. (59 sance of the West, but it spared them the terrible crisis of the wars of the Reformation. Oriental Christianity, with the Byzantine civilization that was inseparable from it, produced in time a considerable transform^ ation in Russia, The first effect of Christianity was to reform society, and draw closer family ties. It condemned polygamy, and forbade equal divisions between the children of a slave and those of the lawful wife. Society resisted this new principle for some time. Saint Vladimir, even after his conversion, divided his possessions equally among the children the Church regarded as natural and those she considered legitimate. In the long run Christianity prevailed, and by the abolition of polygamy the Russian family ceased to be Asiatic, and became European. Christianity prescribed new virtues, and gave the ancient barbaric virtues of hospitality and benevolence a more elevated character. Yladimir Monomachus charged his children to receive stran- gers hospitably, because, says he, they have it in their power to give you a good or evil reputation. The hospitality of primitive peoples may often be explained by their need of merchants and foreigners. Pagan Slavs were only obliged to help those of the same association ; warriors, the members of the same droiijiiia ; peasants, those of the same commune; merchants or artisans, those of the same artel. Christianity enjoined benevolence to all the world, without hope of reward in this life. It rendered honorable, weakness, poverty, manual labor. If it prescribed excessive humility, it was useful at least as a reaction against the brutality of overweening pride. Between these two societies, aristocratic and religious, which rest on opposite and equally exaggerated principles, there would one day be room for lay and civil society. The influence of Christian principles was rather slow among these excitable a. id ardent natures, but at last we see in Russia, as in the West, princes abjure their pride and seek the peace of tlie cloister, like the good King Robert, or Saint Henry. In ihe end it became an established custom with the Russian sovereigns that, on the approach of death, they should be tonsured, change their worldly for a monkish name, and so die in the garb of one of the religious orders. From a political point of view, the influence of Byzantine Christianity was bound in the long run to cause a complete revolution. For what was a Russian prince, after all, but the head of a band, surrounded by the men of his droujina, and in a sense a foreigner to the land he governed and on which he levied tribute ? Properly speaking, a Russian prince had no subjects. yo HISTORY OF RUSSIA. The natives might always expel him — his droujifiniki were always free to forsake him. The princes of Kief were no more sovereigns in the modern or Roman sense of the term, than Merwig or Clodowig the long- haired. But the priests who came from Constantinople brought with them an ideal of government ; in a little while it was that of the Russians M'ho entered the ranks of the clergy. This Greek ideal was the Emperor, the Tzar of Constantinople, heir of Augustus and Constantine the Great, Vicar of God upon earth, the typical monarch on whom the eyes of the barbarians of Gaul as well as those of Scythia were fixed. He was a sovereign in the fullest sense of the word, as, by a legal fiction, the people by the Lex Rcgia was supposed to have yielded its power to the \mpejator. He had subjects, and subjects only. Alone he made the law ; he zvas the law. He had neither droujinniki nor an- irnstions that he placed in such and such a town, but an host of movable functionaries, the inviolate Roman hierarchy, by means of whom his all-powerful will penetrated to the remotest parts of his dominions. He was not the leader of a band of exacting soldiers, free to quit his service for that of another, but master of a standing army, to guard both frontiers and capital. He did not consider his states as a patrimony to be divided between his children, but transmitted to his successor the Roman Empire in its integrity. He inherited his power, not only from his people, but from God. His imperial ornaments had, 'like his person, a sacred character : and whenever the barbarian kings demanded one of them at Constantmople, whether it was a crown enriched with precious stones, the purple mantle, the sceptre or the brode- guitjs^ (leggings), they were answered, that when God gave the Empire to Constantinople, He sent these vestments by a holy angel ; that they were not the work of man, and that they were laid on the altar, and only worn, even by the Emperor, on solemn occasions. Leo the Khazar was said to have been smit- ten with a fatal ulcer for having put on the crown without per- mission of the patriarch. An empire one and indivisible, resting on a standing armv, a hierarchy of functionaries, a national clergy, and a body of jur- isconsults, — such was the Roman Empire, and such it revived in the monarchies of the 17th century. This was the conception of the Stale, unknown to both Slavs and Varangians, that the Greek priests brought to Russia. Eor a long while the reality answered little to the ideal ; the princes continued in their wills to divide their soldiers and their lands among their children ; but the idea did not perish, and if it was never realized in Kievian Russia, it found a more propitious soil in Muscovite Russia. Legislation likewise felt the influence of Christianity. Theft, murder, and HIS IVRY OF R USSIA. y I assassination were not locked upon by the Church as private offences for which tlie aggrieved persons could take reprisals or accept a tocrgcld. They were crimes to be punished by human justice in the name of God. Yox private revenge IJyzantine influence substituted a public l)enalty ; for the fine it substituted corporal punishment, repug- nant to the free barbarian, and to the instinctive sentiment of human dignity. Imprisonment, convict labor, flogging, torture, nuiiilation, death itself, inflicted by more or less cruel means ; such was the penal code of the Byzantines. The Greek bishoj^s of the time of St. Vladimir had wished that brigands should be put to death, but the custom was, and long remained, against it. Vladimir, after having employed this supreme means of repression, returned to the system of the wer- gelJ, which besides helped to fill the treasury. The Byzantine mode of procedure likewise rejected the judicial duel, the judg- ment of God and the cotnpurgato7-cs long defended by habit. But, as in Gaul Roman law existed for Church officers and part of the naiives, side by side with the Frank or Burgundian law, so in Russia the Byzantine codes of Justinian and Basil the Macedonian, were established at the side of the Scandinavian code of laroslaf. During many centuries the two systems of legislation existed together, each being slightly influenced by the other, to the time when they were mingled in a new code, the Oulojenie of Ivan the Great,' and the Soudebnik of Ivan the Terrible. The Bvzantine literature which found its wav into Russia consisted not onlv of the sacred books, but also of the Fathers of the Church, among whom we may reckon some writers of the first order, like Saint Basil and Saint John Chrysostom ; lives of the saints, the inexhaustible source of new poetry; chronicles destined to serve as models to the Russian annalists ; philosophical and scientific books ; even romances such as ' Barlaam and Josaphat,' ' Salomon and Kitovras,' &c. Though this literature was partly the fruit of B}zantine decay, we may perceive how it implanted fresh ideas in the mind of a young nation, and would largely influence the moral life of the individ ual, and public and family life. We shall see up to what point Russian society of the Middle Ages was modelled on the exam- ples afforded by this literature. Finally, it must not be forgotten that Christianity brought music in its train to a people whose music was highly primitive, and architecture to a people who had absolutely none. It was she who, to use a Western expression, illuminated the Russian cities with magnificent churches, and her golden cupolas towered above the ramparts of mud that begirt the cities. 72 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER VI. RUSSIA DIVIDED INTO PRINCIPALITIES. SUPREMACY AND FALL OF KIEF, I054-I169. Distribution of Russia into principalities — Unity in division — Tlie successors of laroslaf the Great — Wars about the right of headshi]) of the royal family, and the throne of Kief — Vladimir ^lonomachus — Wars betweeo the heirs of Vladimir Mouomachus — Fall of Kief. DISTRIBUTION OF RUSSIA INTO PRINCIPALITIES — UNITY IN DIVISION. The period that extends from 1054, the year of laroslaf'a death, to 1224, the year of the first appearance of the Tatars, or to take the French chronology, from the reign of Henry I, to the death of Philip Augustus, is one of the most confused and troubled in Russian history. As the barbarian custom of di\i- sion continued to prevail over the Byzantine ideas of political unity, the national territory was ceaselessly partitioned. The princely anarchy of Eastern Europe has its parallel in the feudal anarchy of the West. M. Pogodine reckons during this period, sixty-four principalities which had an existence more or less prolonged, 293 princes who disputed the throne of Kief and other domains, and eighty-three civil wars, in some of which the whole country was engaged. There were besides foreign ft'ars to augment this immense heap of historical facts. Against 'he Polovtsi alone the chroniclers mention eighteen campaigns, vhile these barbarians made no less than forty-six invasions of R-Ussia. It is impossible to follow the national chroniclers in the minute details of their annals.; we will only treat of the principalities which lasted some time, and the facts which were the most important. The ancient names of the Slav tribes have everywhere dis- appeared, or only remain in the nam(!s of some of the towns, for example that of the Pololchanes in Polotsk, and that of the Severians in Novgorcnl Severski. The elements of which Russia was now composed were no longer tribes, but principalities. We hear no more of the Krivitches or the Drevlians, but of the HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 73 principalities of Smolensk and Volhynia. These little States were perpetually disnieniberetl at each new partition between the sons of a prince, and then were reconstituted to be divided anew into appanages. Notwithstanding all these vicissitudes, some of them main- tained a steady existence, corresponding to certain topographi- cal or ethnographical conditions. Without speaking of the dis- tant principality of Tmoutorakan, situated at the foot of the Caucasus in the centre of Turkish and Circassian tribes, and reckoning eight successive princes, the following are the great divisions of Russia from the nth to the 13th century: — 1. The principality of Smolensk occupied the important ter- ritory which is, as it were, the central point in the mountain svstem of Russia. It comprehends the ancient forest of Okof, where three of the largest Russian rivers, the Volga, the Dnii'- per, and the Dwina, take their rise. Hence the political import- ance of Smolensk, attested by all the wars to gain possession of her ; hence, also, her commercial prosperity. We must observe that all her towns were built on one or the other of these three great rivers ; all the commerce, therefore, of ancient Russia passed through her hands. Besides Smolensk, we must mention Mojai'sk, Viasma, and Toropetz, which was the capital of a secondary principality, the property of two celebrated princes, Mstislaf the Brave {khrabryi) and Mstislaf the Bold (^Oudalot). 2. The principality of Kief was Roiiss, Russia in the strict sense of the word. Her situation on the Dnieper, the neighbor- hood of the Greek Empire, the fertility of the Black Land^ for long secured to this State the supremacy over the other Russian principalities. On the south she bordered directly on the nomads of the steppe, against whom her princes were forced to raise a barrier of frontier towns. They often took these bar- barians into their pay, granted them lands, and constituted them into military colonies. The principality of Pcre'iaslavl was a dependence of Kief ; Vychegorod, Bielgorod, Tripoli, Torchesk, were at times erected into principalities for princes of the same family. 3. On the tributaries of the right bank of the Dnieper, notably the Soja, the Desna and the Scniic, extended the two principalities of Ir/ieniii^of, with Starodoub and Loubetch ; and of No7'gorod-SeTerski\ with Poutivl, Koursk, and Briansk. The principality of Tchernigof, which reached towards the Upper Oka, had therefore one foot in the basin of the Volga; her princes, the Olgovitches, were the most formidable rivals of Kief. The princes- of Severski were always occupied with their ceaseless wars against the Polovtsi, their neighbors on the south. It was 74 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. a prince of Severski whose exploits against these barbarians formed the subject of a sort of cJianson de gcste, the Soni^ of Igor, or the Account of the Expedition of Igor (S7o7'0 o polkon Igore'vie.) 4. Another principaUty, whose very existence consisted in endless war against the nomads, was the double principality of Riazivi and Mourom. Her principal towns were Riazan, Mou- rom, Pereiaslavl-Riazanski, situated on the Oka, Kolomna at the junction of the Moskowa with the Oka, and the Pronsk on the Prona. The Upper Don formed its western boundary. This principality was placed in the very heart of the Mouromians and Mechtcheraks, Finnish tribes. The reputation of her in- habitants, who were reckoned warlike in character, and rough and brutal in manners, was no doubt partly the result of the mixture of the Russian race with the ancient inhabitants of the country, and of their perpetual and bloody struggle with the nomad tribes. 5. The double principalities of Souzdal, with their towns of Souzdal, Rostof, lourief-Polski on the Kolocha, Vladimir on the Kliazma, laroslavl, and Pereiaslavl-Zaliesski, were situated on the Volga and the Oka amongst the thickest of northern forests, and in the middle of the Finnish tribes of Mouromians, Merians, Vesses, and Tcheremisses. Although placed at the furthest ex- tremity of the Russian world, Souzdal exercised an important influence over it. \\& shall find her princes now establishing a certain political authority over Novgorod and the Russia of the Lakes, the result of a double economic dependence ; now intervening victoriously in the quarrels of the Russia of the Dneiper. The Souzdalians w^ere rough and warlike, like the Riazanese. Already we can distinguish among these two peo- ples the characteristics of anew nationality. That which divides them from the Kievians and the men of Novgorod-Severski, oc- cupied like themselves in the great war wiih the barbarians, is the fact that the Russians of the Dnieper sometimes mingled their blood with that of their enemies, and became fused with the nomad, essentially mobile Turkish races, whilst the Russians of the Oka and the Volga united with the Finnish tribes, agri- cultural and essentially sedentary. This distinction between the two foreign elements that entered the Slav blood, had doubtless contributed to the difference in the characters of the two branches of the Russian race. From the nth to the i3lh cen- tury, in passing from the basin of the Dneiper to the basin of the Volga, we can already watch the formation of Great and Little Russia. 6. The principalities of Kief, Tchernigof, Novgorod-Severski, Riazan, Mourom, and Souzdal, situated on the side of tha HISTORY OF RUSSIA. yc Steppe with its devastating hordes, formed the frontier Slates, the Marches of Russia. The same role, on the nortii-west oppo- site the Lithuanians, Letts, and Tchouds, fell to the principality of Folotsk, which occupied the basin of the I3wina ; and to the republican principalities of Novgorod and Fskof ox\ the lakes Ilmen and Peipus. To the principality of Polotsk, that of Minsk was attached, which lay in the basin of the Dnieper. The possession of Minsk, thanks to its situation, was often disputed by the Grand Princes of Kief. To Novgorod belonged the towns of Torjok, Volok-Lamski. Izborsk, and Veliki-Louki, which were at times capitals of particular States. South-east Russia comprehended — i. Volhyiiia in the fan- shaped distribution of rivers formed by the Pripet and its tribu- taries, with Vladimir-in-Volhynia, Loutsk, Tourof, Brest, and even Lublin, which is certainly Polish. 2. Gallicia proper, or Red Russia, in the basin of the San, the Dniester, and the Pripet, whose ancient inhabitants the White Croats seemed to have sprung from the stock of the Danubian Slavs. Her chief towns were Galitch, founded by Vladimirko about 1 144, Peremysl, Terebovl, and Zvenigorod. The neighborhood of Hungary and Poland gave a special character to these principalities, as well as a more advanced civilization. The epic songs speak of Gal- licia, the native land of the hero Diouk Stepanovitch, as a fabuloush'-rich country. The Tale of ike Expedition 0/ Igor gwes us a high idea of the power of these princes. " laroslaf Os- momysl of Gallicia! " cried the poet to one of them, " thou art seated very high on thy throne of wrought gold; with thy regi- ments of iron thou sustainest the Carpathians ; thou closest the gates of the Danube ; thou barrest the way to the king of Hun- gary ; thou openest at thy will the gates of Kief, and with thine arrows thou strikest from afar ! " The disposition of these fifteen or sixteen principalities con- firms all that we have said about the essential unity of the con- figuration of the Russian soil. Not one of the river-basins forms an isolated and closed region. There is no line of heights to establish barriers between them or political frontiers. The greater number of the Russian principalities belong to the basin of the Dneiper, but extend everywhere beyond its limits. The principality of Kief, with Pereiaslavl, is nearly the only one completely confined within it ; but Volhynia puts the basin of the Dnieper in communication with those of the Bug and the Vistula, Polotsk with the basins of the Dnieper and the Dwina, Novgorod-Severski with the basin of the Don, Tchernigof and Smolensk with the basin of the Volga. Water-courses ever}'- wher*, established communications between the principalities. 76 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. Already Russia, though broken up into appanages, had the germs of a great united empire. The slight cohesiun of nearly all the States, and their frequent dismemberments, prevented them from ever becoming the homes of real nationalities. The principalities of Smolensk, Tchernigof, and Riazan have never possessed as definite an historic existence as the duchy of Bre- tagne or the county of Toulouse in France, or the duchies of Saxony, Suabia, and Bavaria in Germany. The interests of the princes, their desire to create appanages for each of their children, caused a fresh division of the Russian territory at the death of every sovereign. There was, however, a certain cohesion in the midst of all these vicissitudes. There was a unity of race and language, the more sensible, notwith- standing all dialectic differences, because the Russian people was surrounded everywhere, except at the south-west, by entirel^^' strange races, Lithuanians, Tchouds, Finns, Turks, Magyars. There was a unity of religion ; the Russians differed from nearly all their neighbors, fc" in contrast with the Western Slavs, Poles, Tcheques, and Moravians, they represented a particular form of Christianity, not owning any tie to Rome, and rejecting Latin as the language of the Church. There was the unity of historical development, as up to that time the Russo- Slavs had all followed the same road, had accepted Greek civili- zation, submitted to the Varangians, pursued certain great en- terprises in common — such as the expeditions against Byzantium and the war with the nomads. Finally, there was political unity, since after all in Gallicia as in Novgorod, on the Dnieper as in the forests of Souzdal, it was the same family that filled all the thrones. All these princes descended froni Rurik, Saint Vladi- mir, and Laroslaf the Great. Tiie fact that the wars that laid waste the country were civil wars, was a new proof of this unity. The dilTerent parts of Russia could not consider themselves strangers one to the other, when they saw the princes of Tcher- nigof and Souzdal taking up arms to prove which of them was the eldest, and which consequently had most right to the title of Grand Prince and the throne of Kief. There were descend- ants of Rurik who governed successively the remotest States of Russia, and who, after having reigned at Tmoutorakan on the Straits of lenikale, at Novgorod the Great, at Toropetz in the country of Smolensk, ended by establishing their right to reign at Kief. In spite of the division into appanages, Kief continued tc be the centre of Russia. It was there that Oleg and Igor hac reigned, that Vladimir had baptized his people, and larosla' had established the metropolis of the faith, of arts, and of na- tional civilization. It is not surprising that she should have HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 77 been more fiercely disputed than all the other Russian cities. Russia had many//-///a'j'; but she had only one Grand Frlnct (^Veliki-kniaz) — the one who reigned at Kief. He had a rec- ognized supremacy over the others which he owed not only to the importance of his capital, but to his position as eldest of the royal family. Kiyf, the mother of Russian cities, was always to belong to \\\q eldest oi the descendants of Rurik; this was the consequence of the patriarchal system of the Slavs, as was the custom of divi?ion. When the Grand Prince of Kief died, his son was not his rightful heir; but his uncle or brother, or which ever of the princes was the eldest. Then the whole of Russia, from the Celtic to the Black Sea, held itself in readiness to sui> port the claims of this or that candidate. It was the same with the other principalities, where the possessors of different ap- panages aspired to reign in the metropolis of the region. The civil wars, then, themselves strengthened the sentiments of Russian unity. What were they, after all, but family quarrels ? THE SUCCESSORS OF lAROSLAF THE GREAT WARS FOR THE RIGHTS OF ELDERSHIP AND THE THRONE OF KIEF VLADI- MIR MONOMACHUS. The persistent conflict between the Byzantine law, by which the son inherited the possessions of the father, and the old na- tional law of the Slavs which caused them to pass to the eldest of all the family, was an inexhaustible source of civil wars. Even had the law been perfectly clear, the princes were not always disposed to recognize it. Thus, although the eldest of laroslaf's sons had in his favor the formal will of his father, giv- ing him the throne of Kief, and though laroslaf on his deathbed had desired his other sons to respect their elder brother as they had done their parent, and look on him as their father, Isiaslaf at once found his brother Sviatoslaf ready to take up arms and overturn his throne (1073). He was obliged to seek refuge at the Court of Henry IV. of Germany, who sent an embassy to Kief, commanding Sviatoslaf to restore the throne of Isiaslaf. Sviatoslaf received the German envoys with such courtesy, made them such a display of his treasures and riches, that, dazzled by the gold, they adopted a pacific policy. Henry IV. himself, disarmed by the liberalities of the Russian prince, spoke no more of chastising the usurper. Isiaslaf did not return to Kief till after the death of his rival (1076). When his own death took place (1078), his son Sviatopolk did not succeed him immediatel}^ It w-as necessary that all the 7 8 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. heirs of laroslof should be exhausted. Vsevolod, a brother of Isiaslaf, whose daughter married the Emperor Henry IV., or Henry V. — it is not quite certain which — reigned for fifteen years (1078-1093). In accordance w'ith the same principle, it was not the son of Vsevolod, Vladimir Monomachus, who suc- ceeded his father; but after the crown had been worn by a new generation of princes, it returned to the blood of Isiaslaf. Vladi- mir Monomachus made no opposition to the claims of Sviatopolk Isiaslavitch. " His father was older than mine," he said, "and reigned first in Kief," so he quitted the principality which he had governed with his father, and valiantly defended a2;ainst the barbarians. But everyone was not so respectful to the na- tional law as Vladimir Monomachus. Two terrible civil wars desolated Russia in the reign of the Grand Prince Sviatopolk (1093-1113): one about the princi- pality of Tchernigof, the other about Volhynia and Red Russia. Sviatoslaf had enjoyed Tchernigof as his share, to which Tmoutoraken in the Taurid, jNIourom and Riazan in the Finn country, were annexed. Isiaslaf and Vsevolod, Grand Princes of Kief, had despoiled the sons of Sviatoslaf, their brother, de- priving them of the rich territory of Tchernigof, and only leaving them Tmoutorakan and the Finnish country. Even Vladimir Monomachus, whom we have seen so disinterested, had accepted a share of the spoil. The injured princes were not people to bear this meekly, especially the eldest, Oleg Sviatoslavitch, one of the most enersretic men of the nth century. He called the terrible Polovtsi to his aid, and subjected Russia to frightful ravages. Vladimir Monomachus was moved by these misfor- tunes ; he wrote a touching letter to Oleg, expressing his sorrow for having accepted Tchernigof. At his instigation a Congress of Princes met at Loubetch, on the Dnieper (1097). Seated on the same carpet, they resolved to put an end to the civil wars that handed the country as a prey to the barbarians. Oleg re- covered Tchernigof, and promised to unite with the Grand Prince of Kief and Vladimir Monomachus against the Polovtsi. The treaty was ratified by the oath of each prince, who kissed the cross and swore, "That henceforth the Russian land shall be considered as the country of us all ; and whoso shall dare to arm himself against his brother becomes our common enemy." In Volhynia, the prince, David, was at warwdthhis nephews, Vassilko and Volodar. The Congress of Loubetch had divided the disputed territories between them, but scarcely was the treaty ratified when David went to the Grand Prince Sviatopolk and persuaded him that Vassilko had a design on his life. With the HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 79 light faith hal)iuial to the men of that date, tlie Grand Prince joined David in framing a plot to attract Vassilko to Kief on the occasion of a religious ftte. When he arrived he was loaded with chains, and the Grand Prince convoked the boyarcis and citizens of Kief, to denounce to them the pretended projects of Vassilko. '-Prince," replied the boyards, much embarrassed, "thy tranquillity is dear to us. Vassilko merits death, if it is true that he is thine enemv ; but if he is calumniated bv David, God will avenge on David the blood of the innocent." Thereon the Grand Prince delivered Vassilko to his enemy David, who put out his eyes. The other descendants of laroslaf I. were in- dignant at this crime. Vladimir Monomachus united with Oleg of Tchernigof, his ancient enemy, and marched against Sviato polk. The people and clergy of Kief succeeded in preventing a civil war between the Grand Prince and the confederates of Lou- betch. Sviatopolk was forced to disavow David, and swear to join the avengers of Vassilko. David defended himself with vigor, and summoned to his help, first the Poles, and then the Hungarians. At last a new congress was assembled at Viti- tchevo (iioo), on the left bank of the Dnieper, a town of which a deserted gorodichtcht is all that now remains. As a punish- ment for his crime, David was deprived of his principality of Vladimir in Volhynia, and had to content himself with four small towns. After the new settlement of this affair, Monomachus led the other princes against the Polovtsi, and inflicted on them a bloody defeat ; seventeen of their khans remained on the field of battle. One khan who was made prisoner offered a ransom to Monomachus ; but the prince showed how deeply he felt the injuries of ihe Christians — he refused the gold, and cut the brigand chief in pieces. When Sviatopolk died, the Kievians unanimoush'- declared they would have no Grand Prince but Vladimir Monomachus. Vladimir declined the honor, alleging the claims of Oleg and his brothers to the throne of Kief. During these negotiations, a sedition broke out in the city, and the Jews, whom Sviatopolk had made the instruments of his fiscal exactions, were pillaged. Monomachus was forced to yield to the prayers of the citizens. During his reign (i r 13-1 125) he obtained great successes against the Polovtsi, the Patzinaks, the Torques, the Tcherkesses, and other nomads, He gave an asvlum to the remains of the Kha- zars, who built on the Oster, not far from Tchernigof, the town of Belovega. The ruins of this city that remain to-day prove that this Finnish people, eminently perfectible, and already civ- ilized by the Greeks, were further advanced in the arts of con- srruction and fortification than even the Russians themselves. 8o HISTORY OF K I A. According to one tradition, Monomachus also made war on the Emperor Alexis Comnenus, a Russian army invaded Thrace, and the Bishop of Ephesus is said to have brought gifts to Kief, among others a cup of cornelian that had belonged to Augustus, besides a crown and a throne, still preserved in the Museum at Moscow under the name of the crown and throne of Monoma- chus. It is at present ascertained that they never belonged to Vladimir, but it was the policy of his descendants, the Tzars of Moscow, to propagate this legend. It was of consequence to them to prove that these ensigns of their power were traceable to their Kievian ancestor, and that the Russian Monomachus, grandson of the Greek Monomachus, had been solemnly crowned by the Bishop of Ephesus as sov'ereign of Russia. The Grand Prince made his authority felt in other parts of Russia. A Prince of Minsk who had the temeritv to kindle a civil war, was promptly dethroned, and died in captivity at Kief. The Novgorodians saw many of their boyards kept as hostages, or exiled. The Prince of Vladimir in Volhynia was deposed, and his states given to a son of the Grand Prince. Monomachus has left us a curious paper of instructions that he compiled for his sons, and in which he gives them much good advice, enforced by examples drawn from his own life. " It is neither fasting, nor solitude, nor the monastic life, that will pro- cure you the life eternal — it is well-doing. Do not forget the poor, but nourish them. Do not bury your riches in the bosom of the earth, for that is contrary to the precepts of Christianity.* Be a father to orphans, judge the cause of widows yourself. . . . Put to death no one, be he innocent or gni/fv, for nothing is more sacred than the soul of a Christian Love your wives, but beware lest they get the power over you. When you have learnt anything useful, try to preserve it in your memory and strive ceaselesslv to get knowledsfe. Without ever leaving his palace, my father spoke five languages, a thing that foreigners admire in jis. . . I have made altogether twenty-three campaigns without counting those of minor importance. I have concluded nineteen treaties of peace with the Polovtsi, taken at least loo of their princes prisoners, and afterwards restored them to liberty ; besides more than 200 whom I threw into the rivers. No one has travelled more rapidly than I. If I left Tchernigof very early in the morning, I arrived at Kief before vespers. Some * To bnrv riches in the eartli is the custom with wliich tlie Emperor Mau- rice re])roachesihe Slavs of his time, and which is to this clay characteristic of the Russian peasants. Often the head of the family dies, without having revealed the hiding-place to his children. Treasure trove is frequent iv Russia. Ceown called "The Cap of Monomachus.'? HIS TOR V OF RUSSIA. 8l times in tlic middle of the thickest forests, I caught wild horses myself, and bonnd them together with my own hands. How many times I have been thrown from the saddle by buffaloes, struck by the horns of the deer, trampled under foot by the elands ! A furious boar once tore my sword from my belt ; my saddle was rent by a bear, which threw my horse down under me ! How many falls I had from my horse in my youth, when, heedless of dansrer, I broke mv head, I wounded mv arms and legs ! But the "Lord watched over me ! " Vladimir completed the establishment of the Slav race in Souzdal, and founded a city on the Kliazma that bore his name, and that was destined to play a great part. Such, in the begin- ning of the 1 2th century, when Louis VI. was fighting with his barons of the Isle de France, was the ideal of a Grand Prince of Russia. fV^ARS BETWEEN THE HEIRS OF VLADIMIR MONOMACHUS — FALL OF KIEF. Of the sons of Vladimir Monomachus, George Dolgorouki Oecame the father of the Princes of Souzdal and Moscow, and Mslislaf the father of the Princes of Galitch and Kief. These two branches were often at enmity, and it was their rivalry that struck the final blow at the prosperity of Kief. When Isiaslaf, son of Mstislaf (1146-1154), was called to the throne by the inhabitants of the capital, his uncle, George Dolgorouki, put forward his rights as the eldest of the family. Kief, which had been already many times taken and re-taken in the strife between the Olgovitchcs (descendants of Oleg of Tchernigof) and the Motiomachivitches (descendants of Vladimir Monomachus), was fated to be disputed anew between the uncle and the nephew. It was almost a war between the Old and New Russia, the Russia of the Dnieper and that of the Volga. The Princes of Souzdal, who dwelt afar in the forests in the north-west, establish- ing their rule over the remnants of the Finnish races, were to become greater and greater strangers to Kievian Russia. If they still coveted the " mother of Russian cities," because the title of Grand Prince was attached to it, they at least began to obey and to venerate it less than the other princes. George Dolgorouki found an ally against Isiaslaf in one of the Olgovitches, Sviatoslaf, who thirsted to avenge his brother Igor, dethroned and kept prisoner in Kief by the Grand Prince. The Kievians hesitated to support the sovereign they had chosen ; they hated the Olgovitches, but in their attachment to the blood 8 2 HIS TOR YOF R USSIA. of Monomachus, they respected his son and his grandson equally, " We are ready," they said to Isiaslaf, " we and our children, to make war on the sons of Oleg, But George is your uncle, and can we dare to raise our hands against the son of Monomachus ? " After the war had histed some time, a decisive dattle was fought. At the battle of Pereiaslavl, Isiaslaf was completely defeated, and took refuge, with two attendants, in Kief. The inhabitants, who had lost many citizens in this War, declared they were un- able to stand a sicire. The Grand Prince theii abandoned his capital to George Dolgorouki and retired to Vladimir in Volhynia, whence he demanded help from his brother-in-law, the King of Hungary, and the kings of Poland and Bohemia. With these reinforcements he surprised Kief, and nearly made his uncle prisoner. Understanding that the national law was against him, he opposed eldest 7aith eldest and declared himself the partisan of another son of Monomachus, the old Viatcheslaf, Prince of Tourof. He was proclaimed Grand Prince of Kief (ii 50-1 154), adopted his nephew Isiaslaf as his heir, and gave splendid fetes to the Russians and Hungarians. George returned to the charge, and was beaten un ler the walls of Kief. P^ach of these princes had taken barbarians into his pay : George, the Polovtsi ; Isiaslaf the Black Caps, that is the Torques, the Patzinaks, and the Berendians. The obstinate Prince of Souzdal did not allow himself to be discouraged by this check. The old Viatcheslaf, who only desired peace and quiet, in vain addressed him letters, setting forth his rights as elder. " I had already a beard when you entered the world," he said, George proved himself intractable, and went into Gallicia to effect a junction with his allv, Vladimirko, Prince of Galitch. This Vladimirko' had violated the oath he had taken and confirmed by kissing the cross. When they reproached him, he said, with a tiueer, " It w^as such a little cross." To prevent this dangerous co-operation, Isiaslaf, without waiting the expected arrival of the Hungarians, began the pursuit of George, and came up with him on the borders of the Rout, a small tributary of the Dnieper. A bloody battle was fought, where he himself was wounded and thrown from his horse, but the Souzdalians and their allies the Polovtsi were completely defeated (1151). Isiaslaf survived this victory only three years. After his death and that of Viatcheslaf, Kief passed from hand to hand. George ended by reaching the supreme object of his desires. He made his entry into the capital in 1155, and had the consolation of dying Grand Prince of Kief at the moment that a league was being formed for his expulsion (1157). "I thank Thee, great God," cried one of the confederates on learning the news, "for HIS TOR Y OF HUSS/A. 83 having spared us, by the sudden death of our enemy, the obliga- tion of shedding his blood ! " Tiie confederates entered tlie town ; one of them assumed the title of Grand Prince, the others divided his territories. Henceforth there existed no Grand Principality, properly speak- ing, and with the growing power of Souzdal, Kief ceased to be the capital of Russia. A final disaster was still reserved for her. !n 1 169, Andrew Ijogolioubski, son of George Dolgorouki and i'rince of Souzdal, being disaffected to Mstislaf, Prince of Kief, formed against him a coalition of eleven princes. He con- fided to his son Mstislaf and his voievode Boris an immense army of Rostovians, Vladimiris, and Souzdalians to march against Kief. This time the Russia of the forests triumphed over Russia of the steppes, and after a three days' siege Kief was taken bv assault. "This mother of Russian cities," savs Karamsin, " had been many times besieged and oppressed. She had often opened her Golden Gate to her enemies, but none had ever yet entered by force. To their eternal shame, the victors forgot that they too were Russians ! During three days not only the houses, but the monasteries, churches, and even the temples of Saint Sophia and the Dime, were given over to pillage. The precious images, the sacerdotal ornaments, the books, and the bells, all were taken away.'' From this time the lot of the capital of Saint Vladimir, pil- laged and dishonored by his descendants, ceases to have a gen- eral interest for Russia. Like other parts of Slavonia, she has her princes, but the heads of the reigning families of Smolensk, Tchernigof, and Galitch assume the title, formerly unique, of Grand Prince. The centre of Russia is changed. It is now in the basin of the Volga, at Souzdal. Many causes conspired to render the disaster of 1169 irremediable. The chronic civil wars of this part of Russia, and the multitudes and growing power of nomad hordes, rendered the banks of the Dnieper uninhabitable. In 1203 Kief was again sacked by the Polovtsi, whom the Olgo- vitches of Tchernigof had taken into their pay. On this soil, inces- santly the prey of war and invasion, it was impossible to found a lasting order of things ; it was impossible that a regular system of government should be established — that civilization should develop and maintain itself. Less richly endowed by nature, and less civilized, the Russia of the forests was at least more tran- quil. It was there that a grand principality was formed, called to fulfil high destinies, but which unhappily was to be separated for three hundred years, by the southern steppes and the nomads who dwelt there, from the Black Sea ; that is, from Byzantine and Occidental civilization. 84 HISTORY OF RUSSIA, CHAPTER VII. RUSSIA AFTER THE FALL OF KIEF. POWER OF SOUZDAL AND GALLICIA, 1 169-1224, Andrew Bogolioubski of Souzdal (1157-1174), and the first attempt at autoc- racy — George II. (121 2-1 238) — Wars with Novgorod — Battle of Lipetsk (1216) — Foundation of Nijni-Novgorod (1220) — Roman (1188-1205) andhis son Daniel (1205-1264) in Gallicia. ANDREW BOGOLIOUBSKI OF SOUZDAL (1157-I174) AND THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT AUTOCRACY. After the fall of the grand principality of Kief, Russia ceased to hav^e a centre round which her whole mass could gravitate. Her life seemed to be withdrawn to her extremities ; and during the fifty four years which preceded the arrival of the Mongols, all the interest of Russian history is concentrated on the principality of Souzdal, on that of Galitch, and on the two republics of Novgorod and Pskof. George Dolgorouki was the founder of Souzdal, but we have seen him expend all his energy in securing possession of the throne of Kief. His son Andrew Bogolioubski was, on the con- trary, a true prince of Souzdal. From him are descended the Tzars of Moscow; with him there appears in Russian hiscory quite a new type of prince. It is no longer the chivalrous light- hearted careless ktiiaz, in turn a prey to all kinds of opposing passions, the joyous kniaz of the happy land of Kief — but an ambitious, restless, politic, and imperious sovereign, going straight to his goal without scruple and without pity. Andrew had taken an aversion to the turbulent cities of the Dnieper, where the assemblies of citizens sometimes held the power of the prince in check. In Souzdal, at least, he found himself in the centre of colonists planted by the prince, who never dreamed of contesting his authority : he reigned over towns which for the most part owed their existence to his ancestors or himself. During the lifetime of his father George, he had quitted the Dnieper and his palace at Vychegorod, had established himself on the Kliazma, bringi'ng with him a Greek image of the mother of God, had enlarged and fortified Vladimir, and founded a quarter that he called Bogolioubovo. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 8S When after the death of George the grand principality be- came vacant, he allowed the princes of the south to dispute it among themselves. He only wished to mix with their quarrels as far as would suffice for the recognition of his authority, not at Kief, but at Novgorod the Great, then bound by the closest ties to Souzdal. He established one of his nephews as his lieuten- ant at Novgorod. A glorious campaign against the Bulgarians increased his reputation in Russia. He deserved more than anyone to be Grand Prince of Kief, but we have seen that he preferred to pillage it — that he preferred a sacrilegious spoil to the throne of Monomachus. After having destroyed the splendor and power of Kief, and guided by the sure instinct that afterwards led Ivan the Great and Ivan the Terrible against Novgorod, he longed to subdue the great republic to a narrower dependence. " The fall of Kief,'' says Karamsin, " seemed to presage the loss of Novgorod liberty ; it was the same army, and it was the same prince (Mstislaf Andreievitch) who commanded it. But the Kievians, accustomed to change their masters — to sacrif^ca the vanquished to the victors — only fought for the honor of their princes, while the Novgorodians were to shed their blood for th^ defence of the laws and institutions established by their ancestors." Mstis- laf, w'ho had forced the princes of Smolensk, Riazan, Mourom, and Polotsk to join him, put the territories of the republic to fire and sword, but only succeeded in exasperating the courage- ous citizens. When fighting began under the walls of the town, the Novgorodians, to inflame themselves for the combat, re- minded each other of the pillage and the sacrilege with which their adversaries had polluted the holy city of Kief. All swore to die for St. Sophia of Novgorod ; their archbishop, Ivan, took the image of the Mother of God and paraded it with great pomp round the walls. It is said that an arrow shot by a Souzdalian soldier having struck the image of the Virgin, her face turned towards the city, and inundated the vestments of the archbishop with miraculous tears. Instantly a panic seized the besiegers. The victory of the Novgorodians was complet>^ ; they slew a multitude of their enemies, and made so many prisoners, that according to the contemptuous expression of their chronicler, "You could get six Souzdalians for a grivna (1170)." Their dependence on Souzdal for corn soon forced them to make peace. They abandoned none of the ancient rights of the repub- lic, but of " their own free will," according to the consecrated expression, they accepted as sovereign the prince nominated for them by Andrew of Souzdal. Andrew about this time lost his only son, his heir, Mstislaf. 86 HISTOR Y OF R USSTA. The knowledge that in future he would be working for his col lateral relatives no whit diminished his ambition or his arro- gance. The princes of Smolensk, David, Rurik, and Mstislaf the Brave, could not endure his despotic ways, and, in spite of his threats, took Kief. The Olgovitches of Tchernigof, delighted to see discord kindled between the descendants of Monomachus, incited Andrew to revenge this injury. So he sent a herald to the princes of Smolensk, to say to them, " You are rebels ; the principalitv of Kief is mine. I order Rurik to return to his patrimony of Smolensk, and David to retire to Berlad ; I can no longer bear his presence in Russia, nor the presence of Mstislaf, the most guilty of you all." Mstislaf the Brave, say the chroniclers, " feared none but God." When he received Andrew's message, he shaved the beard and hair of the messenger, and answered him : " Go, and vepeat these words unto your prince — ' Up to this time we have respected you like a father, but since you do not blush to treat lis as your vassals and common people, since you have forgotten that you speak to princes, we mock at your menaces. Execute them — we appeal to the judgment of God.' " The judgment of God was an encounter under the walls of Vychegorod, besieged by more than twenty princes, allies or vassals of Andrew of Souzdal. Mstislaf succeeded in dividing the assailants, and completed their defeat by a victorious sortie, 1173. When Andrew came to establish himself in the land of Souzdal, the inhabitants themselves elected him their prince, to the exclusion of other members of the family. But this enemy of municipal liberty had no intention of fixing his residence either at Rostof or Souzdal, the two most ancient cities of the principality, which had their assembly of citizens, their vefchif. From the beginning he conceived the project of raising above them a new town, Vladimir on the Kliazmaj considered by Rostof and Souzdal merely a subject borough. To give a plaus- ible pretext to this resolution he had his tent pitched on the road to Souzdal ten versts from Vladimir, and installed himself there with his miraculous image of the Virgin which came from Constantinople, and was, we are assured, the work of St. Luke. The next day he announced that the Mother of God had ap- appeared to him in a dream, and had commanded him to place her image, not at Rostof, but at Vladimir. He was likewise to build a church and a monastery to the Virgin on the spot where she made herself manifest; this was the origin of the village of Bogolioubovo. Andrew preferred Vladimir to the old cities, but it was in his house at Bogolioubovo that he best liked to ]i\e. lie tried to make of Vladimir a new Kief, as Kief herself was a HIS TORY OF R USSIA, 8 7 tiev/ Byzantium. There were at Vladimir a Golden Gate, a Chuich of the Dime consecrated to the Virgin, and numer- ous monasteries built by the artists summoned by Andrew from ':he West. Andrew sought the friendship of the priests, whom he felt to be one of the great forces of the future. He posed as a jjious prince, rose often by night to burn tapers in the churches, and publicly distributed alms in abundance. After a victory over the Bulgarians of the Volga, he obtained leave from the Patriarch of Constantinople to establish a commemorative feast. It happened that on the same day that Andrew triumphed over the Bulgarians, thanks to the image of the Virgin, the Emperor Man- uel had won a victory over the Saracens bv means of the true cross and the image of Christ represented on his standard. One anniversary served for both victories of orthodoxy, and Vladimir was in harmony with Byzantium. Andrew was anxious to make Vladimir a metropolitan city. At the same time that he robbed Kief of the grand principality, he would have deprived her of the religious supremacy of Russia, and given his new city th* spiritual as well as the temporal power. This time the patriarch-* refused, but the attempt was one day to be renewed by th» princes of Moscow. What more particularly proves this prince — who had rise« from the conception of appanages to that of the indivisible modern state — to have been superior to his century, to have hack sure instincts as to the future, is that he declined to share bis dominions with his brothers and nephews. In spite of the tes- tamentary directions of George, he expelled his three brothers from Souzdal, and they retired with their mother, a Greek princess, to the court of the Emperor Manuel. It appears tha< this measure was advised by the men of Souzdal. The subjects then had the same instinct of unity as the prince. If he broke with the patriarchal custom of appanages, and wished to reign alone in Vladimir, he broke equally with the Varangian tradition of the droiijifia ; he treated his men, his bovards, not as com- panions, but as subjects. Those who refused to bow to his will had to leav3 the countrv. We mav sav that Andrew Bosfolioub- ski created autocrac}'' 300 years before its time. He indicated in the 12th century all that the Grand Princes of Moscow had to do in the 15th and 16th centuries, to attain absolute power. His mistrust of municipal liberty, his despotic treatment of the boyards, his efforts to suppress the appanages, his proud attitude towards the other Russian princes, his alliance with the clergy, and his project of transporting to the basin of the Oka the religious metropolis of all the Russias, are the indications ol B8 HIS TOR y OF R USSIA. a political programme that ten generations of princes did not suffice to carry out. The moment was not yet come ; Andrew had not enough power, nor Souzdal resources enough to sub- jugate the rest of Russva. Andrew succeeded against Kief, but he endured a double check from Novgorod the Great, and from Mitislaf the Brave, and the princes of the south. His despotism made him terrible enemies. His boyards, whom he tried to reduce to obedience, assassinated him in his favorite residence of Bogolioubovo (1174). GEORGE II. (12 1 2-1 238) — WARS WITH NOVGOROD — BATTLE OF LIPETSK (12 16) NIJNI-NOVGOROD FOUNDED (l22o). The death of this remarkable man was followed by great troubles. The common people attacked the houses of rich men and magistrates, gave them up to pillage, and committed so many murders that to establish quiet the clergy were forced to have a procession of images. The unpunished murders show how premature was the autocratic attempt of Andrew. His succession was disputed between his nephews and his two brothers Michael and Vsevolod, who had returned from Greece. The nephews were supported by the old cities of Rostof and Souzdal, which were animated by a violent hatred of thcparvenue city of Vladimir, that had torn from them the title of capital, .■ind had taken up the cause of Michael and Vsevolod. " The Vladimirians," said the Rostovians, " are our slaves, our masons ; let us burn their town, and set up there a governor of our own," The Vladimirians had the advantage in the first war, and caused Michael, the elder of Andrew's brothers, to be recognized Grand Prince of Souzdal. At his death the Rostovians refused to re- cognize the other brother Vsevolod, surnamed the Big-A^est, on account of his numerous posterity. They resisted all proposals of compromise, declaring that " their arms alone should do them right on the vile populace of Vladimir." It was, on the contrary, the vile populace of Vladimir who put the boyards of Rostof in chains. The two ancient cities were forced to submit ; Vladimir remained the capital of Souzdal. Vsevolod (1176- 1212) managed to secure himself on the throne by defeating the ])rinces of Riazan and Tcliernigof. He extended his influence to the distant Galitch, and contracted matrimonial alliances with the princes of Kief and Smolensk, He reduced the Novgorodians to beg for one of his sons as their prince, " Lord and Grand Prince," said the envoys of the republic to him, " our country is your patrimony ; we entreat you to send us the grandson of HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 89 George Dolgorouki, the great-grandson of Monomachus, to govern us." The prhices of Riazan having incurred his dis- pleasure, he united their states to his principality. Riazan re- belled, and was reduced lo ashes, and the inhabitants trans- ported to the solitudes of Souzdal. This prince, who has like- wise been called " The Great," exhibited in his designs the prudence, the spirit of intrigue, constancy, and tirmness which characterized tiie princes of the Russia of the forests. At his death (12 12) the troubles began again. Dissatisfied with his eldest son Constantine, prince of Novgorod, Vsevolod had given the grand principality of Novgorod to his second son, George II. Constantine had to content himself with Rostof ; a third brother, laroslaf, prince of Pere'iaslavl-Zaliesski, had been sent to Novgorod, laroslaf quarrelled with his turbulent subjects, left their town and installed himself at Torjok, a city in the territory of Novgorod, where he betook himself to hindering the passage of the merchants and boyards. Their communications with the Volga were intercepted ; he preuented the arrival of corn, and reduced the town to starvation. The Novgorodians were obliged to eat the bark of pines, moss, and lime-leaves. The streets were filled with the bodies of the wretched inhabitants, which the dogs devoured. laroslaf was implacable. He persisted in remaining at Torjok, refused to return to Novgorod, and arrested all envovs sent to him. He treated Novgorod as his father had treated Rostof and Souzdal. But help arrived to the despair- ing citizens in the person of a prince of Smolensk, Mstislaf the Bold, son of Mstislaf the Brave. " Torjok shall not hold her- self higher than Novgorod," he cried ; " I will deliver your lands and your citizens, or leave my bones among you." Thus Mstislaf became prince of Novgorod ; and as he saw that the Grand Prince of Vladimir supported his brothers, he sought an ally in Constantine of Rostof, who was discontented with his inheritance. The Novgorodian quarrel speedily expanded into a general war, and Mstisaf contrived to make Souzdal the scene of strife. Before a battle he tried to effect a reconciliation be- tween the two princes of Vladimir and Rostof. But George answered, " If my father was not able to reconcile me with Constantine, has Mstislaf the right to judge between us } Let Constantine be victorious and all will be his." This strife be- tween the three sons of Big-Nest had all the fierceness of frater- nal warefare. Before the battle George and laroslaf issued orders that quarter was to be given to no one, to kill even those •who had " embroideries of gold on their shoulders ; " that is, the princes of the blood. Already they had decided on the Q o HIS TOR V or J^USSTA. partition of Russia, But the troops of Novgorod, Pskof, and . Smolensk attacked them with such fury that those of Souzdal and Mourom gave way, and it was the soldiers of Mstislaf who in their turn gave no quarter. Nine thousand men were killed and only sixty prisoners taken. George threw off his royal clothes, wore out the strength of three horses, and with the fourth just managed to reach Vladimir. (Battle of Lipetsk, near Pereiaslavl-Zaliesski, 1216.) Constanline then became Grand Prince of Vladimir, and ceded Souzdal to his brother George, laroslaf was obliged to renounce Novgorod, and release the cap- tive citizens. At the death of Constantino (12 17) George regained the throne of Vladimir. Under him the expeditions against the Bulgarians of the Volga and the Mordvians were continued. These expeditions were organized both by land and water; the infantry descended the Oka and the Volga in boats, the cavalry marched alon^ the banks. Thev attacked and burnt the wooden forts of the Bulgars, and destroyed the population. During a campaign, conducted by George in person along the whole length of the Volga, he noticed a small hill on its right bank, near its junction with the Oka. Here, in the midst of the Mordvian tribes, he founded Nijni-Novgorod (1220). A Mord- vian tradition gives its own account of this important event. " The prince of the Russians sailed down the Volga ; on the mountain he perceived the jMordva in a long white coat, adoring her god ; and he said to his warrors, ' What is that white birch that bends and sways up there, above its nurse the earth, and inclines towards the east ? ' He sent his men to look nearer, and they came back and said, ' It is not a birch that bends and sways, it is the INIordva adoring her god. In their vessels they have a delicious beer, pancakes hang on sticks, and their priests cook their meat in caldrons.' The elders of the Mordva, hearing of the Russian prince, sent young men with gifts of meat and beer. But on the road the young men ate the meat and drank the beer, and only brought the Russian prince earth and water. The prince was rejoiced at this present, which he considered as a mark of submission of the Mordva. He continued to descend the Volga : where he threw a handful of this earth on the bank, a town sprang up : where he threw a pinch of this earth, a village was born. It was thus that the Mordvian land became subject to the Russians." HISTORY OF RUSSIA, ROMAN (l 188-1205) AND HIS SON DANIEL (1205-1264) IN GALITCH. 9« Galitch offers a remarkable contrast to Souzdal ; peopled by Khorvates or White Croats, she had preserved a purely Slavonic character in spite of her conquest by Varangian princes. " The prince," says M. Kostomarof, " was a prince of the old Slavonic type. He was elected by a popular assembly, and kept his crown by its consent." The assembly itself was governed by the richest men of the countrv, the boyards. Under the influence of Polish and Hun- garian ideas the boyards had raised themselves above the mass of the people, and formed a strong aristocracy which really ruled the country. When laroslaf Osmomysl (glorified in the Song of Igor) neglected his lawful wife Olga for his mistress Anastasia, the nobles rose, burnt Anastasia alive, and obliged the prince to send away his natural son, and to recognize his legitimate son Vladimir as his heir. When Vladimir became prince, he lost no time in incurring their hatred. He was accused of abandoning himself to vice and drunkenness, of despising the councils of wise men, of dis- honoring the wives and daughters of the nobles, and of having married as his second wife the widow of a priest. It did not need all this to exhaust the patience of the Gallicians. They summoned Vladimir to give up the woman that they might punish her. Vladimir took fright, and fled to Hungary with his family and his treasures. This was all the boyards desired, and they offered the throne to Roman, prince of A^olhynia (i i88). But Bela, king of Hungary, brought back the fugitive prince with an army, and entered Galitch. There he suddenly changed his mind, and coveted this beautiful country, rich in salt and miner- als, for himself. He threw his /w/c'^/ Vladimir into prison, and proclaimed his own son Andrew. The Hungarian yoke seemed naturally more heavy to the Gallicians than the authority of their easy-going princes. They expelled the strangers, and recalled Vladimir, who had found means to escape, and had taken refuge with P'rederick Barbarossa. When Vladimir died, Roman of Volhynia resolved at all hazards to enter Galitch. His rival had previously appealed to the Hungarians, so he applied to the Poles, and, with an auxiliary army given him by Casimir the Just, he reconquered Galitch. The turbulent boyards had at last found their master. This time Roman held the crown, not by election, but by con- quest. He resolved to subdue the proud aristocracy. The Po- lish Bishop Kadloubek, a contemporary writer, who sympathsized Q 2 ffIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. with the oligarchs, draws a frightful picture of the vengeance exercised by Roman on his enemies. They were quartered, buried alive, riddled with arrows, delivered over to horrible tor- tures. He had promised pardon to those who had fled; but when they returned, he accused them of conspiracy, condemned them to death, and confiscated their goods. " To eat a drop of honey in peace," he said cynically, " you must first kill the bees." The kussian chroniclers, on the contrary, praise him highly. He was another Monomachus, an invincible and redoubtable hero, who " walked in the ways of God, exterminated the heathen, flung himself like a lion upon the infidels, was savage as a wildcat, deadly as a crocodile, swooped on his prey like an eagle." More than once he vanquished the Lithuanian tribes and the Polovtsi ; in the civil wars of Russia he was likewise victorious, and gave to one of his relations the throne of Kief. He attracted the atten- tion of the great Pope, Innocent HI., who sent missionaries tn convert him to the Catholic faith, promising to make him a great king by the sword of Saint Peter, Drawing his own sword, Roman proudly answered the envoys of Innocent : " Has the Pope one like mine ? While I wear it at my side, I have no need of another's blade." In 1205, when he was engaged in a war with Poland, he imprudently ventured too far from his army on the banks of the Vistula, and perished in an unequal combat. His exploits were long remembered in Russia, and the ' Chroni- cle of Volhynia' gives him the surname of " the Great," and " the Autocrat of all the Russias." A historian of Lithuania re- lates that, after his victories over the barbarous inhabitants of that country, he harnessed the prisoners to the plough. Hence the popular saying, " Thou art terrible, Roman ; the Lithuan- ians are thy laboring oxen." Roman of Volhynia is a worthy contemporarv of the autocrat of the north-west, Andrew of Souz- dal. Roman left two sons, minors. Daniel the elder was pro- claimed prince of Galitch (1205-1264), but in such a turbulent country, rent as it was by factions, it was impossible for a child to reign under the guardianship of his mother. Red Russia fell a prey to a series of civil wars, complicated by the intervention of Poles and Hungarians. The ferocitv shown bv the Gallicians in their intestine struggles has gained for them the name of atheist in the Kievian Chronicles. The jMinces of the blood of Saint Vladimir were tortured and hung by the boyards. Daniel was first replaced on the throne, then expelled, then again re- called. His infancy was the toy of intriguing factions. Mstis- laf the Bold also came hither in search of adventures. He chased the Hungarians from Galitch, took the title of Prince. HISTORY OF RUSSTA. 93 and married his daughter to Daniel. Both were immediately obliged to turn their arms against the Poles. Daniel, whose character had been formed in such a rough school, displayed re- markable energy and courage in these campaigns. The aid ot the Polovtsi had to be sought against these enemies from the west, the Hungarians and the Poles — now rivals, now allies. At the denlh of Mstislaf the Bold (1228), Daniel, who five years previously had taken part in the battle of Kallia against the Ta- tars, becauic prince of Galitch. Towards the boyards, whose turbulence /^ad ruined the country, he acted with the salutary policy of Roman, though without employing the same severity. The gre;£t Mongol invasion once more expelled him from Galitch, which it covered with ruins. Daniel, who had fled to Hungary, did his best to help his unhappy country. To fill up the void matie by the Mongols in the population, he invited Germans, Arm2nians, and Jews, whom he loaded wiih privileges. The economic consequence of this measure was a rapid develop- ment of commeice and industry ; the ethnographic consequence was the introduction into Gallicia of a Jewish element, very tenacious and very persistent, but alien to the dominant nation- ality, and forming a. separate people in the midst of the Rus- sians. Daniel was one of the last princes to make his submis- sion to the horde. " You have done well to come at last," said the khan of the Mongols. Bati treated him with distinction, al- lowed him to escape the ordinary humiliations, and, seeing that the fermented milk of the Tatars was not to his taste, gave him a cup of wine. Daniel, however, bore with impatience the yoke of these barbarians. Feeling himself insolated in the general abasement of the orthodox world, the prince of Galitch turned towards Rome, and promised to do his best for the union of the two Churches and to add his contingent to the crusade preached in Europe against the Mongols. Innocent IV, called him his dear son, ac- corded him the title of king, and sent him a crown and sceptre. Daniel was solemnly crowned at Droguitchine by the abbot of Messina, Legate of the Pope (1254). Both the crusade against the Asiatics and the reconciliation between the two Churches came to nothing. Daniel braved the reproaches and threats of Alexander IV., but kept the title of king. He took part in the European wars with great success. " The Hungarians," says a chronicler, " admired the order that reigned among his troops, their Tatar weapons, the magnificence of the prince, his Greek habit embroidered with gold, his sabre and his arrows, his sad- dles enriched witli jewels and precious metals richly chased." Encouraged by the Hungarians and the Poles, he tried to shake 94 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. off the yoke of the Mongols, and expelled them from a few places ; but he was soon obliged to bow to superior force, and dismantle his fortresses. No prince better deserved to free Southern Russia, but his activity and talents struggled in vain against the fate of his country. He terminated in 1264 one of the most memorable and most checkered careers in the history of Russia. The civil wars of his youth, the Tatar invasion in his ripe age, the negotiations and wars with Western Europe, left him no repose. After him, Russian Galitch passed to dif- ferent princes of his family. In the 14th century, she was absorbed into the kingdom of Poland. She was lost to Russia. mSTORY OF RUSSIA. 9»J CHAPTER VIII. rHE RUSSIAN REPUBLICS : NOVGOROD, PSKOF, AND VIATKA, UP TO 1224. Novgorod the Great— Her struggles with the princes — Novgorodian institu* tions — Commerce — National Church — Literature — Pskof and Vitaka. NOVGOROD THE GREAT STRUGGLES WITH THE PRINCES. Novgorod has been, from the most remote antiquity, the political centre of tlie Russia of the North-west. The origin of the Slavs of the Ilmen, who laid her foundations, is still uncertain. Some learned Russians, such as M. Kostomarof, suppose them to belong to the Slavs of the South, others to the Slavs of the Baltic ; others, again, like M. Bielaef and M. Ilovaiski, make them a branch of the Krivitch or Smolensk Slavs. We find the Novgorodians, at the opening of Russian history, at the head of the confederation of tribes which first expelled and then recalled the Varangians to reign over Russia. Novgorod, from very ancient times, was divided into two parts, separated by the course of the Volkhof, which rises in lake Ilmen and falls into the Ladoga. On the right bank was the side of Saint Sophia, where laroslaf the Great built his celebrated cathedral ; where the Novgorod kremlin was situated, enclosing both the palaces of the Archbishop and the prince ; and where the famous Russian monument was consecrated in 1862. On the left bank, the i-/'/^ of commerce, \\'\\\\\\.s Court of laroslaf ; the bridge which joins the two halves of the city is celebrated in the ann.^ls of Novgorod. The side of Saint Sophia includes the Nerevian quarter as well as those of " beyond the city," and of the potters {Ncrevski, Zagorod/ii, Gontc/iarni). The side of com- merce comprised the quarters of the carpenters and S/a7'S. An- cient documents also speak of a Prussian (Lithuanian) quarter. Some of these names seem to indicate that many races have concurred, as in ancient Rome, to form the city of Novgorod. Gilbert of Lannoy, who visited the republic about 1413, has left <)6 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. us this description of it : " Novgorod is a prodigiously large towft situated in a beautiful plain, in the midst of vast forests. The soil is low, subject to inundations, marshy in places. The town is surrounded by imperfect ramparts, formed of gabions ; the towers are of stone." Portions of these ramparts still exist, and allow us to form an idea of the immense extent of the ancient city. The kremlin forms its acropolis. The cathedral has pre served its frescoes of the 12th century, the pillars painted with images of saints on a golden ground, the imposing figure of Christ on the cupola, the banner of the Virgin, which was to re- vive the courage of the besieged on the ramparts : the tombs of Saint A^adimir laroslavitch, of the Archbishop Nikita, by whose prayers a fire was extinguished, of Mstislaf the Brave, the de- voted defender of Novgorod, and of many other saints and illus- trious people. Without counting the tributary cities of Novgorod, such as Pskof, Ladoga, Izborsk, Veliki Louki, Staraia Roussa (Old Russia), Torjok, Biejitchi, her primitive territory (the " ager Romanus " of the republic) was divided into ^\%fftJis [piatines), the Vudskdia, the Chelonskdia, the Obonejs kaia the Biejetskdia, and the Dcreveksdia, which included the land to the south of the lakes Ladoga and Onega. Her conquests formed five bailiwicks or volosts occupying the whole of Northern Russia, and extending as far as Siberia. These bailiwicks were the Zaiv- fo/^//// between the Onega and the Mezen ; liie 7)r, or Russian Laj^land ; Pennia, on the Upper Kama ; PctcJiora, on the river of the same name ; and lougria, on the other side of the Oural mountains. To these we must add Ingria, Carelia, and part of Livonia and Esthonia. Novgorod, which had summoned the Varangian ]M-inces, was too powerful, with her 100,000 inhabitants and 300,000 subjects, to allow herself to be tyrannized over. An ancient tradition speaks vaguely of a revolt against Rurik the Old under the hero Vadini. Sviatoslaf, the conqueror of the Bulgaria of the Dan- ube, undertook to govern her by mere agents, but Novgorod in- sistiid on having one of his sons for her prince. " If you do not come to reign over us," said the citizens, " we shall know how to find ourselves other princes." laroslaf the Great, as a re- ward for their devotion, accorded them immense privileges, of which no record can be found, but which are constantly in- voked by the Novgorodians, as were the true or false charters of Charles the Great by the German cities. These republicans could not exist without a prince, but they rarely kept one long. The assembly of the citizens, the vetche\, convoked by the bell in the Court of laroslaf, was the real sovereign. The republic called herself " My Lord Novgorod //^ Great " (Gospodine Vel' HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 97 Ikii Novgorod). "Who can equal God and the great Novgo- rod ? " was a popular saying. From the distance of the city from the Russia of the Dnieper, and her position towards the Gallic and Western Europe, she took little part in the civil wars of which Kief was the object and the centre. She profited by I his in a certain sense ; for in the midst of the strifes of princes and of frequent changes in the grand principality, no sovereign was stronir enouiih to irive her a master. She could choose be- o o o I ween princes of the rival families. She could impose condi- tions on him whom she chose to reign over her. If discontented with his management, she expelled the prince and his band of aiitrustions. According to the accustomed formula, "she made a reverence, and showed him the way" to leave Novgorod. Sometimes, to hinder his evil designs, she kept him prisoner in the archbishop's palace, and it was left to his successor to set him at liberty. Often a revolution was accompanied by a gen- eral pillage of the partisans of the fallen prince, even by 7ioyades in the Volkhof. A grand Prince of Kief, Sviatopolk, wished to force his son on them. " Send him here," said the Novgoro- dians, " if he has a spare head." The princes themselves con- tributed to the frequent changes of reign. They only felt them- selves half-rulers in Novgorod, so they accepted any other ap- ]:)anage with joy. Thus, in ii32,Vsevolod Gabriel abandoned Novgorod to reign at Pereiaslavl. When his hopes of Kief were crushed, and he wished to return to Novgorod, the citizens re- jected him. " You have forgotten your oath to die with us, you have sought another principality ; go where you will." Pres- ently they thought better of it, and took him back. Four years afterwards he was ao-ain obli2:ed to flv. In a great vetche, to which the citizens of Pskof and Ladoga were summoned, they solemnly condemned the exile, after reading the heads of very characteristic accusations : " He took no care of the poorer people ; he desired to establish himself at Pereiaslavl : at the battle of Mount Idanof, against the men of Souzdal, he and his dnnijina were the first to leave the battle-field; he was fickle in the quarrels of the princes, sometimes uniting with the Prince of Tchernigof, sometimes with the opposite party." The power of a prince of Novgorod rested not only on his dro/ijina, which always followed his fortunes, and on his family relations with this or that powerful principality, but also on a party formed for him in the heart of the republic. It was when the opposing party grew too strong that he was dethroned, and popular vengeance exercised on his adlierents. Novgorod being above all a great commercial city, her divisions were frequently caused by diverging economic interests. Among the citizens, 98 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. some were occupied in trade with tlie Volga and the East, others with the Dnieper and Greece. The former naturally sought the alliance of the princes of Souzdal, masters of the great Oriental artery ; the latter that of the princes of Kief or Tchernigof, masters of the road to the south. Each of the two parties tried to establish a prince of the family whose protection they sought. If he fell, yet succeeded in escaping from the town, he tried to regain his throne by the arms of his famil\', or to instal himself and his droiijina either at Pskof, like Vsevolod-Gabriel, who be- came prince of that town, or at Torjok, like laroslaf of Souzdal, and thence blockaded and starved the great city. The prince of Souzdal was soon the most formidable neighbor of Novgorod. We have seen that Andrew Bogolioubski sent an army against it, then that his nephew laroslaf besieged his ancient subjects till Mstislaf the Bold freed them by the battle of Lipetsk (12 16). He was the son of Mstislaf the Brave, who had defended them against Vsevolod Big-Nest, and against Souzdal and the Tchouds. The remains of " the Brave " rest at Saint Sophia, in a bronze sarcophagus. His son, "the Bold," was of far too restless a nature to leave his bones also at Novgorod. He re- duced the principality to order, and then assembled the citizens in the Court of laroslaf, and said to them, " I salute Saint So- phia, the tomb of my father, and you. Novgorodians, I am going to reconquer Galitch from the strangers, but I shall never forget you. 1 hope I may lie by the tomb of my father, in Saint Sophia." The Novgorodians in vain entreated him to stay (1218). We have seen him use his last armies in the troubles of the South-east, and die Prince of Galitch. After his departure, the republic summoned his nephew, Sviatoslaf, to the throne ; but he could not come to terms with magistrates and a populace equally turbulent. The possadnik, Tverdislaf, caused one of the boyards of Novgorod to be arrested. This was the signal for a general rising; some took the part of the boyard, others that of the possadnik. During eight days the bell of the kremlin sounded. Finally both factions buckled on their cuirasses and drew their swords. Tverdislaf raised his eyes to Saint Sophia, and cried, " I shall fall first in the battle, or God will justify me by giving the victory to my brothers." Ten men only perished in this skirmish, and then peace was re established. The prince, who accused Tverdislaf of being the cause of the trouble, demanded that he shoidd be deposed. The vetchd inquired what crime he had committed. " None," replied the prince, " but it is my will." " I am satisfied," ex- claimed the possadnik, "as they do not accuse me of any fault ; as to you, my brothers, you can dispose alike of possadniks and HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 99 princes." Theassembly then gave their decision. " Prince, as you do not accuse the possadnik of any fault, remember that you have sworn to depose no magistrate without trial. He will re- main our possadnik — we will not deliver him to you." On this Sviatoslaf quilted Novgorod (12 19). He was replaced by Vse- volod, one of his brothers, who was expelled two years later (1221). The Souzdalian party having made some progress, they re- called the same laroslaf who was beaten at Lipetsk, but the princes of Souzdal were too absolute in their ideas to be able to agree with the Novgorodians. laroslaf was again put to flight, and replaced by Vsevolod of Smolensk, who was expelled in his turn. The Grand Prince of Souzdal now interposed, levied a contribution on Novgorod, and a prince of Tcheniigof was im- posed on them, who hastened in 1225 to return to the south of Russia. In seven years the Novgorodians had five times changed their rulers. laroslaf himself came back for a third and even a fourth time. A famine so much reduced the Novgorodians that 42,000 corpses were buried in two cemeteries alone. These proud citizens implored strangers to take them as slaves for the price of a morsel of bread. The same year a fire destroyed the whole of one quarter of Novgorod. These calamities subdued their turbulence. laroslaf succeeded in governing them des' potically tiil he was called to fill the throne of the Grand Prinoe (1236).' He left them, as their prince, his son Alexander Nevski. NOVGORODIAN INSTITUTIONS — COMMERCE — THE NATIONAL CHURCH — LITERATURE. From the fact that no dynasty of princes could establish it- self at Novgorod, that no princely band could take a place among the native aristocracy, it follows that the republic kept her ancient liberties and customs intact under the short reigns of her rulers. In all Russian cities, it is true, the country ex- isted side bv side with the prince and bayards, the assembly of citizens side' by side with the prince's men, and the native fnilitia side by side with the foreign droujina ; but at Novgorod, the country, the vetchc, and tiie municipal 7nilitia had retained more vigor than elsewhere. The town was more powerful than the prince, who reigned by virtue of a constitution, traces of which mav be observed, no' doubt, in other regions of Russia, but whi'ch is found in its original form at Novgorod alone. Each new monarch was compelled to take an oath, by which he bound I oo HISTOR V OF RUSSIA. himself to observe the laws and privileges of laroslaf the Great. This constitution, like the pacta conventa of Poland, signified distrust, and was intended to limit the power of the prince and his men. The revenues to which he had a right, and which formed his civil list, were carefully limited, as also were his judi- cial and political functions. He levied tribute on certain volosts, and was entitled to the vira (German Wergeld) as well as to certain fines. In some bailiwicks he had his own lieutenant, and Novgorod had hers. He could not execute justice without help of the possadnik, nor upset any judgment ; nor, above all, take the suit beyond Novgorod. This was what the Novgoro- dians feared most, and with reason. The day when the people of Novgorod bethought themselves of appealing to the tribunal of the Grand Prince of Moscow, was fatal to the independence of the republic. In the conflicts between the men of the prince and those of the city, a mixed court delivered judgment. The prince, no more thaii his men, could acquire villages in the ter- ritory of Novgorod, nor create colonies. He was forbidden to hunt in the woods of Staraia Roussa except in the autumn, and had to reap his harvests at a specified season. Though they thus mistrusted their prince, the Novgorodians had need of him to moderate the ancient Slav anarchy. As in the days of Rurik, " family armed itself against family, and there was no justice." In Novgorod the T't'/r/z/had more extensive pjowers, and acted more regularly than in the other Russian cities. It was the vetche which nominated and expelled princes, imprisoned them in the archiepiscopal palace, and formally accused them ; elected and deposed the archbishops, decided peace and war, judged the State crmiinals. According to the old Slav custom (pre- served in Poland till the fall of the republic), the decisions were always made, not by a majority, but by unanimity of voices. It was a kind of libcnun veto. The majority had the resource of drowning the minority in the Volkhof. The prince as well as the possadnik, the boyards as well as the people, had the right of convoking the vetche. It met sometimes in the Court of laroslaf, sometimes in Saint Sophia's. As Poland had her con- federations, her -'diets under the shield," Novgorod occasion- ally saw on the banks of tke Volkhof two rival and hostile vetches, which often came to blows on the bridge. Before being sub- mitted to the general assembly, the questions were sometimes deliberated in a smaller council, composed of notable citizens, of acting or past magistrates. The chief Novgorodian magistrates were : i. '\:\\^ possad7iik called bv contemporary German writers the burgomaster, who was changed nearly as often as the prince. The possadnik was chosen from some of the influential families, one of which aloiie HISTOR V OF A' [/SS/A. i o i gave a dozen possadniks to Novgorod. The first magistrate was charged to defend civic privileges, and shared with the prince the judicial power and the right of distributing the taxes. He governed the city, commanded her army, directed her diplomacy, sealed the acts with her seal. 2. The tysatski (from tysatch, thousand) bears in German documents the title of ■ iux or lierzog ; he was therefore a military chief, a chiliarch who ivad the centurions of the town militia under his orders. He had a special tribunal, and seems to have been specially entrusted with the defence of the rights of the people, thus recalling the Roman tribunes. 3. Besides the centurions there \vz.s a.starost, a sort of district mayor, for each quarter of the town. The chief document of the Novgorodian law is the Letter of Justice {Soiidndia Gramota), of which the definite publication may be placed at 147 1. It contains the same principles as the Rousskaia Fravda of laroslaf the Great. As in all the early Germanic and Scandinavian laws, we find the right of private revenge, the fixed price of blood, the " boot " or fine for injury inflicted, the oath admitted as evidence, the judgment of God, the judicial duel, which was still resorted to by Novgorod even after her decadence, in the i6th century. We also find records of corporal punishments. The thief was to be branded ; on the second relapse into crime, he was to be hung. Territorial prop- erty acquires a greater importance, and, a sure evidence of Muscovite influence, a second court of appeal is admitted — the appeal to the tribunal of the Grand Prince. From a social point of view, the constitution of Novgorod presents other analogies with the constitution of Poland. Great inequality then existed between the difTerent classes of society. An aristocracy of boyards had ullimately formed itself, whose intestine quarrels agitated the town. Below the boyards came the dieti boyarskie', a kind of inferior nobility ; then the different classes of citizens, the merchantmen, the Idack people, and the smerdes or peasants. The merchants formed an asso- ciation of their own, a sort oi guild, round the Church of Saint John. Military societies also existed, bands of independent ad- venturers or droujiuas of some boyard who, impelled by hungei or a restless spirit, sought adventures afar on the great rivers of Northern Russia, pillaging alike friends and enemies, or es tablishing military colonies in the midst of Tchoud or Finnish tribes. The soil of Novgorod was sandy, marshy, and unproductive : hence the famines and pestilences that so often depopulated the country. Novgorod was forced to extend itself in order to live; she became therefore a commercial and colonizing city. In the 102 ^^^ TOR Y OF R USSIA. loth century, Constantine relates how the Slavs left Nemogarh (Novgorod), descended the Dnieper by Milinisca (Smolensk), Telioutza (Loubetch), Tchernigof, Vychegord, Kief and Viti- tchevo ; crossed the cataracts of the Dnieper, passed the naval stations of Saint Gregory and Saint Etherius, at the mouth of the river, and spread themselves over all the shores of the Greek empire. The Oriental coins and jewels found in the kourgans of the Ilmen show that the Novgorodians had an early and extensive commerce with the East. We see them exchange iron and weapons for the precious metals found by the lougrians in the mines of the Ourals. They traded with the Baltic Slavs ; and when the latter lost their independence, and a flourishing centre, Wisby, was formed in the Isle of Gothland, Novgorod turned to this side also. In the i2lh century there was a Gothic trading depot and a Varangian Cliurch at Novgorod, and a Novgorodian Church in Gothland. When the Germans began to dispute the commerce of the Baltic with the Scandinavians, Novgorod became the seat of a German depot, which ended by absorbing the Gothic one. When the Hanseatic League be- came the mistress of the North, we find the Germans established not only at Novgorod, but at Pskof and Ladoga, at all the mouths of the network of Novgorodian lakes. There they ob- tained considerable privileges, even the right to acquire jDasture- land. They were masters, and at home in their fortified dc'pbts, in their stockade of thick planks, where no Russian had the right to penetrate without their leave. This German trading company was governed by the most narrow and exclusive ideas. No Russian was allowed to belong to the company, nor to carry the wares of a German, an Englishman, a Walloon or a Fleming. The company only authorized a wholesale commerce, and, to maintain her goods at a high price, she forbade imports beyond a certain amount. " In a word," says a German writer, " dur- ing three centuries the Hanseatic League concentrated in her own hands all the external commerce of Northern Russia. If we inquire what profit or loss she has brought this country, we must recognize that, thanks to her, Novgorod and Pskof were deprived of a free commerce with tlie West. Russia, iu order to satisfy the first wants of civilization, fell into a complete inde- pendence. She was abandoned to the good pleasure and piti- less egotism of the German merchants." (Riesenkampf, ' Der- deutsche Hof.') The ecclesiastical constitution of Russia presents a special character. In tlie rest of Russia the clergy was Russian-ortho- dox. At Novgorod it was Novgorodian before everything. It was only in the 12th century that the Slavs of Ilmen, who had HIS TOR Y OF RUSSIA. 1 03 been the last to be converted, could have an archbishop that was neither Greek nor Kievian, but of their own race. From that time the archbishop was elected by the citizens, by the vek/ic^. Without waiting for the metropolitan to be invested at Kief, he was at once installed in his episcopal palace. He was one of the great personages, the first dignitary of the republic. In public acts his name was placed before the others. " With the blessing of Archbishop Moses," says one letter-patent ; " possadnik Daniel and tysatski Abraham salute you." He had a superiority over the prince on the ground of being a native of the country, whilst the descendant of Rurik was a foreigner. In return, the revenues of the archbishop, the treasures of Saint Sophia, were at the service of the republic. In the 14th century we find an archbishop building at his own ex- pense a kremlin of stone. In the 15th century, the riches of the cathedral were employed to ransom the Russian prisoners captured by the Lithuanians. The Church of Novgorod was essentially a national Church ; the ecclesiastics took part in the temporal affairs, the laics in the spiritual. In the 14th century the 7 ertv, and tiiat once again the iron men would feel the weight of his' arm; but, like King Arthur, he has never appeared, bring- ing to his people the liberty that the Germans have taken from them. 1 1 2 HIS2 OR Y OF R USSIA. CHAPTER X. THE TATAR MONGOLS. ENSLAVEMENT OF RUSSIA, Origin and manners of the Mongols — Battles of the Kalka, of Riazan, of Kolomna, and of the Sit — Conquest of Russia — Alexander Nevski — The Mongol yoke — Influence of the Tatars on the Russian development. ORIGIN AND MANNERS OF THE MONGOLS. Up to this time tlie destinies of Russia had presented some analogy with those of the West. Slavonia, iike Gaul, had re- ceived Roman civilization and Christianity from the South. The Northmen had brought her an organization which recalls that ot the Germans ; and under laroslaf, like the W«st under Charlt s the Great, she had enjoyed a certain semblat ce of unity, while she was afterwards dismembered and divider"* like France in feudal times. But in the 13th century, Russia suffered an un- heard-of misfortune — she was invaded and subju-^ated by Asiatic hordes. This fatal event contributed quite as n uch as the dis- advantage of the soil and the climate to retard htv development by many centuries. " Nature," as M. Solovief says, " has been a step-mother to Russia ;" fate was another step-mother. " In those times," say the Russian chroniclers, " there came upon us for our sins, unknown nations. No one could tell their origin, whence they came, what religion they professed. God alone know who they were, God and perhaps wise men learned in books." When we think of the horror of the whole of Europe at the arrival of the Mongols, and the anguish of a Frederick, ot a Saint Louis, an Innocent IV., we may imagine the terror of the Russians. They bore the first shock of those mysterious foemen, who were, so the people whispered, Gog and Magog, who '• were to come at the end of the world, when Antichrist is to destroy everything." (Joinville.) The Ta-ta or Tatars seem to have been a tribe of the great Mongol race, living at the foot of the Altai, who in spite of their long-continued discords frequently found means to lay waste China by their invasions. The portrait drawn of them recalls in HISl'OK \ - or R USSTA. 1 13 many ways those already traced by Chinese, Latiri, and Greek authors, of the Huns, the Avars, and other nomad peoples of former invasions. " The Ta-izis or the Das," says a Chinese writer of the 13th century, "occupy themselves exclusively with their flocks; they go wandering ceaselessly from pasture to pasture, from river to river. They are ignorant of the nature of a town or a wall. They are unacquainted with writing and books; their treaties are concluded orally. From infancy they are accustomed to ride, to aim their arrows at rats and birds, and thus acquire the courage essential to their life of wars and rapine. They have neither religious ceremonies nor judicial in- stitutions. From the prince to the lowest among the people all are nourished by the flesh of the animals whose skin they use for clothing. The strongest among them have the largest and fattest morsels at feasts ; the old men are put off with the frag- ments that are left. They respect nothing but strength and bravery ; age and weakness are condemned. When the father dies, the son marries his youngest wives." A Mussulman writer adds, that they adore the sun, and practice polygamy and the community of wives. This pastoral people did not take an in- terest in any phenomenon of nature except the growth of grass. The names they gave to their months were suggested by the different aspects of the prairie. Born horsemen, they had no infantry in war. They were ignorant of the art of sieges. " But," says a Chinese author, " when they wish to take a town, they fall on the suburban villages. Each leader seizes ten men, and every prisoner is forced to carry a certain quantity of wood, stones, and other materials. They use these for filling np fosses, or digging trenches. In the capture of a town, the loss of 10,000 nicn was thought nothing. No place could resist them. After a siege, all the population was massacred, without distinction of old or young, rich or poor, beautiful or ngly, those who resisted or those who yielded ; no distinguished person escaped death, if a defence was attempted." It was these rough tribes that Temoutchine or Genghis-Khan (i 154-1227) succeeded in uniting into one nation after forty years of obscure struggles. Then in a general congress of their princes he proclaimed himself emperor, and declared that, as there was only one sun in heaven, there ought only to be one emperor ou the earth. At the head of their forces he conquered Mantchouria, the kingdom of Tangout, Northern China, Turkestan, and Great Bokhara, which never recovered this disaster, and the plains of Western Asia as far as the Crimea. When he died, he left to be divided between his four sons the largest empire that ever existed. 1 1 4 HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA, It was during his conquest of Bokhara that his lieutenants Tchepe and Souboudai-bagadour subdued in their passage a multitude of Turkish peoples, passed the Caspian by its southern shore, invaded Georgia and the Caucasus, and in the southern steppes of Russia came in contact with the Polovtsi. BATTLES OF THE KALKA, OF RIAZAN, OF KOLOMNA, AND OF THE SIT CONQUEST OF RUSSIA. The hereditary enemies of the Russians proper, the Polovsti, asked the Christian princes for help against these ]\Iongols and Turks, who were their brothers bv a common orisrin. " Thev have taken our country," said they to the descendants of Saint Vladimir; "to-morrow they will take yours." Mstislaf the Bold, then prince of Galitch, persuaded all the dynasties of Southern Russia to take up arms against the Tatars : his nephew Danial, prince of Voihynia, Mstislaf Romanovitch, Grand Prince of Kief, Oleg of Koursk, Mstislaf of Tchernigof, Vladimir of Smolensk, Vsevolod for a short time prince of Novgorod, re- sponded to his appeal. To cement his alliance with the Russians, Basti, khan of the Polovsti, embraced orthodox}-. The Russian army had already arrived on the Lower Dnieper, when the Tatar ambassadors made their appearance. " We have come by God's command against our slaves and grooms, the accursed Polovtsi. Be at peace with us ; we have no quarrel with you." The Rus- sians, with the promptitude and thoughtlessness that character- ized the men of that time, put the ambassadors to death. They then went further into the steppe, and encountered the Asiatic hordes on the Kalka, a small river running into the Sea of Azof. The Russian chivalry on this memorable day showed the same disordered, and the same ill-advised eagerness as the French chivalry at the opening of the English wars. Mstislaf the Bold, Daniel of Galitch, and Oleg of Koursk were the first to rush into the midst of the infidels, without waiting for the princes of Kief, and even without giving them warning, in order to gain for themselves the honors of victory. In the middle of the combat, the Polovsti were seized with a panic and fell back on the Russian ranks, thus throwing them into disorder. The rout became general, and the leaders S]Durred on their steeds in hopes of reaching the Dnieper. Six princes and seventy of the chief boyards or voievodes re- mained on the field of battle. It was the Cre^y and Poictiers of the Russian chivalry. Hardly a tenth of the army escaped ; the Kievians alone left 10,000 dead. The Grand Prince of Kief, HIS TOR Y OF RUSSIA. 1 1 1^ however, Mstislaf Roinanovitch, still occupied a fortified camp on the banks of the Kalka. Abandoned bv the rest of the army, he tried to defend himself. I'he Tatars offered to make terms • he might retire on payment of a ransom for himself and his drotijina. He capitulated, and the conditions were broken. His guard was massacred, and he and his two sons-in-law were stifled under planks. The Tatars held their festival over the inanimate bodies (1224). After this thunderl)olt, which struck terror into the whole of Russia, the Tatars paused and returned to the Kast. Nothing more was heard of them. Thirteen years passed, during which the princes reverted to their perpetual discords. Those in the north-east had given no help to the Russians of the Dnieper; perhaps the Grand Prince, George II. of Souzdal, may have re- joiced over the humiliation of the Kievians and Gallicians. The Mongols were forgotten; the chronicles, however, are filled with fatal presages : in the midst of scarcity, famine and pestilence, of incendiaries in the towns and calamities of all sorts, they re- mark on the comet of 1224, the earthquake and eclipse of the sun of 1230. The Tatars were busy finishing the conquest of China, but presently one of the sons of Genghis, Ougoudei or Oktai, sent his nephew Bati to the West. As the reflux of the Polovtsi had announced the invasion of 1224, that of the Saxin nomads, related to the Kliirghiz who took refuge on the lands of the Bulgarians of the Volga, warned men of a new irruption of the Tatars, and indicated its direction. It was no longer South Russia, but Souzdalian Russia that was threatened. In 1237 Bati conquered the Great City, capital of the half-civilized Bulgars, who were, like the Polovtsi, ancient enemies of Russia, and who were to be included in her ruin. Bolgary was given up to the flames, and her inhabitants were put to the sword. The Tatars next plunged into the deep forests of the Volga, and sent a sorcerer and two officers as envoys to the princes of Riazan. The three princes of Riazan, those of Pronsk, Kolomna, Moscow and Mourom, advanced to meet them. " If you want peace," said the Tatars, "give us the tenth of your goods.'" '' Wlien we are dead," replied the Russian j^rinces, " you can have the whole." Though abandoned by the princes of Tchernigof and the Grand Prince George II., of whom they had implored help, the dynasty of Riazan accepted the unequal struggle. They were comjiletely crushed ; neatly all their princes remained on the field of battle. Legend has embellished their fall. It is told how Feodor pre- ferred to die rather than see his young wife, Euphrasia, the spoil of Bati J and how on learning his fate, she threw herself and her 1 1 6 HISTOR Y OF R USSIA. son from the window of the tcre7n. Oleg the Handsome, found still alive on the battle-field, repelled the caresses, the attention, and religion of the Khan, and was cut in pieces. Riazan was immediately taken by assault, sacked, and burned. All the towns of the principality suffered the same fate. It was now the turn of the Grand Prince, for the Russia of the North-east had not even the honor of falling in a great battle like the Russia of the South-west, united for once against the common enemy. The Souzdalian army, commanded by a son of George II., was beaten on the day of Kolomna, on the Oka. The Tatars burned Moscow, then beseiged Vladimir on the Kliazma, which George II. had abandoned to seek for help in the North. His two sons were charged with the defence of the capital. Princes and boyards, feeling there was no alternative but death or servi- tude, prepared to die. The princesses and all the nobles prayed Bishop Metrophanes to give them the tonsure ; and when the Tatars rushed into the town by all its gates, the vanquished re- tired into the cathedral, where they perished, men and women, in a general conflagration. Souzdal, Rostof, laroslavl, fourteen towns, a multitude of villages in the Grand Principality, were all given over to the flames (1238). The Tatars then went to seek the Grand Prince, who was encamped on the Sit, almost on the frontier of the possessions of Novgorod. George II. could neither avenge his people nor his family. After the battle, the bishop of Rostof found his headless corpse (1238). His nephew, Vassilko, who was taken prisoner, was stabbed for refusing to serve Bati. The immense Tatar army, after having sacked Tver, took Torjok ; there " the Russian heads fell beneath the sword of the Tatars as grass beneath the scythe," The territory of Novgorod was invaded ; the great republic trembled, but, the deep forests and the swollen rivers delayed Bati. The invading flood reached the Cross of Ignatius, about fifty miles from Nov- gorod, then returned to the South-east. On the way the small town of Kozelsk (near Kalouga) checked the Tatars for so long, and inflicted on them so much loss, that it was called by them the wicked totun. Its population was exterminated, and the prince Vassili, still a child, was " drowned in blood." The two following years (i 239-1 240) were spent by the Tatars in ravaging Southern Russia. They burnt Pereiaslaf, and Tchernigof, defended with desperation by its princes. Next Mangou, grandson of Genghis Khan, marched against the famous town of Kief, whose name resounded through the East, and in the books of the Arab writers. From the left bank of the Dnieper, the barbarian admired the great city on the heights of the right bank, towering over the wide river with her white walls and HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 117 towers adorned by Byzantine artists, and innumerable churches with cupolas of gold and silver. Mangou proposed a capitula- tion to the Kievians ; the fate of Riazan, of Tchernigof, of Vladi- mir, the capitals of powerful states, announced to them the lot that awaited them in case of refusal, yet the Kievians dared to massacre the envoys of the Khan. Michael, their Grand Prince, fled ; his rival, Daniel of Gal itch, did not care to remain. On hearing the report of Mangou, Bati came to assault Kief with the bulk of his army. The grinding of the wooden chariots, the bcllowings of the buffaloes, the cries of tlie camels, the neighing o' the horses, the bowlings of the Tatars, rendered it impossible, say" the annalist, to hear your own voice in the town. The Tatars as sailed the Polish Gate, and knocked down the walls with a batter ing-ram. " The Kievians, supported by the brave Dmitri, a Galli- cian boyard, defended the fallen ramparts till the end of the day, then retreated to the Church of the Dime, which they surrounded by a palisade. The last defenders of Kief found themselves group- ed around the tomb of laroslaf. Next day they perished. The Khan gave the boyard his life, but, the ' Mother of Russian cities ' was sacked. This third pillage was the most terrible, Even the tombs were not respected. All that remains of the Church of the Dime is only a few fragments of mosaic in the Museum at Kief. Saint Sophia, and the Monastery of the Catacombs, were delivered up to be plundered " (1240). Volhynia and Gallicia still remained, but their princes could not defend them, and Russia found herself, with the exception of Novgorod and the north-west country, under the Tatar yoke. The princes had fled or were dead ; hundreds of thousands of Russians were dragged into captivity. Men saw the wives of boyards, " who had never known work, who a short time ago had been clothed in rich garments, adorned with jewels and collars of gold, surrounded with slaves, now reduced to be them- selves the slaves of barbarians and their wives, turning the wheel of the mill, and preparing their coarse food." If we look for the causes which rendered the defeat of the brave Russian nation so complete, we may, with Karamsin, in- dicate the following: — i. Though the Tatars were not more ad- vanced, from a military point of view, than the Russians, who had made war in Greece and in the West against the most war- like and civilized people of Europe, yet they had an enormous superiority of numbers. Bati probably had with him 500,000 warriors. 2. This immense armv moved like one man ; it could succei'sively annihilate the droiijinas oi the princes, or the militia of the towns, which only presented themselves successively to its blows. The Tatars had found Russia divided against herself. 1 1 8 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. 3. Even though Russia had wished to form a confederation, the sudden irruptions of an army entirely composed of horsemen did not leave her time. 4. In the tribes ruled by Bati, every man was a soldier; in Russia the nobles and citizens alone bore arms : the peasants, who formed the bulk of the population, allowed themselves to be stabbed or bound without resistance. 5. It was not by a weak nation that Russia was conquered. The Tatar-Mongols, under Genghis Khan, had filled the East with the glory of their name, and subdued nearly all Asia. Thev arrived, proud of their exploits, animated by the recollec- tion of a hundred victories, and reinforced by numerous peoples whom they had vanquished, and hurried with them to the West. When the princes of Galitch, of Volhynia, and of Kief ar- rived as fugitives in Poland and Hungary, Europe was terror- stricken. The Pope, whose support had been claimed by the Prince of Galitch, summoned Christendom to arms. Louis IX. prepared for a crusade. Frederic II., as Emperor, wrote to the sovereigns of the West : " This is the moment to open the eyes of body and soul, now that the brave princes on whom we reck- oned are dead or in slavery." The Tatars invaded Hungary, gave battle to the Poles in Liegnitz in Silesia, had their prog- ress a long while arrested by the courageous defence of Olmiitz in Moravia, by the Tcheque vo'ievode laroslaf, and stopped finally, learning that a large army, commanded by the King of Bohemia and the dukes of Austria and Carinthia, was approach- ing. The news of the death of OktaT, second Emperor of all }he Tatars, in China, recalled Bati from the West, and during >he long march from Germany his army necessarily diminished ,n number. The Tatars were no longer in the vast plains of A.sia and Eastern Europe, but in a broken hilly country, bristling /ith fortresses, defended by a population more dense and a chivalry more numerous than those in Russia. To sum up, all the fury of the Mongol tempest spent itself on the Slavonic race. it was the Russians who fought at the Kalka, at Kolomna, at the Sit ; the Poles and Silesians at Liegnitz ; the Bohemians and Moravians at Olmiitz. The Germans suffered nothing from ihe invasion of the Mongols but the fear of it. It exhausted it- self principally on those plains of Russia which seem a continu- ation of the steppes of Asia. Only in Russian history did the invasion produce great results. About the same time Bati built on one of the arms of the Lower Volga a city called Sarai (the Castle), which became the capital of a powerful Tatar Empire, 4he Go/den Horde, extending from the Oural and Caspian to the mouth of the Danube. The Golden Horde was formed not only of Tatar-Mongols or Nogais, who even now survive in the HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 119 Northern Crimea, but particularly of the remains of ancient nomads, such as the Patzinaks and Polovtsi, whose descendants seem to be the present Kalmucks and Bachkirs ; of Turkish tribes tending to become sedentary, like the Tatars of Astrakhan in the present day ; and of the Finnish populations already es- tablished in the country, and which mixed with the invaders. OktaV, Kouiouk, and Mangou, the first three successors of Gen- o;his Khan, elected by all the Mongol princes, took the title of Great Khans, and the Golden Horde recognized their authority ; but under his fourth successor, Khouboulai, who usurped the throne and established himself in China, this bond of vassalage was broken. The Ciolden Horde became an independent Slate (1260). United and powerful under the terrible I3ati, who died in 1255, it fell to pieces under his successors ; but in the 14th century the Khan Uzbeck reunited it anew, and gave the horde a second period of prosperity. The Tatars, who were pagans when they entered Russia, embraced about 1272 the faith of Islam, and became its most formidable apostles. ALEXANDER NEVSKI (1252-1263). laroslaf, after his defeat at Lipetsk, entered Souzdal on the tragic death of his brother, the Grand Prince George II. laros- laf (1238-1246) found his inheritance in the most deplorable condition. The towns and villages were burnt, the country and roads covered with unburied corpses ; the survivors hid them- selves in the woods. He recalled the fugitives and began to rebuild. Bati, who had completed the devastation of South Russia, summoned laroslaf to do him homage at Sara'i, on the Volga. laroslaf was received there with distinction, Bati con- firmed his title of Grand Prince, but invited him to go in person to the Great Khan, supreme chief of the Mongol nation, who lived on the banks of the river Sakhalian or Amour. To do this was to cross the whole of Russia and Asia. laroslaf bent his knees to the new master of the world, Oktai, succeeded in refuting the accusations brought against him by a Russian boy. ard, and obtained a new confirmation of his title. On his return he died in the desert of exhaustion, and his faithful servants brought his body back to Vladimir. His son Andrew succeeded him in Souzdal (i 246-1 252). His other son, Alexander, reigned at Novgorod the Great. Alexander was as brave as he was intelligent. He was the hero of the Nortii, and jet he forced himself to accept the neces- sary humiliations of liis terrible situation. In his youth we see 1 2 o HISTOR Y OF R USSTA. him fighting with all the enemies of Novgorod, Livonian knights and Tchouds, Swedes and Finns. Tlie Novgorodians found themselves at issue with the Scandinavians on the subject of tlieir possessions on the Neva and the Gulf of Finland. As they had helped the natives to resist the Latin faith, King John obtain- ed the promise of Gregory IX. that a crusade, with plenary in- dulgences, should be preached against the Great Republic and her p?-oteges, the pagans of the Baltic. His son-in-law, Birger, with an army of Scandinavians, Finns, and Western Crusaders, took the command of the forces, and sent word to the Prince of Novgorod, " Defend \'ourself if vou can : know that I am already in your provinces." The Russians on their side, feeling they were fighting for othodoxy, opposed the Latin crusade with a Greek one. Alexander humbled himself in Saint Sophia, received the benediction of the Archbishop Spiridion, and addressed an ener- getic harangue to his warriors. He had no time to await reinforce- ments from Souzdal. He attacked the Swedish camp, which was situated on the Ijora, one of the southern affluents of the Neva, which has given its name to Ingria. Alexander won a brilliant victory, which gained him his surname of Nevski, and the honor of becoming under Peter the Great, the second conqueror of the Swedes, one of the patrons of St. Petersburg. By the orders of his great successor his bones repose in the Monastery of Alexander Nevski. The battle of the Neva was preserved in a dramatic legend. An Ligrian chief told Alexan- der how, in the eve of the combat, he had seen a myste- rious bark, manned by two warriors with shining brows, glide through the night. They were Boris and Gleb, who came to the rescue of their voune: kinsman. Other accounts have preserved to us the individual exploits of the Russian heroes — Gabriel, Skylaf of Novgorod. James of Polotsk, Sabas, who threw down the tent of Birger, and Alexander Nevski himself, who with a stroke of the lance " imprinted his seal on his face" (1240). Notwithstanding the triumph of such a service, Alexander and the Novgorodians could not agree ; a short time after, he retired to Pere'iaslavl-Zaliesski. The proud republicans soon had reason to regret the exile of this second Camillus. The Order of the Sword-bearers, the indefatigable enemy of orthodoxy, took Pskof, their ally ; the Germans imposed tribute on the Vojans, vassals of Novgorod, constructed the fortress of Koporie on her territory of the Neva, took the Russian town of Tessof in Esthonia, and pillaged the merchants of Novgorod within seventeen miles of their ramparts. During this time the Tchouds and the Lithua- nians captured the peasants, and the cattle of the citizens. At last Alexander allowed himself to be touched by the prayers of ALEXANDER NEVSKI. HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. 1 2 1 the archbishop and the people, assembled an army, expelled the Germans from Koporie, and next from Pskof, hung as traitors the captive Vojans and Tchouds, and put to death six knights who fell into his hands. This war between the two races and two religions was cruel and pitiless. The rights of nations were hardly recognized. More than once Germans and Russians slew the ambassadors of the other side. Alexander Nevski finally gave battle to the Livonian knights on the ice of Lake Peipus, killed 400 of them, took 50 prisoners, and exterminated a multi- tude of Tchouds. Such was ihe. Battle of i/ie Ice (1242). He returned in triumph to Novgorod, dragging with him his prisoners in armor of iron. The Grand Master expected to see Alexander at the gates of Riga, and implored help of Denmark. The Prince of Novgorod, satisfied with having delivered Pskof, concluded peace, recovered certain districts, and consented to the exchange of prisoners. At this time Innocent IV., deceived by false in- formation, addressed a bull to Alexander, as a devoted son of the Church, assuring him that his father laroslaf, while dying among the Horde, had desired to submit himself to the throne of St. Peter. Two cardinals brought him this letter from the Pope (125 1). it is this hero of the Neva and Lake Peipus, this vanquisher of the Scandinavians and Livonian knights, that we are presently to see grovelling at the feet of a barbarian. Alexander Nevski had understood that, in presence of this immense and brutal force of the Mongols, all resistance was madness, all pride ruin. To brave them was to complete the overthrow of Russia. His con- duct may not have been chivalrous, but it was wise and humane. Alexander disdained to play the hero at the expense of his peo- ple, like his brother Andrew of Souzdal, who was immediately obliged to fly, abandoning his country to the vengeance of the Tatars. The Prince of Novgorod was the only prince in Russia who had kept his independence, but he knew Bati's hands could extend as far as the Ilmen. " God has subjected many peoples to me," wrote the barbarian to him : " will vou alone refuse to recognize my power ? If you wish to keep your land, come to me ; you will see the splendor and the glory of my sway." 'J'hen Alexander went to Sarai with his brother Andrew, who disputed the Grand Principality of Vladimir with his uncle Sviatoslaf. Rati declared that fame had not exaggerated the merit of Alexander, that he far excelled the common run of Russian princes. He enjoined the two brothers to show themselves, like their father laroslaf, at the Great Horde ; they returned from it in 1257. Kouiouk had confirmed the one in the possession of I 2 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. Vladimir, and the other in that of Novgorod, adding to it all South Russia and Kief. The year 1260 put the patience of Alexander and his politic obedience to the Tatars to the proof. Oulavtchi, to whom the Khan BerkaY had confided the affairs of Russia, demanded that Novgorod should submit to the census and pay tribute. It was the hero of the Neva that was charged with the humiliating and dangerous mission of persuading Novgorod. When the possad- nik uttered in the vetche the doctrine that it was necessary to submit to the strongest, the people raised a terrible cry and murdered the possadnik. Vassili himself, the son of Alexander, declared against a father " who brought servitude to free men ;" and retired to the Pskovians. It needed a soul of iron temper to resist the universal disapprobation, and counsel the Novgoro- dians to the commission of the cowardly though necessary act. Alexander arrested his son, and punished' the boyards who had led him into the revolt with death or mutilation. The 7r/r///had decided to refuse the tribute, and send back the Mongol am- bassadors with presents. However, on the rumor of the approach of the Tatars, they repented, and Alexander could announce to the enemy that Novgorod submitted to the census. But when they saw the officers of the Khan at work, the population re- volted again, and the prince was obliged to keep guard on the officers night and day. In vain the boyards advised the citizens to give in : assembled around St. Sophia, the people declared they would die for liberty and honor. Alexander (hen threaten- ed to quit the city with his men, and abandon it to the vengeance of the Khan. This menace conquered the pride of the Novgoro- dians. The Mongols and their agents might go, register in hand, from house to house in the humiliated and silent city to make the list of the inhabitants. " The boyards," says Karam- sin, " might yet be vain of their rank and their riches, but the simple citizens had lost with their national honor their most precious possession " (1260). In Souzdal also Alexander found himself in the presence of insolent victors and exasperated subjects. In 1262 the inhab- itants of Vladimir, of Souzdal, of Rostof, rose against the collec- tors of the Tatar impost. The people of laroslavl slew a ren- egade named Zozimus, a former monk, who had become a Mos- lem fanatic. Terrible reprisals were sure to follow. Alexander set out with presents for the Horde at the risk of leaving his head there. He had likewise to excuse himself for having re- fused a bodv of auxiliarv Russians to the Mongols, wishing at least to spare the blood and religious scruples of his subjects. It is a remarkable fact, that, over the most profound humilia- HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 123 tions of the Russian nationality, the contemporary history al- ways throws a ray of glory. At tlie moment that Alexander went to prostrate himself at Sarai, the Souzdalian army, united to that of Novgorod, and commanded by his son iJmiiri, defeated the Livonian knights, and took Dorpat by assault. The Khan Berkai gave Alexander a kind greeting, accepted his explana- tions, dispensed with the promised contingent, but kept him for a year near his court. The health of Alexander broke down ; he died on his return before reaching Vladimir. When the news arrived at his capital, the Metropolitan Cyril, who was finishing the liturgy, turned towards the faithful, and said, " Learn, my dear children, that the Sun of Russia is set, is dead." " We are lost," cried the people, breaking forth into sobs. Alexander by this policy of resignation, which his chivalrous heroism does not permit us to despise, had secured some repose for exhausted Russia. By his victories over his enemies of the West he had given her some glory, and hindered her from despairing under the most crushing tyranny, material and moral, which a European people had ever suffered. THE MONCOL YOKE — INFLUENCE OF THE TATARS ON THE RUS SIAN DEVELOPMENT. The Mongol khans, after having devastated and abased Rus- sia, did not introduce any direct political change. They left to each country her laws, her courts of justice, her natural chiefs. The house of Andrew Bogolioubski continued to reign in Souz- dal, that of Daniel Romanoviich in Gal itch and Volhynia, the Olgovitches in Tchernigof, and the descendants of Rogvolod the Varangian at Polotsk. Novgorod might continue to expel and recall her princes, and the dynasties of the South to dispute the throne of Kief. The Russian States found themselves under the Mongol yoke, in much the same situation as that of the Christians of the Greco-Slav peninsula three centuries later, under the Ottomans. The Russians remained in possession of all their lands, which their nomad conquerors, encamped on the steppes of the East and South, disdained. They were, like their Danubian kinsmen, a sort of rayahs, over whom the authority of the khans was exerted with more or less rigor, but whom their conquerors never tried in any way to Tatarize. Let us see ex- actly in what consisted the obligations of the vanquished, and their relations with their conquerors, during the period of the Mongol yoke or latarchtchitta. 124 HIS TOR Y OF H USSIA. I. The Russian princes were forced to visit the Horde, either as evidence of their submission, or to give the Khan op- portunity of judging their disputes. We have seen how they had to go not only to the Khan of the Golden Horde, but often also to the Grand Khan at the extremity of Asia, on the borders of the Sakhalian or Amour, They met there the chiefs of the Mongol, Tatar, Thibetian and Bokharian hordes, and sometimes the ambassador of the Caliph of Bagdad, of the Pope, or of the King of France. The Grand Khans tried to play off against each other these ambassadors, who were astonished to meet at his court. Mangou Khan desired Saint Louis to recognize him as the master of the world, "for," said he, " when the universe has saluted me as sovereign, a happy tranquillity will reign on the earth." In the case of refusal, "neither deep seas nor inac- cessible mountains " would place the King of France beyond the power of his wrath. To the princes of Asia and Russia he displayed the presents of the King of France, affecting to con- sider them as tributes and signs of submission. '• We will send to seek him to confound you," he said to them, and Joinville as- sures us that this threat, and "the fear of the King of France," decided many to throw themselves on his mercy. This journey to the Grand Horde was terrible. The road went through des- erts, or countries once rich, but changed by the Tatars into vast wastes. Few who went returned. Planus Carpinus, envoy of Innocent IV., saw in the steppes of the Kirghiz the dry bones of the boyards of the unhappy laroslaf, who had died of thirst in the sand. Planus Carpinus thus describes the Court of Bati on the Volga: — "It is crowded and brilliant. His army con- sists of 600.000 men, 150,000 of whom are Tatars, and 450,000 strangers. Christians as well as infidels. On Good Friday we were conducted to his tent, between two fires, because the Ta- tars pretend that a fire purifies everything, and robs even poison of its danger. We had to make many prostrations, and enter the tent without touching the threshold. Bati was on his throne with one of his wives ; his brothers, his children, and the Tatar lords were seated on benches ; the rest of the assembly were on the ground, the men on the right, the women on the left The Khan and the lords of the Court emptied from time to time cups of gold and silver, while the musicians made the air ring with their melodies. Bati has a bright complexion ; he is affa- ble with his men, but inspires general terror." The Court of the Grand Khan was still more magnificent. Planus Carpinus found there a Russian named Koum, who was the favorite and special goldsmith of Galiouk or Kouiouk, and Rubruquis discov- ered a Parisian goldsmith, named Guillaume. Much money was HISTORY OF R J2S needed for success, either at the Court of the Grand Khan or of Bati. Presents had to be distributed to the Tatar princes, to the favorites ; above all to the wives and the mother of the Khan. At this terrible tribunal the Russian princes had to struggle with intrigues and corruption ; the heads of the pleaders were often the stakes of these dreadful trials. The most dan- gerous enemies they encountered at the Tatar Court were no^ the barbarians, but 'the Russians, their rivals. The history of the Russian princes at the Horde is very tragic. Thus Michael of Tchernigof perished at the Horde of Sarai in 1246, and Mi- chael of Tver in 13 19, the one assassinated by the renegade Doman, the other by the renegade Romanetz, at the instigation and under the eyes of the Grand Prince of Moscow. 2. The conquered people were obliged to pay a capitation tax, which weighed as heavily on the poor as on the rich. The tribute was paid either in money or in furs ; those who were unable to furnish it became slaves. The Khans had for some time farmed out this revenue to some Khiva merchants, who collected it with the utmost rigor, and whom they protected by appointing superior agents called baskaks, with strong guards to support them. The excesses of these tax-gatherers excited many revolts : in 1262, that of Souzdal ; in 1284, that of Koursk ; in 13 18, that of Kolomna ; in 1327, that of Tver, where the in- habitants slew the (^(7^X'<7,(' Chevkal, and brought down on them- selves frightful reprisals. Later, the princes of Moscow them- selves farmed not only the tax from their own subjects, but alsc from neighboring countries. They became the farmers-general of the invaders. This was the origin of their riches and their power. 3. Besides the tribute, the Russians had to furnish to theii master the blood-tax, a military contingent. Already at the time of the Huns and Avars, we have seen Slavs and Goths accompany the Asiatic hordes, form their vanguards, and be as it were the hounds of Baian. In the 13th century, the Russian princes furnished to the Tatars select troops, especially a solid infantry, and marched in their armies at the head of their dtou- jinas. It was thus that in 1276 Boris of Rostof, Gleb of Bielo- rersk, Feodor of laroslavl, and Andrew of Gorodetz followed Mangou Khan in a war against the tribes of the Caucasus, and sacked Dediakof in Daghestan, the capital of the lasses. The Mongols scrupulously reserved to them their part of the booty. The same Russian princes took part in an expedition against an adventurer named Lachan by the Greek historians, formerly a keeper of pigs, who had raised Bulgaria. The descendnnts of Monomachus behaved still more dishonorably in the troubles 126 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. in the interior of Russia. They excited the Mongols against their countrymen and aided the invaders. Prince Andrew, son of Alexander Ne.'ski, piiiaged in 12S1, in concert with the Tatars, the provinces of Vladimir, Souzdal, Mourom, Moscow, and Pere'iaslavl, which he was dispniing with Dmitri, his elder brother. He helped the barbarians to profane churches and convents. In 1327 it was the princes of Moscow and Souzdal who directed the military execution against Tver. In 1284, two Olgovitches reigned in the land of Koursk ; one of them, Oleg, put the other to death in the name of the Khan. Servitude had so much abased all characters, that even the annalists share the general degradation. They blame, not Oleg the murderer, but Sviatoslaf the victim. Was it not his unbridled conduct that caused the anger of the Khan ? 4. No prince could ascend the throne without having received the investiture and the iarlikJi, or letters patent, from the Khan. The proud Novgorodians themselves rejected Michael, their prince, saying, " It is true we have chosen Michael, but on the condition that he should show us the iar/ikh.'" 4. No Russian State dared to make war without being authorized to do so. In 1269 the Novgorodians asked leave to march against Revel. In 1303, in an assembly of princes, and in the presence of the Metropolitan Maximus, a decree of the Khan Tokhta was read, enjoining the princes to put an end to their dissensions, and to content themselves with their appan- ages, it being the will of the Grand Khan that the Grand Princi- pality should enjoy peace. When the Mongol ambassadors brought a letter from their sovereign, the Russian princes were obliged to meet them on foot, prostrate themselves, spread precious carpets under their feet, present them with a cup filled with gold pieces, and listen, kneeling, while the iar/ikh was read. Even while the Tatars conquered the Russians, they respected their bravery. Matrimonial alliances were contracted between their princes. About 1272, Gleb, prince of Bielozersk, took a wife out the Khan's family, which already professed Christianity, and Feodor of Riazan bec!ime the son-in-law of the Khan of the Nogais, who assigned to the young couple a palace in Sara'i. In 13 18 the Grand Prince George married Kontchaka, sister of Uzbeck Khan, who was baptized by the name of Agatha. To- wards the end of the 14th century, the Tatars were no longer the rude shepherds of the steppes. Mingled with sedentary and more cultivated races, they rebuilt fresh cities on the ruins of those they had destroyed ; Krym in the Crimea, Kazan, Astrakhan, and Sarai. They had acquired a taste for luxury and HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 127 magnificence, honored the national poets who sang their ex- ploits, piqued themselves on their chivalry and even on their gallantry. Notwithstanding the difference of religion, a recon« ciliation was taking place between the aristocracy of the two countries, between the Russian kjiiazcs and the Tatar trnmrzas. The Russian historians are not entirely agreed as to the nature and degree of intiuence exerted by the Mongol yoke on the Russian development. Karamsin and M. Kostomarof be- lieve it to have been considerable. " Perhaps," says the former " our national character still presents some blots which are derived from the Mongol barbarism." M. Solovief, on the contrary, affirms that the Tatars hardly influenced it more than the Patzinaks or Polovtsi. M. Bestoujef-Rioumine estimates the influence to have been specially exerted on the financial ad- ministration and militarv organization. On one side the Tatars established the capitation-tax, which has remained in the financial system of Russia ; on the other, the conquered race had a natural tendency to adopt the military system of the victors. The Russian or Mongol princes formed a caste of soldiers hence- forth quite distinct from Western chivalry, to which the Russian heroes of the 12th century belonged. The warriors of Daniel of Galitch, it is said, astounded the Poles and Hungarians by the Oriental character of their equipment. Short stirrups, very high saddles, a long caftan or floating dress, a sort of turban surmounted by an aigret, sabres and poniards in their belts, a bow and arrows — sucii was the military costume of a Russian prince of the 15th century. On the other side, many of the peculiarities in which the Mongol influence is thought traceable may be attributed as well or better to purely Slav traditions, or imitations of Byzantine manners. If the Muscovite princes inclined to autocracy, it was not that they formed themselves on the model of the Grand Khan, but that they naturally adopted imperial ideas of absolu- tism imported from Constantinople. It is always the Roman Emperor of Tzargrad, and not the leader of Asiatic shepherds, who is their typical monarch. If from this time the Russian penal law makes more frequent use of the pain of death and corporal punishment, it is not only the result of imitation of the Tatars, but of the evergrowing influence of Byzantine laws, and the progressive triumph of their principles over those of the an- cient code of laroslaf. Now these laws so very easily admitted torture, flogging, mutilation, the stake, &c., that there is no need to explain anything by Mongol usages. The habit of prostration, of beating the forehead, of affecting the servile submission, is certainly Oriential, but it is also Byzantine. The seclusion ot J 2 8 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA . women was customary in ancient Russia, moulded by Greek missionaries, and tlie Russian terem proceeds more certainly ix om \.\\e HeWemc gyncBceum than from the Oriental harem \ all the more because the Tatar women, before the conversion of the Mongols to Islamism, do not appear to have been secluded. If the Russians of the 17th century seem strange to us in their long robes and Oriental fashions, we must remember that the French and Italians of the 15th century, dressed by Venetian merchants, displayed the same taste. Only in France fashions made advances, while in Russia, isolated from the rest of Europe thev remained stationarv. From a social point of view, two Russian expressions seem to date from the Tatar invasion : tcherne, or the black people, to designate the lower orders ; and kresiianifie, signifying the peas- ant, that is, the Christian par excellefice, who was always a stranger to the Mongol customs adopted for a short time by the aristocracy. As to the amount of Mongol or Tatar blood mixed with the blood of the Russians, it must have been very small : the aristocracy of the two countries may have contracted mar- ria£:es, a certain number of mourzas mav have become Russian princes by their conversion to orthodoxy, but the two races, as a whole, remained strangers. Even to-day, while the autochtho- nous Finns continue to be Russified, the Tatar cantons, even though converted to Christianitv, are still Tatar. If the Mongol yoke has influenced the Russian development, it is very indirectly, i. In separating Russia from the West, in making her a political dependency of Asia, it perpetuated in the country that Byzantine half civilization whose inferiority to European civilization became daily more obvious. If the Rus- sians of the 17th century differ so much from Western nations, it • is above all because they have remained at the point whence all set out. 2. The Tatar conquest also favored indirectly the es- tablishment of absolute power. The Muscovite princes, respon- sible to the Khan for the public tranquillity and the collection of the tax, being all the while watched and supported by the baskaks, could the more easily annihilate the independence of the towns, the resistance of the second order of princes, the turbulence of the boyards, and the privileges of the free peasants. The Grand Prince of Moscow had no consideration for his subjects because no man had any consideration for him, and be- cause his life was always at stake. The Mongol tyranny bore with a frightful weight on all the Russian hierarchy, and sub- jected more closely the nobles to the princes, and the peasants to the nobles. " The princes of Moscow," says Karamsin, " took the humble title of servants of the khans, and it was by this HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 129 means that they became powerful monarchs." No doubt the Russian principalities would always have ended by losing their. selves in the same dominion, but Russian unity would have been made, like French unily, without the entire destruction of local autonomies, the privileges of ilie towns, and the rights of the subjects. It was the crushing weight of the Mongol domination that slilied all the germs of political liberty. We may say with Mr. Wallace, that " the first Tzars of Muscovy were the political descendants, not of the Russian princes, but of the Tatar khans." 3. A third indirect result of the conquest was the growth of the power and riches of the Church. In spite of the saintly legends about the martyrdom of certain princes, the Tatars were a toler- ant nation. Rubruquis saw in the presence of the Grand Klian Mangou, Nestorians, Mussulmans, and Shamans celebrating their own particular worships. Kouiouk had a Christian chapel near his palace ; Khoubilai regularly took part in the feast of Easter. In 1261 the Khan of Sarai authorized the erection of a church and orthodox bishopric in his capital. The Mongols had no sectarian hatred against bishops and priests. With a sure political instinct, the Tatars, like tlie Sultans of Stamboul, understood that these men could agitate or calm the people. After the first fury of the conquest was passed, they applied themselves to gaining them over. They exce]')ted priests and monks from the capitation-tax ; they recei\'ed them well at the Horde, and gave pardons at their in- tercession. They settled disputes of orthodox prelates, and es- tablished the peace in the Church that they imposed on the State. In 13 13 the Khan Uzbeck, at the prayer of Peter, Met- ropolitan of Moscow, confirmed the privileges of the Church and forbade her being deprived of her goods, " for," says the edict, "these possessions are sacred, because they belong to men whose prayers preserve our lives and strengthen our armies." The right of justice in the Church was formally recognized. Sacrilege was punished by death. The convents also increased in numbers and riches. They filled enormously : were they not the safest asylums ? Their peas- ants and servants multiplied : was not the protection of the Church the surest ? Gifts of land were showered on them, as in France in the year 1000. It was thus that the great ecclesiastical patri- mony of Russia, a wealthy reservoir of revenues and capital, was constituted, on which more than once in national crises the Russian sovereigns were glad to draw. The Church, which, even in her weakness, had steadily tended to unity and autoc- racy, was to place at the service of the crown a power which had become enormous. The Metropolitans of Aloscow were nearly always the faithful allies of the Grand Princes. l»^ HISTORY OF RUSSIA, CHAPTER XI. THE LITHUANIANS: CONQUEST OF WESTERN RUSSIA (1240-1430) The Lithuanians— Conquests of Mindvog (1240-1263), of Gedimin (1315- 1340), and of Olgerd (i345-i377)—Jagellon— Union of Lithuania with Po. land (1386)— The Grand Prince Vitovt (1392-1430)— Battles of the Vorskla (1399), and of Tannenberg (1410). THE LITHUANIANS CONQUESTS OF MINDVOG (124O-1263), OF GEDIMIN (1315-I340), AND OF OLGERD (l345-I377)- The Lithuanian tribes had already been greatly broken up by the German conquest, Russians, Korsi, Semigalli, and Letts had been brought into subjection either by the Teutonic or Livonian knights. Two among the tribes, the Jmouds and the Lithuanians properly so called, had preserved in the deep forests and marshes of the Niemen their proud independence, their fero- city, and their ancient gods. A Russian tradition affirms that they formerly had paid the Russians the only tribute their poverty could afford — bark and brooms. Jmouds and Lithuanians were divided, like the ancient Slavs, into rival and jealous tribes. Al- though more than once they marched from their forests, blowing long trumpets, careering on rough ponies — though they had made many incursions into the Russian territory — they were not really dangerous. This old Aryan people, whom European influences had never modified, had preserved from the time they dwelt in Asia a powerful sacerdotal caste, — the va'idclotes above whom were the krivites, whose chief, the krive-kriveito, was high- priest of the nation. Their principal divinity was Perkun, the god of thunder, analogous to the Perun of the Russians. The sacred fire, the zniic/i, burned constantly before this idol. They had also priestesses, the wild Velledas, like that Birouta who, captured by Kestout, became the mother of the great Vitovt. The lime had come when the Lithuanians must perish like the Prussians or Letts, if they did not succeed in uniting against Germany. The emigrants from the countries already conquered would doubtless lend them new strength and energy. A wily HISTORY OF RUSSIA. «5i barbarian, Mindvog, created Lithuanian unity at the beginning of the 13th century in much the same way as Clovis — by ex- terminating the princes. "He began," says a chronicle, "by slaying his brothers and his sons, chased the survivors from the country, and reigned alone over the land of Lithuania." Thence he led his savage warriors against the Russian principalities, now enfeebled by the Mongol invasions, and conquered Grodno and Novogrodek. Happily Western Russia had two great men at its head, Alexander Nevski and Daniel of Volhynia. 'I'hreat- ened on one side by these princes, on the other by the knights of Livonia, the Lithuanians bethought themselves of hastening to the Pope and embracing the Catholic faith. A legate of In- nocent IV. and the lam/mcister of the Teutonic Order came to Grodno, escorted by a brilliant suite of cavaliers. In presence of an immense concourse of people, Mindvog received baptisni with his wife, and was consecrated King of Lithuania (1252). The danger passed, and Rome was forgotten. He and his new co-reliirionists did not asfree, and he was forced to cede the Jmoud country to the Livonian knights. Sharing the irritation of his subjects, he washed off his baptism as the unfortunate Livonians had done, re-established paganism, invaded Mazovia, ravaged the lands of the Order, and defeated the landnieister in person. He had taken the wife of one of his princes named Dovmont, and had married her. Dovmont awaited him on the road, and assassinated him (1263), and then fled from the vengeance of Mindvog's son to the Pskovians. He became their prince, was baptized, and defended them bravely against his pagan compatriots till he died, and was buried at the church of the Trinity. Voichel, son of Mindvog, in the first fervor of an ephemeral Christianity, had become a monk. When he heard of the murder of his father, he threw his cowl to the winds, and began a war of extermination with the confederates. Lithuania fell back into anarchy during the contest of the descendants of Mindvog with the rest of the princes who refused to accept their supremacy. She recovered herself under the enterprising and energetic Gedimin (13 15-1340), the real founder of her power. He turned the exhaustion and divisions of South Russia to his own profit ; and to the conquests of his predecessors — Grodno, Pinsk, Brest, and Polotsk — soon added Tchernigof, and all Volhvnia with Vladimir, under whose walls he defeated the Russians, aided though they were by an auxiliary army of Ta- tars (132 1). As to Kief, it is not known in what year she fell under his power; in the universal disorder, this memorable event passed almost unnoticed. The old capital of Russia was, J - 2 fflS TOR Y OF R USSIA. however, destined to remain for 400 years — up to the time of Alexis Romanof — in the hands of strangers. The Russian pop- ulations willingly received this new master, who would free them from the heavy yoke of the Mongols and the unceasing civil wars. As he respected their internal constitution and the rights of the orthodox clergy, it appears that many towns readily opened their gates to him. 'Gedimin sought to legalize his con- quests by contracting alliances with the house of St. Vladimir, allowed his sons to embrace the orthodox faith, and authorized the construction of Greek churches in his residences at Wilna and Novogrodek. In the North he had a perpetual struggle to sustain against the deadly enemies of his race, the military monks of Prussia and Livonia. Like Mindvog, he addressed himself to the Pope, John XXIL, and informed him that he wished to preserve his independence, that he only asked pro- tection for his religion, that he was surrounded by Fran- ciscans and Dominicans to whom he gave full liberty to teach their doctrine, and that he was ready to recognize the Pope as supreme head of the Church, if he would arrest the dep- redations of the Germans. The French Pope sent him Bar- tholomew, Bishop of Alais, and Bernard, Abbot of Buy. In the interval he had been exasperated by renewed attacks of the Teutonic knights, and forced the two legates to fly. He had transferred his capital to Wilna on the Wilia, and the ruins of his castle may still be perceived on the height which overlooks the citadel. He drew thither by immunities German artists and artisans, and granted them the rights of Riga and the Hanseatic towns. A Russian quarter was also formed in his capital. He died and was buried according to the pagan rite : his body was burned in a caldron with his war-horse and his favorite groom. After his death his sons Olgerd (i34S-i377) ^^'^^ Kestout de- prived two of their brothers of their appanages, and together ,,overned Lithuania, now re-united into a single State. Olgerd "humiliated Novgorod the Great, which had received another of his fugitive brothers, ravaged her territory, and forced her to put to death the possadnik who had been the cause of the war. He extended his possessions to the east and south, and con- quered Vitepsk, Mohilef, Briansk, Novgorod-Severski, Kamenetz and Podolia ; thus rendering himself master of nearly all the basin of the Dnieper, and obtaining a footing on the coast of tiie Black Sea, between the mouths of the Dnieper and the Dniester. With the republic of Pskof he maintained relations sometimes friendly, someiimes hostile ; gave her help against the Germans, and sent his son Andrew to govern her, and oc- HISTORY OF RUSSIA. «33 rasionally arrested her merchants and laid waste her territory. The Poles disputed Volhynia with him, oppressed the orthodox faith, and changed the Greek into Latin churches. Olgerd then made advancesio Simeon the Proud, Grand Prince of Moscow, and, though a pagan, married Juliana, princess of Tver, Under Simeon's successors the Lithuanian army three times took the road to Moscow, and, without tlie check imposed on him by the Poles and the two German orders, Olgerd might have made the conquest of Eastern Russia. In 1368 he had annihilated the Mongol hordes which infested the Lower Dnieper, and, more destructive than even these barbarians, completed the ruin of Cherson in the Crimea. JAGELLON — UNION OF LITHUANIA AND POLAND (1386). Although Olgerd had reconstituted the Lithuanian unity, he fell back into the old error, and divided his States between his sons and his brother, the brave Kestout, who had been his faith- ful associate. One of his sons, lagailo or Jagc/hn (1377-1434), cruelly repaired the fault of his father. He made his uncle Kestout prisoner by treachery, and caused him to be put to death. His brothers and cousins escaped a similar fate by fly- ing to neighboring states. In spite of this the bloody pagan was the Apostle of Lithuania. For a long while Christianity had sought to penetrate by two different channels, — under the Latin form from Poland, and under the Greek form from Russia. The fierce war sustained by the Lithuanians against the military monks of the North had rendered Catholicism particularly hate- ful to them. Under Olgerd the people of Wilna had risen, and fourteen Franciscans were slain. On the other side the larger part of the Lithuanian conquests was composed of Russian ter- ritory, and Lithuania underwent the influence of the Russian religion as well as of the Russian language. Russian became the official tongue ; it even seemed as if orthodoxy was to be- come the ruling faith, and the victors were to be absorbed by the vanquished, and Russified by their conquest. An unexpected event turned the natural course of history. The Angevin and French dynasty in Poland had lately been extinguished in the person of Louis of Hungary, whose only heir was his daughter Hedwiga. The Polish nobles felt that the best way of putting a stop to the eternal warfare with the Lithuanians was by marry- ing their queen to the powerful Prince of Wilna. The heart of Hedwiga is said to have been elsewhere engaged ; but the Catholic clergy set forth her consent to this union as a duty, tba 134 ITISTORY OF RUSSIA. fulfilment of which was to insure in Lithuania proper the triumph of the Latin faith, and thus to separate it from the Lithuanian Russian provinces which still remained orthodox. In 1386 Jagellon went to Cracow and received baptism and the crown of Poland, The conversion of the Lithuanians was then conducted after a fashion as summary as that of the Russians in the time of Vladi- mir. They were divided into groups, and the priest then sprin- kled 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. Jagellon overthrew the idol Perkun, extinguished the sacred fire that burned in the castle of Wilna, killed the holy serpents, and cut down the magic woods. The people, however, worshipped their gods for some time longer; like the Northmen who were converted by the Carolingians, many Lithuanians presented themselves more than once to be baptized, in order to receive again and again the white tunic of the neophyte. By transferring his capital to Cracow, in deference to his new subjects, Jagellon necessarily irritated his old subjects. To the determined pagans the ortho- dox allied themselves, provoked by the king's propaganda in favor of Catholicism. Lithuania believed that by her union with Poland she had forfeited her independence. THE GRAND PRINCE VITOVT (1392-1430) — BATTLES OF THE VORSKLA (1399), AND OF TANNENBERG (1410). Vitovt, son of the hero Kestout and the priestess Birouta, put himself at the head of the malcontents. He allied himself with the Teutonic knights, and twice besieged the Polish garri- son in the Castle of Wilna. Weary of war, Jagellon ended by ceding him Lithuania with the title of Grand Prince (1392). Vitovt (1392-1430). brother-in-law of the Grand Prince of Moscow (Vassili Dmitrie'vitch), took up the plans of Olgerd for the subjugation of the north-east of Russia. Sviatoslaf, the last prince but one of Smolensk, had made himself hated, even in that iron centurv, by his cruelties. Fighting in the Russian ter- ritory, he took pleasure in impaling and burning alive women and children. He was killed in 1387 in a battle against the Lithuanians, and his son loury was only the shadow of a Grand Prince of Smolensk, under the guardianship of Vitovt. The latter, who combined perfidy with the courage and energy of his father, made himself master of the town by a stratagem worthy of Caesar Borgia. He contrived to induce the prince and his HISrOR Y OF R USSTA. , 35 brothers to visit him in his tent, embraced and pressed them in his arms, and then declared them prisoners of war, while his army surprised and pillaged Smolensk. This queenly city on the Upper Dneiper was lost to Russia. The Lithuanian Em- |)ire now bordered on the ancient Souzdal and the principality of Riazan. These two countries, with Novgorod and Pskof, were the only ones which had preserved their independence. It seemed as if one campaign would suffice to annihilate the Russian name. But Viiovt cherished great projects, in which the conquest of Moscow was only an incident. He had already fought against the Mongols, and with the prisoners taken in the environs of Azof, had peopled many villages round Wilna, where their posterity still exist. He took under his protection the Khan Tokhtamych, whom Timour Koutloui had expelled from Sarai, and resolved to subjugate the Golden Horde, to instal a vassal there, and finally add to the conquest of the Tatar Em- pire that of Moscow and Riazan. The army that he assembled under the walls of Kief was perhaps the most important that had marched against the infidels since the first crusade. To his Lithuanian troops he had united the Polish contingent sent bv Jagellon under the famous vo'ievodes Spitko of Cracow, John of Mazovia, Sandivog of Ostorog, Dobrogost of Samotoul, and the droiijiiias of the Russian princes, Gleb of Smolensk, Michael and Dmitri of Volhynia, the Mongols of Tokhtamych, and five hundred knights, "iron men," richly armed, sent by the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order. He came up with the enemy on the banks of the Vorskla, an affluent of the Dnieper, that runs near Pultowa. It was almost the battle-field where fought in 1709 the heroes of the North. To Timour's proposals of peace, Vitovt answered that God had designed him to be mas- ter of the world, and that the Khan must recognize him as his father, pay him tribute, and jilace his armorial bearings on the Mongol coins. The Khan only negotiated to gain time till the bulk of the Tatar army, commanded by Ediger, came up. Ediger, in his turn, ironically summoned Vitovt to ac- knowledge him as father, and to place his arms on the Lithu- anian coins. Vitovt, who hoped to make up for his deficiency in numbers by his artillerv, gave the signal for battle. A manoeuvre of the Tatars on the rear *f the enemy assured them the victory. Two-thirds of the Lithuanian army, with the princes of Smolensk and Volhynia, remained on the field of battle. The remnant was pursued by Timour to the Dnieper. He levied war contributions on Kief and the Monastery of the Catacombs (1399). So fell the prestige of Vitovt. Even the princes of Riazan thought that they might safely iusull ,36 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. his frontiers. But he was still formidable, and the Grand Princft of Moscow, after having tried to attack him, judged it more prudent to make peace. When Vitovt began to recover from his disaster, he directed a still more famous expedition against the Teutonic knights. 'I'he Grand Prince of Lithuania had more than once found himself at issue with the two German orders. About this time the Teutonic knights had lost their early energy, thanks to the development of the system of fiefs, and to the progress of the commercial towns. In 1409 the Jmouds and Oriental Prussia, after having protested against the severity of the yoke imposed on them, revolted, counting on Vitovt to support them. A new Grand Master, the warlike Ulrich of Jungingen, refused the mediation of Vitovt's suzerain, the King of Poland. Upon this the united forces of Poland and Lithuania, with 40,000 Tatars and 21,000 Bohemian, Hungarian, Moravian and Silesian mer- cenaries, making a total of 97,000 infantry, 66,000 cavalry, and 60 cannons, entered Prussia. The Grand Master had only 57,- 000 infantry and 26,000 cavalry, with which to oppose them. The battle of Tannenberg (1410), gained chiefly by Vitovt, who broke the German centre and left w'ing, was a blow from which the power of the Teutonic Order never recovered. The Grand Master and nearly all the high dignitaries, 200 Knights of the Order, and 400 foreign knights, besides 4000 soldiers, were killed. Nearly all the princes of Western Russia took part in the combat, and the contingent of Smolensk especially distin- guished itself. The Jmoud country was freed from the Teutonic rule and united to Lithuania. Three years afterwards (1413) the Congress of Horodlo on the Bug, between Jagellon, accompanied by the Polish /(?;/j', and Vitovt, accompanied by his Lithuanian chiefs, took place. It was settled that the Lithuanian Catholics should receive the rights and privileges of the Polish schliaclita ; and that the representatives of the two countries should unite in a common diet to elect the Kin^s of Poland and the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, and decide important affairs. Vitovt soon had dif- ferences with his own subjects : the Jmouds, so refractory under the Teutonic rule, were pagans and Lithuanians at heart. They hated Catholicism and the Polish domination. They rose and expelled the monks. Vitovt could only govern them by force. The Russian provinces of Lithuania were orthodox, and de- pended upon the Metropolitan of Moscow. Vitovt wished to shake off his religious supremacy, and demanded of the Patriarch of Constantinople a special metropolitan for Western Russia, In spite of the Patriarch's refusal, he convoked a council of mS TOR V OF H USSIA. , ,_ si • orthodox prelates : a learned Bulgarian monk, Gregory Tsrni- blak, was elected Metropolitan of Kief. Thus Ru.ssia had two religious chiefs, as she had two Grand Princes — the Metropolitan of Eastern Russia, and the Metropolitan of Western Russia; one at Moscow, the other at Kief. Vitovt also wished to free himself on the western side, and deprive Poland of her suprem- acy over Lithuania. In 1429 he had an interview with the Emperor Sigismond, who promised to create him King of Lithuania. Vitovt, then eighty years of age, was at the height of his power. We see him at the fetes of Troki and Wilna, at- tended by his grandson Vassili Vassilidvitch, Grand Prince of Moscow, who was accompanied by the Muscovite Metropolitan Photius, the Princes of Tver and Riazan, Jagellon, king of Poland, the Khan of the Crimea, the exiled Hospodar of Wallachia, the Grand Master of Prussia, the Landmeister of Livonia, and the ambassadors of the Emperor of the East. Daily were 700 oxen, 1400 sheep, and game in proportion, consumed. In the midst oi these fetes the ambitious old man had to swallow a bitter draught. The Poles had intrigued with the Pope, and he was forbidden to dream of royalty. The ambassadors of Sigismond were checked as they were bringing him the sceptre and the crown. Vitovt fell ill, and died of disappointment (1430). After this Lithuania ceased to be formidable. We find it in turns governed by a (}rand Duke of its own, united to Poland under Vladislas, separated again, then definitely placed under the Polish sceptre from 1501. Though henceforward it always had the same sovereign as Poland, it remained a State apart — the Grand Principality or Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Her Lithuanian and Russian provinces became steadily Polish, and the princely descendants of Rurik and St. Vladimir, or of Mindvog and Gedimin, assumed the manners and language of the Polish aristocracy. 138 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER XII. THE GRAND PRINCES OF MOSCOW : ORGANIZATION OF EASTER! RUSSIA (1303-1462). Origin of Moscow — Daniel — George Danielovitch (1303-1325) and Ivan Kalita (i328-i34r) — Contest withi the liouse of Tver — Simeon the I'roud and Ivan the Debonnaire {1341-1359) — Dmitri Donskoi' ( 1363-1389) — Battle of Koulikovo — Vassili Dmitrie'vitch and Vassili the Blind (1389-1462). ORIGIN OF MOSCOW — DANIEL. Whilst Western Russia grouped herself around the Lithu- anian State, which had given the conquered Russian provinces a new capital in Wilna, and soon involved them in her own union with Poland, Eastern Russia grouped herself around Moscow. When this double concentration on the Moskowa and on the Wilna should be accomplished, Great Russia, proud of her national and religious unity, and Lithuanian Russia (or rather a foreign State composed of the Russian, Lithuanian, and Polish races, and of three religions, the Greek, Roman, and Protestant, besides the Jewish), would find themselves face to face. The contest of these two sister-enemies will fill many centuries of the history of the North. To other sovereisrns, in other centuries, will fall the task of reconstituting the Russian unity in its fullest extent. The honor of the princes of Mos- cow is to have created the living germ which became Great Russia. Around Moscow, under the Mongol yoke, a race was formed, patient and resigned, yet energetic and enterprising, born to endure bad fortune and profit by good, which in the long run was to get the ujDper hand over Western Russia and Lithuania. There a dynasty of princes grew, politic and persevering, pru- dent and pitiless, of gloomy and terrible mien, whose foreheads were marked by the seal of fatality. They were the founders of the Russian empire, as the Capetians were of the French mon- archy. The means used by the sovereigns of Russia were very HISTORY OF lU/SSfA 13^ different. Here we shall find no sympathetic figures like that of Louis VI. careering proudly in the narrow domains of France, capturing rebel castles in the face of the sun — of a Louis IX., true mirror of chivalry, the noblest incarnation of the kingly ideal. 'I'he princes of Moscow gained their ends by intrigue, corruption, tiie purchase of consciences, servility to the khans, perfidy to their equals, murder, and treachery, 'i'hey were at once the tax-gatherers and the police of the khans. But they created the germ of the Russian monarchy, and made it grow. Henceforward we have a fixed centre around which gathers that scattered history of Russia which we have had to follow in so many different places — in Novgorod and Pskof, in Livonia and in Lithuania, at Smolensk and in Gallicia, at Tchernigof and at Kief, at Vladimir and at Riazan. The mutilation of Russia, conquered on the west by the Lithuanians, enslaved on the east by the Mongols, was to facilitate the work of organization. In this diminished fatherland the sovereigns of Moscow could play more easily the part of Grand Princes. The extent of country which had by the middle of the 15th century escaped the Lithuanian conquest was very small. With- out counting Smolensk, whose days were numbered, there re- mained the following principalities : — i. Riazan, with its appan- ages of Pronsk and Pert^iaslavl-Riazanski ; 2. Souzdal, with the towns of Vladimir, Nijni-Novgorod, Souzdal, Galitch in Souzdal, Kostroma, and Gorodetz ; 3. Tver, situated on the Upper Volga, and chiefly made up of bailiwicks taken from Novgorod by the Grand Princes of Souzdal, with the towns of Rjef, Kachine, and Zoubtsof ; 4. Moscow, shut in on the north bv Tver, on the east by Souzdal, on the south by Riazan, nearly stifled by its power- ful neighbors, like the France of the Capetians between the formidable States of English Normandy, Flanders, and Cham- pagne. The name of Moscow appears for the first time in the chron- icles at the date of 1 147. It is there said that the Grand Prince George Dolgorouki, having arrived on the domain of a boyard named Stephen Koutchko, caused him to be put to death on some pretext, and that, struck by the position of one of the villages situated on a height washed by the Moskowa, the very spot wliereon the Kremlin now stands, he built the city of Mos- cow. In the Capitol of ancient Rome the founder, Romulus, dis- covered the head of a man ; the Capitol of Moscow, destined to become the centre of an empire, was sprinkled in its beginning by human blood. The name of a still-existing church, " St. Saviour of the Pines " {Spass na Boroti). preserves the memory of the thick forests that then clothed both banks of the Moskowa, 1 40 HISTOR V OF J? USSIA. on the space now covered by an immense capital. Durino; the century following its foundation, Moscow remained an ob.sture and insignificant village of Souzdal. The chroniclers do not allude to it except to mention that it was burned by the Tatars (1237J, or that a brother of Alexander Nevski, Michael of Mos- cow, was killed there in a battle with the Lithuanians. The real founder of the principality of the name was Daniel, a son of Alexander Nevski, who had received this small town and a few villages as his appanage. He increased his State by an impor- tant town, Pereiaslavl-Zaliesski, that belonged to one of his nephews, and by the addition of Kolomna, which he took from the Riazanese. At his death in 1303 he was the first to be buried in the church of Saint Michael the Archangel, which till the time of Peter the Great remained the burying-place of the Russian princes. He was followed, in due course, by his brothers George and Ivan. GEORGE DANIELOVITCH (1303-1325) AND IVAN KALITA (1328- I341) — STRUGGLE WITH THE HOUSE OF TVER. The first act of George Danielovitch (1303-1325) was to capt- ure Mojaisk from the Prince of Smolensk, and to take the latter prisoner. Almost at the same time began the bloody struggle with the house of Tver, which, transmitted from father to son. lasted for eighty years. When Andrew Alexandrovitch, Grand Prince of Souzdal, died in 1304, two competitors presented themselves — Michael of Tver, cousin-german of the deceased, and his nephew George of Moscow. The claim of Michael was incontestable ; was he not the chlcst oi the family ? The boyards of Vladimir and the citizens of Novgorod did not hesitate to acknowledge him as Grand Prince ; at Sarai Tokhta the khan declared in his favor, and ordered him to be installed. Michael, who had on his side the national law and the sovereign will of the Mongols, could also use force ; he twice besieged Moscow, and obliged the son of Daniel to leave him in peace. In this young man he had an implacable enemy. The chronicles, in- dignant at the revolt of George against the old hereditary cus- tom, unanimously pronounced against him. While making due allowance for their efforts to blacken his character, we cannot help seeing that he was not a man to shrink from any crime. His father had taken the Prince of Riazan prisoner. He had him assassinated in his dungeon, and would have taken posses- sion of his territorie.s, if the Khan had not ordered the rights of the young heir to be respected. Then George caused himself to HIS TOR V OF H USS/A. 1 4 , be recognized as Prince of Novgorod, to the prejudice of Michael, but the army of Tver and Vhidiniir defeated that fur- nished him by the republic. An unexpected event suddenly changed the face of things. The Khan Tokhta died ; George managed to gain the good graces of his successor Uzbeck, so that the latter gave him his sister Lontchaka in marriage, and, reversing the decision of Tokhta, adjudged him the grand princi- pality. The son of Daniel returned to Russia with a Mongol army, commanded by the Ixiskak Kavgadi. Michael consented, say the chronicles, to cede Vladimir, if his hereditary appanage were respected ; but George began to lay waste the country of Tver, and war was inevitable. Michael triumphed completely. The Tatar wife of George, his brother Boris, the Mongol general Kavgadi, and nearly all the otlficers of the Khan, fell into his hands. Michael covered his prisoners with attentions dictated by prudence. Kavgadi, released with honor, swore to be his friend, but, as the sister of the Khan died, the enemies of the Prince of Tver set on foot a report that he had poisoned her. The cause of the two princes was carried before the tribunal of the Khan. Whilst the indefatigable Muscovite went in person, with his hands full of presents, to the Horde, Michael had the imprudence to send his son, a boy of twelve years old, in his place. Finding George was occupied in accusing, intriguing, and corrupting, Michael at last made up his mind to follow him. Not unprepared for the lot that awaited him, he made his will, and distributed appanages among his children. He was accused of having drawn his sword against a baskak^ envoy of the Khan, and of having poisoned Kontchaka. These accusations were so manifestly absurd, that Uzbeck deferred judgment. This, how- ever, did not meet George's views, and, by means of intrigues, he obtained the arrest of his kinsman. The Khan now set out for some months' hunting in the Caucasus. Michael was dragged in the train of the court, loaded with irons, from the Sarai to Dediakof in Daghestan. One day he was put in the pillory in the market of a thickly-poimlated town, and the spectators crowded to see him, saying, " This prisoner was, a short time ago, a powerful prince in his own country." The boyards of Michael had told him to escape; he refused, not wishing his people to suffer for him. George was so energetic, and scattered about so much money, that, finally, the death-warrant was signed. One of Michael's pages entered the tent which served him as a pri- son, in great alarm, to tell him that George and Kavgadi were approaching, followed by a multitude of people. " I know the reason," replied the prince ; and he sent his young son Constan- tine to one of the Khan's wives, who had promised to take him 142 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. under her protection. His two enemies took their stand near his tent, dismissed the boyards of Tver, and sent their hired ruffians to assassinate the prince. They threw him down, and trampled liim under their feet. As in the case of Michael of Tchernigof, it was not a Mongol that stabbed him and tore out his heart, but a renegade named Romanetz. When George and Kavgadi entered and contemplated the naked corpse, " What," said the Tatar, " will vou allow the bodv of vour uncle to be out- raged ? " One of George's servants threw a mantle over the victim (1319). Michael was bewailed by the Tverians. His body, incorruptible as that of a martyr, was afterwards deposited in a silver bier in the cathedral of Tv'er. He became a saint, and the patron of his city. On tlie walls of the cathedral, ancient and mwdern pictures recall his martvrdom, and condemn the crime of the Muscovite. All the contemporary chronicles warmly take his part against the assassin. Karamsin has made himself the echo of their apologies and curses. But at the same time that Michael became a saint, George became the all-power- ful sovereign of Moscow, Souzdal, and Novgorod. The tragic fate of Michael foretold the ruin of Tver. Some years afterwards, things were reversed at the Horde. Dmitri of the terrible eyes, son of the unhappy Michael, obtained the title of Grand Prince, and the baskak Seventch Bonga was charged to place him on the throne of Vladimir. George found himself obliged to go again to Sarai ; there the two rivals, Dmitri of Tver and George of Moscow, met. Dmitri had his father to avenge ; his sword leaped from the scabbard, and the Prince of Moscow fell mortally wounded (1325), All that his friends could obtain was that Dmitri should be put to death. The latter was succeeded in Vladimir by his brother Alexan- der. Unluckily for the house of Tver, the following year the Tver- ians, exasperated by the baskak Ciievl7////r), which became one of the richest and most venerated of Eastern Russia. On its increase of wealth, it was obliged to be surrounded with ram- parts ; and its thick brick walls with a triple row of embrasures, its nine war-towers, and its still existing fortifications, were afterwards destined to brave the assaults of Catholics and infi- dels. The princes of Moscow, in spite of their perfidious and pitiless policy, were as pious as good King Robert — devots, alms-givers, indefatigable in building churches and monasteries, in honoring the clergy, and in helping the poor. The surname of Kalita given to Ivan comes from the kalUa or alms-bag he wore always at his girdle. This kalita may also have been Shy- iock's purse — the bag of a prince who was farmer-general and usurer who demanded from Novgorod double what he intended to pay on her behalf to Uzbeck. Ivan liked to converse with the monks in his Convent of the Transfiguration. Like all the other princes of the house, he took care, when at the point of death, to be tonsured and adopt the religious dress and a new name. If the princes of Moscow labored with fierce energy to bind together the Russian soil, they continued to divide it into ap- panages among their sons. Many causes contributed to prevent 1 46 ins TO K V OF R USSIA. the return of the former anarchy. These princes, as a rule, had few sons ; they grackially got into the way of giving only very weak appanages to the younger ones, and these on condition of an absolute dependence on the eldest. Ivan, for example, had only three sons ; he gave by far the larger share (MojaTsk and Kolomna) to Simeon, and forbade Moscow to be divided. The idea of the State as one and indivisible was certain to end by gaining the day. SIMEON THE PROUD AND IVAN THE DEBONNAIRE (134I-I359). Simeon the Proud (1341-1353) and Ivan II. (1353-1359) succeeded one after the other their father Kalita. They were all three contemporaries of the early Valois. At the news of the death of Ivan, many princes at once disputed the throne of Vladimir with his sons, Constantine of Tver, and Constantine of Souzdal, especially, were supported by the oiher princes who did not desire the title of Grand Prince to be perpetuated in the house of Moscow. They went to the Horde at the same time as Simeon and his two sons travelled thither. Simeon owed his success neither to his eloquence nor his arguments, but to the treasure of his father, which won over the infidels. After being crowned in the Cathedral of Vladimir, he swore to live in harmony with his two brothers, and exacted from them the same oath. While pushing his submission to the Khan to the verge of baseness, he domineered over the Russian princes with a haughtiness that gained for him the surname of " the Proud." He forced Novgorod to pay him a contribution, and, in his capacity of supreme head of Russia, confirmed the liberties of the republic. He was the first who assumed the title of " Grand Prince of all the Russias," which was little justified by the facts, as in 1341 Olgerd of Lithuania besieged the town of Mo- jaisk, Simeon's own appanage. The friendship of St. Alexis, third Metropolitan of Moscow, gave him great moral aid. In his reign Boris, a Russian artist, cast bells for the cathedrals of Moscow and Novgorod ; three churches of the Kremlin were adorned with new paintings — that of the Assuinption, by Greek artists ; that of St. Michael, by the Court painters ; that of the Transfigiimtion, by a foreigner named Goiten. Paper replaced parchment: and it was on paper that Simeon's will was written. Russia then still maintained her old relations with Byzantium, and entered into new ones with Europe. Simeon died of the famous " black death " or " black pestilence," which at this time desolated the West. Ivan II., brother and successor of "the Proud," deserves, HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. , ^ on the contrary, the surname of " the D^bonnaire." He was of a dilferent type from the sinister princes of Souzdal, and was pacific and gentle. The anarchy into which Russia fell during^ !he six years of his reign, shows how little his virtues were those of his century. Witliout attempting to avenge himself, Ivan permitted Olcg of Riazan to insult his territory, burn his villages of the Lopasnia, and ill-treat his lieutenant. lie allowed the No\gorodians to despise his authority and obey Constantine ot Souzdal ; he let the Grand Uuke Olgerd occupy Rjef, and An- drew of Lithuania menace Pskof. He interfered neither in the civil wars of the princes of Riazan, nor in those of the princi- pality of Tver, nor in the troubles excited at Novgorod bv the rivalry of the Slavonian quarters and that of St. Sophia, nor in the storm raised in the Church by the Patriarch of Constanti- nople, \vho dared to consecrate metropolitan a rival of St. Alexis. The murder of one of his officers, Alexis, military gov- ernor of Moscow, remained unpunished. In this weakness of the prince, the churchmen naturally came to the front, and took up the part abandoned by him. Moses, Archbishop of Nov- gorod, quelled a revolt in the republic ; St. Alexis reconciled the princes of Tver, and acquired, by a miraculous cure, great power in the Horde, by which he profited to protect his people and his prince. At the death of Ivan II., the title of Grand Prince, which his three predecessors had made such efforts to perpetuate in the house of Moscow, passed to that of Souzdal. Dmitri of Souzdal (1359-1362), furnished with the iarlikh, made his solemn entry into Vladimir. It was again St. Alexis who saved the supremacy of Moscow. After having blessed the Grand Prince in Vladimir, he returned to his care of the young children of Ivan II., and to Moscow, which had for a moment ceased to be the capital. It was by his counsel that Dmitri Tvanovitch, at the age of twelve, dared to declare himself the rival of Dmitri of Souzdal, and determined to appeal to the tri- bunal of the Khan. The Golden Horde was then a prey to civil wars; the ferocious Mamai harassed Mourout, but as the latter reigned at Sarai, and seemed the legitimate successor of Bati, it was to him that the Souzdalian and Muscovite bovards addressed themselves. Mourout adjudged the Grand Principal- ity to the grandson of Kalita, whom a Muscovite army led to be consecrated in Vladunir. DMITRI DONSKOI (1363-I389) — THE liATTLE OF KOULIKOVO, Dmitri Ivanovitch (1363-1389) is distinguished from nearly a]1 the Souzdal princes by a warlike and chivalrous character 1 48 HISTOK Y OF R LiSIA. worthy of the West. He proves that the Russian soul had been only repressed, not rendered depraved and servile by the Tatar yoke, and that Slav chivalry only awaited an opportunity to raise the cry of war, and make their swords flash like the prcux chevaliers of Louis IX. or of John the Good. Dmitri had at once to sustain a series of wars against the neighboring princes ; notably against Dmitri of Souzdal, Michael of l\-er, and Oleg of Riazan. As changes took place at the Horde, Dmitri of Souzdal obtained from the Khan Mourout a reversal of his first decision, and returned to Vladimir. The Prince of Moscow, who feared this feeble Khan no longer, did not hesitate to take up arms, and to expel his rival from Vladimir. A treaty was agreed on between them. The Souzdalian appanage of Nijni- Novgorod having become vacant, Dmitri supported his ancient enemy against his competitor Boris. Like his grandfather Kalita, who had caused Novgorod to be excommunicated, Dmitri Ivanovitch entreated St. Sergius, the founder of the Troitsa Monastery, to lay Nijni-Novgorod under an interdict. Then Boris yielded, and Dmitri of Souzdal, now Prince of Nijni- Novgorod, gave the Prince of Moscow his daughter Eudoxia in marriage, and henceforward remained his friend. Dmitri Ivan- ovitch deprived the rebel princes of Starodoub and Galitch of their appanages, and forced Constantine Borissovitch to recog- nize his supremacy. He made, under the guarantee of St. Alexis, a treaty with his cousin, Vladimir Andrievitch, by which he undertook to hand over to him the appanage that Kalita had secured to his father, and by which Vladimir engaged to ac- knowledge him as his father and his Grand Prince. Vladimir kept his word, and was always the bravest lieutenant and the right arm of Dmitri. The struggle now recommenced with the house of Tver. Michael Alexandrovitch, whose father had been killed at the Horde, disputed the throne with one of his uncles. The Grand Prince and the Metropolitan of Moscow took the part of the latter. Michael paid no attention to this decision, took Tver with a Lithuanian army, besieged his uncle in Kachine, and obliged him to renounce his claims. He then took the title of Grand Prince of Tver. It was chieflv the alliance with Olirerd, the husband of his sister Juliana, that rendered him formid- able. Thrice — in 1368, in 1371, and in 1372 — Olgerd conducted his brother-in-law, burning and pillaging on his way, up to the walls of the Kremlin on Moscow. Neither the Lithuanian nor the Muscovite army on any of these occasions fought a decisive battle. The boyards of l^milri felt that a lost battle would be the ruin of Russia j while Olgerd was too old and experienced to .^m^rVR Y OF R USSIA . 1 49 Stake all on a hazard. At last, in 1375, after the death of his brother-in-law, Michael found himself besieged in Tver by the united forces of all the vassals and allies of Dmitri and of the Novgorodians who had the sack of Torjok and the devastation of their territory to avenge. Reduced to extremities, and aban- doned by Lithuania, he was constrained to sign a treaty by which he'engaged to regard Dmitri as his " elder brother," to renounce all claim to Novgorod and Vladimir, not to disquiet the allies of Moscow, and to imitate Dmitri's conduct towards the Tatars, whether he continued to pay tribute or he declared war. Another enemy, not less dangerous, was Oleg of Riazan, who had formerly braved Ivan the De'bonnaire. In 137 1, the Mus- covites defeated Oleg, and installed a prince of Pronsk in his capital, who was not, however, strong enough to maintain his position. If Tver was sometimes supported by Lithuania, Riazan had often the Horde' as an ally. The empire of Kiptchak was gradually falling to pieces. Many competitors disputed the throne of Sarai. The Tatars acted after their kind, and invaded the Russian territory in disor- derlv style. It is true it was no longer a point of honor with the Christian princes to submit to them. Oleg of Riazan him- self united with the princes of Pronsk ami Kozelsk, and dctitd the mourza Tagai, who had burnt Riazan. Dmitri of Souzdal, ])rince of Nijni-Novgorod, had defeated Boulat-Temir, who on his return to the Horde had been disavowed and put to death. Finallv, Dmitri of Moscow had many times disobeyed the terri- ble Mamai. He had, however, the courage to answer to the summons of the Khan, and the good fortune or the cleverness to return to Moscow safe and well (137 1). In 1376 Dmitri sent a great expedition against Kazan by the Volga, and forced two Tatar princes to pay tribute. Conflicts multiplied between the Christians and the infidels. In this manner the princes of Souzdal exterminated a band of Mordvians, and delivered up their chiefs to be torn in pieces by the dogs of Novgorod ; in return, Mamai ordered the town to be burnt. In 1378, Dmitri of Moscow gained a brilliant victory over the lieutenant of Mamai on the banks of the Voja in Riazan. In the first intox- ication of victory, he cried, " Their time is past, and God is with us ! " The' Khan, in his blind fury, caused his anger to fall on Oleg of Riazan, the rival of Dmitri Ivanovitch, who fled, abandoning his lands to the ravages of the enemy. It took Mamai two years to mature his plans of vengeance, and he assembled in silence an immense host of Tatars, Turks, Polovtsi, Tcherkesses, lasses, and Bourtanians or Caucasian Jews. Even the Genoese of Kaffa, settled in the Crimea and 150 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. on the territory of the Khan, furnished a contingent. In these critical circumstances for Russia, Oleg of Riazan, forgetting his grievances against the Tatars, and only remembering his mistrust and jealousy of Moscow, betrayed the common cause. While keeping on good terms with Dmitri, even while warning him of what was preparing, he secretly negotiated an alliance between the two most formidable enemies of Russia — Jagellon of Lithu- ania and Mama'i. The Grand Prince's army would probably be crushed between them ; but Dmitri did not lose heart. The desire of vengeance awakened in the Russians with the force of religious enthusiasm. At the call of the Grand Prince, the princes of Rostof, Bielozersk, laroslavl, Starodoub, and Kachine, with their droi/Jinas ; the boyards of Vladimir, Nijni-Novgorod, Souzdal, Pereiaslavl-Zaliesski, Kostroma, Mourom, Dmitrof, Mojaisk, Zvenigorod, Ouglitch, and Serpoukhof, at the head of their contingents, successively made their entrance into the Kremlin, amid the acclamations of the Muscovites. At Kostroma Dmitri was to be joined by two Lithuanian princes — Andrew and Dmitri — who brought him troops from Pskof and Briansk. The grand Prince, with his cousin Vladimir, went to the hermit- age of Troitsa to ask the benediction of Saint Sergius. The latter predicted that he would gain the victory, but that it would be a bloody fight. He sent two of his monks, Alexander Peres- vet and Osliaba, formerly a brave boyard of Briansk, to accom- pany Dmitri. On their cowls he made the sign of the cross. " Behold," he cried, " a weapon which faileih never." The Prince of Tver had taken good care not to send his contingent, and the treason of the Prince of Riazan now became known. The hearts of the Russians beat with joy and enthusiasm at the throught of revenge. In spite of private jealousies, the princes were animated by the same ardor as the Spanish kings when they marched against the Moors, or the companions of Godfrey of I3ouillon on the road for the Holy Land. Never had such an army been seen. Dmitri is said to have had 150,000 men. They crossed the country of Riazan, then under a craven prince, and reached the banks of the Don. The princes de- bated as to whether it was necessary to cross the river immedi- ately ; but it was urgent to dispose of the Mongols before having on their hands Jagellon, who had already arrived at Odocf, fifteen leagues off. A letter which Dmitri received from Saint Sergius, recommending him to " go forwards," decided ihe matter. The Don was crossed, and tliey found themselves or. the plain of Koulikovo {the Field of Woodcocks), watered by the Nepriadva. The centre was occupied by the princes of Lithiv ania and Smolensk, with the droujina of Dmitri ; the right was UMITKI Do.NSXoi. A< ^fj^ Y OP- R USSIA, 1 5 , commanded by the princes of Rostof and Starodoub, the left by those of laroslavl and Vologda ; the reserve by Prince VLadimir, the brave Dmitri of Volhynia, and the princes of Briansk and Kachine, The Mongols soon came up, and the battle began. It was bloody and dubious. The enemy had already cut to pieces the droujhia of the Grand Prince, when Vladimir and IJmitri of Volhynia, who had lain in ambush, sud- denly attacked the Tatars, Mamai, from the top of a koiirgan, contemplated the flight of his army. His camp, his chariots, and his camels were all captured. The Mongols were pursued to the Metcha, in which many drowned themselves. If the barbarians lost, as they are said to have done, 100,000 men, the Russian loss was also very severe. They counted among the dead the two monks of Saint Sergius ; one of them, Peresvet was discovered in the arms of a Patzinak giant, who had fought, with him hand to hand, and perished along with him. For a long while Dmitri could not be found ; at last he was seen in a swoon, his armor bloody and broken. This memorable battle of Koulikovo has been related in more than one way by tiie Russian historians. With the annalists, i)roperly so called, the official historiographers of the Grand Prince, Dmitri is the hero. In the poetical recitals which were inspired by the ac- count of the pope Sophronius, it is Saint Sergius who at each moment supports the courage of Dmitri, whom they represent with rather too much humility for ageneral-in-chief. The battle of the Don, which gained for Dmitri the surname of Donskoi, and for Vladimir that of the Brave, is as celebrated in Russia as that of Las Navas de Tolosa in Spain. It showed the Rus- r^ians that they could vanquish the invincible ; and the Mongol yoke, even after they again fell under it, did not seem in- evitable. Dmitri had heroically broken the tradition of slavery ; he had proclaimed the future freedom (1380). Unhappily the event showed the advantages of the policy of resignation over the policy of chivalry — of the patience of the hero of the Neva over the bravery of the hero of the Don. A man appeared at this moment at the head of the Mongols, who was as formidable as Genghis Khan — Tamerlane, the conqueror of the two Bokharas, of Hindostan, of Iran, and of Asia Minor. Tokhtamycii, one of his generals, caused Mama'i to be put to death, and announced to Dmitri that he had triumphed over their common enemv ; then he summoned the Russian princes to present themselves at the Horde. Dmitri refused. Was it in vain that the blood of the Christians had flowed at Koulikovo? The Khan assembled an immense army. Dmitri found no longer the same wisdom or energy among his coun. J ^ 2 HTSTOR Y OF R USSTA, cillors. Not knowing what to do, he left Moscow and went to assemble an army at Kostroma. Tokhtamych marched straight on the capital, and during three days tried to carry the walls of the Kremlin by assault. Then he had recourse to a ruse, ^XiA affected to enter in a negotiation. At last the Tatars surprised the gates, and delivered up Moscow to fire and sword. A tolerably exact calculation proves that 24,000 men perished, beside the precious documents and earliest archives of the prin- cipality. Vladimir, Mojaisk, lourief, and other towns of Souzdal suf- fered the same fate. When Tokhtamych had retired, Dmitri came and wept over the ruins of his capital. "Our fathers," he cried, " who never triumphed over the Tatars, were less unhappy than we." Bitter morrow of victory ! However, although Russia had to resign herself to her Tatar collectors, she felt that the Horde would never recover its former power. Dmitri longed at least to revenge himself on the perfidious Oleg. The latter escaped him, but Riazan, which was regarded as a harbor for traitors, was sacked. Michaelof Tver merited the same chastisement ; he had refused to fight Mamai, and was one of the first to fly to the Horde of Tokhtamych. The war continued with Oleg of Riazan, who ravaged the territory of Kolomna. Saint Sergius again intervened, entreated and threat- ened Oleg, and finally induced him to conclude a "perpetual peace " with Dmitri, and to cement it by the marriage of his son Feodor with Sophia, daughter of Dmitri. The Novgorod adventurer's, the " Good Companions,'' hfyi about this time committed many ravages on the territories of the Grand Principalities. They insulted laroslavl and Kos- troma in 1371, and Kostroma and Nijni-Novgorod in 1375. pil- laging as far as Sarai and Astrakhan, sparing neither infidels nor Christians. Novgorod continued to furnish appanages to the Lithuanian princes, to despise the political authority of the Grand Prince, and the religious supremacy of the Metropolitan. Dmitri marched against the republic with the contingents of twenty-five provinces. Novgorod had to pay an indemnity for the glorious deeds of the Good Companions, and to engage to furnish a vearlv tribute. When i)mitri died, the principality of Moscow was by far the most considerable of the States of 'the North-east, since it ex- tended on the south to Kalouga and Kasimof, and included on the north-east Bie'lozersk and Galitch. As to Vladimir, Dmitri, in his will, calls it his patrimony. He has been reproached for having limited himself to the sack of Tver and Riazan, without hastening their final annexation. If Dmitri gave appanages to rr/STOfr-i- of a'Ussfa. i^-j his five younger sons, he at least established the principle of in> heritance in a direct line instead of the ancient principle of col- lateral succession. He had signed a treaty with his cousin Vladimir, by which the latter renounced his rights as " eldest ol the family," engaging to consider Vassili, eldest son of Dmitri, as his " elder brother." In the reijrn of Donskoi the monk Stephen founded the first churcli in the country of the Permians, confuted tlieir priests and sorcerers, overthrew the idols of Volssel and the Old Golden Woman who held two infants in her arms, put a stop to the sacrifice of reindeer, built schools, and died Bishop of Permia, A certain Andrew, probably a Genoese by birth, settled on the Petchora. Russia entered into relations with the West by means of the Genoese of Kaffa and Azof ; coins of silver and copper, with the image of a knight, replaced the konnes, or marten-skins. About 1389 the first cannons appeared in the Russian army. Moscow continued to adorn herself, and the monasteries of the Miracle, of Andronii, and of Simeon were built. VASSILI DMITRIEVITCH AND VASSILI THE BLIND (1389-I465). Vassili Dmitrievitch (1389-1425), the contemporary of Charles VI. of France, succeeded his father without opposition as Grand Prince of Moscow and Vladimir, The preponderance of the first of these towns over the second became more and more marked. The situation of both was equally advantageous ; the one on the Moskowa, the other on the Kliazma, aftiuents of the Oka. Vladimir, like Moscow, had its kremlin on a high hill, commanding a vast extent of country. Both cities were in communication with the great Russian artery, the Volga ; but were far enough from it to escape the piracies of the Good (Com- panions. Vladimir had been in other respects as favored as Moscow. Andrew Boglioubski had ornamented the former, as Ivan Kalita had embellished the second. Vladimir, to which the title of Grand Principality was attached, seemed even better fitted than Moscow to be the capital of Russia. It was almost an historical accident that decided in favor of the latter. At the present day Vladimir is merely a simple seat of govern- ment with a population of 14,000, while Moscow is a metropolis with 600,000 souls. With regard to Novgorod, the Grand Prince of Moscow be- gan to look upon it from the point of view of a sovereign, and called the city " his patrimony." The Novgorodians on their side appealed to the charter of laroslaf the Great, which formally con- »S4 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. ceded them the right to choose their princes. In the last reigns they had been accustomed to have recourse to a bargain. The republicans recognized the sovereign of Moscow as their prince, if the latter would consent to certain conditions, — the final hom- age rendered to the ancient Slav freedom. After the fall of Alexander of Tver (1328), no Russian prince could compete with the house of Moscow for the throne of Novgorod. The only possible rivals were the Grand Princes of Lithuania. Now with Lithuania it was not only a competition of candidates, but it was a great national and religious question. Moscow would prefer to ruin Novgorod rather than allow her to pass into the hands of the most dangerous enemy of Russian orthodoxy. We may say that after 1328 Novgorod had no longer a special prince, but only a boyard of Moscow, who represented the Grand Prince. The power of the latter was sometimes exerted with vigor. In 1393 Novgorod having revolted against INIoscow, Vassili sent in his troops, and seventy inhabitants of Torjok, accused of having put to death one of his men, were cut to pieces. Vassili Dmitrievitch then, on his accession to the throne, found his power considerably strengthened, as Vladimir on the Kliazma and Novgorod the Great, the objects of so many bloody contests with the Russian princes, had in some ways already become integral parts of his dominions. If he went to the Horde in 1392, it was less to obtain the confirmation of this triple crown than to acquire new territories. From the Khan Tokhtamych he bought a iarlikh, which put him in possession of the three appan- ages of Mourom, Nijni-Novgorod, and Souzdal. The boyards of Moscow and the ambassador of the Khan betook themselves to Nijni. Boris, the last titular prince of the two latter appa- nages, was betrayed by his men, who persuaded him to open the gates, and delivered him up to the soldiers of the Grand Prince. Then, with the ringing of all the bells in the town, Vassili of Moscow was proclaimed Prince of Nijni and Souzdal. This prince, who lived on such good terms with the Horde, was witness, however, of two Tatar invasions of Russia. Tamer- lane, conqueror of the Ottoman Turks at Anticyra, attacked his old favorite Tokhtamych, and pillaged the Golden Horde. He continued to move towards the West, putting the Russian ter- ritory to fire and sword. Moscow was threatened with an inva- sion as terrible as that of Bati. The famous Virgin of Vladimir, brought by Andrew Bogolioubski from Vychegorod, was taken solemnly to Moscow. The Tatars reached Kletz on the Don, and made its princes prisoners. There they stopped, and sud- denly retreated. Accustomed to the rich booty of Bokhara and Hindostan, and dreaming of Constantinople and Egypt, they ffIS7-0RY OF Ki'SS/A. »55 found, no doubt, that the desert steppes and deep forests only offered a very meagre prey. They indemnified themselves by the pillage of Azof, where Egyptian, Venetian, Genoese, Catalan and Biscayan merchants had accumulated great wealth, and by the destruction of Astrakhan and Sarai (1395.) The irruption of Tamerlane resulted in the more rapid dis- solution of the Golden Horde. We have seen that Viiovt took advantage of it to organize against the Mongols his great crusade of the Vorskla (1399). Vassili Dmitrievitch had taken good care not to interfere in the war between Lithuania and the Kiptchaks. His Western neighbors appeared to him more dangerous than those of the East ; with the latter the payment of the tribute still sufficed, with the former the stake was the existence of Russia. Vassili profited by the defeat of the one and the dis- organization of the other, and was careful to irritate neither party. As the Horde was then disputed by many competitors, he for- bore to pay the tribute, affecting not to know which was the legi- timate Khan. Ediger, the vanquisher of Vitovt, resolved to reduce the Russian vassals to obedience. He lulled the pru- dence of the Muscovites to rest by spreading the rumor that he was assembling troops for a war against Lithuania. Suddenly they heard that he had entered the Grand Principality. Vassili imitated the conduct of his father in similar'circumstances. He retired to Kostroma to assemble an army, and confided the defence of Moscow to Vladimir the Brave. Defended by artil- lery, the Kremlin could withstand the attack of a large force, but the dense population caused fears of famine. Ediger burnt the towns in the flat country while blockading Moscow. Ivan, prince of Tver, showed on this occasion more greatness of soul and political wisdom than his father Alichael. He abstained from coming to the help of the Tatars against his formidable suzerain. In these circumstances Ediger learnt that his master Boulat himself feared an attack at the Horde by his Oriental enemies. To cover his forced retreat he addressed a haughty letter to the Grand Prince, summoning him to pay tribute ; he obtained three thousand roubles from the Muscovite boyards as a war indemnity (1408). Vitovt of Lithuania, whose daughter Sophia Vassili had mar- ried, was a still more dangerous eliemy. Great caution was necessary in all dealings with him. Vassili saw the hand of his father-in-law, in the troubles of Novgorod, everywhere ; at Pskof, where Vitovt had taken the title of Grand Prince ; at Smolensk, which he had united to Lithuania ; at Tver, where he supported Michael against the Grand Prince. Like Olgerd, Vitovt marched thrice against Moscow. Each of the two rivals had too many 156 HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA. other enemies to dispose of, to risk in one battle the fortunes of Moscow or Lithuania. In 1408 they signed a treaty by which the Ougra was fixed on as the limit of the two Grand Princi- palities, leaving Smolensk to Vitovt, and restoring Kozelsk to Russia. Besides Mourom and Souzdal, Vassili had united to his domains many appanages of the country of Tchernigof, such as Toroussa, Novossil, Kozelsk, and Peremysl. In the quarrels with Novgorod, generally occasioned by the exploits of the Good Companions or by commercial rivalr)^, he had appropriated vasi territories on the Dwina ; among others, Vologda. In an exped ition against the republic of Viatka he had reduced it to sub mission, and made one of his brothers its prince. He had imposed a treaty on Feodor Olgivitch, prince of Riazan, by which the latter undertook to look on him as a father, and tc make no alliance to his hurt. Vassili on his side ceded to him Toula and the title of Grand Prmce. The Oka formed the boundary of the two States. He made, no doubt, a similar treaty with Ivan, prince of Tver. One of his daughters had married the Emperor John Palasologus. The reign of Vassili the Blind (1425-1462), contemporary with Charles VII. of France, marks a pause in the development of the Grand Principality. A civil war of twenty years broke out in the bosom of the family of Doiiskoi. One of his sons, George, or louri, whom he had made Prince of Roussa and Zvenigorod, attempted to revert to the ancient national law, and invoked his right as " eldest " against his nephew, Vassili Vas- silidvitch. Vassili's other uncles declared in favor of the young prince. In 1 431 it was necessary to carry the dispute to the Horde. Each of the two parties set forth his right to the Khan Oulou-Makhmet. Vsevolojski, a boyard of the Prince of Mos- cow, found the best of arguments for his master. " \l\ Lord Tzar," he said to Makhmet, " let me speak — me, the slave of the Grand Prince. My master the Grand Prince prays for the throne of the Grand Principality, which is thy property, having no other title but thy protection, thy investiture, and thy iarlikh. Thou art master, and can dispose of it according to thy good pleasure. My lord the Prince louri Dmitrie'vitch, his 'uncle, claims the Grand Principality by the act and the will of his father, but not as a favor from the All-powerful." In this con- test of baseness the prize was adjudged to the Prince of Moscow, The Khan ordered louri to lead his nephew's horse by the bridle. A Tatar baskak was present at the coronation of the Grand Prince, which took place, for the first time, not at Vladi- mir, but at the Assumption in Moscow. From this time Vladi- mir lost her privileges as the capital, although, in the enumeration mSTOK Y OF R USSIA. 1 5 7. of their titles, the Grand Prhices continued to inscribe the name of Vladimir before that of Moscow. VassiH owed his throne to the clever boyard, Vsevolojski. He had promised to marry his daughter, but his own mother, Sophia, the proud Lithuanian, daughter of the great Vitovt, made him contract an alliance with the Princess Maria, grand- daughter of Vladimir the Brave. The irritated bovard left Vas- sill's service, and retired to his enemy, louri, whose resentment against his nephew he fanned. Another circumstance exasper- ated louri ; his two sons, Vassili the Squinting, and Chemiaka, assisted at the marriage of the Grand Prince. The Princess Sophia recognized round the waist of Vassili the Squinting a belt of gold which had belonged to Dmitri Donskoi'. She had the imprudence, publicly and with open scandal, to take it from the son of louri. On this affront, the two princes at once left the banqueting-hall, and retired to their father. The latter in- stantly took up arms, and departed for Pereiaslavl. The Prince of Moscow could hardly assemble any troops, and fell into the hands of his uncle at Kostroma, (1433). Vassili tried in vain to soften him by his tears. The Squinter and Chemiaka wished their prisoner to be put to death, but by the sel.' Interested counsel of the boyard Morozof, louri allowed his nephew to live, and gave him the appanage of Kostroma, while he took for himself the Grand Principality. The affection of the Muscovites for their prince was so great, that they abandoned their city en masse, and crowded into Kostroma, louri saw that his nephew was still powerful, reproached Morozof for his perfidious advice, and had him stabbed by his two sons. " Thou hast ruined our father," they said. The usurper was indeed unable to remain in Moscow, and sent to tell his nephew he might come and take possession of it. The boyards pressed around Vassili on his return to his capital, "as bees press around their queen," The war, however, continued : thanks to the cowardice of Vassili, louri again took the Kremlin, and made prisoners the wife and mother of the Grand Prince, while the Squinter and Chemiaka occupied Vladimir, and marched on Nijni-Novgorod. louri had hardly been recognized as Grand Prince of Nov- gorod, when he died suddenlv. His sons then made peace with Vassili, but immediately took up arms again. In one of the many reverses of this civil war, Vassili the Squinting fell into the hands of the Grand Prince, who had his eyes put out in an excess of fury (1436). Then, by one of those changes com« mon to violent and impulsive natures, he passed from anger to dismay; and to atone for his crime against his cousin, set free Chemiaka, whom he had made prisoner at the same time. 1^8 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. Chemiaka promised to serve him, but served him very badly. In a battle with the Tatars, his desertion caused the rout of the Russian army (siege of Bielef, in Lithuania). In 1441 the wat beo^an again between the Grand Prince and Chemiaka. The latter, with some thousands of Free-lances and Good Companions, suddenly undertook the siege of Moscow. Zenobius, superior of the Troitsa monastery, succeeded once more in reconciling them. Chemiaka displayed his ordinary duplicity on the occa- sion of a military incursion of the Tatars of Kazan. The Grand Prince waited in vain for the succors that had been promised him, and it was with only 1500 men that he finally took the field, so much had the discords between the descendants of Dmitri Donskoi weakened the Grand Principality, loosened the ties of obedience among the vassals, and degraded that Russia which had armed 150,000 men against Mamai. Vassili, covered with fifteen wounds, fell into the hands of the barbarians, and was led prisoner to Kazan. Moscow was in despair. The Prince of Tver inswlted her territory ; Chemiaka intrigued at the Horde to get himself nom- inated Grand Prince. All at once the Tzar of Kazan took it into his head to liberate his prisoners for a small ransom. Vassili re-entered his capital amid the acclamations of his people. Chemiaka had done enough to fear the vengeance of the Grand Prince ; in the interests of his own safety, Vassili must be overthrown. Following the example of his father and grandfather, Vassili went to the Troitsa monastery to return thanks to Saint Sergius for his deliverance. He had few com- panions and Chemiaka and his associates surprised the Kremlin in his absence, and captured his wife, his mother, and his treas- ures. Then he flew to Troitsa, w'here his accomplice, Ivan of Mojaisk, discovered the Grand Prince, who was hidden in the principal church near the tomb of Saint Sergius. He was brought back to Moscow, and ten years after the blinding of Vassili the Squinting. Chemiaka avenged his brother by putting out the eyes of the Grand Prince (1446). During his short reign at Moscow, Chemiaka had made him- self hated by the people and the boyards, who were faithful at bottom to their unhappy prince. In the pojDular language, a "judgment of Chemiaka " became the synonym for a crying wrong. Presently Vassili's partisans assembled troops in Lithuania, joined those of the two Tatar tzarrritcJics, and marched against the usurper. At this period, Russia was in- fested by armed bands, the relics of the great Tatar and Lithuanian wars, Lithuanian adventurers, tzarfviiclies banished from the Horde, Novgorodian Good Companions, Free-lances IirSTOR Y OF RUSSIA. I ^g of all races. They ravaged the flat country, attacked ihe strongest towns, and tlieir chiefs sometimes created ephemeral principaliiies for themselves. As the Asiatic element predom- inated in them, they might be termed Great Mongol Co?i!panies, analogous to the Great English or tlie French Companies that, about the year 1444, Charles VII. sent to Alsace and Switzer- • land. Serving Chemiaka or the Grand Prince indifferently, they did their best to perpetuate the quarrel. Chemiaka wished to march against his enemies. Hardly had he left Moscow when the city broke into revolt, and Vassili entered in triumph. Chemiaka fled, and accepted a reconciliation with his victim (1447). Incapable of repose, he again took up arms, was com- pletely defeated near Galitch by the Muscovites and Tatars (1450), and fled to Novgorod, where he is said to have died three years after, by poison. All his appanages were reunited to the royal domain. Disembarrassed of this dangerous enemy, Vassili the Blind hastened to take up the work of his predecessors. Novgorod had not ceased to give asylum to his enemies, to des])ise the authority of his lieutenants, to contest his right of final appeal and the supremacy of the Metropolitan. A 5luscovite army re- duced her to reason ; she was forced to annul all the acts of the vetch? which tended to limit the authority of the Grand Prince, to pay him a heavy indemnity, and to promise to set no seal but that of Vassili on her deeds. Pskof received one of his sons as her prince. The republic of Viatka had to pay tribute, and to furnish a military contingent. The Prince of Riazan having just died, Vassili took his young heir to Moscow, under pretence of bringing him up, and sent his lieutenant to govern the appan- age. Vassili of Borovsk, grandson of Vladimir the Brave, had rendered him important services, but none the less was he im- prisoned, and his possessions swallowed up in the Grand Prin- cipality. The authority of the Grand Prince began to be ex- ercised on his subordinates with new rigor ; and the rebels, real or supposed, were subjected to the knout, tortures, mutilations, and refined cruelties. Vassili, who had suffered so much from the appanaged princes louri and Chemiaka — who was so ener- getic in destroying the appanages around him — could not free himself from the yoke of custom, and began to dismember the principality which he had aggrandized, in favor of his four younger sons. However, to avoid all contests about the title of Grand Prince, and to ensure the succession of the direct line, he had, since the year 1449, associated with himself his eldest son, Ivan. Memorable events had agitated the orthodox world during 1 6 o ffIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. his reign. In 1439, Pope Eugenius IV. assembled the Council of Florence to discuss the union of the two Churches. The Greek Emperor, John Palaeologus, who hoped to obtain the help of the Pope against the Ottomans, had sent the bishops of his communion ; Isidore, Metropolitan of Moscow, was also present. It was in vain that the Emperor of Constantinople, three vicars of the Patriarchs of the East, seventeen met- ropolitans, and a multitude of bishops signed the act of union. The Greek world listened to the energetic protest of Mark, the old bishop of Ephesus, and rejected the union with Rome. Isidore announced at Kief and Moscow that he had signed the act of reconciliation ; the appearance of the Latin cross at the Assumption in the Kremlin, the name of Pope Eugenius in the public prayers, and the reading of the formal document, astonished the Russians. Vassili, who piqued him- self on his theology, also raised his voice, began a polemic against Isidore, and so overwhelmed him with insults, that the "false shepherd" thought it prudent to fly to Rome. This check to the union heralded the fall of the Greek empire. In 1453, Mahomet II. entered Constantinople. There was no longer a Christian Tzar ; Moscow became the great metropolis of orthodoxy. She was heir of Constantinople. Soon the monks, the artists, the literary men of Constantinople were to bring to her, as to the rest of Europe, the Renaissance. JfJSTOA' 1 ' O/'- KC/SS/A. 1 I CHAPTER XIII. IVAN THE GREAT, THE UNITER OF THE RUSSIAN LAND (1462-1505). Submission of Novgorod — Annexation of Tver, Rostof, and laroslavl — Wars with the Great Horde and Kazan — End of the Tatar yoke — Wars with Lithuania — Western Russia as far as tlie Soja reconquered — Marriage with Sophia Palaeologus — Greeks and Italians at the Court of Moscow. SUBMISSION OF NOVGOROD — ANNEXATION OF THE PRINCIPALITIES OF TVER, ROSTOF, AND lAROSLAVL. At the death of Vassili tlie Blind, Russia was all but stifled between the great Lithuanian empire and the vast possessions of the Mongols. To the north, she had two restless neighbors, the Livonian Order and Sweden. In spite of the labors of eight Muscovite princes, the little Russian State could not yet make its unity a fact ; Riazan and Tver, though weakened, still ex- isted. Novgorod and Pskof hesitated between the Grand Princes of Moscow and Lithuania. The heirs of Kalitn, by creating new appanages, incessantly destroyed the unity after which they toiled, by means of a pitiless policy. Muscovy, which touches on no sea, had only intermittent relations with the centres of European civilization. It was, however, the lime when the nations of the West beoan to be organized. Charles V'll. and Louis XI, in France, Ferdinand and Isabella in Spain, the Tudors in England, Frederic III. and Maximilian in Austria, labored to build up powerful States from the ruins of feudal anarchy. European civilization made unheard-of strides ; the Renaissance began, printing spread, Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama discovered new worlds. Was not Russia also going to achieve her unity, to take jiart in the great European movement ? The man who was tn restore her to herself, to free her from the Mongol yoke, to put her into relations with the West, — this man was expected. It had all been predicted. When a son named Ivan was born in 1440 to Vassili the Blind, an old rnonk had a revelation about it in Novgorod the Great. 1 62 HIS TOR V OF A' USSIA. He came and said to his archbishop : " Truly it is to-day that the Grand Prince triumphs ; God has given him an heir ; I be- hold this child making himself illustrious by glorious deeds. He will subdue princes and peoples. But woe to Novgorod ! Novgorod will fall at his feet, and never rise up again." Ivan III., whose reign of forty-three years was to permit him to realize the expectations of Russia, was a cold, imperious, cal- culating prince, the very type of the Souzdalian and Muscovite princes. Disliking war, he allowed doubts to be thrown upon his courage. He was victorious in Lithuania, in Livonia and Siberia, almost without leaving the Kiemlin. His father had taken long journeys, which led him into many sad adventures, but Stephen of Moldavia said of Ivan : " Ivan is a strange man ; he stays quietly at home and triumphs over his enemies, while I, though always on horseback, cannot defend my country." It was the verdict of Edward HI. on Charles V. Ivan ex- hausted his enemies by negotiations and delay, and never em- ployed force till it was absolutely necessary. His devotion was mixed with hypocrisy. He wept for his relatives whom he put to death, as Louis XL bewailed the Due de Guienne. Born a desjDot, " he had," says Karamsin, "penetrated the secret of au- tocracy, and became a formidable deity in the eyes of the Rus- sians." His glance caused women to faint. When he slept after his meals, it was wonderful to see the frightened respect of the boyards for the sleep of the master. He inflicted cruel pun- ishments and tortures on all rebels, even on those of the highest rank ; he mutilated the counsellors of his son, whipped Prince Oukhtomski and the archimandrite of a powerful monastery, and burned alive two Poles in an iron cage on the Moskowa, for having conspired against him. He had already won the sur- name of "Terrible," which his grandson was to bear even more justly. Ivan's first effort was directed against Novgorod the Great. The republic of the Ilmen was dying in the anarchy of the aris- tocracy, the dissensions of the people, the Church, and especially of the boyards. It is of this epoch that M. Bielaef has said, that "parties in Novgorod had become so complicated, that often il is difficult to perceive from what motive this or that fac- tion excited troubles and revolts." They thought themselves able to despise the authority of a new prince, and had the im- prudence to neglect the complaints and suggestions made in a tolerably moderate tone by Ivan HI. He then signified to the Pskovians that they would have to second him in an ex]")edition against the rebels. This the Pskovians did not wish to do, fore- seeing that the fall of Novgorod would drag them down als;« HIS TO K Y OF K USSIA. i G 3 They offered their mediation to their "elder sister" — it was rejected, and they were obliged to proceed. Ivan III. often received, however, the Archbishop of Novgorod, Theophilus, in his palace at Moscow, and continued to negotiate, lie had a large parly in Novgorod, but the opposing faction was the bolder. Marfa, the widow of the possadnik Boretski, mother of two grown-up sons, put herself at the head of the anti-Muscovite party. Ready and eloquent speech, immense wealth, an auda- city etjual to everything, had given her a great influence with the people and the boyards. This intrepid woman was the last incarnation of Novgorodian liberty. To save the republic, Marfa wished to throw it into the arms of the King of Poland, Casimir IV. She contended also that the Archbishop of Novgorod should be nominated by the Metropolitan of Kief, not by the Metropolitan of Moscow. In her devotion to Novgorod, she thus betrayed the cause of Russia and orthodoxy. The sittings of the vetc/ie, amid the opposition of the two parties, degenerated into violent tumults. Some cried, "The king;" others, "Long live orthodox Moscow! long live the Grand Prince Ivan and our father the Metropolitan Philip!" The friends of Marfa finally won the day. Novgorod handed herself over to the King of Poland by a formal act in which she stipulated for the same rights as she iiad enjoyed under her ancient princes. Ivan III. tried once more to recall the citizens to obedience, and he sent them an ambassador, but the party of Marfa was always the more numerous or the more noisy. At last Ivan decided to begin the war. His voievodes made the conquest of the terri- tory of the Dwina; the Muscovites, supported by the Tatar cav- alrv, cruelly ravaged the territory of the *' perfidious " Novgoro- dians ; after the battle of Korostyne, they cut off the noses and lips of the prisoners. The republicans had fallen from their an- cient valor ; Marfa had hastily enrolled ill-disciplined artisans. At the battle of the Chelona, 5000 Muscovites defeated 30,000 Novgorodians. At Roussa the Grand Prince caused manv bov- ards to be beheaded, one of whom was a son of Marfa, and sent others as prisoners into Muscovy. Ivan III. always advanced, fighting and negotiating. Novgorod submitted, paid a war in- demnity, and, if she still remained a republic, she was a republic dependent on the good pleasure of the Prince (1470). From that time Ivan labored entirely to reduce the town, and his party in Novgorod increased. If the people complained of the injustice of his lieutenants, he blamed the insufficiency of the ancient laws of the city. He tried to excite the animosity of the lower classes against the boyards. It was by the invita tion of the former that he came in 1475 ^° '^^^^ ^ solemn court 164 HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA. in Novgorod. Great and small immediately crowded to his tri« bunal, to beg for justice one against the other. Ivan saw how much his own cause was strengthened by these divisions. An act of authority that he tried, succeeded completely. Marfa's second son, the possadnik, and many boyards were loaded with chains, and sent to Moscow. No one dared to protest. On his return to his capital, a multitude of complainants hastened after him ; he forced them all to appear before him. Since Rurik, say the annalists, such a violation of Novgorod's liberty had never been known. Profiting by a documentary error made by the envoys of the town, he declared himself sov- ereign (goCj'oudar) of Novgorod, instead of lord (gospodine). Now if this interpretation were accepted, the subjection of the republic, which was only a matter of fact, would become a matter of law. The party of Marfa made a last effort to reject this sov- ereignty ; the friends of the Grand Prince were massacred. Ivan declared that the Novgorodians, after having accorded him the title oi gocoudar, had the effrontery to deny it. Then the Met- ropolitan, the bishops, the boyards, all Moscow, advised him to make war. Accordingly it was preached as a Holy War against the allies of the Pope and Lithuania. All the forces of Russia were put in motion, and many boyards of Novgorod appeared at the camp of the Grand Prince. The city was blockaded, and starved out. In vain the partisans of Marfa shouted the old war-cry: "'Let us die for liberty and Saint Sophia!" They were forced to capitulate. Ivan guaranteed to them their per- sons and possessions, their ancient jurisdiction, and exemption from the Muscovite service ; but the vetche and the possadnik were abolished forever. The belfry was reduced to silence. The Republic of Novgorod had ceased to exist (1478). Marfa and the principal oligarchs were transported to Moscow, and their goods confiscated. Many times afterwards, there were party agitations, which were quelled by Ivan III. and his suc- cessor, by numerous transportations. In 1481 some boyards were tortured and put to death. Eight thousand Novgorodians were transplanted to the towns of Souzdal. Ivan III. struck another terrible blow at the prosperity of the city when, in 1495, after a quarrel with the people of Revel, he caused the merchants of forty-nine Hanseatic towns to be arrested at Novgorod, pillaged the " German market," and removed wares to the value of ;^4o,ooo to Moscow. The covetous Grand Prince doubtless did not see he was killing the hen with the golden eggs. A long while elapsed before the merchants of the West again made their appearance in Novgorod. Pskof, more docile, had preserved Jjer vetch^ and her ancient institutions. rrsrORV OF RUSSIA. 1C5 Whilst he was destroying the liberty of Novgorod, Ivan de- prived her of her colonies, and undertook on his own account the conquest of Northern Russia, By this time Muscovy extended as far as Finland, the While Sea and the Icy Ocean, and had already obtained a footing in Asia. Ivan had conquered Permia in 1472, by which means he became master of the " silver beyond the Kama," which the Novgorodians had hitherto got in the course of trade. In 1489, Viatka, which had fallen for a short time into the power of the Tatars of Kazan, was reconquered, and lost her republican organization. In 1499 the voievodes of Oustiougue, of the Dwina and of Viatka, advanced as far as the Petchora, and built a fortress on the banks of the river. In the depth of winter, in sledges drawn by dogs, they passed the defiles of the Ourals, in the teeth of the wind and snow, slew 50 of the Samoyedes, and captured 200 reindeer ; invaded the territory of the Vogoulsand Ougrians, the Finnish brethren of the Magyars; took 40 enclosures of palisades, made 50 princes prisoners, and returned to Moscow, after having reduced this unknown country, supposed by the geographers of antiquity to be the home of so many wonders and monsters. Russia, like the maritime nations of the West, had discovered a new world. The cultivated provinces of Central Russia were more im- portant than the deserts of the North. Here there were no im- mense territories to be conquered, but only the territories of the smaller appanaged princes to be grafted on to the already united mass. Ivan III. might have dethroned the young Prince of Riazan, whom his father had brought to Moscow, but he preferred to give him the hand of his sister, Anne Vassilievna, and send him back to his territories (1464). The absorption of the prin- cipalities of Riazan and Novgorod-Severski was reserved for his successor. He showed the same moderation about Tver, but in 1482 Prince Michael, who had only maintained his position on sufferance, had the imprudence to ally himself with Lithuania. Ivan hailed this pretext with joy, and marched in ])erson against Tver, accompanied by the celebrated Aristotele Fioraventi of Bologna, grand master of his artillery. Michael took to flight; and Ivan began to organize his new subjects. A principality which could furnish 40,000 soldiers was united to Moscow without a blow. In like manner he obtained possession of Vereia and of Bie'lozersk, and deprived the princes of Rostof and laroslavl of their ancient rights of sovereignty. His father, by giving appanages to his brothers, had prepared for him a new and ungrateful task, but Ivan undertook it without Scruple. When his brother louri died, he wept much for him, but at once laid hands on his towns of Dmitrof, Mojaisk, and 1 66 HIS TOR Y OF F USSIA. Serpoukhof, thereby causing his other brothers, who hoped to share the spoil, great discontent (1468). Andrew was accused of an understanding with Lithuania, and thrown into prison, where he died (1493). The Grand Prince convoked the Metro- politan and bishops to his palace, appeared before them with downcast eyes, his face sorrowful and bathed in tears, humbly accused himself of having been too cruel to his unhappy brother, and submitted to their pastoral admonitions; but he confiscated Andrew's appanage notwithstanding, and that of his brother Boris, who died a short time after, thus reuniting all the domains of his father. He acquired the surname of " Binder of the Russian Land," a name which his eight predecessors equally merited. It was owing to their earlier labors that Ivan was able to become the greatest and most powerful of these " Binders." He avoided their errors, and if later he gave appanages to his own children, it was only on condition that they should remain subjects of their eldest brother, and that they should neither have the right to coin money nor to exercise a separate diplomacy. A'ARS WITH THE GREAT HORDE AND KAZAN END OF THE TATAR YOKE. The empire of the Horde was at last dissolved. The principal ■ States which had risen from its debris were the Tazarate of Kazan, that of Sarai or Astrakhan, the Horde of the Nogais, and the Khanate of the Crimea. Kazan and the Crimea particularly presented strange ethnographical amalgamations. The Tzarate of Kazan had been founded in the reign of Vassili the Blind on the ruins of the ancient Bulgaria on the Volga, formerly so flourishing and civilized, by a banished prince of the Horde. It was the same Makhmet who had tried to establish himself at Belef, and had defeated Chemiaka. The Mongols had mixed with the ancient Bulgars, and reconstituted an important centre of commerce and civilization. The rule of the Tzarate extended over the Finnish tribes of the Mordvians, the Tchouvaches, and the Tcheremisses, as well as the Bachkirs and Metcheraks. The Khanate of the Crimea had been founded almost at the same date, by a descendant of Genghis Khan, named Azi. A peasant named Ghirei having saved him from death, Azi added his bene- factor's name to his own, and henceforward the title belonged to all the khans of the Crimea. The Mongols, on arriving at the peninsula, found it occupied by the remains of the ancient Tauric, Hellenic, and Gothic races ; by Armenians, Jews, and Jewish Kharaites, who pretended to have settled B.C. 500 on the rocks j^rsTOR Y OF A USSIA . 167 and in the Troglodyte cities of Tchoufout-Kale and Mangoup- Kale, and finally by the Genoese of Kaffa. The Jews and Italians excepted, a large part of the ancient population was absorbed by the Asiatic invaders. Thus while the Tatars of the steppes of the Northern Crimea are pure Mongols, those of the mountains of the south seem to be chiefly Taurians, Goths, and Islamized Greeks. As to the great Horde of Sarai, that was almost entirely composed of nomads, such as the Nogais and other Turco-'l'atar races. Anarchy and rivalry reigned in the heart of each of these States. The prmces of Kazan, Sarai, and the Crimea came to seek an asylum from the Grand Prince, who made use of them to perpetuate these divisions. In 1473 Ivan constituted the town of Novgorod of Riazan into a fief for one Mustafa ; others served in the armies, and aided Ivan against Novgorod and Lithuania. Towards the khans and the tzars, especially those of the Great Horde or Sarai', the sovereign of Moscow held himself on the deiensive, repelling the attacks of adventurers, but taking care not to provoke them ; avoiding the payment of the tribute, but disposed to send t-Kem presents. At the same time he schemed for alliances against :be Khan of Sarai, and despatched to the Turkoman Oussoum-Hassan, master of Persia and enemy of the Mongols, his Italian ambassador, M.irco RulTo (1477). A more solid friendship united him with Mengli-Cihirei, Khan of the Crimea, and lasted all their lives. Mengli was as serviceable to him aijainst Lithuania as against the Horde. In 1478, having carefully taken all his measures, he openly rebelled. When the Khan Akhmet sent his ambassadors with his image to receive the tribute, Ivan HI. trampled the image of the Khan under his feet, and put all the envoys to death, ex- cepting one, who conveyed the news to the Horde. This act, so very little in accordance with the well-known prudence of Ivan, is not to be found in all the chronicles. When Akhmet took the field, Ivan occupied a strong position on the Oka, with a more numerous and better-organized army than that of Dmitri Donskoi. His 150,000 men and powerful artillery did not, how- ever, prevent him from reflecting much on thr: hazard of battles. He even returned to reflect at Moscow, and it needed all the clamors of the people to induce him to leave it. "\\'hat ! " ex- claimed the Muscovites, " he has overtaxed us, and refused to pay tribute to the Horde, and now that he has irritated the Khan, he declines to fight ! " Ivan wished to consult his mother, his bovards, and his bishops. " March bravely against the enemy,'" was the unanimous reply. '• Is it the part of mortals to fear death t " said old Archbishop Vassiiin, " We cannot 1 68 HISTOR V OF A' USS/A. escape destiny." Ivan desired, at least, to send his young son Ivan back to Moscow, but the prince heroically disobeyed. The Grand Prince finally decided to return to the army, blessed by his mother and the Metropolitan, who promised him the victory as to a David or to a Constantine, reminding him that "a good shepherd will lay down his life for his sheep," Ivan, who did not feel himself made of the stuff of a Constantine, kept his army immovable on the Oka and the Ougra ; the two forces contenting themselves with sending arrows and insults across the river. Ivan closed his ears to the warlike counsel of his boyards, and rather listened to the prudent advice of his two favorites — " fat and powerful lords," says the chronicle. How- ever, he refused the proposition of the Khan, who offered to pardon him if he would either come himself or send one of his men to kiss his stirrup. At last monks and white-haired bishops lost all patience. Vassian addressed a bellicose letter to the Grand Prince, invoking the memories of Igor, Sviatoslaf, of Vladimir Monomachus, and Dmitri Donskoi. Ivan assured him that this letter " filled his heart with joy, courage, and strength ; but another fortnight passed in inaction. On the fifteenth day the rivers were covered with ice ; the Grand Prince gave the order to retreat. An inexplicable panic seized the two armies — Russians and Tatars both fled, when no man pursued. The Khan never stopped till he reached the Horde (1480). Such was the last invasion of the horsemen of the Kiptchak. It was in this unheroic way that Russia broke at last the Mongol yoke under which she had groaned for three centuries. Like Louis XL, Ivan HI. had his battle of Montlhe'ry ; but if he fought less, he gained far more. The Horde, attacked by the Khans of the Crimea, survived its decay but a short time. Akhmet was put to death by one of his own men. Hostility increased between Kazan and Moscow. In 1467 and 1469 Ivan HI. had organized two expeditions against Bul- garia. In 1487, seven 3'ears after having shaken oiT the suprem- acy of the Great Horde, the Muscovite vo'ievodes marched against the same Kazan, where the father of their Grand Prince had been held a captive. After a siege of seven weeks the citv was taken, and the sovereign Alegam made prisoner. A tzar of Kazan was then seen a prisoner in Moscow ! Ivan IH. added the title of Prince of Bulgaria to those he already bore ; but feeling that the Mussulman city was not yet ripe for annexation, he gave the crown to a nephew of his friend the Khan of the Crimea. The people were foiced to take the oath of fidelity to him. The conquest of the land of Arsk, in Bulgaria itself, and the establishment of a Russian garrison in the fortress, allowed iTf^ TOR Y OF R USSTA. I 6q him to watch from close by all that passed in Kazan. The Khan of the Crimea did not care to protest against the captivity of the Tzar Alegam, his nephew's enemy, but the princes of liie Chiban and the Noga'is, who were related to him, and who be- held Islamism humiliated in his person, despatched an embassy to the Grand Prince. The latter refused to release his prisoner, but replied so graciously that the envoys could hardly be angry. He sent to those zealous kinsmen clothes of Flanders, fishes' teeth, and gerfalcons, and did not forget the wives of the viour- zas, whom he called his sisters. At the same time, wishing to make these Asiatics feel that times had changed, he took care never personally to compromise himself with the Nogai envovs, and only to communicate with them by means of treasurers, secretaries, and other officers of the second rank. WARS WITH LITHUANIA — WESTERN RUSSIA UP TO THE SOJA RE- CONQUERED. Lithuania and Poland united remained, after all, Ivan's great enemy. This composite State plays the same part in Russian history as the Burgundy of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold in that of France. Made up in a great degree of Rus- sian as well as of Polish and Lithuanian elements, it was many times on the point of annihilating Russia, in the same way as Burgundy, composed of French, Batavian, and German prov- inces, had been on the point of annihilating the French nation. Lithuania was incorporated with Poland in the same manner as the States of Burgundy, unfortunately for France, were incor- porated with Austria. At the beginning of Ivan's reign the King Casimir IV. was sovereign of tlie two united States, and neglected no means of disquieting the Grand Prince. The latter, on his part, incited his ally Mengli to invade the Lithuanian possessions ; and the Crimean Tatars ]")illaged Kief and the Monastery of the Cata- combs (1482). When, ten years after, Casimir died (1492), leaving Poland to his eldest son Albert, and Lithuania to Alex- ander, the second son, Ivan III. resolved to turn the division to account. He had obtained the friendship of the Turkish Sultan Bajazet II., of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungarv, of the active Stephen of Moldavia, the determined enemy of the Lithuanians; but, above all, he counted on Mengli. Mengli had held Lithuania in check while Ivan had got rid of the Mongols ; now he was to play the same part with the Horde, while the Grand Prince settled old scores with Alexander, but without in- terfering with the Tatar incursions in the Ukraine, The dis- 170 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. covery at Moscow of a Polish plot against the life of the Grand Prince spread rumors of war. In the same way that he had been able to utilize the Mongol refugees against the Horde, he found the Lithuanian princes and other great personages enter- ing into relations with him. It was then that Belski, afterwards 50 famous, obtained a footing in Russia, that the Prince of Ma- zovia sent an embassy to Ivan III., and the princes of Viazma, Vorotinsk, Belef, and Mezetsk did him homage. The war was popular in Moscow, for its object was to break the yoke imposed by the Polish Catholics on the orthodox Rus- sian people. In White Russia the Muscovites were to awake old national and religious sympathies. " Lithuania," said the ambassadors of Ivan III. to the plenipotentiaries of Alexander, "Lithuania has profited by the misfortunes of Russia to take our territory, but to-day things have changed." Peace was made after a short war (1494). The frontier of Muscovy was carried to the Desna, and comprehended the appanages of the princes who had taken service with Ivan, with Mstislavl, Obolensk, Kozelsk, Vorotinsk, Peremysl, &c. The peace seemed to be cemented by the marriage of Alex- ander with Helena, daughter of Ivan III. ; but, on the contrary, this union proved the germ of a new war. The sovereign of Moscow had stipulated that his daughter was under no circum- stances to change her religion, that she was to have a Greek chapel in the palace, and an orthodox almoner. Ivan himself gave his daughter the most pressing injunctions never to appear in the Catholic church, and gave her minute directions as to her toilet, her table, her mode of travelling, and her way of con- ducting herself towards her new subjects. At her departure he bestowed on her a collection of various pious books. His policy agreed with his conviction : it was necessarv that in Lithuania orthodoxy should raise her lowered head, and reign with his daughter. Soon afterwards, he complained that Helena was forced to offend her conscience, that she was made to wear the Polish costume, that her domestics and orthodox almoners were dismissed, and their places filled with Catholics — that the Greek religion was persecuted, that the assassination of the Metropoli- tan of Kief had remained unpunished, and that he was to be succeeded by a man devoted to the Pope. Lithuania, at the beginning of the war, was further enfeebled by new defections. The princes 'of Pielsk, of Mossalsk, of Khotatof, the boyards of Mtsensk and of Serpeisk, and finally the princes of Tchtrni- gof and Starodoub, of Rylsk and Novgo-od-Severski, declared for the Grand Prince of Moscow. All the country between the Desna and the Soja passed into the hands of the Russians, to* .f /STORY OF KUSS/A. T71 gether with Briansk, Poutivle, and Dorogbouge. They hail only to show themselves to conquer. Alexander could not abandon the conquests of Olgerd, Vitovt, and Gedimin without striking a blow, but his army was cut to pieces at the battle of Vedroclia. Constantine Ostrojski, his voievode, fell into the hands of tiie Muscovites, who tried to gain him over to their cause. The Lithuanians, however, kept the sirongiiolds of Vitepsk, Poloisk, Orcha and Smolensk. This prolonged struggle between Alexander and Ivan III. had set all Eastern Europe in a blaze. Alexander had made an alliance with the Livonian Order and the Great Horde. The Khan of the Crimea pitilessly devastated Gallicia and Volhynia. The Russian troops again defeated the Lithuanians near Mstislavl, but were forced to raise the siege of Smo- lensk. In the north, the Grand Prince of Moscow had stopped the Germans of Livonia from building the fortress of Ivangorod opposite Narva, and had seized the Hanseatic wares at Novgorod. The Grand Master, Hermann of Plettenberg, re- sponded with joy to the appeal of the Litinianians ; and at the battle of Siritsa, near Izborsk, his formidable German artillery crushed an army of 40,000 Russians (1501). The latter took their revenue the followins: vear on the iron men near Pskof. Schig-Akhmet, Kalm of the Great Horde, wished to make a diversion, but the Khan of the Crimea attacked him with fury, and in 1502 so completely extinguished his rule, that the ruins of Sarai. the capital of Bati, where the Russian princes had grovelled before the khans, were henceforward a home of serpents. Alexander had just been elected King of Poland, and wished to finish this ruinous war. The celebrated Pope, Alexander VI., and the King of Hungary tried to mediate between the bel- ligerent powers. As, however, neither of the two parties would abate any of their pretensions, a truce of six years only could be agreed on, during which time the Soja was to be the boun- dary, and the territories and towns of the princes who had gone over to Russia were to be abandoned to her (1503). What shows the good faith of Ivan III. is that, after the truce was signed, he obtained the promise from the Khan of the Crimea to continue his attacks against Lithuania. MARRIAGE WITH SOPHIA PAL.EOLOGUS (1472) THE GREEKS AND ITALIANS AT THE COURT OF iMOSCOW. The acquisition of the Novgorodian possessions and the ap- panages, the capture of Kazan, the fall of the Horde, and the 1 7 2 HIS TOR Y OF RUS ^14. conquest of Lithuania up to the Soja, had doubled the extent of the Grand Principality, even without reckoning the immense territory it had gained on the north. An event not less impor- tant in its consequences was the marriage of Ivan III. with a Byzantine princess, Thomas Palaeologus, a brother of the last Emperor, had taken refuge at the court of Rome. There he died, leaving a daughter named Sophia. The Pope wished to find her a husband, and the Cardinal Bessarion, who belonged to the Eastern Rite, advised Paul II. to offer her hand to the Grand Prince of Russia. A Greek named louri, and the two Friazini, relations of Friazine, minter of Ivan III., were sent on an embassy to Moscow. Ivan and his boyards accepted the proposal with enthusiasm ; it was God, no doubt, who had given him so illustrious a wife ; " a branch of the imperial tree which formerly overshadowed all orthodox Christianity." Sophia — dowered by the Pope, whose heart was always occupied with two things, the crusade against the Turks, and the re-union of the two Churches —went from Rome to Liibeck, from Liibeck by sea to Revel, and was received in triumph at Pskof, Novgo- rod, and the other towns subject to Moscow. This daughter of emperors was destined to have an enormous influence on Ivan, It was she, no doubt, who taught him to " penetrate the secret of autocracy." She bore the Mongol yoke with J^ss patience than the Russians, who were accustomed to servitude. She incited Ivan to shake it off. " How long am I to be. the slave of the Tatars ? " she would often ask. Widi Sophia a multitude" of Greek emigrants came to Moscow, not only from Rome, bu* from Constantinople and Greece ; among them were Demetrio' Ralo, Theodore Lascaris, Demetrios Trakhaniotes. They gav* to Russia statesmen, diplomatists, engineers, artists and tt»eolo- gians. They brought her Greek books, the priceless inherit ance of ancient civilization. These manuscripts were first be ginnings of the present " Library of the Patriarchs." Ivan III. was the heir of the Emperors of Byzantium and the Roman Caesars. He took for the new arms of Russia the two-headed eagle which in its archaic form is still to be found in the "■ Palais a facettes " of the Kremlin. Moscow succeeded to Byzantium as Byzantium had succeeded to Rome. Having become the only metropolis of orthodoxy, it was incumbent on her to protect the Greek Christians of the entire East, and to prepare the revenge against Islamism for the work of 1453. With the Greeks came Italians : Aristotele Fioraventi of Bologna, who was Ivan III.'s architect, military engineer, and master of artillery ; Marco Ruffo, his ambassador in Persia ; Pietro ITTSTORY OF RUSSIA. 173 Antonio, who built his imperial palace ; the metal-founder, Paul Bossio, besides architects and arquebusier.:. Ivan entered into relations with Venice when Trevisani, en- voy of the republic, on his way to the Horde, tried to traverse incognito the States of the Grand Prince, and was arrested and condenuied to death. The Senate interfered, and the imprudent diplomatist was set at liberty. Ivan sent in his turn a Russian ambassador, Simeon Tolbouzine, charged to bind the two coun tries in friendly ties, and to bring back some skilful architect from Italy. He was followed in 1499 by Demetrius Ralo and Golokhvastof. Contarini, the Venetian ambassador, returned from Persia with a French ecclesiastic named Louis, who called himself envoy of the Duke of Burgundy, and the Patriarch of Antioch. He stopped at Moscow, and was kindly received by Ivan. He himself was much struck by the Grand Prince. " \Mien, in speaking, 1 respectfully stepped back," relates Contarini, "the Grand Prince always drew near, and gave particular at- tention to my remarks." Ivan III. — whether to secure himself allies against Poland, or to obtain from Germany artists and handicraftsmen — exchanged more than one embassy with Frederic III. and Maximilian of Austria, Matthias of Hungary, and the Pope. When attacked by Sweden, he nogotiated an alliance with Denmark. Plehtche'ef was the first Russian am- bassador at Constantinople under Bajazet II. From the East came envovs of Georgia and even of Djagatai (Turkestan and Tatar Siberia). The prince who, born vassal of a nomad race, founded the greatness of Russia, mav be comjjared with one of the greatest of French kings, Louis XI. What the latter accomplished in the case of appanaged feudalism, Ivan succeeded in doing in that of appanaged principalities. He was pitiless towards the smaller Russian dynasties, as the King of France was to Armagnac or Saint Pol. He detached a slice from Lithuania, as his Western contemporary managed to dismember Burgundy. He put an end to the Mongol invasions, as Louis did to the English wars. He repulsed, without striking a blow, the last incursion of 'the khans, as Louis XI. sweetly dismissed the last embarkation of the English under Edward' IV. Both had the same taste for foreigners, especiallv industrious Italians, and for useful arts. Both explored the metallic riches of their States. They each created a diplomacy; the one by means of Comynes, the other bv means of Greeks, and Russians as supple as Greeks. They strengthened the national army, and gave it a permanent char- acter ; they both owed the success against the minor princes to 174 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. their artillery. Ivan III. had his brothers Bureau in Aristotele Fioraventi. Louis XL, who wished to put an end to the anarchy of the law and to the thefts of chicanery, meditated a real code, or grand costumier, which would put the old laws in harmony with the new order of things. This is precisely what Ivan did in his Oulngenia (1497). In comparing it with the Roiisska'ia Pravda of laroslaf, we are able to gauge the amount of change caused in the national laws by the influence of Byzantium, the example of the Tatars, and the progress of autocracy. Corporal penalties have notably increased : for homicide, death ; for theft, whipping in a public place. Torture was making its way in the procedure. The judicial duel was still admitted, only now it could hardly become mortal ; each of the combatants had a cuirass, and was armed only with a short club. Women, minors, and ecclesiastics were represented by a champion. In the same way as the end and aim of the policy of Ivan was the suppression of appanages, that of his code was to efface the privileges, the legal and judi- cial peculiarities of the different provinces. For three generations the throne had been inherited in the direct line. When, however, Ivan, eldest son of Ivan III., died, the latter hesitated long between his grandson Dmitri Ivanovitch, and his second son Vassili. His wife supported Vassili ; his daughter-in-law Helena, Ivan's widow, her own son. The court was divided, and both parties were absorbed in their intrigues. Ivan III. at first proclaimed Dmitri, threw Vassili in prison, and disgraced his wife. Then he changed his mind, imprisoned his daughter-in-law and his grandson in their turn, and pro- claimed Vassili his heir. The hereditary right of the West was not established in T^^ussia without many struggles. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. ns CHAPTER XIV. VASSILI IVANOVITCH (1505-1533). Reunion of Pskof, Riazan, and Novgorod-Severski — Wars with Lithuania — Acc)uisition of Smolensk — Wars with the Tatars — Diplomatic relation? with Europe. REUNION OF PSKOF, RIAZAN, AND NOVGOROD-SEVERSKI — WARS WITH LITHUANIA — ACQUISITION OF SMOLENSK. The reign of Vassili Ivanoviich may seem somewhat pale between those of the two Ivans — the two- " 7trr//'/ lyg HISTORY OF RUSSIA. suited to Polish anarchy than to Russian autocracy. A Glinski^ one of a Podolian family, who went over to VassiU at this time, played the traitor. Constantine Ostrojski, whom VassiU had tried to gain over to the "cause of orthodoxy, fled from Moscow : and it was he who, in 1514, inflicted on the Russian voiievodes the bloody defeat of Orcha. " The next day," says Karamsin, "he celebrated the victory that he had won over a people of the same religion as himself, and it was in the Russian tongue that he gave thanks to God for having destroyed the Russians." Even the contemporaries felt vaguely that a struggle between Lithuanian Russia and Moscow was a kind of civil war. Had hot VassiU tried to unite the two principalities ? As in the time of Ivan III., the duel of the two States made itself felt throughout Europe, and occasioned a great diplo- matic movement. Now, Sigismond had the Tatars of the Crimea on his side ; VassiU opposed them with the Tatars of Astra- khan. Sigismond reckoned on Sweden. Vassili negotiated with Denmark. The King had gained over to his cause the Dnieper Cossacks, whose name already began to be heard in history, and who had been powerfully organized by Dachkovitch. But Vassili secured the friendship of the Teutonic Order, who even con- sented to invade Polish Prussia ; of Maximilian of Austria, who signed a treaty of partition of the Polish territory; of the Hos- podar of Wallachia ; and finally of the Sultan Selim, to whom he sent embassy after embassy. Negotiations were set on foot in consequence of the defeat of Constantine Ostrojski before Smolensk, in the battle of Opotchka. Maximilian of Austria undertook the office of mediator ; his ambassador, Herberstein, the same who has left us the curious book entitled ' Rerum Moscovitarum Commentarii,' promised that VassiU should cede Smolensk, and quoted to him the disinterestedness of King Pyrrhus and other great men of antiquity. Pope Leo X. inter- vened without greater success, though he counselled Vassili to leave Lithuania alone, and to turn his thoughts to Constantinople, the inheritance of his mother, Sophia Pal?eologus. At last in 1522, the negotiations opened and terminated in the truce of 1526. Vassili pronounced a discourse on the subject, in which he expressed his friendship for his noble mediators, the Pope, the pjnperor, and the Archduke of Austria (Clement VII., Charles v., and Ferdinand), but Russia kept Smolensk. WARS Wn-H THE TATARS — DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH EUROPE. The Tatars were still dangerous. Mengli-Ghirei, the ancient ally of Ivan III., had declared for Lithtiania against Vassili HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA . 179 Perhaps the old Khan might have lost the authority necessary to restrain his sons and mourzas, who only wished to pillage the Russian teriiiory. Under his successor, Makhmet Ghirei, the Crimea became a deadly enemy of Russia. Kazan, on expelling the //'6'/t'^''t' of Ivan 111., had elected a prince hoslile to Moscow. Two expeditions directed against the rebel city failed completely. At llie death of the Tzar of Kazan, the principality became the apple of discord between the Khan of the Crimea and the Grand Prince. The Russians, however, had succeeded, and installed their client, Schig-Alei, a Mussulman brutalized by idle- ness and pleasures, whose enormous stomach gave him a gro- tesque appearance ; but he was overthrown by the intrigues of the Khan of the Crimea, and a kinsman of the Ghirei was placed on the throne. In support of their candidate, tiie Taurians pre- pared, in 1521, a great invasion of Russia. They crushed the Russian voievodes on the banks of the Oka, ravaged the Grand Principality, looked on Moscow from the Hill of Sparrows,- and made themselves drunk with hydromel found in the cellars of the Grand Prince. At the Kremlin there was a formidable array of artillery, but no powder. Herberstein assures us that the powerful son of Ivan III. humiliated himself, as in the time of Ivan Kalita, to save his capital, sent presents to the Khan, and signed a treaty by which he professed himself his tributary ; but that in his retreat, Makhmet Ghirei was received with cannon- balls by the voi'evode of Riazan, who took from him the humiliat- ing treaty. Though the Russian honor was saved by the can- nonade of Riazan, this invasion cost Russia dear. All the flat country was a prey to the flames. A multitude of people, es- pecially women and children, had been carried off by the bar- iDarians. Many perished on the journey ; the rest were sold^ in whole troops in the markets of Kaffa and Astrakhan. The following year Vassili assembled on the Oka a formidable army, with an imposing artillery, and sent a challenge to the Khan of the Crimea summoning him to accept an honorable fight in the open country. The Tatar answered that he knew the way to Russia, and never consulted his enemies as to when he was to fight. A short time after, Makhmet conquered the Tzarate of Astrakhan, but was assassinated by Mamai, Prince of the Noga'is. The Tatars of the Crimea were, thanks to the vast southern steppes, nearly beyond Russian enterprises ; but it was still possible to attain Kazan. In order to profit by the dissensions of the Hordes of the South, two new expeditions were fitted out in 1523 and 1524 against this town, but both were unsuccessful. Vassili discovered a more certain way of ruining his enemies — he established a fair at Mak^rief on the Volga, and by this mean^ IffO HISTORy OF RUSSIA. destroyed that of Kazan. It was this fair of Makarief that was afterwards transported to Nijni-Novgorod, and draws more than 100,000 strangers from Europe and Asia. Day by day Russia took a more important place in Europe. Vassili exchanged embassies with all the sovereigns of the West, except those of France and England. He was the correspon- dent of Leo X. and Clement VII. ; of Maximilian and Charles V. ; of Gustavus Vasa, founder of a new dynasty ; of Sultan Selim, conqueror of Egypt ; and of Suleiman the Magnificent. In the East, the Great Mogul of India, Baber, descendant of Tamerlane, sought his friendship. Autocracy daily became stronger. Vassili governed without consulting his council of boyards. " Moltchi smcrd!" (Be silent, rustic !) he said one day to a great lord, who dared to raise an objection. Prince Vassili Kholmaski, who was married to one of his sisters, was thrown into prison for indocility. The boyard Beklemychef having complained that " the Grand Prince decided all the questions alone, shut up, with two others, in his bed-chamber," had his head cut off. The Metropolitan Varlaam was deposed and ban- ished to a monastery. Herberstein asserts already, that no European sovereign is obeyed like the Grand Prince of Moscov/. This growing power was manifested externally by the splendor of the court, which naturally did not preclude the worst barbaric taste. In the reception of his ambassadors, Vassili displayed unheard-of luxury ; many hundreds of horsemen accompanied him when he hunted. The throne of the Prince was guarded by young nobles, the ryndis, with their head-dresses of high caps of white fur, dressed in long caftans of white satin, armed with silver hatchets. The lists of his masters of the horse, his cup- bearers, chamberlains, &c., are already very long. Strangers continued, though in small numbers, to come to Moscow. The most illustrious of them was Maximus, surnamed the Greek, a monk of Mount Athos, and a native of Arta, in Albania. In his youth he had studied at Venice and at Florence, and been the friend of Lascaris and Aldus Manutius. He had remained the sincere admirer of Savonarola. Vassili had sent for him with other Greeks to translate the Greek books into Slavonic, and put his library in order. Maximus is said to have been astonished to find in the Kremlin such a large number of ancient manu- scripts ; he vowed that neither Italy nor in Greece was to be found such a rich collection. After having finished the trans- lation of the Psalter, he wished to return to Mount Athos Vassili retained him, made him liis favorite, and often granted him the lives of condemned boyards. His works, his science, as well as his favor, gained him the hatred of ignorant and fan- HISTOR V OF RUSSIA. , « x atical monks. The Metropolitan Daniel declared against him. When Vassili repudiated against her will his wife Solomonia, because of her sterility, the philosopher^ it seems, ventured to blame the prince, who then abandoned him to his enemies. Denounced before an ecclesiastical tribunal, accused of heresy and of false interpretation of the sacred books, he was banished \o a monastery at Tver. Later he obtained leave to retire to that of Troitsa, where there is still shown the tomb of the man who was, in Russia, one of the apostles of the Renaissance. x62 HISTOR y OF R USSiA. CHAPTER XV. IVAN THE TERRIBLE (1533-1584.) Minority of Ivan IV. — He takes the title of Tzar (1547) — Conquest of Kazan (1552), and of Astraklian (1554) — Contests with the Livonian Order, Po- land, the Tatars, Sweden, and the Russian aristocracy — The English in Russia — Conquest of Siberia. MINORITY OF IVAN IV. — HE TAKES THE TITLE OF TZAR (1547). The role and the character of Ivan IV. have been and still are very differently estimated by Ri:ssian historians. Karamsin, who has not subjected to a criticism sufficiently severe the narratives and documents from which he has drawn his information, has seen in him a prince who was born cruel and vicious, but was miraculously brought back into the paths of virtue. Under the guidance of two excellent ministers he gave some years of repose to Russia ; then abandoning himself to his passions — astounded Europe and the empire with what the historian calls the " seven periods of massacres." M. Kostomarof supports the verdict of Karamsin. Another school represented by M. Solovief ^nd M. Zabieline, has shown more mistrust of the partial accounts •»i Kourbski, leader of the oligarchic party, of Guagnini, courtier of the King of Poland, of Taube and Kruse, traitors to the so\'- ereign whom they served. Above all, they have taken into con- sideration the time and the environment of Ivan the Terrible. This party concerns itself less with his morality as an individual, than with' the part he played as the agent of the historical devel- opment of Russia. Did not the French historians for a while refuse to recognize the immense services rendered by Louis XI. in the great work of consolidating the unity of France, and the creation of a modern State .? He has been justified at last by an attentive examination of documents and facts. At the time that Ivan IV, succeeded his father, the struggle of the central power with the forces of the past had changed its character. The old Russian States which had for so long held in check the new power of Moscow — the principalities of Tver. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 183 Riazan, Souzdal and Novgorod-Severski — and the republics of Novgorod, Pskof, and Viatka, had lost their independence; tiirir possessions had gone to swell those of Moscow. All North md East Russia is now united under the sceptre of the Grand i^rmce. To the perpetual contests with Tver, Riazan, and Nov- gorod succeed the great foreign wars ; the crusades against Litiuiania, the Tatars, the Swedes, the Livcnian knights. Precisely because the work of Great Russian unity was accomplished, the internal resistance to the authority of the Prince became stronger. The descendants of the princely tarn. lies which had been dispossessed by money or force of arms, and the letainers of these ancient reigning houses, enlisted in die service of the master of Moscow, The Court of the latter .vas full of uncrowned nobles, Belskis, Choui'skis, Kourbskis, V^orcjtinskis, descendants of the appanaged princes, proud of the olood of Rurik which ran in their veins. Others sprang from Gedimin, the Lithuanian, or from baptized Tatar 7nourzas. All these, as well as the powerful boyards of Tver, Riazan, and Novgorod, became the boyards of the Grand Prince. There was uniy one Court for all to serve — that of Moscow. When Russia was divided into sovereign States, discontented boyards were free to change their master, to pass from the service of Tchernigof to that of Kief, or from the service of Souzdal to that of Novgorod. Now, where could they go? Outside of Moscow- there was nothing but foreign sovereigns, the enemies of Russia. To make use of the ancient right of changing your master, was to pass over to the enemy to be a traitor. To change and betray became synonyms. From the Russian word /bw/////(change) is derived the word iz7nie'nik (to betray). The Russian boyard could go neither to the Germans, to the Swedes, nor to the Tatars ; he could only go to the Grand Duke of Lithuania, but that was ex- actly the worst sort of change the blackest of treasons. The Prince of Moscow knew^ well that the war with Lithuania — that State wiiich was Polish in the west, and exercised, by means of its Russian provinces in the east, a dangerous fascination on the subjects of Moscow — was a struggle for existence. Litliuanin, was an internal as well as an external enemy, with links and svni- patiiies with the heart of the Russian State, even in the palace of the Tzar himself, and lier formidable hand is found in all in- trigues and conspiracies. The external struggle with Lithuania, and the internal struggle with the Russian oligarchy, are different phases of the same contest, the heaviest and most perilous of all sustained by the Grand Princes of Moscow. The dispos- sessed princes, the boyards of the ancier. independent States, had renounced the strife with ^jim on the Laitlc-field, but they •J^g4 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. continued to combat his authority in his own Court. There are no more wars of States against State ; henceforth the war is intestine, that of oligarchy against autocracv. Resigned to being sovereign princes no longer, the boyard princes oi Moscow were not yet content to be only subjects. The nar- rower area intensified the violence of the contest. The Court of Moscow was a fenced-in field, from which none could go out without changing the Muscovite for the Lithuanian master — without betraying. Hence the passionate character of the struggle between the two principles under Ivan IV. Besides, the sovereigns of Moscow who had destroyed, after so many efforts, the Russian States that held Moscow in check, com- mitted the same fault as the Capetians or the early Valois. In constituting appanages for the younger branches, they built up with one hand what they pulled down with the other ; to the sov- ereign princes of the nth century succeeded the princes of the blood the appanaged princes of the 15th and i6th centuries. These also had their domain, &c., their boyards, their dieti boy- rtTj/C'/V (men-at-arms.) They were the brothers, uncles, cousins of the Grand Prince, who became the chiefs of the vanquished oligarchy and organized the coalition of the forces of the past against him. They stood to him as the Capetians of Burgundy, Berri, Bourbon, and Orleans, stood to the Capetian kings, Charles Nil., Louis XL, and Charles VIII. Vassili Ivanovitch left two sons, Ivan and louri, under the guardianship of his second wife, Helena Glinski. She had come into Russia with a family of Podolian nobles, jDroscribed by Sig- ismond, and accused of having plotted against his life. Helena Glinski had subdued her old husband Vassili, not only by her beauty, but by her free and attractive manners, an independence of spirit and character, and a variety of accomplishments not t(j be found among the Russian women of that dav, condemned as they were to seclusion. She was almost a Western. Vassili was able to leave her, on his death-bed, with the guardianship of her sons, and the care of strengthening his work and that of his ancestors. This energetic woman knew how to put down all attempts of princely and oligarchic reaction against the autoc- racv of the Grand Prince. One of her husband's brothers, louri Ivanovitch, convicted of rebellion, was thrown into prison, where he died. Helena's own uncle, Michael Glinski, an am- bitious and turbulent Podolian, after having enjoyed her confi- dence for some time, was likewise arrested and died in confine- ment. Andrew Ivanovitch, another brother of the late Tzai, tried to escape into Poland to obtain the support of Sigismond ; he was stopped on the way, and imprisoned. Lithuania at HISTOR V OF RUSSIA. 185 tempted to come to his aid, by taking up arms for the rebels of the interior. This unimportant war was ended in 1537 by a truce. I'he Tatars of Kazan and the Crimea suffered many de- feats ; and to phice Moscow beyond the possibility of being seized by a coup de main, Helena enclosed with ramparts the quarter known by the name of Katai-gorod. As she could not entirelv rely either on the boyards or on the princes, nor even on her own relations, she gave all her confidence to the master of the horse, Telepnef, whom the public voice charged with belnfr her lover. A frovernment as energetic against its internal as against its foreign enemies, gave little satisfaction to the oli- garchic party. In 1538 Helena died, the victim of poison. The boyards then took possession of the government, after having put to death the master of the horse, and imprisoned his sister Agrafena, Ivan's nurse. The chief power w^as disputed specially by two families — the Chouiskis and the Belskis, Russia became a prey to anarchy, the governments and the voievodies were given by turns to the creatures of these two families, and the people were cruelly oppressed ; the two- factions even elevated and deposed at will the Metropolitan of Moscow. At last, Andrew Chouiski overthrew the government of the Belskis, and finally deposed the Metropolitan. Whilst the nobles were thus intriguing for the supreme power, Vassili's two sons were left by themselves. louri, the younger, was feeble in intellect, but Ivan, like Peter the Great, whom in many points he resembled, was a highly-gifted boy. He suffered keenly from the contemi^t in which his turbulent subjects held him. "We and our brother louri," he afterwards writes, " were treated like foreigners, like the children of beg- gars. We were ill-clothed, we were cold and hungry." They saw the boyards pillage the treasures and luxurious furniture of the palace ; Chouiski even threw himself in Ivan's presence on the bed of the late Tzar. The empire was plundered as well as the palace. "They wandered everywhere," continues Ivan IV., "in the towns and villages, cruelly tormenting the people, in- flicting all kinds of evils on them, exacting fines without mercy from the inhabitants. Of our subjects they have made tluir slaves; of their slaves, the nobles of the Sta'te." He had seen all whom he loved torn from him — his nurse Agrafena ; the master of the horse, Telepnef, who had been put to death ; and his favorite Voronzof, who was roughly handled and nearly killed by the boyards. It was enough for a courtier to take pains to please him, for him instantly to become an object of mistrust to the oligarchs. Ivan, like a neglected child, badly educated, never disciplined, had to be his own master. He read 1 86 TTfSTOR V OF RUss^r^. much, without method — the Bible, the Lives of the Saints, the Byzantine Chroniclers translated ir.to Slavonic — whatever came in his way. Above all, he thought. He had imbibed from his reading a high idea of what it was to be a king, and knew well that he was the rightful master. These very boyards, so inso- lent towards him in private — did he not see them in public cer- emonials, at receptions of ambassadors, rival each other in af- fected respect and servility ? It was he who, seated on his throne, received the compliments of the foreign envoys ; his signature was necessary to give the force of law to actions the most contrary to his will. These were no vain forms, but in- volved real power. Ivan, however, dissembled. After the Christmas fetes of 1543, he suddenly summoned his boyards be- fore him, addressed them in a menacing tone, and reproached them sternly for their manner of governing. " There were among them," he added, " many guilty ones ; but this time he would content himself with making one example." He then ordered his guards to seize Andrew Chouiski, the chief of the government, and there and then had him torn to pieces by hounds. Some of the most turbulent and the most compro- mised were banished to distant towns. The author of this conf> d'etat was thirteen years old. According ,to the invariable custom of Muscovite sov^ereigns, Ivan surrounded himself by his maternal relations, those on his father's side being naturally objects of suspicion. Then began what was called a vremia ; that is a season of favor." The rela- tives of the Prince, the men of the season {j'rejnenchtchiki), the Glinskis, were charged to provide for the administration of the empire. In January 1547, Ivan ordered the Metropolitan Macarius to proceed with his coronation. He assumed at the ceremony not only the title of Grand P?ince, but that of Tzar. The first title no longer answered to the new power of the sover- eign of Moscow, who counted among his domestics, princes and even Grand Princes. The name of Tzar is that which the books in the Slavonic language, ordinarily read by Ivan, give to the kings of Jnda^a, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon and to the emperors of Rome and Constantinople. Now, was not Ivan in some sort the heir of the Tzar Nebuchadnezzar, the 7h7r Pharaoh, the Tzar Ahasuerus, and the Tzar David, since Russia was the sixth empire spoken of in the Apocalypse ? Through his grandmothei Sophia Palaiologus, he was connected with the family of the Tzar of Byzantium ; through his ancestor Vladimir Monoma- chus, he belonged to the Porphyrogeniti ; and through Con- stantine the Great, to Caesar. If Constantinople had been the second, Moscow was the third Rome — living heir of th^ Eternal HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. 1 8 7 City. We may imagine what prestige was added to the dignity of Uie Russian sovereign by this dazzling title, borrowed from Biblical aniiquity, from Roman majesty, from tiie orthodox sover- eigns )i Byzantium, It recall-d at the same time the recently, acqui/ed freedom of Russia ; the Slavonic authors likewise bestowed this august title on the Mongol khans, suzerains of the Muscovite princes. Now that fortune smiled upon Russia, it well became her prince to call himself " Tzar." Shortly after, Ivan, whose deserted youth had been soiled by debauchery, confirmed his return to virtue by his marriage with Anastasia, of that family of Romanof whose future destiny was to be so bril- liant. His Court was increased by vremenchkhiki chosen from the relatives of the Tzarina. The vanquished party naturally would not consent to be set aside without a struggle for revenge. Fortune soon gave them an opportunity. For four years Ivan had governed absolutely, supported by his connections, the Glinskis and the Romanofs, and it was many years since Russia had been so tranquil. Sud- denly, in 1547, a'terrible fire broke out and destroyed a great part of Moscow, and 1700 people perished. The Tzar took refuge at Vorobief, and thence contemplated with terror the destruction of his capital. An inquiry was made, ard the boy- ards took advantage of it to insinuate to the people that it was the Glinskis who had burnt Moscow. " It is the Princess Anne Glinski," repeated voices among the crowd, " who, with her two sons, has made enchantments ; she has taken human hearts, and plunged them in water, and with this water has sprinkled the houses. This is the cause of the des' ruction of ^Ioscow." The enraged multitude burst into the palace of the Glinskis. One of them, louri, was stabbed in the porch of the Assump- tion. Then the rioters proceeded to Vorobief, and demanded Ivan's uncle, the old Glinski. The sovereign's own life was in danger ; it was necessary to use force to disperse the rebels. The events which followed are unintelligible from the dram- atized recital of Karamsin, but very clear if we keep to the logic of facts. Ivan could hardlv be irrnorant who had raised this revolt, and he was not the man to give himself up to his ancient guardians. But liis nervous, impressionable nature had been greatly struck by the spectacle under his eyes. Under the influence of this terror he examined his conscience, and resolved to amend his life. He took the priest Silvester, who had dwelt in his palace for nine years, and had a great reputa- tion for virtue, as his spiritual director ; he gave him at the same time the administration of ecclesiastical aflfairs. Alexis Adachef, one of the smaller nobility, was charged with receiring 1 88 Hr^^^RY OF RUSSIA. petitions, and the supervision of the interior and of the war. As long; as the two new favorites confined themselves to their offices, the Court was tranquil. It was the happiest period of the reign of Ivan IV. The municipal administration was re- organized in the interior (1551). A new code {Soudebnik) was prepared, and a council assembled, whose hundred articles \Stoglaf) were occupied with Church reforms. In foreign aflairs Russia conquered her ancient masters. CONQUEST OF KAZAN (1552), AND OF ASTRAKHAN (1554). The kingdom of Kazan continued to be distracted bv two opposing influences — that of Russia and that of the Khan of the Crimea. The latter seemed the stronger, and Safa-Ghirei, can- d date for the Crimea, distinguished his accession by ravaging the Russian territory ; the Khan supported him in these incur- sions by advancing with the whole Crimean horde as far as the ka. When Safa died, leaving a son who was a minor, the Muscovite party took the upper hand in Kazan and bestowed the crown on Schig-Alei. He made himself detested by his new subjects, and things came to such a pass that the Kazanese appeared to prefer the direct rule of Moscow to this disguised subordination. At the request of the inhabitants Ivan recalled ochig-Alei, and sent them a viceroy, IMikoulmski. Suddenly a rumor was spread in Kazan that Mikoulinski was approaching with Russian troops with the object of exterminating the popu- lation. A rebellion broke out. The gates of Moscow were shut on the Muscovites, and men demanded a prince of the Nogai Tatars. Ediger-Makhment was proclaimed Tzar of Kazan, Ivan determined to make an end of this Mussulman city. In June 1552, the same year that Henry II. obtained possession of the three bishoprics, the Tzar took the field. He was at once checked by the news that the Khan of the Crimea, wishing to save Kazan by a diversion, had invaded Moscow, Ivan ad vanced against him as far as the Oka ; there he learnt that the barbarians, not being able to take Toula, had hastily retired. Upon this, Ivan's infantrv, with 150,000 men and 150 pieces cf cannon, descended the Volga in boats, while the cavalry followed along the banks, and directed their course to Kazan. The creation of advanced posts had diminished the distance that separated Kazan from Nijni-Novgorod. His father had founded Makarief and Vassilsoursk on the Volga ,- and he himself had established in 155 1 the warlike colony of Sviajsk on the Sviaga. Later he founded those of Kosmodemiansk and Tcheboksarv, » HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 189 At the beginning of September Ivan encamped under Kazan and surrounded it by a line of circumvallation, which cut off all comimuiication between the town and the cavalry of the Mourza lapaiit.cha, which had taken ^ the field. The garrison of Kazan, numbering 30,000 Tatars and 2500 Nogais, defended themselves energetically and incessantly, and managed by their sori'ws to hinder the work of the assailants. The Tzar repeatedly oft'ered them honorable terms ; he even hung up his prisoners on gibbets to frighten the Kazanese into surrendering, but the besieged only shot arrows against these unhappy wretches, crying that " it'was belter for them to receive death from the clean hands of their countrymen than to perish by the impure hands of Christians." The Russian army had to struggle with the un- chained elements as well as with their enemies. The fleet, which bore their provisions and powder, was destroyed by a tempest. The voievodes wished to raise the siege, but Ivan re- animated their failing courage. Prolonged rains flooded the Muscovite camp, caused, it was said, by the sorcerers of Kazan, who stood on the walls, their robes girt up, insulting the be- siegers by their words and gestures. Ivan sent to Moscow for a miraculous cross, which dispersed the enchantments. Ivan had secured the services of a German engineer, who laid mines under the very walls of the town. The ramparts of wood and bricks at many points fell with a great noise, and the Rus- sian army entered the town by the breaches. A fierce hand to- hand fight took place in the streets and around the palace. The bravest of the Kazanese, after having tried to defend their prince, cut their way through, but, pursued by the light cavalry, few escaped. In the town numbers were massacred : those only were spared who could be sold to slave-merchants. When the Tzar made his triumphal entry into the middle of these bloody ruins, he was moved, like Scipio at Carthage, by a feeling of pity for this great disaster. " They are not Christians," said he, weeping, " but yet they are men." The town was re-peopled by Russians, and even at the present day the Tatar population is confined to the faubourgs. In the Kremlin Ivan annihilated all the monuments of the Mongol past, and replaced them by churches and monasteries which attested his gratitude towards God and the triumph of the Cross over Islam. The date of these events is already far distant, but they still live in the memory of the Russian people. Many epics are con- secrated to this great victory. It is not only, as Karamsin says, because Kazan was the first fortress taken by the Russians after a siege according to the rules of war ; it is because the capture of Kazan marks the culminating point in the history of the long IQO HIS I OXY OF RUSSIA, Struggle of the Slavs against the Tatars — a struggle which be« gan by the total subjugation of Russia by the Mongols, but which has continued to our own day, and probably will only end with the conquest of the Tatar races by the Russian Empire. The victory of Ivan the Terrible is the first great revenge of the vanquished over the vanquishers, the first triumph at the ex- pense of the conquerors, the first stage reached by European civilization in taking the offensive towards Asia. In the Rus- sian annals the expedition of Kazan occupies the same glorious place as the defeat of Abderahman in the history of the Franks, or Las Navas da Tolosa in the chronicles of Spain. It was more than a conquest — it was a crusade. During the assault Ivan did not cease to display the standard of the holy faith. It was remarked that the day the ramparts fell the Tzar was at church, and the deacon read the following verse from the Gospel for the day : " There shall be one flock, one shepherd." It was with the cry of " God with us ! " that the Russians precipitated themselves into the town. The triumph of Moscow mingled with that of Christianity and orthodoxy. The political consequences of the taking of Kazan were con- siderable. The five Finnish or Mongol tribes who had been subject to this royal city — the Tcheremisses, the Mordvians, the Tchouvaches, whom M. Radlow considers the descendants of the Bulgars of Bolgary, the Votiaks and the Bachkirs — after a resistance of some years, were obliged to do homage to Moscow. Ivan sent them missionaries at the same time as his voiievodes. The fall of the kingdom of Astrakhan soon followed that of Kazan. This great city was also divided between two parties. In 1554 Prince louri Pronski descended the Volga with 30,000 men, and established Derbych, the protegi of Russia, on the throne. Derbych, after a short time, was accused of having an understanding with the Khan of the Crimea ; and Astrakhan was conquered a second time, and finally united to Russia. The Nogais, who wandered over the neighboring steppes, were forced to accept the Muscovite protection. Thus the Volga — that famous river whose banks sustain so many ruined cities, Itil capital of the Khazars, Bolgary capital of the Bulgars, Sarai capital of the Golden Horde — that keep the memory of the ancient races who have vanished from history ; the Volga — that grand artery of Eastern commerce — now flowed in the whole of its course from its source to its mouth through the land of the Tzars. Persian Asia was thrown open to Russian influence by means of the Caspian ; and already the petty princes of the Caucasus, always fighting either among themselves or with the Tatars of HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 191 the Crimea, sought the alliance of the successors of the Greek Csesars. In order to keep a firmer hold on the Horde of ihe Taurid, Ivan took under his protection one of the two warlike republics which had been formed in the neighborhood of the Crimea: the Cossacks of the Don declared themselves subjects of Moscow, the Cossacks of the Dnieper remained Poles. WARS WITH THE LIVONIAN ORDER, POLAND, TATARS, SWEDEN, AND ARISTOCRATIC RUSSIA. Russia, which felt the growth of her forces, felt equally the need of throwing open the Baltic at the same time as the Black Sea. The Baltic was even the more necessary to the Russians, as by it only could they communicate with Western Europe, and receive vessels, artillery, and engineers. Thence Muscovy awaited the increase of power that civilization could alone give her. Between Muscovy and the Baltic lay more than one enemy : Sweden, the Livonian knights, Lithuania, and Poland. In 1554 a war broke out about the rectification of the frontiers between Ivan the Terrible and the great Gustavus Vasa ; but as the founder of the Swedish dynasty was not supported by his neigh- bors, the war w-as a short one. It terminated by a commercial treaty which opened India and China to the Swedish merchants by way of Russia ; and to those of Russia, Flanders, England, and France, bv way of Sweden. Moscow could not yet commu- nicate with the West except through a jealous intermcdi- a^-v. Ivan the Terrible, inspired by the same political and civiliz- ing ideas as Peter the Great, wished to " open a window " into Europe. For this purpose he coveted the ports of the Narva. Revel and Riga, then in the hands of the Livonian Order, against which Ivan had some grievances. About 1547 Ivan had sent the Saxon Schlitte into Germany to engage for him a cer- tain nun ber of engineers and artizans, and Schlitte had managed to collect about a hundred people. The jealousy of the Germans then awoke ; they feared that, as she became civilized, Russia would also become strong. The Livonian Order demanded of the Emperor Charles VI. the right to stop these strangers on their road. None ever reached Moscow. Ivan, then occupied with Kazan, was unable to avenge himself; but when in 1554 the envoys of the Order came to Moscow to solicit a renewal of the truce, he summoned them to pay tribute for lourief, the ancient patrimony of the Russian princes. Such a demand meant war. In 1558 the Russian army took Narva, Neuhausen, I g 2 HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA. Dorpat, and seventeen other places. The Grand Master Kettlet asked help of his neighbors. Poland alone responded to his appeal, and Sigismond Augustus II. concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the Livonian Order. At this juncture an important revolution took place in the palace of the Tzar. Ivan's relations with his two counsellors Silvester and Adachef had singularly altered. They had dis- agreed with respect to the war with Livonia ; they had desired that after the capture of Kazan and Astrakhan Ivan should turn in preference to the third Mussulman State, the Khanate of the Crimea. M. Kostoniarof gives excellent reasons for this pre- ference, but the reasons in favor of the opposite opinion are not less good. By conquering the Crimea the safety of the em- pire would be ijecured, and the conversion to Islamism,the com- plete Tatarization of the ancient Taurian tribes still profess ng Christianity, would be prevented ; but by conquering Livonia an ancient patrimony of the Russian princes would be recovered and it would become possible to enter into direct relations with civilized Europe. The chances of success were equal. The Horde was then decimated oy an epidemic, but the Livonian Order was in the act of dissolution by the result of the contest between Catholicism and Protestantism. The difficulties were equal. In attacking Livonia, Russia would come in contact with Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and Germany ; but behind the Crimea were the Turks, then at the height of their power, and much ir- ritated by the conquest of 'Kazan and Astrakhan. Peter the Great did not conquer Livonia till after twenty years hard fight- ing with the Powers of the North ; but how many Russian expe- ditions against the Crimea have not been stopped by the dis- tance, the difficulty of communication, the sandy deserts, and the extreme temperatures ? Catherine the Great only conquered the Taurid in the decadence of the Turkish Empire, and after many campaigns, when she not only brought into play her armies of the Danube, but sent a fleet to the Archipelago. In reality both enterprises were premature-; Russia had not yet strength to carry them through. Neither the Tzar nor his counsellors were completely in the right, but the obstinacy of the latter had a fatal result. To content everybody two wars were declared — which was to run the certain risk of a double check. The misunderstanding between the Tzar and his two minis- ters dated from further back Silvester abused his spiritual in- fluence with the Tzar to multiply jobs of his own. He had ended by leaving him no liberty ; and when Ivan's favorite son died, he told him brutally that it was a chastisement from Heaven for his indocility. He had entered into relations with ms TOR Y OF K USSIA. 1 g^ boyards whom Ivan justly suspected ; he took their part against the Tzarina Anastasia, whom he represented as a second Em- press Eudoxia, the persecutor of Chrysostom ; against the GHn- skis, and against the Ronianofs, Adachef followed the same path. Like Haroun-al-Raschid's favorites, the Barmecides, these two ministers had ended by appropriating all the power of their master. Ivan had patience with them, believing them to be faithful ; but in 1553 he fell dangerously ill, and was thought to be at the point of death. Then the boyards resumed their ohl arrogance; they obstinately refused to swear allegiance to the son of the Tzar, the young Dmitri, declaring tliat they would not obey his maternal relations, the Romanofs. The noisy dis- cussions reached the bed of the sick man, and his entreaties were despised. The boyards approached Vladimir, cousin of Ivan IV., who had also refused to take the oaths, and it was known that the mother of this ambitious prince was distributing largesses to the army. Silvester took the part of Prince Vladi- mir against those boyards who remamed faithful, and the family of Adachef joined with the mutineers. The faithful boyards even feared for the life of the Tzar; Ivan could not be under any delusions as to tiie fate awaiting his wife and his son in case of his death. " When God shall have wgrked His will on me," said Ivan to the few boyards gathered round him, " do not, I pray you, forget that you have sworn an oath to my son and to me ; do not let him fall into the hands of the boyards; fly with him to some strange land, whithersoever God will conduct you. And you," he continued, addressing the Romanofs, " wherefore these terrors .'' Do you think that the boyards will spare you ? You will fall the first : die then rather — since die you must — for my son and for his mother ; do not abandon my wife to the fury of the boyards." Ivan IV. recovered, but he preserved a lasting impression of these days of anguish. When we see him, later in his reign, give himself up to revenge, and to apparently inex- plicable fury, we must think of the terrible vigils of 1553, of the scenes of rebellion and violence that troubled the peace of his sick chamber, of the obstinate refusals to take the desired vow of the delcarations of hatred against the Tzarina and her rela- tions, and of the intrigues woven round Vladimir against the Tzarevitch Dmitri. He had no more confidence in his favorites ; both were ban- ished from the Court. Silvester retired to the monastery of Saint Cyril, and was afterwards exiled to Solovetski. Adachef was appointed voievode at Fellin in Lixonia, and later was forced to live at Dorpat. But they left behind them a complete 194 HIS TOR V OF RUSSIA. administration, a perfect army of clients. They had peopled the Court, the governments, and the voievodies with their creat- ures. Their partisans were certain to agitate and plot for the return of their chiefs. Who knew how far these plots might go ? A short time after Adachef's disgrace, that Anastasia whom he detested died suddenly. Ivan alleged that she was poisoned. Since the publication of M. Zabie'line's careful studies on the ' Private Life of the Tzarinas of Russia,' this allegation and others like it do not appear as inconceivable as they seemed to Karamsin. The intrigues of the friends of Adachef forced Ivan IV. many times to have recourse to severity, but at this epoch he was comparatively merciful. " When the treachery of that dog Alexis Adachef and his ac- complices was discovered," Ivan afterwards writes, " we let our anger be tempered with mercy ; we did not condemn the guilty to capital punishments, but only banished them to our different towns Then we put no one to death. Those who be- longed to the party of Silvester and Adachef we commanded to separate from them, and no longer to recognize them as chiefs. This promise we made them confirm by a vow, but they paid no heed to our injunction, and trampled their oath under foot. Not onlv did they not separate from the traitors, but they aided them by all possible means, and schemed to render them back their ancient power, and to set on foot against us a perfidious plot. Then only, seeing their wicked obstinacy and unconquerable spirit of rebellion, I inflicted on the guilty the penalty of their faults." Capital punishment was indeed rare at this epoch. Ivan usually contented himself with demanding a fresh oath from t'lose who were arrested on the road to Lithuania, and exacted su-etv from them and their friends that they would not seek again to pass into Poland. Sometimes he condemned them to the easy durance of the monasteries. What finally decided the Tzar to be more severe iti his treat- ment was the defection of Prince Andrew Kourbski, who be- longed to a family once royal, and descended from Rurik. He had distinguished himself against the Tatars on the Oka and at Kazan, and, being a zealous partizan of Adachef and Silvester, he was deeply irritated by their fall. Nominated general-in- chief of the army in Livonia, his carelessness allowed the Rus- sians to suffer a shameful defeat. 15,000 Russians were beaten by 4000 Poles ; and even, if the Polish historian Martin Belski is to be believed, 40,000 Russians by 1500 Poles. Kourbski had reason to fear the anger of the Tzar. He had been for some time negotiating with the King of Poland, being desirous of obtaining in Lithuania a command, lands, and advantageji mS TOR Y OF H USSIA. 1 95 equal to those he would lose. At last, abandoning his wife and children to the vengeance of ihe Tzar, he left Wenden and crossed into the Polish camp. Thence he sent to Ivan a letter by his servant Chipanof, whose foot, according to the tradition, Ivan nailed with his iron staff on to a step of the red staircase, while the message was being read to him. "Tzar formerlv glorined bv God ! " wrote Kourbski, " Tzar who formerly shone like the torch of orthodoxy, but who, for our sins, art now revealed to us in quite a different aspect, with a soiled and leprous conscience, such as we could not find even among barbarian iniidels ! Exposed to thy cruel persecution, with a heart filled with bitterness, I wish notwithstanding to say a few words to you. O Tzar, why hast thou put to death tlie strons: ones of Israel ? Whv hast thou slain the valiant voi'e- vodes jriven thee bv God ? Whv hast thou shed their victorious blood, their only blood on the profaned pavement of the churches of God, during the sacred ceremonies ? Why hast thou red- dened the porch of the temple with the blood of the martyrs ? In what were they guilty towards thee, O Tzar ? Was it not their valor which overthrew, which laid at thy feet, those proud kingdoms of the Volga, before which thine ancestors were slaves 1 Is it not their zeal, their intelligence, to which, after God, thou owest the strong towns of the Germans ? And behold thv gratitude to these unhappy ones ! Thou hast exter- minated whole families amongst us. Dost thou think thyself then immortal, O Tzar ? or dost thou think (seduced by some heresv) that thou canst escape the incorruptible Judge, Jesus our God ? No ; He will judge the whole world, and chiefly such proud persecutors as thou art. My blood, which has already flowed for thee like water, will cry against thee to our Lord. God sees all consciences ! " Kourbski then invokes the victims of Ivan, and shows them standing before the throne of God, de- manding justice against their executioner. " Is it that in thy pride thou trustest in thy legions to keep thee in this ephemeral life, inventing against the human race new engines of torture to tear and disfigure the body of man, the image of the angeis ? Dost thou reckon on thy servile flatterers, on thy boon com- panions, on thy turbulent boyards, who make thee lose thy soul and body, entice thee to the debaucheries of Venus, and sacri- fice their children to the vile rites worthy of Saturn ? \\'hen my last day comes, I wish that this letter, watered wiih my tears, should'be placed on my coflin." He ended by declaring him- self a subject of Sigismond Augustus, "my sovereign, who, I hope, will load me with favors and consolations for mv misfor- tunes." Thus Kourbski spoke " in the name of ihe sviong ones 1 96 HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA, of Israel, of the living and the dead," that is, in the name of all the friends of Adachef ; he made himself the organ of their wrath and complaints ; he formulated their grievances, and ex- aggerated them ; he demanded an account of the Tzar of his conduct towards them, threatening him with a higher tribunal, and dared to ask if he thought himself immortal ; he refused Ivan all participation in the glorv acquired at Kazan, insulted the boyards who surrounded him, and boasted of the crime which was the most unpardonable in the eyes of the Tzar — the recognition of the Polish sovereignty. Kourbski's letter was a manifesto. It helped to irritate the suspicions of the Tzar, already only too disposed to imagine plots. Ivan, who thought himself a man of letters, and was really one of the most learned men in his empire, conceived it necessary to answer the letter of Kourbski with a long vindica- tion, adorned with quotations from sacred and profane authors. The Tzar and his rebel subject exchanged many epistles of this kind. Ivan, who had begun by this time to justify his surname of Terrible, gave, besides, another answer to Kourbski's mani- festo — the punishment of his supposed accomplices. Ivan felt that he could no longer govern with a Court, a council of state {(iotima), and an administration which were filled with the friends of Adachef and Kourbski. Kourbski's conduct shows to what depths of treason their rancor cculd bring them. He was to return to devastate Russia with a Polish army ! Was the life of the Tzar safe in the midst of such men ? In Decem- ber 1564 Ivan quitted Moscow with all his friends, servants, and treasures, and retired to the Slobode Alexandrof. He then wrote two letters to Moscow — one to the Archbishop, complaining of the plots and infidelity of the nobles, and the complicity of the clergy, who, abusing the right of intercession, prevented the sovereign from punishing the guilty ; in the other he reassured the citizens and people of Moscow, by informing them that they were not included in his censure. The terror of the capital was great; the people trembled at the thought of falling again under the government of the oligarchs; the boyards feared what the people might do to them. Neither the one nor the other could resign themselves to the anger of the sovereign. The boyards and the clergy resolved to ask pardon, and, if necessary, to "carry their heads " to the Tzar. They went in procession to the Slobode Alexandrof, to beseech him to recall his abdication. Ivan con- sented to resume the crown, but on his own conditions. As he could neither govern with the actual administration nor destroy it, as he was forced to respect its vested interests, he made a sort of partition of the monarchy. The greater part of the Ivan IV. HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. I n 7 empire continued to be governed by the dotima of the boyards, and constiliited the zcmchtchira, that is, the " rule of the country." Over this part of Russia Ivan only reserved a surveillance, and the right of punishing treason. The other p.vrt was placed under the "personal and individual" government of the Tzar, and formed the " opritchnina'' Leaving the ancient Court, the 7iX\- n.\fiv\\.doin/ia, and the ancient administration still in existence, Ivan IV. formed with his own creatures a new Court, a new council, and a new administration to which he confided the towns and villages that had fallen to his share. He surrounded himself with a special guard, called " the thousand of the T/ar," or the flpritcJwiki who had adopted, as armes parlaiitcs, a dog's head, and a broom suspended from their saddles. They were ready to bite the enemies of the Tzar, and to sweep treason off the Russian soil. This singular r(fi^imc lasted seven years (1565-1572). Ivan made great use of his right to punish traitors, or those whom he regarded as such. A perfect reign of terror hung over the Russian aristocracy, with alternations of calm and renewed fury. We know the names of his victims, but we do not always know their crimes. The writers hostile to Ivan IV., Kourbski, the Italian Guagnini, then in the service of the King of Poland, and the German refugees Taube and Kruse, are not always agreed on the subject. About the facts which can be clearly proved, we can see that Ivnn had real grievances against the nobles whom he put to death. On the side of the oligarchs the strife, though quiet and noiseless, was not less bloody. We ought not to be deceived by their demonstrations of humility and submission With their foreheads in the dust, they could still conspire. We must beware of thinking Ivan's enemies were any better than himself. They were as cruel towards their inferiors as the Tzar was towards them. This aristocracy of slave-masters, habituated under the Tatar yoke to an insolent disdain of human life and feeling, was not superior in morality to its tyrant. It presented more than one type similar to the French monsters Gilles de Retz and the Sieur de Giac. Under very different colors, it was the same battle that raged in Russia and in P>ance. But in France men fought in open day on the battle-fields of the Praguerie or of the League of the Public Good ; in Russia the contest was carried on by silent plots, by noiseless attempts to poison or slay by magic, met by the axe of the executioner. In this sinister dia- logue between the master and his subjects, it was naturally the master who spoke the loudest. In the absence of a sufficient number of authentic documents, we risk nothing by being a little more sceptical than Karamsin. 198 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. The principal episodes of this autocratic reign of terror are. I. The deposition and perhaps the murder of St. PhiHp, Arch bishop of Moscow, guilty of having nobly interceded for the con demned, and of hating the opritchniki. 2. The execution of Alexandra, widow of Iroui and sisier-in-law of Ivan ; of Prince Vladimir and his mother, the ambitious Euphrosyne, who thus expiated their intrigues of 1553. We must remark that Ivan, whatever Kourbski may say, spared Vladimir's children, and largely provided for them. 3. The chastisement of Novgorod, where the aristocratic party had entertained, it seemed to Ivan, the project of opening the gates to the King of Poland, and where the Tzar, according to his own testimony, put to death 1505 persons. 4. The great execution in the Red Place in 1571, where a certain number of Muscovites and Novgorodians were slain, and where many of Ivan's new favorites, notably Viazemski and the Basmanofs, underwent the same penalty as his old enemies. A curious memorial has been left us of the vengeance of " the Terrible " ; it is the synodical letter of the Monastery of St. Cyril, in which Ivan asks for each of his victims by name the prayers of the Church. This list shows a total of 3470 victims, of whom 986 are mentioned by name. Many of these names are followed by this sinister statement, — " with his wife," " with his wife and children," '• with his daughters," " with his sons." It was this that Kourbski called '• the extermination of entire families " (I'siorodno). The constitution of the Russian family at this epoch was so strong, that the death of the head necessarily involved that of the other members. Other collective indica- tions are not less significant. For example : " Kazarine Dou- brovski and his two sons, with ten men who came to their help." " Twenty men of the village of Kolmenskoe ; " " eighty of Mat- veiche;" these were no doubt peasants and dicfi-boyarskie who tried to defend their masters. There is this mention relative to Novgorod : " Remember, Lord, the souls of thy servants, to the number of 1505 persons, Novgorodians." Had not Louis XI. tender feelings of this nature? He prayed with fervor for the soul of his brother, the Duke de Berri. Other records demonstrate that Ivan the Terrible thought he had serious reasons to fear for his life. His curious corre- spondence with Queen Elizabeth of England proves this, as he obtains of her the formal promise that in case of misfortune he is to find in England a safe asylum and the free exercise of his worship (1570), There is besides his will of 1572, which con- templates the case of his being " proscribed by his boyards and expelled by them from the throne, and being obliged to wander HISTORY OF RUSSIA. ig^ from country to country," and recommends to his sons to live on good icrms with each other after his deaih, to learn how tc restrain and reward their subjects, and above all to be on the watch against them. During this terrible intestine strife, the war with Livonia and her ally the King of Poland continued. Notwithstanding the help of the latter, the Knighis were everywhere beaten, and their fortresses taken by the Russian troops. At last, ruined by so many blows, this famous Order dis- solved. The Isle of Gisel sold itself to Denmark ; Revel gave itself to the Swedes ; Livonia was ceded by the Grand Master to Poland ; Kettler reserved to himself Courland and Semigallia, which were erected into a hereditarv duchv. There were no more Livonian knights, but Poland, as heir of the quarrels of Livonia, became more than ever ardent in the struggle. The Russians sustained their new reputation. In 1563 Ivan the Terrible, with a numerous army and many guns, besieged and took Polotsk, a very important position from its proximity to Livonia and its situation on the Dwina, the grand commercial route to Riga. In spite of a victory at Orcha, the King of Po land demanded a truce (1566). Ivan at this moment ottered a strange spectacle to Russia. To deliberate on the request of Sigismond he assembled a coiui- sel, composed of the higher clergy, the territorial boyards on the frontiers of Lithuania (and well acquainted with the local topography), and finally the merchants of Moscow and Smo- lensk. This despot, who founded autocracy in blood, convoked real States-general; he made an ap|)eal to their opinion, as he had many times before, when from the stone tribune of Lobitoe miesto he harangued the three orders. The Assemblv decided that the King of Poland's conditions could not be accepted, and offered men and money for the continuation of the war. This was prolonged for four years, and ended in a truce. The Tzar, who saw difficulties accumulating in Livonia, conceived an ex- pedient to enable him to escape them. No longer hoping to be able directly to unite the Baltic ports to his empire, he offered the title of King of Livonia to the Danish Prince Magnus, and made him marry a daughter of the same Prince Vladimir whom he had put to death. Magnus, nominal King of Livonia, soon perceived that he was only an inslrmnent of Muscovite policy. He intrigued against the Tzar and was dethroned, Ivan the Terrible took Wenden in person, which Magnus had garrisoned, and massacred the German soldiers to the last man. Unfortunately the war with Poland was complicated by the raids of the Tatars of the Crimea. Sigismond did not cease to 200 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. work upon the Khan, who well understood that his cause was aUied with that of Poland. The Tzar, however, overpowered the Khan, took Kief, and established towns on the Dnieper. And what could the Tatars gain there, after all ? Had not Ivan overthrown two Mongol kingdoms ? The Sultan of Stamboul, Selim II., was ready to join in the Holy War for Kazan and Astrakhan, In 1569, 17,000 Turks, commanded by Kassim Pacha, and 50,000 Tatars, led by the Khan, besieged Astrakhan. The operations dragged on ; the Pacha wished to pass the winter there, but a sedition broke out in the army. He was obliged to raise the siege, and lost many of his men in the steppes of the desert. Two years after, the Khan Devlet- Ghirei invaded Russia with 20,000 men. Was he aided bv the treachery of the voievodes .'' He crossed the Oka, and suddenly appeared under the walls of Moscow. He burned the faubourgs and the fire spread to the town, which, except the Kremlin, was completely reduced to ashes. A foreign author gives the evi- dently exaggerated number of 800,000 victims. The Khan retired with more than 100,000 prisoners, and despatched the following insolent message to Ivan : " I burn, I ravage everything because of Kazan and Astrakhan. I came to you and I burnt Moscow. I wished to have your crowD and your head, but you did not show yourself; you declined a battle, and you dare to call your- self a Tzar of Moscow. Will you live at peace with me ? Yield me up Kazan and Astrakhan. If you have only money to offer me, it would be useless, were it the riches of the whole world. What I want is Kazan and Astrakhan. As to the roads to your empire, I have seen them — I know them." He returned the following year (1572), but Prince Michael Vorotinski met him on the banks of the Lopasnia, and inflicted on him a complete defeat. The same year (that of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew) died Sigismond Augustus II., king of Poland. His reign was especially memorable for the union of Lublin (1569), in virtue of which Poland and Lithuania were henceforth to form only one State under an elective prince. Thus Poland enfeebled royal power at home, just when it acquired in Russia an extraordinary iegree of energy. A party of nobles was formed at Warsaw who A'ished to elect the son of Ivan the Terrible as King of Poland. This was to prepare for the reunion of the two great Slav em- pires, separated less by language than religion, whose growing antagonism could only terminate in the ruin of one of them, to th.e great advantage of the German race. Ivan coveted the crown, not for his son, but for himself. Let us see him court Uie Polish ambassadors, and try to defend himself against the HISTOR Y OF R USSIA. 2 O I accusations of cruelty and tyranny which the banished Musco vites brought against liini. "If your/(r//jr, who arc now without a king," said he to the PoUsh envoy Voropai, "desire me for their sovereign, they will see what a good protector antl liquisi,n/or of a new world, was reckoned a hero by the people, and is honored as a saint by the Church. Miracles were accomplished at his tomb ; epic songs celebrated his exploits. The Tatars have composed a whole legend about him. If Adachef had given to Russia in 1551 her first municipal liberties, Ivan had assembled in 1556 the first States-general, composed of the three orders. The reformation of the Church under Silvester was completed by the Council of 1573, which forbade rich convents to acquire new lands ; and, by the Council of 1580, extending the prohibition to all convents. The Church could no longer acquire property. Ivan the Terrible restrained an abuse which troubled all the public ceremonies, and more than once imperilled the success of battles. We know how powerful, in the Russia of the i6th century, was the constitution of the family. When a noble rose or fell, his whole family rose or fell with him ; even the memory of his ancestors and the future of his youngest nephews were concerned. This is the reason why a Russian noble never consented to occupy an in- ferior place, if no precedents on the subject existed. Court and camp were constantly disturbed by the " quarrels of precedence " {fiiicstnikhestvd). Neither the knout nor the executioner's axe could subdue their resistance. They would rather die than dis- honor their ancestors. The ' Books of Rank ' were consulted on all occasions, to know the respective precedence of the different families. Ivan IV. forbade all disputes of rank to any noble who was not the head of his family. This was only to restrain the evil ; it had yet to be extirpated. Ivan the Terrible mav be considered as the founder of the National Guard of the streltsi or stniifz, who during two hundred years rendered great services to the empire. — He also organized, on the frontiers threatened by the Tatars, a series of posts and camps where the soldiers of the country might be exercised. He gathered strangers about him. He authorized the minister Wettermann, of Dorpat, to preach at Moscow, listened to Eber- feld, and refused a discussion with Rosvita, saving that he would not " cast pearls before swine." He permitted the erection of the first Calvinist and Lutheran churches at Moscow', thus an- ticipating the toleration of the i8th century ; but, on seeing the people's dislike to them, he had them removed two versts from the capital. Ivan's character was a strange compound of greatness and barbarism. Cruel, dissolute, superstitious, we see him by turns yielding himself, with his favorites, to the most shameful ex- cesses, or, covered with a monkish garment, heading them in 2 o8 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. processions and other pious exercises. Like Henry VIII, , he had many wives. After Anastasia Romanof he married a bar- barian, the Tcherkess Maria; next, two legitimate wives; then two more whose union the Church refused to sanction. By his seventh wife, Maria Nagoi he had a son, another Dmitri. At the close of his days we see him seeking an alliance wiih foreigners, and asking first the sister of the King of Poland, and then a cousin of Elizabeth of England, in marriage. His brutal habits and the facility with which he used his iron stafT, had a tragic conclusion. In an altercation with his son Ivan he struck him, and the blow was mortal. Great and fierce was the sorrow of the Tzar. In slaying his beloved son, he had slain his own work. He had no longer a successor, since Feodor, the elder of his remaining sons, was feeble in body and mind ; and the second Dmitri was only an infant. It was for foreign succes- sors — for one of the detested boyards — that, at the price of so much blood and so many perils, he had founded autocracy. He only survived his son three years, and died in 1584. Without allowing himself to be biassed by Ivan's numerous cruelties, the historian ought fairly to compare him with men of his own time. He ought not to forget that the i6th century is the century of Henry VIII., of Ferdinand the Catholic, of Catherine de Medici, of the Inquisiiion, of Saint Bartholomew, and oi strapados. Was the Europe of this era indeed so far advanced beyond Asiatic Russia, newly escaped from the Mongol yoke ? Ivan the Terrible, in decimating, in suppressing, in tyrannizing over the aristocracy, at least put it out of their power to establish after him that anarchic fioblesse, the hidden danger of Slav nations, which in Poland, under the name of /6'x/6'///,?, began by enfeebling royalty, and ended by enfeebling the nation. HISTORY OF RUSSIA, ao9 CHAPTER XVI. MUSCOVITE RUSSIA AND THE RENAISSANCE. The Muscovite government — The kin and the inen of the 'IV.ar — 'Y\\z prikazes~- Rural classes — Citizens — Commerce — Domestic slavery — Seclusion ot women — The Renaissance ; Literature, popular songs, and cathedrals- Moscow in the i6th century. MUSCOVITE GOVERNMENT — THE RELATIONS AND MEN OF THE TZAR — THE PRIKAZES. The Russia of the i6th and lyih centuries is an Oriental state, almost without relations with Europe. The Livonian knights, the Poles, the Swedes, and the Danes, who understood that it was only her barbarism which ensured her inferiority to her weaker neighbors, took good care that neither the men, the arms, nor the sciences of the West should reach her. Sigismond threatened the English merchants of the Baltic with death. He did not intend that " the Muscovite, who is not only our present adversary, but the eternal enemy of all free Slates, should pro- vide herself with guns, bullets, and munitions ; and, above all, with artisans who continue to make arms, hitherto unknown in this barbaric country." Moscow, thanks to those jealous precau- tions, thanks also to the hatred of the Russians for the " Mus- sulmans " and " heretics " of the West, remained what the Tatar invasions had made her — an Asiatic Empire. The patriarchal rule of ancient Slavonia and the example of the Oriental sovereigns contributed to maintain in her the despotic principle in all its force. The Tzar was at once the father and the master of his subjects, more absolute than the Khan of the Tatars or the Sultan of Constantinople. The persons and the goods of his subjects were his property; the greatest lords, the princes de- scended from Rurik, were only his slaves ijiholopy). A petition in Russian signifies a "beating of the forehead " (AV/Z/ir;/!'////). The nobles of the empire signed their requests not with their names, Ivan or Peter, but with a lackey's nickname, a servile dim- niulive, Vania or Pctrouchka. The Bvzantine formula, " Mav I speak and live ? " it> exaggerated in the Russian, " Bid me not to 2 1 o HISTOR Y OF R USSIA. be chastised ; bid me to speak a word," Men approached the Tzaf in fear and trembling; the people prostrated themselves before that terrible iron staff with which Ivan was always armed. He con- sidered the empire as his private property; he administered it with his own " people," who had succeeded to the droujiiia of former princes ; he governed it by the help of his own relations or those of his wife. The sons of the greatest lords gloried in serving him in the capacity of spalniki or gentlemen of the bedchamber, and siolniki or waiters at the royal table. These domestic functions led to the rank of boyards ox okolnitchie (sur- rounders of the prince.) The principal boyards formed Xh^ douma or council of the empire, assembled in the chamber of the prince, and were presided over by him. On solemn occasions the Jt'^ijr or general assembly was convoked, which was composed of deputies from all the orders, and was a sort of States-general of ancient Russia. The proud Russian aristocracy did not allow itself tamely to be reduced to this state of independence ; but the kniazes scattered as provincial or municipal governors through Siberia, Kazan, or Astrakhan, or subjected in the capital to rigorous surveillance, had become powerless. To ensure the results of their cruel policy, the successors of Ivan IV. forbade the bearers of certain too illustrious names to marry. When the Tzar desired to marry, he addressed a circular to the governors of the towns and provinces, conunanding them to send to Moscow the most beautiful maidens of the empire, or at all events those of noble birth. Like Ahasuerus in the Bible, like the Emperor Theophilus in the chronicles of Byzantium, like Louis the Debonnaire in the narrative of the ' Astronomer,' he made his selection out of all these beauties. Fifteen hundred young girls were assembled for Vassili Ivanovitch to choose from ; after the first meeting, 500 of these were sent to Moscow. The Grand Prince then made a fresh selection of 300, then of 200, then of 100, then of 10, who were examined bv the doctors and midwives. The most beautiful and the healthiest became the Tzarina; she took a new name, as a sign that she was going to begin a new existence. Her father, on becoming father-in law of the Tzar, also changed his name ; her relations became the nearest relations {prochcs) of the prince, constituted his compan- ions, undertook the care of everything, and governed the empire like the house of their imperial relative. The dispossessed minis- ters and friends tried in secret to reconquer their lost power by putting the new sovereign to death, and did not hesitate to have recourse to magic and poison. Many of these imperial brides never survived their triumphs, and, suddenly attacked by mysterious maladies, died before their coronation day. All the HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA. 2 1 1 successors of Vassili Ivanovitch, even including Alexis Mikhai- lovitch, instituted these assemblages of beauty for the choice of their wives. It was the privilege of the sovereigns of Moscow and of the princes of their blood. The men of the liroiijina or of the surrounding oi the prince thought it beneath their dignity or above their power to servp him otherwise than in war or justice. The work of the pen had lo be confided to the sons of the priests and merchants — the (Uak\ whose beginnings were as humble as those of the Capetian law yers, seated at the feet of the peers of France ; like them, the\ ended by taking the place of the great lords. The administration of the State was entrusted to twenty or \\\\x\.y prikazes or bureaux, whose numbers and functions varied at different times. There was notably the p/ikaz of provisions, that of drinks, and that of the pantry, which were all concerned with the commissariat of the Court. The duties were very heavy, as not only the Tzar, the Tzarina, and the princes of the blood kept an open table, but, in accordance with patriarchal and family ideas, the prince was supposed to feed from his own table the nobles and function- aries lodged beyond the palace. He was obliged to send them daily, cooked meats, wines, and fruits. There was the prikaz oi the gold and silver cup, that of the wardrobe, of pharmacy, of horses, of the falconr)', of games, to w'hich belonged comedians buffoons, dwarfs, fools, keepers of bears and dogs ready to fight with the bears, the menagerie of rare animals, chess, cards, and in general everything that served to amuse the Tzai. The prikaz kazenuyi, or " of the crown," had under its con- trol the manufactures fabricating the golden and silken stuffs, of which the prince had a monopoly, and the depot of the pre- cious Siberian furs. It furnished the presents to be distributed among the clergy, the boyards, the ambassadors of foreign powers, and the Greek monks who came from Byzantium or Mount Allios, to ask for alms. ']^\\t prikazes of the great palace, of the quarter, of the revenue, and of the tax on liquors, were concerned with the finances. There were also those of the imperial family, of secret affairs, of petitions, posts, and police ; of the buildings of the Tzar, slaves, monasteries, streltsi, embassies, and artillery. The prikazcs of Oustiougue, of Kazan, of Galiich, of Kostroma^ of Little Russia, and Siberia, had a territorial competence. Usually the expenses of such and such a bureau were defrayed by the produce of taxes on a given town or province. The State revenues were composed : i. Of that of the de- mesne, including thirty-six towns and their territory, the inhabi- tants of which paid their dues either in kind or in money. 2. Of the ta§^h}, an annual impost on every 6o measures of corn. 2 1 2 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. 3. Of the fodaie, a fixed tax on every dvor or fire. 4. The produce of the custom-houses, and of the excess of the municipal, dues. 5. The tax on the public baths. 6. The farming-out of the Crown taverns, 7. The fines and expenses of justice, the confiscations pronounced by the "tribunal of the brigands." Fletcher, who visited Russia in the time of Boris Godounof, valued the whole of these revenues at 1.223,000 roubles of their money. The Tzar annually receiv^ed besides, furs and othei things from Siberia, Permia, and the Petchora ; he exchangee: them himself with the Turkish, Persian, Armenian, Bokharian or Western merchants, who came to the fairs or landed at the ports of the empire. Further, the Crown, after having allowec the officers to gorge themselves some time at the expense of the people, reserved to itself the power of calling them to justice, and of depriving them of part, or the whole, of their booty. The Tzar, who, like the ancient despots of Egypt and the East, had already monopolized certain branches of commerce, kept up an undignified rivalry with his own subjects. He sent agents into special provinces, who seized on all the productions of the country, furs, wax, and honey ; forced the proprietors to sell them to them at a low price, and then obliged the English of Arkhangel or the merchants of Asia to buy them at a high rate ; he even laid hands on the goods brought by these merchants, and made the Russian tradesmen pay dear for them, forbidding them to pur chase from others till the warehouses of the Tzar were emptied. Fletcher exposes many other means of extortion, to which the Tzarian government periodically had recourse. The grades of courts of civil justice were three : i. The tri- bunals of the starost of the district, and of the hundred men, a magistrate established for every hundred ploughs. 2. The tribunal of the voi'evode, in the head-city of each province. 3. The Supreme Court of Moscow. In spite of the Codes of Ivan III. and Ivan IV., the law was so confused and uncertain that Fletcher said of it, "There is no written law in Russia." The mode of procedure was that of the Carolingian age ; if a man could neither produce witnesses nor written proofs, the judge could take the oath of one of the parties. Often the value of an oath was confirmed by a judicial duel. The champions, says Herberstein, loaded themselves with arms and heavy armor. They were so embarrassed by all this weight of iron, that a Russian was invariably overcome by a foreigner, and Ivan III. forbade foreigners to fight with his subjects. Often the parties had themselves represented by hired champions, and then the combat became a comedy, the mercenaries only think- ing how to spare themselves. HISTOR Y OF R USSFA. 2 1 3 The legislation in the matter of debts equalled in rigor that of the Roman law of the Twelve Tables. The insolvent debtor was subjected to \\\q. pfavc'^^e ; that is, tied up half-naked on a public place, and beaten three hours a day. This punishment was repeated for thirty or forty days. If by that time no one was moved by his lamentations and cries to pay his debt for him he was allowed to be sold, and his wife and children let out to hire; if he had none, he became the slave of the creditor. The penal legislation was frightful. In cases of accusation of theft, murder, or treason, the accused was subjected to tortures worthy of a Spanish Inquisitor. The punishments were infinitely varied: a man might be hung, beheaded, broken on the wheel, impaled, drowned under the ice, or knouted to death. A wife who had murdered her husband " was buried alive up to her neck ; " liL-retics went to the stake; sorcerers were burned alive in an iron cage ; coiners had liquid metal poured down their throats. We must not forget the death of " ten thousand pieces," the tor- ment in which the sides were torn away by iron hooks, and all the varieties of mutilation. On the other hand, a noble who slew a mougik was only fined or whipped. The noble who killed his slave suffered no penalty ; he could do what he liked with his own. Before the creation of the patriarchate, the highest dignity in the Russian Church was that of the Metropolitan of Moscow. Then came the six Archbishops of Novgorod, Rostof, Smolensk, Kazan, Pskof, and Volog.'la; the six Bishops of Riazan, Tver, Kolomenskod, Vladimir, Souzdal, and Kroutiski or SaraT, whose dioceses were immense. This Church was as dependent on the Tzar as that of Byzantium had been on the Emperors ; at the expense of a few formalities he could create a prelate or a new see. The bishops were selected from the Black Clergy ; that is, the monks who had taken the vow of chastity. Their reve- nues were large and their ceremonies imposing. " As for exliort- ing or instructing their sheep," says Fletcher,"" they have neither the habit of it nor the talent for it, for all the clergy are as pro- foundly ignorant of the Word of God as of all other learning." With the secular or White Clergy, marriage was not only a right, but a duty. Their manners and education hardly distinguished them from the peasants, and like them, they were sometimes subjected to the most degrading chastisements. The convents were numerous, very full, and very rich ; that of St. Sergius, at Troitsa, possessed 1 10.000 souls, — that is, male peasants. All broken men took refuge there ; on the other hand, the councils fulminated against the vagabond monks who infested the country. More than once the monasteries served as prisons for disgraced 214 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. nobles, who there led a gay and noisy life, like the Frank nobles of other days in the cloisters of the Merovingian churches. Delicate meats were sent them from the table of the Tzar — stur- geons, sterlets, figs, dry raisins, oranges, pepper, and saffron. In a letter to the monks of St. Cyril on the White Lake, Ivan IV. blames with a mixture of severity and irony their lenity towards the imprisoned boyards. " In my youth," he writes- " when we were at St. Cyril, if dinner happened to be late, and if the intendant asked a sterlet or any other fish of the cellarer, he would reply, ' I have no orders about it ; I have only prepared what I was ordered. Now it is night, and I can give you nothing ; I fear the sovereign, but I fear God more.' " " See," continues Ivan, " what was the severity of the rule. They fulfilled the vvor6 of the prophet : ' Speak the truth, and have no shame before the Tzar.' To-dav my boyard Cheremetief reigns in his cell like a Tzar ; mv boyard Khabarof pays him visits with the monks- They drink as if in lay society. Is it a wedding ? is it a baptism ? The captive distributes pieces of iced fruits, spiced bread, and sweetmeats. Beyond the monastery there is a house filled with provisions. Some say that strong drinks are gradually smug- gled into the cell of Cheremetief. Now in monasteries it is against the rules to have foreign wines ; how much more, then, strong waters.? " The orthodox faith, deprived of the stimulus of liberty and instruction, tended to become mere routine. Salvation was gained by hearing long liturgies, by multiplying Slavonic orisons, by making hundreds of prostrations and genuflexions, by telling rosaries, and by frequenting shrines. The most celebrated centres were the catacombs of Kief, where slept the incorrupti- ble bodies of the saints, and where dwell their successors with- out ever seeing the light of day ; the monastery of St. Cyril, on the White Lake ; of St. Sergius, at Troitsa ; and the cathedral of St. Sophia, at Novgorod. Men prostrated themselves at the tombs of St. Peter and St. Alexis of Moscow ; before the won- der-working virgins of Vladimir, Smolensk, Tischvin, and Pskof. The most pious journeyed as far as the sacred Mount Athos, and the city of Constantinople, full of blessed relics, though pol- luted by the presence of the Turk; nay, further still, to the tomb of Cnrist, to Golgotha, to Mount Sinai, wherever orthodox com- munities disputed possession with Catholic communities. The national army was, like the Tatar army, chiefly com- posed of cavalry. The sto/niki, spalniki, and other young cour- tiers, formed an Imperial Guard of about 8000 men. All the gentlemen of the empire, dvoriane, or dieti-boyarskie, were con- fined to the mounted ranks ; the revenues of their lands were HISTOK Y OF RUSSIA. 2 i 5 coiUited a,> pJly for these vicn of service {sloujilii lioudi) ; the an- :;ient distinction between the pomestie (fiefs) and the votchiny (free allods) was ahnost abolished. It was nearly the rcgitfte of the fiefs of the West, or of the ziams and tunars of 'I'urkey. I his noble cavalry could reckon 80,000 horsemen ; with the levy of free peasants, it mounted up to 300,000. To this we must join the irregular cavalry, composed of the Cossacks of the Don and the Terek, of Tatars and Bachkirs. The national in- fantry was constituted — i, by the datolchnic lioudi^ peasants of the monasteries, churches, and domains ; 2, by the stre/tsi, free archers, or comnuuial soldiers, organized in the time of Ivan IV., and who, in Moscow alone, formed a body of 12,000 men. Then came the artillery, and the soldiers told off to the goulia'igorod, J^e "city that walks," movable ramparts of wood, which were used both in sieges and in the open country, where the Russian troops, if they were not protected, showed little firmness. In the 15th century, foreign mercenaries began to be enlisted — Poles, Hungarians, Greeks, Turks, Scotch, Scandinavians, armed and disciplined after the European fashion, and enrolled under the names of rittcrs, soldiers, and dragoons. History has preserved the names of some of their leaders : Rosen the Ger- man, and Margeret the Frenchman, who has left us some curious memoirs of the False Dmitri. The equipment of the national troops was completely Oriental. They had long robes, high saddles, short stirrups, rich capari- sons, scale or ring armor. The Tzar himself went into battle with his lance, bow and quiver. The army was always divided into five divisions — the main army, the right and left wings, the van and rear guards. Each was commanded bv two voievodes of unequal rank, without counting the voievode of the artillery or of the movable camp, and the atatiiaiis of the streltsi and of the Cossacks. The grades of the regular army were those of the tysatski or chiliarch, the centurion, the commander of fifty, and the deciatski, or commander of ten. All obeyed the grand voievode, or general-in-chief. Each soldier brought provisions for four months, and the Tzar furnished nothing, except oc- casionally some corn. The men lived almost entirely on biscuit, dried fish or bacon, and proved capable of enduring much fatigue. The campaigns never lasted long, and only part of the army was permanent. From this time Russia sought to enter into regular relations with foreign Powers. Her diplomatic traditions were those of the East or Byzantium. Her first ambassadors were the Greek Dmitri Trakhaniotes, and the Italian Marco Ruffo, sent into Persia. They treated with most deference the neighboring 2 1 6 HIS TOR Y OF R US SI A. States, not those which were most powerful. Whilst they sent a simple courier {gonets) to the Emperor, and the kings of France, England, and Spain, they despatched boyards, accompanied by (h'aks, to Sweden, Denmark, and Poland. Tht prikaz oi the em- bassies, which had under its orders iifty translators and seventy interpreters of all languages, gave them their safe conduct, de- tailed instructions, letters for the foreign sovereign, presents, two years' pay, and a certain number of furs of costly materials from xh&J)rikaz of the Crown, which they were to do their best to sell at a high price. The Russian ambassador, like tiiose of the Greeks and Tatars, was also a commission agent for the benefit of the Tzar. The envoys were recommended to avoid all insolence, and to watch their men, but to display the greatest luxury, to exact due payment of all honors, and, at the peril of their lives, never to suffer the Tzar's titles to be diminished — titles which were rather complicated, as he enumerated all his subject States. The mercantile preoccupations of the Russian ambassadors, and their eternal quarrels about etiquette, rendered them unbearable at all the European Courts. On their return tiiey were summoned before the Tzar, gave him a detailed ac- count of their mission, and handed over to him the journal of their tour and the notes of all that they had observed in the dis- tant countries. From the i6th century a shrewd and observant s|)irit is noticeable in their relations, which is not unworthy of the wisdom of their masters, the B}zantines. When foreign ambassadors arrived in Russia, they were treated with magnificence and distrust. From the time they crossed the frontier, they and their people were fed, housed, and provided with carriages, but a /;■/>/(?/ attached to their persons watched carefully that they obtained no interviews with the natives, nor information about the state of the country. They were taken through the richest and most populous provinces ; the citizens were everywhere required to meet them on their route, dressed in iheir costliest clothes. At Moscow a palace of the Tzar was assigned them as a residence, and they were fed from his table. Their first interview took place with great pomp in the Palace of Facets {Granavitaia pala'id). The walls of the hall were hung with magnificent tapestries ; gold and silver vessels, of Asiatic form, shone on the dais. The Tzar, crown on head, sceptre in hand, seated on the throne of Solomon, sup- ported by the mechanical lions, which roared loudly, surrounded by his rytidis in long white caftans and armed with the great silver axe, by his sumptuously-dressed boyards, and by his clergy in their simple costume, received their letters of credit. He asked the ambassador for news of his master, and how he had travelled. If the Tzar were not contented with him, the am- HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 217 bassadors' palace became a prison where no native might pene- trate, and carefully-studied humiliations were practised to extract from him concessions or to abridge his stav. THE RURAL CLASSES — CITIZENS OF THE TOWNS — COMMERCE. The lower classes of Muscovy were composed of three ele- ments : — I. The slave, 01 kholop, properly so called, the 7naniip- iiim of the Romans, a man taken in war, sold by himself or some one else, or son of a kliolop. 2. The peasant inscribed on the lands of a noble, the co/oniis adscriptius of the Roman Empire, whose person was legally free, but who was to be reduced by means of a more and more rigorous legislation to the condition of krepostnyi or serf of the glebe. 3. The free cultivator, who live-d like a farmer on the lands of another, and had the right to change his master, but who was soon to be mingled with the preceding class. It was the inscribed peasants who constituted almost the whole of the rural population. In the ancient provinces tlie peasant might consider himself as the primitive inhabitant of the soil. He was only made subject to the gentleman in order to secure to the latter an income sufficient for militarv service: he there- fore continued to look on himself as the true proprietor. In these rural masses, the primitive features of the Slav organiza- tion were preserved in all their vigor. It was the commune, or w/>, and not the individuals, who possessed the land ; it was the commune that was responsible to the Tzar for the tax, for the cori'e'e and dues to the lord. This responsibility armed the com- mune with an enormous power over its members, and this power embodied itself in the starost, assisted by elders. In the bosom of the commune the family was not organized less severely, less tyrannically than the mir. The father of the family had over his wife, his sons, married or single, and their wives, an authority almost as absolute as that of the starost over the commune, or the Tzar over the empire. The paternal authority became harder and more stern from the contact with serfafre and the despotic rule. Ancient barbarism was still intact among these ignorant people : the graceful customs or the savage manners, the poetic or cruel superstitions of the early Slavs, were perpet- uated by thein. The Russian peasant remained a pagan under his veneer of orthodoxy. His funeral songs seem destitute of all Christian hope. His marriage songs preserve the tradition of the purchase or capture of the bride. The sad lot of the rustic was vet to be aggravated during the three centuries of progress which the upper classes had still to accomplish. In 2 1 8 tfIS TO A' Y OF R USS/A. view of the State, as of the proprietor, he tended more and more to become a beast of burden, a produciive force to be used and abused at pleasure. The Russian towns were composed first of a fortress or kref/il, where at need a garrison of "men of the service " could be sent, the walls being generally of wood ; next of faubourgs or possads, inhabited by the citizens or possadskie. They were governed by voievodes nominated by the prince, or by a starost or mayor who was elected by an assembly of the inhabitants, nobles, priests, or citizens, but was always a gentleman. The starost governed the town and the district depending on it. As the citizens paid the heaviest taxes, they were forbidden to quit the town ; they were, as during the last days of the Roman Em- pire, bound to the city glebe. Alexis Mikhailovitch was after- wards to attach the pain of death to this prohibition. To assess the impost, the starost convoked at once both the deputies of the town and those of the rural communes. The impost of the tagla was paid by the town collectively, in proportion to the number of fires, and all the people were collectively responsible for each other to the State. In the burgess class may be counted the merchants, whose Russian name of gosti (guests and strangers) shows how far commerce still was from being acclimatized in this land and under this feg'niie. Muscovy produced in abundance leather from oxen ; furs from the blue and black fox, the zioeline, the beaver, and the ermine ; wax, honey, hemp, tallow, oil from the seal, and dried fish. From China, Bokhara, and Persia, she re- ceived silks, tea, and spices. The Russian people are naturally intelligent and industrious, but still commerce languished. Fletcher, the Englishman, has assigned as the reason for this decav, the insecuritv created bv anarchv and despotism. The mougik did not care either to save or to lay by. He pretended to be poor and miserable, to escape the exactions of the prince and the plunder of his agents. If he had money, he buried it, as one in fear of an invasion. " Often," says the English writer, " you will see them trembling with fear, lest a boyard should know what thev have to sell. I have seen them at times, when they had spread out their wares so that you might make a better choice, look all round them, as if they feared an enemy would surprise them and lay hands on them. If I asked them the cause, they would say to me, ' I was afraid there might be a noble or one of the " sons of boyards " here ; they would take away my merchandise by force.' " " The merchants and the citizens," savs M. Lerov-T>eaulieu, " could with difhcultv become a powerful class in a country cut off from Europe and the sea, HIS TOR Y OF R USSTA. 2 1 9 and cut off, too, from all great commercial routes by the Liiiui- aiiians, the Teutonic Order, and the Tatars." The citizen, like the inhabitant of the French towns of the 14th century, was only a sort of villain ; he wore the costume of a peasant, and lived almost like him. The merchants were really what they were called by Ivan the Terrible — the mougiks of commerce. DOMESTIC SLAVERY — THE SECLUSION OF WOMEN. Only two more facts were needed to give to Russian society the same Asiatic character which we noted already in the des- potism of the Tzars and the communism of the people : domestic slaverv, and the seclusion of women. Besides the peasants more or less attached to the glebe, all Russian proprietors kept in their castles, or in their town-houses at Moscow, a multitude of servants like those who encumbered the senators' palaces in imperial Rome. A great lord always gathered round him many hundreds of these dvorovie\ both men and women, bought or born in the house, whom he never paid, whom he fed badlv, and who served him badlv in return, but whose numbers served to give an idea of the wealth of their master. The cortege of a noble on his way to the Kremlin may be compared to that of a Japanese daimio. A long file of sledges or chariots, a hundred horses, outriders who made the people stand back by blows with their whips ; a crowd of armed men, who escorted the noble ; and behind a host of dvorovie, often with naked feet beneath their magnificent liveries, filled with their stir and noise the stro-Qts oi Bicly i-go rod. These dom- estic slaves were subjected, without distinction of sex, to the most severe discipline, and were forced to submit to all the cruel or voluptuous caprices of their masters, and, like the slaves of antiquity, were exposed to the most frightful chastisements. Whilst the registered colon was attached to the land, the kJwIopy could be sold, either by heads or by families, without compunc- tion. Wives were separated from their husbands, and children from their parents. The custom of secluding women is older than the Tatar invasion. The Russian Slavs were Asiatics, even before they were subdued bv the MoutoIs. Bvzantium had likewise far more influence than Kazan on Russian manners. Now, in ancient Athens, and in the Constantinople of the Middle Ages, the matron and the young girl were alike obliged to remain in the gyn(sa-um, which became in Moscow the terem or vcrkh (upper apartment). In Russia, as in the Rome of the Twelve 220 HISTOR V OF RVSS/A. Tables, the woman was always a minor. This was one con- sequence of the patriarchal organization of the family. She always remained under the guardianship of her father, her hus- band's father, an uncle, an elder brother, or a grandfather. The Russian monks translated for her use the sermons of the monks of the Lower Empire, which enjoined the wife " to obey her husband as the slave obevs his master : " to consider herself only as the " property of the man ; " never to allow herself to be c-aWtd gospoja, or mistress, but to look on her husband as her gospodine or lord. The father of the family had the right to correct her, like one of his children or slaves. The priest Sil- vester, in his ' Domostroi,' only advises him not to employ too thick sticks, or staffs tipped with iron ; nor humiliate her unduly by whipping her before his men, but, without anger or violence, to correct her moderately in private. No woman dared to ob- ject to this chastisement ; the most robust would allow herself calmly to be beaten by a feeble husband. The Russian proverb says, " I love thee like my soul, and I dust thee like my jacket." Herberstein mentions a Muscovite woman who, having married a foreigner, did not believe herself loved, as he never beat her. At home the Russian woman was hid behind the curtains of the icfiDi ; in the street, hy^ those of her litter. Over her face fell ihQ fata, a sort of nun's veil. It was an outrage even to raise the eyes to the wife of a noble, and high treason to see the face of the wife of the Tzar. A stranger might have thought himself at Stamboul or Ispahan. It appeared so highly necessary that this fragile being should re- main at home, that she was allowed to dispense even with going to church. Her church was her own house, where she had to occupy herself with prayers, pious reading, prostrations, genu- flexions, and alms, and was surrounded by beggars, monks, and nuns. The priest Silvester also wished her to superintend her house, be the first to rise, to watch over her men and maid-, servants, to distribute their tasks, and work herself with hei own hands, like Lucrece of old, or the wise women of the Proverbs. In reality she had many other ways of occupying her time The toilette of the Russian boyarines was very com- plicated. •' They paint themselves all colors," says Petrel ; " not only their faces, but their eyes, neck, and hands. They lay on white, red, blue, and black. Black eyelashes they tint white, and white ones black, or some dark color, but they put on the paint so badly that it is visible to every one. At the time of my visit to Moscow the wife of an illustrious boyard, who was exceed- ingly beautiful, declined to paint herself, but she was an object of scorn to all the other women. ' She despises our customs,' HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. 221 said they. They induced their husbands to complain to the Tzar, and oblained an imperial order to make her paint.'' Stoutness was the ideal of Turkish and Tatar beauty, so the Russians did all in their power to deform their slender figures, and, by means of idleness and drugs, managed to succeed. As to the men, they always wore a long beard and long dresses. To shave the beard like the European nations, was, said Ivan the Terrible, " a sin that the blood of all the martvrs could not cleanse. Was it not to deface the image of man, created by God ? " The influence of Byzantine monachism is also to be found in the objection to all innocent amusements. Cards, and even, chess, were forbidden ; music and songs glorifying the ancient heroes of Russia were condemned as " diabolic " ; the noble exercises of the chase and dancing were not allowed. " If they give themselves up at table," says the ' Domostroi," " to filthy conversation ; if they play the lute or the goussla ; if they dance, or jump, or clap their hands, then, as smoke chases the bees, the angels of God are made to fly from that table by those devilish words, and demons take their place. Those who give themselves up to diabolic songs ; those who play the lute, the tambourine, or the trumpet ; those who amuse themselves with bears, dogs, and falcons — with dice, chess, or tric-trac, will to- gether go to hell, and together will be damned." Thanks to the general ignorance, there was no intellectual life in Russia ; thanks to the seclusion of women, there was no society. Compared with the gallant and witty society of Poland, Russia seems a vast monastery. The devil lost nothing in the long run. The nobles, living in the midst of slaves subjected to their caprices, degraded themselves while they degraded their victims. Debauchery and drunkenness were the national sins. Rich and poor, young and old, women and children, often dropped down dead drunk in the streets, without surprising any- one. The priests, in their visits to their sheep, got theologically drunk. " Even at the houses of the great lords," says M. Zabieline, " no feast was gay and jo3-ous unless every one was drunk. Tt was precisely in drunkenness that the gayety con- sisted. The guests were never gay if they were not drunk." Even to-day, " to be merry " signifies to have been drinking. The preachers, even, while attacking the national vice, touched it delicately. " My brothers," says one of them, " what is worse than drunkenness ? You lose memory and reason, like a mad- man, who knows not what he does. Is this mirth, my friends, mirth according to the law and glory of God ? The drunkard is senseless. He lies like a corpse. If you speak to him, he 2 ? 2 HIS TOR V OF R USSIA. does not answer, He foams, he stinks, he grunts like a brute. Think of his jDoor soul which grows foul in its vile body, which is its prison. Drunkenness sends our guardian angels away, and makes the devil merry. To be drunk, is to perform sacri- fices to Satan. The devil rejoices, and says, ' No ; the sacri- fices of the pagans never caused me half so much joy and happi- ness as the intoxicaiion of a Christian.' Fly, then, my brothers, the curse of drunkenness. To drink is lawful, and is to the glory of God, who has given us wine to make us rejoice. The Fathers were far from forbidding wine, but we must never drink ourselves drunk." Their only diversions were, in spite of the ' Domostroi,' the jests of the buffoons, who, like the writers of the French fa- bliaux, never spared Churchmen ; the coarse pleasantries of court fools ?Ly\d/oI/fs, who were the inseparable companions of the great, and were to be found even in the monasteries ; hunts with falcons and hounds, and bear fights. All these festivities were accom- panied with music, and sometimes a blind singer would come and celebrate the bogatyrs of Old Russia. The rich never will- inirlv went to sleep without being lulled bv tales told bv some popular story-ieller. Ivan the Terrible always had three, who succeeded each other at his bedside. Soon, under Alexis Mikhailovitch, theatrical representations in imitation of Europe were to begin. All Western superstitions were current in Russia, which also added follies of her own. The people believed in horoscopes, diviners, sorcery, magic, the miraculous virtues of certain herbs or certain formulae, the evils produced by " lifting the foot- marks" of an enemy, in bewitched swords, in love philtres, in were-wolves, ghosts and vampires, which play such a terrible part in the popular tales of Russia. Their terror of sorcerers is shown by the horrible deaths they made them die. The most enlightened Tzars shared this weakness, and Boris Godounof made all his servants swear " never to have recourse to magi- cians, male or female, or to any other means of hurting the Tzar, the Tzarina, or their children ; never to cast spells by the traces of their feet or of their carriages." Thev had more con- fidence in the receipts of a wise woman, in holy water in which the relics had been dipped, than in doctors, whom they only re- garded as another variety of sorcerers. Nothing was more difficult and dangerous than the early exercise of this profession. If the doctor did not succeed in curing his patient, he was pun- ished as a malicious magician. One of these unfortunate peo- ple, a Jew, was executed under Ivan III. in a public place for having allowed a Tzardvitch to die. Anthony, another, a Gar HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 2*3 man by nation, was accused of having put a Tatar prince to death, and delivered to his relatives to suffer by the kx talionis. He was stabbed. Towards the end of the i6th century the situation of doctors was somewhat ameliorated ; but when a Tzarina or a great lady had to be attended, whose face they were never allowed to see, and whose pulse they might only touch through a muslin covering, what proper means had they of tak- mz ^ diagnosis ? Such was ancient Russia, — that European China discovered and described by the European travellers of the i6ih and lyih centuries, by Herberstein, Mayerberg, Cobenzel, envoys of Aus- tria ; Chancellor, Jenkinson, and Fletcher, envoys of England ; the Venetians Contaiini and Marco Foscarini ; the Roman merchant Barberini ; Ulfeld the Dane ; Petrei the Swede ; the Germans Heidenstein, Eric Lassota, Olearius; Possevino the Jesuit ; the French captain Jacques Margeret ; the English doc- tor Collins, &c. It now remains to speak of literature and the arts. THE RENAISSANCE : LITERATURE, POPULAR SONGS, AND CATHE- DRALS — MOSCOW IN THE l6th CENTURY. Ecclesiastical literature was chiefly composed of a collection of ideas borrowed from the Fathers of ' Readings for Every Day in the Year,' called ' Waves of Gold,' ' Months of Gold,' ' Emeralds,' &c. ; or of collections of Lives of the Saints of the Greek or Russian Churches. The most considerable monument belonging to this last group is the ' Tchetiminei,' a vast compil- ation of the Metropolitan Macarius, one of the directors of the conscience of Ivan the Terrible. The chronicles are still pro- duced, among others the ' Stepennyia knigi,' a history of the Russian princes after Vladimir. Besides the great legal collec- tion of the ' Code ' and of the ' Stoglaf,' we must mention the 'Domostroi' of the Pope Silvester, Minister of Ivan IV. This is a collection of precepts instructing readers in the arts of keep- ing house and securing salvation. It enumerates the days on which swans, cranes, capons, egg-pasties, and cheese are to be eaten. It gives receipts for making hydromel, kvass, beer gruel, and sweetmeats. It gives bills of fare, and at the same time teaches the master of the house how he ought to govern his wife, his children, and his servants ; avoid the sin of wicked con- versation ; please God, honor the Tzar, the princes, and all per- sons of rank ; how he should conduct himself well at table, "to blow his nose, and to spit without noise, taking care to turn 224 HIS TOR Y OF R USSTA. away from the company, and put his foot over the place." The ' Domostro' gives the characteristics of the Russian civilization, as the Be Re Riistua of the elder Cato gives those of the an- cient Roman civilization. From Cato to Silvester there is an evident progress. Whilst the Roman advises that the old oxen, the old iron, and the old slaves should be sold, the Pope Silves- ter enjoins that " the old servants who are no longer good for anything, be fed and clothed, in consideration of their former services : this ministers to the salvation of the soul, and we must fear the anger of God." "Masters," he says again, "ought to be benevolent towards their servants, and give them to eat and drink, and warm them properly ; for, if they keep their dvororit by force around them, and do not nourish them sufficiently, they turn them into bad servants, who lie, steal, are dissipated, spoU everything, and get drunk at the tavern. These foolish masters sin against God, are despised by their slaves, and con- temned by their neighbors." "When a man sends his servant to honest people, he should knock softly at the great door ; when the slave comes to ask him what he wants, he should reply, ' I have nothing to do with thee, but with him to whom I am sent.' He should only say from whom he comes, so that the other may tell his master. On the threshold of the chamber he will wipe his feet in the straw; before entering he will blow his nose, spit, and say a prayer. If no one says amen to him, he will say a second prayer; if they still keep silence, a third prayer, in a louder voice than the pre- ceding ones. If they still do not speak, he will knock at the door. On entering, he must bow before the holy images ; then he will explain his mission to the master, and during this time he must take care not to touch his nose, nor to cough, nor spit; he must conduct himself with propriety, without looking to the right orthe left. If he is left alone, he must examine nothing belonging to the master of the house and touch nothing neither to eat nor drink. If he is sent to carry anything, he must not look to see what it is; and if it should be eatable, neither his tongue nor his lingers are to know it." At the head of the literary movement of the time, Ivan the Terrible and his enemy Kourbski occupy a place of honor. They exchanged many letters, in which the one displayed a great knowledge of sacred and profane literature, close reasoning, and bitter irony ; the other an indignant and tragic eloquence. Besides these letters, Ivan addressed an admonition to the monks of St. Cyril, full of vigor and mocking gravity. The same Kourbski'has written, in eight books, a passionate history of the Tzar who persecuted ** the strong ones of Israel, the high-bora HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 225 heroes of Russia " ; in his exile in Lithuania he defended orthodoxy against the encroachments of Jesuitism and Protes- tantism, compiled the ' History of the Council of Florence,' and learnt Latin in order to translate into Russian the Fathers of the Church. Like his rival Louis XI. in France, Ivan the Terrible was in Russia the protector of printing, abhorred by the people as an impious art. Mstislavets and the deacon Feodorof printed the Acts of the Apostles, and a ' Book of I lours ; ' but later they were obliged to fly into Lithuania to escape from accusations of heresy and the hate of the people. There existed a literature which could do without the art of Gutenberg, and which at this time attained its most splendid development. This was the literature which from the earliest centuries of Russian history had been kept alive on the lips of the people, in the memory of the peasants, and which, perpet- uated by oral tradition, has at last been collected in our own day by Rybnikof, Afanasiet, Schein, Sakharof Kirie'e\ski, Bezsonof, Hilferding, Kostomarof, Koulich, Tchoubinski, and Dragomanof. The people had their lyric poetry, marriage-songs, funeral dirges, rural dance-songs, hymns for Christmas (XvV/r?;^//-/), Kpi|)hany, Easter, and the Feasts of St. George and St. John, — hymns in which they celebrated the death of winter, the birth ot spring, the harvest, and preserved the recollections of the ancient religions and ancient Slav gods. There were epic songs which glorified the legendary exploits of the early heroes of Russia, the demi-gods of primitive paganism : Volga Vseslavitch, Sviatogor, .Mikoula Selianinovitch, Polkane, Douna'i, &c. In these songs Vladimir, the "Beautiful Sun" of Kief, groups around him, like the Charlemagne of the chansons de gesfcs and the King Anluir of the Breton romances, a whole pleiad of bogatyrs. Thev ha\e innnortalized Ilia of Mourom, the hero-peasant ; D( br_\na Nikititch, the hero-boyard ; Alecha Popovitch, conqueror of the gigantic dragon, Tougarine ; Solovei Boudimirovitch, navigator of the falcon-ship Potyk, whom the perfidy of an enchantress caused to descend alive into the tomb ; Diouk Ste'panovitch, who crossed the Dnieper at one leap of his horse ; Stavre Godino- vitch, the warrior-musician, released by a ruse of his wife from the prisons of Vladimir; Thomas Ivanovitch, w'hom the Princess Apraxie calumniated like another Joseph, but for whom God worked a miracle ; Vassili, the hero-drunkard, who went from a tavern to save Russia ; Sadko, the rich merchant of Novgorod, whose maritime adventures form an Odyssey ; the Princess Apraxie, who is seated on the throne by the side of Vladimir her husband ; the heroines Nastasia and Marina, the I'enelcpe and 226 HIS TOR V OF A' USS/A. Circe of the Russian epopee ; Maria the White Swan, who belongs to the cycle of bird-women ; and Vassilissa, who passed herself off as a bogatyr, and beat all the athletes of Vladimir Such were the heroes of Kief and Novgorod. Historical heroes belong to the cycle of Moscow : Dmitri, the vanquisher of the Tatars ; Michael of Tchernigof, Alexandei Nevski, and Ivan the Terrible, around whom are grouped the songs of the taking of Kazan, ihe conquest of Siberia, and the famous by-lines entitled ' The Tzar wishes to kill his Son,' ' The Tzar sends the Tzarina to a Convent,' and ' How Treason was introduced into Russia.' This epic current flows on up to the 19th century ; and others, born of the shock of events on the popular imagination, celebrate the deeds of Skopine Chouiski, the wars of Peter the Great, the victories of Elizabeth and Catherine H., the campaigns of Souvorof, and even the invasion of Russia by the " King Napoleon." Narratives, sometimes in prose and sometimes in poetry, glorify the heroes of the Eastern epopee : Akir of Nineveh, Solomon the Wise, Alexander of Macedon, and Rousslan Lazarevitch. Wonderful stories are told by the peasants of Helen the Fair, of the Tzar of the Sea, and of Vassilissa the Wise ; of the Seven Simeons ; of the adventures of Ivan, Son of the King, and of the lovely Nastasia ; of the Baba-Yaga, and of the King of the Serpents. There were religious verses, which were carried by the blind kalicki, who sang the praises of the Russian saints from village to village — St. George the Brave, and St. Dmitri of Solun, vanquishers of dragons and infidels ; Boris and Gleb, sons of Vladimir the Baptist ; St. Theodosius, founder of the catacombs of Kief ; Daniel the Pilgrim, who visited Jerusalem ; and others who belong almost as much to the Slav mythology as to the Christian hagiography. Lastly, there are satirical tales, light and biting as French fables, turning into ridicule the greed of the popes, and the interested calculations of their wives. Thanks to the Greeks who fled from Constantinople, and their pupils the Italians, Russia had a sort of artistic Renaissance from the 15th to the i7tli century, under the same influences as the West. The revolution was, however, less complete in Mus- covy than in Russia ; there was no need to substitute the round for the pointed arch, since Russia had no Gothic churches, and the Roman Byzantine style, borrowed in the nth century by St. Sopliia at Novgorod and St. Sophia at Kief from St. So|ihia at Constantinople, was perpetuated, under the influence of religious ideas and unbroken traditions, as a legacy from Byzantium. There was no sort of change in painting ; and even in the HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 227 present day, ?n the Russian convents, the hieratic usage causes the saints and the Mother of God to be painted as they might have been painted by Panselinos in the loth century in the churches of Mount Alhos. The Renaissance chiefly manifests itself bv the number and masfnificence of the orthodox churches with which Italian artists then "illuminated" Old Russia, and by the greater perfection of their modes of building. It was then that Moscow became worthy by her new monumental splendors to be the capital of a great empire ; it was then that she became the '• Holy City," with forty times forty churches, with innumer- able cupolas of gold, of silver, and of blue, which the Russian pilgrim, kneeling on the Hill of Prostrations, salutes from afar off. Moscow was at that time composed : i. Of the KremI or Kremlin, a fortified enclosure in the form of a triangle, of which the smallest side rests on the Moskowa, and the apex is turned towards the north. 2. Of the Kita'i-gorod, not, as so many travellers translate it, the China City, but perhaps derived from Kitai-gorod in Podolia, the birthplace of Helena, mother of Ivan IV., foundress of the Kitai-gorod of Moscow, which encloses the bazaars and the palaces of the nobles, and is separated from the Kremlin by a vast space that they call the Red Place or Beautiful Place. 3. Of the Bie'lyi-gorod, or White City, which surrounds this double centre of the Kremlin and the Kitai-gorod as the outer skin of an almond encloses the two cotyledons. 4. Of the Zcmlianji-gorod, or City of the Earthen Ramparts, enveloping in its turn the White City, enclosing the faubourgs, gardens, woods, lakes, and vast unbuilt-on spaces, then ocDupied by the slolwdcs of the streltsi. 5. On the outer circle of Moscow, like detached forts, stood the fortified convents with white walls, which more than once sustained the assault of the Poles and the Tatars. This huge Asiatic town was a city of contrasts. The buildings grouped themselves almost by accident along the wide, marshy, tortuous, hardly marked-out streets. Isbas of pine, like those of the Russian villages, stood by ihe side of the palaces of the nobles. The people either chose them ready made from the yards, or ordered them according to their meas- ure. The carpenters built them in two days on the place pointed out : they only cost a few roubles. Moscow is situated in that part of Russia which is totally lacking in stone, and where the forests were formerly thickest. In point of fact, it is a city of wood, which a spark might set on fire. It had been burned almost entirelv under Dmitri Donskoi, and twice under Ivan the Terrible; it was to burn again during the Polish invasion of 1612, and the French invasion of 1812. 228 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. The oukazes of the Tzars ordered certain precautions undei the most severe penalties : all the fires had to be put out at ni2;htfall: in summer it was absolutely forbidden to have licfhts in the houses, and cooking had to be done in the open air There were no means of extinguishing the fires, and, when one broke out, the Muscovites showed themselves as passively fatal- istic as the people of the East. It was chiefly the Kremlin that profited by the embellish- ments undertaken by the two Ivans and their successors. The enclosure — of wood before the burning of Tokhtamvch — was now of solid white stones, cut in facets (thence was derived the poetical name of " Holy mother Moscow with the white walls ") ; it was surmounted bv high and narrow battlements in the form of teeth. Eighteen cowers protected it, and five gates led into the interior. These five gates present nuicii originality and variety. That of the Saviour was built in 1491 by Pietro So- lario of Milan. It is the sacred gate, that cannot be entered covered ; formerly obstinate people were forced to kneel down before it fifty times. Criminals were allowed to make their last prayer before the image of the Saviour, and the new Emperor alwavs made his entrance through it on his wav to his corona- tion at the Assumption. Another Italian built at the same date the gale of St. Nicholas of Mojaisk, avenger of perjury, before whose image the suitors made oath. That of the Trinitv was built in the 17th century by Christopher Galloway. The wall of the Kremlin, like that of the old imperial palace of Byzantium, encloses a quantity of churches, palaces, and monasteries. The most celebrated of these churches is the Oiispiejiski Sohor, or the Cathedral of the Assumption, in which since the 15th century the Tzars have alwavs made a point of being crowned It is their Cathedral of Rheims. Its architect was Aristotele Fioraventi, who had already worked for Cosmo de Medici, Francis I., Gian Galeazzo of Milan, Matthias Cor- vinus, and the Pope Sixtus IV., and whom Tolbousine, am- bassador of Ivan III., met at Venice, and engaged for the ser- vice of the Tzar. One can hardly believe that the Assumption is of the same date as the luminous churches of the Renaissance. The architect, or those who inspired him, has here tried to re- produce the mysterious obscurity of the old temples of Egypt and the East. The cathedral has no windows, but only close- barred shot-holes in the walls, which admit into the interior a doubtful light, like that which filters through the hole of a dun- geon. This pale glow touches the massive pillars covered with a tawny gold ; on tlie tarnislied background stand out, severe and grave, the faces of the saints and doctors ; it dwells here ''Cim£ifinliiati:;BiM^^^^ ' HISTOK Y OF RUSSIA. 229 and there on the relief oi the golden ieonostase^ covered by mirac- ulous images, sprinkled with diamonds and jewels ; it hardly lights the representations of the ' Last Judgment ' and the ' End of the World,' painted on the walls of the church. All the upper part of the temple is partly enveloped in shadows, like the crypts of the Pharaohs ; the pictmes which co\cr the vault can hardly he distinguished. The artist has evidently made them for the eye of God, not for that of man ; for the eye of man can only contemplate them on the rare occasions, such as the Feast of the Assumption or a coronation-day, when the whole cathedral is illumined to its furthest corners by innumerable wax tapers. It seems that Aristotele built this church according to a former plan of some other architect, only it is said that, finding the constructions already begun not sufificiently solid, he with a bat- tering-ram, perfected by himself, overthrew the walls ; that he caused new foundations to be dug ; finally, that he taught the Russians a better way of baking bricks. At the Assumption is the tomb of St. Peter, the first Metropolitan of Moscow, and people come here to worship before the holy images of Vladi- mir and laroslavl. The Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel, built in 1505, is ihe St. Denys of the Tzars of Russia : here, in a coffin of pine covered with red cloth, sleep Ivan the Terrible and his two sons. In the Church of the Annunciation with the agate pavement, the marriages of the princes are celebrated. In that of the Ascension are the tombs of the sovereigns. The Tower of Ivan the Great, 325 feet high, surmounted with a golden cupola, with Slavonic inscriptions in letters of gold which may be distinguished from afar, with thirty-four bells in the carillon, was built in 1600 by Boris Godounof. Of the imperial palace built in 1487, only a few fragments still remain : the little " Golden Palace," where the Tzarinas re- ceived the members of the clergy ; the " Palace of Facets," where the solemn audiences of ambassadors were held ; the " Red Staircase," from the top of which the Tzar allowed the people to contemplate "The light of his eyes;" finally the "Terem," with the painted roof, where we still find the dining- hall, the hall of council, and that of the oratory — vaulted halls still complete, where shine on golden backgrounds the images of the saints who protect the Tzar. The Palace of Facets was begun in 1487 by the Italian Mario, and finished by Pietro An- tonio. The other palaces are the work of the Milanese Aleviso. In the Tzarian apartments, rarities imported from the West al- ready mixed with the ancient Russian furniture. In 1594 the German ambassador presented the Tzar Feodor with a gilt clock, on which were marked the planets and the calendar ; and 230 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. in 1597 with another clock, where little figures played on trum- pets, Jews' harps, and tambourines each time the hour struck. The most curious edifice in Moscow is perhaps the Church of Vassili the Blessed, on the Red Place. It was built by Iv;in the Terrible in 1554, in memory of the taking of Kazan, and is the work of an Italian artist. The legend insists that Ivan put out the eyes of the artist, to prevent his building a similar mar- vel for others. We must imagine a church surmounied 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."* A power- ful imagination has defied all svmmetrv. From the base to the summit the church is covered with colors, which are glaring, and even crude. This many-colored monster has the gift of stupefy- ing the most blase traveller. "You might take it," says Hax- thausen, " for an immense dragon, with shining scales, crouch- ing and sleeping." Conceive the most brilliant bird of tropical forests suddenly taking the shape of a cathedral, and you have Vassili-Blagamoi. It was not only architects that Russia owed to Italy. Aris- totele Fioraventi coined money for Ivan III., built him a bridge of boats over the Volkhof during the expedition to Novgorod, cast the cannons which thundered against Kazan, and organized his artillery. Paolo Bossio of Genoa cast for him the Tzar- pouchka, the king of guns, the giant piece of the Kremlin. Pietro of Milan made him arquebuses. The art of the founder shed its greatest brilliancy under Boris Godounof, whose effigy adorns the queen of bells (Tzar-kolokol), subsequently re-cast under Alexis and Anne Ivanovna, the bronze Titan whose weight of 288,000 pounds could be contained in no belfry, which broke every scaffolding, and rests voiceless like a pyramid of bronze on its pedestal of masonry, constructed in the beginning of this century by Montferrand. * Theophile Gautier, ' Voyage en Russj'e.' a IS TOR Y OF R US SI A. 23 1 CHAPTER XVII. THE SUCCESSORS OF IVAN THE TEUKIIiLE : FEODOR IVANOVITCH AND BORIS GODOUNOF (1584-1605). Feoclor Ivanovitch (1584-1598) — The peasant attached to the glebe — The patriarchate — Boris Godounof (159S-1605) — Appearance of the false Dmitri. FEODOR IVANOVITCH (1584-1598) — THE PEASANT ATTACHED TO THE GLEBE — THE PATRIARCHATE. Feodor, son of Ivan IV. and of Anastasla Romanof, resem- bled his father in nothing. He had neither his instinctive love of cruelty and debauchery, nor his lively intelligence, nor his iron will. The throne of the Terrible was occupied by a saint — a monk. The power passed naturally to the chamber of the boyards. Five among them had special influence over the government — Prince Ivan Mstislavski, a descendant of Gedemin ; Prince Ivan Chouiski, a descendant of Rurik, a member of a family disgraced in the early years of Ivan IV., but himself cele- brated as the defender of Pskof ; and Prince Bogdan Belski, another descendant of Rurik. After these three heads of princely families came two chiefs of boyard families. Both be- came sovereigns, and both owed their elevation to their wives. The importance of Nikita Romanof came from his sister, the first wife of Ivan IV. ; Boris Godounof owed his to his sister Irene, wife of the Tzar Feodor. Minister of Ivan IV., brother of the reigning Tzar, Godounof was devoured by an insatiable ambition. Sorcerers who had escaped from Ivan the Terrible are said to have prophesied that he should become Tzar, but that his reign was only to last for seven-years. From that time his policy consisted in pulling aside all rivals — in overcoming all the obstacles that lay between him and the throne. The Tzar Feodor had a brother, Dmitri, sou of Ivan's seventh wife. The doiiina of boyards feared the intrigues of which this infant might be made the centre, and, by the advice of Godounof, sent him to his appanage OugUtch, with bis 232 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. mother and her relations, the Nagois. Belski, another de« scendant of Gedemin, an intelligent and ambitious man, irri- tated the people, who besieged the Kremlin, and demanded his head. Boris took advantage of such a good opportunity, and despatched this rival to Nijni-Novgorod. When Feodor at iiis coronation had placed on his head the crowns of Russia, Kazan Astrakhan, and Siberia, it was his maternal uncle, Nikita Ro- manof, who governed in his name ; but at his death the power passed to the natural chief of a new vrc'mia, Boris Godounof. There still remained in the council two rivals to Boris. Mstis* lavski allowed himself to be implicated in a plot, and was forced to become a monk; Prince Chouiski, \\ho had tried to make himself a party among the merchants, was accused of treason, arrested with all his family, and all were banished to different distant towns. The Metropolitan Dionysius, who had taken his part, was deposed, and replaced by Job, a man completely at the disposal of Godounof, who was now supreme. He induced his brother-in-law to grant him the title of Allied Chief Boyard, the viceroyalties of Kazan and Astrakhan, and immense terri- tories on the Dwina and the Moskowa. His revenues were enormous, and he is said to have been able to put a hundred thousand men in the field. Nothing could be obtained from the sovereign except through Boris ; more powerful than even Ada- chef had been, he had an army of clients. It was he who replied to the ambassadors, and who received the presents of the Empe- ror, of the Queen of England, and of the Khan of the Crimea. His enemies were the enemies of the prince. He lacked noth- ing that is royal but the title. In foreign affairs, the regency of Godounof strengthened the prestige of Russia. Batory, who had never ceased to threaten revenge, died in 1586. A new danger appeared in this quarter. Sigismond, son of the King of Sweden, had schemed successfully for the suffrages of the Polish electors. It was to be feared that he would one day unite under the same sceptre the two nations whom Russia had most cause to dread in Europe. Rodolph of Austria, the other candidate, was less dangerous. Austria and Russia had the same interests with regard to Turks and Tatars, and this identity was one day to result in the almost perpetual alliance between the t\TO Powers. Boris put forward Feodor as a candidate for the crown of Poland, and the idea of the union of the two Slav monarchies under one prince. The Poles refused to obey any prince who was not a Catholic; they feared that, instead of a fraternal union, the Muscovite would only "join their monarcliy to that of Moscow, like a sleeve to a coat." The interests of caste were added to national and lelig- HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 233 ious prejudices ; the noblei, who only liad in view the weakening of the loyal power, were not likely to give themselves as master a sovereign as absolute as the Tzar of Muscovy, Finally, nothing could be done without money in the Polish diets ; Boris was so mistaken as to spare it. The negotiations fell to the ground, and the prince of Sweden was elected. The war with Sweden began again vigorously ; .Russia recaptured what had been taken from Ivan the Terrible — lam, Ivangorod, and Koporie. The Poles, who, since they had a Swedish king, did not care to augment the Swedish power, gave no assistance. Sigismond Vasa, on his father's death in 1592, did indeed see himself for a moment king of both countries ; but his zeal for Catholicism, which made him dear to the Poles, caused him to be detested by the Swedes. The latter wished for a separate government, under the regency of Charles Vasa, and they soon after offered him the crown. This union, so much dreaded by the Russians, soon ended m a rupture. TLe Poles and Swedes had never before been such bitter enemies, and the hatred of the two peoples and the two religions was complicated still further by that of the two kings. The occasion was favorable for Russia to undertake the conquest of Livonia. Boris Godounof had never abandoned this crrcat scheme of Ivan the Terrible, only he failed to take the proper means for realizing it. Instead of openly allying himself with Sweden against Poland, or with Poland against Sweden, he negotiated with both, tried to play off one against the other, and ended by alienating both equally. The former minister of Ivan the Terrible, the intriguing Grand Boyard, was too fond of hidden paths. To clear his way to the throne, it was not sufficient for him to be master of the palace and the Court ; he must create him- self a strong party in the nation. Boris, who felt himself to be hated by the princes and boyards, sought the support of the small noblesse and the clergy. Hence resulted two of the most important actions of the reign of Feodor^ — the binding of the peasant to the soil, and the institution of the patriarchate. The Russian peasant was in fact delivered over to the will of his master. In law, he remained a free man, as he was allowed to pass from tlie service of one proprietor to that of another. This right brought with it an abuse. The large pro- prietors, who, being the richest, could also be the most generous, tried to attract to their lands the peasants of the smaller land- owners, by insuring them privileges and immunities. We must remember that at this epoch the population was very scanty, and land had of itself no value. It was precious according to the number of laborers who could be induced to settle on it. Thus 234 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. the lands of the smaller proprietors ran the risk of being depop ulated for the benefit of the great lords ; if they lost ll.eii laborers, the value of the land became proportionately depre- ciated. Now the class of small landowners was at this period almost the only military class of Russia ; the national cavalry was recruited almost entirely from it alone. If the source of their revenues were cut off, where would they get the money to equip themselves, to answer to the call of the Tzar, according to the text of the ordinances, " mounted, armed, and accom- l~anied '' ? Their interest thus became confounded with that of the empire, which was soon to become unable to support its armies. Boris Godounof found means to save the rights of the State, and gain for himself the gratitude of a numerous and powerful class. The comfort of the peasant did not trouble any one at this epoch. He was an instrument of agriculture, a force — nothing more. An edict of Feodor forbade tlie peasants henceforth to go from one estate to another. The free Russian krestiaiiine was now attached to the glebe, like the Western serf. In the name of the interest of the State and that of the military nobles, an imuiemorial right was extinguished. We must not think that these silent masses were insensible. The day of the " St. George," when the ancient laws permitted the peasant to pass yearly from one domain to another, remained for centuries a day of bitter regret. He cursed fur long the authors of this oukase, and even protested when he had the opportunity; but his protestation took more the form of flight than of revolt. The development of Cossack life has a close relation to the change in the rural regime ; and the more men sought to bind the peasant to the soil, the more his spirit revolted, and the more the camps of the Don and the Dniester were filled. The Russian peasant never allowed the prescription of this new form of slavery to be established; in one way or another he has constantly resisted it. Boris Godounof afterwards partially repealed this oukase : while still forbidding them to pass from the service of the small to the great proprietor, they were allowed to change the mastership of one small landowner for that of another. The feeling of the time was not in favor of libertv ; the more Russia tended to become a modern State, the more her expenses increased, and the more the Government was conscious of the need of assuring the levenues by fixing to the soil the population which was subject to the tax and corvc'c. It was the crushed peasant who bore the weight of the reform, awaiting the day, still very distant, when he also would profit by the progress accomplished. The other innovation made in the name of Feodor was the HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 235 establisliment of the patriaixliate. The Russian ecclesiastics complained with reason of having to obey patriarchs who were themselves only slaves of the infidels. Ancient Rome was pol- luted by the Pope ; Constantinople, the second Rome, was pro- faned by the Turk: had not Moscow, the third Rome, a right at least to independence ? Boris encouraged these murmurs : it was his interest that at the death of the Tzar there should be \ great ecclesiastical authority standing alone, and that this great authority should owe all to him. He profited by the ar- rival at Moscow of Jeremiaii, Patriarch of Constantinople, to iri- duce him to found the Russian patriarchate and consecrate Archbishop Job, who was a tool of Boris. The latter had now a powerful friend. Boris had need to create for himself a strong party. Many eyes began to turn towards Ivan's second son, Dmitri. His mother's kindred, the Nagois, from their exile at Ouglitch, watched carefully all the variations in the health of the Tzar, and the movements of Boris. The death of Feodor would give the throne to Dmitri, and power to his relatives — power to avenge themselves for all. It would deliver Boris up to the reprisals of his enemies. He knew this only too well. In 1591, it was sud- denly announced that the young Dmitri had been slain. The public voice denounced Boris. To stifle suspicion he ordered an inquest, and his emissaries had the audacity to declare that the young prince cut his own throat in a fit of madness, and that' the Nagois and the people of Ouglitch had put to death in- nocent men as murderers. The result of the inquiry was the extermination of the Nagois and the depopulation of Ouglitch. Seven years after, the pious P'eodor died, and in the person of this vague and virtuous sovereign the race of bloody and vio- lent men of prey who had created Russia was extinguished. The dynasty of Andrew Bogolioubski had accomplished its mis- sion — it had founded the Russian unity. The task of obtaining the entrance of this semi-Asiatic State into the bosom of civ- ilized Europe was reserved for another dynasty. BORIS GODOUNOF (1598-1605) — APPEARANCE OF THE FALSE DMITRI. Boris Godounof had reached the aim of his desires — but at what a price ! The murder of Dmitri, the last offshoot of St. Vladimir, of Monomachus, of George and the Ivans, was no or- dinary crime. Russia had seen many horrors, but never one like this. The Tzar might have put the Russian princes to 236 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. death, but they were his enemies, they were often guilty, and then he was the Tzar. Now a simple boyard sacrificed to his own ambition the son of his benefactor, the heir of his master, the last descendant of the founders of Russia. It was one of those crimes that ever deeply agitate the people. Boris believed vainly he had buried all in the earth with the corpse of the Tzarevitch. After the death of Feodor, his widow Irene entered the Dievitchi Monastyr, and took the veil there, mourning her ster- ility, and lamenting that " by her the sovereign race had per- ished." The nobles and the people took the oaths to her, so that there should be no interregnum. A woman had the crown at her disposal, and that woman was the sister of Godounof. As she refused to govern, the doiima had to discharge affairs under the presidency of the Patriarch Job, who owed every- thing to Godounof. It was impossible that the throne should escape Godounof ; yet it seemed strange that a simple boyard, a creature of Ivan IV., should take precedence of all the princes descended in direct line from Rurik. However, the Patriarch and his clergy, the boyards and citizens of Moscow, appeared before the Dievitchi Monastyr, in which Godounof was shut up with his sister. Job entreated him to accept the crown. Go- dounof refused, apparently from an excess of modesty — in reality, because he wished to receive it from the hands of the nation. The States-general were then assembled ; the lesser nobility and the clergy, that is, the friends of Boris, formed the majority. After the despotism of Ivan, it was a strange sight to see this assembly dispose of the crown. The Russia of the Terrible had, like Poland, her elective diet, but the lesson of obedience had been so well learnt, that there was no fear of anarchy. They were told that Ivan IV. on his death-bed had confided to Boris his family and his empire, and that Feodor had put around his neck a chain of gold. Men made the most of the experience of government that he had acquired under two reigns; they boasted of his skilful dealings with Sweden, Poland, and the Crimea. The national voice decreed to him the crown, and the States sent him a deputation. He still feigned to hold back, and cast out " the tempters "; but his sister " blessed him for the throne," and thus consecrated the wish of the people. Boris reigned. His reign was not without glory. He took up the designs of his master, Ivan IV., on Livonia; and as the Terrible had his puppet king Magnus, Boris sought first a Swedish prince Gustaf, and then a Danish prince John, to play the part of King of Livonia. John was to marry Xenia, daughter of the new Tzar, HISTOR Y OF RUSSIA. 237 when he died suddenly. Denmark declared that he was pois- oned ; and in the Russia of that date everything is conceivable. The Khan of the Crimea, who had vainly tried to make two in- cursions, and who had then a quarrel with the Turks, sought the friendship of Boris. Affairs in the Caucasus were less happy. Alexander, prince of Kachetia, who had acknowledged himself vassal of Boris, was assassinated, and succeeded bv his son, who was on the side of the King of Persia (Shah Abbas) and Islamism. In Daghestan a body of Russians sent to occupy the country were exterminated by the Turks. Russia had not yet approached near enough to the Black Sea to be able to take the field with assurance in those distant regions. In Siberia, Koutchoum, the dethroned khan, was vanquished ; the battle was decisive, though the Russian voievodes only had 400 men, and Koutchoum 500 ; but none the less did it decide the fate of Asia. Boris continued to be sought by the Powers of the West, be- ginning with Austria. In 1600 he sent Gregory Mikouline to Queen Elizabeth. "He had learnt," says the letter of the Tzar, "that the Queen had furnished help to the Turks against the Kaiser of Germany, We are astonished at it, as to act thus is not proper for Christian sovereigns; and you, our well-be- loved sister, you ought not for the future to enter into relation- ships of friendship with Bousourjuan (Mussulman) princes, nor to help them in any way, whether by men or silver; but on the contrary should desire and insist that all the great Christian po- tentates should have a good understanding, union, and strong friendship, and make one against the Mussulmans, till the hand of the Christians rise, and that of the Mussulmans is abased." Miuoi in t \\ as received in London with sfreat honors. In the audience given him by the Queen, "she arose from her throne and advanced some distance " to listen to his compliments ; after which she bowed her head and asked for news of the health of the Tzar, the Tzarina, Maria Gregorievna, and of the Tzar evitch Feodor Borissovitch. She received " with great joy" the credentials, and, being seated, listened to the message of Mi- kouline. She replied to the passage touching on her relations with Turkey by protestations of friendship and union with all the Christian princes, gave her hand to be kissed by the envoy and also by the secretary of the embassy, Ivan Zinovief, and sent them to talk over their affairs with Lord Robert Cecil. The commercial interests of the two peoples were guaranteed anew. During his visit to London, Mikouline was present at the revolt of 1601, led by E«sex, and saw the citizens rush through the streets with armed cuirasses and arquebuses to defend the Queen. 238 HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. He gives in his account many curious details of the Court of England at this epoch — the most brilliant of the reign of Eliza- beth, — quitted London in May 1601, and arrived at Arkhangel in July. The firm government of Boris gave confidence, and he con- tinued to be sought by the Powers of the West, especially by Austria and England. Sweden and Poland could do him no hurt. He surrounded himself with soldiers, learned men, and artists. With their help he raised monuments, built the tower of Ivan the Great at the Kremlin, and had the " queen of bells" cast. It was he who first sent young Russians to Liibeck, P2ng- land, France, and Austria, to study European arts. The fashions of the West penetrated to Moscow, and some of the nobles began to shave their beards. This prosperity was all unreal. His services — ev^en his char- ities — turned against him. " He presented to the poor," says a contemporary, " in a vase of gold, the blood of the innocents. He fed them with unholy alms." The oligarchic party, ashamed of obeying a simple boyard, began to agitate. After having par- doned his ancient rival Belski, Boris was obliged to throw him into prison. He acted with severity towards the Romanofs, who were exiled, many of them having been previously tortured. , Feodor, the eldest, was forced to become a monk under the name of Philarete, and his wife took the veil under the name of Marfa. From the son of this monk and this nun, emperors were to spring. Feeling himself surrounded by plots, Boris Godounof did not hesitate before any means of security, and received the denun- ciations of slaves against their masters. From 1601 to 1604 a frightful famine devastated Russia, and was followed by a pest- ilence. The famished peasants joined the servants of the dis- graced nobles, and formed themselves into bands of brigands who infested the southern provinces, and even insulted the environs of Moscow. It was necessary to send a regular army against them. To these calamities was added the universal pre- sentiment of others yet greater. The term of seven j-ears assigned by the astrologers to the reign of Boris was approach- ing. The crime of Ouglitch, still unexpiated, had left a strange uneasiness throu;T:hout Russia. Suddenlv there arose a rumor that the murdered Dmitri was living, and with arms in his hands was making ready to reconquer the empire. At the Monastery of the Miracle a young monk, Gregory Otr^- pief, had brought himself into notice. After having for a long while wandered from convent to convent at his own pleasure, he finally reached the Monastery of the Miracle; and the Patriarch Job discerning his intelligence, made him his secretary. In dis- HI STOR Y OF R USSIA. 239 charge of thes*, runciions, he bednie acquainted with more than one "state secret. " Do you know," he used to say to the other monks, " that I shall be one day Tzar of Moscow ? " They spat in his face, and the Tzar Boris Goduonof ordered him to be confined in the Monastery of the White Lake. He succeeded in escaping ; again became a wandering monk, and, being well received at Novgorod-Severski, had the temerity to write to the inhabitants : "1 am the Tzare'vitch Dmitri, and I will not forget your kindness." Then he threw his frock to the winds, enrolled himself among the Zaporogues, and became a bold rider and a brave Cossack. He passed into the service of Adam Vichnev- etski, a Polish pan ; he fell ill, or feigned to do so, summoned a priest, and revealed to him, under the seal of confession, that he was the Tzare'vitch Dmitri, who had escaped from the hands ol the assassins at Ouglitch, by another child being substituted in his place. He showed a cross, set with jewels, that hung round his neck, given him by Mstislavski, godfather of the Tzarevitch, The Jesuit did not dare to keep such a secret to himself. Otre- pief was recognized by his master, Vichnevetski, as the son of the Terrible. Mniszek, palatine of Sandomir, promised him his support and the hand of his daughter, Marina, who consented with joy to be Tzarina of Moscow. The strange news spread throughout the kingdom. The Pope's nuncio took the Tzarevitch under his protection, and presented him to King Sigismond. Were they really deceived ? It is more probable that they saw in him a formidable instrument of agitation, which the king flattered himself he would be able to use against Russia, and the Jesuits against orthodoxy. Sigismond feared to take on himself the rupture of the truce he had concluded with Boris, and expose himself to Russian vengeance. He treated Otrepief as Tzare- vitch, but only in private ; he refused to put the royal troops at his disposal, but he authorized the nobles, who were touched by the misfortune of the prince, to help him if they wished. The pans did not need the royal authority; many of them, with the levity and love of adventure which characterized the Polish nobilitv, took up arms in favor of the Tzarevitch. Then Boris recognized, says Leveque, that the weakest enemy can make a usurper tremble. No revolution, even if it were the wisest and most necessary, could be accomplished without patting in motion the dregs of society — without the clashing of a mass of interests, and the creation of a multitude who are outcasts from all classes. The transformation which was then taking place in Russia for the formation of the modern united State, had engendered all these elements of disorder. The peasant whom the laws of Boris had 2 40 fJ^S TOR Y OF R USSTA. attached to the glebe, was everywhere sullenly hostile. The smaller nobility, for whose profit this law had been made, were scarcely able to live on their lands ; the service of the Tzar had become ruinous, and many were inclined to supplement the in- sufficiency of their revenues by brigandage. The boyards and the great nobility were profoundly demoralized — they were ready for any treason. Tlie warlike republics of the Cossacks of the Don and the Dnieper, the bands of serfs, of fugitive peasants, who infested the Russian territory, only waited for an opportunity to lay waste the country. The ignorance of the masses was pro- found, and their minds greedy of wonders and change ; no other nation has allowed itself to be deceived so often by the same fable, the sudden apparition of a prince whom all believed dead. Adventures like those of Otre'pief the false Dmitri, and of Pouga- tchef the false Peter III., could not be reproduced in any other European country. These two adventurers rendered themselves particularly famous, but the secret archives show us that in the Russia of the 17th and i8th centuries there were hundreds of impostors, of false Dmitri's, false Alexis, false Peters IL, and false Peters III. We might almost think that the Russians, the most Asiatic of all European nations, had not renounced the Oriental dogma of re-incarnations and avatars. The Govern- ment was powerless, in a country so utterly without commu nication, to put a stop to the most absurd rumors. Besides, the ignorant and superstitious masses were hostile to it, and delighted to allow themselves to be deceived. So many elements of rebel- lion only required to be set in motion by the hand of a skilful agitator. The entrance of the impostor into Russia was the signal of dissolution. As long as the power lay in the hands of the clever and energetic Godounof, he was able to maintain order, to restrain the authors of revolt, and to discourage ihe false Dmitri. The Patriarch Job and Vassili Chouiski, who had conducted the inquest at Ouglitch, made proclamations to the people affirm- ing that Dmitri was really dead, and that the impostor was none other than Otrepief. Similar declarations were sent to the King and the Diet of Poland. Finally, troops were put in marchinjr order, and a line of communications established with the Western frontier. But already the towns of Sevena revolted at the approach of the Tzarc'vilch, and the boyards publicly an- nounced " that it was hard to bear arms against your lawful sovereign." At Moscow the health of the Tzar Dmitri was drunk at feasts. In October 1604, the impostor crossed the frontier with an army of Poles, of Russians banished in the pre- ceding reign, and German mercenaries. Severia at once rose, HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 2JI and Novgorod-Severski opened her gates to him. Prince Mstis- lavski tried to check his progress by a battle, but the soldiers were struck bv the idea that the man whom thev fought was the real Dmitri. " They had no hands to fight, but only feet to fiy," Vassili Chouiski, Mstislavski's successor, did his best to rally their courage, and this time, in spite of his intrepidity, the im- postor was defeated at Dobrynitchi. Boris believed the war finished; but in reality it had only begun. After Severia the Ukraine rebelled, and 4000 Cossacks of the Don came to rejoin " the brigand." The inaction of the Muscovite voievodes proved that the spirit of treason had already penetrated the nobility. In 1605 Boris died, commending his innocent son to the care of Basmanof, the boyards, the Patriarch, and the people of Moscow. But hardly had Basmanof taken the command of the army of Severia, than he understood that neither the soldiers nor the leaders were going: to fight for a Godounof. Rather than be the victim of treason, he preferred being the author of it. The man in whom the dying Boris had placed all his confi- dence united with Galitsyne and Soltykof, secret adherents of the impostor. He solemnly announced to the troops that Dmitri was in truth the son of Ivan the Terrible and the lawful master of Russia, and was the first to throw himself at the feet of the Pretender, who was at once proclaimed by the troops. Dmitri marched to Moscow ; at his approach his partisans rose, and the wife and son of Godounof were massacred. Such was the end of the dynasty which Boris had thought to found in the blood of a Tzarrfvitch ! 24a HISTORY OF RUSSIA, CHAPTER XVIII, THE TIME OF THE TROUBLES (1605-1613). Murder of the false Dmitri — Vassili Chouiski— The brigand of Touchino— Vladislas of Poland— The Poles at the Kremlin — National rising— Minine and Pojarski — Election of Michael Romanof. MURDER OF THE FALSE DMITRI — VASSILI CHOUISKI — THE BRIG AND OF TOUCHINO. The event that had taken place in Russia is one of the most extraordinary in the annals of the world. A runaway monk entered Moscow in triumph as her Tzar, among the joyful tears of the people, who thought they beheld a descendant of their long line of princes. Only one man had the courage to afhrm that he had seen Dmitri assassinated, and that the new Tzar was an impostor. This was Vassili Chouiski, one of those who had directed the inquest at Ouglitch, and who had defeated the Pretender at the battle of Dobrynitchi. Denounced by Bas- manof, he was condemned to death by an assembly of the three orders, and his head was actually on the block, when he received a pardon from the Tzar. Men did not recognize the son of Ivan the Terrible in this act of clemency, and Olrepief had afterwards cause to repent of it. Job, the tool of Godounof, was replaced in the patriarchate by a favorite of the new prince, the Greek Ignatius. The Tzar had an interview with his pre- tended mother, Maria Nagoi, widow of Ivan IV. Whether be- cause she wished to avenge her injuries, or merely to recover her honors, Maria recognized Olrepief as her son, and publicly embraced him. He loaded the Nagoiis, whom he regarded as fiis maternal relations, with favors; the Romanofs were likewise recalled from exile, and Philarete made Metropolitan of Rostof. The Tzar presided regularly at the dotwia, where the boyards admired the clearness of his apprehension and the variety of his knowledge. As a monk he was a man of letters, and as a pupil of the Zaporogues an accomplished horseman, bold and skilful in all bodily exercises. He was fond of foreigners, and even spoke HISTOR V OF RUSSIA. 24j of sending the Russian nobles to be educated in the West. This taste for strangers went hand in hand with a certain contempt for the national ignorance and grossness. He offended the boyards by his raillery, and alienated the people and the clergy by his disdain of Russian customs and religious rites, lie ate veal, never slept after dinner, did not take baths, borrowed money from the convents, turned the monks into ridicule, fought with bears, visited jewellers and foreign artisans familiarly, and took no heed of the severe Court etiquette. He pointed cannons with his own hand ; organized sham fights between the national troops and the foreign mercenaries ; was pleased to see the Russians beaten by the Germans ; and surrounded himself by a European guard, with Margeret, Knutsen, and Van Dennen at its head. On his entry into Moscow a struggle took place between the clergy and the papal legate, and two bishops were exiled. He got no thanks for resisting the legate and Poland — for declining to help the one to effect the union of the two Churches, and refusing to cede to the other an inch of Russian land. The arrival of his wife, the Catholic Marina, with a suite of Polish gentlemen, who assumed an insolent demeanor towards the Russians, completed the irritation of the Muscovites. Less than thirty days after his entrance into the Kremlin, men were ripe for a revolution. Vassili Choui'ski, pardoned by Otrepief, was the head of the conspirators. The extreme confidence of the Tzar was his ruin. One night the boyards attacked the Kremlin, which had been left unguarded. Otrepief was thrown out of a window, and stabbed in the court of the palace ; Basmanof, who defended him, being killed by his side. They took the two corpses, put ribald masks on their faces, and exposed them on the place of execu- tions between a flute and a bag-pipe. The widow of Otrepief, and the Polish envoys sent to assist at the wedding, were spared, but kept prisoners by the boyards. The corpse of the " sorcerer " was burned, and a cannon was charged with his ashes, which were blown to the winds (1606). It was now necessary to elect a new Tzar. Two candidates, two chiefs of princely families, presented themselves, Vassili Chouiski and Vassili Galitsyne. Chouiski had signalized him self by his hatred of the usurper, had defeated him in battle, had been condemned by him to death, and had been foremost in the conspiracy. The boyards would have preferred assembling the States-general, as in 1598, but Vassili would not await their decision. More impatient and less wise than Boris Godounof, he chose to owe his crown to the Muscovites alone, and not to t|ie (delegates of the whple nation, It was the original sin of the 244 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. new administration. Vassili had on his side neither hereditary right, like the ancient Tzars, nor the vote of the three orders, Hlce Boris. His claim to the throne thus remained dubious in times of the greatest disturbance. The Patriarch Ignatius, the nominee of the impostor, was replaced by Hermogenes. Thus, at each change in the government, a corresponding change took place in the first dignity of the Church. On ascending the throne, Vassili swore a solemn oath to put no boyard to death without trial, not to confiscate the goods of criminals, and to chastise calumniators. True Russians felt pro- found sorrow when they saw the Tzar thus despoil himself of his sovereign rights, and alienate part of his autocratic power for the benefit of the boyards. He was entering, indeed, on the path of ihe pacta co?ivcnta, which, at every new election in Poland, de- pri\ ed the king of some of his attributes, and led to the enfee- bling of the crown, and the triumph of the aristocratic anarchy of the nobles. 1 he provinces were discontented at not being consulted in the «:hoice of a sovereign. They learnt almost at the same moment that Dmitri had regained the throne of his forefathers ; then that Dmitri was an impostor, who had usurped the throne by the aid of the devil ; finally, that a new Tzar reigned over Russia. They did not know what to believe, or in whom to trust ; everything seemed doubtful. The Russian conscience was greatly troubled, and, in the universal demoralization, adventurers found an easy road to success. Vassili, who was fifty years old, wanted both energy and prestige. He had specially distinguished himself by his talents for intrigue, and even his partisans reproached him with avarice. The elements of disorder put in motion by the last two revolu- tions, were not yet appeased. Neither ambitious boyards, nor felonious nobles, nor insurgent peasants, nor brigands, nor the Cossacks and Zaporogues, nor the companies, nor the foreign mercenaries were satisfied. In such a situation it was inevitable that a new impostor should take the place of the former, and again furnish the worst passions with an outlet. Instead of one, there were two Pretenders : on one side a Cossack of Terek gave himself out to be the Tzar^vitch Peter, a pretended son of the chaste Feodor ; on the other, it was announced that Dmitri had, for the second time, escaped his murderers. The same transparent fable was always received with the same credulity, real or feigned. At Moscow the people recalled the fact that the face of the corpse exposed on the Red Place was covered with a mask. Vassili tried in vain to disabuse the people ; he was not more successful than Boris. Had not Boris overwhelmed HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 245 the Muscovites and the King of Poland with evidence ? Severia and the turbulent cities of the South again rose ; the discon- tented masses armed again for a new Otrepief against a new Godounof. \x\ the South, a certain Bolotnikof, by birth a serf, called all the brigands, all slaves and peasants to his standard, and began a servile war. IJy his side, Prince Chakovskoi Pachkof, one of the die'ti-boyarskiy taking up arms, Sigismond intended to assure to his son the throne of Russia, and restore to Poland the places she had lost in the 15th century. He besieged Smolensk, and wrote to announce to the inhabitants that he did not come to shed the blood of the Russians, but, on the contrary, to protect them ; and that he was prepared to guarantee to them the maintenance of their worship and liberties. Tire people of Smolensk, who knew the ardor with which Sigismond persecuted orthodoxy in his own dominions, repelled all his advances, and the voievode Cheiin made ready to defend the town to the last. Sigismond wrote from his camp at Smolensk to the Polish voievodes who were serving under the impostor, with orders to abandon him. The Polish Touchinists obeyed with regret, complaining that the king would appropriate the re'vard of their toils ; the Russian Touchinists, not knowing what to do, followed their allies, and, already accustomed to every sort of treason, made their submis- sion to the king, and offered to recognize his son Vladislas as Tzar of Russia. At the head of these refugees were the boyard Michael Soltykof and the currier Andronof. Chouiski had now two enemies equally formidable — the King of Poland and the false Dmitri, who, himself threatened by the ambition of his roval rival, had to retreat to the South. Vassili's nephew, Skopine, who had saved him by his victories, and won him popularity by his frank manners, died in the midst of his successes. The people then revived their old dislike of the Tzar, and accused him of poisoning his nephew. Another of the Chouiskis, the ambitious Dmitri, was also involved in the accusation. Dmitri Chouiskij as unpopular with the army as he 248 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. was with the capital, was betrayed in battle by the foreign regi- ments, and this defeat completed the. ruin of Vassili. The peo- ple rose in Moscow ; a great assembly of the populace and the boyards was held in the plains of Serpoukhof. The Tzar was '' humbly requested " to vacate the throne, because he caused Christian blood to be shed, and was not successful in his gov- ernment. The southern frontier towns also refused to obey him. Vassili Chouiski yielded, and abdicated ; a short time afterwards he was forced to become a monk. VLADISLAS OF POLAND THE POLES AT THE KREMLIN. Everyone was obliged to take an oath of obedience to the dotifna of boyards, who naturally seized the executive power during the interval before the election of a new Tzar. There were two candidates for the vacant throne — Vladislas, son of the King of Poland, and the false Dmitri. Now the latter was evidently an impostor. He ruled the upper and middle classes b\- terror alone, and had only the populace on his side. As they could not at once get rid of both the Poles and the brigand of Touchino, thev chose the lesser of the two evils. A Polish army, under the hetman Zolkiewski, had arrived at Mojaisk : the impostor occupied Kolomenskoe. The boyards invited Zolkiewski to approach Moscow, and they began to nego- tiate. The hetman promised in the name of the young prince to maintain orthodoxy, the liberties and privileges of the orders, the partition of legislative power between the king and the douina. No one was to be executed without a trial, nor deprived of his dignities without a reason; all Muscovites might go, if they wished, to be educated abroad. The Russians began to like the Polish system of \.\\& pacta conventa. The inhabitants of Moscow vowed fealty to the Tzar Vladislas. One point still remained to be decided — the Russians desired that Vladislas should embrace orthodoxy. Zolkiewski reserved the decision to the King of Poland. He induced the boyards to send ambassadors to Sigis- mond, and Prince Vassili Galitsyne and the Metropolitan Phila- rete Romanof left immediately for the camp at Smolensk. This terrible crisis seemed at the point of disentangling itself in away that was tolerably advantageous for Russia. She was to have a foreign sovereign, but one already acquainted with Slav man- ners, and his being a foreigner was even a gage for the parti- sans of reforms and Western civilization. Poland and Russia, which might have united under Ivan and under Feodor, had aix)ther chance of doing so under a Polish prince. Such was ins TOR V OF R USS/A. 2 49 the confidence of the boyards, that, finding the security of Mos- cow troubled by the neighborhood of the impostor, they pro- posed to Zolkiew'ski to enter into the town and even the Kremlin. This unpatriotic resolution, dictated to the nobles by their mistrust of the lower classes, was to bring fatal consequences on Moscow. Zolkiewski wished to take his guarantees against the chiefs of the nation : Galitsyne and Philarete were already under Smolensk at the discretion of the king ; he sent for the fallen Tzar also and his two brothers as hostages. Sigismond meditated a new treachery against Russia. His object was to conquer Muscovy, not for his son, but for himself. He stipulated with the ambassadors that Smolensk should be ceded to Poland, but they courageously repelled this proposi- tion. They demanded on their own part that Vladislas should leave immediately for Moscow, as being the only means for allay- ing the suspicions to which the conduct of the king had given rise. Sigismond refused. He wished to be Tzar himself. In despair of conquering the scruples of the two chief ambas- sadors, he addressed himself to their inferior colleagues. The Secretary Tomila, on being asked to open the gates of Smolensk, reiilied :'" If I were to do it, not only would God and the Mus- covites curse me, but the earth would open and swallow me. We are sent to negotiate in the interests of our country, not of our- selves." All the Russians did not show this probity. The dis- gusting spectacle of the camp of Touchino was repeated at Smolensk. Men crowded round the king, as formerly around the brigand, to wring from him dignities, land, and money. Soltykof, Mslislavski,^and the currier Andronof especially dis- tinguished themselves by their baseness. At Moscow the boy- ards denounced each other to the commandant of the Polish garrison. By the suggestion of Soltykof they wrote to the king to beg him to make his entry into Moscow. The Patriarch Her- mogenes refused to sign the letter, and the people, more patri- otic than the boyards, supported the Patriarch. Some few nobles, like Andrew Galitsyne and Ivan Vorotinski had the honor of being suspected by the Poles, and were arrested by Leo Sapieha, successor of Zolkiewski. l]y permitting the Poles to enter the towns, the oligarchs had put Russia in the power of the King of Poland. About this time the second impostor died, assassinated by one of his private enemies. His death had grave consequences. It healed misunderstandings, as, since the false Dmitri was dead, Sigismond had no longer any pretext for keeping his troops in Russia. The nobles had now no motive for distrusting the people, and could unite with them against the strangers. Whis. 250 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. pers were heard in the streets of Moscow that it was necessary to combine against the Lithuanians. Soltykof and Andronof de- nounced these generous intentions to the enemy. The Patriarch Hermogenes, suspected of patriotism, was thrown into prison, where he afterwards died of hunger. The provinces were agi- tated, and the inhabitants of Smolensk and Moscow wrote to all the towns entreating them not to accept the perfidious enemy of orthodoxy as their prince. The citizens did their part, the dicfi-boyarskie made their preparations for war, and Lapounof collected an army at Riazan. At his approach Moscow began to fill with reinforcements, and the Poles fortified the rampart of the Kremlin. Suddenly a quarrel broke out between the people and the soldiers. In the first heat the Poles and Germans are said to have massacred 7000 men ; but resistance was organized in the streets of the Bielyi-gorod, and the foreigners, repulsed by Prince Pojarski, had to intrench themselves in the Kremlin and the Kitai-gorod. To clear the neighborhood, the Poles set fire to the neighboring streets. Moscow was almost entirely in flames. On hearing of the preparations of Lapounof and the revolt of Moscow, Sigismond caused the Muscovite ambassadors, Galitsyne and Philarete, to be arrested, and sent them prisoners to Marienburg, in Prussia. A short time afterwards Smolensk fell, after a resistance compared by the Poles themselves to that of Saguntum, though the king was not ashamed to torture the brave voievode Chein, who had dared to resist him. He entered Warsaw in triumph, and the unhappy Vassili Chouiiski, a Tzar of Russia, was dragged a prisoner through the streets in triumj-jh. Lapounof was now reinforced by Prince Troubetskoi and Ivan Zaroutski, at the head of the Cossacks of the Don. A hundred thousand men besieged the Poles, who were shut up in the Kremlin, but the elements composing this large army were too conflicting and corrupt for the enterprise to succeed. The three leaders were mutually jealous of each other. Lapounof had conunitted more than one treason, Zaroutski had been one of the first to declare for Otrepief, and the others were hardly more loyal. The soldiers of Lapounof hated the Cossacks, who on their part only sought occasions for pillage. The Poles man- aged to raise the men of the Don, by inventing a pretended letter of Lapounof, saying, "' Wherever you take them, slay them or drown them." A revolt broke out in the camp : Lapounof was assassinated, many of his adherents were murdered, and this great army was miserably dispersed. Russia, a prey to civil war, as was France of the 16th ceri' tury to the wars of religion, suffered, like her, from foreign in' HIS TOR Y OF R USSIA. 2 3 1 tervention. In France, English and Spaniards watched the tides of party success, and profited by them all to gain some place or some province. Russia became the theatre of war for two rival Powers, Catholic Poland and Lutheran Sweden. When Vladis- las was proclaimed Tzar, Sweden considered herself offended, and acted as an enemy. De la Gardie took the ports of the Baltic; and the boyards of Novgorod the Great, imitating those of Moscow, opened the gates to the foreigners. It was under the protection of Poland that the first two impostors had arisen in the west and south ; under the protection of Sweden a third false Dmitri started up in the country of Pskof. Marina Mniszek on her side, who after the death of Otrepief had thrown herself into the arms of the brigand Touchino, acknowledged the Cossack Zaroutski as guardian of her son. NATIONAL RISING — J^IININE AND POJARSKI — ELECTION OF MICHAEL ROMANOF. The situation of Russia, like that of France during the Eng- lish wars, or the wars of the League, was frightful. The Tzar was prisoner, the Patriarch captive, the Swedes at Novgorod the Great, the Poles at the Kremlin, and the higher nobility bought by the strangers. Everywhere bands of brigands and highway- men pillaged towns, tortured peasants, and desecrated churches. Famine increased : in certain districts men were driven to eat human fiesh. This country, accustomed to be governed auto- cratically, had no longer any government. In her supreme need, who was to save Russia ? It was the people, by a movement similar to that which in France produced Joan of Arc; it was the people, in the largest acceptation of the word, including the honest nobility and the patriotic clergy. Already miraculous rumors showed the excitement that possessed all minds. At Nijni-Novgorod, at Vladimir, apparitions were seen. The nionks of Troitsa, with the hegumene Dionysius and treasurer-historian Palitsyne at their head, sent letters to all the Russian cities. The citizens of Kazan raised the distant Russia of the Kama. When the despatches from Troitsa reached Nijni, and the pro- topope read them to the assembled people, a citizen of the town, the butcher Kouzma Minine, rose. " If we wish," he said " to save the Muscovite Empire, we must spare neither our lands nor our goods ; let us sell our houses, and put our wives and children to service ; let us seek a man who will fight for the orthodox faith, and march under his banner." To give up all, and to arm themselves, such was the word that was handed round. Minine 252 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. and others gave the third of their possessions ; one woman who had 12,000 roubles gave 10,000 of them. Those who hesitated to contribute had to do it by force. Minine only accepted the office of treasurer of the insurrection on condition that his fel- low-citizens should place themselves absolutely at his discretion. A chief was necessary ; the people saw that he must be a noble. Now at Starodoub lived Prince Dmitri Pojarski, still weak from wounds he had received in the revolt of Moscow. Minine went to seek him, and besought him to take the command of the army. Their preparations then began, and they fasted and prayed. Russia felt herself in a state of sin ; she had taken and violated so many oaths — to Godounof, to his son Feodor, to Otre'pief, to Chouiski, to Vladislas. Three days of fast were commanded. Everyone took part in it, even the infants at the breast. With the money collected they organized the streltsi^ and equipped the dic'ti-boyarskie ; but they refused to admit those impure elements which had imperilled the national cause. They would have none of the help of Margeret, the mercenary who had perjured himself so many times, nor of the pillaging and murdering Cossacks. They remembered the assassination of Lapounof. With the army marched the bishops and monks ; the holy images were borne at the head of the columns. This enthusiasm did not exclude political wisdom ; they wished at least to secure the support of Sweden against Poland, so they amused de la Gar- die by negotiating for the election of a Swedish prince. When the troops had completely assembled at laroslavl, they marched on Moscow. The Cossacks of Zaroutski and Troubetskoii were still encamped under its walls ; but these two armies, though fighting for the same object, could not act together. An attempt to murder Pojarski had increased the mistrust of the men of the Don. When, however, the hetman Chodkiewitz tried to throw a detachment into Moscow, he was defeated on the left bank of the Moskowa by Pojarski, on the right bank by the Cossacks. It is true that the latter, at the decisive moment, refused to fight ; it needed the prayers of Abraham Palitsyne to bring them into line, and the intervention of Minine and his troops to de- cide the victory. The Polish garrison of the Kremlin were then pressed so close that they were reduced to eat human flesh. They capitulated, on condition that they were to have their lives. They gave up their prisoners, among whom was young Michael Romanof. The Kremlin and the Kita'i-gorod had opened their gates, when men learned that Sigismond was advancing to the help of the Polish garrison. It was too late. At the news of these Michael I. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 253 events he had to retrace his steps ; the devotion of the people of Russia had freed their country. This year of 16 12 remained for \ox\z in the memorv of the nation ; and when the invasion of 18 1 2 came to refresh their recollections, they raised on the Red Place a colossal monument to the two liberators, the butcher Minine and the Prince Pojarski. Russia, once more herself, could proceed freely to the election of a Tzar. A great National Assembly gathered at Moscow. It was composed of the great ecclesiastical dignitaries, of dele- gates nominated by the nobles, by the dic'ti-boyarskie\ the mer- chants, the towns and districts. The delegates had to be fur- nished with special powers. They all agreed they would have no stranger, neither Pole nor Swede. When it became a ques- tion of choosing among the Russians, scheming and rivalry commenced ; but one name was pronounced which gained all the votes, that of Michael Romanof. He was elected not for his own sake, for he was only fifteen years old, but for that of his ancestors the Romanofs, and his father, the Metropolitan Philarete, then prisoner at Marienburg. The name of Romanof, of the kin of Ivan IV., was the highest expression of the national feeling (1613). The new dynasty had better chances of stability than that of Godounof or that of Chouiski. There were no crimes to reproach it with ; it had its origin in a national movement, it dated from the liberation, and had only glorious memories. No phantom, no recollection, no regret of the past, stood before it. The house of Ivan the Terrible had been the cause or the occasion of too much suffering to Russia; the false Dmitris had stitied the re- grets for the true. The accession of the Romanofs coincided with a powerful awakening of patriotism, with the passion for unity, with universal longing for order and peace. Already they inspired the same devotion as the oldest dynasty. It is said that tlie Poles, on hearing of the election of Michael, sent armed men to seize him in Kostroma. A peasant, Ivan Sous- sanine, misled the Poles through deep woods in the darkness of the night, and died under their blows. This is the subject of the beautiful opera by Glinka, of ' Life for the Tzar.' The time of troubles had ended. 254 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER XIX. THE ROMANOFS : MICHAEL FEODOROVITCH AND THE PATRIARCH PHILARETE (1613-1645). Restorative measures — End of the Polish war — Relations with Europe — The States-general. RESTORATIVE MEASURES — END OF THE POLISH WAR. Russia had at last a sovereign, but she was in the situation in which Henry IV. found France at his accession. The great civil and foreign war was finished, but it had left everywhere its evil traces. Henry IV., when he became king, had been obliged to reconquer all his kingdom, province by province, town by town, half by arms and half by negotiations, to win it from chiefs of the bands, leaguers, great governors who had become independent, and foreigners. In the same way, in Russia, Zar- outski, leader of the Don Cossacks, ruled in Astrakhan, with Marina and the son she had borne to the brigand of Touchino ; the Polish partisan Lissovski ravaged the country of the south- west ; the Zaporogian Cossacks infested the regions of the Dwina: scarce a province but was a prey to some robber-band. No doubt the Poles had been expelled from the Kremlin as the Spaniards were expelled from reconquered Paris, but an offensive move- ment of the enemy might be expected ; moreover they still retained many places, notably the important town of Smolensk, Sweden had profited by the state of Russia to lay hands on the cities of Carelia and on Novgorod the Great. In the interior of the country, the towns and cities were in ruins, the population diminished and impoverished, and brigandage had become a habit. At the Court, the Russian lords had learned to disobey, and were not less turbulent than the Leaguers who surrounded Henry IV. What Russia needed was a reign of restoration. Michael Romanof had not the genius of the restorer of France. He was almost a child, and the boyards turned his au- thority against himself : the silent and bloody intrigues that Ivan IV. had only restrained by capital punishment broke forth again, NIS TOR Y OF K USSTA. 255 and the ferocious depravity of the nobles was the shame of Russia. Quiet men and foreigners regretted Ivan the Terrible. '• Oh that God would open the eyes of the Tzar as he opened those of Ivan ! " wrote a Dutchman at this time, " otherwise Muscovy is lost." Happily the good will of the nation was equal to every emergency. The day of the coronation the men-at-arms pre- sented a request for pay, as their devastated fiefs no longer gave them any revenue. The Tzar and the clergy sent letters to the Russian towns to entreat them to help the State to pay the troops, and to aid her with men and money against the foes within and without. Zaroutski was the first who was attacked. The inhab- itants of Astrakhan, outraged by his barbarities, had rebelled and imprisoned him in the Kremlin, whence he attempted to escape at the approach of the Russian voievodes. He was capt- ured, and condemned to be impaled ; the son of the brigand of Touchino, in spite of his youth, was hung, and his mother, Marina the Pole, died in prison. By the advice of the clergy and the boyards, the Tzar tried to negotiate with Baloven, another brig- and chief, who, by way of answer, attacked Moscow, but w^as defeated and his band destroyed. Th.e people of the Dwina themselves executed justice on the Zaporogues. Lissovski was eagerly pursued by Pojarski, but this clever partisan outwitted all the efforts of the liberator. Peace with Poland had to be concluded before he could be quieted. In 16 15 a Congress assembled beneath the walls of Smolensk under the mediation of Erasmus Handel ius, envoy of the Emperor of Germany. It was impossible to come to an under- standing: the Poles refused to admit the election of Michael Romanof, and wished to recognize Vladislas as Tzar of Russia. " You might as well," said Handelius, "try to reconcile fire and water.'' The negotiations were broken off. With Sweden, how- ever, they were more successful ; here the mediators, England and Holland, showed more zeal and energy than the house of Austria had done. The troubles and the impoverished state of Muscovy reacted on their commerce. By pacifying the North, they hoped to re-open Russia to their merchants,' and secure for themselves greater advantages. In May 1614, Ouchakof and Zaborovski had been sent to ask help from Holland in men and money. The Dutch gave them a thousand gulden, but said that they had themselves only lately ended a great war, that they could give the Tzar no substantial aid, but would do their utmost to induce the King of Sweden to make peace. Alexis Ziousine had been despatched to London in June 1613 ; he was ordered to narrate all the ex- cesses committed by the Poles in Moscow, and to say to King 2^6 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. James, " After the destruction of Moscow, the Lithuanians selz:ed your merchants — Mark the F>ngHshman, and all the others — ■ took away all their wares, subjected them to a rigorous imprison- ment, and ended by massacring them." If by chance he dis- covered that the Enolish were aware that it was not the Poles, but the Cossacks and the lower classes who had put Mark to death and seized on the merchandise, he was to have other ex- cuses ready. The Tzar entreated help in money to pay the men- at-arms, and not in soldiers, as he could give them no pay. They would think themselves happy if the King of England would send the Tzar money, provisions, powder, lead, sulphur, and other munitions, to the value of about 100,000 roubles ; but would content themselves with 70,000 roubles' worth, or in case of absolute necessity with 50,000. James received the envoy and his suite courteously, informed them that he was aware of the wrongs the Poles and the Swedes had inflicted on them, and ordered them three times following to cover themselves. The Russians declined to do this. " When we see thy fraternal love and lively friendship for our sovereign, when we hear thy royal words which glorify our prince, and contemplate thine eyes thus close at hand, how can we, kholopys as we are, put our hats on our heads at such a moment t " In August 1614, the year follow- ing this embassy, there appeared at Moscow John Merrick, who had for long traded with the holy city, but who came this time as ambassador from James I., qualified with full powers, as prince, knight, and gentleman of the bedchamber. In an inter- view with Prince Ivan Kourakine he began by demanding, on the part of the English merchants, a direct communication with India by the Obi, and with Persia by the Volga and Astrakhan. Kourakine alleged that this route was unsafe, that Astrakhan had only lately been delivered from Zaroutski, and that numerous brigands still infested the A'^olga. When security should be established, they would open the question with King James. They then passed to the subject of mediation. John Merrick declared that the King of England had assembled his Parliament to consider the best means of helping the Tzar, but that the Parliament had as yet decided nothing, and that he had no in- structions on this head. " But," said Kourakine, " can you not assure us that your sovereign will send us help in the spring .'' " " How can I guarantee it ? The journey is long, and there is no way save that by Sweden I believe, however, he will give you aid." Merrick, having contented himself with causing the Russians to hope, returned to commercial matters : liberty of trade by the Obi and the Volga, concessions of iron and jet mines on the Soukhona, concessions of territory about Vologda, HIS TOR Y OF R US SI A. 257 for new establishments, &:c. The Russian boyards continued to expatiate on the difficulty of the situation, and John Merrick went 10 Novgorod to negotiate with the Swedes, where he was joined by the envoys of Holland. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, JKid obtained some successes over the voievodes, but he had not vontented the Novgorodians, nor been able to take Pskof. The kings of Denmark and Poland were his enemies, and he may iiave felt a presentiment of ihe splendid career ihat awaited hini in Germany. He consented to open a congress, and in 1617 concluded with Russia the Peace of Stolbovo, by which he re ceived an indemnity of 20,000 roubles, and kept Ivangorod, lam Koporie', and Ore'chek (Schliisselburg), but ceded Novgorod, Roussa, Ladoga, and some smaller places. Russia was now able to concentrate all her forces against hei worst enemy — the instigator of all her troubles. The Poles took the offensive, under the command of Vladislas and the hetman Khodkevitch. Dorogobouge and Viasma were surrendered by the treachery or weakness of their voievodes ; but Mojaisk and Kalouga (which was defended by Pojarski) resisted and arrested the progress of the enemy, Vladislas, who had all the instincts of a soldier, resolved in 16 18 to march on Moscow. Michael Romanof dreaded treason more than the arms of the enemy, and determined to exact a new oath of allegiance from his sub- jects. He assembled the Estates, and informed them that he was ready once more to suffer hunger in besieged Moscow, and to %ht Lithuania, but he asked in return that the nobles should do as much for him, and that they should resist the seductions of "the king's son." Everyone made the required promise, and fresh letters went out from Moscow, calling all the towns to a holy war. Vladislas, however, had stopped at Touchino, where the hetman of Little Russia, after having ravaged the frontiers of the south-west, had joined him with his Cossacks. The davs of the second impostor and of Touchinism seemed to ha\e come back. The Poles having been defeated in an attack on Moscow proposed a congress, which met at Devulino, not far from the Troitsa monastery, lately the victim of a new siege. A truce of fourteen years and six months was agreed on. Poland kept Smolensk and Severia, and Vladislas did not even renounce the title of Tzar of Russia, leaving this difficulty to be solved by the judgment of God. Such a peace was only an armistice (1618) ; there was, however, an exchange of prisoners : the brave voie- vode Chein and the Metropolitan Philarete returned to Russia, and the latter was at once made Patriarch. By the return of his father the young Tzar obtained the counsellor his inexperience had hitherto needed, and even more 258 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. than a counsellor — a colleague, and almost a master. Philaretft was in some sort associated with the throne. The empire had two chief nobles, two sovereigns, the Tzar of all the Russias and the Patriarch of all the Russias. They figured together in all public acts, and together received the reports of the boy- ards and foreign ambassadors. It was time that a master was given to the boyards. The Soltykofs, Michael's favorites, had distributed the empire among their partisans, and plundered the treasury and the nation. They were charged with having falsely accused Michael's first bride, who was expelled from the palace, and having poisoned the second. This was a common practice with the nobles of Muscovy, those who were in favor fearing a new Tzarina above everything. They shrank from no means of removing her from their path ; and their reputation on this head was so firmly established that the King of Denmark had refused Michael the hand of his niece, because, "in the reign of Boris Godounof, his \)XO\\\^x, fiance oi the Princess Xenia, had been poisoned ; and this would also be the fate of this voung girl." Philarete made the boyards feel the weight of the Tzar's hand, and exiled the most guilty. RELATIONS WITH EUROPE — THE STATES-GENERAL. Russia had begun at last to be a European nation. Every- where her political or commercial alliance was sought. Gustavus Adolphus, who was making preparations to play his part as the champion of Protestantism in Germany, wished to assure him- self of the friendship of Russia against Poland. He represented to Michael, with much truth, that the Catholic League of the Pope, the King of Poland, and the house of Hapsburg were as dangerous to Russia as to Sweden ; that if Protestantism suc- cumbed it would be the turn of orthodoxy, and that the Swedish army was the outpost of Russian security. " When your neigh- bor's house is on fire," writes the King, "you must bring water and try to extinguish it, to guarantee your own safety. May your Tzarian majesty help your neiglibors to protect yourself." The terrible events of late years had only too well justified these remarks. The intrigues of the Jesuits with the false Dmitri, and the burning of Moscow by the Poles, were always present to the memory of the Russians. A treaty of peace and commerce was concluded with Sweden, and a Swedish ambas- sador aj^pearcd at the Court. pjTirland had rendered more than one service to Russia. In her pressing need James I. had lent her 20,000 roubles, and HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 259 British mediation had led to the Peace of Stolbovo. John Mer- rick considered he had the right to demand tliat Russia should open to English commerce the route to Persia by the Volga, and to Hindostan by Siberia. The Tzar consulted the merch- ants of Moscow. They unanimously replied that such a con- cession would be their ruin, for they could never hope to rival the wealthier and more enterprising English. They were, how- ever, ready to sacrifice their interests to those of the empire, if the dues paid by the foreigners were essential to the treasury. John Merrick declined to pay any dues, and the negotiation was broken off. They paid him, however, the 20,000 roubles, as he assured them the King had need of them for the help of his son- in-law, the Elector Palatine. Tn 1615 the Tzar sent an envoy into France, to announce to Louis XIII. his accession to the throne, and to ask his aid against Poland and Sweden. In 1629 there appeared at Mos- cow the ambassador Duguay Cormenin, who was commissioned to solicit for French commerce what had been refused to Eng- lish trade — free passage into Persia. He also spoke of a politi- cal alliance. " His Tzarian majesty," he said, " is the head of Eastern countries and the orthodox faith ; Louis, King of France, is the head of Southern countries; and the Tzar, by contracting a friendship and alliance with him, will get the better of his enemies. As the Emperor is closely allied to the King of Po- land, the Tzar must be allied to the King of France. These two princes are everywhere glorious ; they have no equals either in strength or power; their subjects obey them blindly, while the English and Braban^-ons are only obedient when they choose. The latter buy their wares in Spain, and sell them to the Rus- sian,s at a high price, but the French will furnish them with everything at a reasonable rate." This negotiation for the first Franco-Russian treaty spoken of in history had no result. As to the route to Persia, it was refused by the boyards, who said that the French might buy the Persian merchandise from the Russians. Another ally against Poland offered itself to Muscovy. Tne Sultan Osman sent to Moscow the Prince Thomas Cantacuzene, to announce that Turkey had already declared war against the king. The T^ussians asked no more than to help him, and Phil- arete and Michael assembled the Slates-general. The deputies " beat their foreheads " to the sovereigns, beseeching them to " hold themselves firm for the holy churches of God, for their Tzarian honor, and for their own country against the enemy. The men-at-arms were ready to fight, and the merchants to give money." The troops were already assembling when news was 26o HISTORY OF RUSSIA. received that Turkey had been defeated, and war was post- poned. The preparations had revealed certain faults existing in the national army, and it was decided to enlist foreign iner- cenaries, and instruct the native soldiers in Western tactics. Orders were accordingly given to buy arms, and to attract into Russia gun-founders and artillerymen. Tne Russia of Michael and Philarete already announced the Russia of Peter the Great ; the era of reform had begun. Each day Muscovy strengthened herself against her European enemies, by turning against them the weapon of their own civilization. She remained quiet for eight years. In 1632 Sigismond III. died, and the Elective Diet assembled at Warsaw. Michael was determined not to let this opportunity slip, and the second war with Poland began. It did not turn out as well as had been hoped. The vices of the old organization and institutions showed themselves anew. The two voievodes commandinsr the army suddenly became possessed with the old mania of disput- ing precedence. They were deprived of their command, and replaced by Chein and Ismailof, who crossed the frontier with 32,000 men and 158 guns. Twenty-three towns surrendered to the Muscovites, but Smolensk held out for eight months, and, just as it showed signs of capitulating, the Polish army under Vladislas, now King of Poland, made its aiDpearance. On the rumor of a Tatar invasion in the south, part of the Russian nobles at once hastened to the defence of their own lands, and Chein, thus enfeebled, was attacked by the king, and his com- munications cut. Famine obliged him to surrender in the open field, and he obtained leave to retreat, though forced to abandon both his baggage and his artillery. His only fault lay in not understanding as well as his Western adversaries the stratesfv of modern warfare. He was only guilty of being a Russian of unreformed Russia. His enemies, however, accused him of trea- son in a council of war, and he was condemned with his col- league to be beheaded. Philarete was no longer there to force the boyards to live at peace with each other. He died in 1633. Vladislas, successful at Smolensk, was defeated at Bielaia, and a congress was held on the Polianka. The conditions of the truce of Devulino were confirmed. The Russians paid 20,000 roubles, and Vladislas renounced all claim to the throne of Mos- cow, and recognized for the first time the Tzarian title. Shortly after there arose a new occasion for war. In spite of the treaties of peace concluded by Poland and Russia with Turkey, the Cossacks of the Dnieper, who were subjects of Po- land, and the Cossacks of the Don, who were subjects of Russia, Still continued to fight against Islam. To them, besides being ins TOR Y OF R USSIA. 2 6 1 a holy war, it was the means of procuring zipotms, — wide trou- sers, of a beautiful scarlet cloth. Determined partisans and pirates, both on land and sea, they were thorns in the sides of the Khan of the Crimea and the Grand Turk, attacking with their light boats the heavy Ottoman gall-eys, and insulting the coasts of the Bosphorus and Anatolia. They were disavowed by their respective governments, and were the subjects of perpetual recrimination between the Porte and the two Slav States. They were the bri