»••:;..•••• •«ii • • • e • » c N ^ — s.^^^^^ irnrrr 0?TWE^|AT10 glH^.-<9«s 'y — ^ n a- 01 IV. Russia Under the Mongols, i 238-1462 5S-51 First Mention of .Mo.-,co\v, 39~-The Mongol Khans, 41 — Influence of the Mongols on Russia, 43— The Lithuanian Sovereigns, 45— Union between Lithuania and Poland, 47 • The Black Death, 49— End of the Mongol Tyranny, 51. Xll CONTENTS. V. PAGE Establishment of the Autocracy and Con- solidation OF the Empire till Death OF Boris Godunov. 1462-1605 . . 52-99 Marriage of Ivan III., 55 — Ivan Increases his Territory, 57 — Russian Progress in the Arts, 59 — Pskov, 61 — Ilerberstein's Account of Moscow, 63 — Reign of Ivan the Terrible, 65 — Prince Andrew Kurbski, 67— Sir Jerome Horsey, 69— Richard Chancellor, 71 — Anthony Jenkinson's Travels, 73 —Treaties with England, 75— The Account of Giles Fletcher, 77— Ivan's Seven Wives, 79— Death of Ivan, 8i— Early Russian Printing, 85— The Conquest of Siberia, 87— Feodore and Dmitri, 89— The Death of Dmitri, 91— Accession of Boris, 93— The False Demetrius, 95— Death of Boris, 97— Intestine Struggles, 99. VL The Period of Troubles, The Two Pre- cursors OF Peter, Michael and Alexis. 1605-1682 ...... 100-132 Xenia the Tsarevna, loi — Assassination of Dmitri, 103 — Polish Invasion, 105 — Treaty with Sweden, 107 — Scotch Adventurers, 109 — Olcarius's Description of Moscow, ill — The People of Moscow, 113 — The Streltsi, 115 — Accession of Alexis, 117 — Origin of the Cossacks, 119 — The Cossacks Revolt from Poland, 121 — Acquisition of Territory, 123 — Nicon the Patriarch, 125 — Miegc's Description of Alexis, 127 — Court Grandeur, 129 — Accession of Feodore, 131. VII. Ivan and Peter — The Regency of Sopiha — Regeneration of Russia unih.k Pi;ri,k I HE Gkeai'. 1 682- 17 25 .... 133-173 Ambassadors of Russia, 1 35 — Expedition against the Tatars, 137 — Hasil Golitsin, 139— Travels of Peter the (Ireat, 141 —Peter in England, 143 — Revolt of the Streltsi, 145 — Charles Invades CONTENTS. xiii PAGE Russia, 151— Battle of I'oltava, 153— Death of Mazcppa, 155— Ecclesiastical Reforms, 157— Social Reforms, 159— The Second European Tour, i6i— Alexis, 163— Execution of Alexis, 167 —Character of Peter the Great, 169— Peter's Work, 171 — Peter an Enigma, 173. VIII. The Reforms of Peter in Abeyance — Reigns OF Catherine I., Peter II., Anne, Ivan VI., and Elizabeth, i 725-1762 . . 174-209 Ostermann, 177 — Power of Menshikov, 179— Exile of Men- shikov, 181 — Death of Peter II., 183 — Anne, Duchess of Courland, 185 — Document of the High Council, 187 — Scene in the Kremlin, 189 — Character of Anne, 191 — Russian Vic- tories, 193— Miinich and Biren, 195— Beauty of Elizabeth, 197 — Fate of the Dethroned Emperor, 199 — Banishment of Ostermann, 201 — The Seven Vears' War, 203 — Treachery of Apraksin, 205— " Slovo i diclo," 209. IX. The Plans of Peter Developed. Peter III. (Jan. 5 -July 19, 1762). Catherine II. (1762-1796) ...... 210-248 Return of the Exiles, 211 — Catherine's Aims, 215 — Peter III. Abdicates, 217 — The Assassination of Prince Ivan, 219 — Ecclesiastical Affairs, 221 — The Affairs of Poland, 223 — A Peasants' War, 227 — Capture of Pugachev, 229 — Catherine's Expedition to the Crimea, 235 — Deatii of Potemkin, 237 — The Treaty of Verela, 239 — Gustavus I\'. of Sweden. 241 — Death of Catherine, 243 — Catherine and the Arts, 245 — Coxe's Description of Catherine, 247. X. Reigns of Paul (1796-1801) and Alexander I. (1801-1825). Russia in Collision \vith the French Revolution and Napoleon 249-280 Character of Paul, 251 — Kotzebue's Anccilote of Paul, 253— XIV CONTENTS. War with France, 255 — Assassination of Paul, 257 — The Royal Family, 259 — Incorporation of Georgia ami Finland, 263 — The City of Tiflis, 265 — Napoleon Invades Russia, 267 — Battle of Borodino, 269 — Rostopchin Fires Moscow, 271 — Retreat of the Grand Army, 273 — Napoleon Deserts his Army, 275 — Estimate of the Invading P'orces, 277 — Death of Alex- ander, 279. XI. Reaction followed bv Reforms. Reigns of NicHOL.\s (1825-1S55), Alexander II. (1855- 1881), Alexander III. .... 281-310 The Russian Church, 285 — Battle of Navarino, 2S7 — War with Poland, 289— Hungary Prostrate, 291 — The Crimean War, 293 — Siege of Sevastopol, 295 — Death of Nicholas, 297 — End of the War, 299— The Second Polish Revolution, 301 — Execution of Sieriakowski, 303 — Annexations, 307 — Nihilist Plots, 309. XII. Russian Literature 311-336 Bi/hn, 313— The Chronicle of Nestor, 315— Early Literature, 3i7__The Academy of Kie*', 319 — Michael Lomonusov, 321 — Russian Drama, 323— Karam/.in's History, 325— Poetry of I'ushkin, 327— Lermontov, ' 329— Turgueniev and Tolstoi, 33j_Poetry of Nekrasov, 333— Characteristics of Russian Literature, 335. XIII. I'm. Social Condition of Russia Before and After the Time of Peter the (^.rfai- . 337-3^6 The Russian Nobility, 339— The Development of Serfdom, 341— Peter's Treatment of the Serfs, 343— The Russian Clergy, 345— The Power of the Tsar. 347 — Religious Parties, 349— Judicial Institutions, 351— Social Cu^idms, 355- \.\k- of the Boyars, 357— Cnnditicm of the Serfs, 359 Keli^^ious Sects in Russia, 361— Village Communes, 3C3-Russian Villages, 365. CONTENTS. XV XIV. PAGE Political and Literary Landmarks— Autho- rities : . 367-381 The Progress of Russia, 367 — Dates of Russian Literature, 372 —Authorities for Russian History, 375 — Later Authori- ties, 379. Genealogical Table Index 382 385 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. I. — Peter the Great. From a print in the British Museum .... .... Frontispiece 2. — Map — Russia before the Time of Peter the Great .... .... To face page i 3. — Scythians after a battle. From an electrum vase of Greek workmanship, found in the Royal Tomb at Kertch (Ancient Panticapasum) 4. — Greek Silver Vase, found at Kertch (Ancient Panticapasum) ...; 5. — Leather Money. Used in Early Russia in place of Coin 6. — Gold Medal, attributed to the Prince of Kholm 7. — Seal of the Hanseatic League at Nov- gorod ... PAGE 15 18 40 48 XVI 11 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, PAGE 8. — Ivan III. .... 53 9. — Copeks attributed to Ivan III. .... 60 10. — The Kremlin .... .... .... .... 64 II. — Early Russian Copeks.... .... .... 66 12.— Church of the Assumption at Moscow 83 I 3. — Dresses of People at End of Seventeenth Century .... .... .... .... 112 14. — Pictures of Streltsi .... .... .... 116 15. — Nicon .... .... .... .... .... 125 16. — The Birth of Peter. Obverse showing his Parents. Struck to commemorate the event ... .... .... .... 128 17. — Natalia.... .... .... .... .... 131 — Ivan and Feodore .... .... .... 134 — Princess Sophia .... • .... .... 136 — Eudoxia .... .... .... .... 138 — Sayes Court, Deptford.... .... .... 142 — Charles XII. From a print in the British Museum .... .... .... 147 23. — Roubles of 1704 and 1707. Reign of Peter the Great 149 18 20 2 I 22 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xix I'Afil! 24. — Menshikov .... .... .... .... 152 25. — Flight after Poltava .... .... .... 154 26. — Alexis .... .... .... .... .... 164 27. — Princess Charlotte .... .... .... 165 28. — Medal struck to Commemorate the Taking of Noteburg in 1702 .... 170 29. — Rouble of 1 7 10. Reign of Peter the Great .... .... .... .... .... 172 30. — Catherine I .... .... .... 175 31. — Silver Rouble of 1725. Reign of Catherine I .... .... .... 178 32. — The Empress Elizabeth. From a print in the British Museum .... .... 198 33. — (i) Silver Rouble; (2) Two Copeks. Reign of Empress Elizabeth.... .... 204 34. — Founding of the University of Moscow in 1754. Medal, with the bust of Empress Elizabeth .... .... .... 207 35. — Peter III. .... .... .... .... 213 36. — Rouble of Peter III .... .... 216 37. — Alexis Orlov 218 38. — Medal Struck on the Accession of Catherine II., 1762 .... .... .... 219 XX LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE 39.- — Catherine II .... .... .... 222 40. — Suvorov 225 41. — Pugachev 228 42. — Taking of Ochakov .... .... .... 231 43- — Potemkin 236 44. — Paul .... .... .... 250 45. — Rouble of Paul I .... .... 253 46. — Alexander I. From a print in the British Museum .... .... .... 261 47. — Silver Rouble. Reign of Alexander I. 278 48. — Nicholas I. From a print in the British Museum .... .... .... .... 283 49. — Grivna of 1830. Reign of Nicholas I. 288 50. — Menshikov .... .... .... .... 294 5 1 — Cronstadt .... .... .... .... 296 52. — Odessa.... .... .... .... .... 298 53.— Plan of Sevastopol .... .... .... 300 54. — Schaniil .... .... .... .... 305 55. — Alexander II. From a print in the British Museum 308 56. — Russians Travelling .... .... .... 342 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. XXI ?AGE 57. — Travelling Sledge .... .... .... 350 58. — Beard Cutting. A Caricature .... 353 59. — Copper Half-rouble of Czar Alexis Mikhailovich .... .... .... .... 370 60. — Map of the Russian Empire, 1889 To face page 373 ( T/iose portraits which are not reproduced from prints in the British Miisexim are taken from Bruckner's " Peter der Grosse" and '' Katharina /." in Oncken^s Series. The coins are copied from Chau- doir's " Aperqu sur les Monnaies Russes" and the medals from Ricaiid de Tiregale's " Medailles sur VEmpire de Russie." Other illustrations have besn borrowed from Schuyler's " Peter the Great.'") T Fisher Unwin. Paternoster Square, London. E C THE STORY OF RUSSIA. THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. The Empire of Russia, occupying as it docs nearly all the East of Europe and the North of Asia, is one of the most vast of ancient or modern times. Its area exceeds 8,500,000 square miles. It projects within the Arctic circle as far as ']'j° 2' and 7^° 40' N. lat. ; towards the south it reaches 38° 50' in Armenia, about 350 on the Afghan frontier, and 42° 30' on the coasts of the Pacific. To the west it advances as far as 20° 40' E. long, in Lapland, 18° 32' in Poland, and 29042' ; and its eastern limit East Cape in the Behring Straits extends to 191° E. longitude. The population, however, of this great empire is but thinly scattered : in European Russia, according to Reclus, it amounts to 81,000,000, and in Asiatic Russia to 14,000,000, or a total of 95,000,000. Others, however, raise it to 102,889,520. Russia possesses a seaboard on the Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Arctic Ocean. In the periods of her earlier history she had no maritime outlet : as soon, therefore, as the fiefs had been broken 2 2 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. up, and were annexed to the growing principality of Moscow, which was governed by vigorous rulers like Ivan III., Basil, and Ivan IV., the desire of acquiring a coast-line developed itself. For some time the Russians were confined to Archangel on the White Sea, where at first was to be found only a monastery, as indeed was the case when the English landed there under Chancellor in 1553. The town itself only dates from 1637. Ivan the Terrible made many efforts to extend Russia to the Baltic, but this plan was not realized till the days of Peter the Great. The latter monarch took Azov, thus getting an outlet to the Black Sea ; but his possession of the town was only temporary, as we shall shortly find. Russia now boasts the splendid port of Odessa, but she did not acquire it till the reign of Catherine, and the Crimea came about the same period. For a long time the extreme East and Kamchatka were of but little value to her as a coast-line, on account of the savage tribes which inhabited those regions. The acquisition of Siberia by Ivan IV., through the exploits of Ycrmak, was at first but partial, and it required many years before the country could be opened up. And even in our day, as Mr. George Kcnnan has shown in his papers in the Century Maga::inc, the riches of thiM dimly-known country are but imperfectly understood. The grand port, Vladivostok, rightly named " the lord of the East," promises to be a great emporium of Asiatic and American trade. The country, as a whole, is a vast plain. High plateaus and iiiduiitain chains are only met with in the Asiatic parts of the empire. These fiat GEOGRAPHY. j lands vary in their characteristics : sometimes they are dry deserts or low tablelands, or lake regions, or marshy plains. The only extensive mountain ranges in European Russia are the small chain of the Yailas, in the south of the Crimea, and the Caucasian ranee, which is one of the boundaries between European and Asiatic Russia, and contains the grand mountains Elbruz (or Shat-gora) and Kazbek. The Ural mountains form the north-eastern boun- dary. South of Lake Ilmen we have the Valdai hills, the highest of which has an elevation of 934 feet. In the east of Siberia arc the Verkhoianski, Stanovoi, and Yablonni mountains : among them are several volcanoes. Russia has the command of abundance of water- power. Her lakes possess, on a smaller scale, the features of those of North America. They are found in close juxtaposition, and are intersected by rivers and canals. Ladoga, the largest lake in Europe, contains many islands. The great rivers are the Dniester, which empties itself into the Black Sea ; the Dnieper, which enters the same sea by Ochakov and Kinburn ; the Don, which flows by Voronezh ; and the Volga, the largest river of Europe, which empties itself by seventy mouths into the Caspian. As affluents, it has the Oka, Mologa, Sheksna, and Kama. The Niemen rises near Minsk, and empties itself into the Kurische Haf. Readers of history are not likely to forget the memorable scene, when Napoleon crossed this river in 181 2 to invade Russia, Its basin is occupied by the Lithuanians, about whom we shall speak more at length: their territory re- 4 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. mained for a long time subject to the Poles. Siberian rivers are the Ob, the Tom, the Irtysh, the Yenisei, and the Lena : the Amour separates part of China from Siberia, Since the Russians have gained possession of the mouths of this river, they have built Nikolayev and Alexandrovsk, well-fortified ports on the Straits of Tarakai. Thus we see that Russia has a magnificent water-system, and its utility has been further increased by a series of canals, which intersect the whole country. In a country of such wide extent as Russia we must be prepared for great diversities of climate. In the Arctic zone we only get mosses and dwarf shrubs ; in the cold zone we get pine and birch, and rye, oats, and barley grow. The temperate zone produces wheat, hemp, and millet ; and the warm zone furnishes wine, the most celebrated vintages being those of the Crimea and Georgia — the Kakhetian wine of the latter country being especially famous. If we turn from the physical characteristics of the country to the population which inhabits it, we find great variety. Few portions of the world possess more attractions for the student of ethnology and philology. Classified according to the languages they speak, the population of Russia may be grouped as follows : — I. The Aryan Race. The Slavonic race, which may be divided into (a) the Great Russians, occupying the governments round Moscow, extending north to Novgorod and Vologda, south to Kiev and Voronezh, cast to Penza, ETHNOLOGY. 5 Simbirsk, and Viatka, and west to the Baltic provinces, where they come in contact with Lithuanians, Letts, and Germans. According to the latest computations as given in the Encydopccdia Britannica, the Great Russians amount to 41,994,000. Under these are included 2,300,000 agriculturists of the same race in Western Siberia and in Eastern more than 1,000,000. It has been a favourite theory of Duchinski and others to hold that the name of Great Russians was in reality a misnomer, and that the bulk of the people consisted of a mixture of Finns, Tatars, and other races. Such a view, however, is not borne out by the examination of the skulls of the race, those of ten or thirteen centuries ago, as Prince Kropotkin says, ex- hibiting the same type as the present inhabitants of the country. At the same time, the Russian race, like all others, is certainly not unmixed. ip) The Malo or Little Russians, amounting to 17,241,000; they are found in the southern govern- ments, and extend to the Black Sea. Others are found beyond the boundary of the Russian Empire and dwell in the Austrian province of Galicia, a small strip of land in the north of Hungary and the Bukovina. {c) The White Russians, inhabiting the western gov- ernments, Minsk, Grodno, and others. The}- amount to about 4,330,000, and constitute one of the poorest classes of the population, just as their country is one of the most unlovely portions of the Russian Empire. Of the other Slavonic races we have the following : id) The Poles, living in the former kingdom of Poland and the western governments of the empire. 6 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. In the Ukraine and Lithuania they constitute the landed proprietors. Their number amounts to about 5,750,000. Their relations with Russia, from the earliest times, will be discussed in the course of this history. {e) Bulgarians. (/) Chekhs (or Bohemians). (g-) Serbs. The three last are found in small numbers in the country, and not to such an extent as to materially affect it. The Serbian colonies in the South of Russia will be fully discussed later on. The Bul- garians are found in Bessarabia, and the country called New Russia. Bolgrad, in the former territory, shared with Braila in Roumania the distinction of being the cities in which Bulgarian books were formerly printed, as hardly any could make their appearance in the provinces governed by the Turks. We now come to the Letto-Lithuanians. (/t) These, including the Samogitians or Zhmuds, amount to about three millions. The Letts are on the Lower Niemcn and Dlina ; they are slowly becoming amalgamated with the Russians. {{) We may also here enumerate the Swedes, German.s, and Roumans who are scattered over this vast empire ; and under Aryans must be classed (j) the Armenians, of whom a considerable number arc to be found in the Caucasian provinces, and with them may be grouped Ihc Kurtls and Ossetes. II. Cauca.sian Races (non-Akyan). Vndcr these must be classed the Georgians, ETHNOLOGY. Lesghians, and others, (a) Of the first of these (in- cluding their congeners, the MingreHans, Lazis, and Suans) there are i,ioo,ooo, according to Erckert (" Der Kaukasus "). The languages of the Georgian races in their structure show a certain affinity with Basque, although the dissimilarity of their vocabu- laries forbids our attempting to group the two families together. (/?) The Lesghians, Circassians, Chetchenzes, and Abkhasians make up about 900,000. III. The Ural-Altaic family is largely represented in Russia; under this head come the Finns, who are known in the old Sla- vonic Chronicles under the name of Chudes : they and their congeners at one time inhabited all the north-eastern part of Russia. They may also be divided into the following groups : the Baltic, the Volga, the Cis-Ural, and the Trans-Ural Finns. To the Baltic Finns belong those in Finland, the Esthonians and others; they amount to 1,303,000. The Finns of the Volga, among whom may be counted the Cheremissians, are fast becoming Russianized, and the same remark applies to the Ziranians and Votiaks, who are to be reckoned among the Cis-Ural Finns. The Ziranians also extend beyond the Ural range into Siberia. IV. The Turko-Tatar Races. These amount to about 3,629,000 and among them are included Bashkirs, Kirghises, &c, 8 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. V. The Semitic Race is represented by upwards of three millions of in- habitants, consisting of Jews in Poland, in West and South-west Russia, and the Caucasus ; and especially the Karaite Jews in the Crimea, who are to be found in considerable numbers in the picturesque city of Bakchisarai. The above account can be considered only as a brief sketch of the various nationalities of which the Russian population is composed. To those who wish to pursue the subject further, we recommend Reclus, " Geographic Univcrselle," vols, v., vi., and Latham's works. There arc besides these some tribes in Siberia which we have not enumerated, especially those on the Pacific coast. Many of these have not yet been grouped scientifically, as the Chukchis, the Kamchadals, the Koriaks, the Ghilyaks on the Amour, and the Ainos in Sakhalin. The dominant and official language of this vast empire is the Great Russian, which in copiousness and flexibility may l)c reckoned among the finest languages of the world, reminding us of ancient Greek in its great power of synthesis, and the pre- cision of its particles. It has a literature extending over some centuries, to which we propose to devote a chapter in the latter part of this work. The Malo or Little Russian language or dialect — for there arc great disputes as to which category we are to assign it—is spoken in all the .southern governments. It is rich in popular .songs, and began to develop a litera- ture at the close of last century. I'urthcr information DIALECTS. 9 on this subject will be given in the chapter on Russian literature. White Russian, which is only a dialect, can show nothing in the way of literature but a few songs. Many Russian dialects, of which specimens are found in the earlier writers, have now altogether disappeared, as, for example, those of Kiev and Pskov. Sobolevski, in his " Lectures on the History of the Russian Language," thinks that the devastations of the Tatar invaders may have had a great deal to do with this loss. " Under any circum- stances," he says, " if the old Kiev dialect was pre- served till the fifteenth century, the inroad on Kiev of Edighei, and Mengli-Ghirei and the irruptions of the Crimean horde into that territory, must have so much diminished the number of those speaking it that they easily became assimilated with others who had entered the country from Volhynia, Podolia, and Galicia." The term Little Russia is met with first about the end of the thirteenth century {vide post). The dialect of Pskov undoubtedly existed in the fifteenth century, but no traces of it are found after that period. An effort to treat the Russian dialects philo- logically was made in a work entitled, Opit Oblast- nago Velikonisskago Slovara ("Attempt at a Pro- vincial Dictionary of the Great Russian Language "), which appeared at St. Petersburg in 1852. It is but a meagre affair, but valuable owing to the great scarcity of materials on the subject. Of the other languages and dialects spoken in the Russian Empire few possess a literature ; excep- tion, however, must of course be made in the case of lO THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. Poland, which has a rich Hterature, dating from the sixteenth century ; the nineteenth saw the noble trio of poets, Mickiewicz— one of the greatest produced by the Slavonic world — Slowacki and Krasinski. The rich and ancient literature of Georgia is cer- tainly entitled to a brief mention ; we shall discuss the annexation of the country to Russia, when we treat of the times of Alexander I. The Georgian, or Karthveli language— to employ the name by which the natives style themselves — is the only one of the family which can boast a literature, but this, covering as it does a period of a thousand years, is both ancient and extensive. The manuscripts begin with versions of portions of the Scriptures ; for example, the Book of Psalms in the eighth century ; and there is a complete translation of the Bible of the tenth, which is preserved in the Iberian monastery on Mount Athos. Altogether the ecclesiastical literature is very rich in books of devotion, translations of the fathers, &c. Among the secular works of special interest may be cited the romantic poem, " The Man in the Panther's Skin" {Vepkhvis Tgaosa/ii), com- posed by Shota Rustaveli, who lived in the twelfth centur)% in the days of Queen Tamara, when the country was at the height of its glory and prosperity. Among modern poets may be mentioned Gregory Orbcliani ; Alexander Chavchavadzc, whose eldest daughter married the Russian dramatist, Griboic-dov ; Nicholas Baratashvili, who died in 1X46 at the early age of thirty, leaving a v(jlume of fine lyrics ; and I'rince Ilya Chavchavadzc now living. There is a rich Oriental colouring in the works of the.sc Georgian POPULATION OF THE LARGEST CITIES. II poets, and their literature is still vigorous and active. The literature of the Lithuanians and Letts is confined to a few popular songs, with the exception among the former people of the writings of Christian Donalitius, a clergyman, who, last century, composed some poems on the seasons, devoid of literary merit, but interesting as monuments of the language. As regards Finnish, the only production which calls for special notice is the Kalevala, a kind of epic which was taken down by Lonrot from the lips of the people, and published in 1849. He collected the verses by traversing all Finland and the Russian governments of Olonetz and Archangel. Transla- tions have appeared in Swedish, French, and German. There is an active Mohammedan press for works in the Tatar, Arabic, and Persian languages, but, ac- cording to a recent article in the " Transactions of the Oriental Section of the Russian Archaeological Society," the books which make their appearance possess little value. There has been an attempt to introduce the domestic novel among native Tatar productions, but with little success. The following is the population of some of the largest cities in Russia : — St. Petersburg 929.090 Kharkov . ... 159,660 Moscow 753.469 Kazan . ••• 140,730 Warsaw 406,260 Kishenev . ... 130,000 Odessa 217,000 Kiev . ... 127,250 Riga 169,330 Tiflis . ... 104,020 ]\Iany of the so-called towns in Russia are in reality little better than villages. Catherine 12 THE COUNTRY AND THE PEOPLE OF RUSSIA. created several which after her death sank into insignificance. The Slav, in fact, where he is not mixed with other races, is a pure agriculturist, and has no trading tendencies. Hence commerce in the large towns has fallen very much into the hands of foreigners and Jews ; the great number of the latter in all Slavonic countries is striking. It was the want of an active middle-class which threw all the trade of Poland into the hands of Germans and Jews, and was one of the main causes of the fall of the Republic. But we shall treat more fully of the institutions of the Russian Empire in a chapter which I propose to devote to that subject towards the end of this book. There is a large yearly export of corn, flax, tallow, hides, potash, tar, &c. The mineral wealth of the country is great, comprising gold and silver from Siberia, zinc from Poland, tin from Finland, &c. There are extensive iron mines in the Ural moun- tains. The discovery of coal is constantly on the increase. Most of it comes from the basin of the Donetz and Moscow ; Poland and the Asiatic domi- nions also produce it. The home manufactures arc also steadily increasing. II. THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. The Russians are never mentioned by the old classical writers. The idea that the Biblical name Rosh fPftj?) in the Septuagint (which we find two or three times in Ezekiel) refers to them has long been exploded. The ancients called the country which they now inhabit Scythia, but it was more or less a terra incognita. They only knew the southern coasts and the series of colonies to be found there, such as Olbia, Panticapseum, and others, and the excavations of their ruins have yielded many of the choicest antiquities which may now be found in the Imperial Hermitage at St. Petersburg. Various opinions have been held about the Scythians, and the subject is far too wide to be discussed here at any length. It can only be said that the view now generally adopted is that they were pro- bably a mixture of many races. The specimens of their language which have come down, consisting only of a few words, show Indo-European affinities. Hippocrates, however, in describing their physical characteristics, appears to mak • them Mongolians. " Their bodies," says he, " are gross and fleshy ; the 14 . THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. joints are loose and yielding ; they have but little hair, and they are all very much alike." Of these Scythians two tribes at least appear to be Slavonic, the Budini and the Neuri. Certainly the description which Herodotus gives of them would lead us to suppose so, and this view has been adopted by Schafarik. His account of the country which they inhabited reminds us very much of Volhynia and some parts of White Russia, and it is in this portion of Europe that some scholars wish to put the cradle of the Aryan race. Near Chernigov is the large kurgan (or pile of earth) called Chernaya Mogila (the Black Grave), which was explored a few years ago, and yielded a rich harvest to the investigators. The story of Targitaus in Herodotus, and the wonderful plough which fell from heaven, seems to point to an agricultural people like the Slavs rather than to any nomad race. It is singular that on the vases found in tombs in the southern part of Russia we have representations of men dressed in the same way as are many of the Russian peasants in our own time, and with the same features. Nowhere is this more conspicuous than on the beautiful vase which came from the Kul-Oba tomb, and is now preserved in the museum of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The vase is made of clectrum, a mixture of silver and gold. In one group the chief is evidently listening to the report brought by a warrior. He wears his hair long, and has his tunic fastened by a girdle, and his trousers are tucked into his boots. All these characteristics may be found in the dress of the Ivussian peasant in our own 5S a O < »^ >s v^ O r* P^ U! < w w ^ OS X c < P' fc o H z a u lA < s ^ S5 < ^ ""^ 33 u H oi E v^ < ^ » ^. ^-* c g < K > ^ O H ai H < a cc X < u u H ;zri < tn Z < i~ > u en l6 THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. days. The warrior, who kneels, wears a pointed hood, which may be seen any time in the south of Russia and the Caucasus, and is called a basJialik. We find figures dressed in exactly the same way on the Nicopol vase; Moreover, in both the type of face is quite such as we see among the Russians at the present time. It is distinctly Aryan, and not Mon- golian ; and we feel, therefore, that there is no reason to doubt the existence of some Slavonic tribes among the Scythians, although it is impossible to accept the views of Samokvasov and others, who identify the whole Scythian race with the Slavs. In order to form some idea of the magnificent discoveries which have been made in Southern Russia, let us take the description given us in the " Anthropological and Ethnological Miscellany " by K, K. Hertz of the opening of the tomb of Kul- Oba : " By order of the Government, about three or four hundred sagenes of stone were to be brought to Kcrtch to build a barracks. At that time stones ready hewn were generally got out of the knrgans. No one seems to have reflected that the procuring of material in this way led to the destruction of histori- cal monuments. On the 19th of September (O. S.), while getting stones, the workmen opened a tomb tlic entrance to which had been carefully walled up. Having made an aperture over the doors, the explorer was able to enter the vault. This is what met his gaze : under a baldaquin, on a raised pkatform, there lay a king and queen in wooden sarcophagi. The cap of tin: king was ornamented with two bands ; on his neck was a collar of solid DISCOVERIES AT KERTCH. ly gold ; his hands were covered with golden rings ; beside him lay his kingly weapons, his sword with a golden handle, his golden sceptre, a shield of solid gold, and a golden bow-case. The head of the queen had also the same cap, with beautiful fastenings ; her neck was ornamented with golden rings and five golden medallions. On both was a robe ornamented with golden plates. The king and queen were sur- rounded with many vessels of gold and silver, including the celebrated vase representing the Scythians ; there was also a musical instrument and five statuettes. In the same tomb were found the bones of an attendant, and also of a horse." The description of the burial given by Herodotus (iv, 71) of the Scythian kings seems to be corrobo- rated in the main by this curious tomb. Canon Raw- linson, in his notes to Herodotus, considers its date to be about B.C. 400-350. The place shows abundant evidence of Greek influence, but the general treatment is purely Scythian ; and the tomb probably belongs to one of those native kings who from B.C. 438 to B.C. 304 held the Greeks of Panticapaeum in subjection. From Arabic writers we know that a Slavonic race, about the close of the ninth century, was spread over the basin of the Dnieper. This is the earliest mention of these Slavs, whoever they may have been. But how are we to explain the name Russia ? The old-fashioned view was to derive the word from the Rhoxolani. This, however, has long been aban- doned. One thing is certain, namely, that these Rhoxolani were of Oriental descent, a Medic or Iranic tribe. They disappear from history, having, 3 GREEK SII.VFR VASE, FOUND AT KEKTCII (ANCIENT I'ANTICAl'.liUM). DERIVATION OF THE WORD RUSSIA. 19 like so many other tribes — as, for instance, the Pechenegs and the K'.iozars — been swallowed up by the huge waves of immigration which overflowed the country. The old name of the country is Rus, the form Russia not having arisen earlier than the close of the seventeenth century, when it was artificially formed on the analogy of such classical names as Graicia. The most probable derivation of this word is from the Finnish Ruotsi, which is the name given by the Finns to the Swedes, and appears itself to be a corruption of the first syllable of some such word as rotJisvienn or rothskarlar (rowers or seafarers). The legend is that three brothers, Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor, who w^ere Vikings, were invited from Sweden and settled at Novgorod in 862, where they would find themselves surrounded by Finnish popula- tions. Novgorod (New Town) bears a Slavonic name, but nothing is known about it before the arrival of the brothers, whose story is first told in the Chronicle of Nestor, or that which is generally attributed to him. He was a monk of Kiev, born about 1056, and died about 11 14 (see the chapter on Russian litera- ture). It was the capital, according to this compila- tion, of the Slovenes or Slavonians, who lived round Lake Ilmen, and it was called by the Norsemen Holm- gardr, because it stood on a holm or island, just where the river Volkhov issues from Lake Ilmen. Others think that Holm in Holmgardr is merely a corruption by a kind of volksctytnologie from Ilmen, which is not at all improbable. There was a large Scandinavian element in Novgorod, for Nestor calls it a Varangian town ; and Thomsen tells us that the 20 THE ORIGIN GF THE RUSSIANS. Gothlanders had a guildhall there in the twelfth century, and also there was a Varangian church. From the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries the Scandinavians were forced to give way to the Ger- mans, into whose hands the trade passed, and Novgorod became one of the Hansa towns. We have dilated thus far on the origin of this interesting city, about which we shall have a great deal to say in our narrative. According to some accounts these brothers were summoned by Gosto- misl, a leading citizen of Novgorod ; but the invita- tion of Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor is only a way of concealing an invasion, as in the case of Hengist and Horsa among ourselves. The names are Scan- dinavian. Rurik is in Old-Norse Hraerekr, and is the same as Roderick ; Sin(^us is Old-Norse Signiutr ; and Truvor Old-Norse Thorvardr (see Thomsen, " The Relations between Ancient Russia and Scandinavia," Oxford, 1877). Be this at it may, the Chronicler goes on to tell us that Rurik settled at Ladoga, where the Volkhov flows into the lake ; Sineus at Biclo-ozero (lit. White Lake) ; and Truvor at Izborsk, on Lake Peipus. Rurik, on the death of his brothers, annexed their dominions, and became sole ruler. Two other adventurers, Askold and Dir, who had come with them set out further south, and conquered the city of Kiev, on the Dnieper, the origin of which, like that of Novgorod, is buried in mystery. Mere, according to tlic old Slavonic legend, St. Andrew came and planted tiie cross where now stands the cathedral. We hear of Askold and Dir afterwards sailing against the l^yzantine Empire and plundering the capital. THE STORY OF OLEG'S DEATH. 21 This was the beginning- of the long antagonism which was to exist between the Russians and Con- stantinople. Rurik died in 879, leaving the guardian- ship of his son Igor to a chieftain named Oleg (also Scandinavian. Igor is Ingvar ; Oleg, Helgi ; Olga, Helga). In a treacherous manner Oleg contrived to slay Askold and Dir, and get possession of Kiev, if the story be really true, but some of the Russian historians consider it a mere legend invented to explain the relations existing between Novgorod and Kiev. At all events, the capital of the newly- formed state was soon transferred to the latter city. Oleg chose a wife for his ward named Olga, said to have been born in the city of Pskov, anciently Pleskov ; some, however, consider her native place to have been Pleskov, in Bulgaria. The Russian Pskov now first comes into notice ; we shall hear a great deal about it afterwards. The Chronicler has much to tell us about Olga. Oleg then started on an expedition against Byzantium, and the Greeks were obliged to buy him off. There is a fine legend that in derision of the inhabitants he hung his shield upon the gates, and the subject has inspired Pushkin, the Russian poet, with a spirited lay. Oleg made two treaties with the Greeks, and the texts of these documents have been preserved by Nestor. They are undoubtedly genuine, for many of the names in them are Scandinavian, such as at a later period it would have been impossible to forge. The story of Oleg's death is told by the old Chronicler in a style worthy of Herodotus : "And Oleg lived, having peace on all sides, residing 2% THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. in Kiev. And Oleg remembered his horse which he had entrusted to others to feed, himself never seeing him. For a long time ago he had asked the wizards and magicians, ' By whom is it fated that I should die ? ' And one of the magicians said to him, ' Prince, the horse which thou lovest and upon which thou ridest shall be the cause of thy death.' Oleg receiving this into his mind said, ' I will never ride the horse nor see him more.' And he ordered them to take care of the horse, but never to bring it to him again ; and many years passed, and he rode him no more, and he went among the Greeks. Afterwards he returned to Kiev and stayed there four years, and in the fifth he remembered his horse, by which the soothsayers had predicted that Oleg would die, and, having called the oldest of his grooms, he said, ' Where is my horse which I enjoined you to feed and take care of ? ' And they said, ' He is dead.' And Oleg laughed and blamed the soothsayer, and said, ' The wizard spoke falsely, and it is all a lie ; the horse is dead and I am alive.' And he ordered them to saddle his steed, for he wished to sec the bones of the horse. And he came to the place where the bones and the skull lay unburied. And he leapt from his steed and said with a smile, ' How can a skull be the cause of my death ? ' And he planted his foot on the skull, and out darted a snake and bit him on the foot, and froin the wound he fell sick and died. And all the people lamented with great lamen- tation, and carried him and buried him on the moun- tain called Stchckovitsa. There is his grave to this day, and it is called the ' Grave of Oleg.' And all the years of his reigning were thirty-and-three." RUSSIAN SAGAS. i^ We have here a saga, also found in Scandinavia, as has been shown by Bielowski and Rafn. According to this saga it had been predicted to Oerwar Odde, the son of Grim, that he should be slain by his horse. He came after a long absence, found his horse buried in a marsh, and was killed by a lizard that sprang out of the horse's head. The story is also found in the traditions of our own country. It relates either to the Isles of Thanet or Sheppy, and is one of the oldest folk-tales among us. In fact, many of these Russian tales show an affinity to the Norse, and we shall return to the subject in the chapter devoted to Russian literature. It is these very interesting stories which constitute the difference between the work attributed to Nestor and our own Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The latter is rigidly historical, and lacks the fresh, charming sagas which are found in the old Slavonic books. Igor now rules alone : he makes two expeditions against the Greeks, who are growing weaker every century, and are ready for the spoiler. On the first occasion, however, he is defeated ; his ships are con- sumed by the terrible Greek fire, and his land forces have much ado to get back to Kiev. In the account given of the rout by the Chronicler the Slavs are represented as saying, " The Greeks have a fire like lightning, and this is the reason why they have con- quered us." It is well known that they guarded with the utmost caution the secret of the manufacture of this terrible concoction. We are told that a son was born to Igor named Sviatoslav. This name, which signifies " holy glor)-," is purely Slavonic ; whereas, ^4 THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. Igor, as we have mentioned before, is the Norse Ingvar. The Norse invaders are therefore now be- ginning to be lost in their Slavonic subjects, just as the Normans and Saxons began to be, fused in the reign of Henry II. But when the Emperor Constan- tine Porphyrogenitus, in the ninth chapter of his work on the administration of the Greek Empire (" De Ad- ministrando I mperio"), written about 950A.D., describes the cataracts of the Dnieper, he gives two separate names to each, the first Slavonic CS^KXa^iviaTl), and the second Russian {PcoaiaTi). Now the first of these names as we find them in his book are good Slavonic and are easily translated ; the so-called Russian are Norse, and nothing else. For an explanation of the names see Thomsen's book previously quoted. In this way the theory now accepted by all the best scholars of the invasion of Russia by Scandinavians is amply attested. A second attempt of Igor against Constantinople was more successful : the emperor consents to pay off the invaders, and a treaty is again made. Nestor gives the document in full. It shows a long array of names which can only be explained from Scandinavian sources : the heathen swear by Pcrun, the god of thunder ; the Christians, by the Gospels. Soon after this Igor is slain in a place called Iskorosten, belonging to the tribe of the Drev- lians. Olga. his widow, resolved to take vengeance upon her husband's murderers. She contrives by a stratagem to shut a great number of them in a vapour- bath, where they are suffocated. She destroys their town, according to the saga, by fi.ving lighted matches to the tails of sparrows and letting them lly over the STORY OF OLGA. 2$ roofs. Parallels to this story can be found in other countries. Layamon in his rhymning chronicle tells us that Cirencester was taken by Gurmund in the same way ; and Harold Hardrada, as we learn from the " Heimskringla," performed a like exploit in Sicily. It is in this way that these good old stories do duty in the early history of many nations. But Olga was to become more celebrated by the crowning event of her life. In 957 she went to Constantinople, and was there baptized ; she has earned the position of a Russian saint, but she was not able to convert her son Sviato- slav. The old Chronicler tells us of her funeral, but before her death she forebade the heathen festivities, which generally took place on these occasions. The feast was called tri,o/ia, and was accompanied with prolonged ceremonies. Many of our readers must have read in the fourth book of Herodotus, how on the king's death his wives and slaves were killed and buried with him ; his favourite horses were also added to the victims. The kiirgaiis in the south of Russia have already been spoken of ; they are continually being opened, and are found to contain bones of human beings and animals grouped round those of the chieftain, and close by are handsomely wrought urns, similar to those to which allusion has been made in our first chapter. The old Chronicler waxes very eloquent while writing about this saintly woman : " She was the forerunner of Christianity in Russia, as the morning- star is the precursor of the sun and the dawn the precursor of the day. As the moon shines at mid- night, she shone in the midst of a pagan people. 26 THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. She was like a pearl amid dirt, for the people were in the mire of their sins and not yet purified by baptism. She purified herself in a holy bath, and removed the garb of sin of the old man Adam." Sviatoslav, her son, was a great warrior, most of his expeditions being against the Pechenegs, a people of Mongolian origin, inhabiting the basin of the Don, These barbarians afterwards disappear from the pages of history, but for a long time they were very formid- able. They appear in Constantine Porphyrogenitus as Tlar^ivaiclTat. Sviatoslav afterwards went against the Bulgarians, a Ugro-Finnish tribe, dwelling on the banks of the Volga. It was a colony of these Bul- garians who marched into the Trans-Danubian terri- tory (the ancient Moesia), defeated the Slavonic inhabitants, and gave their name to the newly-con- quered lands. We must remember that at this time the northern and eastern parts of Russia were in- habited by peoples of this family, and even yet they are far from being entirely assimilated, just as we have not succeeded after six hundred years' conquest in Anglicising the Welsh. On his return from this expedition the Pechenegs laid an ambush for him and cut off his head. His skull was made into a drink- ing-cup. Sviatoslav committed the fatal mistake of dividing his dominions between his sons, thereby weakening the country and paving the way for the supremacy of the Mongols, about which we are shortly to hear so much. Yaropolk had Kiev ; Oleg, another .son, the territory of the Drevlians, a Slavonic tribe dwelling .south-west of the present city of Chernigov, and Vladimir, the third son, took Novgorod. Vladi- THE GODS OF THE HEATHEN SLAVS. i^ mir began his career badly ; he led a very dissipated life, and killed his brother Yaropolk ; but Yaropolk had a little time before slain his brother Oleg, so that Vladimir became sole ruler. We shall pass over the petty struggles that are continually occurring in these early times, and follow only the main thread of the history. Vladimir was a vigorous sovereign : he added Galicia or Red Russia to his dominions — a province the subsequent fate of which has been curious — and subjugated some of the Lithuanian and Livonian tribes, the latter being a Finnish people dwelling on the Baltic. Finding it necessary (as the Chronicler tells us) to choose some religion better than his pagan creed, he sent ambassadors to investi- gate the peculiarities of the Catholic, Jewish, Mussul- man, and Greek doctrines, and ended by choosing the latter. The whole story, as narrated in the Nestorian Chronicle, has the appearance of a saga and nothing more. Vladimir is said to have taken Kherson in 988, and was there baptized, and on his return caused his people to undergo the same rite en masse in true autocratic fashion. Perun, the Slavonic god of thunder, whose image had stood on a hill near Kiev, was thrown from his eminence ; a monument now stands upon the spot. Of the gods of the old heathen Slavs we know but little, and what we do gather is chiefly from the pages of Nestor and the mediaeval historians who treat of the Baltic Slavs — such as Adam of Bremen, Hclmold, and Thietmar. The idols appear to have been made of wood, and the worship of them was very simple, nor do we hear of any elaborate temples. In the case of 2S THE ORIGIN OF THE RUSSIANS. Perun, the wooden image was dragged ignominiously through the streets and thrown into the Dnieper. This forcible conversion of a people is astonishing, but we shall find it occasionally occurring in Slavonic history, and indeed in that of other countries ; thus Charles the Great forcibly converted the Saxons, and in the fourteenth century Jagiello Christianized the whole of the Lithuanians on a special day. The great importance of Vladimir is that he is the first Christian sovereign of Russia, and the form of the religion of the country has been ever afterwards that of the Greek Church. In the course of her history, Russia has become emphatically the head of this Church, and her protection of the Oriental Christians has enabled them to resist Mussulman persecution. We must thoroughly realize this death struggle between Christianity and Islam if we wish to understand her position in the East. From it she has gained her great influence, for it has always been but too patent that the Christian powers of the West would calmly stand by and see the Eastern Christians persecuted into the faith of Islam. In the past year, which was the nine-hundredth anniversary of the conversion of Vladimir, there were great rejoicings throughout Russia, and especially at Kiev, in ils noble old cathedral of St. Sophia. The church in that city in which rest the bones of Vladimir is to be repaired. On his death the first Christian .sovereign of Russia divided his (lonn'nions among his .sons ; he had no thought of national unity. Yaroslav took Novgorod, Iziaslav I'olotsk, on Ur- l)\ina, Horis, Rostov, Glcb, Murom — THE WER-GILD. 29 these two last being new cities which had been founded among the Eastern Finnish peoples — and Sviatoslav the Drevlians. Sviatopolk, however, an- other son of Vladimir, seized Kiev and murdered his brothers Boris and Gleb, but Yaroslav drove him from the city, and he ended his life in exile. As Vladimir is important from having been the first Christian sovereign of Russia, so Yaroslav is to be remembered as the first legislator. The code which he gave is called Riisskaya Pravda (Russian Law), and was preserved in a MS. of the Chronicle of Novgorod. It has been repeatedly edited. One of the great features of this early code is that we see in it the Russians wholly unaffected by those Mongolian corruptions which afterwards vitiated them, Russia at that time was a purely European country, and on a level with the other European nations. Among interesting points to be noticed in this code are that trial by wager of battle is the great way of settling disputes, and we also find trial by ordeal. The judges go on circuits. The wer-gild (Russ. vira) exists, and there is a fixed scale of prices for a life according to the rank of the persons. For the assassination of a boyar eighty grivnas, a grivna being about a pound's weight of silver ; for that of a free Russian forty grivnas ; and for every woman half that sum. For a blow with the fist, or the sheath or handle of a sword ; for knocking out a tooth or pulling a man by the beard, the fine was twelve grivnas ; for a blow with a club, three. Kliolopi or slaves are mentioned in this code, but the whole sub- ject of the condition of the peasantry of Russia will o u r^ C ^ ~ u ^ LJ H < ►J s Ph =^ f^ s <3 f s: ':n if: <1 D '-^ SJ V >• ^ 1-^ \ ai < Id t Z ^t O Q ^ bJ •t c/; < D •v. ■^i r^ ?♦ W ■>1 i'. <5 o ^ oi bj r-* i; u 1-1 YAROSLAV. 31 be considered in another chapter. We shall also, in the course of our narrative, have something to say of the succeeding codes. With Yaroslav we close the first and heroic period of Russian history. It has come down to us in sagas, not only in the picturesque pages of Nestor, who is a kind of Slavonic Herodotus, but in the di/i/ii or legendary poems, about which we shall have much to say. The great hero of a whole cycle is Vladimir and his drnzhina or retinue, the splendour of his Court, and his many battles with the enemy. The northern and eastern parts of what is at this time European Russia were settled by Finns, whom the Russians gradually subjugated. Moscow has not arisen ; the history of the country groups itself around Kiev and Novgorod. III. RUSSIA DIVIDED : THE PERIOD OF THE APPANAGES. (1054-123S.) Karamzin, the national historian, whose picturesque history of Russia will always command its readers, in spite of the more critical works of Soloviev,. Bestuzhev-Riumin, and Ustrialov, despairs of being able to command the attention of his readers during the discussion of this gloomy period. Warned by his example, we shall here only seize the salient points, and leave the petty squabbles of the princelings, who now ruled portions of Russia, the battles of the crows and kites, as Milton would have called them. During this period the following principalities and cities are important : (a) The principality of Smolensk. (d) Chernigov and Putivl in the west. (c) The principality of Suzdal. (rt^) Kiev, which is still Russia in the strict sense of the term, and contains the nucleus of Ihc nation- ality that was to be. Its importance, however, begins to wane after the year 1200. (e) The re[)ublics of Novgorod and Pskov and Viatka, the daughter city of the latter. SMOLENSK, CHERNIGOV, NOVGOROD. 33 Of these principalities and cities, Smolensk is one of the most ancient cities of Russia, and its name is met with as early as the ninth century ; when Russia was divided into appanages, it became, as we see, the capital of a principality. We shall find it frequently changing hands between the Russians and the Poles. Chernigov is also a very ancient city. We find it mentioned in the treaty made by Oleg with the Greek Emperor Leo, the philosopher, in the year 907, to which allusion has already been made. In 1054 it became the capital of a principality. As may be guessed, from its position on the frontier, we find it continually changing hands between Russia and Poland, and it will frequently be mentioned in our pages. It was ravaged in 1238 by the Mongol Khan Batu, and at the end of the thirteenth century was united to the principality of Vladimir. Its subsequent fate will be described in the proper place. To this principality belongs the town of Putivl, which has now sunk into insignificance. It is, however, mentioned in the Russian prose-poem, S/ovo o polka Igorcvc, the story of the expedition of Prince Igor ; it is also prominent in the wars between the False Demetrius and Boris Godunov. Suzdal is now an insignificant town, but at one time was the capital of the principality of that name. The date of the foundation of Novgorod, as previously stated, is unknown. Pskov, according to some the native city of Olga, was a dependency of Novgorod till 1137, when it became a separate principality, afterwards it was some- 4 34 RUSSIA bivtDi:D. times dependent and sometimes free, till its final absorption into the grand duchy of Moscow. Viatka was founded at the close of the twelfth century by emigrants, either from Pskov or Novgorod, for both arc mentioned. In 1392 we shall find the Mongols attacking it and killing a great number of the inhabitants. Its subsequent fate will be narrated in the proper place. I have given these notices of the Russian principali- ties to make this obscure part of the history clearer to the reader. Iziaslav, the son of Yaroslav, reigned twenty-four years. He died in 1078, leaving the principality of Kiev to his brother Vsevolod, but his son Sviatopolk succeeded on Vsevolod's death in 1093. He was followed by Vladimir Monomakh or Monomachus (1113-1125), who had a prosperous reign, and links England momentarily with Russia, having married Gytha, the daughter of Harold slain at Senlac. The English were destined to have no further communications with Russia till the reign of Edward VI., and there were to be no more inter- marriages till one of the sons of Victoria became the husband of the daughter of Alexander II. Vladimir has come down to our times as an author. \Vc generally find bound up with the manuscripts of Nestor's Chronicle his Poiichcnic, or Book of Instruc- tion, in which he gives us a quaint picture of old Slavonic life, and tells us of his fightings, his l)ilgriinagcs, his care of churches, his hawks, and his hounds. The following is an extract : — " As to me, I accustomed myself to do everything that I might have ordered my servants to do. Night and day VLADIMIR'S POUCHENIE. 35 winter and summer, I was perpetually moving about. I wished to see everything with my own eyes. Never did I abandon the poor or the widow to the oppres- sion of the powerful. I made it my duty to inspect the churches, and the sacred ceremonies of religion, as well as the management of my property, my stables and the vultures and hawks with which I hunted. I have made eighty-three campaigns and many expeditions : I concluded nineteen treaties with the Polovtsi [a people of Tatar origin, cognate with the Pechenegs, who disappear in the early historical times of Russia] ; I took captive one hundred of their princes, whom I set free again, and I put two hundred of them to death by throwing them into rivers. No one has ever travelled more rapidly than I have done. Setting out in the morn- ing from Chernigov, I have arrived at Kiev before the hour of vespers. In my youth what falls from my horse did I not experience ! wounding my feet, and my hands, and breaking my head against trees ; but the Lord watched over me. In hunting, amidst the thickest forests, how many times have I myself caught wild horses and bound them together ! How many times have I been thrown down by wild oxen, wounded by the antlers of stags, and trodden under the feet of elks ! A furious wild boar rent my sword from my baldrick; my saddle was torn to pieces by a bear. This terrible beast rushed upon my courser, whom he threw down upon me. But the Lord pro- tected me. O my children ! fear neither death nor wild beasts. Trust in Providence ; it far surpasses all human precautions." 36 Russia divided. For a short time, as we read, we have the genuine old Russia brought vividly before us, and we are thankful for the picture. It is by this work alone that Vladimir Monomakh stands out amid the shadowy sovereigns of these obscure annals. Soon after his time Kiev began to lose its importance, and to be eclipsed by Suzdal, in fact, after 1200 Kiev remained nothing but a dependency of Suzdal. This town, which is situated considerably to the north-east of Kiev, has now become an insignificant place, retaining little or nothing to remind us of its former importance. In 1 169, in one of the petty struggles constantly going on, holy Kiev had the misfortune to be pillaged, and after its fall Russia had for some time no political centre. Andrew Bogoliubski, son of the Prince of Suzdal, attacked Novgorod in 1 170, but was beaten off, and left a great many prisoners in the hands of the people. Some of these were killed and some sold as slaves. In 1174 Andrew was assassinated by his own nobles. He is a man of considerable significance in early Russian history, and showed great skill in diplomacy. He .set his face steadfastly against the absurd custom whereby each Grand Duke divided his dominions among his children, and thus he seems to have had a just idea of the necessity of consolidating the Russian States. One of his .sons is said to have married Tamara, the celebrated Queen of Georgia. A series of petty wars followed the murder of Andrew, the narration of which could only prove interesting to the antiquarian. Tn 1215, the memorable year of our Marina Charta, we have the great battle of Lipetsk INVASION OF THE MONGOLS. 37 (near Pen'aslavl Zaliesski), in which George, the nephew of Andrew, was defeated by the combined troops of Novgorod, Pskov, and Smolensk. In 1220 we hear of Nizhni, or Lower Novgorod, being founded. This city was destined to figure afterwards in one of the greatest crises of Russian history, and has earned a celebrity in our times from its world-renowned market, which was, however, only removed to Nov- gorod from the town of Makariev as late as in the year 1822. In 1224 the Mongols first invaded the country. The large plains of Russia assisted the invader in his incursions ; there were no mountain-fastnesses in which an heroic people could make their last stand ; the cities were, for the most part, small and poorly fortified, and thus the country lay at the feet of these barbarians. IV RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOLS. (1238-1462.) It does not belong to the plan of this work to give a detailed account of the origin of the Mongols or Tatars. Their original home was in South-eastern Siberia. From thence they carried on their expedi- tions for plunder and destruction over the centre of Asia and the East of Europe. They first become prominent in the year 1206, when they conferred the title of Dchingis Khan (i.e., Khan of Khans), on Temud Shin, the son of a Khan. It was under this chief, who has earned such a terrible fame in history, that they began to make themselves the terror of their neighbours. Towards the end of the thirteenth century their empire reached its widest limits, extend- ing from the wall of China to the frontier of Poland, and from India to Siberia. In 1224 the Russians suffered a complete defeat at the hands of these marauders, on the banks of the river Kalka, close to where it discharges itself into the .Sea of Azov. But it was not till the year 1238 that the Mongols made any serious impression on FIRST MENTION OF MOSCOW. 39 Russian territory; in this year they destroyed Bolgari, the capital of the Finnish Bulgarians on the Volga, and after having defeated the army of Suzdal at Kolomna on the Oka, they burned Moscow, Suzdal, and Yaroslavl, It will be observed that up to the present time we have made no mention of Moscow, but at the period about which we write it was a wholly insignificant place. It is said to have been founded by George Dolgoruki — or the long-handed — the son of Vladimir Monomakh. The tradition is that the territory on which it was built belonged to a certain boyar (for an explanation of this word see the subsequent chapter on the Social Condition of Russia) named Kutchko. Having behaved very aiu-ogantly to the Grand Duke, his possessions were seized, and as the country seemed a pleasant one to George, he caused the place to be enclosed and the foundations of the city to be laid. The derivation of the name Moskva, so called from the river upon which it is situated, has never been satisfactorily explained. We should probably find it in some Ural-Altaic language, for in the earliest times, as has been already stated, that part of Russia was inhabited by people of Finnish origin. Its importance does not begin till the time of Ivan Kalita, of whom more anon. The Grand Duke Yuri (or George) of Suzdal — at this time, as now, the Greek 7 had the sound of y, and this explains the metamorphosis of yewpyo^: into Yuri — was defeated on the banks of the river Sit, in the territory of Novgorod ; he was decapitated after the battle, and his nephew Vasilko had his throat cut. The Mongols took Tver — a city which had been o o a o c~ o H D U H < < Q a o o .•2 THE MONGOL KHANS. 4I founded at the beginning- of the twelfth century, and advanced in the direction of Novgorod, but did not succeed in reaching that city; and throughout the whole of its career, which was a very prosperous one till the days of Ivan III., Novgorod never saw its territory ravaged. Kiev was soon afterwards taken, Galicia and Volhynia were devastated, and all Russia except Novgorod was under Mongol rule. On the Volga the city of Sarai was founded by them, and here their sovereigns reigned for two centuries, and their rule is attested by the many coins which have been preserved. In 1272 the Mongols embraced Islamism. During the fifteenth century the Golden Horde, as it was called, was broken up into a number of smaller khanates, among them being those of the Crimea, Kazan, and Astrakhan. Kazan and Astrakhan we shall soon find subjugated by Ivan IV., but the Crimea became a dependency of the Turks, and in consequence was for a long time a bone of contention between Russia and Turkey. It would be impossible to interest our readers in the details of all the petty battles fought by the feu- datory grand dukes during this period of slavery. The Russian princes were obliged to attend the Mongol Khans when called upon to do so, and had to follow their armies into the furthest recesses of Asia to do homage to their master, which was exacted in the most humiliating fashion. They were forced to lick up any drops which fell from the Mongolian's cup as he drank. During this gloomy period there was little or no national life ; but a great many monasteries were built, and in them the monks were 42 RUSSIA UNDER THE AIONGOLS. cloistered, and busied themselves with the compi- lation of the long series of Chronicles which extends from the first attributed to Nestor, dating from the eleventh century to the days of Alexis Mikhailovich in the seventeenth. These compilations are of great value, and we shall frequently lay them under contri- bution. They will be more fully discussed in the chapter on Russian literature. The very learned notes added to the picturesque history of Karamzin, and the more sober-coloured production of Bestuzhev- Riumin now in course of publication, are replete with extracts from these useful works. In 1240 Alexander, son of Yaroslav of Suzdal, who ruled at Novgorod the Great, defeated the Swedes on the Neva, then a Swedish, but afterwards destined to be a Russian river. It is this victory which gave him the name of Nevski, or of the Neva, and the reader will find the hero enrolled among the Russian saints. He was also triumphant, in 1242, over the German Sword-bearing knights, a religious order, who had established themselves in Livonia. The Novgorodians, lucky in their remote position, and enjoying great prosperity as being one of the chief highways of trade, were compelled ultimately to pay tribute to the Khan in 12G0. Alexander, however successful he may have been against northern invaders, was forced to submit to his Oriental lords, and he died on his return from one of the journeys on which he had gone to offer his customary homage. 15ut humiliating as the yoke of the Mongols was to the subject Slavs, they cannot be said to have had great infiucncc upon the countr\'. They made no INFLUENCE OF THE MONGOLS ON RUSSIA. 43 attempt to turn the people into Tatars. They were content with the homage of the princes, with the poll- tax which they paid, and the military contingents which they were obliged to furnish when required. Besides these demands, the grand dukes had to obtain d.yarlik or firman (two interesting specimens oiyarliks are eiven in the third volume of the " Transactions of the Eastern Section of the Russian Archaeological Society "), before they could ascend the throne, and they could not wage any war without the permission of their suzerains. Many of the Russian princes contracted marriages with Mongol women, and some of their Murzas, or princes, became connected with the Russian boyars. Thus the Muscovite nobility became in part orientalized ; and we shall find that no less a person than Boris Godunov, one of the most prominent nobles of the Court of Ivan IV., and after- wards himself elected Tsar, was of Mongolian origin. The dress of the Russians became more Eastern, as shown in the long flowing caftan, or robe, which Peter the Great took so much pains to abolish. But M. Rambaud, in his interesting history of Russia ("Histoire de la Russie," Paris, 1878, p. 143), has very justly remarked that the Russians had already adopted much of their orientalism from Byzantine sources^ We know from the pages of Gibbon how thoroughly barbaric in its splendours and servility the Court of Constantinople had become, and it is to this source that many of the Muscovite customs must be traced — such as the seclusion of the women, the part of the house in which they spent their days having a name borrowed from the Greek tcrcin (repefivov). 44 RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOLS. It would be difficult to say whether the humiliating custom of knocking the head on the ground {cJielo- bitie) on entering the Tsar's presence was Mongolian or Byzantine ; it was abolished by Peter the Great, and the very word, which signifies literally beating of the forehead, which had become fixed in the Russian language with the simple meaning of peti- tion, was disallowed by Catherine II, Persons unacquainted with the subject are apt to imagine that the Russian language has a great many Tatar words, but in reality nothing can be farther from the truth ; they are confined to words signify- ing articles of clothing and a few other names of material objects. To the Mongols is probably owing the introduction of the knout — although the word itself is European, being nothing but a variant of our " knot," perhaps introduced from Scandinavia. Wc shall find when we come to the reign of Ivan III. that this degrading form of punishment was then sanctioned. In the year 1488, the Chroniclers tell us, a nobleman and an archimandrite were publicly knoutcd for forging a will. The knout lasted till the reign of the Emperor Alexander I. A strange custom also introduced by the Tatars was the punishment of the praviozJi, or public flagellation of defaulting debtors, which we shall describe at some length in the chapter on the Social Condition of Russia. The custom was abolished b}' Peter the Great. At the commencement of tlic Ihirtccnth century Mindovg, a Lithuanian, erected his territories into a principality, and the importance of the country was at its height under one of his successors, Gucdi'min THE LITHUANIAN SOVEREIGNS. 4$ (1315-1340), who contrived to get into his possession a great many of the Western Russian states and cities, including even the sacred and historic Kiev. In what year this city fell into his power we do not know, but conquests were easy while Russia was in such a prostrate condition. The capital of this Lithuanian state was Vilna, and it extended to the Black Sea. The official language of the country was White Russian, and it was in this tongue that its laws were promulgated. When in 1386 Jagiello, the Lithuanian prince, married Jadviga or Hedwig, the heiress of the Polish throne, these provinces became united to Poland, and Kiev did not return to Russian sovereignty till the days of Alexis. The Lithuanian sovereigns, both while they were pagans — and the country remained in heathendom till almost the close of the fourteenth century — and after they had been baptized Catholics, respected the Orthodox Church and the internal government of their newly-acquired provinces. Guedi'min allowed members of his family to intermarry with those of the grand dukes of Russia, and Greek churches were built at Vilna, his capital, and other places. In the northern part of his principality he was continually engaged in deadly struggles with the Teutonic knights. When Poland was united to Lithuania, Jagiello transferred his residence to Cracow, which was displeasing to his Lithuanian subjects, many of whom remained pagans in spite of the compulsory baptism which they had undergone. There was a simultaneous rising of the pagan subjects of the new Polish king and the Orthodox who dreaded the 46 RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOLS. influence of Catholicism. They put themselves under Vitovt (Pol. Witold) the grandson of Gucdi- min, and made such a vigorous stand that Jagiello in 1392 created Lithuania into a sort of appanage of the crown of Poland under Vitovt, who died in 1430 at the age of eighty. He was a mighty warrior, but the record of his achievements belongs rather to the history of Poland than Russia. In conjunction with the Polish army he won the important battle of Tannenberg in 141 o against the Teutonic knights. The Grand Master of the Order and its chief digni- taries were slain in the fight, together with four thousand soldiers. Thus German encroachments upon Slavonic countries were impeded for a time, and we cannot wonder that in her days of desolation, Poland has remembered with enthusiasm her victory over her implacable enemy. The battle forms the subject of one of the most striking pictures of the great Polish painter, Matcjko. Vitovt had demanded from the Patriarch of Constantinople a metropolitan for Kiev, so that the Orthodox provinces should no longer depend upon Moscow. When this was refused he himself convoked a council of his Orthodox bishops — we can see that he was a man who always acted with a high hand — and a Ikilgarian named Gregory Tsamblak was appointed. With the death of Vitovt the quasi-indcpendcnce of Lithuania may be said to have ceased. It occupied an inferior position some- times as an a|)panage, and sometimes in closer relations willi Poland. From the year i50i,onthe accession of the Polish king, Alexander, the union Union between urnvANtA and Poland. 47 became final. In 15G8 took place the great diet at Lublin. Here the "home rule" of Lithuania definitely ended ; there was to be one Parliament for both states, and Warsaw was chosen as the new capital in consequence of its convenient situation with regard to the confederated territories. In 1595 took place the great assembly at Brzesd in Lithuania, at which the Union was forced upon the people. This was not brought about without considerable violence ; the Jesuits were especially active in Lithuanian terri- tories, one of the most indefatigable being Skarga, celebrated for his eloquence. In a short time most of the leading families had become Polonized, and had received the Roman Catholic religion. Of these two are especially noteworthy, Nicholas Radziwill, at whose expense the first Protestant Bible was printed in 1563, which has now become very scarce in consequence of the destruction of most of the copies by his son, who was converted to Romanism by Skarga ; and Prince Ostrozhsk'i, at whose seat, Ostrog in Volhynia, the first Bible in the Old Slavonic language was printed in 1581. His son Janusz and granddaughter Anna not only deserted the faith of their fathers, but became persecutors of Orthodoxy. The union between Lithuania and Poland was never cordial. The first code of laws for the country is that made in the time of Wladyslaw Jagiello in 1420 ; it is in White Russian. In 1529 we have the Lithuanian statute of Sigismund I., also in White Russian. No official documents have come down in the Lithuanian language. 48 RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOLS. Before concluding this account of the fate of the Western Russian provinces something must be said of the fate of Galicia or Hahch. It was annexed in 1340 by Casimir the Great to Poland. Its last native prince was George, who in 1334 styled himself " Natus dux totius Russiai minoris," but the ex- pression fMLKpa Pooacria is found as early as 1292, in the Byzantine writer Codinus. George died in 1339, and his principality lay at the mercy of the invader. The SEAT. OK THE HANSEATIC LEACUE AT NOVGOROD. Poles therefore were not long before they seized it. It has never rejoined its sister Russian provinces, although the language of the hulk of the population is identical with th;it spoken in Podolia, Volhynia, and other southern governments of Russia. In the latter part of this dreary period of Mon- golian rule, wc shall sec Moscow coming to the front as the capital of the countr3^ Up to the present time wc have had two great historical cities, Nov- THE BLACK DEATH. 49 gorod and Kiev, prominent. Then the supremacy seems to hover about Vladimir, the capital of the principality of Suzdal, founded in mo by Vladimir Monomakh, a place devoid of interest, and then it centres in Moscow, the origin of which has been already described, Moscow was unimportant till the days of Daniel, the son of Alexander Nevski ; he added to its territory, and is the first of a long line of sovereigns buried there. Ivan Kalita, or the Purse (he is said by some to have gained this appellation because he always carried a purse from which he dis- tributed alms ; others say because of his parsimonious habits), (i 328-1 340) added Tver, and gave dignity to his capital by causing the Metropolitan, the head of the Russian Church, to reside there. After Kalita came his son Simeon Gordii, or the Proud (1340-1353), and Ivan II, (i 353-1 359), the former venturing to style himself the Prince of all the Russias, so that the idea of a national unity is being realized. The Black Death, which was passing over Europe at the time, carried him off. It is said to have destroyed more than a fourth of the population. It proved fatal, not only to the Grand Duke, but to his wife and all the members of his family. The Metropolitan Theog- nostes died, and also Archbishop Basil of Novgorod. Magicians were brought from all parts of the country to get rid of the plague by charms and incantations. Close to Russia was Lapland, that home of witches and witchcraft, and thither we shall find Ivan IV. betaking himself for assistance. We have one great deed to record before closing the driest chapter of our history. Ivan II. had a son Dmitri, who in 13S0 won 5 50 RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOLS. a splendid vn'ctory over Mamai, the Mongolian Khan. This great battle was fought in a field to the south of Tula, called Kulikovo Pole, or the field of woodcocks. The fight has come down to us in vigorous descrip- tions from the pens of the monastic Chroniclers. It has been told in three important versions. The first bears the title of " Story of the Fight of the Prince Dmitri Ivanovich with Mamai." The second account teems with anachronisms ; the third is wholly poeti- cal. These pieces are contemporary, or nearly so, but the age was uncritical, and we might compare with it the treatment of Robert Bruce in Barbour's Chronicle, who becomes in it more or less of a mythical person- age, is confused with his grandfather, the competitor for the Scottish crown, and performs feats of Titanic valour. These prose-poems, as they may well be called, arc full of interest in spite of their turgid style, and are curious monuments of the language at that early stage. This grand victory, however, only staved off the evil for a short time. Two years later (1382) came Tokhta- mish, and committed great cruelties at Moscow, almost levelling the city with the ground. The lamentations of the Chroniclers have come down to us in all their simplicity. Passing over two comparatively insignifi- cant princes, Basil (i 389-1425), and another ruler of the same name, his son (142 5- 1462), we may be said to quit the period of the Mongolian tyranny, because although these barbarians still lingered on the Russian confines, we shall find their power broken. Hence- forth they arc not such a terror to Russia, although their inroads do not cease till late in the sixteenth END OF THE MONGOL TYRANNY. 51 century, and they are found driving their miserable prisoners, roped together in long trains amid countless herds of sheep and cattle over the southern steppes. The great depot for the sale of their slaves was Kaffa. now Theodosia in the Crimea. V. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY AND CON- SOLIDATION OE THE EMPIRE TILL DEATH OF BORIS GODUNOV. (1462-1605.) Basil or Vasilii was succeeded by his son Ivan III., who reigned forty-three years : he seemed fitly to belong to the period when throughout Europe power- ful empires were rising upon the ruins of the feudal system. He was a man of great ambition and great intellect, but found himself at the beginning of his reign confined to a comparatively insignificant state. Besides some petty Russian territories, which were still independent, Ivan had on one side the great Lithuanian principality in a kind of federation with Poland, and on the south-cast were the Mongolian Khans. In addition to these adversaries there were the Slavonic republics of Novgorod and Pskov, and the daughter city Viatka. Although these latter states were nominally governed by princes, their authority was but small, and they only maintained their power by conciliating one of the factions into which the towns were divided. Wc have already IVAN III, 54 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. spoken of Novgorod as a city of the Hanseatic League, and of its great wealth. Pskov was also a member of the same famous confederation. The saying in the mouths of the people has been handed down to us — it is first mentioned by Albertus Krant- zius, the chronicler of Sweden and Norway — " Who can resist God and Novgorod the Great ? " At the present time this once famous city has dwindled down to a comparatively insignificant town : in its decayed appearance we are reminded of Bruges and some of the noble old commercial cities of Flanders. The great assembly at which the citizens were wont to meet was called ^rc/u- (there is a verb in a Russian dialect, vccJuit, to cry out), and it appears to have been the scene of many a turbulent meeting. Perhaps, however, some of the Chroniclers had an object in depreciating these free assemblies. Ivan, who was more of a diplomatist than a soldier, began by sowing discord among the factions at Novgorod, and as early as 1470 had got the upper hand in the town. Some of the citizens — feeling perhaps that their little state was in an isolated condition — wanted to hand it over to the Poles, then under the vigorous rule of Casimir IV. We shall find these border cities constantly changing hands in the course of our narra- tive. In 1478 Ivan succeeded in crushing the liberties of the republic ; its chief citizens were carried off to Moscow, and with them went the bell, whose mutinous tongue had so often summoned them to their assembly. Among Ihc prisoners was Martha Borctskaya, the widow of the Posadiii/c, or Mayor, who had great influence in the place on account of her enormous MARRIAGE OF IVAN III. 55 wealth : the bell of Novgorod is still to be seen in the arsenal of Moscow. But a further blow was to be dealt to the commercial prosperity of Novgorod by an impolitic and despotic act of Ivan. Having been offended by one of the Hanseatic cities, in his impo- tent rage he ordered all the foreign merchants at Novgorod to be put in chains and their property to be confiscated. From that day the fate of the city was sealed : the traders from the West fled the place, and the great Novgorod which once was able to muster a force of forty thousand men, and is said to have had a population of four hundred thousand, slowly sank to insignificance. It was to endure, however, further calamities in the terrible times of Ivan IV. Ivan III. was very judicious in forming alliances of all kinds, and his marriage was an important one for his rising empire. Thomas Pakxologus, brother to the last Byzantine Emperor, who had perished so nobly in the siege in 1453, was then living at Rome on an allowance afforded him by the Pope. He had a daughter named Zoe, to whom Ivan offered his hand. The proposal met with favour in the eyes of Sixtus IV., who hoped thereby to unite the Greek and Latin Churches. This favourite plan of the Popes' had been frustrated at the Council of 1438, and its results will be spoken of in a subsequent chapter. The negotiations for the marriage occupied some time but all was finally arranged. The bride travelled to her new country across Europe to Liibeck, thence by sea to Revel and Dorpat, and then entered Russian territory, the first important city at which 56 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. she arrived being Pskov ; her name was now changed to Sophia, according to the custom of the Greek Church. The Chroniclers are full of picturesque details of the gorgeous receptions she met with on her journey. In consequence of this marriage we shall find Ivan assuming the cognizance of the double-headed eagle and partially taking the title of Tsar, the complete assumption of it being the achieve- ment of Ivan IV. This word is really nothing but Caesar in a Slavonic form, whatever may have been said to the contrary. Sophia was an ambitious woman, and it was owing to her instigations that her husband resolved to shake off his allegiance to the Great Horde of the Mongols. Ivan made alliances with Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and Maximilian the German Emperor. In this reign the first embassy came from the latter country to Russia ; Nicholas Peppel being sent as an envoy by Frederick III. An attempt, however, to bring about a marriage between a Russian princess and one of the German royal families was futile, because when Peppel expressed a desire to sec the princess, the Tsar answered that it was not customary ill Russia to allow women to be seen by their husbands till the day of marriage. We shall have something to say about the Russian marriage cere- monies in a subsequent chapter. This Oriental seclusion of women was broken through by Peter the Great. In 1490, George von Thurn was sent oy Maxi- milian to Moscow, and courteously received. His object was to negotiate a marriage between his IVAN INCREASES HIS TERRITORY. 57 master and a Russian princess. In case of his suit being admitted, Maximilian promised to allow his bride to maintain a Greek church at Vienna. This privilege the Russians appear to have universally insisted upon. He was not, however, permitted to see the princess, and the negotiations were so protracted that Maximilian, whose wife, Mary of Burgundy, had died some time before, became a suitor for the hand of Anne of Brittany. We afterwards find the Emperor sending to Russia for some white falcons, which were forwarded to him at Vienna under the care of a Muscovite, Michael Yeropkin. Meanwhile Ivan had been steadily increasing his territory. In 1489, Viatka, was annexed ; Pskov was to follow in the next reign. In 1464 Ivan gave the hand of his sister to the Prince of Riazan, by which means he brought that territory into his family. He also seized Tver on the ground that the Grand Duke Michael had allied himself with the Lith- uanians. We thus sec the Russian appanages gradually united and the country consolidated. In 1478, when Ahmed the Khan of the Great Horde sent an embassy requiring an act of homage from the Tsar, it was received with a refusal accompanied with insults. Two years later the Khan endeavoured to terrorize Russia by another invasion ; the armies met on the river Oka, but the Mongols retreated in a panic ; and this must be considered their last great irruption, although for some little time afterwards they were troublesome. Ivan now extended his territory northwards to the Pechora, and westward to the Desna. He was victorious over Alexander the 5S ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. Polish king, but suffered a defeat in 1501 at the hands of Hermann von Plettenberg, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights. This Order had been estabhshed in Lithuania as early as 1225 ; its object was to convert the heathen Lithuanians by the violent means then frequently practised for that purpose. For centuries we find them fighting, com- mitting great cruelties upon their enemies, and frequently experiencing savage reprisals. Thus we learn from the old Polish chronicler, Stryikowski, that after a victory gained by the Lithuanians and Samogitians over the knights in 1315, Gerard Rudda, the starosta of the province of Sambia was burned alive on horseback clad in armour. The Sword- bearers were amalgamated with the Teutonic Knights in 1237. In 1497 Ivan issued his Siidcbnik, or Code of Laws, the second in the course of Russian jurisprudence, the first being the Russkaya Pravda, already mentioned. We see by it that a great change for the worse had come over the Russian character since the days of Yaroslav. The manners of the time will be illus- trated by the two following stories taken from the old chroniclers. In 1490, Ivan, the Tsar's eldest son, fell ill of gout in his feet, called in Russian Kain- chuga. One of the PaLtologi had brouglit into the country a Jewish physician, who was called Master Leo, the Jews being, as is well known, the great practisers of physic in those times. The unhappy man was induced to undertake the cure of the young prince and to stake his head upon its certainly. The treat- ment, however, was unsuccessful ; the prince, after RUSSIAN PROGRESS IN THE ARTS. 59 acute suffering, expired at the age of thirty-two. According to the account given of the therapeutics adopted by the Jew, cauterization played an impor- tant part. jMaster Leo, however, in six weeks, was pubh'cly executed " on the Bolvano, the other side of the river IMoskva." The same fate befel, in 1485, another surgeon, a German, named Anthony, whose surname, if he had one, is not given. This unfortunate man had not been successful in treating a Tatar prince at the Court ; he was accordingly given up to the angry relatives. To quote the exact words of the Chronicle : " A German physician, Anthony, came to the Grand Duke ; the Grand Duke treated him with much honour. He practised upon Prince Karakach, the son of Daniel, but with such results that he killed him by giving him a deadly mess of herbs. Where- upon the Grand Duke gave him up to the son of Karakach. He put him to the torture and wished to let him go, on his paying a ransom. This the Grand Duke would not permit ; . . . accordingly they took him to the river IMoskva, under the bridge in winter, and cut him to pieces with a knife, like a sheep." In this reign Russia made distinct progress in the arts and literature owing to her being brought more into contact with the other European nations. INIany learned Greeks came in the suite of the Byzantine princess and brought manuscripts with them, A great part of the Kremlin was built and a foundery for cannon was established at Moscow. It was in the reign of Ivan's father that money was first coined, as we learn from the Chronicle of Pskov. 6o ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. Italian architects made their appearance in the country, especially Aristotle Fioraventi, who erected many of the most important buildings of Moscow. We get the first plan of the city from the work of Herberstein, who visited Russia in the next reign as will shortly be described. Ivan died in 1 505 ; his eldest son of the same name had predeceased him, as we have already mentioned. He bequeathed the throne to his second son, Basil, passing over his grandson, the child of the deceased Ivan. He undoubtedly dreaded the evils of a minority. JR jU COPEKS ATTK113UTED TO IVAN III. and he showed his usual wisdom in thus acting. Vasilii, or Basil (i 505-1533), followed in his father's footsteps. As Russia is at this period being brought every year into closer contact with the European system, we feel that we come into more personal contact with the Tsars, who up to this time have been as much immured from view, as Dcioces within his series of many-coloured palisades. Of Basil wc have what is probably an authentic portrait prefixed to the travels of Sigismund Herberstein. The work was very popular, and went through a great many editions, PSKOV. 6l the first being of the year 1549. The Tsar is repre- sented as a hook-nosed man wearing a beard ; he has a high cap and a caftan trimmed with fur. Over his head is the following inscription : — " RussoRUM Rex et Dominus sum, jure paterni Sanguinis : imperii titulos a nemine, quauis MeRCATUS PRECE, UEL PRECIO : NEC legibus ullis SUBDITUS ALTERIUS, SED ChRISTO CREDULUS UNI, EmENDICATOS ALUS ASPERNOR honores." In 1 5 10 the independence of Pskov, one of the old Slavonic republics, was destroyed. Pskov has already been mentioned as the native place of Olga ac- cordincf to the narrative of the old chroniclers ; it is generally found in close alliance with Novgorod. From the thirteenth century it was a member of the Hanseatic League, and carried on an extensive trade with the countries situated on the Baltic by means of Riga and Revel. At the present time there are no traces of its former wealth and power ; it is a decayed provincial town, and among the Russians " Pskovski muzhik," or peasant of Pskov, is a synonymous term for blockhead. The annexation of Viatka by Ivan III. has already been mentioned. It was founded about the end of the twelfth century by emigrants from Novgorod, and was at first called Khlinov. In 1392 it suffered greatly from an invasion of the Mongols. The loss of their liberty is thus poetically lamented by one of their citizens in the Chronicle of Pskov, re- minding us of the Spanish lines on the conquest of Alhama which Byron has translated in so spirited a 62 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. way : " Then disappeared the glory of Pskov and our city was taken, not by those of another faith, but by those of our own faith. Who would not weep and groan for this disaster ? O glorious and great city of Pskov, for what dost thou lament and weep? And the beautiful city of Pskov answered : ' How can I help weeping and grieving over the desolation which has befallen me ? A many-winged eagle has flown to me with lion's claws, and has taken from me all my beauty and wealth and carried off my children.' " Soon after this the Prince of Riazan was accused of having made a secret alliance with the Khan of the Crimea, in consequence of which he fled to Lithuania ; his territory was confiscated and annexed for ever to the Muscovite dominions. The principality had been founded in the beginning of the thirteenth century. By a war with Sigismund I., Basil got back Smolensk. But he was not equally successful in his dealings with his Mongolian adversaries, who again invaded the country. Wc have already alluded to Baron Sigis- mund Herberstein who was twice sent by the German Emperor to the Court of Basil. He has left an interesting record of his visit. It is the first circum- stantial account of Russia and its institutions, and may be said to have introduced this strange people to the outer world. The picture of the Muscovite Court is a very brilliant one. Herberstein was not only allowed to be a guest at one of the imperial banquets, but was also invited to accompany the Tsar on one of his hunting expeditions. According to Herberstein Moscow was surrounded by forests, containing nu- merous herds of deer and other game, wliich were HERBERSTEI^''S ACCOUNT OF MOSCOW. G3 all preserved for the Tsar and his Court ; and during the extreme severity of the winter the bears and wolves were occasionally known to leave the woods, stimulated by hunger, and rush through the streets and into the houses ; while in the summer of 1525 the heat was so intense that the woods and corn-fields around the city took fire and burned for several daj-s, filling the whole district with clouds of smoke and flame. Of the city of Moscow Herberstcin tells us that it was principally built of wood, though there were a few stone houses, churches, and monasteries ; and most of the streets, which were very broad and spacious, and continued by many bridges over the rivers, were guarded at early nightfall by v.atchmen, who, after a certain hour, permitted none to pass. There were several mills on the Yausa for the use of the city, and at one end a row of numerous refiners and blacksmiths' shops and furnaces ; for the mechanics and other artizans had separate quarters for their trades, and every quarter of Moscow was provided with its own church. The houses were generally large and lofty, and had spacious gardens round them. The splendour of the Tsar's Court appears to have struck the Ambassador very much. Vasilii died prematurely, and, having married a few years before his decease, left two sons, Ivan and Yuri, under the guardianship of his second wife, Helen Glinska. She survived, however, her husband's death only five years, dying in 1538, as is supposed, by poison. She was of Lithuanian origin : her family having been proscribed and driven out of the country by the Polish king, Alexander. Ivan soon gave REIGN OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 65 proofs of a vigorous understanding, but his brother appears to have been half-witted. In 1543 Ivan, then in his thirteenth year, threw off the tutelage of the boyars, who had controlled him since his mother's death ; but he was too much a child for independent action in such a country, and we find that soon after- wards he was more or less controlled by his maternal relatives. In January, 1547, he was crowned by the Metropolitan Makarius and in a short time celebrated his marriage with Anastasia Romanova, a Russian, for at this time the Tsars rarely entered into marriages with foreign princesses. This period was the happiest in the life of this strange man, so wanton in his cruelties, who was in all probability more or less insane. He allowed himself to be guided by his wife, an amiable woman, by his minister Alexis Adashcv, and the priest Sylvester. In 1550 he issued a Siidebnik, or Book of Laws, which was a recension of that of his grandfather, previously mentioned. In 1 55 1 the affairs of the church were regulated by the publication of the Sfoghiv, or " Book of the Hundred Chapters." In this curious work we get a faithful picture of the manners of the times, the position of the clergy, and the prevalent superstitions against which they were supposed to do battle. Church matters were put in good order, some evil practi'Ces which had crept in were removed, superstitious obser- vances were repressed, and a higher standard required for the moral character of the clergy. One of the most important enactments of the Ecclesiastical Commis- sion, the fruit of which was the " Book of the Hun- dred Chapters," was the establishment of what may 6 66 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. be called national The children were and choral singing church. This was the Russian clergy the following year citv of Kazan and original name of schools throughout the country. to be taught reading and writing and how to read the Scriptures in a step in the right direction, but long remained very ignorant. In Ivan took from the Mongols the two years later Astrakhan. The Astrakhan appears to have been EAUl.V RUSSIAN COl'EKS. Adja-Tarkhan or Astorokan. Tls real importance dates from the lime of Peter the Great. Even to the present day these towns contain a large Oriental clement. Ivan had now extended the Russian frontiers further to the south and began to look northwards. I le thus came into contact with the .Swedes and Teutonic Knights, from whose petty dominions was subsecjuently to be formed the strong monarchy of Prussia, the nucleus of t'RINCE ANDREW KURBSKI. 6^ the new German Empire. Iv^an clearly saw the im- portance of introducing Western arts and industries into his dominions. He had a body of German mercenaries in his pay and endeavoured to procure the assistance of German artizans. To bring these into the country he despatched a man of the same nation named Schlitt, but the jealousy of the powers on the frontier of Russia prevented the various crafts- men whom he had collected from entering the country. In 1560 Anastasia died and the character of Ivan underwent a marked deterioration ; he banished Adashev and Sylvester, and gave himself up to un- bridled despotism and cruelties. One of his most valued generals, Prince Andrew Kurbski, deserted him at this time. Having lost a battle in the Polish cam- paign he was afraid to return to his infuriated master, and betook himself to the protection of Sigismund Augustus, the Polish king. This Kurbski was also an author, and has left an interesting work on his own times, in which he dwells at considerable length upon the cruelties of Ivan. He was born about 1528, and was present at the taking of Kazan. From his retreat Kurbski sent a letter to Ivan, telling him some very disagreeable truths, and such as autocratic monarchs, even in our own times, are not accustomed to hear. Especially he reproached Ivan with the innocent blood which he had shed. Ivan's answer has been preserved. He replies that he considers the lives of his slaves his own property, and that he may put them to death whenever he pleases. Besides this compo- sition, there is a letter which Ivan wrote to the monks of the monastery of Bieloe Ozero (White Lake), in 68 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. which he charges them with leading luxurious lives and neglecting their spiritual functions. Like Henry VIII., v/hom he resembled in so many particulars, Ivan was an author and fond of entering into religious controversies. In the year 1570 Sigis- mund Augustus of Poland sent an embassy to Ivan, and among its members was a Moravian brother named John Rokita, Lasicki, in his •' De Russorum Moscovitarum et Tartarorum Religione," &c. (Spires, 1582), gives us the substance of a religious dialogue between Ivan and Rokita, which is very curious. But Ivan was neither to be converted by the Jesuit Possevino, whom the Pope sent to him, nor Rokita. The Russian Tsar put a veto on the preach- ing of the Protestant, and on his departure caused to be handed to him a " Defence of the Russian Church," which Lasicki has published in a Latin translation. It is called " Responsio Johannis Basilii Magni Ducis Moscorum ad banc Rahita (sic) con- fessionem fidei data ipsi in urbc Moscowa, Anno, 1570. Kalend. Maij." The manuscript was bound in plates of solid gold and richly ornamented with pearls. In 1564 Ivan quitted Moscow and retired with a few of his associates to Alexandrovskoe, a village close by. This place he had carefully fortified, and he lived ill it as Louis XI. did at Plessis-lcs-Tours. We shall sec in how many i)oints he resembled the French monarch in his cruelties, trcacher}', and superstition. Me also consolidated Russia by annexing the fiefs and by his foreign conquests, very much in the same way as Louis XI. contributed to the progress of France. The servile boyars were afraid that he was about to SIR JEROME HORSEY. 69 quit them for ever, and went forth in crowds entreat- ing him to return. He finally consented to do this, and when he came back established his corps of opricJiniks, or select men as they were called, a sort of prsetorian guard, on whom he relied to carry out his cruelties. As types of their office they arc said to have borne a dog's head and a broom suspended from their saddle-bow — the former to signify that they worried the enemies of the Tsar, the latter to indicate that they swept them off the face of the earth. It would be useless to recapitulate here the dis- gusting cruelties of this tyrant. His superstition was also great : during his stay at Alexandrovskoe he spent the greater part of his time in church, and imposed upon himself and his unwilling attendants the greatest asceticism ; but he never restrained himself when blood was to be shed. He used to ring the bell for matins, and would arouse his attendants at all times of the night for prayer. The Tsar prided himself upon his orthodoxy, and is said to have been able to repeat whole chapters of the Bible. It is curious that Ivan's own copy of the valuable Bible printed at Ostrog in Volhynia in 1581 is pre- served in the British Museum. It was brought from Russia by Sir Jerome Horsey. On the fly-leaf the latter has written: "This Bibell in the Slavonian tonge had owt of the Emperor's librari." We shall find the diary of Sir Jerome Horsey, the English ambassador, of the highest value, as containing the testimony of an eye-witness. It is preserved in the British Museum, and has been edited for the Hakluyt Society. 70 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. The following strange story is told by Horsey in his diary, which illustrates very well the cruelty and superstition of Ivan : — " He comes to the Narve, robbs and spoiells the town of all their riches, wealth and merchandizes, kylls and murthers men, weomen and children, and gives the spoill to his Tartor army. Thence to Ploescovia or Vobsco [Pskov], where he intended to do the like, because he was incenced, and easily made belive those two towns and Novogorode had conspired his death, and practiced with his enymies the over- throwe of his army, and by their treacherous means and intilligence he was beaten from the sieg of Reavell, and susteyned that loss of men and municion ; but that ther mett him an impostur or magician, which they held to be their oracle or holly man, named iMickula Sweat, [Saint Nicholas], whoe by his bold imprecacions and exsorsims, railings and threats, terminge him the Emperour bloudsuccer, the devourer and eater of Christian flesh, and swore by his angell that he should not escape deathe of a present thounder boltt, if he or any of his army did touch a hear in displcasur of the least child's head in that cittie, which God, by his good angell, did preserve for better purpose then for his rapine ; therforc to gctt him thence before the ficrie cloud, Gods wrath, wear raised, hangingc over his head as he might behold, being in a vcric great and dark storm at that instant. These wordes made the ICmperour to trcmbcll, so as he desired prayers for his deliverance and forgeavncs of his thougiits." It was in this wa\- tliat \hr fanatir wron-ht upon RICHARD CHANCELLOR. 71 Ivan and caused the city to be spared, but Novgorod was not so fortunate. We ha\c very accurate- accounts of his cruelties there. He put to death Alexandra, the widow of his brother Yuri, who had died some time before, and we may well spare a narration of the tortures which he inflicted on some of the chief nobility of his kingdom in the Red Square (Krasnaia Plostchad) at Moscow. One of the chief assistants of Ivan in his cruelties was Maliuta Skuratov, who has come down to us graphi- cally portrayed in the ballads or dilini of the period, about which we shall speak more at length in a subsequent chapter. We have somewhat advanced chronologically in order to complete our picture of the character of Ivan : we must now go back to narrate an event of considerable importance to our own country : the first intercourse between the English and Russians. In 1553 three ships left England in search of a north-west passage to China and India under Richard Chancellor and Sir Hugh Willoughby. The latter and the crews of two of the ships were frozen to death, but Chancellor arrived safely in the White Sea, and made his way to ]\Toscow. Ivan received Chan- cellor with a hearty welcome. He had long been eager to open up communications with the West, but the passage of artificers and such wares as he required, was impeded by his bitter enemy the king of Poland. He now saw a new way of obtaining what he so much coveted. Accordingly he readily granted permission to " Richard and the guests arrived from the English land with wares brought in their ships from beyond 72 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. the seas, to come and go in safety in his Russian dominions and to buy and build houses without let or hindrance." A Russian ambassador, named Osip Nepea, returned with Chancellor after his second journey to Russia in 1556. But the voyage was disastrous. Two of the ships, the Bona Spei-anza and Bona Co7ifidcntia were never heard of again ; the Ediuard Bonaventnra, after being four months at sea, at length arrived off the coast of Scotland, but was wrecked in November in Pitsligo Bay, with the loss of many of the crew, seven Russians and the gallant Chancellor himself, Osip Nepea being one of the few survivors. In spite however of all these calamities, the Russian ambassador and such of his suite as remained, made a splendid entrance into London. Let us take the account in the quaint language of the London tradesman, Henry Machyn : — " The twenty-seventh day of February [1556] came toward London out of Scotland a duke of IMuscovia, as ambassador and divers of the merchants of Eng- land, as well as others of all nations, and so they met him beyond Shored itch in coats of velvet and coats of fine cloth guarded with velvet and with fringe of silk and chains of gold, and after comes my lord Montacute and divers lords and knights, and gentle- men in gorgeous apparel." And in other parts of his diar)' he describes the magnificence of the ambassador. We may well imagine what a weary time of it the unfortunate Nepea had onboard. lie had probably never seen the sea in his life till he set foot on board the ship. ANTHONY yENKINSON'S TRAVELS. 73 How barbar-ous must he have seemed to his English companions on board, to judge from the accounts which later generations gave of Russian ambassadors. It is a pity that no details of all this have come down to us. Another emissary from the Russian Tsar, who came in the reign of Elizabeth, named Mikulin, had his portrait painted while in England, and it has fortunately been preserved. In 1557 an English merchant, Anthony Jenkinson, went to Russia and has left us impressions of his stay in the country, which have been embalmed in the pages of Hakluyt. He had the honour of being invited to dine with Ivan : " The Emperour dined in a faire Hall {\\\q: gTanitovaya palata)/\x\ the middest whereof was a pillar four square, very artificially made, about which were diuers tables set, and at the vpper- most part of the Hall sate his brother, his Vncles Sonne, the Metropolitaine, the young Emperor of Casan, and diuers of his noble men, all of one side. There were diuers Ambassadors and other strangers, as wel Christians as Heathens, diuersely apparalled to the number of 600 men, which dined in the said hall, besides 2000 Tartars, men of war, which were newly come to render themselves to the Emperour and were appointed to serue him in his warres against the Lyfflanders, but they dined in other hals. I was set at a little table hauing no stranger with me, directly before the Emperor's face. Being thus set and placed, the Emperour sent me diuers bowles of wine and meade and many dishes of meat from his own hand, which were brought me by a Duke and my table seemed all in golde and siluer, and so likewise on 74 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. other tables there were set boles of gold, set with stone worth by estimation 400 pounds sterling, one cup, beside the plate which serued the tables. There was also a cupboord of plate, most sumptuous and rich, which was not vscd, among the which was a peace of golde of two yardes long, wrought in the toppe with Towers and Dragon's heades, also diuers barrels of golde and silver, with castles on the bungs, richly and artificially made. The Emperour and all the Hall throughout was serued with Dukes, and when dinner was ended the Emperour called mee by name and gaue mee drinke with his own hande, and so I departed to my lodging." Jenkinson gives a highly interesting account of the city of Moscow and of the habits of the people. These and other stories about Russia must have been extensively read in England at the time, for we can sec from " Hamlet " how soon caviare had become known. Thomas Hcywood, also, in his " Rape of Lucrece" (1608), act iii. scene 5, gives us some characteristics of the people : — " The Russ witli sables furs his cap, And change will not be drawn to." So also a few lines further on : — "The Russ drinks quass." The English soon began an active trade with the Russians, of which they long enjoyed the monopoly ; the only persons who at ihr. fust interfered with them in this respect were the Dutch, We find throughout TREATIES WITH ENGLAND. 75 Elizabeth's reign complaints made by her to Ivan, and she insists on the Netherlandcrs being prohibited from trafficking in the ports of the White Sea. After he left Moscow, on the 23rd of April, 1558, Jenkinson went to Astrakhan. He has written a most interesting account of his journey down the Volga. From thence he proceeded to Persia, and returned to Moscow in 1563. But Ivan was not merely contented with allowing the English to trade with him ; he wished to bring about a close alliance between the two Powers. He drew up a treaty by which he and Elizabeth should support one another against their common foes, that they should help one another by troops and money, and in case of danger the one should find refuge in the kingdom of the other. We see how greatly the idea had seized him in the midst of his cruelties that his subjects would expel him from the empire. A Russian ambassador named Sovin was sent to England to negotiate the treaty, and Elizabeth named some of the lords of her Privy Council to confer with him. The conferences lasted nearly a year (from July, 1569, to May, 1570), but they led to no result. When Sovin brought back the evasive answer of the Queen — in a secret letter she promised him shelter in England in case he should be driven out — Ivan was furious. In the epistle which he sends in return he says : — " We had thought that you were sovereign in your own country, and ruled with sovereign power, caring for the honour and profit of your country, therefore 76 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. we wished to treat with you as a with sovereign. But we perceive that other men, without you, rule your country, and not men, but boors and merchants, the which seek not the wealth and honour of our majesties, but they seek their own profits of mer- chandize." Ivan now confiscated the goods of the Enghsh merchants, but his anger appears to have been soothed afterwards, and matters were placed upon their former footing. Queen Elizabeth was always anxious to be on good terms with Russia. Thus when Giles Fletcher (uncle of the dramatist), who had been Ambassador to Russia, published, on his return, an account of the country, entitled, "The Russc Common Wealth" (1591), the Queen ordered the edition to be sup- pressed, on account of the severe remarks made by the author on the character of the Russians, in con- sequence of which this edition of the book has become very scarce. Ivan also looked to his good friend the Queen in case any troubles should befall him from his rebellious subjects. In his foreign wars Ivan was frequently unsuccess- ful ; he was wanting in personal courage. Although he committed great cruelties in the Baltic provinces, he really lost ground there, as he had opposed to him for some time the vigorous Transylvanian soldier, Stephen Batory. Previously, however, in 1563, the town of Polotsk, on the Dvina, then belonging to Poland, was invested with an army of 300,000 men ; it was finally taken, and 80,000 prisoners were carried off, together with immense treasure. In 1571, the Mongols made THE ACCOUNT OF GILES FLETCHER. 77 another raid upon the country, and Moscow was burnt. Of this we have a very quaint account, which has been handed down in the invaluable Hakluyt : — " The Mosco is burnt euery sticke by the Crimme the 24. day of May last, and an innumerable number of people : and in the English house was smothered Thomas Southam, Tosild, Wauerley, Greenes wife and children, two children of Rafc and more to the number of 25. persons were stifeled in oure Beere seller : and yet in the same seller was Rafe, his wife, John Browne and John Clarke preserued, which was wonderfull. And there went into that seller master Glouer and master Rowley also : but because the heate was so great they came forth againe with much perill, so that a boy at their heeles was taken with the fire, yet they escaped blindfold into another seller, and there as Gods will was, they were preserued." Beside this may be placed the account of Giles Fletcher, which is, graphic: — "In the year 1571 he [the Tartar] came as farre as the citie of Mosko, with an armie of 200,000 men without any battaile or resistance at all for that the Russe Emperour (then luan Vasilowich) leading foorth his armie to encounter with him, marched a wrong way : but as it was thought of very purpose, as not daring to aduen- ture the fielde, by reason that he doubted his nobilitie, and chiefe Captaines, of a meaning to betray him to the Tartar. The citie he tooke not but fired the suburbs. Then might you haue scene a lamentable spectacle." But the account in Horsey 's diary is the most vigorous :— 78 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. "But the enime approaching the great cittie Musco, the Russ Emperor flies, with his two sonns, treasur, howshold, servants and personcll guard of 20 thovv- sand gonnors, towards a stronge monasterie, Troietts (Troitsa) 60 miells of, upon Assencion daye. The enyme fiers St. Johns church high steple : at which instant happened a wounderfull stormyc wynd, through which all the churches, howses and palaces, within the cittie and suberbs 30 miells compas, built most of firr and oak tymber, was sett one fier and burnt within six howers space, with infinit thowsands men, weomen, and children, burnt and smothered to death by the fierie eyre, and likwise in the stone churches, monestaries, vaults and sellers verie fewe escapinge both without and within the three walled castells. The rever and ditches about Musco stopped, and filled with the multituds of people, loaden with gold, silver, Jewells, chains, ear- rings, brasletts and treasur that went for succer eaven to save their heads above water. Notwith- standinge, so many thowsands wear ther burnt and drowned, as the river could not be ridd nor clcnsed of the dead carcasses, with all the means and industryc could be used in twelve monneths after ; but those alive, and many from other towns and places, every daie wear occupied within a great circuat to search, drcgg and fish, as it wear, for rings, Jewells, plate, baggs of gold and silver, by which many wear inriched ever after. The streets of the cittie, churches, scllors and vauLs, laye so thickc and full of dead and smothered carcasses, as noe man could pass for the noisom smells and putrcfcc- IVAN'S SEVEN WIVES. 79 tion of the ear [air] longe after. The Empcrowr of the Crimes and his armyc beheld this goodly fier, lodged and solaced himself in a fare monnesterie by the river sied, fower miells of the cittie, called Symon monesterie ; took the wa^lth and riches they had, and of all such as fledd from the fier." Such is the account given of this invasion by Horsey. He also adds many proofs of the Emperor's cowardice, for Ivan managed the affairs of his country rather by astuteness than any physical prowess. On the death of his seventh wife, Ivan was anxious to procure an eighth from the Court of his friend Elizabeth of England. A daughter of the Earl of Huntingdon was selected, and Feodore Pisemski, the ambassador, sent a favourable descrip- tion of her to his imperial master. But when the time came that she should set out on her journey, the young lady was so terrified from the accounts she had heard of her future husband, and the number of his previous wives, that she refused to go. A few words may here be added on the Tsar's con- jugal experiences. His first wife, Anastasia, lias already been mentioned ; by her he had three sons and three daughters, but of these only one survived him, Feodore, who succeeded him on the throne. In 1 56 1 he married Mary, daughter of a Circassian prince named Temgruk ; but this wife died in 1 569, and left no issue. In 1571 he wedded Marfa Sabakina, daughter of a merchant of Novgorod, but she was carried off by consumption the same year, and Ivan took advantage of this catastrophe to put a great many persons to death on the ground that his young wife 8o ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. had been bewitched. In 1572 he married Anna Koltovskaia, but repudiated her in 1577, and com- pelled her to retire into a monastery. Barbarous as was the condition of Russia at the time, we do not hear of any of his wives, like those of Henry VIII., being sent to a public scaffold. His fifth wife was Anna Vasilichkova, who did not long survive her marriage ; and was followed by Vasilissa Melentieva a widow, and she by Mary, daughter of Feodore Nagoi, mother of the young Dmitri, who died mysteriously at Uglich In a fit of ungovernable rage Ivan struck his eldest son with his iron staff and killed him. There was now no one to carry on the dynasty but a young child. He was haunted by remorse for this crime till his death, and expired soon after, in the year 1584. His last days have been very quaintly de- scribed by Horsey, who saw him frequently. The Tsar was already ailing : — "The kinge [sic] in furic, much distrcctcd and douptinge caused many witches magicians presently to be sent for owt of the North, wher ther is store, betwen Collonogorod [Cholmogoii] and Lappia [Lap- land]. Thrcscore wear brought post to the Musquo, placed and garded and dailic dieted and daily vissited and atendcd one by the Emperor's favorctt, Bodan Bclskoye [Bogdan Bclski], who was only trusted by the Emperor to rcccavc and bringc from them their divclinacions or oracles upon the subjects that was geavcn them in charge. This fiivorct was now revolted in fathe to the kinge, wholly sckinge now and servinge the turns of tiic sonnc-risingc, wearied DEATH OF IVAN. 8l and tired with the divelsh tiranicall praectices horrable influcncis and wicked devices, of this Heliigabclous." As if to increase the superstitious horror of the occasion, Horsey adds in a footnote : — " The great blazing star and other prodigious sights seen everie night 7 wekes together over this cittie Mosquo, in anno 85, the yeare King Sebastian and two kings Fess and Moroca, of Portugall and Barbaro, and this great Emperor died." A little further on Horsey describes how the Tsar caused himself to be carried into his treasury, and there explained his precious stones and jewels to the courtiers gathered round him, among whom was the ambassador. He then describes the closing scene : — "Brought forth, setts him downc upon his bead; calls Rodovone Baerken [sz'c] a gentilman whon\e he favored, to bringe the chess board. He setts his men [Horsey, always on the look-out for portents, here adds in a note : — " All savinge the kinge, which by no means he could not make stand in his place with the rest upon the plain board "] : his chieff favorett and Boris Fedorowich Goddonove [Godunov] and others about him. The Emperor in his lose gown, shirtt and lynnen hose, faints and falls backward. Great owt- crie and sturr ; one sent for Aqua vita, another to the oppatheke [apothecary's shop, apteka\ for marigold and rose water and to call his gostlie father and the phizicions. In the mean he was strangled and stark dead." Such was the end of this strange, cruel man who has left such a track of blood upon the pages of Russian history. Before attempting to estimate the 7 82 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. importance of his reign, we must add the graphic pas- sages from Horsey, in which he criticizes the Tsar, whom h-e has so often seen : — " Thus much to conclude with this Emperor Ivan VasiHwich. He was a goodh'e man of person and presence, wael! favored, high forehead, shrill voice ; a right Sithian ; full of readie wisdom, cruell, bloudye, mcrciles : his own experience mannaged by direction both his state and comonwrelth affares. Was sumptuously intomed in Michall Archangell church, where he, though garded daye and night, remains a fearful spectacle to the memoric of such as pass by or heer his name spoken of, [who] are con- tented to cross and bless themselves from his resur- rection againe." Probably few persons have visited Mosrow without seeing his tomb, Karamzin and other historians have attempted to put the character of Ivan in a fairer light, as Mr. Froude has also done in the case of Henry VIII. ; but the majority will agree with the historian Kosto- marov, who died a short time ago, and regard him as a kind of Russian Nero. But in spite of his cruelties his reign was in many respects beneficial to Russia. (i) He put the empire in a better state of defence by building many strong fortresses, as Horsey tells us. (2) He favoured trade with the I'Lnglish, and wel- comed foreigners to his dominions ; from the period of his reign they began to swarm in Russia. Many Scotch soldiers and English physicians came into the country. Among foreigners practising medicine was a certain Dr. Bomclius, who, having been found CHURCH OF THE Aj^U.MPTION AT MOSCOW, 84 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. by Ivan intriguing with the Poles, was by him put to a cruel death. (3) Many buildings were erected at Moscow ; among others, the quaint church of St. Basil, with its gaudily- painted exterior which attracts the attention of the visitor. This fantastic structure is said to have been raised in 1554, to commemorate the taking of Kazan. There is a story told about it that the Tsar ordered the architect's eyes to be put out, that he might never build another to rival it. This, however, has been chronicled of many other potentates, and is probably a very old anecdote. So also is the tale that because an ambassador did not remove his hat quiclcl)' enough, Ivan commanded it to be nailed to his head. This well-worn anecdote is also told of a cruel prince of Moldavia. (4) From Ivan wc have another legal code, the Sudebnik, and also a regulation of Church affairs by the Stoglav, or " I5ook of the Hundred Chapters," as previously mentioned. It may be as well to give here the periods into which the documents of Russian legislation have been divided. {a) The heathen period and the epoch of tribal government. The important legal monuments of this period are the treaties between the Russians and Greeks, which have been preserved by Nestor. {b) The second period is that of Ihc appanages ; to this belong the Russkaya Pravda of Yaroslav, already mentioned, and the Charters of Pskov and Novgorod. (c) The epoch of the supremacy of Moscow ; to EARLY RUSSIAN PRINTING. 85 this belong the Sudebnik of Ivan III. (1497), of Ivan IV. (1550), and the UloaJienie of Alexi.s (1649). id) The period of the reorganized empire. During this time the Russian laws were collected from the date of the publication of the Ulozhenie, and were codified in the time of Catherine, and again on the accession of Nicholas to the throne. These are the great landmarks of Russian legislation. To this fourth period also belongs the Reglainent of Peter the Great. (5) Ivan caused a printing-press to be set up at Moscow in 1553, and took under his patronage the printers, the chief of whom were Ivan Fedorov and Peter Mstislavets. The first book printed was an Apostol, as it is called by the Slavs, i.e., a book containing the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles. But Fedorov and his companions were not long allowed to practise their art ; the efforts of those who gained their livelihood by copying manuscripts and the force of superstitious prejudice triumphed. The Motropolitan of Moscow, Macarius, who had patronized them, died in 1564, and they were obliged to betake themselves to the dominions of the king of Poland and at Ostrog ; in Volhynia, they printed the Bible, which has already been mentioned. There were no further attempts at printing till the reign of the Tsar Michael, in spite of the efforts towards national progress of Boris Godunov ; the cause is probably to be found in the disturbed state of the country and the struggles through which it passed in the " period of troubles " {suuitnoyc vrcmya). 86 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. A few words may be here said about the Slavonic versions of the Bible ; the reader will find more exact information on the Russian codices in the chapter devoted to literature. It is probable that all the Scriptures were translated into Slavonic by the two celebrated missionaries, Cyril and Methodius, in the ninth century. But as regards the earliest manu- scripts, we only have the Gospels, such as the Zogra- phus, Marianus, and other codices, and that called after Assemani, which is preserved in the Vatican. These date as far back as the eleventh or twelfth centuries. Nestor quotes the Proverbs of Solomon in old Slavonic. There is the Psalter of Bologna of the twelfth century, and the Acts of the Apostles of the fourteenth. A complete Bible in manuscript of the date 1499, is preserved at Moscow ; it is said that Gennadius of Novgorod put the various parts together. The whole Slavonic Bible, as previously stated, was printed at Ostrog in Volhynia in 1581 ; a copy of this rare work may be seen in the Bodleian Library. The press had been set up by Constantine Ostrozhski, a warm defender of the Orthodox Church, although a Polish subject. It is said that the manu- script Bible from which this first printed one was executed was sent to Ostrozhski by Ivan the Terrible. (6) In this reign, Ycrmak, a Cossack, conquered a large part of Siberia, and obtained a pardon by offer- ing his conquests to the Tsar, for, as a robber, he had been previously condemned to death. There is a fine /fi/hia upon this conquest, preserved among the collections of Russian popular jioetry, in which Ycrmak is represented, as speaking thus ; — THE CONQUEST OF SIBERIA. 87 " I am the robber Hetman of the Don ; 'Twas I went over the blue sea, the Caspian ; And I it was, who destroyed the ships ; And now, our hope, our orthodox Tsar, I bring you my traitorous head. And with it I bring the empire of Siberia, And the orthodox Tsar will speak, He will speak, the terrible Ivan Vasilievich, Ila I thou art Yermak, the son of Timofei, Thou art the Hetman of the warriors of the Don. I pardon thee' and thy band, I pardon thee for thy trusty service, And I give thee the glorious gentle Don as an inheritance." But although Yermak may be considered, in a way, as the first conqueror of Siberia, it must not be for- gotten that the country had been previously visited by traders in search of furs. Maps of the Ob and the country of the Ostiaks, by Sebastian Miinster, and by Herberstein, had already appeared a genera- tion before the Cossacks entered Sibir, the name from which our Siberia has arisen. The town once so called no longer exists, but near it is the large city of Tobolsk. The natives of the country were too thinly scattered to make any serious opposition to the invaders, and the Cossacks were accustomed to build ostrogs or forts at the confluence of the rivers. About the time of the Crimean War, the Russians got possession of the left bank of the river Amour, and in 1859 the conquest was confirmed by an ukaz. The deportation of criminals and State offenders to Siberia began at the close of the six- teenth century. An interesting episode of this reign is the arrival of the Jesuit Possevino, who was charged in appearance 88 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. with a mission to reconcile the Tsar and his great opponent Bathory, and to unite them in an expedi- tion against the Turk, the common enemy, but in reahty he was to labour as much as possible to bring the Russians into the Roman Catholic faith. We have said but little in this work on the affairs of the - Church in Russia, as they present no salient traits for the general reader, but we have shown that the Russians followed the Greek Church, as they had received Christianity from Byzantium. Since the Council of Florence in 1438, the separation between the Orthodox and Tatin Churches has been complete. Isidore, the Metropolitan, had been persuaded to accept the hollow reconciliation which took place on that occasion, and having received the dignity of cardinal from the Pope, returned to Russia in the scarlet gown of his new office. He was received by the Tsar and the people with contempt, and a furious tumult was raised around him when he ventured to make his appearance in the cathedral. Vasilii caused his goods to be confiscated, and himself to be im- prisoned in a cell in the Chudovo monastery. He, however, contrived to make his escape, and ultimately reached Rome, where he met with a cordial reception, and remained there during the rest of his life ; to return to Russia was impossible. Ivan's fondness for theological disputes has already been alluded to ; he conversed both with Roman Catholics and Pro- testants — the ICnglish merchants furnishing the majority of the latter ; he was assured by them that the Pope was Anti-Christ. In the many popular lays that have come down FEODORE AND DMITRI. 89 about Ivan, forming part of what is called the cycle of Moscow, we have an interesting picture of the way in which he presented himself to his subjects. The following di/ina on his death is curious : — " Why, bright moon, iather moon, Why does thou not shine as of old time, Not as of old time, as before? It happened to us in Holy Russia, In stone-built Moscow, in the golden Kremlin, In the Uspenski Cathedral Of Michael the Archangel, They beat upon the great bell, The sound echoed over the whole damp mother-earth All the princes and boyars came together. All the warrior people assembled. To pray to God in the Uspenski Cathedral, There stood a new-made coffin of cypress wood ; In the coffin lies the orthodox Tsar — The orthodox Tsar, Ivan Vasilievich, the terrible ; The life-giving cross stands at its head ; By the cross lies the imperial crown ; At his feet the terrible sword. Every one prays to the life-giving cross ; Every one bows to the golden diadem ; Every one looks with trembling at the terrible sword Around the coffin the wax lights burn ; Before the coffin stand all the priests and patriarchs. They read and sing the farewell hymn. They sing farewell to our orthodox Tsar — Our terrible Tsar — Ivan Vasilievich." Ivan, at his death, left two children, Feodore, at that time twenty-seven years of age, and Dmitri, an infant. Feodore was very sickly and of a super- stitious character. We are told by an old Chronicler that one of his chief amusements was ringing church bells. He had married Irene, the sister of a powerful boyar of Tatar descent, named Boris Godunov, a QO ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. man about whom we are destined to hear a good deal more. Horsey was present at the coronation of Feodore and his wife, and describes the Empress : " Most precious and rich were her robes, and shining to behold, with rich stones and orient pearle, beset : her crowne was placed upon her head accompanied with her princesses and ladies of estate. Then cried out the people : ' God preserve our noble Empresse, Irenia.' " Owing to the imbecility of Feodore, the chief authority fell into the hands of Boris, who under the guise of piety concealed an ambitious and enter- prising spirit. As the wife of Feodore was also sickly and appeared unlikely to have offspring, there was only one impediment to prevent Boris getting the supreme power, which he was already enjoying in reality, although under another's name. This was young Dmitri, who had been removed to the town of Uglich, in the government of Yaroslav. For some time Boris had intended to declare Dmitri illegitimate because he was the son of Ivan's seventh wife — if we include one to whom he was hardly lawfully wedded — and the Church condemned even a fourth. But tlie eccle- siastics had sanctioned this marriage, and so blindly devoted were the Russians to their ruling dynasty, than no son of Ivan's could be safely set aside. Many rumours were circulated about the cruel disposition of the child, which were supposed to show what a tyrant he would prove, and they arc generally sup- posed U) have been propagated by Boris and his emissaries. Finally, Dmitri died mysteriously at Uglich on the 15th of May, 1591. The prognos- tications of Mclclicr, wlu) said he was not safe, THE DEATH OF DMITRI. 9 1 v/ere destined to be fulfilled. Horsey has given us a very graphic account, fresh as one of the pages of Pepys, of the way in which he first received intelligence of the child's death : "One night I comendcd my soull to God above other, thinckinge verilly the tyme of my end was com. One rapt at my gate at midnight : I was well furnished with pistolls and weapons, I and my servants, some fifteen, went with these weapons to the gate. 'O my good friend Jcrom innobled \blagorodni ?] lett me speak with you.' I saw by moonshine the Emperis [dowager's] brother Alphonassy [Afanase] Nagorie. ' The Charowich Demeterius is dead his throate was cutt about the sixth hower by the deackes \^diaks ?] ; some one of his pagis confessed upon the racke by Boris his settinge one ; and the Emperis poysoned and upon pointe of death, her hear and nails and skin falls of; hslp and geave some good thinge for the passion of Christ his sake.' I ran up, fetched a littcll bottele of pure sallett oyell (that littel vial of balsom, which the Queen gave me), and a box of Venice treacle, ' Here is what I have, I praic God it ma>-e do her eood!' Gave it over the wall: who hied him post awaie." So far our Englishman in his racy but ungrammatical language ; his narrative shows what a reputation his countrymen enjoyed in Russia for medical skill. There is a great mystery about the death of this child. We only know for certain that he was playing in the courtyard; his governess, Vasilissa Volokhova, and some other attendants lost sight of him either by accident or design. According to their evidence the 92 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. Tsarevich was amusing himself with sticking a knife in the ground, when last they saw him, but on looking round they found him lying on the earth covered with blood. A great tumult took place when the child was found dead, and many persons were killed. Different accounts, however, were given of the affair, as we shall shortly see, when a pretender entered upon the scene. Boris gave out that the youth inflicted a mortal wound upon himself in a fit of epilepsy, and proceeded to punish the town of Uglich for the riot which had taken place. I\Iany of the inhabitants were sent to Siberia, which was now beginning to be a convict settlement, and thither also was sent the great bell of the town, just as we have had the bells of Novgorod and Pskov deported to Moscow. The remains of young Demetrius were deposited at Mos- cow, in the Church of St. Michael, the burial-place of the Tsars ; we shall afterwards find him canonized. Soon after the catastrophe of Uglich a great fire broke out in Moscow. Boris rebuilt some of the streets at his own cost and distributed relief to the houseless, but the people looked upon him with suspicion. In 1591 the Khan of the Crimea made another raid ; the great object of the Tatars in these forays was, according to Mctchcr, " to get store of captiues, specially young boys and girls, whom they sell to the Turkes, or other their neighbours. To this purpose they take with them great baskets made like bakers panniers to carric them tenderly, and if any of them happen to tycr, or to be sicke on the way, they dash him against the ground, or some tree and leave him dead." The imbecile Fcodore made no ACCESSION OF BORIS. 93 attempt to resist the invader. He went on ringing the bells, and remarked that the guardian saints of Russia would fight for her. Boris fortified the city, and repulsed the invaders. But he could not make himself popular ; he was even accused of poisoning the infant child of Feodore, who died suddenly. Boris, however, pursued his plans for the improvement of Russia. Archangel was built ; Smolensk, an outpost of the empire, fortified ; and he entered into negoti- ations with many foreign powers. In 1598 Feodore died, terminating a long line of Muscovite princes. Boris was elected to succeed him ; but in order to appear reluctant to undertake the office of Tsar, he retired to a monastery, and kept the people in suspense six weeks before he returned an answer. As soon as he found himself seated on the throne he showed himself a vigorous ruler. One of his great plans was to weaken the power of the nobility and increase that of the Crown ; this had also been the policy of Ivans III. and IV. The latter had removed many of them by execution. To the house of Romanov, united with the imperial family by marriage, Boris showed the greatest hostility, but, as in the case of Mac- beth, an avenger was destined to arise. He compelled the head of that house to become a monk, but we shall see his son Michael elected to the Muscovite throne ; moreover Horsey assi.sted him in a rather discreditable manner by decoying into Russia a niece of Ivan, widow of Duke Magnus of Holstein, who was living at Riga, The Englishman found her " comynge of her daughter's head and hear, a proper gerrell of nien years of age." Owing to his persuasions she was 94 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. induced to return to Russia, and Boris immediately incarcerated her and lier child in a monastery. In 1 60 1 a famine broke out and Boris showed a great deal of energy in grappling with it, but he does not appear to have made himself any more beloved by the people. But just about this time a strange piece of news was spread abroad — that Dmitri, the son of the terrible Ivan, was not actually dead, but had been discovered in Poland. We now come to the story of the false Demetrius, the Perkin Warbeck of Russia, the first of a long series of pretenders, who have made their appearance there, a country especially favourable for their development, owing to the igno- rance and credulity of the people, the great distances between the towns and villages and the constant revolutions dc palais which have varied the course of its history. This extraordinary adventurer first comes on the scene at Bragin in Lithuania, at the seat of Prince Adam Wisniowiecki, a member of an ancient Polish family. He is there discovered in a menial capacity, and reveals himself to the Prince as the actual son of the terrible Ivan who had escaped by the connivance of a physician whom Boris had employed to murder him. It must be confessed that this story wears a romantic air. The pretended Dmitri exhibited a seal and a golden cross, which he said had been given him by his godfather, Prince Ivan M.stislav.ski. Prince Adam appears to have believed the talc of the adventurer, who soon gathered a small court around him in the Polish i)rovince. We are told that his elegant manners quite supported the story of his THE FALSE DEMETRIUS. 95 origin which he had promulgated. According to con- temporary account, he spent " all his spare time in the exercise of those qualities and graces, which render great persons more considerable ; as, riding the great horse, tilting, fencing, and whatever else might bear proportion with that greatness he resolved to pretend to. His conversation among his fellows was reserved, and yet obliging ; towards his master full of respect and submission, not without the mixture of an air which spoke his services more the effect of gratitude than duty." The whole question of the origin of this impostor is beset with the greatest difficulties. We are con- vinced from the evidence that the real Demetrius was assassinated at Uglich, although different accounts are given of his murder. The most commonly received opinion of the antecedents of the preten- der is that he was a monk, whose real 'name was Gregory Otrepiev. Some see in the affair a plot concocted by the Jesuits, with the view of bringing Russia into the pale of the Latin Church, and thus effecting what neither the Council of Florence, nor the marriage of Sophia to Ivan III. — for she seems to have shaken off all her Papal tuition as soon as she entered Russian territory — nor the embassy of Possevino to Ivan IV. could bring about. We cannot help considering this view highly probable, in spite of the elaborate attempts of Father Picrling to upset it in his interesting work, " Rome et Demetrius," Paris, 1878. Others, notably Kostomarov, do not think that the Jesuits hatched the plot, but were willing to make use of it when it had succeeded. We are told that 96 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. the claimant exhibited a great likeness to the terrible Ivan, and that this is conspicuous, if we compare the portraits which have come dowti. But there is no likeness of Ivan IV. which can be relied upon for fidelity : concerning the portraits of Demetrius some- thincf will be said later on. But to return to our narrative. Boris, on hearing the story of the adventurer, tried to get him into his power, but all his attempts failed. The young man was received with royal honours, and George Mniszek, the palatine of Sandomir, betrothed bis daughter to him. In return, the pretender, as we must call him, made some lavish settlements upon his future bride in the prospect of acquiring the Russian Empire, and privately abjured the Greek faith. Marina, his betrothed, was eager for new titles, and has signed herself in the album of the Jagiellon Library of Cracow, as may still be seen, Maryiia Caroiva Moskieivska. The next step in his progress was that Sigismund III., of Poland, a bigoted Roman Catholic and eager for the propagation of his faith, assigned him a pension of 40,000 florins and acknowledged him as Tsar. All things were now ready for the invasion of Russia, which country the adventurer entered on the 31st of Octo- ber, 1604, by way of the government of Chernigov. Town after town capitulated to him, but he suffered a repulse before Novgorod Scvcrski. Near this place a great battle occurred, in wliich the Tsar's troops would certainly have been defeated, if it had not been for the vigour of Basmanov, the commander appointed by Boris. The battle is described by Captain DEATH OF BORIS. 97 Margeret, who was present and now becomes a valuable authority. He was a French mercenary, first in the service of Boris and afterwards of the Pretender. He came to Russia in 1601 and quitted it in 1606. But Basmanov was soon afterwards recalled, perhaps because the Tsar, in the midst of his anxieties, mistrusted everybody. In his place was substituted a general named Shuiski, of whom we shall shortly hear more. On the 21st of January a great battle took place at Dobrinichi, not far from Orel. The false Dmitri suffered a com- plete defeat, losing almost all his infantry, chiefly through the bravery of the foreign legion in the service of Boris, one of the members of which was Margeret A great many prisoners were taken, and all the Russians captured in the Polish camp were hanged on the spot. Demetrius, with the rest of his forces, retired to Putivl, where he remained till May. We next hear of the two armies drawn up near each other at Kromi, but they remained inactive till the startling news arrived of the death of Boris. On the 13th of April, 1605, he presided at the Council-board and gave an audience to some foreigners. After a banquet on that day he was suddenly taken ill, bleed- ing from the nose and mouth. He had just time to assume the garb of a monk, and expired in the fifty- third year of his age. He had reigned six years. " Some say he died of an Apoplexie, others (the fancied Fate of most Princes) that he was poysoned " (" The Russi,an Impostor," p. 59) ; Olearius thinks that he died of grief. It is difficult to believe that his death was natural, as it happened so opportunely for S 98 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AUTOCRACY. his enemies, and the symptoms resembled those of poisoning. Massa, the Dutchman, who must have had frequent opportunities of seeing Boris, describes him as a man of short stature, somewhat corpulent, and with a round face. His hair and beard were grizzled, and he walked with difficulty on account of the gout. Before continuing our narrative of the events of the " Period of Troubles," as it has been called by Russian historians, a few words must be said about the remarkable man whose death has just been recorded. However dubious the method may have been by which Boris attained the crown — and we must remember that the whole affair is enveloped in mystery — it cannot be doubted that he was a man of vigorous character, and his views were in advance of his age. He seems to have fully realized the idea that Russia must be removed from her Chinese isola- tion and brought into closer contact with European civilization. Among his plans for effecting this change, he caused young Russians to be sent for education to the western parts of Europe. Some went to France, some to Liibeck, and some to England. There seems great doubt as to whether any of these students returned to Russia : those who came to England certainly refused to go back. Perhaps two of their number were those mentioned in Walker's "Sufferings of the Clergy" as having been sent to Oxford, where they died of the small- pox. We find a Russian a clergyman of the Church of England, dispossessed by the Puritans in 1643. He is called by Walker, Mikepher Alphery (qu. INTESTINE STRUGGLES. 99 Nikiphor Alferiev). The subject, though interesting, is too lengthy to pursue farther, but see Prof. Bruckner, Istoria Pctra Velikago (" History of Peter the Great "), p. 201. During the sixteenth century the rural pea- sant {krestianiii) had been gradually losing his freedom, Boris gave a legal sanction to this change in his condition and bound him to the soil. This servile position was ratified by the Ulozhenie of 1649. In this respect he sanctioned a very retrogressive mea- sure, but the whole subject of Russian serfdom will be fully discussed in a subsequent chapter. With the death of Boris ends the period of the consolidation of the Russian autocracy and of vigorous rule ; we now come to a time of intestine struggles and weakness, and for more than a quarter of a century Russia is an easy prey to her enemies. VI. THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. THE TWO PRE- CURSORS OF PETER, MICHAEL AND ALEXIS. (1605-1682.) On the death of Boris, his son Feodore, a youth of sixteen, was proclaimed his successor. Shuiski and Mstislavski returned to Moscow to assist him in the government, but we shall see the adherents of the young Tsar gradually falling off, as they probably felt that he was too weak to hold the reins of power. Basmanov, who had again taken the command of the army, no sooner reached the camp than he went over to the pretender, whom he proclaimed Tsar. He was at once ordered to march on the capital. After taking Krasnoe Selo, a wealthy suburb of the city, he entered Moscow in triumph, and proclaimed Dmitri there also. The people rose, murdered Feodore and his mother, and ordered the body of Boris to be dis- interred and buried outside the walls of the city. A rumour was circulated that the young Tsar and his mother had poisoned themselves, but Petreius, the Swedish envoy, whose account has come down, declares that he saw on their necks indubitable marks XENIA THE TSAREVNA. 101 of their having been strangled. Xenia, the youthful daughter of Boris, a girl of beauty and spirit, was kept in prison till the conqueror on his arrival should have decided her fate. There is a pretty little poem in which she is represented as deploring her sad destiny. It is a Russian bilina, and by the strangest of fates was taken down probably from recitation by a certain Richard James, a graduate of Oxford, who was in Russia, as chaplain to the Embassy in 1619, and whose MSS. are preserved in the Bodleian Library. A few lines of it are here added : " The little bird laments, The white quail, Oh ! how must I weep, young as I am — They are going to burn the vigorous oak, To destroy my little nest. To kill my little fledglings, And to capture me, the quail. The Tsarevna weeps in IMoscow, Alas ! I, the youthful, must mourn Because the traitor is coming to Moscow, Grishka Otrepiev, the unfrocked priest. Who wishes to take me prisoner. And having imprisoned me, to make me a nun, And to put me among those who wear black robes ; But I do not wish to be a nun, 1 Or to wear the black robe — The dark cell must be thrown open, So that I may see the youths in their bravery, Alas ! for our pleasant greetings : Who will come among you After us, with our lordly lives, And after the Tsar Boris. Thus the Tsarevna weeps in Moscow, The daughter of Boris Godunov — O God, merciful Saviour, Why is our empire destroyed ? It is for the sins of my father, For my mother's lack of prayer." 102 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. The name of Xenia — a thoroughly good old Russian appellation, which had almost fallen into disuse in the country — has been revived in the case of one of the daughters of the present emperor. The adventurer entered the city of Moscow on the 30th of June, 1605. A series of processions and feast- ings took place. One of his first acts was to pay a visit to his mother, who had been shut up in a monas- tery by Boris. She professed to identify him, but as we shall find that she afterwards was equally willing to declare him an impostor, we need not be surprised ; she was probably glad to have any pretext to escape from her imprisonment. He soon, however, began to give offence by his neglect of Russian customs, his fondness for Roman Catholics, and his openly expressed contempt for the ignorance of his subjects. But even as it was, he was not quick enough for his Jesuit supporters in his opposition to Orthodox practices — a circumstance upon which some historians have dwelt, as showing that he was not really sym- pathetic with the Latins. Nor indeed was Mniszek, his father-in-law, a very bigoted adherent of that faith, for he had another daughter married to a member of the Greek Church, and docs not appear to have attempted to exercise any influence over him. In the following year, Marina, his betrothed bride, made her entry into Moscow with a splendid retinue, but the cortege gave little pleasure to the Rus- sians — they saw to their horror the city swarming with heretic Poles. The marriage took place on the iStii of Ma\-, and eleven days afterwards a conspiracy broke (jut at the head of which was ASSASSINATION OF DMITRI. I03 Shuiski, whose life the pretender had shortly before spared, when he had been detected in a plot against him. On the night of May the 29th, the Tsar heard a noise, and, finding himself surprised by his enemies and all Moscow, in appearance, in insurrection, attempted to escape by leaping from the window into the courtyard below. He fell, however, and broke his leg, and as he lay defenceless on the ground was stabbed by the conspirators. Massa, the Dutchman pre- viously mentioned, who saw his body, tells us that he had twenty-one wounds. Peter Basmanov was killed in a gallery adjoining the emperor's apartment. Their bodies were exposed at Moscow for three days and then buried : that of the pretender, however, was afterwards exhumed and burnt. Such was the fate of this mysterious man. Margeret speaks of him very favourably, and is at great pains to refute the idea that he was a pupil of the Jesuits. Some authors have asserted that he could converse in Latin and Polish. But with regard to the former language Margeret speaks most emphatically : "II est tres certain qu'il ne parloit nullement Latin, j'en puis temoigner, moins le s9avoit-il lire et ecrire." A con- temporary portrait of him engraved by Luke Kilian, and published at Vienna in 1606, represents a man of rather coarse features, with two warts on his face. Whoever this man may have been, the public opinion of the time was, that he was the mf:striga (unfrocked priest), Grishka Otrepiev and none other, as we see 'by the contemporary biliiia : — " Thou O God, our dear Saviour, Why wert Thou so soon angry with us ? i04 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. Thou hast sent us, O God, the deceiver, The wicked unfrocked priest, Grishka Otrepiev, Did he, the razstriga, really sit on the throne ? He called himself the lawful Tsar, The Tsar Dmitri Ivanovich of Uglich. IjUi the razstriga did not long sit on the throne. The razstriga wisned to marry ; But he did not take a wife in stone-built Moscow, Among his own kindred, He took one from cursed Lithuania, Marina, the daughter of Prince Yuri of Sandomir, The wicked heretic, the godless woman." As regards Marina, she escaped at the time of her husband's murder, and was at first imprisoned. Her subsequent fate will be told in the course of the nar- rative. On the death of the false Demetrius, the boyars convened an assembly, and elected Basil Shuiski, one of those who had conspired against him as Tsar. But his position was a very precarious one. A second false Demetrius made his appearance — altogether an ephemeral person. This man seized a fortified position at Tushino, a village situated about twelve versts from Moscow. Here he was joined by vast bands of marauders, whose sole aim was pillage, and never rose above the position of a vulgar thief and freebooter ; but Marina, an ambitious woman, rather than return to Poland as an object of derision, recog- nized him as her husband, who, of course, was sup- posed to have escaped in some miraculous way, and on being released from imprisonment by Shuiski, managed to find access to his cani[). The army of this impostor defeated that of Shuiski with great slaughter near Volkhov on the 24lh of April, 1608. But after this his cause rapidly declined. An attack POLISH INVASION. I05 which he made upon the Troitsa Monastery near Moscow was a complete failure. About the end of September, 1609, the Poles, taking advantage of its disturbed state, invaded the country, afterwards defeated Shuiski at Klushino, a village to the north-east of Moscow, and sent him as prisoner to Poland, where he died in confinement. The second false Dmitri, as we must call him, is next heard of at Kaluga, everywhere robbing and killing at the head of gangs of Cossacks and Tatars, by one of whom he was murdered in 16 10. The Poles were naturally eager to avenge the great numbers of their country- men who had been slain at Moscow, when the rebellion broke out against the pretender. Wladys- law or Ladislaus, the son of Sigismund III., of Poland, caused himself to be elected Tsar by force of arms, and held the supreme power for two years, owing, no doubt, to the exhausted condition of the country, for it is impossible to conceive the Russians, as tolerating for any conceivable period a sovereign of the Latin faith. The patriotism of the people was aroused by the energy of Minin, a butcher of Nizhni Novgorod and Prince Pozharski, -who took the command of the army, and finally after a fierce struggle the Poles were driven from the country. They did not go, however, without considerable booty. Olearius sa)-s, " The great duke's treasury was ransacked, as also the churches and monasteries, out of which the Polanders got and sent into Poland an incredible quantity of gold, silver, and precious stones, among which, the Muscovites do to this day, regret the loss of a certain unicorn's horn enriched with diamonds. They say Io6 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. the soldiery got such a booty that some of them charged their pistols with great round pearls." A meeting of the boyars now took place, Princes Mstislavski and Pozharski refused the crown, and Michael Romanov was put forward as a candidate. He was only a youth of sixteen, but had been recom- mended to the nation by the virtues of his father Philarete, who had endured great persecution at the hands of Boris. The father was associated with his son in the government. According to Strahlenberg, and others, Michael, before his coronation, was obliged to sign a kind of charter, by which the autocracy was limited. Ustrialov, however, the Russsian historian, denies this, and it seems at least dubious. But the boyars and the clergy, during the seventeenth century, made efforts to limit the authority of the Tsar, and we shall find attempts of the same kind at the beginning of the reign of the Empress Anne. (In some of the ukazes the words " and the boyars assented " arc added.) There were occasionally symp- toms that Russia might become an oligarchy on the model of that of the Poles. The Romanovs were an old family of nobles, and had already given a Tsaritsa to the Russians, the first wife of Ivan IV. There is a pretty story that the life of the young sovereign was saved by the fidelity of a peasant named Ivan Susanin, who, when the Poles were in search of him, misled them, and atoned for his devotion by his life. Although this pleasing legend has been made the theme of many poems and a very popular opera, there arc many reasons for doubting it, especially since the researches of Kostomarov, The young Tsar ascended TREATY WITH SWEDEN. I07 the throne in 161 3, but, althou$;h the Russians had found a native ruler, their country was far from enjoy- ing tranquillity. Many districts were still held by the Poles ; Cossacks (we shall shortly sketch the origin of this people) were wandering about the country in marauding bands, at the head of whom was Zarutski, who held out at Astrakhan. To him Marina had fled with her infant child by the second Demetrius. He was captured, however, in 16 14, and brought to Moscow with Marina and her offspring. The former Tsaritsa was imprisoned for life, her child hanged and Zarutski impaled. The Poles refused to abandon their claims upon the country, or to recognize Michael as Tsar ; the Russians also had some difficulties with the Swedes. They contrived, however, to arrange matters with that country by the treaty of Stolbovo near Lake Ladoga. By this treaty Sweden obtained Ingermanland and Karelia with the sum of twenty thousand roubles and recovered all her former rights in Livonia, while Novgorod and all other Swedish conquests in Russia were given up. When Gustavus met the Estates at Stockholm in 1617, he laid before them a full report of this treaty, and showed them on a map how by the peace of Stolbovo, Russia was completely shut out from the Baltic ; and " that," he added, " we will hope, by God's help, will always prove too wide a jump, even for a Russian." Hcu ! vatuni igiianc mciitcs ! The city of St. Petersburg now includes within its area the spot on which a stone was erected, with the three crowns of Sweden carved thereon, with a Latin inscription. I08 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. The Russians were then free to carry on their struggle with the Poles, and Ladislaus was bent on again marching direct to Moscow. But finally a truce for fourteen years was agreed upon (1618) at Delilino, a village near Moscow, adjoining the cele- brated Troitsa monastery, which had been so gallantly defended by the Russians against the Poles. Even upon this occasion Ladislaus did not renounce his claim to the crown, but we shall see afterwards that he made no further attempt to obtain it by force. By the terms of this treaty, Philarete, the father of the young Tsar, who had been detained in captivity by the Poles, was allowed to return to his native country, and made Patriarch. During the early part of the reign of Michael the nobles seem to have been especially turbulent, and would probably soon have reduced the power of the Tsar to the same condition of insignificance as that of the King of Poland. By bringing false accusations against the first wife of Michael, Maria Dolgorukaya, they caused her to be divorced, and they were suspected of having' poisoned the second, Evdokia Streshneva. On this account the King of Denmark is said to have refused the hand of his niece to Michael. lie considered as suspicious the death of his brother, who had come to Moscow to be betrothed to Xenia, the daughter of Godunov ; but the prince seems in reality to have died of hard drinking — a mode of death which we shall find repeated in the case of other princes in Russia. Throughout this reign we sec Russia becoming more and more influenced by Western civilization. The settlement with Sweden SCOTCH ADVENTURERS. 109 has already been spoken of. In 1G29 an ambassador from Louis XIII. of France appeared at Moscow, with the view of concluding a commercial treaty and disturbing the English monopoly, but it resulted in a failure. The country now began to swarm with foreign adventurers, among whom the Scotch were very prominent. There had been Scotchmen in the body-guard of the false Demetrius, and we shall soon find Hamiltons, Bruces, Gordons, Leslies, and Craw- furds ; some of these men died m Russia and founded families, their names surviving in strangely perverted forms, thus the first of these Scotch patronymics has become Khomutov. An attempt of the Russians to get back Smolensk, a border city constantly changing hands, was unsuccessful ; and the two Russian com- manders, Shein and Izmailov, were executed for their incapacity or treason. But Poland was now glad to come to terms with Russia. Sigismund III. had died in 1632, and in 1634 the treaty of Delilino was ratified. Poland kept possession of Smolensk and Chernigov, but recognized the Emperor Michael as Tsar, a title which up to that time they had not acknowledged, and gave up all claims to the crown of Russia. A strange event occurred at this time which was a kind of foreshadowing of what was to take place on a greater scale before the century closed. Some Cossacks of the Don, who belonged to Russia, aided by some of their compatriots, who were nominally subject to Poland, in one of their periodical raids against the Turks, seized the town of Azov — a most important position, as giving the Russians a footing on the Black Sea, and offered it to the Tsar of no THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. Muscovy. There was a deliberation for some time in the duina, as the Council of the Empire was called ; but the report of those sent to examine the place was that the fortifications were dilapidated, and there- fore there would be need of much expense, and moreover it would be too advanced a post for the Russians at that time to hold. A contemporary- account of this event has come down to us, which is an interesting specimen of the literary style of the earlier part of the seventeenth century. We are indebted to the pages of Adam Olearius, the ambassador from the Duke of Holstein, who visited the country in 1634 and 1636, for a complete descrip- tion of the city of Moscow ; it enables us to form an idea of the old city before the transformation wrought by Peter, and we may compare it with Herberstein's account. It is here partly transferred to our pages : " The streets of Moscow are handsome, and very broad, but so dirty, after rain hath ever so little moistened the ground, that it were impossible to get out of the dirt, were it not for the great posts, which set together make a kind of bridge, much like that of the Rhine, near Strassburg, which bridges, in foul weather serve for a kind of pavement. The city is divided into four quarters or circuits, whereof the first is called Cataigorod [Kitaigorod], that is, the mid city, as being in the midst of the others [this derivation is inaccurate]. This quarter is divided from the rest by a brick wall, which the Muscovites call crasiic stcnna [krasnaia sticna], that is, red stone [properly the red wall]. The Moska [Moskva] passes on tlie south side of it, and the river Neglina, which joins with the other OLEARIUS'S DESCRIPTION OF MOSCOW. Ill behind the castle, on the north side. The great Duke's palace, called Cremelena [/>., Kremlin, Russ. Kreml], and which is of greater extent than many other ordinary cities, takes up almost one half of it, and is fortified with three strong walls and a good ditch, and very well mounted with cannon. In the midst of the castle arc two steeples, one very high and covered with copper-gilt, as all the other steeples of the castle are. This steeple is called Juan Welike [Ivan Veliki], that is, the Great John. The other is considerable only for the bell within it, made by the Great Duke Boris Gudenov [Godunov], weighing 33,600 pounds. It is not tolled but upon great festivals, or to honour the entrance and audience of ambassadors ; but to stir it there must be twenty-four men, who pull it by a rope that comes down into the court, while some others are above to help it on by thrusting. The Great Duke's palace stands toward the further side of the castle, with that of the Patriarch and apart- ments for several Bojares [boyars], who have places at court. There is also lately built a very fair palace of stone, according to the Italian architecture for the young Prince, but the Great Duke continues still in his wooden palace, as being more healthy than stone- structures. The exchequer and the magazine of powder and provisions are also within the castle. " There are also within it two fair monasteries, one for men, the other for women, and above fifty churches and chapels, all built of stone ; among others those of the B. Trinity, St. Mary's, St. INIichacl's, wherein are the sepulchres of the Great Dukes and St. Nicholas. .J DKLbSEb ci|- ,SL\ l..\ 1 LL.N I 1 1 iKNlTRV. THE PEOPLE OF MOSCOW. II3 " At the castle gate, but without the walls, on the south side, is a fair church dedicated to the V>. Trinity, and commonly called Jerusalem. When it was finished the tyrant John Basilowits [Vasilicvich], thought it so magnificent a structure that he caused the architect's eyes to be put out that he might not afterwards do anything that should be comparable to that. [This story has been told of many tyrants and does not apply to Ivan, as stated before. In the same wav, we find tales narrated about him which arc also narrated of the cruel Moldavian despot, Drakula, and of Louis XI. of France.] " Near this church are two great pieces of cannon, with the mouths toward that street by which the Tatars were wont to make their irruptions ; but these pieces are now dismounted and useless. In the spacious place before the Castle is the chief market of the city kept ; all day it is full of people, but especially slaves and idle persons. All the market- place is full of shops as also all the streets abutting upon it : but every trade hath a station by itself, so as that mercers intermingle not with linen or woollen drapers, nor goldsmiths with saddlers, shoemakers, tailors, furriers, and the like, but every profession and trade hath its proper street.: which is so much the greater convenience in that a man does, of a sudden, cast his eye on all he can desire. Sempstresses have their shops in the midst of the market : there is a particular street where are sold the images of their saints. 'Tis true these go not under the name of merchandize among the Muscovites, who would make 9 114 TfiE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. some difficulty to say they had bought a saint ; but they say they receive them by way of exchange or trucking for money : and so when they buy, they make no bargain, but lay down what the painter demands. " The second quarter is called Czaargorod [Tsar- gorod], that is, the Tsar's city or the city royal, and includes the former as it were in a semicircle. The little river Ncglina passes through the midst of it, and it hath its particular wall, called Bicla Stenna [Bielaia Stiena] that is, the white wall. In this quarter is the Arsenal and the place where the guns and bells are cast, which is called Pogganabrud [Pogani Brod ? ; as far as one can make out from the cor- rupted forms of the Russian words, this signifies, " The Way of the Gentiles " or heathens, because foreigners dwelt there], the management whereof the Great Duke hath bestowed on a very able man, one John Valk, born at Nuremberg, whom he sent for out of Holland for this reason, that he was the first who found a way to discharge a bullet of sixteen pound weight with five pound of powder. The Muscovites, who have wrought under this man, have so well learned the mystery of founding, that now they arc as expert in it as the most experienced Germans. ' In this quarter also there live many Knez [l';ii(j:yia] Lords, Sinbojares [Si/ii Iwyars/cic], or gentlemen, and a great number of merchants, who drive a trade all the country over, and tradesmen, especially bakers. There arc also some butchers' shambles, and tippling- houscs, which sell beer, hydromcl and strong-water THE STRELTSi. 115 [brandy], storehouses of wheat, meal shops, and the Great Duke's stables. " The third quarter is called Skoradom [Skorodom], and includes the quarter called Czaargorod from the east along the north side to the west. The Mus- covites affirm that this quarter was five German leagues about, before the city was burnt by the Tatars in the year 1571, The little river Jagusa [Yaousa] passes through it, and in its way falls into the Mosca [Moskva]. In this quarter is the market for wood and houses before mentioned ; where you may have houses ready-made, which may be taken asunder, transported thence and set up anywhere else in a short time and with little pains and charge, since they consist only of beams and posts, set one upon the other, and the vacuities are filled up with moss, [The writer remembers seeing a house moved in this way in a Russian village in 1870.] " The fourth quarter is called Strelitza Slalioda [Strelitskaia Sloboda], because of the Strelits [Streltsi], or musketeers of the Great Duke's guard, who live in it. It is situated towards the south of Cataigorod, on the other side of the Mosca, upon the avenues of the Tatars. Its ramparts and bastions are of wood. The Great Duke Basili Juanouits [Vasilii Ivanovich], father of Basilouits [Vasiiievich], who built this quarter, designed it for the quarters of such soldiers as were strangers, as Poles, Germans, and others, naming that place Naeilki [Naleiki], or the quarter of drunkards from the word na/i [nalei], which signifies /^?^r out: for these strangers being more inclined to drunkenness than the Muscovites. U3 H OS H ACCESSION OF ALEXIS. II7 [Such, however, was very far from the opinion of other contemporary travellers. Let us see, for ex- ample, the verses of George Turberville vide chapter on " Russian Institutions and Manners." We must remember that these foreigners would not keep the severe fasts of the Russians.] He would not have his own people, who were apt enough to debauch them- selves, to become so much the worse by the other's bad example. Besides the soldiery, the poorer sort of the people have their habitations in this quarter. There is the city and suburbs of Moscow, a very Gfreat number of churches, monasteries and chapels." Thus far our enterprising traveller, who has left us one of the most picturesque books on old Russia. Michael died in 1645, and was succeeded by his son Alexis. In this reign Russia made distinct pro- gress, and Alexis was in many respects the precursor of his famous son Peter. He has been forcibly brought before us by the narrations of foreigners in his service, whereas IMichael is a more shadowy personage. We have the very interesting book of Collins (" The Present State of Russia in a Letter to a Friend at London." London, 167 1), his physician, who has furnished us with minute details of the Tsar's daily life ; of Olearius, previously mentioned ; and the diary of the Scottish adventurer, Patrick Gordon (" Tagebuch des Generals Patrick Gordon,' &c., three vols., Moscow and St. Petersburg, edited by Dr. M. Posselt, 1 849-1 85 3 ; also "Diary of General Patrick Gordon," Aberdeen, 1859). At the beeinnintj of the reign of the Tsar, a new false Dmitri made his appearance. He was in reality the Il8 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. son of a Hnendraper of Volgoda. He would have been of no political importance had not his cause been supported by Queen Christina of Sweden, who showed him great civility at her court. She probably was actuated by the same motives as induced Margaret of Burgundy to support Perkin Warbcck. She saw thereby an opportunity of annoying an enemy, as the relations between Sweden and Russia were never very friendly. The career, however, of the impostor was but a short one. Having ventured to visit the dominions of the Duke of Holstein, he was surrendered by him to the emissaries of Alexis at Neustadt in Prussian Saxony, taken to Moscow, and there executed. In 1648 a great riot broke out in the latter city, on account of the severity of the taxes and the gross abuses of justice tolerated by the Tsar's favourite Boris Morozov. The mob murdered several of the boyars, and the riot was only quelled with con- siderable bloodshed. The most minute account of it which has come down to our own times is contained in the letter of an eye-witness preserved among the Ashmolcan manuscripts at Oxford. In 1662 another riot occurred on account of the depreciation of the coinage. The reprisals on this occasion were even more sanguinary, and the wretched peasants, who had been goaded into rebellion, were hanged and drowned by hundreds. Among the events of the reign of Alexis, the fol- lowing arc of the greatest importance, as affecting the future of Russia :— (I; In 1647 the Tsar published his Ulozhcnie^ ORIGIN OF THE COSSACKS. IIQ or Book of Ordinances, which was a further develop- ment of the codes of Ivans III. and IV., already alluded to in a brief survey of Russian jurisprudence. The details of the work were entrusted to Princes Odoievski and Volkonski. The original manuscript is still preserved on one long roll. The cruelty of many of the punishments inflicted is striking. It is curious to find that the penalty for a man who smoked a pipe of tobacco was to have his nose cut off. Alexis seems to have had as great a detestation of the American weed as the author of the famous "Counter Blast," but times were to change, and a well-known portrait of Peter the Great represents him sitting in a sailor's dress, enjoying a pipe. Alexis was very anxious that justice should be done to his subjects ; at his palace there was a special box into which all petitions were placed, and these were afterwards taken to the emperor. Collins says, " In the night season the Tsar will go about and visit his Chancellor's desks, and see what decrees are passed, and what petitions are unanswered." He was very much assisted in State affairs by his minister Ordin- Nastchokin, of whom Collins always speaks in the highest terms of eulogy. (2) In this reign the Cossacks on the Dnieper, under their hetman, Bogdan Khmelnitzki, became subject to the Russian Government. In order to understand thoroughly the importance of this event, we must retrace our steps and inquire into the origin of this people. The name, more properly written Kazak, is of Tatar origin, and originally signifies a robber. It gradually came to have something like 120 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. the meaning of the Scotch land-louper. These Cossacks were a mixed race of Malo-Russians, Poles, Tatars, Great Russians, and other adventurers, who occupied the wild and thinly-peopled territories lying to the south of Russia and Poland, between these countries and those of the Tatars and Turks. They were at quite an early period divided into two large tribes— those of the Don and those of the Dnieper. The Don Cossacks acknowledged the sovereignty of Russia as early as the days of Ivan the Terrible ; the Cossacks of the Dnieper had for a long time been nominally subject to the Poles. They had founded a military republic called the Sech, which was established on some islands in that river. The Dnieper Cossacks are sometimes called Zapo- rozhski, because they lived beyond the cataracts of the Dnieper. They were ruled by a hetman (probably the German hauptmann ; c/. Bohemian hejtman : in Russian it takes the form ataman), whom themselves appointed, but the confirmation of the election depended upon the king, who invested him with his authority by means of a bundduik or standard of horses' tails, and a biilava or mace. They made frequent attacks upon Turkish territory, and committed devastations up to the very walls of Constantinople. They are first mentioned in history in i 506, in the time of Sigismund I. Stephen 15atory, who reigned in Poland from 1576 to 1586, organized them into six regiments of one thousand men each. He found them very useful as an advance guard for resisting the encroachments of llic Tatars and Turks, just as THE COSSACKS REVOLT FROM POLAND. 121 we find the Austrians establishing their mih'tary colonies of granicJiari, or frontiermen, in the eigh- teenth century. To the south of Poland stretched vast steppes, which were a kkid of neutral territory, and were the scenes of the foraj-s of the various barbarous races which surjoundcd them — Slavs, Roumans, Turks, and Tatars. The history of this part of Europe must be gathered, not only from the Slavonic, but also from the Roumanian chroniclers. We have little but massacres in them, and the account of tyrants such as Vlad the impaler, in Wallachian history. The Poles treated the Cossacks with contemptuous seventy, and we hear of many of their hetmans being put to death. An illustration of the estimation in which they were held by their masters is furnished by Lengnich in his "Jus Publicum Regni Poloni." After telling- us that the soldiers had wished to have a vote in the election of the kings, but had been refused, he adds " Cosaci, qui in iisdem, A. 1632, comitiis, idem quod milites expetebant, non sine indignatione an- diebantur quod ex infima plebe colluvies nobilibus aequari vcllent. Hoc illis dato responso, quod neque ad electionem, neque ad ulla publica consilia per- tinerent, sed essesenatorum et nobilitatis de republica agere," After a long series of insults endured from their masters the Cossacks in the time of the hetman Bogdan Khmelnitski were ripe for revolt. This man had endured a crreat deal of insult and wrong at the iri hands of the Polish pans. His standard was joined by hordes of Tatars from Bessarabia and the struggle partook to a large extent of the nature of a 122 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. holy war, as the Cossacks and Malo-Russians generally were of the Greek faith, and their violence was directed against the Roman Catholics and Jews. It would be useless to encumber our pages with the details of the brutal massacres inflicted by the in- furiated peasants in this Jacquerie: unfortunately their atrocities had been provoked by the cruelties of their masters. Bogdan succeeded in taking Lemberg, and became master of all the palatinate, with the ex- ception of Zamosc, a fortress into which the Polish authorities retreated. On the election of John Casimir as king of Poland, he at once opened negotiations with thn successful Cossack, and matters were about to be arranged peacefully. Khmelnitski accepted the l?n/a2'a of a hetman, which was offered him by the king. The Cossacks demanded the restoration of their ancient privileges, the removal of the detested Union— as the attempt to amalgamate the Greek and Latin Churches was called— the banishment of the Jesuits from the Ukraine, and the expulsion of the Jews, with other conditions. They were rejected, however, as impossible, and Prince Wisniowiecki, taking advantage of the security into which the Cossacks were lulled, fell upon them treacherously and defeated them with great slaughter. All compromise now seemed hopeless, but the desertion of his Tatar allies made Bogdan again listen to terms at Zborow. The peace, however, was of short duration, and on the 2Sth of June, 165 1, at the battle of Bercstcc/.ko in Galicia, the hosts of l^ogdan were defeated with great slaughter. After this engagement Bogdan saw ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY. 1 23 that he had no chance of withstanding the Poles by his own resources, and accordingly sent an embassy to Moscow in 1652, offering to transfer himself and his confederates to the allegiance of the Tsar. The negotiations were protracted for some time, and were concluded at Pereiaslavl, when Bogdan and seventeen Malo-Russian regiments took theoath to Buturlin, the Tsar's commissioner. Quite recently a monument has been erected to the Cossack chief at Kiev, but he seems, to say the least, to have been a man of doubt- ful honesty. Since this time the Cossacks have formed an integral part of the Russian Empire, and in the subsequent pages of this work we shall find opportunities of tracing their fortunes. (3) We must now turn to the important acquisitions of territory. In this reign by the treaty of Andru- szowo in 1667, the Russians got back Smolensk, Chernigov, and some places beyond the Dnieper ; and temporary possession of Kiev was given, as a sort of guarantee, which we shall find remaining with them according: to the terms of a later treatv. It will be remembered that these towns had been taken by the Lithuanians at the time of Russia's weakness and dismemberment, or in all probability they would have gravitated to the rising principality of Moscow. They had been united with a sort of home-rule to Poland on the marriage of Jagiello and Jadviga in the fourteenth century, and annexed permanently to that country by the treaty of Lublin in 1569. The Russians must have been especially pleased to get the sacred city Kiev, rich with so many associations. (4) In this reign we have the great rebellion of 124 ^^^ PERIOD OF TROUBLES. Stenka Razin, the Cossack robber who was for a long time an object of terror to the inhabitants of the banks of the Volga. There are many stories nar- rated of this chief, and in the bilini, which have been orally transmitted for generations, he is always treated as a hero. Alexis, ordinarily a very humane man, at first pardoned him, but he broke out again, was joined by a host of adventurers ; and ruled from Nizhni- Novgorod to Astrakhan. We shall find his parallel in the Cossack Pugachev, a hundred years later. He was eventually captured, brought to Moscow and there executed in 1671. In the words of one of the ballads celebrating his achievements — " They have taken the good youth, They have bound his white hands, They have taken him to stone-built Moscow ; And on the glorious Red Square, They have cut olT his rebellious head." (5) In the reign of Alexis took place the great revision of the Bible, carried out by the energy of Nicon, the Patriarch, who, finding that the church- books were full of ridiculous blunders caused by ignorant copyists, procured a quantity of the best Greek manuscripts from Mount Athos and other places. In 1655, and the following year, he suminoned two councils of the church, at which the newly-trans- lated service-books were promulgated and the old ones called in. In consequence of tliis change, a great schism took place in the Russian Church, a number of people attaching a superstitious veneration to the old books, errors and all. Thus was formed NICON THE PATRIARCH. 125 the large sect of the Staro-obriadtsi or Raskohiiks, still existing in Russia, who have suffered great perse- cutions at many periods of her history. There were other influences at work, however, besides a fondness for the old-fashioned books ; the clergy, as will be seen afterwards, had arrogated to themselves a higher social position and acquired wealth, in imitation of the Polish, and these changes were alien to the NICON. old Russian spirit. Nicon afterwards fell into dis- grace and was degraded from the patriarchate. The reign of Alexis has been illustrated to Russian readers by the remarkable work of the dzak (or clerk) Koto- shikhin. This man had been employed by the Govern- ment in diplomatic affairs, and having got into trouble fled to Poland about 1664, whence he passed into Sweden, and wrote his account of Russia while in that 126 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. country. A further account of this interesting book will be found in the chapter devoted to Russian literature. It is curious to find from the Russian archives that Alexis furnished our Charles II. with money, when he was a wanderer and in needy circum- stances. Charles I. during his confinement in Caris- brooke Castle wrote a letter to the Russian Emperor (June I, 1648). A letter was also sent by Charles II., announcing the execution of his father, dated September, 16, 1649, and brought to Moscow by Lord Culpepper. No communications between Crom- well and Alexis are preserved in the Imperial Archives. The latter is reputed to have said that all legitimate sovereigns ought to combine against such a usurper. It appears, however, that the Tsar afterwards relaxed, and, probably for the benefit of trade, allowed an ambassador to reside at Moscow during the Pro- tectorate. In 1664, when Charles was safely seated on the throne of his ancestors, he sent an embassy to his good friend Alexis, which has been graphically described by the Secretary, Guy Micgc. The follow- ing extracts will be found interesting, and give some idea of the Tsar's magnificence : — " From thence we came into a hall, through which we were to pass into that of the audience, and here it was we saw the guards of the Tsar's body in a most splendid equipage, their vests of velvet being lined with sables, their caps richly adornetl with pearls and precious stones, and their very partisans covered with gold and silver. Near the door of the liall of audience the Ambassador received a third compli- MIEGE'S DESCRIPTION OF ALEXIS. 12^ ment from the Tsar's own cousin. After which we opened to the right and left, and the Ambassador entered first into the hall, after him my lord Morpeth, and then the gentlemen and the pages. " And here it was we were like those who, coming suddenly out of the dark, are dazzled with the brightness of the sun ; the splendour of their jewels seeming to contend for priority with that of the day, so that we were lost, as it were, in this confusion of glory. The Tsar, like a sparkling sun (to speak in the Russian dialect), darted forth most sumptuous rays, being most magnificently placed upon his throne, with his sceptre in his hand, and having his crown upon his head. His throne was of massy silver gilt, wrought curiously on the top with several works and pyramids, and being seven or eight steps higher than the floor it rendered the person of the Prince transcendently majestic. His crown (which he wore upon a cap lined with black sables), was covered quite over with precious stones ; it terminated towards the top in the form of a pyramid, with a golden cross on the spire. The sceptre glistened also all over with jewels ; his vest was set with the like from the top to the bottom down the opening before, and his collar was answerable to the same. By his side he had four of the tallest of his lords standing below his throne, each of them with his battle-axe upon his shoulder, and with a profound gravity casting their eyes now and then upon their Tsar inviting us to an admiration of his grandeur. Their habits were no less remarkable than their coun- tenances, being all four of them, from the top of COURT GRANDEUR. i2g their head to the sole of their foot, clothed in white vests of ermine, and having great chains of gold, and their caps of that large sort which they use in the ceremonies, but whereas others were of black fox, these were of ermine, as well as their vests ; their very boots also were covered with the same. But that which was further admirable was the glorious equipage of the Boyars present at this audience, who were as so many beams of the sun elevated in his triumphal car, and seemed to have no lustre but to do homage withal to their great monarch. They were about two hundred, clothed all with vests of cloth of gold, cloth of silver or velvet set with jewels, all placed in order upon benches covered with tapestry about by the wall ; the floor being raised there three or four steps higher and about the breadth of a good walk. At the entrance into the hall there was a great number also of his goses (gosti), which are his merchants or factors, whom he furnishes with rich robes to appear at such ceremonies. This was the splendour we found this great prince in, with a coun- tenance perfectly majestic, as having not only the advantage of a handsome proportion, but of a lively and vigorous age, for this was but his four and thirtieth year." We have previously alluded to Gordon's service under the Emperor Alexis ; he arrived in the country in the year i66l, and had an audience of the Tsar at the village of Kolomenskoe, near Moscow, where he generally resided. Gordon received a commission as major in a regiment commanded by Crawfurd, a Scotchman. But the lO 130 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. threat achievements of the Scotch adventurer were in the earher days of Peter the Great. Alexis died in 1676, in his forty-eighth year. His appearance is thus described by ColHns, who was in intimate relations with him : " He is a goodly person, about six foot high, well-set, inclined to fat, of a clear complexion, lightish hair, somewhat of a low fore- head, of a stern countenance, severe in his chastise- ments, but very careful of his subjects' love. Being urged by a stranger to make it death for any man to desert his colours, he answered : " It was a hard case to do that, for God has not given courage to all men alike.". . . His sentinels and guards placed round about his court stand like silent and immovable statues. No noise is heard in his palace, no more than if uninhabited." His favourite residence was Kolomenskoe, the glories of which have been described in very quaint verses by Simeon Polotski, a poet of the period, who was tutor to the royal children. He is enraptured, especially with the sculptured lions, who moved their eyes about and seemed to walk, probably something in imitation of what is described as having existed at the Bvzantine Court. In conclusion, we may mention that Alexis was a very religious man, and his strict fasts are carefully enumerated by Collins : — " Ik: iK,\( i- misses divine service. If he be well he goes to it ; if sick, it comes to him in liis chamber. On fast days he frequents midnight prayers (the old vigils of the church 1, standing four, five, or six liours together, and prostrating iiimself to tlie ground, sometimes a thousand times, and on great festivals ACCESSION OF FEODORE. 131 fifteen hundred. In the great fast he eats but three meals a week, viz., on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday ; for the rest he eats a piece of brown bread and salt, a pickled mushroom or cucumber, and drinks a cup of small beer. He eats fish but twice in the great Lent, and observes it seven weeks together, besides maslinetz (or cleansing) week, wherein they eat milk and eggs. Out of the fast he observes, Mondays, NATALIA. Wednesdays, and Fridays, and will not cat then any- thing that comes of flesh. In fine, no monk is more observant of canonical hours than he is of fasts. We may reckon he fasts almost eight months in twelve, with the six weeks fast before Christmas, and two other small fasts." Alexis, who was succeeded by his eldest son Feo- dore, had been twice married : by his first wife, Maria Miloslavskaia, he had two sons, Feodore and Ivan, 132 THE PERIOD OF TROUBLES. and a daughter, Sophia, with other children ; by the second, Nataha Narishkina, a son, Peter. Feodore (1676-1682) had a short and uneventful reign ; he was of weak health and left no offspring. The only important occurrence of his reign was the destruction of the ro:^7-iadnia knigi or Books of Pedigrees. According to the pernicious custom of the iiicsni- chestvo no man could fill an office which was inferior to any which his ancestors had held, or would accept a lower position than any man who counted fewer ancestors than himself The country was weakened by the constant struggles which these rivalries brought about. At the suggestion, we are told, of Basil Golitsin, his minister, the Tsar caused the Books of Pedigrees to be sent to him, under the pretext of seeing if they were correct. No sooner were they handed over than he caused them all to be burnt. This holocaust took place on the 12th of January, 1682, Old Style. In this disturbance of the institutions of the country, which had lasted for centuries, there seemed a prophetic indication of the great changes which were to occur, when Russia was to throw aside the semi-Asiatic tradition which had possessed her since the occupation of the Mongols and become again a luiropean power. The great regenerator was now in his boyhood, but his hand was soon to l)c felt. VII. IV^VN AND PETER — THE REGENCY OF SOPHIA — REGENERATION dF RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. (1682-1725.) On the death of Feodore the country seemed to have arrived at a great crisis. The Court was broken up into several factions, the two most prominent being those of the Miloslavskis and the Golitsins. Ivan, the next son of Alexis in order of birth, was even more infirm than Feodore ; had the Narishkins, the relatives of the second wife of Alexis, succeeded in their plans, he would have been set aside and Peter elected as Tsar in his place. But Sophia, the daughter of Alexis by his first wife, was a woman of remarkable talent and energy. She had been an affectionate daughter, and had carefully tended her father in his last illness. According to some writers she was tall and of a coarse appearance. Perry, however, Peter's English engineer, who if he did not .see her himself, must have conversed with man}^ in Russia who did, calls her a "handsome young lady." She was certainly a very clever woman, and Peter is said to have often regretted that her ambition should 134 THE REGENCY OF SOPHIA. have compelled him to immure her in a cloister. Her strength of character and self-reliance are the more remarkable from the secluded life which a woman was at that time compelled to lead in Russia. She did not wish to see her brother Ivan set aside, nor the triumph of the family of her step-mother. In conjunction with Basil Golitsin she fomented the IVAN. KEODOKK. revolt of lh(> Streltsi, the most important of the Russian soldiers, like the Roman priftoriani. A san- fjuinary outbreak occurred whicli lasted three tlays, from the 15th to the iStli of May, 1682. In the course of it about seventy ])crsoiis perished, including the two brothers of the Tsaritsa Natalia and the Boyar Matvcicv, her guardian. The same fate AMBASSADORS OF RUSSIA. I35 befcl a Dutch physician, who was practising at jMoscow, and was considered a sorcerer by the multitude. Ivan and Peter were finally declared joint sovereigns, and Sophia was to be regent during their minority, an office which she actually held for seven years. Golitsin now obtained an unbounded in- fluence over Sophia, and even pretended to her hand, but such a marriage was impossible ; moreover, he was very unpopular among the Streltsi. In 1686 he signed at Moscow a treaty with Poland, by which the possession of Kiev was confirmed to Russia. In 1687 a Russian ambassador appeared at the Court of Louis XIV. We have already alluded to the French embassy of 1629; which was, however, not absolutely the first intercourse between Russia and France. In 161 5, two years after his accession, Michael had sent a complimentary embassy to Louis XIII. But as the French were at that time very much occupied with their own affairs, and knew and cared but little about Russia, no notice was taken of this communication. From the curious " Memoire touchant la conduite qu'ont tenue en France les ambassadeurs de Mus- covie en 16S7," wc get a strange description of the conduct of the ambassadors. They behaved so badly that they were compelled to quit France without seeing the king. From the commencement of the eighteenth century we shall see that regular commu- nications were kept up between the courts of France and Russia. The Russians found it so difficult to eet ambassadors to send to foreign countries, who spoke anything beside Russian, that they frequently rKINflibS SOPHIA. EXPEDITION AGAINST THE TATARS. I37 in early times employed foreigners. Thus in the time of the Tsar Alexis, we have Patrick Gordon sent to Charles II., in 1666, and Menzies, of Pitfodels (called in some of the documents Menesius), sent to Berlin and Rome. As we shall only occasionally allude to the Russian ambassadors in England, we may here find place for the story of Matveiev, who visited England in the reign of Anne in that capacity. In 1709 he was arrested for debt by one Thomas Morton, a laceman. This occurrence greatly surprised Peter and irritated him ; in consequence an Act was passed which declared the persons and pro- perty of ambassadors absolutely free from process for any civil cause. We have seen this statute again put in force in the year 18S8. In 1687 Basil Golitsin conducted a campaign agains-t the Tatars of the Crimea. Besides other sources, the details of this expedition are known to us from the diary of Gordon. He was quarter-master- general in the expedition, which ended in failure. By the middle of June the army had reached the lower steppes of the Dnieper, but want of forage compelled the invaders to beat a retreat, for the grass had been set cm fire by the Tatars, or perhaps by the Cossack allies of the invading force, who looked upon the expedition with little favour. The troops were disbanded, and Gordon, as a reward for his services, was made general, but he was in some peril from the ecclesiastical powers, as the Patriarch prophesied disaster to the Russians so long as their best troops were commanded by a heretic. In 1689 Peter married Evdokia (Eudoxia) Lopukhina, but the tUUuXlA. BASIL GOLITSIN. T39 union was not a happy one. By her he had two children, tlie elder being the unfortunate Alexis ; the younger died in infancy. In the same j-ear broke out the second revolt of the Streltsi and the great struggle for power between Sophia and her brother Peter. The latter fled for safety to the monastery of the Troitsa, and summoned the troops to follow him. Gordon by marching with the soldiers under his command to the aid of Peter earned his everlasting gratitude. Four days afterwards Peter entered Moscow in triumph, and put many of the conspirators to death. Sophia was sent to a convent, where she died after a seclusion of fifteen years. Golitsin, her chief minister, was tried for having carried out her orders, and for the mismanagement of the Crimean campaign. He had been long very unpopular both among the boyars and the people, as the stories told by Father Avril testify. Accord- ing to this writer, when Golitsin was on one occasion going to the Tsar's palace, a man threw himself into his sledge, seized him by the beard, and tried to stab him, but he was prevented b}- the prince's servants, who were following the sledge and ran up in time. The would-be assassin persisted in his attempt till overpowered, and then burst into a torrent of abuse. He told the obnoxious minister that there were three hundred citizens ready to take his life, and that although he had escaped on this occasion, he would probably be slain on the next. The man was imme- diately dragged to prison and executed. On another occasion, just before his departure for the army, a coffin was found at his palace gate, with a note in it, 140 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. containing these words : "Golitsin, unless the campaign thou art going to open prove more successful than the former, thou canst not avoid this." The minister was sentenced to be exiled with his son x^lexis to Yarensk, a town in the government of Vologda ; his titles and wealth were taken from him. In 1693 he was removed to the fort of Pustozersk in the govern- ment of Archangel and died at Pinega in 17 13, aged eighty years. Alexis, his eldest son, received back part of his father's property, and died in 1734. The imbecile Ivan was quite willing to give up all his authority to Peter, and from this time the rule of the latter may be said to begin. Ivan died in 1696, at the early age of thirty ; he had married Praskovia Saltikova, a member of one of the most celebrated Russian families, who long survived him. dying in 1723 at the age of fifty-nine. He had three daughters, Catherine, Anna, and Praskovia ; of the first two of these we shall hear much more in the course of our narrative. The sovereign who now really directed the affairs of Russia, was seventeen years of age, having been born in 1672. As he had been a great observer even in his childhood, he had amused him- self with boats and military exercises, and he was much under the influence of the intelligent foreigners who surrounded him, such as Gordon and Lefort, a Gencvcse who had come to Russia in 1676, Peter seems from his earliest youth to have had great fondness for practical mechanics. 1 Ic lamented in the latter part of his life the superficial character of the education which he had received, and we have proofs how much reason he had for complaining TRAVELS OF PETER THE GREAT. 14I when wc sec his many mistakes in orthography. The Dutchman, Timmermann, gave him instructions in shipbuilding, and Gordon and Lefort in miUtary tactics. Peter was also instructed in arithmetic ; of lansuaees besides his own, Dutch is the only one with which he can be said to have had any real acquamt- ance. This was the language in which he conversed with William III. when he paid his visit to England. He was fond of signing his name Peter or Pieter in Dutch fashion, as we see in many of his letters. We begin to feel his activity about the year .1695, when war with the Turks having been decided upon, Gordon was ordered to march against Azov, the same fortress which had been offered by the Cossacks of the Don to the Tsar Michael when as yet the Russians were not strong enough to take it. His first attack was unsuccessful, owing, as Gordon alleges, to the defection of a German— or as others say, a Dutch gunner, named Jansen — who, on account of some fancied slight, deserted to the enemy. It was taken, however, in the following year, chiefly through the skill of Gordon, and the Tsar made a triumphant entry into Moscow, bringing with him the wretched engineer, whom the Turks were obliged to surrender, although he had turned IMussulman. After the great procession was over, he was executed. In the next year (1697), Peter, accompanied by the Swiss Lefort, who had entered his service, and two Russian generals, Golovin and Vosnitsin, set out upon his travels. He went to Saardam in Holland, where he worked in the dockyard under the name of Peter Mikhailov. or Peter Baas (INIaster) as the Dutch called him. The 142 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. certificate of his efficiency in various handicrafts, which he received from the head of the dockyard — one Gerrit Claesz Pool — is still preserved. He then went to England. . A house was first provided for him in York Buildings by the water side. We are told that he visited the king — Queen Mary was at this time dead — the Princess Anne, and many of the nobilit}', but he especially liked the society of the SAVES COURT, I)KI'Tr(-)RI). Marquis of Carinartlicn, on account of his nautical skill, and "wouUl row and sail with him upon the water," Perry adds, "of which obligations and kind- ness of my Lord Marcjuis to him I have many timc;s heard him speak with great affection ; as indeed he often does of hjighuul in general, and what he observed here. And f ha\c ofU;n heard him say that he designs to take a turn hither again, when he has PETER JN ENGLAND. I43 peace settled in his own country, and has often declared to his lords, when he has been a little merry; that he thinks it a much happier life to be an admiral in England than a Tsar in Russia." During his stay Peter worked at the dockyard at Deptford, and Sayes Court, the seat of Evelyn, was hired for him by the Government. It was spacious and agreeable, and possessed the further advantage of providing easy access to the dockyard by means of a back door, so that he could pass in and out un- interruptedly, and without being stared at by the curious, to which, as we shall find from many passages in his history, Peter always had a very great objection. Evelyn had previously let his premises to Captain Benbow, afterwards the well-known admiral, who underlet them to the Government for the use of the Tsar. Great was the scandal caused to the precise and fastidious Englishman, when he heard of the damage done by Peter to his elegant. beds and curtains, and the demolition of his well-trimmed holly hedges. Benbow sent into the Lords of the Treasury an account of the injuries done by Peter, and de- manded compensation. He alleges that the place is " in so bad a condition that he can scarcely describe it to your honours, besides much of the furniture broke, lost, and destroyed." A survey was accord- ingly made, and the total damages were assessed at £350 93- 6d. Some of the items are very amusing. Nearly all the locks were broken ; perhaps Peter had been studying practical mechanics. " All the grass worke is out of order, and broke into holes by their leaping and shewing tricks upon it." At the present 144 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. time there are only a few remains of the house which belonged to Evelyn ; it is surrounded by dwellings inhabited by the poorer classes, but a street which leads to it is still called after the Tsar. During his stay Peter had frequent interviews with the king, he also visited the Princess Anne and Burnet, the Bishop of Salisbury. In the evening he is reported to have sometimes visited incognito a little public-house on Tower Hill, where he smoked and drank brandy with Mcnshikov and some of his favourites. Peter stayed only three months in England, and went little beyond London and Dcptford. He appears, however, to have visited Oxford, although the records of the university contain no mention of his journey. The king, in order to please his royal visitor, caused a sham sea-fight to take place at Spithead. He was allowed to enlist such Englishmen as he chose into his service, and on his departure was presented by the king with the royal transport, " which was," adds Perry, " much the finest and best yacht then in England, built frigate fashion, carrying twenty-four guns, and contrived by my lord Marquis of Carmar- then, on purpose for the king's own use in crossing the sea during the war." On this journey Peter did not visit Erancc : he seems, according to St. Simon, to have received hints from that government that he would not be cordially received. Only the year before the peace of Ryswick had been signed. He accor- dingly proceeded to Vienna, where he was received with honour by the lunperor Leopold, who, a few years before had (jwed the preservation of his crown to a Slavonic sovereign, John Sobicski. From Vienna REVOLT OF THE STRELTSI. I45 lie was about to proceed to Venice, when news reached him of the revolt of the Streltsi. It was the last desperate struggle of the reactionary party before the reforms of the Tsar were placed upon a firm founda- tion. Peter had left Gordon in command during his absence ; he Jiad marched against the mutineers, and defeated them : some he had put to death, others he kept in prison till the arrival of the Tsar. By Septem- ber of the year 1698, the latter was already in Moscow, and had begun a series of cruel punishments, which stained his name, and have been minutely recorded by Korb and others who were present. And so the walls of the Kremlin were covered with the corpses, and the squares of Moscow were deluged with the blood of the Streltsi, old-fashioned Muscovite soldiers who had risen against the "foreign" Tsar and the "Ger- mans," under which collective name the uneducated Russian includes all strangers. The Streltsi arc still remembered in the popular songs : — " Out of the Kremlin tlie strong city, Out of llie palace of the Emperor, Tliat is on the Red Square, There lay a I)roacl road ; And it was l^y the broad road That they led a fine youth to he put to death ; A fine youth, a great boyar. A great boyar, a chief of the Streltsi, For treason against the mighty Tsar. The youth comes— he di cs not falter — He looks iiuickly on all the people. But even there he does not humble himself before the Tsar, Before him goes the terrible executioner ; In his hands he bears the sharp axe. And after him come the father and mother, The father, the mother, the young wife. II 146 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. They weep — as floweth the river — They moan— as the brooks murmur, And amid their groans they say : V Thou, our dear child, Humble thee to the Tsar, Bring to him thy confession, In order that the Tsar may pity thee. And leave thy rebellious head on thy sturdy shoulders. But the heart of the youth is hardened : He opposes the Tsar and is obstinate ; He neither listens to father nor mother ; He has no pity for his young wife, He feels no pang for his children. They have taken him to the Red Square, They have cut off the rebellious head, Which was on his sturdy shoulders." The reactionary party was silenced by Peter, but never quelled by him ; they lasted throughout his reign, and openly rejoiced at his death. We must bear these facts in mind in order to understand fi\\r\y, even though we cannot justify, the conduct of Peter to his son. The year following the suppression of the revolt, Gordon died, and his eyes were closed by the Tsar, who honoured him with a splendid funeral. Lefort also died the same year, l^ut no sooner had Peter found a little rest after breaking the force of the reactionary party, than we find iiim engaged in struggles with the Cossacks, who reluctantly endured an}' interference with their independent mode of living. The strange military republic of the Sech was still fiom-ishing. In 1706 the Cossacks of the Don revoltctl, their rebellion being quelled with much bloodshed ; and in 1709, Mazeppa, the lictman of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, joined Charles XII. in his invasion of CHARI.KS XII. (Froi/i a torlrait in the British Museitin. 148 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. Russia. This last of the wikings, as he has been appropriately called, was roused into activity by the manifest designs of Peter to seize the Baltic pro- vinces to which his ancestors had had some sort of claim, and we have seen how eager Ivan IV. was to secure a passage to the Baltic. By the treaty of Stolbovo in 1617, as has been already mentioned, Russia had been compelled to surrender to Sweden Ingermanland and Karelia, in 1660, Poland had ceded the greatest part of Livonia with all Esthonia to Sweden by the treaty of Oliva. Both Russia and Poland were eager to regain certain portions of this disputed territory. Accordingly, a secret treaty was entered into between Peter and the Polish king, AufTustus, but the alliance was fruitful in disastrous consequences to the latter. Peter invaded Esthonia and Augustus Livonia, but they met with a foeman worthy of their steel in Charles, one of the foremost captains of the age, full of youthful vigour and eager to distinguish himself. The Russian Tsar was defeated at Narva in 1700, and both Warsaw and Cracow were taken by the victorious Swedes ; Peter thirsted to repair this great disaster, which gave him a useful lesson in the art of war. The tide soon turned in his favour ; his general, Shercmctiev, gained some sue- cesses over the Swedes, and by the conquest of Noteburg an important position was acquired. Close l)>- the Neva discharges itself into the Baltic, and thus the Russians obtained the control of this river ; in consequence of its strategic importance Peter changed the name of the place into Schliissclburg, from the German sclililsscl, a ke>', and such is its appellation ROUBLES OI' 1704 AND l^O•J. {Reipi of Peter tlic Great.) 150 RUSSIA Vnder peter the great. at the present day. One cannot help feeling a little surprise that Peter should have given it a German, instead of a Russian name, but he followed the same plan in Cronstadt and St. Petersburg. Shercmetiev and his officers made a triumphant entry into Moscow (December 17, 1702). Success still attended the arms of Peter : he captured Dorpat, which in old times had belonged to the republic of Novgorod, and finally Narva in 1704, where he had previously suffered a defeat. The Russian soldiers committed great cruelties in the provinces of Esthonia and Livonia, which, like the Danubian territories, have often been the scenes of the struggles between rival powers. We have read in a previous chapter how much they suffered from Ivan the Terrible. Peter now marched to the assistance of Augustus, but got no farther than Grodno, where he remained in a fortified position. Hampered by the failures of his allies he was able to do but little, and finally fell back upon Kiev, but toward the end of 1706 Menshikov inflicted a severe defeat upon the Swedish general, Mardefelt, at Kalisch. In Poland, however, Charles had been completely victorious, and the contemptible Augustus was forced to sign the humiliating treaty of Altranstadt (1706), one of the conditions of which was the surrender of Palkul to C'liarlcs. The tatc of this unfortunate iniui has left a deep stain upon the memory of the Swedish king ; he was a Livonian nobleman, who had been deputed by the states of his native province to carry a comjjlaint to Charles XI. of Sweden, father of the famous captain, of the pillage which his country had undergone under Swedish CHARLES INVADES RUSSIA. I5I rule. The king received him with affected sympathy ; touching him gently on the shoulder, he said, " You have spoken for your country as a brave man : I esteem you, go on." But a few days afterwards he caused him to be declared guilty of treason, and condemned to death. Patkul, however, had the good fortune to get out of the country before he could be arrested, and betook himself to the court of Augustus, before whom he narrated the griefs of his people, and showed how easily Poland might get possession of it. Augustus was exceedingly unwilling to give up the refugee, who was immured in the castle of Konigstein, in Saxony. He accordingly sent guards to surrender the prisoner, but at the same time issued a secret order to the governor to let him escape. The governor, how- ever, knowing that Patkul was rich, wished to get a sum of money from him as price of his liberty ; and the Livonian, knowing the intentions of Augustus, refused to pay for what he thought had been freely given him. While they were wrangling on the matter, the Swedish officers came up and seized Patkul ; he was first taken to Altranstadt, where he remained three months, fastened by a heavy chain to a gallows, and from thence was conducted to Casimir (Kazmierz), where he was broken on the wheel. Charles now resolved to invade Russia ; he crossed the Niemen, advanced through Minsk, passed the Beresina — so famous in the great struggle with Napoleon — and at Dobroii, south of Smolensk, had his first encounter with the Russians, where he met with a stout resistance, and only escaped by a miracle. As the winter was approaching he was MENSJlllKUV, BATTLE OF POLTAVA. 153 advised to fall back upon Mohilcv, and there await his general, Lowenhaupt, who was to follow with 18,000 men from Poland ; but yielding to the per- suasions of Mazeppa, who offered to put 30,000 Cossacks at his disposal, he turned south in the direction of the Ukraine. At Lesna, on the banks of the Sozh, Lowenhaupt, who had failed to unite his forces with those of his master, was completely- defeated : a stone, the inscription of which has been very much obliterated by time, now marks the spot. The Swedish general not only lost a great number of men but many waggons of provisions, which were to victual the whole army. When he reached Charles he brought nothing but the wreck of his army. The sufferings of the invaders were intense, but the mad king, who himself shared every privation, cared but little for all this. Mean- while Menshikov sacked Baturin, the residence of Mazeppa, and razed the Sech to the ground. On the 8th of July, 1709, the armies of the Tsar and Charles met at Poltava. The rout of the Swedes was com- plete : they lost 10,000 men in the battle, and about 3,000 were taken prisoners. Charles had acted with consummate recklessness throughout : he was an example of a type of man which is probably by no means extinct in our own days, but becomes more frequent the further back we trace our steps in history the man of frank violence, who looks upon war as the only becoming occupation of kings and gentlemen. He is the "bully in his boots, who hides the march of men from us." By his mad exploits he undid the work of the great Gustavus Adolphus, and Sweden, > < o DEATH OF MAZEPPA. 155 which for fifty years had occupied the accidental position of a first-rate European power, was now to recede into the background, and Russia was to rise UDon her ruins. How often has this brave but unfortu- nate people had to suffer for the folly of its rulers ! We see her towards the close of the same century exhausted by the extravagance of the foolish French fop, Gustavus III. ; and almost dismembered, like Poland, through the bewildered and fatuous policy of Gustavus IV. Charles, who had been wounded some days before the battle of Poltava, and had been carried at the head of his troops in a litter, with difficulty reached the confines of Turkey, in the company of Mazeppa and a few Swedes. Peter severely punished the Cossacks for the assistance which they gave to Charles on this occasion. The office of hetman now became merely nominal, and, after being given to Court favourites, we shall find it abolished by Catherine in 1789. Mazeppa expired a few months afterwards, or would probably have met with his death at the hand of the public executioner, as the Russian ambassador had demanded his surrender from the Turks. His defection from Peter had been wholly unexpected, but shows that the Cossacks continued to be restless. He had always affected the greatest zeal for the service of the Tsar, and had been present with him at the siege of Azov. He had concluded, however, a secret treaty with Stanislaus Leszczynski, who had been put up as a rival king of Poland to Augustus, by which, on the appearance of Charles XII. in Russia — and he was to enter the country by way 156 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. of the Ukraine — his forces were to join those of the Swedish king, and the Cossacks were afterwards to remain under the government of Poland, the hetman himself receiving the towns of Vitebsk and Polotsk. Mazeppa, being childless, had adopted the son of his sister, named Voinarovski, and had sent him to Germany to be educated. On the uncle's death Charles appointed him to succeed as hetman, but he quitted Russia after the Swedish disasters, and lived for a time in great state at some of the German courts. Unfortunately he conceived the idea of returning to Russia, and throwing himself on the mercy of Peter. His life was spared ; he was, how- ever, banished to Siberia, and was seen there by the German traveller Mullcr in 1736, near the shores of Lake liaikal. The story of Voinarovski's life forms the subject of an interesting poem by Rilej'cv, one of the Dekabrists, about whom we shall hear more at the beginning of the reign of Nicholas. Peter now- repudiated his wife Eudoxia, with whom he never seems to have lived happily, although some very affec- tionate letters from her to him arc extant, and have been published in the collection of imperial epistles. She was placed in a convent ; but we shall not hear the last of her till the reign of her grandson, Peter II. The Tsar now married in 17 12 Martha Skavronskaya, a Livonian or Lithuanian peasant, who had been taken prisoner at the siege of Maricnburg in 1702. Her previous history is very obscure, but enough is known to prove that she was of very humble extrac- tion. During the life of Peter none of her relatives were allowed to visit Russia, but after his death we ECCLESIASTICAL REFORMS. I57 shall find them invited by his widow, having hand- some pensions settled upon them, and intermarrying with the aristocratic families of Russia. However strange this may appear to Western ideas, we must remember that it is in entire keeping with the tra- ditions of an autocracy, and especially an Oriental one, the theory of which is that all honour flows from the sovereign, who can make and unmake at his pleasure. Catherine, as Martha was called when re- ceived into the Greek Church, appears to have been a good-tempered woman, who knew how to soothe her husband's irritability. To the day of her death she was unable to write her name. Some of our readers may remember the droll account given of her by the Margravine of Baireuth, the sister of Frederick the Great, in her memoirs, which have gained a wider celebrity by having been quoted by Carlyle in his life of the Prussian hero ; but we ought to be careful how far we place confidence in the malicious gossip col- lected by this woman. Carlyle now and then shows a want of the critical faculty. In the same way he accepted with complete credulity the fictitious Squire papers. Peter now set about his great reforms, both ecclesi- astical and temporal. He abolished the patriarchate because it was too independent of the sovereign, one of whose duties it was to lead the ass on which the Patriarch sat in solemn procession on Palm Sunday. Peter had studied the government of the Protestant Churches in the West of Europe, especially the English, and on his return, in 1721, issued his Rcglament, or Regulation of the Church — but concerning this sub- ject more will be said in the chapter on Russian 158 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. Institutions. He based nobility upon civil and military service, and caused all the nobles to be employed in some office of state ; he divided the merchants into guilds ; but unfortunately did little for the amelioration of the condition of the peasant. We have already shown how the law of Boris had chained the free peasant to the soil. Peter had a mischievous influence in confounding in one category with the common serf the odnodvortsi a privileged class — like the villciiagiiiin privilegiatuiu of our own early law, and the polovniki, a kind of metayers. The subject of Russian serfdom will be fully con- sidered in a subsequent chapter. Peter attempted to introduce primogeniture into the succession of property, but we shall find it repealed in the time of the Empress Anne. It seems to have been alien to the spirit of Russian institutions. He now aimed at completely altering the usages of Russian society. The women had lived in their terei/is in old Russia in almost Oriental seclusion, ignorant and neglected. Peter established his asscmblces, as he called them, in which the sexes associated as they did in tlic West. Oriental prostra- tions and the semi-oriental dress worn by Russians were forbidden. The caftan was exchanged for coats a la Louis Quatorze, and the heads of Russians were covered with flowing pcrniqucs. The beard, which the Russians regardcfl as almost a sacred ornament, was to be shaved b)' order of the lunperor, althou;^li 1)\- paying a tax a man was to be allowed to wear it, and a kind of metal token was given tf) those who had tin's i)crmissi<)n, (Jii which was re- SOCIAL REFORMS. 159 presented a beard. Some of these coins are still preserved in Russia. Never was there a more com- plete change in the organization of society or in its daily habits, or one more violently brought about, and hence some authors have not hesitated to say that Peter " knouted " the Russians into civilization. Most of these changes, however, were absolutely necessary, and many useful laws were enacted ; thus, among others, the praviozli, or public flagellation of debtors, was abolished, a degrading custom about which more will be said in another part of our work. The Russians gave up the habit of counting from the creation of the world and beginning the year in September. Unlike his semi-Asiatic predecessors, who remained in a kind of Chinese isolation, Peter began to have a European policy. He took advan- tage of the exile of Charles XII. at Bender to drive Stanislaus Leszczynski out of Poland, and Augustus II., as contemptible a man as his com- petitor was worthy of esteem, was able to re-enter Warsaw. Peter was pursuing a gradual policy of annexing the Baltic provinces, so as to get a northern outlet for his huge empire. He conquered Esthonia and Livonia ; and although he did not succeed in acquiring Courland, yet he paved the way for its annexation by negotiating a marriage between the Duke of that province and his niece Anne, daughter of his brother Ivan, as the following table will show : — Ivan = Prascovia Saltikova. Catherine f 1733; '■"• Anne (afterwards Kni]ness) Prascovia Charles Leojiokl ; Duke f 1740 ; iii. Frederick, f 171 1, of Mecklenbutsi. Duke of Courland, l6o RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. Livonia was of the highest importance, as being the key to the Baltic. Ivan the Terrible had already been eager to acquire it. The unfortunate country became the cockpit of the continual struggles of the Russians, Swedes, and Poles, and played the same part as the Duchy of Milan at the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the Low Countries and Roumania at various periods of European history. Since the peace of Westphalia (1648) Sweden had acquired a pre-eminence among the northern states of Europe, which lasted till she had been exhausted by the mad expeditions of Charles XI L By this treaty she gained on the Continent of Europe, in addition to her other possessions, Western Pomerania, Riigen, Wismar, and Bremen. Other portions of territory were added by the peace of Roeskilde in 1658, which she acquired at the expense of Denmark. We can thus realize how important was the trial of strength between Russia and Sweden which was put to the test in the time of Peter the Great. An expedition which he undertook against the Turks resulted in failure, and by the treaty of the Pruth in 171 1 he gave back Azov to the Turks, after all the pains it had cost him to acquire it and the strategical skill of Gordon. It was not regained till the time of Catherine II., and its importance has been completely effaced by the rise of the flourishing town of Rostov. Grave doubts have been thrown in recent times upon the letter which Peter is said to have written to the Senate, telling them that if he was captured they were to pay no attention to any of the orders which he issued while under duress. This document is first THE SECOND EUROPEAN TOUR. l6l referred to by Staehlin, who quotes it as having been told him by Peter Stcherbatov. It is not mentioned in the " Memoirs of Moreau de Brasey," an adventurer in the service of Peter, who was present in the campaign, and has left us many interesting details. This officer tells us of the large bribes which the Turkish officials received, and some of them paid dearly for their betrayal of their master's interests. The Grand Vizier was .sent to the island of Lemnos, and several of his subordinates were executed. In 17 1 7 the Tsar undertook another European tour; he had his wife with him during some part of the journey, visiting Copenhagen and Llibeck, and finally Amsterdam, where he stayed three months. Thence he made a journey to Paris, where he arrived in the month of May. He was well received by the regent who was governing during the minority of Louis XV. ; his grandfather, Louis XIV., had died in 171 5. Dis- liking all pomp, Peter refused the apartments prepared for him in the Louvre, and took up his abode in the Marais, at the Hotel Lesdiguiere, belonging to Marshal Villeroi. He surprised the courtiers by taking on one occasion the young king in his arms. He returned from his foreign tour to St. Petersburg on the 21st of October, 17 17. In the following year his great enemy, Charles XII., was killed at Frederikshall in Norway. The Swedish Diet renewed the war with the Tsar, and in the years 1719 and 1720 the Russian troops committed great ravages in the Swedish territory. Finally in 1721 the Swedes were willing to treat for peace, and the treaty of Nystad was signed, which guaranteed to Peter Livonia, Esthonia, Inger- 12 l62 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. manland, Karelia, and the districts of Wiborg and Kexholm in Finnish territory. We must now retrace our steps to describe the foundation of the new capital, St. Petersburg. This magnificent city was commenced in 1703 ; thousands of men were transplanted from their homes to carry out the gigantic work, the Malo-Russians contributing large quotas, for Peter was anxious to break the spirit of that people, and it must be confessed that the Tsar showed himself throughout the whole under- taking reckless of human life. The building ad- vanced rapidly. From this time the sovereigns were no longer to be buried in the church of St. Michael of Moscow, but in that of the fortress of St. Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg ; and .such has been the case with all, with the single exception of Peter II., whose tendencies were reactionar}-, and who spent his days at Moscow. But it was not only to the West that the eyes of Peter were turned ; he had also his ambition in the East. In 17 1 5 he sent an embassy to the Shah of Persia under the care of Artemii Volinski, one of the most capable statesmen of the time, whose sad fate fills one of the most melancholy pages of Ru.ssian history. In 1722 Peter became embroiled with Persia and .seized Baku, now .so celebrated for its oil- wells and other strategical points, thus opening a way to the Caspian. But we now come to the saddest event of his life, the mysterious death of his son Alexis. In order to explain the circumstances of this event we must a little retrace our steps. It has already been ALEXIS. 163 mentioned that Peter had divorced his wife, Eudoxia Lopukhina. Of her he rapidly grew tired, even if he had ever felt any affection, and there is something pathetic in the poor woman's letters during her early married days which have been preserved. Moreover, she was in close relations with the reactionary party who opposed Peter's reforms, and she seems to have trained her son Alexis in the same opinions. After the siege of Azov Peter banished her to a monastery at Suzdal. Alexis grew up a stolid and obstinate youth, and spent his time with monks. Peter had originally built great hopes upon him, and had drawn up with his own hand elaborate plans for his edu- cation. One of his tutors was a German, named Weber, who wrote an interesting work on Russia. When Peter saw the idleness and folly of his son, he commenced a series of remonstrances which were wholly fruitless ; his constant answer to his father was that he wished to become a monk. He had married the Princess Charlotte of Brunswick — an alliance planned by Peter — and although his wife was an amiable woman, and of considerable personal attractions, Alexis treated her with cruelty and neglect. She died at an early age, leaving two children — Peter, afterwards emperor, and a daughter named Natalia. While his father was on his second tour in the west of Europe Alexis fled into Germany and hid himself in various places, first at the castle of Ehrenberg in the Tyrol, and after- wards at St. Elmo near Naples. He was finally tracked by Tolstoi, the Tsar's emissary, and in- duced to return to Moscow. On his arrival a ALEXIS. PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. l66 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. deplorable scene occurred with his angry father. Peter compelled him to sign a formal act in which he renounced all his rights to the crown. He had discovered that his son was deeply implicated in a conspiracy, and was in close relations with his father's enemies. He had even betrayed his country's interests to foreign powers, such as Sweden and Germany ; he had also openly expressed his desire of his father's death. Eudoxia, although nominally in a monastery and living as a nun, in reality held sl little court in which she was surrounded by the dis- contented, especially the priestly element. To the latter class the reforms of Peter were beyond measure odious, and we are told by Perry that after some of his ecclesiastical changes, pieces of paper were found about the streets threatening him with assassi- nation. Peter, to punish his rebellious wife, had sent her, under stricter surveillance, to the monastery of New Ladoga. His position toward his son was now of the most embarrassing nature. Alexis had avowed his intention, on the death of his father, of returning to Moscow and the old Asiatic life with its picturesque barbarisms. St. Peters- burg was to be abandoned, and the territory which had been gained from Sweden. With St. Petersburg was to go also the infant navy of Russia, over which Peter had laboured so earnestly, and to create which he had undergone the drudgery of Saardam and Dcptford. This foolish and vicious young man, without a generous impulse and without filial or conjugal affection, was sullenly relying upon time to put it in his power to reduce to a cypher the labours EXECUTION OF ALEXIS. 167 of the great master-worker. Such was the son. On the other hand the father had by birth all the traditions of the Eastern despot, at whose disposal the lives of wife, children, and subjects are put unconditionally — such as Ivan had formulated the creed in his well-known letter to Prince Kurbski — he had also the Byzantine example of the sovereign who made Christianity a political institution, the Emperor Constantine, whom the Church has not hesitated to enrol among its saints. Peter laid aside all the feelings of a father, and saw in his miserable son only a traitor to the prosperity and dignity of Russia. Alexis was tried by a tribunal of the highest functionaries of the State, and was sentenced to death. The exact method of his execution is not known, even after the elaborate work of Ustrialov on the reign of Peter the Great, but it appears highly probable that he expired under the knout Some have stated that he was beheaded, others that he was poisoned, but there is no doubt whatever that the miserable man met with a violent death. To Peter v/e can only apply the words which Virgil has associated with Brutus, the slayer of his son : — " Infelix, utcumque ferent en facta nepotes. " In 1 72 1 Peter promulgated a ukase (afterwards abrogated by Paulj that the sovereign had the right of naming his successor. On January 28, 1725, he died at the early age of fifty-three years. He had worn out his vigorous constitution by his vast labours and careless manner of living. The people thus lamented him in a contemporary folk-song : — l68 RUSSIA UNDER PETER THE GREAT. "All ! thou dear bright moon, Why dost thou not shine as heretofore. Not as heretofore, as of old time ? From the evening to midnight, From midnight to the white day, Thou hidest thyself altogether behind the clouds — Thou art concealed by a dark mist ! With us in holy Russia. In the glorious city of Petersburg, In the cathedral of Teter and Paul, On the right-hand side of the /deros, By the grave of the Tsar, By the grave of Peter the First, Of Peter the First the Great, The young sergeant prays to God, He weeps like the river flows, At the early death of the Tsar, Our lord, Peter the Great, Wiih his groans he utters a word — Open, thou damp, mullur enrth. On all four sitles ! Burst, thou coftui-plank, Fall apart, thou gulden pall. Arise and wake, our Master, Awake, thou our father, thou orthodox Tsar, Look upon thy beloved soldiers, Thy dear and brave ones ; Without thee we are but orphans. We are orphans, we are powerless." It is difficult to estimate accurately the Titanic fi^'ure of Peter. He was a straHi;e mixture of virtues and vices. Inheriting all the traditions of despotism, we must not feel siu-prised if, like our own Edwaril I., he had wo .scruj)le in removing any obstacles which appeared in his path. To the same source must be traced his lack of self-rule and physical re.strainl. He was descended, we must remember, from a long line of semi- Asiatic barbarians, and if he had not been a CHARACTER OF PETER THE GREAT. 169 man of powerful genius, would have been content as they were with the idleness and luxury of a palace, " Like one of nature's fools who feed on praise." He was willing to abandon all these pleasures, so captivating to the ordinary mind ; to put himself, as it were, to school ; to endure privations and labour in order to break with a system against which his intellect rebelled. There was genius in his sense of the dignity of labour and his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. The active brain was ever at work : all persons who came in contact with him were struck with the vigour and originality of his mind — and not the least William III., one of the wisest sovereigns of his day. The reverse of the medal is less pleasing — his reck- lessness of human life, his intemperance, and the brutality shown to his miserable son. Had he been a Turkish sultan this last-mentioned crime would have been according to the natural order of things ; but the strong European side of Peter makes us forget his Asiatic training. Many have challenged the utility of the innovations which he introduced into Russia. Would it not have been better, they say, to have allowed the country to develop itself gradually and not to force upon it a premature ripeness ? But to this it may be answered that all the best men who had written on Russia under the old order of things, saw that amelioration could onl}' result from without. Such was the opinion of Krizhanich and Kotoshikhin— two shrewd observers of the seventeenth century. At the beginning of his reign Peter found Russia Asiatic, he left her o C Si « w H O 'A O o < H H < OS o o o H 'X u ci H oi < Q ^-f'^'SfftKfJS^ PETER'S WORK. 17I European. He created a navy and gave her an outlet on the Baltic, the attempt to force a passage by the embouchure of the Don at Azov having failed. Instead of the disorderly, badly-accoutered regiments of the Streltsi, he gave Russia an army clothed and disciplined on the European model. He added many provinces to the empire, constructed canals, developed many industries, and caused serviceable books to be translated into Russian, so that his ignorant subjects might be instructed. He gave Russia libraries and museums, galleries of painting and sculpture ; and, finally, from an obscure barbaric power, isolated from her European sister kingdoms, he created a powerful empire, recognized as one of the most important States and able to make its voice heard in the councils of Europe. Many volumes of anecdotes about this remarkable man have been pub- lished. They show him abounding in lively sallies, quick-witted and shrewd, simple in his tastes, and with the natural contempt of a man of genius for pomp and millinery. No man enjoyed more — per- haps even in a boyish manner — scandalizing the proprieties of conventional persons, immersed in ignorance and conceit, such as those with whom Russia abounded. For the pompous boyars to see their Tsar sometimes going about without an attendant and wear- ing an old shabby blue coat — or showing them a pair of horse shoes which he had made — or sitting smoking a pipe with a newly-arrived Dutch or English skipper, must indeed have been an indescribable shock. He honours now and then heretics like Gordon and Lefort by accepting an invitation to dine at their houses, o Co b •51 o '^ PETER AN ENIGMA. 173 and standing godfather to their children. But again we think of the reverse of the medal, the paroxysms of rage and the ruthlessly cruel punishments. The man is from beginning to end an enigma ; but it is impossible to deny his claims to genius, or to the title which has been ungrudgingly assigned him — Peter the Great. VIII. THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE — REIGNS OF CATHERINE L, PETER II., ANNE, IVAN VI., AND ELIZABETH. (1725-I762.) The death of Peter found the Russian Court divided into two powerful factions. The reactionary party, filled with Russians of the old school, who had looked upon the reforms of Peter with no favourable eye, such as the Golitsins and the Dolgorukis, were anxious to raise to the throne Peter, the son of Alexis a mere boy ; whereas the party of progress, led by Menshikov, wished that Catherine, the Tsar's widow, should succeed, so that the reforms of Peter might not be arrested as there seemed every chance would be the case. They urged that although he had made no will yet she had been solemnly crowned, and the Russians had taken the oath of fidelity to her. lUit the.se were poor arguments. She was popular with the army, as being the wife of the great general and Tsar, and as she was a woman of indolent disposition, Peter's favourites hoped to carry on the Government under her name. In reality the idea of a female sovereign CATHERINE I. 176 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. was a novelty to the Russians ; in the whole list of their rulers none as yet had appeared. We have seen how the ambitious Sophia failed, and the idea met with great opposition from several quarters. But the party of reform finally triumphed. Catherine was elected the successor of her husband, and the chief authority fell into the hands of Alexander Menshikov, the Tsar's favourite, who is said to have formerly when a boy sold cakes about the streets of Moscow. Being struck with his ability, Peter first made him his page and afterwards promoted him by gradations till he reached the highest offices of the State. Wc shall shortly have to contemplate the pathetic spectacle of his exile and death. He was now, however, virtually the ruler of Russia. Some legal proceedings which had been commenced against him for peculation were stopped ; he received an additional gift of fifty thousand peasants ; and, among other possessions, the town of Baturin in the Ukraine was conferred upon him, which had formerly belonged to the rebel Mazeppa. His son, who had only attained the age of twenty-one, was made groom of the chamber. Finally, Menshikov was appointed Commander-in-chief of all the Russian forces, and colonel of three regiments which formed his special guard. The guiding spirit of Russian reform was gone, and the brief reign of Catherine is distinguished only by two events which added any glory to Russia. The Academy of Sciences was founded in 1726, and Bchring, a Dane, was sent on an exploring expedi- tion to Kamchatka, He has left his name indelibly osTER^fANN. tyy written on the geography of the world. The Empress . was weak in health, and being a woman of little or no education, allowed the government to be chiefly carried on by the Upper Secret Council ( Vcrkhoviii Tainii Soviet ),\\'\\\ch. consisted of Menshikov, Apraksin, Golovkin, Tolstoi, Golitsin, and Ostermann. The last of these men will now be frequently heard of in our pages, and as he may be said to have governed Russia for almost a quarter of a century, we must say some- thing of his antecedents. He was the second son of a poor Lutheran clergy- man of a little village of Westphalia. He studied at the University of Jena, and entered in 1704 the service of the Dutch Admiral Cruys, to whom Peter gave the command of his fleet. The Tsar marked the great talents of Ostermann, and employed him in very important business. He was created a baron in 1722, and was called under the Chancellor Golovkin to take the direction of foreign affairs, for which his fami- liarity with European languages especially fitted him. Catherine, on coming to the throne, made him the Governor of the Grand Duke, afterwards Peter H. The Empress died on the 17th of May, 1727, a little more than two years after her accession to the throne, aged about thirty-nine years. Her life had exhibited the strangest vicissitudes, and many of the circum- stances comiected with it have not yet been clearly explained. It must be confessed that it is rather dif- ficult to understand the attractions which she had for Peter, but she seems to have been amiable and cheer- ful, and never thwarted his wishes. Some affectionate letters from him to her arc published in the collection 13 ^ ^^ \:p >%^ © '^ ^K ^ ^ iT) ^.^ ^ NM "U fc. ^■4 o t^ ^ POWER OP MBNSHIKOV. lyg of the correspondence of the Russian Emperors, to which allusion has previously been made. She had several children by him, but all died in youth with the exception of Elizabeth, who afterwards ascended the throne. A ukase of Peter permitted Catherine to choose her successor. She accordingly nominated Peter, the son of the unfortunate Alexis, and in default of Peter and his issue, Elizabeth and Anne, her daughters. Anne died in 1728, the year after her mother ; she had married Karl Friedrich, the Duke of Holstein (f 1739), and was the mother of the unfortu- nate Peter III. Menshikov was appointed the guardian of the young Tsar till he had reached the age of seven- teen. The government was conducted by a council, in which he was still the leading person. His ambi' tion was boundless : on its first meeting he brought with him the youthful Peter, exhibited to those present the sealed will of the Empress, unsealed it and ordered the Councillor Stepanov to read it aloud. Besides appointing Peter to succeed her under the guardianship of Menshikov, Catherine also directed that the daughter of the favourite should be betrothed to the boy sovereign. So completely was the will of the Empress in the interest of Men- shikov, that the envoy from Saxony, Lefort, does not hesitate to say that the document was wholly concocted by him. Under pretence of taking care of the young Tsar^ Menshikov removed him to his house, and surrounded him with his creatures. He caused his own name and those of his wife and children to be placed in the public almanac together with those of the ro)-al l8o THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. family. The Princess Mary, the future bride of the Tsar, was also prayed for in the public services of the Church. In 1727 Menshikov was at the height of his power ; foreign ambassadors remarked that even the great Peter himself was never feared so much. But the end of all this splendour was drawing near. We shall now for some time have to deal with these favourites, who triumph during the rule of women, and alternate with terrible rapidity in the various revolutions de palais. One follows the other in melancholy procession to the snows of Siberia. MershikoVjin some instances, relaxed the severities of Peter ; among others, he allowed the Malo-Russians to choose a hetman, which had been denied them on account of their insubordination. The young Tsar was wholly addicted to field sports, and used to spend his days in the woods around Peterhof, with his dogs and horses, in the company of his favourites Prince Ivan Dolgoruki and his father. Mere child as he was, he had never shown any affection for his affianced bride, Mary Menshikova, and the girl seems to have been equally apathetic. She was in love with a member of the Sapieha family before her father had betrothed her against her will. The Dolgorukis used the aversion of the young Prince to his furiicic as a means of augmenting his dislike to the father. Gradually the favourite fell into disgrace with his young sovereign, wlio was in reality a puppet in the hands of his rivals. The rule of Menshikov was destined to be short ; only f(nu' months to a day had elapsed since he h.ul produced the will of the Empress at the c(Hincii of ministers, when the ukase EXILE OF MENSHIKOV. l8l which disgraced the favourite was signed by the Tsar. He was at once put under arrest, and is said to have been so overpowered when he received the intelligence of the blow directed against him, that he was seized with an apoplectic fit. In vain did he address letters to the Emperor and his sister Natalia ; by the command of the former he was banished from St. Petersburg, and his decorations were taken from him. On the 1 6th of September the fallen magnate de- parted from the city, but his journey was like that of a nobleman retiring to his estate. He went accom- panied by his family and a large retinue of servants in handsome carriages, each drawn by six horses. The streets were crowded with people who had come to see all this departing grandeur, which had been resplendent in the city since its foundation. But Menshikov had never really been popular. On the journey a courier was sent to bring back the Tsar's ring of betrothal from his daughter Mary. At first the exiles were conveyed to Oranienburg, in the Government of Riazan, but after a short detention there, an order was received for their deportation to Berezov, one of the most gloomy spots in Siberia. With Menshikov arrived his son Alexander, aeed thirteen, and his two daughters, Mary, aged sixteen — the lately affianced bride of the Emperor — and Alexandra, aged fourteen. The wife of Menshikov never reached her husband's prison ; she died of grief on the journey. The exiles were taken on their route partly in carts and partly in sledges made of bark. At one station the fallen favourite met with an l82 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. officer returning from the expedition under Behring, which he himself had sent out. The traveller was indeed astonished when he recognized Menshikov in a long beard and a coarse grey smock-frock, and his daughter, the affianced bride of the Emperor, in the young girl clad in a sheep-skin /;///// (a dress worn by peasants). The prisoners were at first lodged in the fortress of the little town, which had originally been the Monastery of the Resurrection. A great change came over the haughty spirit of Menshikov in his misfortunes ; he looked upon his sufferings as a chastisement sent by heaven. He built at his own expense a small wooden church, and worked at its erection with his axe, just as he had used it with his imperial master at Saardam and Deptford. He did not, however, long suffer the horrors of exile in such a dreary place. According to Mannstein, who must have been well informed on the subject, he died of an apoplectic stroke because there was no one in Berezov, as he himself remarked, who understood how to open a vein. His death took place on the 24th of November, 1729, in the sixty-sixth )-ear of his age, and he was buried near the altar of the church which had been built 1)\- him. At the beginning of the year 1730 the news was received at Mo.scow of the death of Menshikov ; he had survived his great master about four years. In spite of his many shortcomings, his pride, and rapacity, he remains for all time a great figure in the pages of Russian histor\', as one of the most jirominent coadjutors of PcttM-, and the lurid light which surrounds his exile and death only .scem.s, as in DEATH OF PETER 11. 183 the case of Wolsc)-, to throw his whole career into greater relief. He had touched every extreme of fortune ; the humble pastrycook's boy, the companion of the great Tsar, the regent of the kingdom, and at last the broken exile of the lonely Siberian village among the Arctic snows. The young Tsar ordered the release from captivity of the two surviving children of Menshikov — for the eldest daughter had died in exile — and gave back some of their property to them, but they were not allowed to visit IMoscow. We shall subsequently find the family completely restored to favour, and some of its members filling high posts as generals and diplo- matists. The Dolgorukis were in the ascendancy after the disgrace of the Menshikovs, and to one of the family of the former, named Catherine, the young Tsar was betrothed. The reign of this capricious boy seemed to bode little good to Russia, and as he was very much in the hands of the clerical party and the reactionaries, his next step was to remove the seat of government to Moscow. Among the letters of members of the Russian imperial family which have been preserved, are several addressed to him by his grandmother, the Tsaritsa Eudoxia, the first wife of Peter the Great. She had been released from her monastic confinement and was present at his coro- nation. She would probably not be without her in- fluence upon him ; nis reign, however, was destined to be very short. In 1729, the Tsar was formally betrothed to Catherine Dolgoruki, the sister of his favourite. Mr. Rondeau, the English resident at the Russian Court, whose wife wrote an interesting book l84 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. on the country, says of her : " She is about eighteen years of age, is very pretty, and endowed with many good qualities." In the beginning of the year 1730, the young Tsar was attacked with the small-pox, from which at first he showed signs of recover)-, but having rashly exposed himself to the cold air of a Russian winter, he died on the 30th of January. During this reign Russia was at peace with her neighbours, and the foreign events in which she was involved were but trifling. The most important was the expulsion of Maurice of Saxony from Courland, of which he had attempted to get possession by offering his hand in marriage to Anna, the widowed duchess. She was quite willing to admit his suit, but the Russians were averse, and thus the projected union came to nothing. The Russians did not get Courland till the reign of the Empress Catherine. On the death of the young Tsar the Council of the Empire assembled to .settle the succession. By her will, as previously mentioned, Catherine had nomi- nated in default of Peter II. and his issue, her eldest .surviving daughter, Anne, and her heirs failing, Elizabeth. Anne, who had married the Duke of Holstein, had died in 1728, leaving a son, afterwards Peter III. No one .seemed to trouble himself to sup- port the validity of this will, and it was quietly put aside. There were still two daughters of Ivan, the elder brother of Peter the Great, surviving — Anne, the widowed Duchess of Courland, who had not been per- mitted to marry Maurice of Saxony; and Catiierine, Duchess of Mecklenburg, the mollur of another Anne, afterwards regent. A claim wliich Alexander ANNE, DUCHESS OF COURLAND. 185 Dolgoruki put forward on behalf of his daughter Catherine, because she had been betrothed to the Tsar, was treated with the contempt which it deserved. Some proposed that the crown should be given to the son of Anne of Holstein, who was but three years of age. The fates had destined him to reign and to be destroyed, but his time had not yet come. This idea, however, gained little ground, because the Duke of Holstein had made himself very unpopular during his stay in Russia. Elizabeth, afterwards also destined for empire, was but little talked of, she led a life of indolent pleasure and was without ambition. Rondeau speaks of her as very beautiful and devoted to gaiety and amusement. Prince Dmitri Golitsin then proposed that the crown should be offered to Anne, the Duchess of Courland. To this the Council agreed, and it was also resolved that it should onl}- be offered to her on conditions whereby the imperial authority was limited, bearing, in fact, considerable resemblance to the Pacta Convcnta of the Poles. This document would have converted Russia into an oligarchy, and put the supreme power into the hands of a few influential families. Anne had lived many years out of Russia ; her elder sister, Catherine, on the contrary had never quitted her native country. She had been separated from her husband for nine years ; and one reason why she was passed over was probably because there was a fear that her husband miiiht return to share her authority; and the Russians, who had already suffered much from foreigners, had a presentiment that they were still to suffer. But they had not l86 THE REFORMS OF PETER IX ABEYANCE. realized to themselves all that was to happen under the rule of Anne. Moreover, Catherine was not at all popular, and, according to Rondeau, her end was hastened by her fondness for brandy. The conditions imposed upon Anne by this docu- ment are not known exactly, since it was destroyed, but the French resident Magnan sent an approximate copy to his Government. They were something of the nature of the following : (i) She must consult the High Council on all Government affairs. (2) She must not declare peace or war without the consent of the Council. (3) She must not impose any new taxes without its consent. (4) She must not confer an important office with- out its consent. (5) She must not condemn nor execute any one of the nobility unless he is proved to have deserved death. (6) The property of no nobleman shall be con- fiscated unless his crime has been proved. (7) No property belonging to the Crown domains was to be aliened without the consent of the Council. (8) That slic should neither marr\- nor choose a successor without the consent of Ihc^ Council. Other plans which furnished a kind of a draft of a constitution were the following : (i) The Empress shall have a fixed sum for the expenses of her house, and sjiall have under her control only the guard which is on dut\at her palace. (2) There sliall be a .Supreme Council composed of DOCUMENT OF THE HIGH COUNCIL. 187 twelve members from among the most considerable of the nobility, who shall direct all affairs of great importance, such as peace, war, and alliances. A treasurer shall be appointed who shall give an account to the Supreme Council of the use he has made of the State funds. (3) There shall be a Senate consisting of thirty- six members, who shall examine all business before it is brought to the Supreme Council. (4) There shall be a House of two hundred persons of the lesser nobility to maintain the rights of that class, in case the Supreme Council attempts to invade them. (5) There shall be an Assembly of gentlemen and merchants, whose business it shall be to see that the people are not oppressed. These important changes, which would have made Russia a constitutionally governed country, were hampered by the jealousy of the various orders among themselves. Thus the greater nobility wished to concentrate all the power in their own hands, and the lesser nobility were not willing to agree to this, pre- ferring one master to several, as Rondeau said, and even in the Council itself there was not unanimity. There were men who were sure to lose everything if an aristocratic government or an oligarchy were established. Among these were the Chancellor Golovkin and the Vice-Chancellor Ostermann. The latter especially dreaded the overthrow of a system of government under which he had grown to great wealth. Under pretence of illness he avoided signing the articles, as did the other members, which were l88 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. sent to the Duchess at Mittau where she resided. GoHtsin and the two Dolgorukis, who knew his character, went after him and forced a sort of adhesion from him. Golovkin shared the views of Ostermann. He was a man of humble origin, his father having been the gamekeeper of Prince Khovanski. In a purely aristo- cratic government his influence would be 7iz/. The two dissentients found a tool in Yaguzhinski, the son- in-law of Golovkin, who wrote to Anne, urging her not to subscribe to the conditions proposed, but that she should only take the crown on the same terms on which her ancestors had taken it. This letter was detected, and the agent of Yaguzhinski was brought back to Moscow in irons. His name was Sumarokov ; he had previously been in the service of the Duchess of Holstein. Nothing was decided when the new Tsaritsa arrived on the 21st of February at Vse- svetski, a little village about eight vcrsts from Moscow, where she was to await the preparations for her solemn entry into the capital. The following morn- ing, a battalion of the regiment of Preobrazhenski Guards and a detachment of the company of Horse Guards were sent to her. She reviewed them, ex- horted them to be faithful, took the title of Colonel of the Preobrazhenski regiment and Captain of the Horse Guards, and gave with her own hand to all the officers and soldiers a glass of wine or brandy, as Sophia had done half a century before. There was now a regular plot against the Supreme Council, and Yaguzhinski, although in prison, was still able to direct it actively. I'rince Chcrkaski, SCENE IN THE KREMLIN. 1 89 who had been one of the most vigorous reformers, went over to them. The Duchess of Mecklenburg, who could not pardon the Grand Council for not having offered her the crown, urged her sister to resist the conditions preferred. Anne, seeing the chance before her of upsetting the engagement into which she had entered, refused to present herself before the Supreme Council for its ratification, and when they offered to excuse her the formality, she said — according to the report of the Saxon minister, Lefort — " that it was not enough for her to have been declared sovereign by ei£-/it people" On the 8th of March a tumultuous scene took place in the Kremlin. The hall had been packed with the supporters of the Tsaritsa, and according to the words of the French agent, M. de Bussy : " The officers of the Guard and the others who had presented themselves in great numbers before the Tsaritsa mutinied, and began crying out that they did not wish any laws to be imposed upon their sovereign, who ought to be as absolute as her predecessors. The riot lasted so long that the Tsaritsa was obliged to threaten them. But, prostrating themselves before her, they said : ' Madam, we are your Majesty's faithful servants : we have faith- fully served your predecessors, and we will sacrifice our lives in your Majesty's service ; but we will not allow you to be tyrannized over. Only let your Majesty give the order, and we will lay the tyrants' heads at your feet.' Then the Tsaritsa ordered them to obey Lieutenant - General Saltikov, Lieutenant- Colonel of the Guards, who, at their head, saluted her Majesty as absolute sovereign. When the rival igo THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. faction had requested Anne to resume the power which her ancestors had enjoyed, she sent for the articles which she had signed at Mittau, and tore them to pieces before the assembly." Thus ended the second attempt to procure a consti- tution for Russia, if we are to pay any attention to the supposed charter at the accession of Michael Romanov. The new Empress did not neglect to reward Yaguzhinski, who had endured so much for her. He was appointed Procuror-General of the Senate ; her vengeance fell upon her opponents. Alexis and Ivan Dolgoruki were accused of having appropriated the crown jewels during the reign of the late Tsar. The father was exiled to Yakutsk, and all the rest of the family to Bcrczov. Their goods were also confiscated. Prince Vasilii was immured in a monas- tery at Archangel, and a short time afterwards Field-Marshal Dolgoruki was taken to the citadel of Schllisselburg. The Empress threw herself en- tirely into the hands of German favourites, especially a Courlander of low extraction, named Bircn, said to have been the son of a groom. The period during which this detestable man tyrannized over and cx- l)loited the Russians has been called the Bironov.s- tchinri. Owing to the pernicious advice of Bircn, the Minister Volinski, one of the most trusted friends of Bctcr the Great, was executed, with two companions, under circumstances of great cruelt}-, his tongue having been previously cut out. In our own days Russia, arriving at a just estimate of one of her best sons, has erected a monument to him. Many members of noble Russian families were sent to CHARACTER OF ANNE. I9I Siberia. It was Biren who planned the dastardly murder of the unfortunate Major Malcolm Sinclair, an officer of Scotch extraction, who was sent in the year 1739 to make a treaty between Turkey and Sweden, with a view to resist the encroachments of Russia. On his way back from Constantinople the imprudent officer was waylaid near Altschau, in Silesia, and murdered by two emissaries of Biren, but it does not appear that the Empress Anne was cognisant of the matter, which probably was entirely planned and carried out by the German adventurer. On the news of the crime reaching Stockholm, the popular indignation was great, but hostilities were deferred, and the death of the Empress followed very quickly after in 1740. They broke out, however, in the following year, and were disastrous for Sweden, so that the country was willing to make peace with Russia in 1742, It was in this way that the Russians gained some more territory in Finland. The Empress was a woman of vulgar mind, and the Court was given up to unrefined orgies, conspicuous only for the large sums of money lavished upon them. She was selfish and exacting to her attendants, and many stories are told of her hard and unfeeling nature. She is described by contemporaries as a woman of tall stature, coarse features, and staring eyes. During the latter part of her life — and she did not live till old age — she was fond of sitting in her chair, and listening to the jest of her buffoons. After these exhibitions her maids of honour would sing to her, and sometimes she would watch them dance. On one occasion, we are told in the " Memoirs of the 102 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. Princess Dashkov," she ordered four of the principal beauties of St. Petersburg to perform a Russian dance in her presence. They became so intimidated, and trembled so much at the severe glance of the Empress, that, losing all presence of mind, they forgot the figure of the dance, and, amidst the general confusion, were suddenly electrified by the approach of her Majesty, who had risen from her seat in a rage, and advancing towards them with the utmost dignity, gave each a sound box on the ear, commanding them instantly to begin over again, which they did, half dead with terror. Her reign was not an important one for Russia cither as regards internal or foreign affairs. The right of primogeniture which had been introduced into the Russian law of real property by Peter the Great was abolished ; it was altogether alien to the spirit of Slavonic institutions. A four years' war with Turkey led to no important results, and no additions of value were made to Russian territories. The Russians were commanded by two foreigners, Munich and Lacy, the first a German, and the latter an Irish- man. Lacy was a regular example of the soldier of fortune. 1 Ic was at the siege of Limerick, and had followed James II. to iM'ancc. Me first entered the German and afterwards the Russian service. He ultimately died as Governor of Riga in 175 f. Of Munich we shall hear much more in the course of our narrative. A minute and interesting account of this war has been written for us by a certain John Cook, a Scotchman, who was attached to the army of Lacy as a surgeon. This buok d(jes not seem to be much RUSSIAN VICTORIES. 193 known among us, or in Russia. The worthy author does not fail to mention many others of his country- men, and his sketches would furnish valuable material for a history of Scotchmen in the Russian service, to whom we have frequently called attention in these pages. In 1736 Lacy took Azov, but it was not retained, and the following year Munich had the same good fortune at Ochakov. In 1739 he completely defeated the Turks at Khotin, a place frequently mentioned in Slavonic history. Cook describes this battle very minutely, and tells us that the priest of one regiment got on horseback, with a large brass cross in his hand, and rode with the foremost of the soldiers, encouraging them to follow the cross, and assuring them that no hurt could happen to them who did so. The priest was not wounded, and re- ceived a handsome reward from the Empress. Another Scotchman, who has left details of this war in which he participated, was John, Earl of Craufurd. He expresses himself in the highest terms of the skill and bravery of Munich, with whom he was in very close relations. The battle of Khotin furnished the subject of the first ode of the celebrated Lomonosov, who may be styled the father of modern Russian literature, a further account of whose writings will be found in the chapter which we have devoted to that subject. Authors of talent now began to make their appearance. Kantemir and Trediakovski, men of very different merit, had already appeared, and Tatistchev was writing his history of his native country, the first attempt at anything of the kind. He is repeatcdl\- mentioned in the interesting memoirs of Cook. 14 194 ^^^ REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. The value of the Russian victories was entirely destroyed by the haste with which the Austrians, who had been the Russian allies, made peace with the Turks. They ceded Serbia and part of W'allachia by the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), and thus Russia, after having shed the blood of so many of her soldiers, and spent so much money, only gained a strip of territory between the Bug and the Dnieper ; and the Turks agreed to raze the fortress of x\zov. The Empress died in 1740 at the age of forty-seven. The recollections of the tyranny of Biren long re- mained in the memory of the Russians. It has already been mentioned that Anne had a sister, Catherine, Duchess of Mecklenburg. This sister was dead, but had left a daughter, Anne, who had married Anthony Ulrich, Prince of Brunswick, in 1739, and had an infant son, Ivan. The Empress, when she felt her health failing, had named him her successor, and appointed Biren as Regent. But the adventurer had raised up against himself a host of enemies. Already, just before the death of the h^mpress, a conspiracy had been detected, the object of which was to drive the Germans out of the country, and to proclaim Elizabeth, the daughter of Peter the Great, ICmpre.ss. Among others who were at the head of it were the Princes Dolgoruki, who managed to direct it even from their i)lace of e.xile in Siberia. The promoters, however, paid dearly for their attempt. liasil, Scrgius, and Ivan Dolgoruki were brought to Novgorod and publicly beheaded. Ivan, who liad been the favourite of Pclcr II., was broken on the wheel before being decapitated. MUNICH AND BIREN. IQ^ On the death of the Empress Anne Biren enjoyed the Regency for a short time. He held the Prince of Brunswick in great contempt, but studied to be on good terms with his wife. But a plot against his government was soon entered into, and we have one more of those rcvolutio)is de palais which throw such a lurid light over Russian history during last century. Anne, the mother of the Emperor, was weary of his yoke, and Munich undertook to release her. The circumstances of this conspiracy have been carefully recorded in the "Memoirs of General Manstein," which are a valuable authority for this period of Russian history. Field-Marshal Munich and Biren continued to live on good terms, at least to all outward appearances. Biren had a kind of mistrust of Munich, but fre- quently asked him to dinner, and in the evenings they sometimes remained talking till quite late. The following anecdote told by Manstein is curious. "The day before the revolution, which happened on the 1 8th of November, Marshal Munich dined with the Duke, who desired him to come back in the evening, where they stayed very late together, talking of many things relative to the current times. The Duke was restless and thoughtful the whole evening, often changed the discourse like an absent man, and abruptly, quite from the purpose, asked the Marshal, ' If in his military expeditions he had ever under- taken any affairs of consequence in the night ? ' This sudden question had nearly disconcerted the Marshal, who imagined upon it that the Duke had some suspicion of his project. Recovering himself, 196 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. however, quick enough for the Duke not to have observed his uneasiness, he answered, ' That he did not remember to have undertaken any extraordinary- things in the night-time ; that he was not fond of night-work, but that his maxim was to seize all occasions that appeared favourable to him.' " That same night Biren was arrested in bed, tried, and sentenced to banishment to Felim amid the dreary snows of Siberia, from which, however, luckier than his predecessor, Menshikov, he was destined to return when old and broken by time. Anna Leopoldovna, as she was called, the mother of the infant Emperor, was now made Regent ; the prince, her husband, a man of contemptible abilities, was declared Generalissimo of all the Russian forces, Munich was made Prime Minister, and Ostermann High- Admiral. But their tenure of office was in each case very short. The Germans had made themselves thoroughly hated in Russia, and taking advantage of their unptipularit)-, the Russian party raised U> the throne I^li/.abeth, now the onl)' sur- viving child of I'eter the Great. The soul of this new plot was the i'runch surgeon, Lestocq. The l'2nglisli resilient h'inch informed his Government in a despatch [i. to o SJ en ^ erf V. > ^ HH to D -^ It 5- H S fc -^ si c o 208 THE REFORMS OF PETER IN ABEYANCE. 1 761. Her character has aheady been fully described. Pietism was one of its pronounced features. She was indefatigable in building churches and performing pious pilgrimages. In her reign, accordingly, there was a great reaction under clerical influence, and the raskobiiks or dissenters were severely persecuted. In 1754 the first Russian University, that of Moscow, was founded through the influence of Ivan Shuvalov, the Russian Maecenas of his age. The country under foreign influence, especially that of a number of in- genious Frenchmen, made great progress in the arts and sciences, and showed a marked contrast to the dull and illiterate period of Anne. Many handsome buildings were erected at St. Petersburg, which now began to vie with the most luxurious European capitals. The luupress herself seems occasionally to have written verses, if the rather pretty lines are really by her which are given by Bezsonov, beginning — "riiislii i>ti)rlinik ! \'>,itkli tsvictov krasivei \ .^ieldi |iiialiK'i ninG Iiil;ov." (" I'uic ^piiiiL; ! nunc iK-autilul to iiic lluin all tluwcis, More agreoaljlc ihaii all lucailusvs. ") ITer reign was, on the whole, one of progress, in spite ill her |KMsonal foibles. It was made celebrated by lli'j genius of Loinonosov and Sumarcikov, of whom wc shall have nuich more to say in our chapter on Russian literature. V'olkov opened a theatre at .St. Petersburg under the i)r()tcction of the I'jupress. We sliall see thai for some lime, owing to the absence of a large readin;,; |)ublic, the autlujrs wlioni Russia began to produce in :.u< h numbers were mainly .sup- " SLOVO I DIELO." 209 ported by the Court. Altogether there was more taste and elegance to be found under the rule of Elizabeth than under the fav'ourites who exploited Russia while the ignorant and tasteless Anne reigned. The worst feature of her reign was the establishment of a political court of inquisition, empowered to examine and punish all disloyal remarks upon and criticisms of the Government, thus opening new careers to informers, who were not slow to make use of them. Accusations of this sort, under the ill- omened name of " S/ovo i dido" (lit. the word and deed), had been known since the days of the Emperor Alexis, but now they were placed under the adminis- tration of a public Chancery. 15 IX. THE PLANS OF PETER DEVELOPED. PETER IIL (JAN. 5-JULV 19, 1762). CATHERINE H. (1762- 1 796). On the death of EHzabeth, her nephew Peter, son of her sister Anne and Charles Frederick, Duke of Hol- stein, succeeded. He was an ardent admirer of his cousin, Frederick the Great, and to the astonishment of all Europe one of his first acts was to make a peace with the Prussian king and to renounce all the conquests which Russia had made and the fruits of her victories. PVedcrick, who had been in the lowest depths of despair, now breathed again. A treaty was concluded between Russia and Prussia in 1763. Wc must remember, even if we blame Peter's violent change in the policy of his country, that Russia was in reality gaining nothing by the war, which was a constant drain to her in money and men. Two other measures of Peter were more ])f)pul,u- among his subjects — he jnit an end to the secret Chancery cstablisluxl by the lunprcss Elizabeth, and to the law of Peter the Great, by which .dl members of iJie aristocracy were com- pelled to take some civil employment. The only restriction made by the P^mperor was that they were RETURN OF THE EXILES. 211 not allowed to enter any foreign service without the permission of the Emperor. Peter now ordered the State prisons to be opened and many exiles to be recalled, Lestocq, once the favourite of Elizabeth, but who had afterwards fallen into disgrace, now returned from Siberia. Keith, the English resident, tells us that, in spite of his seventy- four years of age and fourteen years of exile, he returned with all the vigour of a young man. The old general, Munich, and his son also reappeared, and after them the strange adventurer, Biren — whose career was not closed. These men came upon the changed scene like phantoms from the under world. The English minister gives such a curious account of this occurrence that our readers will no doubt be elad to read it : " The Duke of Courland [Biren] and his wife have come back from their exile. He appeared in the court- circle with the blue ribbon of the order of St. Andrew, which the Emperor had sent back to him ; and his Imperial Majesty paid marked attention to the whole family. I went yesterday afternoon to pay my respects to this prince and to Field-?klarshal Munich, who had arrived the previous night in excellent health and with all his faculties, although he has been more than twenty years in exile, or rather in prison, for during all that time he has only been permitted to see his wife and some servants, and very rarely the soldiers who had the care of him. " Marshal Munich was presented to the Emperor, and at night the Duke of Courland and he appeared together at the Court, and both were treated by the 212 THE PLANS OF PETER DEVELOPED. Emperor with great distinction. It was really a touching spectacle to see these two illustrious persons, after having survived so many and such protracted misfortunes, reappear at such an age at a Court in which they had once cut such an important figure, and to see them, when meeting after so many years, conversing with considerable politeness and without the least trace of that jealousy and animosity which were the cause of their misfortunes. Tiie two sons of the Duke of Courland have been made major-generals and Count Munich appointed first field-marshal." These were indeed extraordinary scenes, and the recollections of the exiles must have been strange. Biren was then 72 years of age and Miinich 79. The latter died five years afterwards at Riga, Governor of I'Lsthonia and Livonia. Biren protracted his exist- ence till 1772, after Catherine had put him into possession of the Duchy of Courlaiul. Thus in the whirligig of fortune he was destined to be the ruler of a duchy, the nobles of which had treated him with scorn as the son of a groom. In spite, liowever, of some sensible laws and generous treatment of fallen greatness, the German propensities of the lunperor made him disliked. The Russians had been too thoroughly exploited by this people to have for- gotten the disagreeable traditions associated with their name. Peter, moreover, attempted to interfere with the i)roperty.ll:l.K til' ri.l KR 111. of cavalry, of wliich the Emperor had been colonel lioni his infanc}', and which he hatl ordered to the city as soon as he came to the throne. 'I'lic officers of this corps refused to march, and were all put under arrest. The revoluiKHi was graphically described by Keith, the English minister, to his Government. He said it was over in two hours, without a di-o[) of blood being shed. At first the l*'mpcror, on being infoniud of the ( onspiiac)-, treated the intelligence with contempt. l-'inding his eoiiip.iiiions gradually PETER III. ABDICATES. 2iy deserting him he retired to Oranicnbaum. Hearing that the Empress was marching thither at the head of twenty thousand men, he made but a feeble resistance, and signed an act of abdication on con- dition that he was allowed to retire to Holstein. Keith, in the long despatch which he sent to his Government, does not fail to inquire into the causes of this strange revolution. His remarks appear singu- larly just. He considers that the principal cause was the confiscation of the Church property and the contempt with which the clergy were treated. The second was the severe discipline which the Emperor had tried to introduce into the army, especially among the Guards, who had been accustomed to a great deal of licence. Their discontent was increased by the determination of the Emperor to take with him into Germany a great part of this regiment for his expe- dition against Denmark. Moreover, that war was disagreeable to the whole nation, who saw itself with regret dragged into fresh expenditure and new dangers for the conquest of the Duchy of Schleswig, which was considered a worthless object, and of no importance to Russia, and that, too, after the Emperor had just sacrificed to his friendship for Frederick the conquests which the Russian armies had made. The wretched Peter was taken from Oranienbaum to Peterhof, and thence on his way to Schliisselburg he stayed at a little place called Ropsha, where he died four days afterwards from a colic, according to the official announcement, but is supposed to have been strangled by one of the conspirators, perhaps ALliXlS OULOV. THE ASSASSINATION OF PRINCE IVAN. 219 Alexis Orlov. This event took place on July 19, 1762. From this time dates the reign of Catherine II. Two years later the young Prince Ivan, who had been confined, as has already been mentioned, at Schliisselburg, was murdered by his guards, owing to a conspiracy of a certain Lieutenant Mirovich, MEDAL SIRULK ON TIIK ACCESSION OE CATHERINE II., 1762. whose object was to set him free. The whole story of this assassination is involved in mystery as difficult to unravel as the Gowrie Plot. According to some writers the conspiracy was instigated by the Govern- ment, because Catherine was desirous of removing from her path so direct a claimant to the Crown. As proof of this among others, it is urged that the 220 CATHERINE II. manner of Mirovich on the scaffold showed that till the last minute he expected a reprieve. It seems, however, more reasonable to think that he was a man of a reckless and ambitious temperament, who, having from a condition of comparative w-ealth fallen into great povcrt}-, thought that at a period of revolutions and surprises he also could attempt another and thereby better his broken fortunes. He was publicly executed on September 26, 1764. " According to the information," says Coxc, " I received from those who had seen the body of Ivan, he was six feet in height, handsome, and athletic ; he had small fiery eyes, and a complexion uncommonly fair, which had been rendered pallid by confine- ment." Such was the fate of this unhappy youth, who was slain by his guards to prevent his escape, according to orders which they had received in case an)' one should attcm[)t to rescue liini. lie is said to have exhibited signs of imbecility, owing to his long confinement. In Russia at this time the reign of a minor was not likely to last long: il retjuircd the scei^trc to be grasped by a firm hand ; and had Paul, the son of Catherine, been placed on the throne, according to the law of primogeniture, on the death of Peter III., his position would have been a peri- lous one. lie was onl\ eight }-ears of age at the time, having been born in 1754. His mother was enabled during her reign not onl)- to exclude him from the succession, hut to keep him in an insignifi- cant position. She was, however, in continual fear that a party would be formed to make him I^mpcror, and appears to have regarded him with a\ersion. ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 221 In the same year in which the conspiracy of Mirovich occurred, took place one of the boldest of the measures for which the reign of Catherine is celebrated — the resumption of the ecclesiastical lands by the State. This had been attempted by Peter, and had been one of the chief causes of his downfall. Catherine had in a great measure owed her election to the clerg)-, one of whom, the Archbishop of Novgorod, had especially ad\ocated her cause. This important measure fully shows the fearlessness of her genius and her self-reliance. The clergy had grown enormously rich in Russia. Fletcher, previously quoted, speaks of the great quantity of monasteries in the countr}-. " They have wrought that if any part of the realm be better and sweeter than other, there standeth a friary or monastery dedicated to some saint." Ustrialov^, in his " History of Russia," tells us that forty-one monasteries were erected in the twelfth century, twenty-two in the thirteenth, eighty in the fourteenth, and sevent}- in the fifteenth. The number of peasants belonging to the clergy amounted in the time of Catherine to nearly a million. It may well be imagined that the Russian sovereigns had looked with a jealous eye upon this great accu- mulation of property. Ivan III., had formed a plan of confiscation, just as the Commons did in the reigns of Henry IV. and V. in England. Peter the Great established a college charged with managing the funds of the ecclesiastics, but he did not dare to proceed an)' further. Throughout the whole of his reign he was regarded \\ith secret hostility by the clergy. Catherine appointed a mixed com- CATUKKliNli II THE AFFAIRS OF POLAND. 223 mission, lay and ecclesiastical, which, making the land and peasants the property of the State, settled an income on the clergy and assigned stipends to the monks. The Church thus became entirely subordi- nate to the State, and its subjection began early in the eighteenth century, when Peter abolished the patriarchate. In the year 1768, at Uman, in the Government of Kiev, took place the terrible massacre under Gonta, the Cossack, of many Jewish children. This is one of the most appalling stories to be found in Russian history, and has been made more familiar by the powerful realistic poem of the Malo- Russian Shev- chenko, who will be spoken of in another place. Gonta was himself afterwards taken and put to death by a just retribution. The affairs of Poland now occupied the attention of the Russians, that unfortunate country having long been gradually breaking up. On the death of the contemptible Augustus III., in 1763, Stanislaus Poniatowski had been elected king — a weak man and one of Catherine's favourites. Many attempts at reform in the anomalous constitution of the country were now made, but its destruction had been resolved upon. A great deal of abuse has been lavished upon Russia for her share in these unlawful transactions, but wc must not forget that the first person to plan the spoliation and to suggest it to Russia was Frederick the Great, by the agency of his brother, Prince Henry, at St. Petersburg. In the partition of 1772, Russia took Biclo-Rossia, or White Russia, and all the part beyond the Dnieper ; by the second 224 CATHERINE II. partition of 1793 her boundary was advanced to the centre of Lithuania and Volhynia. The patriot Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who had displayed such vic^our in the war, was defeated by the Russian General Suvorov in 1794, at the battle of Macic- jowice ; and Poland lay at the feet of the conqueror. Suvorov now advanced upon Warsaw and stormed the suburb of Praga, which is connected with the city by a bridge over the Vistula. After this had been taken the city surrendered, and was sacked with all the horrors of war. The kingdom of Poland was now at an end, and the country was parcelled out for the third time. Austria took Cracow, with the country between the Pilica, the Vistula, and the Bug. Prussia had Warsaw, with the territory as far as the Nicmen ; the rest was handed over to Russia. Stanislaus Augustus was sent to live at Grodno, and afterwards retired to St. Petersburg. We have only given a brief sketch of these wars, as the minute discussion of Polish constitutional questions more properly belongs to the history of that country. Had it not been for the perfidy of the confederates of Targowica, the chief of whom were P^clix Potocki, Xavier Branicki, and Severin Rzcwuski, the country might have entered upon a new life by the abolishment of the absurd libcmm veto, and many wholesome reforms. lUit among the most bitter foes of Poland were to be found some of her own sons, who were sold to foreigners. We must now somewhat retrace our steps to show how Russia fared with her old enemy the Turks, who in 1767 were so ill-advised as to declare war against SUVOROV. i6 226 CATHERINE II. her. They were defeated by Rumiantsov and other generals, and in 1771 suffered a severe repulse in a naval engagement off Chesme on the coast of Asia Minor. At this time Russia swarmed with English adventurers, who took service under her as readily at that time as they have in the present centui}' under her rivals the Ottomans. Thus among the sailors we have Greig, Dugdalc, and Billings ; and it was an Englishman, Mackenzie, who first showed the capacities of Sevastopol as a harbour. In 1774 the peace of Kutchuk-Kainardji was signed, whereby the Sultan acknowledged the independence of the Crimean Khans. Azov and Kinburn were also ceded to the Russians. We shall remember that Azov had not belonged to them since the days of Peter, when the Turks reconquered it. The Russians were now advancing rapidly to the shores of the Black Sea. In 1771 the plague broke out at Moscow, and com- mitted fearful ravages in that city. The authorities found the .same difficulties in dealing with an ignorant population as Nicholas at a later period did during the outbreak of the cholera. Tiie people showed their usual hostility to all sanitary measures, and while endeavouring to enforce them the Archbishop y\mbrose was killed. In 1773 broke out the insurrection of Tugachev, a Cossack of the Don, who gave himself out to be the Emperor Peter III. The notion is said to have been put into his head by his having been told that he bore a great personal likeness to the late ICmperor. In a country like Russia, where so many revolutions de palais had occurred, and so many persons of the A PEASANTS' WAR. 227 highest rank had mysteriously disappeared, a fine field was offered to these adventurers, and accordingly we find them swarming in the pages of her history. The impostors connected with the name of the son of Ivan IV., supposed to have been assassinated at Uglich, will readily occur to the reader, to say nothing of those who appeared on other occasions. More- over, the countr\- was vast and thinly peopled, and the population, on the whole, grossly ignorant. All these circumstances favoured deceit. Again, there were man\' peasants groaning under the tyranny of serfdom, raskobiiks who had been visited with severe chastisement for heresy, and many of the Mongolian races of Southern Russia were eager to shake off her yoke. It was essentially a peasants' war — a kind of ^Q.xcc jacquerie — and the persons who suffered from it were, in the main, the upper classes, who were on many occasions betrayed to the rebels by their revengeful serfs. Instances, however, occurred in which the serfs saved the lives of masters and mis- tresses for whom they felt affection, by mixing them up among themselves, and disguising them in the clothes of peasants. Besides this wholesale slaughter of the landed proprietors and their families, the officers of the garrisons which were taken by Pugachev were at once put to death. An astronomer who had been sent by the Government into South Russia, fell into his hands, and was ordered by the impostor to be hanged on a very high gallows, that he might be nearer the stars. Still Pugachev must have had some sui^porters in his camp of the higher ranks. Some one had given him a Holstein flag, and educated men Wahi'f^ Abbiltlun^. IlojAinmoe n3or.pa>rccine yawii ^ a..^,^.cc..x LNTiraoj^ninica m obMannmrca ^^-.z Kcbcllcn und lietru^eri EMLAbJCW TI^TA HEBA . IeM£JLLA PuGATSCEW: i'UGALlIEV. CAPTURE OF PUGACHEV. 229 alone could have written out his decrees, as he was a grossly illiterate peasant, who had never been taught to read. Pugachev asserted that the Emperor Peter had in some mysterious way escaped from the hands of his would-be assassins. The first generals sent against him were unsuccessful, and he got possession of several cities, including even Kazan. Catherine had already begun to dread the march of the impostor upon Moscow, but his revolt- ing cruelties soon estranged from him all but the most desperate cut-throats and robbers. Bibikov and other generals defeated him in some petty battles, but he was able to retreat into the dense forests, where he was concealed by his supporters. Driven about from place to place, he was finally surrendered to Suvorov by some of his followers, who had grown weary of him, and were anxious to make peace with the Government. He was taken in an iron cage to Moscow, and there publicly executed in 1775, with four of his accomplices. Pushkin, the Russian poet, has left us a detailed history of this peasants' war, but a more enduring monument of his fame will be the graceful tale which he has founded upon its incidents, entitled "The Captain's Daughter" {Kapitanskaya Dochkd). The Empress was resolved, as much as possible, to stamp out all the elements of this rebellion, and accordingly the military republic, or seek, as it was called, of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, established on some islands of the Dneiper, was put an end to. It had long been sinking since the severe blow dealt against it by Peter after the rebellion of Mazeppa. 230 CATHERINE II. The hetmanship had become in course of time merely an honorary office ; thus we find it held by Razu- movski, the favourite of Elizabeth. Catherine appears also as a legislator. In her reign there was a great codification of Russian law, but the serfs saw no amelioration of their condition, although the Empress occasionally punished severely landed proprietors who ill-treated their slaves, as in the case of one of the ladies of the Saltikov familx", a name celebrated in all the annals of Russian history, who was condemned to perpetual imprisonment for gross cruelty to her female serfs. In 1783 the Crimea, which had for some time been under the rule of an independent Khan, was annexed to Russia, and four years later the Turks declared war, owing, no doubt, to the apprehensions which they had formed from the meeting of Catherine and the German lunperor Joseph, which seemed to bode them no good. But they were everywhere defeated, owing to the military talents of Suvorov. On the I4lh of Januar\-, 17S7, Catherine set out from St. Petersburg on her memorable expedition to the Crimea. Siic was accompanied by a brilliant suite, and took with her the two eldest sons of Paul, the Gr.uid Dukes Alexander, afteruards I'jiipcror, and Constantine. IWil the young princes could not bear the fatigues of the journc)- ; Constanliiu: frll ill of the measles, and they were both left behind after having travelled but a short wa)-. Tiie i>lan ol the journey had been arranged li\- the gorgeous anil fantastic I'otcmkin, who had long virtually ruled Russia in the name of the ]'jii[)ress. The processicjii TAKING ( )CHAKOV. Catherine's expedition to the crime a. 235 stopped at Tsarskoe Selo till the eighteenth of January ; after that date the Empress travelled at the rate of about forty English miles a day. On the boundaries of each Government she was received by the Governor-general of the province, who escorted her to the next Government. In towns of some importance she rested one or two days to inspect the place. At Kiev she was joined by Potemkin. It was here that she went on the Dnieper, being escorted by a fleet of fifty galleys, elegantly furnished. In each of the principal vessels there were thirty musicians. Potemkin had contrived that the territories through which Catherine passed, and which had only recently been acquired by Russia, should wear an appearance of extreme prosperity. To effect this he is said to have employed every artifice. After a short voyage, the fleet cast anchor at Kaniev, on the Dnieper, where the King of Poland, Stanislaus Poniato\vski,had been waiting three months to see her. P^rom Kaniev she proceeded along the Dnieper to Krcmcnchug, where she lodged in a splendid palace. The German Emperor, Joseph 11., who travelled by the name of Count P\^lkenstein, had already arrived some time before Catherine at Kherson. He now came to meet her at Kudak, the ancient metropolis of the Zaporo- zhian Cossacks, where she landed near the cataracts, to continue her route by land with the Emperor. As the Empress was walking through the streets of Kherson, she was led to a gate facing the east, over which was a Greek inscription : " This is the road that leads to Byzantium. At Ixakchisarai, the picturesque old capital of the Khans, the Empress I'OTUMKIN. DEATH OF POT EM KIN. 237 resided in what had formerly been their palace. The limit of her journey was Starii Krim. From this point she proceeded slowly back by way of Poltava and Moscow. At the latter place Joseph left her. The Empress reached St. Petersburg on the 22nd of July. On the 15th of October, 1791, Potemkin died. He had been for some time residing at Jassy, where negotiations for peace with Turkey were now being carried on. This remarkable man was a native of Smolensk. He had been an accomplice in the plot of the Orlovs, which overthrew the Emperor Peter, and is said to have first attracted the attention of the Empress in the following way. On the day of the revolution, Catherine, dressed in the uniform of the Guards, and decorated with the insignia of the order of St. Andrew, inspected the troops on horseback, and rode through the ranks with Princess Dashkov, also in uniform. Potemkin, perceiving that Catherine had no plume in her hat, rode up to offer his own. For a long time he had been the chief favourite, and had virtually ruled Russia. His constitution was now quite worn out ; but instead of adopting a temperate manner of life, he pretended to overcome his ail- ments by the mere strength of his constitution. He paid no attention to his physicians, lived upon salt meat and raw turnips, and drank hot wines and spirits. Finding that his health did not improve in this way, he removed to Ochakov. He set out on the 15th of October, 1 791, at three o'clock in the morning. Scarcely had he travelled a few versts, when he felt unable to bear the motion of the carriage. He 238 CATHERINE It. alighted ; a carpet was spread at the foot of a tree, and upon this his attendants laid the dying man. He could no longer speak, and had barely time to squeeze the hand of his niece, Countess Branicki, when he ex- pired, aged fifty- two years. He was interred with great pomp at Kherson, but when Paul, who regarded his memory with loathing, came to the throne, he ordered the coffin of this minion of fortune to be taken from the vault and thrust into some obscure corner. When Clarke visited the place at the commencement of the present century, the site of his burial was unknown. He was unquestionably a man of considerable ability, but his licentiousness, extravagance, and haughtiness have caused his name to be regarded in Russia with but little respect. His influence over the Empress had been boundless. While hampered with the war with Turkey, Russia found herself in coiiHicl with Sweden, at that time governed by the vain and foolish Gustavus HI., who was destined to terminate his career by the pistol of Ankarstrom. His ruling idea seems to have been to raise Sweden to her former high position among the nations of luuopc. lie saw that Russia was the greatest obstacle to tiiis, and he only waited for an opportunity of declaring war. He is said to have meditated doing so even as early as 1773, when Russia was disturbed 1)\' the rebellion of I'ugachev. The time chosen was a dangerous on(,' for that country, the greater portion of whose army was in the south ; in St. I'etcrsburg there were not more than fourteen thousand soldiers. The condition of the country would have been worse if Clustavus had THE TREATY OF VERELA. 239 delayed the declaration of war a few days, by which time the fleet would have quitted the Ikdtic for the Archipelago. Fortunately, the enemy had not ob- served this, and Greig, the Russian admiral, met the Swedish fleet, under the command of the Duke of Sudermanland, off the island of Hogland. The Swedes were defeated, and forced to seek refuge in the harbour of Sveaborg, where they were blockaded by the Russians. On land the king was equally unsuccessful, owing to his bad generalship and the intrigues of the nobles, who were averse to the war, and with considerable reason, since it was draining Sweden, a poor country at best, of its resources. Murmurs arose among the Swedish soldiery ; the Finns were in a state of revolt, and when Gustavus came to Stockholm he found the diet arrayed against him because he had declared war without their consent. In 1790 the contest was renewed with great eagerness, and the Russian Empress was more ready for it. Although Gustavus could boast of one great victory at sea, he had in a previous engagement lost many of his best men-of-war. Seeing how impossible it was for him to carry on the struggle any longer, he made peace. Everything remained on the footing on which it had been in the spring of 1788. Such were the terms of the treaty of Verela. On the night of March 16, 1792, at a masked ball held in the Opera House, Stockholm, Gustavus was mortally wounded. The details of the conspiracy by which he was killed are well known. In the last year of her life, a mortification was 240 CATHERINE II. prepared for Catherine which she had but Httle expected. Eager to keep up her influence in Sweden, she had formed a project of marrying her grand- daughter Alexandra to the young King Gustavus IV. He accordingly visited St. Petersburg with his uncle, was betrothed, and everything was arranged for the marriage. But when the day on which the ceremony was to take place had arrived, and the Empress, surrounded by her Court, was ready to receive the young king, he did not come, and after waiting for some time the assembly dispersed. The scene has been graphically described by Masson : " The King was to make his appearance at court at seven o'clock in the evening : at six the diplomatist Markov brought him the contract and the terms of alliance which he had just drawn up with the help of Zubov. Gustavus, on reading it, ai)i)carcd much astonished to find things in it about which he had made no agreement with the Empress, and askctl if they were offered him to sign on her pari. L^i)(»n Markov's replying in the affirmative, he answered that the thing was impossible. He observed that he di\\ tu wrong the conscience of tlic princess, that she could privately profess her religion, but that he couKl not allows her a chapel nor clergy in the royal palace, and that in public and in all external observances she must, on the contrar)-, profess the religion of the countr\'. l-d us imagine the surprise and euiljarrassment of Markov. lie was obliged to betake liimself off with his p.i[)ers, and to report to Zubov that the King refu.sed to sign. He soon GUSTAVUS IV. OF SWEDEN. 24I returned in greater agitation, and announced that the Empress was already in the throne-room, surrounded by all her Court, that it was no longer possible to speak with her, that she was waiting for the prince, and they flattered themselves that he would not cause a scene which would constitute an unheard-of affront to the sovereign, the young prin- cess, and the whole empire. Bezborodko and several others arrived in succession, exhorting, pressing, and entreating the King to give way. All the Swedes whom they addressed felt inclined to }-ield. The Regent contented himself with saying that all depended upon the King. He took him aside, walked round the room with him, appearing him- self to urge him in a low tone. But the King answered him aloud, ' No, no, I will not have it ; I cannot do it; I will not sign.' He resisted all the remonstrances and all the importunities of the Russian ministers ; and finally, wearied with these importunities, retired to his chamber and shut the door, after again giving a clear and peremptory refusal to sign an\-thing against the law of his countrj'." The Empress declined after this to Iiold any inter- course with him, and he returned home, marrying in the same year the Princess Frederika of Baden. We shall find Russia again at war with Sweden in the reign of Alexander. In 1795 Courland was definitively united with Russia. We have already learned how Anne, the daughter of Ivan, was married to the duke, and resided at Mittau till she was ma^ic Empress. The 242 CATHERINE II. duchy was regarded more or less as a dependency of Russia, and this fact explains the determination of the Russians not to allow Maurice of Saxony to marr)' the widowed duchess. On his return from exile the notorious Biren had been made duke ; on his death he was succeeded by his son Peter, a man of feeble character, and thoroughly despised. The members of the Courland nobility who had visited Russia had been received by Catherine with great distinction, and they felt how much more dignified it would be to belong to an important empire than to an obscure province. Accordingly, on March i8, 1795, an act was drawn up by which Courland, Semigallia (literally "the end of the earth," from the Lithuanian words, zcvK, land, and ^-alas, end ; cf. Finisterre), and the circle of Pilten were formerly surrendered to the Empress of Russia. With the exception of Mittau and the few German towns scattered over the province, the population consists of Letts, as described in the first chapter of this book. In the time of Adam of Bremen, in the eleventh century, Courland belonged to llic Swedes. We have spoken of the Sword-bearers, who succeeded thein as owners, and were afterwards amalgainated with the Teutonic knights. I'^'nally, Courland was turned into an hereditary duchy under the suzerainty of Poland. Its subsequent fate we have already seen. Livonia or Liefland had been accjuircd by I'etcr the Great at Uu; treaty of Nystad, together with I'Lsthonia ; and thus the so-called Baltic provinces were united in process of time with kussi.'i. The bulk of tiu- in- habitants of Livonia consists of iMuns, and the DEATH OF CATHERINE. 243 descendants of the German settlers only form a very small element of the population. We must bear this in mind when we read of the so-called encroachments of the Russians on the German preserves. Livonia, before passing into Russian hands, had belonged to the Sword-bearers, and afterwards Poland and Sweden. Prince Kropotkin, in his valuable article on Russian ethnology in the last edition of the EncyclopcEciia Britannica, gives the following statistics of the relation of the German element to those of the Letts and Finns in the Baltic provinces. " The prevailing population is Esthonian, Curonian, or Lettish, the Germans (landlords or tradesmen and artizans in towns) being respectively only 3-5, 6-'^, and 76 per cent, of the population, Li the three provinces, Riga included, they hardly reach 120,000 out of 1,800,000 inhabitants. The relations of the Esthonians and Letts to their landlords are anything but friendly." By the treaty of Jassy with Turkey in 1792, Catherine kept possession of Ochakov and the shore between the Bug and Dniester. The stately Odessa soon began to rise where had originally been the alleys and shanties of the filthy Turkish village of Hadjibey. The last moments of Catherine have been graphic- ally described by Masson. On the sixteenth of November, she had what she called her little licrmitage, and appeared in unusually high spirits. She had received by a vessel from Liibeck the news that General Moreau had been compelled to recross the Rhine, and she wrote a Jocular letter to Cobenzel, the Austrian minister. She 244 CATHERINE II. amused herself a great deal with Leo Narishkin, her grand ecuyer and chief buffoon, buying of him all sorts of trifling articles, which he generally carried in his pockets to sell to her, as a wandering pedlar, whose character he personated, would do. She retired, however, somewhat earlier than usual. The following morning she rose at her customary hour, and sent for her favourite, who remained a short time with her. She then transacted some business with her secre- taries, and dismissed the last who presented himself, telling him to await her orders in the ante-chamber, and that she would recall him to finish the work. He waited some time ; but the valet de cJianibre, Zacharia Konstantinovich, being uneasy at not being called, and hearing no noise in the chamber, finally entered, lie saw with terror the Empress prostrate between two doors which led into her dressing-room. She was insensible, and did not move ; every effort was made to rouse her to consciousness, but she remained in a kind of lethargy. At length she moved, however, one of her feet, and pressed the hand of a fc)iu)ic dc chambrc. After some time she uttered a deep groan and expired, on the 17th of November, 1796. ller reign had been fruitful in events. In the fust place, the gain in territory had been immen.sc, especially in the west and south, and Russia had now that f)utlct to the lilack Sea which had l)cen so mucli desired by Peter. The progress of the country in litera- ture was hardly less rapid, and although .some of the authors have not been able to maintain their repu- tations in our own days, yet many possessed consider- able merit. Such were Kheraskov, Bogdanovich, and CATHERINE AND THE ARTS. 245 Khcmnitser. Gradually a thoroughly national drama was created, as seen in the comedies of Von Visin. Derzhavin was the great laureate of Catherine's vic- tories, but we shall leave the further discussion of the merits of these writers to the chapter on Russian literature. In spite of her pretended sympathy with the French encyciopcdistes and her correspondence with Voltaire, the Empress became reactionary and conser- vative at the close of her reign, owing to the terror cause(' by the excesses of the French Revolution. This was especially shown in her treatment of Alexander Radistchev, a chinoviiik and a man of liberal ideas, who had been educated abroad, and was able to con- template his native country from another standpoint. He published a little work, entitled, "A Journey to Moscow," perhaps suggested by the " Sentimental Journey " of Sterne, then one of the most popular authors of Europe. In this work there were some pungent remarks on the condition of the serfs, whose sufferings were described too faithfully. The writer was sent to Siberia, and the printer severely punished, and when Radistchev was allowed afterwards to return to Russia, his health was broken by the suffer- ings which he had undergone. Novikov also, who had done much for education in the country, was imprisoned for some time. It might have been expected that Catherine would have shown more sympathy with literature, for she herself was an authoress. She wrote fairy and moral tales in the style of Marmontel, then so popular ; little comedies ; and, strangest of all, a kind of Russian adaptation of Shakspere's " Merry Wives of Windsor." Her friend, 17 246 CATHERINE tl. the Princess Dashkov, who was appointed President of the Academy of Sciences, co-operated with her in these studies. A large number of new towns were built, and Russia was divided into governments {giiberiiii), which were again subdivided into districts or arrondisscmcnts {iiyczdi). If we examine the results of the reign of Catherine, we shall see that she was the first worthy successor who appeared after Peter's death. His plans for the development of Russia on the model of a European state were carried out, and she was thoroughly established as a great European power. Russia had now a magnificent footing on the Black Sea, and we shall find thriving ports created on the sites of miserable Turkish villages, which before liad only been noted for bar- barism and squalor; Odessa rises on the ruins of Iladjibc)', and Sevastopol on Aktiar, just as we may expect to see in a short time ii handsome city on the site of liatcnun. The military glories of the reign of Catherine have been amply described in the preceding pages. Among the celebrated generals who threw a lustre over her reign are Suvorov and Rumiantsov. The former has obtained a considerable reinitation owing to his being engaged in the wars with the i*'rcnch Republic, which will be recorded under the reign of \\\\\\. Me was born in 1729, and was descended from a Swede who had emigrated to Russia in tlie earlier pait ol the seventeenth century, lie is first heard of at the battle of Kunersdorf, and distinguished himself in the war against Ercdcrick, and the battles between the Russians and tiie Pfjles at th^ tune of the first coke's description of CATHERINE. 247 partition, l^ut it was as a commander in the Russian wars against the Turks that he made his name known. In 1790, on taking Izmail, he sent the following couplet to the Empress : — " Slava Bogu ! Slava vani ! Krepost vsiata, i ya tani." (" Glory to God ! Glory to you ! The fortress is taken, and I am there."} This was quite in keeping with his character, for he always affected to be a humorist. His storming of Praga, the suburb of Warsaw, we have already mentioned. The follovving description of the Empress Catherine is given by Coxe in his travels as he saw her in 1778, when she was at the height of her power and magnifi- cence : — " The Empress wore, according to her usual custom, a Russian dress ; it was a robe with a short train, and a vest with sleeves reaching to the wrist, like a polonaise ; the vest was of gold brocade, and the robe was of light green silk ; her hair was dressed low, and lightly sprinkled with powder ; her cap ornamented with a profusion of diamonds ; and she wore a great deal of rouge. Her person, though rather below the middle size, is majestic, and her countenance, particularly when she speaks, expresses both dignity and sweetness." The splendour of her Court has been graphically described by the same author, and if we wish to reproduce to ourselves the Russia of those times, we shall find it in his pages, as we do the Oriental 248 CATHERINE It. luxury of that of Ivan the Terrible in the diary of Horsey, and of Alexis in the descriptions of Olearius, and the account of the Earl of Carlisle's embassy As regards the private character of Catherine we must be content to forget it for the sake of the great services which she rendered to her country. It would be to no purpose to reiterate for the thousandth time these ancient scandals. Judging from the results of her reign, it would be impossible for a Russian not to admire the vigour of her genius ; she was a worthy successor of the man who founded the greatness of modern Russia. X. REIGXS OF TAUL (1796-1801) AND ALEXANDER I. (1 801-1825). RUSSIA IN COLLISION WITH THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND NAPOLEON. Paul, the only child of the Empress Catherine, ascended the throne in his forty-second year, having been born in 1754. Up to the time of his succession he had led a retired life, neglected by his mother and the courtiers. The former regarded him with dislike, and the latter copied faithfully the feelings of their sovereign. The Empress seems to have had great fears that he might be called to the throne by the voice of the nation, as her position was, to say the least, a very uncertain one. There seems every reason to believe that Catherine had removed him from the succession, leaving the throne to her grandson Alexander ; but Kurakin, one of Paul's most intimate friends, contrived to gain access to the private apart- ments of the Empress and burnt her will. The only event of his life of anv significance while Graad Duke had been a tour in the West of Europe in 1780. Me was twice married, first in 1772 to Augusta, Princess of Hesse Darmstadt, who died three years after, leaving no issue ; secondly, in 1776, to Dorothea (iym/urui/e.jy PETROVITCll G R .1 js'^n n c/c M AD AME LA GRAN D E I) U C II E S S E , I\il>!iihcJ ai tie Art dirrru ll'Arul ITSl. (Z-/ (^ PAUL. CHARACTER OF PAUL. 25 T Sophia, Princess of Wlirtcmbcrj^, wlio was received into the Greek Church as Maria Feodorovna. Paul's first act was one of pious regard for the memory of his father, whose dishonoured remains had long lain in the Nevski monaster}-, and not with the bodies of the other Tsars and Tsaritsas. The Tsars from the time of the Grand Duke Ivan Kalita, who died in 1 34 1, were buried in the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel at Moscow. Here the traveller may contemplate the tomb of the terrible Ivan, who was interred in 15S4. P^rom the time of Peter the Great they have been buried in the church of SS. Peter and Paul at St. Petersburg, with the single exception of the boy Peter II., who died at Moscow and was buried there. The Monastery of St. Alexander Nevski, where Peter III. had been interred, contains the tombs of many of the most celebrated Russian authors. His remains were now exhumed ; we are told that on the opening of the coffin nothing was found but pieces of bone and the Emperor's boots. The body of Peter was buried with that of the Empress in the church of the Petropavlovski for- tress after a magnificent funeral ceremony, in which Orlov and the other supposed assassins of the Tsar had been compelled to follow the coffins. After this ceremony was over they were for ever banished from the empire. The strange fantastic character of Paul soon began to display itself; insane as he probably was, he alternated between excessive generosity and capricious tyranny. lie released the Polish hero Kosciuszko from his imprisonment, and many unfortu- nate persons who had been incarcerated during the 252 REIGN OF PAUL. greater part of the reign of Catherine for State reasons not explained. But we need not shudder particularly at their treatment as a proof of Russian barbarism and despotism, if \vc reflect that precisely the same thing had been going on in the capital of her con- temporary, Louis XV. ; and it ma\' be doubted whether a Russian peasant with his communal piece of land was not a great deal better off than the French peasant of the same period. In spite of these benevolent acts Paul soon became unpopular. He revived many obsolete imperial privi- leges, which were disagreeable to the nobility, such as making people get out of their carriages and kneel in the mud when they met him. In fact he had ridiculous .semi-oriental ideas of dignity. Pushkin the poet, who was born in the 3'ear 1799, used jocosely to say that he had been presented to the I^nperor Paul. The fact was that the Tsar one day met the nurse carrying the future author, then a mere infant, and because .she was not quick enough in doing it, angrily snatched the cap from the little boy's heatl. The army al.so di.sliked his German innovations ; the soldiers were dres.sed in pigtails with powdered hair, and Suvorov got into trouble for an epigram which he made on the subject. In fact the conduct of Paul throughout was eccentric, and we can probabl\- best explain his vagaries by the theory that he was insane. One of the quaintest stories about him is that told by Kot/.ebuc. lie was once summoned into the presence of the l^mperor, who said to him in (".crman: '"You know the world too well not to be adequately informed abf)ut political occurrences, and nuist, there- KOTZEBUE'S anecdote of PAUL. 253 fore, have learned how I have fif^ured in it. I have often made a rather foolish exhibition of myself,' continued he, laughincj ; ' it is right that I should be punished, and I have imposed a chastisement upon myself. I want this' — he held a paper in his hand — 'to be inserted in the Hamburg Gazette and other newspapers.' He then took me confidential!}' b)' the arm and read me the following paper, which he had written in French." Kotzebue then gives the document in the actual orthography of the Emperor, as follows : — ^)S>^■ ylinillTnTTITTTJrj^^, ... ... ,-pTCV>^'^J.^7rr^^^„ ROL'in.E OF I'M' I. I. " On apprend de Pelersbourg que I'Empercur de Russie voyant que les puissances de I'Europe ne pouvoit s'accorder entre ellc et voulant mcttre fin a une guerre qui la desoloit depuis onsc ans vouloit pro- poser un lieu ou il inviteroit touts les autres souv'cr- ains de se rendre et y combattre en champ clos ayant avec eu>i pour ecuyer juge dc camp et heros d'armes leurs ministres les plus eclaircs et les generaux les plus habiles tels que M'^. Thugust, Pitt, Bcrnstorfif, lui meme se proposant dc prendre avec lui les 254 KEIGX OF PAUL. generaux C. dc Palen et Kutusof, on ne scait si on doit y ajouter foi, toute fois la chose ne paroit pas destituee de fondement en portant I'cmprcinte de ce dont il a souvent ete taxe." On another occasion we are told that being very much offended with the want of discipline in a regiment which he was reviewing, he told them to march off at once to Siberia. This order tiie officers and soldiers implicitl}' obeyed, and had advanced a considerable way on their journey when they received a command from Paul that they were at once to return. Volumes might indeed be filled with stories of this kind. Paul, however, passed one very good law in the midst of his many follies. He altered the ukase of Peter the Great, which made the succession to the throne dependent upon the will of the reigning sovereign, and settled it in the eldest son ; thus barring the way to pretenders and adventurers. He was a man of singular ugliness, and was at last unwilling that his portrait should appear on the coins ; thus since his time the two-headed eagle has by degrees supplanted the likeness of the Tsar previously found ui)on them. His foreign policy seemed to be inspired by a desire for peace, thus in the circular which ho dictated to foreign powers he declared tliat after forty years' continual battles Russia had need of tranquillity, l^ut he was gradually draw n into a war with J''rancc. He detested the republican form of government and offered a retreat to Louis XVTH. at Mittau. More- over, the French had taken Malta, and in i^gS the Km'ghts .sent an embassy to I'aul, offering hini the dignity of Grand Master ; he now joined Tin key, WAR WITH FRANCE. 255 England, Austria, and Naples in a coalition against Bonaparte. Suvorov, who had retired in disgrace to his country-seat, was summoned to taicc the com- mand of the army ; he entered upon his duties at Verona, where the combined Russian and Austrian forces awaited him. In 1799 he defeated Moreau on the banks of the Adda, and made a triumphant entry into Milan ; Moreau was compelled to evacuate the town with the exception of the citadel. Suvorov then turned upon Macdonald, the other French general, who had marched from the south to the Trebbia, and in a battle on the banks of this river, which lasted three days, completely defeated him, with a loss on the French side of eighteen thousand men. Moreau soon afterwards retired beyond the Bochetta to Novi, and in a short time was succeeded in the command by Joubert, through intrigues in the Directory. On his arrival the new general gave battle to the Austro-Russians under Suvorov at Novi, Aug. 15th, and was killed at the very commencement of the action in which the French were defeated with great loss. Tortona surrendered on the 23rd of August. Soon after this battle Su\'6rov received orders from his government to proceed into Switzerland, to act m conjunction with another Russian army which had been sent under the command of Korsakov. Before, however, he could join him, the latter, who was but an indifferent general, had been defeated by the French. Suvorov succeeded in passing the Alps by the St. Gothard, but lost a great many men ; he then learned the disaster of Korsakov, and determined upon a rQtreat. He first marched by the Pragel Pass into 256 REIGN OF PAUL. Glarus, and thence into the Grison territory by the Pass of Panix. Hence by way of Feldkirch, with the remnants of the two armies, he directed his home- ward march to Russia. On his return the emperor refused to sec him, and the veteran retired in disgrace to his estates, where he shortly afterwards died in the year 1800 ; the Engh'sh ambassador was the only person of distinction present at the funeral of the fallen favourite. Such was the end of this famous general who had covered the Russian army with glory, but had too often sullied his reputation by a reckless sacrifice of human life. lie was a great humourist, as we learn from the many stories which have been handed down about him, and ingratiated himself with the common soldier by sharing in all the hardships of the campaign and by the simple life which he adopted. The tables were now to be turned ; the capricious Paul disgusted with the treatment which he had received from Austria and ICngland — which powers he accused of betraying him — threw himself into the arms of l^onaparte, who had won him over by skilful diplomacy, having among other acts of courtesy sent back' the Russian prisoners newl)' clothed and armed. The 'I'sar now drank publicl)' to the health of Bonaparte, and ordered Louis XVIII. to quit Mittau. A plan was entered upon between the Russian emperor and the h'rcnch general for in- vading India, and it was drawn up 1)\- i'aul with the greatest niimiteness. i'ul the new Ix'-foi-med coalilinn was broken up by the assassination of the emperor in the night of March 23, nSoi, wliich Napoleon had the meanness ii; the Moiutciir to insinuate had been ASSASSINATION OF PAUL. ^57 planned by the English. But, in rccihty, Paul had rendered himself so odious to his nobles by his capricious acts, and had so imperilled the safety and prosperity of the country by his foreign poHcy, that there was a universal feeling that he ought to be compelled to abdicate, and the crown was to be offered to Alexander his son. The Tsar was strangled in the IMikhailovski Palace by Zubov, Pahlen, and others ; but their original idea seems to have been merely to force the emperor to abdicate. An interest- ing account of some of the events of that memorable night — exclusive of the actual details of the assassi- nation — was found among the papers of General Sablukov, who was on duty at the palace. He had suspicions that something extraordinary was about to take place, although not previously informed of the conspiracy, especially from the conduct of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine, who only knew of the proposal to force the Emperor to abdicate. Between ten and eleven o'clock Paul was seen to go to his bedroom, having with him a favourite little dog and his adjutant, Uvarov. According to the narrative, the dog from his uneasy movements seemed to have a presentiment that something was to occur. Shortly after midnight, Sablukov received orders from the Grand Duke Constantino to have his regiment ready, and between three and four o'clock in the morning it was noised about that the emperor was no more. The regiment took the oath to the new sovereign. Sablukov adds the following: " On the left flank stood Gregory Ivanov, an excel- lent soldier, about six fe&t high. I said to him, 258 REIGN OF PAUL. * Have \-ou heard what has happened ? ' ' V2s.' ' Well then, take the oath to the Emperor Alexander.' ' Your Excellency,' answered he, 'have you seen the Emperor Paul really dead ? ' ' No,' answered I. ' Would it not be strange,' said Gregory Ivanov, ' if we took the oath to Alexander while Paul was still alive?' ' Quite so,' answered 1. I then turned to the general and said to him in Russian, in a loud voice, 'Allow me to suggest to }-our Excellency, that we do not administer the oath in the legitimate way : it is never done without the colours.' I then whispered in his car, in French, to order me to send for them. The general then said in a loud voice : ' You arc quite right, colonel, send for the colours, I ordered the first platoon to mount their horses ; Gregory Ivanov was on the flank, and in conse- quence, one of those whose dut}' it was to go to the palace for the colours. I told Cornet Filaticv, who commanded the i)latoon, to show the Emperor Paul to the soldiers at once. When they came to the palace General Bcnningscn, a Hanoverian in the Russian service, who is said to ha\'c been that one of the conspirators who, sword in hand, pre- sented an act of abdication for Paul to sign, cried out, ' Mais c'cst impossible.' Eilatiev answered that if the soldiers did not see liim dead, the regiment would refuse to take the oath to the new emperor. ' Ah I ma fcji,' said the old man, 's'ils lui soiU si attaches ils n'oiil (|u' a \c voir.' And both platoons were per- mitted to enter, and saw the body of the emperor." At once, on the accession of Alexander, Sablukov tolls us, peace was concluded with England, and a THE ROYAL FAMILY. 259 special messenger was sent with the treaty to Count Vorontsov, in London ; the country was suffering greatly from the interruption to commerce. Such was the end of the unfortunate Paul ; the Em- press Maria survived till 1828. By his second wife he left a large family, among the members of which may be mentioned Alexander, afterwards emperor, born in 1777 ; Constantine, Viceroy of Poland ; Nicholas, also emperor, and ^lichael. Besides these he had the follow- ing daughters — Alexandrina, betrothed, as we have previously read, to the King of Sweden, she ultimately married Joseph, the Palatine of Hungary, and died in 1801 ; Helena; Maria, who married the Duke o*" Saxe-Weimar ; Catherine, who married first Prince George of Oldenburg, secondly, William L, King of Wurtemburg ; and Anne, who married William H., King of Holland, mother of the late sovereign. The death of Paul was felt to be a relief, not merely by Russia, but by all Europe ; his fantastic conduct had frequently brought his country to the verge of ruin, and his tyranny had made the liberty of hardly any Russian safe. Memoir-writers and travellers during this reign abound with stories of the caprice of the Tsar, and Edward Clarke, of Cambridge, who visited the country at the beginning of the present century, tells us many amusing anecdotes. In his conduct to the third-rate dramatist Kotzebue and the German pastor Seidler, who were both sent to Siberia, owing to trifling accusations trumped up against them, Paul showed the despotism of his rule, but in the quick and generous reparation which he made, he gave proofs of a benevolent disposition. 26o REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. Alexander I., on ascending the throne, at once made peace with England and France, but his amic- able relations with the latter country were not destined to last long. The constant aggressions of Napoleon awoke a feeling of uneasiness in the Russian emperor, who sent Novosiltsov, one of his favourite ministers, to England, with the object of forming a coali- tion, and the British Cabinet agreed to furnish a subsidy of one million two hundred thousand pounds sterling for every hundred thousand men whom Russia should put into the field. Thus commenced the third coalition against Napoleon in KS04 ; it was at once joined by the King of Prussia, with whom Alex- ander had the celebrated interview by the side of the coffni of Frederick the Great. In discussing events which belong to general European histor)', a more condensed form of narrative has been adopted, those in which Russia is immediately concerned having necessarily the predominance. By the treaty of Potsdam, as it was called, Prussia engaged to furnish eighty thousand men to the coalition ; the Austrians joined the alliance soon afterwards. The events of the campaign must be briefly described. Mack, the Austrian general, blockaded in Ulm, was compelled to surrender that fortress with thirty thousand men, a capitulation which has been thrown into the shade by the; disgraceful delivery of Met/, to the Priissians by l^azainc, in our own daj-s. Napoleon now entered Austria almost without opjK)silion, and Aliirat took possession of \'icnna. ( )ii 1 )ccember 2, 1805, occurred the great battle of Auslcrlit/., in INIoravia, which was followed by the peace of IVessburg. At this battle — /^ ;:''v^'''' ^Jiwi '! ; /~. the lunperor of Austria the integrity of his don nil ions, ill 1(1 I cannot sane I ion an_\- niaiutuvre or ail)' movement that tends to trouble tlu- cjuict possession of what remains to him of the provinces of Poland." Still, they were as yet boundless in their confidence, as Mickiewicz has pathetically told us in his immortal " Pan 'J'adeusz." It would be impossible in a short work like the present to give a detailed account (A the movements BATTLE OF BORODINO. 269 of the armies ; vvc must content ourselves with the most important events. Smolensk was the scene of some sharp encounters, but the great battle occurred at Borodino, a village about fifty miles from Moscow. Before this took place, Barclay de Tolly had been superseded by Kutuzov. The former had become unpopular owing to the slowness of his movements and the Fabian tactics which he adopted. He no longer inspired confidence in his judgment or firmness of purpose. He seemed to be governed merely by accidents, and to waste his troops by continual movements without any well-defined object. The spirit of the army was affected, and general discontent prevailed. Moreover, the nobles, the me/chants, and the population generally were indignant at seeing city after city, and government after government, abandoned. At Borodino on the 7th of September, the Russians had a deadly encounter with the invaders. This terrible battle has been well described in the vigorous pages of the novelist Tolstoi. If we read the descriptions given by Labaume, Fezensac, and others, we shall find ample justice done to the stubborn courage of the Russians, Borodino affords an ad- mirable defensive position, and it had been further strengthened by earthworks. Here Kutuzov en- trenched himself with his army. The day of the 6th was passed in mutual preparations for the engage- ment, and before daybreak Napoleon mounted his horse, feeling doubtful whether the Russians had remained in their position. He then made his arrangements and issued his proclamation to the 270 REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. soldiers, and about the same time, Kutuzov, preceded by the holy image rescued from Smolensk, also addressed the Russians, The battle began at six o'clock in the morning and lasted all day. Two of the redoubts were contested by the Russians with splendid valour, but after this they made no serious resistance, and the French perceived that they were preparing to retreat. On the following morning it was found that they had evacuated their positions, and were slowly falling back on Moscow. Napoleon in a certain sense remained master of the field, but his victory had been like that of Pyrrhus. The French lost 30,000 men ; the Russians 40,000 ; on both sides several generals were killed. Bagration was severely wounded, and died on the 24th of September while being carried before the advancing foe to Vladimir. His end was that of a hero. When Sir Robert Wilson told him that the Fmpcror declared he would not treat of peace with Napoleon while an armed Frenchman should be in Russia, he pressed his hand convulsively and said, " Dear general, you have made me die happy, for then Russia will assuredly not be disgraced — Accipio sola i in 1 11 mortis^ Napoleon now advanced upon Moscow, the govern- ment of which had been committed to Count Ros- topcliin. But the evacuation of the ancient city had been resolved upon. For sonic days previously the long trains of fugitives carrying with them their house- h(jld property— as we were told in Russia by an aged lady who had been an eye-witness of the scene — resembled a promenade. Napoleon entered Mo.scow on the 14th of September, and soon after his arrival a ROSTOPCHIN FIRES MOSCOW. 27I fire broke out— which had in all probability been ordered by the governor — and which raged six days and destroyed nine-tenths of the city. Although Rostopchin affected at a later period of his life to deny his share in the burning of the city, yet no serious historian has paid any attention to his state- ments. In the memoirs of Sir Robert Wilson we have a strange picture of the stoical fanaticism of the man, when he set fire to his own country seat, not far from Moscow, in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the enemy. As he heard the picquets begin skirmishing and saw the enemy in movement, he entered his palace, begging his friends to accom- pany him. On arriving at the porch burning torches were distributed to every one. Each apartment was ignited as they proceeded, and in a quarter of an hour the whole was one blazing mass. Rostopchin then proceeded to the stables, which w^ere quickly in flames, and afterwards stood in front contemplating the progress of the fire and the falling fragments. When the work of destruction was finished, he said, " I am at ease," and as the enemy's shots were now whistling around, he and all retired, leaving the fol- lowing notice affixed to a conspicuous pillar, " I have embellished this mansion during eight years, where I have lived happy in the bosom of my family. The inhabitants of this estate, to the number of seventeen hundred and twenty, quit it at \-our ap- proach ; and I voluntarily set the house on fire, that it may not be polluted by your presence. Frenchmen, I abandoned to you my two houses at Moscow, with their furniture and contents worth half a million of 272 REIGN OF ALEXANDER 1. roubles. Here you will only find ashes." Connected with his name, also, is the terrible story of the death of Verestchagin, a foolish young man, imbued with what he fancied were liberal notions, who had the audacity to circulate Napoleon's proclamations in the city. Rostopchin ordered him to be thrown among the infuriated crowd, who tore him to pieces. As early as 1807 the count had been writing attacks on the French, the most celebrated of his .satires being his Misli vslnkh iia Krasiioni A' ;77/.sY ("Thinking aloud in the Red Porch"), where he unsparingly ridicules his countrymen for their imitation of French manners. Notwithstanding the conflagration of a large part of the city, Napoleon lingered five weeks among the smoking ruins in the vain hope that Alexander would offer terms of peace, but everywhere meeting with resistance from the inhabitants. Moscow was daily witness of the execution of peasants, who were dragged into the city in gangs and shot because they concealed their property from the foraging parties of the marauders. The h^'cnch were amazed at the stoicism with which their victims met their fate. The invaders had behaved with great brutality throughout their march, burning the cottages of the peasants and carry- ing off their little stores. In the.se barbarities the Bavarians obtainetl an unenviable notoriety. They were destined to atone bitterly for their conduct on the return march, \\li< n llic villagers, deprived of hou.se .111(1 lionie in the midst of a winter unusually severe even for Russia, were [prepared to take a fearful vengeance upon their {liscomfited adversaries. When RETREAT OF THE GRAND ARMY. 273 wc read of the atrocities Vvhich in many instances they committed upon their prisoners, such as burying them alive, and other cruelties narrated in all their horrors by Sir R. Wilson, we must not forget the conduct of Napoleon throughout the invasion. Labaume tells us that as they were making their way out of the country the French emperor, who had preceded the corps to which he belonged by one day's march, was occu- pied in burning and destroying everything which he found on his route. His soldiers were so intent on this devastation that they set fire even to the places where the corps which followed would ha\e halted. Those who came up afterwards were thus exposed to great and unnecessary suffering; but he also tells us that his own corps, in its turn, burned the few houses that the others had left, and deprived the army of Davoust, which formed the rear-guard, of all power to shelter itself from the inclemency of the weather. The corps of that general had to contend with an exasperated enemy, who apprised of their retreat, hastened on every side to avenge itself The roar of cannon which Labaume's division continually heard told of the fatigues, sufferings, and dangers of the divisions which followed. After a dastardly attempt to destroy the historical monuments of the ancient city — among others the Kremlin— which was in a great measure fruitless, the remains of the gi-ande armee slowly defiled out of the ruins. The troops were followed by an immense train of waggons laden with plunder, and there were numbers of women and children of French and other foreign nationalities who dared not remain in 274 REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. Russia. The retreat began on the 19th of October ; Napoleon first attempted to retire by Kaluga, where he hoped to find provisions, but was prevented by the battle of Malo-Yaroslavets, where a stoutly contested en' perhaps call the third attempt to furnish Russia with constitutional govern- ment. And yet if we consider the matter closely nothing could have been more reckless or foolish than the conduct of these men — the majority of whom were young and inexperienced, and yet were prepared to force their crude theories upon a country, the political condition of which could not assimilate them. They were pedantic constitution-mongers of the true doctrinaire t)'pc, and forgot that political and social institutions are only built up by degrees. In 1830, Nicholas issued a complete collection of the laws of the Russian Empire. This was an addition to the codes which we have already enume- rated : the Riissknja Prai'da of Yaroslav, the Sudcb- /liks, of I'-ans HI. and IV., the lUozhcuic of Alexis, and the legislation of Catherine. One remarkable change was made by Nicholas. He restored in a measure the right of primogeniture in property, which had been taken away by the ICmpress Anne as contrary to Russian usages, and allowed a father to make his eldest .son his sole heir. Great ecclesiastical changes were also introduced : in order to explain them we must somewhat retrace our steps. THE RUSSIAN CHURCH. 285 We have seen the constant attempts of the Popes to bring the Russian Church into harmony with that of Rome,and how from the Council of Florence (1438) on- ward, they had been uniformly unsuccessful. Nothing could be hoped from Ivan IV. in spite of the attempts of Possevino and others, but Sigismund III. of Poland, a man possessed of as much fanaticism as Philip II. of Spain, had many subjects who were attached to the Greek faith and who had come under Polish rule, when the Eastern provinces, by geogra- phical position and language belonging to Russia, had been conquered by the Lithuanian Guedimin. The heathen rulers of Lithuania, whose capital was Vilna, did not interfere with the religion of their subjects, and the members of the Greek Church were unmolested even for some time after Wladyslawjagiello had been converted into a good Roman Catholic. But things became very different as time went on, and the Jesuits, as soon as their order was founded, poured in large numbers into Poland and her outlying provinces. One of the most active was the celebrated Peter Skarga, who has left a great name among his country- men on account of his pulpit eloquence, but his policy and writings are only indirectly connected with Russian history — and that in one point — his increas- insf efforts to turn the members of the Greek Church o in her Eastern provinces into Roman Catholics. In 1594 four orthodox bishops, whose dioceses were in Polish territory, viz., those of Luck, Pinsk, Chelm, and Lemberg, undertook to bring over their flocks to the Papal doctrines. They found a valuable adherent in the Metropolitan of Kiev, a city which had belonged 286 REIGX OF NICHOLAS. to Lithuanian and Pole since the middle of the fourteenth century. These prelates assembled at a synod at Brzesc, and sent Pociey, bishop of Vladimir, and Terlecki, bishop of Luck, to the king, who was then at Cracow. Sigismund furnished them with letters to the Pope, and they at once proceeded to Rome. Clement VIIL gave them a hearty welcome; they accepted the chief points of the Council of Florence, admitting " filioque " in the creed, the doctrine of pur- gatory, and the papal supremacy, but they were allowed to retain the use of the Slavonic language in their ritual and other points of discipline in the Eastern Church. It was in this way that the " Uniates " arose. There were fierce religious disputes on various points during the whole of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but their doctrines were never satisfactorily settled. In April, 1828. the emperor established a Greco-Uniate college, under the presidency of Jeho- shaphat Bulgak,with a view to prevent any innovations creeping into the doctrines of this bod}'. h'deven years afterwards the Russian Greco-Uniate bishops assembled at l^olotsk and addressed a memorial to the Tsar, in which the}- expressed their readiness to return to the Orthodox Church. At the present time the number of Uniates in Russia is vcr\- small ; their stronghold is in Galicia. l""rom 182^) to 1828 the Russians were engaged in a w.ir with I'crsia, whicli ended in the treaty of Turkmantchai (1828), by which I'crsia ceded to Russia the provinces of hjivan and Nakhichevan and paid twenty million n>nl)les as an indiMnnity. Ru.ssia was now advancin;.;, step by step, in her BATTLE OF NAVARINO. 287 Central Asian conquests. Nicholas was one of the signatories of the treaty of London in 1827, by which England, France, and Russia bound themselves to rescue the Greeks in their struggle against the Turks. The battle of Navarino, on the site of the ancient Pylos, took place on October 20th, in the same year. The Ottoman fleet was annihilated by that of the Allies, and Ibrahim Pasha was obliged to cease from his devastation of the Morea. The independence of Greece was now acknowledged, and she was soon afterwards consolidated into a kingdom. But Nicholas persevered in the war with Turkey after his allies had given up hostilities. The Russians, under Diebitsch, crossed the Balkan and advanced to Adrianople, and a treaty was signed there in 1829, disadvantageous to Turkey, as it gave the Russians the right of interfering in behalf of the Orthodox Christians under her rule. Towards the close of the year 1830 broke out the Polish insurrection, which had in a great measure been instigated by the example of the French, but there were grave incompatibilities in the union of constitutional Poland with the patriarchal autocrac>- of Russia. At Warsaw on the 29th of November, some students attempted to seize the Grand Duke Constantine, the Governor of Poland, at the Belve- dere Palace. This they were unable to do, as he escaped by a secret door, but a lamentable massacre of Russians and persons well affected to the Russian cause took place, which was followed by sanguinary reprisals. The troops fraternized with the people, and the chief command was entrusted to Gcneral Chlopicki, who had seen service under Napoleon. 288 REIGX OF NICHOLAS. In fact, many of the best leaders on the PoHsh side were men who had already fought under the French flag, and had there received their training ; they had been allowed to return to Poland by the Emperor Alexander. The Poles succeeded in raising an army of 90,000 men. Early in 1831 a force of 120,000 Russian under Diebitsch entered the country. Chlopicki, having quarrelled with his confederates, resigned his dictatorship ; but the Poles pursued the GRIVNA OF 1S30. (AV/^^v/ of Nicholas /.) war with enthusiasm, and appointed as their leader Prince Adam Czartoryski, one of the most eminent men of the country, who had been the confidant and friend of the lunperor Alexander. On the 19th and 20lh of Pebruary took place the battle of Grochow, in which the Poles displayed heroic bravery, but they were not able to impede the march of the Russians upon Warsaw. Great efforts were made to enlist the sympathy of some of the lunopean y>owers, especially P'rance, in iheir behalf, but they stood WAR WITH POLAND. 289 coldly aloof. The Poles might reasonabl}' have ex- pected much from the French, for whom they had shed their blood lavishly on many a well-fought field, but the poet Gaszynski said, with bitter truth, that the French were ready to repay them only with tears. On the 26th of I\Iay the Poles under Skrzynecki were defeated by the Russians at Ostro- lenka ; but cholera now made its appearance in the armies. On June loth Diebitsch died, and a few weeks afterwards the Grand Duke Constantine ex- pired at Vitebsk. The amiable lady, whose beauty had made him willing to forego a crown, did not long survive him. Of all the sons of Paul Constantine appears to have been the one who most resembled his father. Masson, who wrote toward the close of last century, says of him, " he exhibits the same passions, the same sternness, the same turbulence." A more favourable opinion has been expressed by other writers. He aKvays manifested great respect for the memory of his father, and to his mother he was affectionate and deferential. The letters which he wrote to his brother, renouncing his claim to the throne, are written in a generous, even quixotic style. Michael, the youngest brother of Nicholas, is not a prominent figure in Russian history ; he died suddenly in 1849. The command of the Russian armies was now taken by Paskievich, who marched on Warsaw through Prussia. On the 7th of September the city capitulated. On February 26, 1832, Poland was declared a Russian province. The constitution 290 REIGN OF NICHOLAS. which had been granted by Alexander was can- celled ; the ancient palatinates were abolished, and at a later period the governments of Warsaw, Radom, Lublin, Piock, and IModlin substituted for them and the University of Vilna founded by Stephen Batory, which had for some time enjoyed a great reputation, was suppressed. Another occasion soon presented itself for the interference of Nicholas in Ottoman affairs. This was in 1832 when the revolt of the Khedive against the suzerain, the Sultan, placed the dominions of the latter in serious peril. In her perplexity Turkey applied for assistance to Russia, which was readily furnished, and the result v/as the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi (so called from a place on the Bosphorus), by which each state guaranteed to furnish to the other the necessary succour for "assuring the tranquillity and security" of their dominions. By a secret article the Sultan undertook, if the Tsar was attacked, to close the Dardanelles, and to allow no foreign vessel of war to enter on any pretext. The next important European event was the revolution of 1848 ; although this did not affect Russia internally, it was impossible for Nicholas, the great embodiment of autocracy and conservatism to remain indifferent to what he saw around him. Mis armies, however, did not interfere in any of the struggles till he was implored by ihc Emperor h'rancis Joseph to help him in his contest with the Magyars. The Austrians were everywiiere losing ground, and an in(lci)cndeiil Hungary seemed on the point of being formed when Nicholas sent his legions HUNGARY PROSTRATE. 29I under Paskievich. He was probably afraid that the revolution would spread to Poland, as there were great numbers of Poles in the Hungarian ranks. This alliance was to be regretted ; the Russians only succeeded in earning the eternal enmity of the Magyars and the ingratitude of the Austrians. The P^mperor Nicholas is said to have once remarked that John Sobieski and himself were the two Slavonic sovereigns who had made the fatal mistake of saving Austria. The result of the war is well known ; Gorgei was compelled to capitulate at Villagos on the 12th of August, 1849 5 indeed, his own countrymen have subsequently recognized that no other course lay open to him. Thus was Hungary handed over to the Austrians, whose cruel revenge sent a thrill of horror throughout Europe. To omit other details, on the 6th of October, the noble-hearted Count Louis Batthyany was executed at Pesth. He was shot, because it was impossible to hang him on account of a wound which he himself had inflicted upon his neck ; on the same day at Arad ten generals were hanged and three shot. But the Nemesis of all these dismal events was to follow, as history will show us. It was in consequence of the disgust felt throughout Europe at the interference of the Russians in the struggle between Austria and the Magyars that the Crimean war became a possibility. Without paying any attention to the absurd stories about the so-called will of Peter the Great — a fiction circulated by Lesur at the command of Napoleon — it is impossible to deny that Russia had for a long time cast a longing eye upon Turkey. And, indeed, 2g2 REIGN OF NICHOLAS. it was only natural that she should do so. That Turkey must soon fall to pieces was evident at the time of the Crimean War, and she has shown symptoms of dissolution ever since. From the days of Catherine this desire to extend her territories towards the south ij \ had become intensified in Russia. Ch ristian Europe ^ >(v>v//''\^owed some^debt^o£gratitude to thatc ountry for havjn^J^^ ^ X)'' kept alive the faint spar k 7)f~Orthod ox- belief , which \ was fast becomi nf;^ extinct under Mussulman oppres- ^sToTT; Had it n ot been foHj er protcctioix _thc_ rest of ^T^ f'aj'a/is would long since, like the Bosnians, have .^adopted F slamis m to avoid persecution . N icholas be- lieved thaFthe^ti me had come to seize Constantinople. He" saw that the " sick man " was in a hopeless con- dition, and he was willing that England should take Egypt, if he were left in possession of the city of the >j^ r^nf ^ yBosphorus. The jioly pj^ccs at X cruaalsmjur nished a VALr""^ P'^g tcxt for the r^ iaxjjgl. England drifted into the war, Cyl and was eagerly joined by Napoleon III., who wished to divert the attention of his subjects from home affairs, and give a prestige to the new reign. Accordingly England and h'rance declared war against Russia on March 24, 1854, but the first hostile encounter between tlic Russians and Turks had taken place the previous year on Oct. 23rd at Isakcha. On Jan. 4th the Allied fleets had entered tiic lilack Sea, and on March i ith the Baltic Meet sailed from Spithead. Up to this time the successes in the war had been to a great extent Willi ihc Turks, who had the victories of Oltenitza >; and Citale as a set-off against the destruction of the Turkish fleet by the Russians at Sinopc. On A[)ril 22nd the bombardment (jf Odessa took place ; the same J\ THE CRIMEAN WAR. 293 year the fort of Bomarsund on the Aland isles was taken, but an attempt on Pctropavlovski in Kam- chatka was less successful. Just as the action was about to begin, Admiral Price, who commanded, committed suicide. It was now resolved by the Allies to invade the Crimea, the only part of the country which could be easily approached, as, although Austria and Prussia affected to sympathize with the Allies, they would not permit any troops to march across their territories to attack Russia. The battle of the Alma took place on the 20th of September the same year ; it was lost by the bad generalship and over-confidence of Menshikov. The English were ready to march upon Sevastopol at once, but were delayed by the want of preparation of the French, which was partly owing to the illness of Marshal St. Arnaud, the French commander, who died on the 29th of September. Meanwhile the Russian general, Todleben — the only man of genius who ap- peared during the war — took the opportunity of fortifying the city. The entrance to the harbour had already been blocked by the sinking of the Russian fleet. Sevastopol was now invested by the Allies. As has been said, it was built at the close of the last century under the direction of an Englishman, who had first pointed out its great natural advantages, on the site of the Tatar village of Aktiar. But it was impossible for the investment to be a complete one, as the north side of the isthmus of Perekop, by which supplies could be easily sent into the city, was not closed. The Allies opened fire on the town October 17th. Eight 20 MK.NSllIKOV. SIEGE OF SEVASTOPOL 295 days later occurred the celebrated light cavalry charge of Balaklava, the best criticism upon which was the often - quoted, " C'cst magnifiquc, inais ce nest pas la guerre!' On November 5th was fought the sanguinary battle of Inkermann. The Russians came on in the fogs of the morning, and were hardly perceived till they began to drive in the English pickets. There had been a grand religious service in Sevastopol, for the bells of the cathedral had been heard in the early morning, and the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael were pre- sent. The English leopards were to be driven into the sea ; but the attack of the Russians was unsuccessful, although it cost the English many valuable lives, several generals having been killed. The English fleet in the Baltic during this year was not able to attack Cronstadt, but a detachment penetrated into the White Sea and did some damage to the port of Kola. The winter was a very severe one, and the armies of the Allies suffered grievously in their encampments. Austria concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with the two Western powers on Dec. 2, 1854, but they received only a moral support from her. During this memorable siege, the Tsar Nicholas died (March 2, 1855) ; he seemed tired of life, and rashly exposed himself to the severe weather of the Russian spring. He would probably never have embarked upon the war had not the wavering conduct of the English encouraged him. Among the old-fashioned Tories the Russians and their Tsar were held in especial honour, and Nicholas had many per- sonal friends among the nobility. Men who were accustomed to appear on public occasions plentifully Q < m o '"nCi);"" innitp r . ' Death of Nicholas. 297 ornamented with Russian decorations were now compelled to conceal them, and the whole feeling of England towards Russia changed. If we want to ascertain what it was in the earlier part of the present centur)', we have only to turn over the pages of the old reviews, or those of Alison's " History of Europe." The Russians were our allies, who had stood shoulder to shoulder with us in the gigantic struggle against Napoleon. It was left for a later generation to affect to discover that they were barbarians, inferior in civilization to the Turks, that their soldiers looked like the lowest criminals, and that they stabbed the wounded as they lay helpless on the field of battle. Nicholas was a man of strong and energetic character, resolute — perhaps inconsiderate — in the eagerness with which he pursued his object, but frequently showing kindness of heart, as the many anecdotes current about him in Russia prove. In 18 17 he had married the Princess Charlotte of Prussia, sister of the late Emperor of Germany, who, on embracing the Greek faith, took the name of Maria Feodorovna. He was succeeded by his eldest son Alexander, at that time thirty-seven years of age. The Crimean War still dragged on. A new element was added by t he appearance of 15,000 Sardinians in the field; fF was the carrying out of a plan of Cavour's who by assisting the Allies hoped to secure the unity of Italy, and her gradual admission among the great powers. Prince Men- shikov was now recalled from the Crimea, and succeeded by Prince Gorchakov. The bombardment of Sevastopol was re- opened on the 6th of April, 1 i'.irT^.>' .1*^.- ■.■■ I < I/: O o END OF THE WAR. 299 1855, but unsuccessfully. An expedition under Admirals Lyons and Bruat took Kertch, Taganrog, and other places ; and on the loth of August the Russians were defeated at the battle of Chernaia, at which the Sardinians distinguished themselves. After the Malakhov had been captured by the French, the Russians destroyed the southern side of Sevastopol, and retreated to the northern, burning the bridge of boats after them. The attempts of Omar Pasha to raise the natives of the Caucasus against the Russians about the same time were not successful. By the treaty of Adrianople in 1829 Russia had gained two important posts on the Black Sea, Anapa and Poti, with other territory, but her footing was not firm among the Circassian mountaineers. The population, however, was too mixed to render possible any coalition against her, and the Christians (such as the Georgians and others) had not forgotten the sufferings which they had endured while under the Turkish yoke. At the beginning of the year 1856 (Feb. 25th) the Treaty of Paris was signed, by which Russia for a time lost her right to have ships of war in the Black Sea, and con- sented to cede a portion of Bessarabia to the newly created state of Roumania. The Porte was to give various privileges to the Christians, but it is needless to say, that all stipulations of the kind have remained a dead letter till the present day. Equally ineffectual has been the treaty signed by Austria, France, and Great Britain, guaranteeing the integrity of the Otto- man Empire. We shall see that subsequently Russia has retrained all that was taken from her. In 1861 took place the emancipation of the serfs. o o < < THE SECOND POLISH REVOLUTION. 30I This great reform had long been meditated by Nicholas, and, indeed, the condition of the serf had been improving since the days of Alexander I. The rise and development of serfdom among the Russians, and the changes introduced in the course of time, will be fully discussed in the chapter devoted to Russian institutions. It will suffice to say here that the landlords on receiving an indemnity now released the serfs from their seigniorial obligations, and the land of the village commune became the actual pro- perty of the serf. In 1863 broke out the second great Polish insur- rection. For some years previously the condition of the country had been very much disturbed. On Nov. 29, i860, on the thirtieth anniversary of the revolution of 1830, political manifestations took place in the churches and streets. Some riots occurred at the same time, not without bloodshed. This was followed by many concessions on the part of the Emperor Alexander, among which were elective councils in each government, and municipal councils at Warsaw, and in the other chief cities of the country. The Marquis Wielopolski, a Pole, was appointed Director of Public Instruction. Many concessions were also made with reference to the use of the Polish language. The people, how- ever, still remained dissatisfied ; they refused to believe in the possibility of a constitutional Poland united with Russia. Another attempt at con- ciliation was made when Count Lambert was ap- pointed Viceroy. But the people still remained unsympathetic and passively resisted all attempts 302 REIGN OF ALEXANDER IT. at conciliation. Disputes occurred between Lambert and General Gerstenzweig, the military governor, in consequence of which the latter committed suicide, and Count Lambert was recalled. He was succeeded by Count Lliders, who adopted an entirely different policy. Trusting to the force of reactionary measures he caused several prominent citizens of Warsaw, who were disaffected to the Government to be de- ported. This administration also proved a failure, and the Grand Duke Constantine, the Tsar's brother, was appointed Viceroy in 1862. On the night of January 15, 1863, a conscription was held secretly, and a quantity of persons more or less obnoxious to the Government were seized in their beds, and drafted into the army. The insurrection at once broke out ; its proceedings were directed by a secret committee, styled Rzad (Pol. government), and were as mys- terious as the movements of the Fehmgerichte. The Poles fought under enormous difficulties. Most of the bands consisted of raw antl undisciplined soldiers, utterly unacquainted with military tactics, and they had to contend with well-trained and well-organized troops. Moreover, few of them had muskets ; the generality were armed only with pikes, scythes, and sticks ; the Russians, on the other hand, had every atlvantagc in this wa}-, and carried rides. The bands were generally composed of priests, land- owners, lesser nobles, petty officials, and such peasants as had no land, but were engaged as labourers by ihc landowners, but the peasants who had any luid uniformly refused to join. Tiie war EXECUTION OF SIERIAKOWSKI. 303 was carried on by guerilla fighting, in which the dense forests surrounding the towns were of great assistance to the insurgents. The secret emissaries of the revolutionary government armed with daggers and styled stiletcJiiki, succeeded in killing many persons who had made themselves obnoxious to the so-called national government. Especially remark- able was the case of the Jew, Hermani, stabbed while on the staircase of the Hotel de I'Europe at Warsaw. This man had betrayed many of the nationalists, and was marked out for death, but so watchful was he that it was impossible to seize a time for putting into execution the decree of the Rzad. At length when he was on the point of leaving Warsaw for Vilna, just as he was standing on the stairs of the hotel, and the announcement had been made onuiilnis podan ("the omnibus is ready") four men rushed from four entrances, stabbed him to the heart, and escaped by various exits. They were never found, and those who hurried to the scene on hearing the cries of the unfortunate Jew found him writhing in his blood on the ground. The chiefs of the insurgents when captured were shot or hanged, one of the saddest cases being that of Sieriakowski, who had been an officer in the Russian army. He was captured when mortally wounded, his only hope being that he would die before the degrading punishment of hanging could be inflicted. Like Andre in the American War, he was anxious to be shot, and die a soldier's death ; he was, however, hanged, as the Russians were determined to make an example of him. Langiewicz, another 304 REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. of the leaders who had directed the struggle, held out for some time, but was defeated, and succeeded in making his escape intoGalicia. General Muraviev was appointed governor of the western provinces, and directed affairs from Vilna. He ruled firmly and has been accused of great severity, but, as even foreigners have shown, many of the worst stories told about him are untrue ; but his office was indeed a melancholy one. When the Grand Duke Constantine resigned the viceroyalty at Warsaw he was succeeded by Count Berg, the attack upon whom by guns and bombs from the Zamoyski Palace led to its being sacked and converted into a barracks. The furniture was thrown out of the windows, and the inhabitants of the palace, which had been let out in various tenements, were escorted to the citadel. The value of the vast buildings then confiscated by the Russian Government, wiiich covered an immense space in the very heart of the city, and contained 2,000 residents (1,500 in the " house," and 500 in the " palace "), was estimated at eight million Polish fiorins, or in ICnglish money, ;^200,ooo. By May, 18C4, the insurrection was entirely suppressed ; from that time the kingdom of Poland has disappeared from all official docu- ments, and in the University of Warsaw all lectures are dcliverctl in the Russian language. It still, how- ever, retains its position as the head-quarters of Polish literature, for more books, newspapers, and reviews appear to be published there than in any other of the cities, which formerly were part of the kingdom of Ppurn'd, And silent and pale to the maiden I turned. I remember her prayers — in her blood how she strove ; Then perished my Greek girl — then perished my love. 328 RUSSIAN LITERATURE. I tore the black shawl from her head as she lay, Wiped the blood-dripping weapon, and hurried away. Wlien the mists of the evening rose gloomy, my slave Threw each corpse in the Danube's dark fast-rolling wave. Since then no bewildering eyes can delight ; Since then I forbear festive banquets at night. As of senses bereft at a black shawl I stare, And my chill heart is tortured with deadly despair. In the following \vc have attempted a version of a charming little lyric, which is pleasing from its original treatment. THE TALISMAN. Where the sea for ever dashes Wave 'gainst lonely rock and tower ; Where the moonbeam softly flashes At tilt' evening's misty hour. Slave to harem-beauties' graces, Where the Moslem wastes life's span ; There a sorceress, with embraces, Gave to me a talisman. " And O I ki'i'|i this secret treasure," Thus with kisses she began : 'Tis a sjiell of wondrous measure, 'Ti^ love's gift, my talisman. I'rom the pain, the death thou fearest, In the storm and hurricane ; Not, I trow, from these, my dearest, (iuard thee shall my talisman. 'Twill not give ihce jewels hidilcn Wiiich the I'^aslcrn mines can show ; "I'will not 'neatli thy falrliion l)idtlen Lay tile I'roplu t'^ votaries low ; 'Twill nut bring lliy friend Inside thee, Nor, when sad in exile's ban, To thy northern country guide thee l'"rom liie south, my talisman. LERMOXTOV. 329 But when subtle eyes would move thee, Luring thee with sudden power, Wlicn the lips that do not love thee Dare to kiss at evening hour, Love, from that unmindful season — New heart sorrows that unman — Falsehood, trespasses, and treason, Shall protect my talisman. Alexander Griboiedov, Russian minister to the Court of Persia, who was killed in a popular tumult at Teheran in 1823, wrote one comedy, which has kept its hold upon the Russian people, Go7'e ot Utnd (" Grief out of Wit "), full of satirical power, in which the artificial Frenchified society of Moscow was happily ridiculed. The author lies buried in the picturesque mountain church of St. David at Tiflis, and by his side rests, after a long widowhood, his wife, Nina, the daughter of Prince Alexander Chav- chavadze, who is still remembered at Tiflis as a beautiful and clever woman. The most eminent poet who has appeared in Russia since Pushkin is Lermontov (1814-1841), He has great lyric power, and in one of his pieces has cleverly imitated the manner of the Russian bilini. His masterpiece is " The Demon," a narrative-poem somewhat in the style of Byron. As the English poet sought the scenery of the East as the background to his tales, so Lermontov loves to describe the pictu- resque valleys and glorious inountains of Georgia. He was of Scotch extraction ; one of his ancestors, named Learmont, having emigrated to Russia in the seventeenth century. This influx of Scotch had begun even in the time of Ivan the Terrible, and 330 RUSSIAN LITERATURE. Russian history teems with the names of Bruccs, Gordons, LesHes, Hamiltons, Carmichacls, and Dalziels. Koltsov (i 809-1 842) was altogether a poet of the people. He was the son of a tallow-merchant at Voronezh. His lyrics are popular throughout his native country. One of the great causes of their diffusion is perhaps that he has adopted the style of Russian ballad poetry. He died of consumption. Nikitin, who greatly resembles him in style, was a native of the same town, and has written some fine lyrical poetry. The story of his life is a sad one, a continued struggle with poverty and the miserable associations of his humble position. The number of these uneducated poets is a strange feature in Russian literature ; we should have hardly expected to find them. The Russians began early to write historical novels, under the influence of Scott. The productions of Lazhechnikov and Zagoskin are not without merit, but are now almost forgotten. The best work of the former is " The Heretic " ; of the latter, V/^ri Miloslavski, a tale of the time of troubles {S))iutnoye Vrcuiya), which has been described in our pages, l^ut it was in the realistic novels of modern life, the school of Dickens and Thackeray, that the Russians were destined to achieve their greatest successes. Nicholas Gogol (1S09-1 852) was a writer of slrikiiirr lalcnt. nis"l)p;ul Souls" is one of the most Ijiilliaiit iioxels to be foiiiid in the literature of wuy counlr)-. As he was a native of l\laIo-Russia, the colouring of his tales is taken from that picturescjue part of the Russian ICmpire. In TURGUENIEV AND TOLSTOI. 33 1 Taras Biilba he gives us a vigorously drawn sketch of the wars between the Cossacks and the Poles, with which the readers of our sketch of Russian history- must be already familiar. Some of his short stories exhibit great talent, such as " The Memoirs of a Madman," and " The Old-fashioned Household." He died perhaps insane, in 1852, at the early age of forty- two. The novelists of Russia are now becoming widely known throughout Europe. At their head must be placed Ivan Turgueniev, whose works have been extensively read. They form a long series, beginning with the Zapiski OkJwtnika, " Memoirs of a Sports- man," and ending with Nov, " Virgin Soil." The fine pathos and subtle analysis of character which the novels of Turgueniev show have found an echo in the hearts of all classes of readers. Perhaps his most beautiful tale is that in which the ill-starred loves of Lisa and Lavretski are recounted. Other novelists are Count Leo Tolstoi, author of many striking works, the most celebrated of which are Voina i Mir (" War and Peace "), a powerful romance of the period of Napoleon's invasion, and Anna Karenina ; Goncharov, author of Obiknovennaya Istoriya (" A Commonplace History "), Ohlomov, and other works ; Dostoievski, who has written, among other produc- tions, Zapiski iz Mcrtvago Donia (" Letters from the House of the Dead "), an account of his exile in Siberia and Pisemski, Leaving the novelists, we must now sa\' a {q.\\ words about the historians. Karamzin has alreadv been mentioned. He was followed by Nicholas Polevoi, son of a Siberian merchant, an indefatigable 332 RUSSIAN LITERATURE. litterateur, who was also a dramatist of some reputa- tion. His " History," however, is now ahnost for- gotten. When Solovaev died, in 1879, he had carried his stupendous " History of Russia " to the close of the twenty-eighth volume. This is now the standard work, but is, perhaps, written on too gigantic a scale, and very different opinions are held concerning it, some looking upon it as little more than a quarry of materials, others as possessing critical value. In 1S85 died Kostomarov, a voluminous writer on historical subjects. Especially celebrated are his monographs on Bogdan Khmclnitski and the rebellion of Stenka Razin, persons with whom our narrative has already made our readers familiar. His collected historical essays are contained in fiftcertf volumes. We have no space here to mention all the writers who have contributed valuable works on Russian history, but we must not pass over the Tsarstvovanic Pctra Velikago (" Reign of Peter the Great ") by Ustrialov, and the new " History of Russia," by Prof Pestuzhev-Riumin, of which the first volume and part of the second have appeared. An excellent history of Slavonic literature has been published by Messrs. Pipin and Spasovich, and a good popular work on the plan of Chambers' " Cyclo- pa.'dia of ICnglish Literature" by P. Polevoi. Since the death of Lermontov, the chief Russian poet has been Nicholas Nekrasov, who died in 1S77. The realism in art, wliich is so great a characteristic of the Russian mind, which has shown itself in the novels of Gogol, Dostoicvski, and man\' others, and in the ijaintings of Vcrcstchagin, is a conspicuous POETRY OF NEKRASOV. 333 feature also of the poetry of Nekrasov. He has painted in firm and true colours the sad, monotonous life of the Russian peasant, and refuses to contem- plate it from the point of view of drawing-room aesthetics. Hence he is a kind of Russian Crabbe — " Nature's sternest painter, Ijut her best." The pathetic poem, Aloroz Krasni Nos (" Red- nosed Frost "), is a sad page from the annals of Russian peasant life. The picture is drawn with terrible power. M. de Vogue, in his " Souvenirs et Visions " (1887), has very finely said: " Le penseur russe va d'un bond au fond des choses, il voit les contradictions, la vanite, le grand rien de la vie, et si son temperament d'artiste le porte a la reproduire, il le fait avcc une impartialite dedaigneuse, parfois avec une froide desesperance, le plus souvent avec le fatalisme inherent aux parties orientales de son ame." There are many other poets who have enriched Russian literature in recent times. They are chiefly lyrical. Maikov has this year celebrated his jubilee. Benediktov and Polonski have written gracefully ; the latter is still living. Since the " Boris Godunov" of Pushkin, the finest tragedies have been written by Count A. Tolstoi, the cousin of the novelist. He chose a highly dramatic period of the national history, which is certainly not lacking in such sub- jects, as our readers have found, unless we have egregiously erred in telling it A few words mav be said about Russian dialect literature. The Malo-Russians have also their collec- tions of national ballads, extending from the earliest 334 RUSSIAN LITERATURE. days to the time of the breaking up of their scc/i or military repiibHc in the time of Catherine. The}- are called ^//;///, and exist in many collections, which are studied more and more now that the time has come almost to idealize these brave but somewhat turbulent soldiers. But under all circumstances a great deal of interest attaches to them. The written literature of the Malo-Russians only commences about the close of last century, when Ivan Kotliarevski (1769- 1838) published his travesty of the ALnc'id, a strange work for a young literature to begin with, and it also appears not a little strange that this noble poem should have been travestied in so many languages. One author of considerable eminence has written in the Malo-Russian dialect or language, for it has been called both, but the subject is altogether too special for our pages. This writer was Taras Shevchenko, who was born in 1814, in a village in the government of Kiev, and spent the earlier part of his life as a serf. He did not get his freedom till 1838, which was purchased by some kind-hearted men seeing his great ability both as a poet and an artist. He died in 1 861, ha\ing experienced manj' cruel vicissitudes of fortune, among others exile to Siberia. He had unfortunatcl)-, wiiile staying at Kiev, become em- broiled with the Government, through getting mixed II I ) with s(Mnc secret societies. Shevchenko was sentenced to serve as a commf)n soldier at Orenburg, on the Asiatic frontier. In this condition he remained from 1847 tf) 1857, till released through the kind efforts of C'ount {'"codorc Tolstoi antl his wife. The following pathetic little porm, rdthough onl\- in a CHARACTERISTICS OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE. 335 prose version, may give some idea of Shevchenko's manner in his minor pieces : — " Here three broad ways cross, and here three brothers of the Ukraine parted on their several journeys. They left their aged mother. This one quitted a wife, the other a sister, and the third, the youngest, a sweetheart. The aged mother planted three ash-trees in a field, and the wife planted a tall poplar ; the sister three maples in the dell, and the betrothed maiden a red elder- tree. The three ash- trees throve not, the poplar withered ; withered also the maples, and the elder faded. Never more came the brothers. The old mother is weeping, and the wife with the children wails in the cheerless cottage. The sister mourns, and goes to seek her brothers in the far-away lands ; the young maiden is laid in her grave. The brothers come not back ; they are wandering over the world : and the three pathways — they are overgrown with thorns." The literature of the White- Russian dialect is altogether scanty, consisting of a few songs and proverbs. We have already briefly glanced at the lite- ratures of some of the other languages spoken in the Tsar's dominions — Polish is too extensive to be dis- cussed in a brief manner, and must be left to a special work. In conclusion, what, it may be asked, are the characteristics of Russian literature, and the Russian mind underlying it? Although the Russians of the time of Catherine — and indeed we may say far into the times of Alexander I. — imitated French literature and manners, and the French language was ex- 336 RUSSIAN LITERATURE. tensivcly used from a lack of self-reliance and self- consciousness among the higher classes ; yet it may be said that the Russian mind is wholly alien to that of the French. The real genius of their literature is deeply serious, religious, and pathetic. They never contemplate life as an amusing comedy. Wherever really national writers have appeared, their charac- teristics are intense realism. Hence the great popu- larity among them of the modern English school of novelists, of Dickens and George Eliot. The stern realities of peasant life are powerfull)- described in the works of Turgueniev, Tolstoi, Dostoievski, and others. I have already alluded to Nekrasov, and the same may be said of the verses of Koltsov and Nikitin. There is also a deep piety which is conspicuous amid this '' still, sad music of humanity." There are ten Universities in Russia, those of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kiev, Kharkov, Kazan, Odessa, Warsaw, Dorpat, Ilelsingfors, and Tomsk. There is also talk of founding universities at Vor6nezh and Tiflis. There are some good schools in the countr}-. ''"'^M^^ XIII. THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA BEFORE AND AFTER THE TIME OF PETER THE GREAT. If we wish to realize to ourselves the former con- dition of Russia before Peter the Great had intro- duced his reforms, there is abundance of material at hand. Our own countryman, Giles Fletcher, already alluded to, the first edition of whose work appeared in 1 591, has furnished us with an accurate picture, the value of which the Russians have themselves recognized. He had great opportunities for observa- tion, having been sent by Elizabeth as ambassador to the Russian Court, and the freedom with which he wrote caused the queen to order his book to be suppressed. Hence the scarcity of this edition. The English, who had a monopoly of trade with Russia, were anxious to be on good terms with a country which afforded them so much profit. The Emperor, or Tsar, a title adopted from Byzantium, and in reality nothing but a form of Caesar, whatever absurd opinions have been held to the contrary, was absolute ruler, having complete control over the lives and fortunes of his subjects. In the old books written upon Russia we find many stories given to 338 THE SOCIAL COXDiriON OF RUSSIA. illustrate this unlimited power, but \vc must not attach great importance to them, as we find most of them used in connection with various Eastern tyrants. To this category belong some of the most pungent anecdotes told by Olcarius and Collins, who have both been previously cited. We have already alluded to the attempts to limit the autocratic rule, which first occurred when the Emperor Michael was elected. The boyars had become more powerful in consequence of the political troubles of the country, and throughout the reigns of Michael and Alexis the ukases were issued in the name of " the tsar and the boyars." This ceased under the strong hand of Peter, but we have seen that the nobles endeavoured to obtain a kind of charter from the Empress Anne ; something like the Polish pacta convciita, which she afterwards managed to destroy. These appear to have been the only attempts to limit the sovereign's authority, if we except the foolish conspiracy of the Dekabrists (or men of December) at the commencement of the reign of Nicholas. That in the earliest days of the country the nobles held lands by inheritance with extensive j)owers is undoubtedly true, but all this was put an end to by Ivan IV. W'c have shown how he con- solidated the empire, and was a sort of Russian Louis XI. Ihc great council of the realm was called the Sobor ; it was presided over by the emperor himself; about twenty of th'.' iiobihLy, and the same number of clergy, were suinmoned ; this invitation depending entirely upon the will of the emperor. The burghers, of cour.se, had no legitimate place at such an as- THE RUSSIAN NOBILITY. 339 sembl)', although there are cases in which they were summoned by Ivan IV. In the dntiia, which was a kind of privy council they never appeared. On the occasions of the meeting of the sobor tlic clergy voted first. The nobility were of four sorts. First, the ndiclnia kntaaia, or princes with appanages. These originally had various privileges, but they were mostly filched from them by the cunning tyranny of Ivan. " So that now," says Fletcher, "these of the chiefe nobilitie . , . are equalled with the rest : save that in the opinion and favour of the people they are of more account, and keepe stil the prerogative of their place in al their publike meetings." He then proceeds to narrate some of the stratagems by which Ivan de- creased their number ; many were forced to remain unmarried ; many were sent to Siberia, and others compelled to become monks. The boyars formed the second degree of nobility. This title has now ceased to be employed in Russia, and is considered by Miklosich to be connected with a Tatar root, meaning "high, exalted." The older form is bolyar. Their revenue came from the lands assigned them by the emperor, which they held at his pleasure, worth, says Fletcher, about a thousand marks a year. They also received seven hundred roubles a year from the emperor for serving in the wars. The third class consisted of the voievodes, or such nobles as had been generals in the emperor's wars : the fourth of the kniaaia, who had no inheritance but a bare title, and were descended from the younger sons of the great families. All the children of a 340 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. kniaz took his title as they do now in Russia. Nor is the case much altered from what it was when Fletcher wrote : " Of this sort there are so man\- that the plentie maketh them cheap : so that you shall see dukes glad to serve a mcane man for five or six rubbels or marks a yeare, and yet they will stand highly upon their bcstchcst or reputation of their honours." The clerks who attended at the meetings of the Sobor were called diaks. Of course there was no middle class in Russia at this time in our sense of the word. The trade was chiefly in the hands of the English, who had a flourishing house at Moscow, and in other parts of the empire. The Slav appears to have but few commercial instincts ; hence in so many countries inhabited by people of this race the trade has fallen into the hands of foreigners and Jews — as in Poland, where the Germans were governed by a code of their own, called the Jus Jlfiii^dcburgiciiin. The peasants or viit.z/iiks were not in the time of Ivan in the absolute state of bondage into which they afterwards fell. The exact period of the rise of serfdom in Russia would be liaid to fix ; perhaps it was not earlier than the sixteenth century. It has been gradually formed more or less from economic causes. \\c must remember, however, that l^ussian serfdom was ilevelopcd out of two classes of peasants ; firsll}-, the kliolop, and secondly, the krcstiaiilH, who was personally free, but like the colouns ascriptitius of the Roman lCmi)ire, attached to the soil. \Vc find the kiwlopi already existing as THE DEVELOPMENT OF SERFDOM. 341 early as the times of the Rjisskaya Pravda ; they were either men who had been captured in war, and their descendants or debtors who had been sold into slavery because they were unable to satisfy their creditors. The krcstiane, however, or rural peasantry, long remained personally free, and had the right of quitting their masters. This right was especially put in practice on St. George's Day, and the recollection of it has survived among the peasantry till the present time in the proverb, Vot tebe, babusJika, Yuriev dycii (" Here's St. George's Day for you, old woman ! "), Chicherin very truly remarks, " The enslavement of the rural peasants did not proceed from any private claims of one person over another, but was in consequence of common obligations laid upon all classes of society. When, however, the krestianin and kJiolop were associated under the authority of one and the same master, one institution acted upon the other, and each contributed to the other some of its own characteristics." In Poland also, as in Russia, the peasants, who were personally free, but liable to perform certain services (the cnietones Polish kinieci), gradually became bound to the soil, and were con- fused with the peasants strictly so called, who were the property of their masters, and had no rights. It was Boris Godunov (a man to whom in many respects Russia owes a debt of gratitude), who first bound the peasant to the soil and forbade him to seek the service of another master. For the next hundred and fifty years we find serfdom developing and taking more aggravated forms. Peter the Great rather 23 ^>?? H'. PETER'S TREATMENT OF THE SERFS. 343 increased it, than weakened its force, by confounding in a common serfdom the odnodvorist and the />o/ov- niki. In this condition, which in some respects had been sh'ghtly ameHoratcd, the peasants con- tinued till the year of emancipation 1861, The first idea of their liberation belongs to Prince Golitsin, the favourite of the Tsarevna Soi)hia, towards the close of the seventeenth century. In his conversation with the Polish ambassador Neu- villc, he spoke to him of the necessity of putting Russia upon the same footing as other nations, and he thought that the first step towards this was the emancipation of the peasants and the handing over to them of the lands which they cultivated. Nothing, however, resulted from these wise intentions, and the actual amelioration of their condition began in the reign of Peter the Great. Peter permitted the domestic serfs to enter the army even without the consent of their masters ; and those who had gained a certain sum in trade might enrol themselves as inhabitants of towns, also without their masters' consent, and the senate was ordered to legislate with a view to put a limit to the sale of peasants apart from the land. In other respects, however, as previously mentioned, Peter strengthened serfdom. Under his immediate successors the power of the master over his serf increased : thus in the reign of Elizabeth, he might send any refractory serf to Siberia. In the reign of Catherine the position of the serfs was taken into consideration at the time of the new codification of the Russian laws. The points discussed, however, rather applied to the 344 ^^^ SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. general amelioration of their condition than their emancipation — such as a definition of the liabilities of the peasants, their right to marry at pleasure, and the punishment of their masters for cruelties inflicted upon them. Most important was the ques- tion of their right to propcrt)'. In spite, however, of some improvements in their treatment, they re- mained in a state of bondage. Serfdom was also introduced among the Malo- Russians. Soon after the Emperor Paul came to the throne, the peasants on the Don and in tlic governments of Yekaterinoslav, Voznesenski, Caucasus, and Tau- rida, were bound to the soil. But some measures were taken to better their condition. In Malo-Russia it was forbidden to sell the peasants apart from the land, and the barstcJiina or cot-vee, for all Russia, was fixed at the rate of three days a week. Much was hoped from the lunperor Alexander, a humane man ; in the year 1801, he f )rbade the sale of the serfs apart from the land. Tiic lunpcror Nicholas perceived the necessity of having a final settlement of this question ; but the task was left to his son. The present condition of the peasantry will be described when we come to speak of the ;////'. The Russian clergy were first under the jurisdic- tion of the Patriarch of Constantinoi)]^, but wlicn that cit\' fell into the power of the Turks, there arose a natural desire for independence. In 1589, a patriarchate was established at Moscow, and the office lasted about a hundred and ten years, having been abolished by i'cter the C.rcat in i;no. Of these patriarclis there were ten during that period : they had THE RUSSIAN CLERGY. 345 considerable power, in matters ecclesiastical, but the Emperor had the control of all clerical appointments ; on Palm Sunday it was customary for the Tsar to hold the bridle of the ass, upon which the Patriarch satin solemn procession. The supremacy of the State in religious matters which Peter observed in England and other Protestant countries, no doubt, made a great impression upon him : on his return, he issued his " Book of Regulations " for the government of the Church, and when the Patriarch died, he did not appoint a new one, but the office was merged in that of the metropolitan of Moscow. The clergy were divided, as at the present time, into the white clergy, the parish priests, and the black clergy, the monks ; of these, there is only one order throughout the country, that of St. Basil. Fletcher was struck with the great number of the monasteries, but we have already seen how Peter the Great had an idea of getting the ecclesiastical revenues under the con- trol of the State, a plan which was afterwards carried out by Catherine. Of the ignorance of the priests of his time, Fletcher speaks in the severest terms ; but Coxe in the eighteenth century has a more favourable opinion, especially in the case of some of the higher clergy. Nor will readers of Clarke's travels, a little later, forget his description of the interesting interview which he had with the Metropolitan Plato, a man whom he found full of wit and knowledge. Concerning the habits of the emperor, such as he was in the sixteenth century, we will quote the quaint description of Fletcher : — " He is served at his table on this manner. First 34^ THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. every dish, (as it is delivered at the dresser), is tasted by the cooke, in the presence of the high stevvarde, or his dcputie. And so is received by the gentlemen vvayters (called shilshey), and by them carried up to the emperour's table, the high stewarde or his deputie going before. There it is received by the server (called erastnoy), who giveth a taste of everie dishc to the taster, and so placeth it before the empcrour. The number of his dishes for his ordinarie service is about seventy : dressed somewhat grosely, with much garlickc and salt, much after the Doutch manner. When hec cxceedeth upon some occasion of the day, or entertainment of .some amba.ssador, he hath many more dishes. The .service is .sent up by two dishes at a time, or three at the most, that he may cate it warme ; first the baked, then the rost meat, and la.st the broths. In his dyning chamber is an other table, where sit the chicfe of his nobilitic that are about his court and his ghostly father, or chapleine. On the one side of the chamber staiidcth a cubbard or table of plate, very fayre and richc, uitii a great cesternc of copper by it full of ysc and snow, wherein standc ihc pottes that serve for that meale. The taster holdeth that he drinketh in, all dinner time, and delivereth it unto him with a say, v.hcn he calleth for it. The manner is to make nian\' dishes out of the .service after it is set on the table, and to send them to such noblemen and officers as the empcrour likelh best; and this is counted a great favour and honour. After dinner hee layeth him downe to reste, wher«e commonly hce taketh three houres slccfx;, except he employ one of the houres to bathing or boxing." THE POWER OF THE TSAR. 347 So far Fletcher, who enables us to see the Russia of old time ; even at the present day it is a great custom with the Russians to take a siesta. The power of the Tsar up to the nineteenth century has undergone no change. The government of the country is an absolute monarchy. It is also here- ditary, for although Peter the Great, baffled in his schemes by the rebellious conduct of his son Alexis, made the succession depend upon the will of the reigning Tsar, his plan was changed by Paul. By thus tampering with the natural order of things, Peter paved the way for a great deal of the confusion which subsequently ensued, — especially the election of weak women as sovereigns, who could easily be ruled by others. Since the time of Paul the succession has been vested in the eldest son and his heirs, and the next in order of birth, for we must remember that Con- stantine, the brother of Nicholas, voluntarily re- signed his claims. All power, legislative and execu- tive, is settled absolutely in the Emperor. He must be a member of the Orthodox {pravoslavni) Church, of which he is not perhaps as much the head as Queen Victoria is of the Anglican. The Emperor is aided by a Privy Council, and besides this there are four other councils : the first eccle- siastical, that of the Holy Synod ; the second, the Council of Ministers (of whom there are eleven) ; and the two remaining are styled the Council of the Empire and the Senate, exercising deliberative and judicial functions. The Senate is nominated by the Emperor ; its mem- bers exercise administrative functions, and discharge the duties of courts of cassation. 348 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. Peter the Great entirely remodelled the Russian nobility, such as it had existed in the sixteenth century. He was anxious to have rank based upon official duties. The ground was clear before him, for we have already described how his brother Feodore succeeded in destroying the mesiJiistcJiestvo, or custom which forbade a man to hold an office of an inferior grade to that which any of his ancestors had held. He accordingly established the Chin, a gradation of ranks, and arranged all nobles under three classes, civil, military, and religious, with appropriate titles, and these titles must be employed with scrupulous accuracy when addressing officials. Thus the Im- perial Chancellor, the highest civil title, corresponds in the army to field-marshal, and in the church to the Metropolitan, so also Privy Councillor {Taini Sovkt- nik) is on the same level as lieutenant-general in the army, and a bishop in the ecclesiastical ranks, and so to the end The members of these grades are offi- cially styled Chinovniks, and the venality of the lower classes of officials is a frequent theme for satire with Russian authors, as we sec in the clever comedy of Gogol, " The Revisor," and the" Provincial Sketches " of the novelist Saitikov. We have already mentioned how Peter 111. removed from the nobles the obligation enforced b)' Peter the Great, that they should discharge some public duty. It was a long time before any of the nobility showed sufficient educatic^n to be safely entrusted with the duties of an embassy; and therefore in the earlier periods of tiicir history we find the Russians more (jften eniplo\ing forei'Mieis. It is curious that RELIGIOUS PARTIES. 349 the portraits of two Russian ambassadors have been preserved, which were painted in England during theirtime of office— Mikulin, in the reign of Elizabeth, and Prozorovski in that of Charles II. The position of the clergy at the present time has already been stated, but besides the various forms of Christianity there are also Mohammedans, Shama- nites, and Buddhists. The Russians, as a race, have always shown themselves tolerant of other creeds, and the antipathy of the Russian peasant to the Jew, as has been truly stated in an article in the Encylo- pccdia Britannica, is not based upon religious preju- dices, but dislike to the Kahal or Jewish confederation whereby the peasants are exploited. Catherine pro- tected Buddhism, and in consequence the Buddhist priests multiplied so, that, by order of Nicholas, their numbers were diminished. The Russians, with the exception of a few White- Russian Uniates, profess the Greek Orthodox faith ; the Poles and most of the Lithuanians are Roman Catholics. The late conversion of the latter from Paganism has been described in a previous part of this work ; till the preaching of the Jesuits many of them belonged to the Greek faith. The Finns, Germans, and Swedes, are Protestant ; thq Tatars, Bashkirs, and Kirghizes, Mohammedans. There is, moreover, plenty of Dissent in Russia, the general name for the Dissenters being Raskolniki Among these are the Staro-obriadtsi, or followers of the old ritual, according to the schism produced by Nicon's emendation of the text of the Slavonic Version, as has already been described. Besides these there are the 350 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. Bezpopovtsi, who have no priests ; the Molokaiii, who resemble our Quakers, and many of whom have been settled in the neighbourhood of Tiflis ; the Stranniki, or wanderers ; the Skakiuii, a kind of Shakers ; and the Skoptsi, who mutilate themselves. The merchants at the present time are divided into three gilds. In spite of the autocratic rule of the Tsar, Russia is not entirely without the rudiments of self-government The primary element of State organization is the luir, TRAVELLING sLi:iJi;i:. or village comiuunily, which will shortly be described more at large. A number of these village com- munities make a vo/ost, whose peasant inhabitants elect an elder {t'o/ostiioi siars/iiiia), who is, however, subordinate to the i/iirovoi posrcdnik\ and a peasant's court {volostiioi siid). 'I'here is also the provincial assembly called zcvistvo, consisting (A representatives of the landed proprietors, the artisans and peasants, wh{; regulate the incidence of taxation, and have power in matters of education, public health, roads, yUDIClAL INSTITUTIONS. 35 I &c. They form a kind of local board. Since 1870, the municipalities have had a dit7/ia corresponding to the seuistvo ; citizens are enrolled accordiiii^ to a property qualification, and elect representatives. We have not space to add much about the judicial institutions of the Russians, the nature of the punish- ments inflicted, and other matters of the kind. Something may be gathered from what we have said about the legal codes in the course of our narra- tive, and there is a great deal of indirect information to be collected from Fletcher, Olearius, and other travellers who visited Russia. The punishments inflicted were generally very cruel ; we see for example, by the UlozJienie of Alexis and even later, that a woman who murdered her husband was buried alive. Torture was of course a great feature of the early period, and was inflicted in many ways, A very quaint punishment was that called \S\^ praviorJi, which is related both by Fletcher and Olearius, and shall be here given in the words of the latter, as translated by Davis. " He who pays not at his time mentioned in the bond is put into a sergeant's house, having a certain further time to make satisfaction. If he fail he is carried to prison, whence he is, every day, brought out to the place before the chancery, where the common executioner beats him upon the shin- bone, with a wand about the bigness of a man's little finger for a whole hour together. That done he is returned to prison, unless he can put in security to be forthcoming the next day at the same hour, to be treated in the same manner till he hath made satis- faction. And this is executed with much rigour on 352 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. all sorts of persons, what condition or quality soever they be of, subjects or foreigners, men or women, priests or lay persons. 'Tis true, some present being made to the executioner, he suffers the debtor to put a thin iron plate within his boot to receive the blows ; or, it may be, smites more gently. If the debtor have not to satisfy he must be sold with his wife and children to the creditor." In his chapter on the manners of the Russians Fletcher describes them as gross in their diet and much given to drunkenness. He has almost 'as bad an opinion of them as George Turberville, who, writing in 1568 says: — " Diiiik is tlieir sole desire, the pnl is all tlieir jiride, The soberest head dolh mice a day sland lieeilful of a guide.'' The women led a life of Oriental seclusion, and were entirely in slavish subjection to their husbands, as we have previously shown in referring to the Domostroi of the time of I\an the Terrible. I'eter the (jreat put a stoi) to all this seclusion when he established his so-called asscnih/ics, which at first were a great scandal to all those who were attached to the old .system. It was one of his aims to rid Russia as much as possible (»f the Orientalism whicli had been induced duiiiig the two hundred )ears' rule of the Mongols. IMie men of the upper classes were ignorant ami superstitious ; to traxcl was unknown among them, and they fancied Russia 1<> be the most faxoured land on tile face of the Lihjbe. In the time of Michael BEARD CUTTING. A CARICATURE- 354 ^^^ SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. Romanov Prince Khvorostin was accused of treason, because he wished to visit foreign countries. The women passed their Hves in retirement, and only went abroad in covered litters. Education was in a very low state ; the only subjects taught being reading and writing, and the instructors were the priests. But even of this slender training the women hardly had the benefit. Kotoshikhin, the author already cited, says, " In the Muscovite Empire the female sex is ignorant, and it is not the custom to educate them, so they seem by nature childish, and are awkward and shamefaced in speaking, because from their earliest youth they live in retired apartments, and, with the exception of their near relatives, no one sees them and they see nobody ; and therefore we can easily perceive that it is impossible for them to be sensible or confident, and even when they are married they arc seen but little. And sometimes it has happened that the Tsar has sent a message to the Tsaritsa, and she, although she has heard the message, has not been able to give a reply, and thus it has been a cause of shame to the Tsar." Owing to their want of education, the Russian women of the old school showed but little refine- ment. Olearius tells us that they painted very much. " They paint .so palpably that if they laid it on with a brush, and had a handful of meal cast in their faces when they had done, they could not disfigure them- selves as much as the paint docs. lUit the custom is so general, that the most handsome must comply, le.st they should discredit the artificial beauty of others : whereof we saw an example in the wife of SOCIAL CUSTOMS. 355 Kncz Juan Borissowits Cirkaski (Kniaz Ivan Boriso- vich Cherkasski) who was the handsomest lady of all Muscovy, and was loath to spoil with painting what the rest of her sex took so much pains to preserve thereby : but the other women informed against her, and would not be quiet till their husbands had forced that prince to give way, that his wife might daub her face after the ordinary manner. So that painting is so common in Muscovy, that when any are to be married, the bridegroom that is to be, sends among other presents some paint to his bride." The husband was not allowed to see his future wife till the marriage day, and this accounts for the many tricks which were played upon bridegrooms. A stool was placed under her feet to give her the appearance of being taller ; and sometimes a hand- some female slave was substituted. " Nowhere," says Kotoshikhin, writing in the clays of the Tsar Alexis, " is there such trickery practised with refer- ence to brides as at Moscow." Weddings were con- ducted with great pomp, and even among peasants at the present day the expenses of a marriage are com- paratively great. Those who are familiar with Russian popular literature will not fail to have noticed the collections of wedding songs {svadcbnia picsni). They are not always bright and joyous, but too often dwell upon the hardships of conjugal life as con- trasted with the simple liberty of maidenhood ; for married life among the peasants has always involved a hard lot. Nekrasov, the stern realistic painter of life, has forcibly said : 35^ THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. " Three grievous lots had fale assigned, The first — to marry a slave ; The second — to be the mother of a son that is a slave ; And the third — till death to be subject to a slave ; And all these terrible lots lay On tlie woman of the Russian land." Collins speaks of the ceremonies at their funerals. The feasts, held on these occasions, were called trizni, and it was to a banquet of this description, given on the death of her husband, that Olga in- vited the Drevlians when eager to avenge his death, as previously told. Collins says, " The Russians count that the greatest funeral where are most women-mourners. . . . These therefore in a doleful tone cry out (as the wild Irish do, ' O, hone'),'Tim- minny Dooshinco {Ti mcnya diishcnka) \ alas! mj- dear, why hast thou left me, was I not obedient to thee in all things? was I not careful of thy house? did I not bring thee fine children ? hadst thou not all things in abundance ? or thus, why wouldst thou die ? hadst thou not a fair wife, pretty clothes, and brandy-wine enough ? ' " Those of our readers who have seen some of the Irish kecnes collected by Crofton Crokcr will be struck by the similarity. The Slavonic races con- stantly hold festivals to commemorate the dead : the ceremony is finely described by the i'olish poet, Mickiewicz, in " Dziady." Michael Dmitricv has also alluded to the Slavonic custom of visitinef cfi-aves in some very ijicturcscjue lines, of which a prose verse is here attempted : — " A gr.iveyard is near the l)arrier : its name is known tn all ; It is nil a God's acre thickly sown, where nameless people, LIFE GF THE BOYARS. 357 Honest folk liave been gathered, awaiting the spring of the resurrection, Thuir huinlile graves arc overshadowed by tiie thick ijianches of tlie trees. The turf is fresh : all is calm antl i|uit;t like eternity. There on Sunilays our good Orthodox JNIoscow folk Love to hasten to visit their friends asleep, as if they were living ; Families of guests m bright array sit round each grave ; They go among the simple stones, and, reading the well-known names, Call them to mind ; sighing and bending low, utter the farewell prayei*." A graphic picture of the Hfe of a Russian boyar of the old school is given by M. Shubinski, in his account of Basil Golovkin, who lived in the early part of the eighteenth century. The serfs in immediate attendance upon him amounted to three hundred. His journey from the village in which he lived to the capital resembled a royal progress. The ladies of the old-fashioned households were occupied with domestic duties. These are all care- fully marked out in the Domostroi, and for their amusement they used to listen to the countless tales, or skazki, which their female serfs narrated to them. There are abundant stores of this class of literature, which have attracted the at- tention of antiquaries in our own times. Arina, the old nurse of Pushkin, is said to have amused the poet and even to have stimulated his fancy by her tales. We know that he attempted to imitate them, and Lermontov, whose imagination had been kindled in the same way, has left us a very clever bilina, which might well have been composed in the days of Ivan IV. But this Oriental seclusion does not seem in every way to have stunted the characters of women. We 24 358 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUS.SIA. see what a remarkable specimen of her sex was Sophia, the sister of Peter the Great, who, if oppor- tunity had been granted her, was quite ready to play the part of Pulcheria to his Theodosius. Many noble examples of womanhood may also be found in Russian private annals. There is something wonder- fully pathetic in the life of Natalia, the wife of the unfortunate Prince Ivan Dolgoruki and daughter of Count Shcremctiev, one of Peter the Great's •' Eaglets." At an early age she was betrothed to Ivan, and everything seemed to promise her a brilliant career. But, as wc have previously told, on the death of the youthful Peter II. the Dolgorukis were sent into banishment. Natalia persisted in marrying Ivan even when under sentence of exile although her brothers very much opposed the mar- riage. She has left some highly interesting memoirs in which the noble qualities of her heart find a genuine and even ;i(rh'C expression. "Just think how little it would have been honourable for me to be willing to marry him when he was in prosperity, and to refuse him when he was unfortunate ; but I had made up my mind, when I had given my heart to a man to live or die with him, and to allow no one else to have any participation in my love ; I did not understand what it meant to love one person one day, and another the next ; such is the fashion now- a-days [i.e., at the time she wrote these memoirs just before her death in 1771 |, but I showed the world the constancy of my affection. I was the companion of my husband in all his sufferings, aiul now I speak the very truth when I say that, in the midst of my CONDITION OF THE SERFS. 359 misfortunes, I never repented of my marriage nor murmured against God." Prince Dolgoruki was soon dragged from his miserable place of exile at Berezov, and publicly executed at Novgorod ; she describes the agony of their parting. Natalia ended by becom- ing a nun in the year 1758. In a recent number of the htoricheski Viest- nik (Historical Messenger), some extracts were given from the letters of the Countess Catherine Rumian- tsov to her husband, extending over the period from 1762 to 1779, which give us a charming picture of Russian womanhood, although a melancholy colour- ing is added to it by the sad experiences of her chequered life, and we must remember that such women were produced even in the times of Catherine the Second. We now come to the Riisskii Mir, and the present condition of the serfs, and the land question in general in Russia. The w/r, or commune, is a survival of the old Aryan tenure, which probably prevailed at one time throughout Europe. It has been traced by Professor Kovalevski throughout various parts of the world ; in the Cantons of Switzerland, among the Croats and the Serbs (with the latter it is called the zadntgd). The land occupied by a village — whoever has the seigniorial rights — is considered to belong to the village commune ; the separate members of the com- munity can only claim temporary possession of their parts, such as are allotted to them by the niir in proportion to their working power. The com- mune pays into the imperial treasury a fixed yearly 360 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. sum, according to the number of the peasants, and distributes the land among its members as it thinks fit. In some communes the land is divided yearly, in others ever)' two or three years. When the territory is vast, as in the northern provinces, the land is common to many villages and constitutes a volost. The village parliament, which makes the distributions and settles all questions connected with the land, is presided over by the village elder, and in these assemblies women are allowed to vote. The propensity of the Russians for co-operation is also shown in the artels, or confederations of artisans in various towns, who settle in a house together and pay to the elder whom they have elected their quota for sharing at a common table. This ten- dency of the Russian mind has shown itself throughout their political life. When we first find the Slavs in history, we see them living in their communes ; the gradual growth of serfdom has already been described. The words for tsar, king, and indeed, all titles, were unknown to them in their earlier stages. Tsar, the Slavonic form of C;csar, was first orominent when Ivan III. assumed the cognisance of the Byzantine double-headed eagle, wishing to appear as the descendant of the Cajsars ; but it is Ivan IV. who formally adopts it. The Slavonic word for king (Icorol, kral) is nothing but the name of Charles (Karl I the Great, a monarch who by his cruelty to the Slavs, commencing the long series of German encroachments, has stamped his individuality upon them. The word loiiaz, used for ])riiice, can also be shown to ha\e been derived from llu; (jcrman kd)ug ; RELIGIOUS SECTS IN RUSSIA. 361 all the other titles are foreign ; thus we have already shown boyar to have been of Tatar origin. A tendency to independent action shows itself in the great number of religious sects in Russia. A writer in a recent Russian magazine tells us that in the country there are ten millions of dissenters from the Orthodox Church, exclusive of the Pro- testants, Roman Catholics, and Jews. It is a resistance to authority, whether lay or ecclesiastical, which partly explains the struggle against the innova- tions of Nicon in the time of the Emperor Alexis. It was not merely a question of a few changes, as has been said before, in words and religious forms, but to the people it symbolized the introduction of the aristocratic clergy of the West. They struggled for the old religious life, which had been identified with their communities. It has been rightly said that most of the Russian towns are really over-grown villages, and this may be especially seen, in purely Russian cities like Kiev, v/here we may wander from street to street, coming constantly upon fresh quarters with their separate markets, and countless small bazaars, and independent artisans working at their several crafts. The civilization of the West would convert all these artisans into factory hands, obeying the dictation of a master and his foreman. The impression which the people leave upon the the foreigner is that their instincts are agricultural. Any one familiar with a Russian landscape, will recog- nize the truth and bcaut\' of the lines of Nekrasov : "There is noise in the capitals, the orators thunder, The war of words rages : 302 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. But there, in the depths of Russia, Is the silence of centuries. Only the wind gives no rest To the tops of the willows along the road, And, kissing mother earth, The ears in the illimitable corn-fields Bend themselves in an arch." On the emancipation of the serf.s in 1861, when twenty -three millions obtained their liberty, the commune received the village land, and might cither pay a.s before, by so many days personal labour from its inhabitants, or might elect to redeem the allotments by the help of the Crown, and they then became freed from all obligations to the land- lord. The Crown paid the landlord, and the peasants have to pa}- the Crown, for forty-nine years 6 per cent, interest on the monc}' advanced ; that is nine to twelve roubles per allotment. Each village commune received five fiscal desiatines (13^ acres) for each male member, the option being left to the commune, to take less, if desired. The compensa- tion received by the former proprietors from the Government, as in the case of the sugar-planters at the time of the emancipation of the negroes, was often very inadequate. The nobles who employed their serfs as domestics in the faniii)- were, as we were informed in Russia, the greatest sufferers 1)\' this important social change. In measuring out tlu' land among th(? various members of the c(Mnmune, dis- tance fioiii home, loss from a road going through it, and (lualit)' of soil, are all justl)- considered. The (luanlit)' of aiablr land is diminished by the space re«iuired for the village and thr ro.ids, and the VILLAGE COMMUNES. 363 permanent pasture or fallow, and thus each peasant rarely cultivates more than two-thirds of the amount which has been allotted to him. In some parts of Russia the villages possess forest land. Some villages set apart a piece of land for pasture, but most rely upon the neighbouring landlords for their fodder. The commune does not attempt to restrict the peasants in cropping. Where the population is thick, the three-field system is pursued ; where it is scant)-, the land is cropped unsystematicaily. If a peasant prefers town life, he can easily sublet his lot to others. Under the system of serfdom, the peasants when they carried on any trade in the towns used to pay an oln-ok, or tax, to their lords. As regards the inclination and capacity of the peasant for work, very different opinions have been held. Some represent him as wholly idle and drunken, but the picture is certainly overcharged. During the winter there is very little work for him to do ; perhaps he may cut wood, or carry grain to town, or thresh his rye ; but the greater part of the time he is lying on the pccJi or stove, to be found in every house, and at that period he spends what he has earned in the summer. Being in the main illiterate, his amusement consists in hearing skazki, or tales, or in the recitation of the bilini, or legendary poems, which are told by such wandering minstrels as Riabinin and Ostap Veresai. Close observers of the peasant think the charge of lying brought against him exaggerated. Perhaps he is not fond of truth- telling, but he is certainly improving and many of the vices of which he has been accused were obviously engendered by serfdom. 364 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. The landed proprietors as a rule cultivate their own lands, either personally or by means of a bailiff. Sometimes their land is let in small portions to peasants, but there is nothing in Russia corre- sponding to the English tenant-farmers. They are now largely employing agricultural machines, which are imported in great numbers from England. The vast districts of the southern part of Russia, those of the so-called cJiornornoui, or black land, are wonderfully fertile. We have been greatly struck by the wheat crops presented by Podolia and other governments. The following statement, coming as it does on good authorit}', will surprise the reader. It is not at all extraordinar)' for a man to have from ten to fourteen thousand acres under maize — four thousand acres is a very common amount, and an instance is given of one rich peasant, who culti- vated in this way more than twenty-eight thousand acres. Many landed proprietors hire labourers to work on their estates, who bring their own bullocks and agricultural implements. A Russian village is, in most instances, far from recalling to us what we understand by the name in our own country. Let us sketch as well as we can from memory the leading features of some that have come under our own notice. A long straggling street is seen, with wooden houses on each side, the architecture of which is of the simplest kind. These houses are the /c/vr.v or neasants' cottages, made of logs of wood placed cross- RUSSIAN VILLAGES. 365 wise, the interstices being filled with moss. Here and there we see tall posts with levers for drawing water from the wells. The windows, generally three in number, are from two to three feet square ; in the corner of the room is a brick stove. Opposite to the door in a corner is the i^ou, or sacred picture, to which every Russian bows on entering. Originally the only means of lighting the cottage when darkness came on was the lucliina, or pine-torch ; this, however, is now becoming superseded by more civilized methods. In order to improve the cultivation of the soil agricultural colleges, which a few years ago had reached the number of ten, have been established in various localities. An account of the curriculum adopted in them is given by Mr. Roth in a work which we have largely used. No boy can be ad- mitted under thirteen years of age ; besides agricul- ture, the Russian language and history, geography and arithmetic are taught in these establishments. The Russian w/r still flourishes in spite of the emancipation of the peasants, but the hilaks (fore- stallers) and viiroyedcs (mir-eaters) are already developing into a dangerous class. These, like the pushing business men in Western Europe, are trying to exploit the peasant, who has now become a free agent, while simple and uneducated, and appears in many cases to offer himself as a ready victim. Let us hope that the cottager with his small plot of land which kept him, it is true, in an unprogressive state, but guaranteed him and his family from starvation, will not be bought up b}- the new capitalists, and 366 THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF RUSSIA. that the independent artisan, of which so many thou- sands arc to be found scattered over Russia, work- ing in their artels, ma}^ not be turned into the dreary factory hand of the latest type of Western civilization. XIV. POLITICAL AND LITERARY LANDMARKS- AUTHORITIES. For the help of those who arc students of Russian History and Literature, we have added summaries in this chapter of the following subjects : — (i) The territorial acquisitions of Russia. (2) The chief events in the history of her intellec- tual development. (3) The chief authorities on Russian history, most of which have been used in the present work. No. I. The Exi'ANsioN of Russia from 'iiie Foundation of Moscow TO THE Present Day. 1147. i^oi The city of Moscow first appears in tlie Russian chronicles, having, according to tradition, been founded by George Dolgo- ruki, Init for a hundred years after its foundation it remains an ()l)scure dependency of the principahty of Suztial. Death of Daniel, the son of Alexander Nevski, ulio founded the priucipaliiy of Moscow, which he had received as an appanage, with a few villages, and added to them Periaslavl Zalieski, and Kolomna. He was the first to jje iiuried in the church of St. Michael. 1303-13S9. During this period, which included the reigns of George, Ivan Kalita, and Dmitri Donskoi, the principality is aggran- dized l)y the addition of Uglich, Galich, Biclozersk, Kostroma, and Vladimir. 368 POLITICAL AND LITERARY LANDMARKS. 13S9-1425. Reign of Vasilii Dmitrievich : he adds jNIurom, the territory of Suzdal, Tula, and some other small portions of territory. 1472. Ivan III. acquires Permia. 1478. Novgorod incorporated with Moscow. 1482. Acquisition of Tver, Rostov, and Yaroslavl. 1489. Acquisition of Viatka. 1505-1533. Reign of Basil, during which P>kov (1510), Riazan, Novgorod Severski, and Smolensk were added. 1533- 15S4. Reign of Ivan IV. Conquest of Kazan (1552), Astrakhan (1554). The territory of the Don Cossacks and Siberia an- nexed. Ivan formally takes the title of Tsar in 1547. 1 61 7. Treaty of Stolbovo between Gustavus Adolphus and Michael Romanov. 161 S. Treaty of Deiilino. Smolensk remains in the hands of the Poles. 1654. Bogdan Khmelnitski goes over to the Tsar \vitli the Zaporo- zhian Cossacks. 1 66 1. Peace of Cardis. Alexis abandons all claims to Livonia. 1667. Truce of Andruszowo for thirteen years. Alexis abandons Lithuania, which he had conquered, but regains Smolensk, and holds Kiev and all the left bank of the Dnieper. [Kiev was to be given back to Poland in two years' lime, but Alexis kept it because the Poles did not fulfil the terms of the truce. They finally gave it up in 16S6.] 1718. Treaty of Nystadt : Peter acquires part of Finland and Carclia, Esthonia and Livonia. 1722. Conrpiests on the Caspian : the Russians seize Dei bent and Baku. [Some other provinces accpiired were abandoned by the Km-)ress Anne on account of the unheallhiness of the climate.] 1739. A small portion of territory between the Bug and tiic Dnieper gained from tiie Turks. 1743. Treaty of Aim : Uussia acquires Southern i''inkintl as far as the river Kiumen. 1771. first division of Poland : While Russia gained, and all the territory beyond the Dnieper. 1774. Treaty of Kiuhuk- K:\nardii. Russia regains Azov (it had been t.akeii by Peter, hut i..-l .ii^iiii). Keich, NCnikaJe, and Kinlnirn. 1783. Tin- Oiinca ann'\< d in Russia. I793-I8S4. 369 1793- Second division of Poland : Russia gains a large part of Lithuania, Volliynia, and Podolia. 1795. Third and final division of Poland. Russia takes the rest of Lithuania up to the Niemen (Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, Novo- grodek), and the rest of Volliynia up to the Bug. The same year Courland is voluntarily cedeil to her by the inhabitants. 1801. Annexation of Georgia by Paul. 1809. Peace of Frederikshamm. Cession of the rest of Finland to Russia. 18 13. Peace of Gulistan. Persia cedes Shirvan and other provinces to Russia. 1814. Congress of Vienna. The Duchy of Warsaw annexed to Russia. 182S. Peace oi Turkmanchai. Erivan and Nakhivan ceded to Russia by Persia. 1829. Peace of Adrianople. Russia gains Anapa, Poti, and a few other places. 1S56. Treaty of Paris. Russia cedes part of IJessarabia to Roumania, and is to keep no ships of war in the Black Sea. 1858. Treaty of Aigoun. Russia gains all the right bank of the Amour : Japan had already ceded the southern part of Sakhalin. 1859. Shamil surrenders to the Russians. Pacification 0I the Caucasus. 1S64. Annexation of Seniircchie, or the Land of the Seven Rivers. 1865. Tashkent and its territory annexed. 1867. Russia sells to the United States ot America her possessions on that continent, which she had held since 1822. 1 868. Treaty of Zera-Buleh ; the Emir of Bokhara cedes to the Russians the Khanat of Samarcand. From this time Bokhara becomes a dependent state. 1871-1881. Annexation of territory of Kuldja. 1S73. Khiva becomes a vassal state. 1876. Kokan annexed. 1878. Treaty of Berlin. Russia regains the lost piece of Bessarabia. 1884. Annexation of Merv. We trust in the course of our work to have made the progress of Russia clear to our readers. First, we have the early period of her history — heroic and half 370 POLITICAL AND LITERARY LANDMARKS. legendary. It centres round Novgorod and Kiev, and we get the first Christian sovereign Vladimir, and the first legislator Yaroslav. These little Slavonic principalities, like the small Saxon kingdoms of the heptarchy arc, however, not destined at first to be united. Although joined in a brotherhood by a common language and common institutions, they have not the instinct of nationality, and at first the desire of private aggrandisement impedes unity. We have the dreary period of the appanages — described COI'I'KK IIAI.I-KOUIU.K OK CZAR AI.KXIS M IKll Al I.OVKII. in our third chapter — in which the small states are full f)f intestine feuds. They arc only too ripe for the attacks of the terrible Mongol, who, issuing from his Eastern and .SouthiM-n fiirtrcsscs, harries them wilh fire and sword. Hut tin re is the little principalil\- of Moscow which has the germ t)f nationalit}', and her vigorous rulers save the countr\'. Still Russia has lost much during her struggle with these b.irbarians — Kiev, together with Volhyni.i, Podojia, and (ialicin, THE PROGRESS OF RUSSIA. 37I are lost to her— and the last of these she has never regained. When Ivan III. and his two vigorous suc- cessors are seen holding the reins of power tightly and emerging from the chaos of the Middle Ages, Russia has the powerful principality of Lithuania on the West stretching almost from the Baltic to the Black Sea, and it has become united by marriage with Poland. Henceforward there will be sharp battles between her and the Poles, and the " old domestic feud " (sfarii douiash)ii spor), as Pushkin called it, will be continued for centuries. Russia is kept from the sea in the North by the Swedes, and in the South by the Turks, in whom the Mongols are merged. She lies like an inert mass, cut off from communication with the outer world. When Ivan IV. wants artificers to help him in his plans for civilizing Russia, the Poles can block their entrance into his dominions. Hence we shall not be surprised at the welcome he gives bold English seamanship which brings ambassadors to him by way of the White Sea. He has his idea of getting an outlet into the Baltic, but it is too early : however, he has some success in the South and gets Astrakhan on the Caspian. He also stretches his empire to Siberia. The country is again put back for more than fifty years by internal struggles and rival adventurers, and, when in the earlier part of the seventeenth century Russia has an offer of the much coveted Azov, she is too weak to take it. But Alexis turns the tide : the Western provinces including historical Kiev are got back, and the transfer of their allegiance by the Zaporozhian Cossacks, brings her closer to the Black Sea. The country i? full of useful 372 POLITICAL AND LITERARY LANDMARKS. adventurers, thrifty Scotchmen naturally predomina- ting, and all is ready for Teter. The vast changes introduced by the " Giant Wonder- Worker," as Pushkin calls him, have been already described. He succeeded in getting an outlet for Russia on the Baltic, and St. Petersburg was founded ; but Finland on the other side remained Swedish. Of his temporary possession of Azov and enforced surrender at a later period wc have already heard. Russia had to wait till the days of Catherine II. to get a footing on the Black Sea. The feeble reigns of Catherine I., Peter II., Anne and Elizabeth effected little ; a worthy successor to Peter did not appear till Catherine II. ascended the throne. Russia now advances to the l^lack Sea, gains the Crimea, and Odessa and Sevastopol are built. She acquires territory westward by the three divisions of Poland, but does not get Warsaw till later. This follows in Alexander I.'s reign : towards the beginning of which she has taken all Plnland, appeared south of the Caucasus and incorporated the interesting old kingdom of Georgia. Nicholas gives her some Persian provinces, and Alexander II. Turkestan and the region of the Amour. She has thus in the present )'car (1889) reached, according to the statistics given in the Ii)icycloptcdia Britannica, the extent of 8,644,100 square miles, and boasts a population (;f 102,889,520. No. 2. TiiK Ciiii-.r Datks connected w 1 1 11 Russian Literature. 863. SS. Cyril and Methodius visit Moravia. 1036.^ Luke Zhidiata appointed Bishop of Novgorod. T Fisher Unwin, Paternoster Square, London EC. n DATE OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE. 373 I056-1057. Dale of the Ostromir Gospels. 1073. Nestor comes to the Pestcherski Monastery of Kiev 1 1 13. The last year mentioned in Nestor's Chronicle. 1 188. About this time Ilya Muromets mentioned in the Chronicles. 13S0. The Battle of Kulikovo Pole. 1400. The Epistle of St. Cyril to the Grand Duke \'asilii Dmitrie- vich. 1499. The complete Bible compiled from the various Slavonic tran- slations by Gennadius, Archbishop of Novgorod. 1542. Compilation by Macarius of the Chetii-Minei. 154S. Ivan IV. sends for printers from Germany. 1 55 1. The Stoglav published. 1564. The first Russian book printed, containing the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles. 1565. Second Russian printed book, a Chasovnik, or Book of Prayers. 1563-1579. Correspondence between Ivan IV. and Prince Kurbski. 1581. The first complete Old Slavonic Bible, printed at Ostrog, by Ivan Feodorov. 15S9. Foundation of the Academy at Kiev. 1591. A Greek Slavonic Grammar published at Lemberg. 1596. Proclamation of the Union of the Greek and Latin churches. Lawrence Zizanii publishes the first Slavonic Grammar ; he is followed by Smotrilski. 1633. The Patriarch Philaret establislies ihe first High School at the Chudovoi Monastery at Moscow. 1645. Arrival of Krizhanich at Moscow. 1652. Nicon issues the new religious books, and causes the old to be destroyed. 1665. Simeon Polotski arrives at Moscow ; in 1672 he is appointed tutor to Feodore, the son of Alexis. 1667. Kotoshikhin writes his work on Russia. 1673. A German troupe of actors under Gotfried Johann comes to Moscow. 1678. Polotski translates the Psalms. 1679. Foundation of a school for Typography. 16S1-1736. Life and labours of Theophan Prokopovich. Pie com- piles the Reglamcnt in 17 19. 1685. Establishment of a School for teaching Slavonic, Greek, and Latin at the Zaikonospasski Monaster}'. 25 374 POLITICAL AND LITERARY LANDMARKS. 16S5-1750. Life and labours of Tatistchev. 1690. The patriarch Joachim advises the Tsars, Ivan and Peter, to drive all foreigners out of Russia, as enemies of God. 1703. The first Russian newspaper appears. 1 704- 1 769. Life and labours of Trediakovski. 170S-1744. Life and labours of Kantemir. In 1731 appointed ambas- sador to the Court of London, and in 1738 till the end of his life in the same capacity at Paris. 1711-1765. Life and labours of Lomonosov. Appointed professor, 1745- 17 17. The first astronomical work published in Russia, a translation of Iluygens. 1 724. The Academy of Sciences founded. 1 7 ' 7~ 1 777- Life and labours of Sumarokov. 1733-1S07. Kheraskov. 1 743-1816. Derzhavin. 1744-181S. Life and labours of Novikov ; he attempts to educate the people. 1744-1792. Life and labours of Von Visin ; development of national comedy in Russia. 1746. Volkov establishes a theatre at Yaroslavl. 1754. Foundation of the University of Moscow. 1756. A Russian theatre established at St. Petersburg. 1760. Literary journals begin to make their appearance. 1766-1826. Life and labours of Karanizin, iSiS, "History of the Russian lOmpire.'' 1768-1844. I.ilr and laliours of Krilov. The Russian fable brought to perfection. 1783-1852. Life and labours of Ziud' 376 AUTHORITIES FOR RUSSIAN HISTORY. The Russian histor\- of Karanizin has lonij been considered a classic work ; it has been criticized in the preceding pages. The style is excellent, and the erudition displayed very great, but it is perhaps hardly on a level with the requirements of the modern school of criticism. The " Historical Monographs " of Kostomarov are of considerable value, and throw light on many obscure passages of Russian history. The writer is conspicuous for his iconoclastic .spirit, and many of the most pleasant legends of Russian history are demolished in his pages. A valuable little work is the "Early Russian History," London, 1874, of Mr. Ralston, which will repay perusal. For the early periods of Russian history, the chief authorities are Nestor and the early chroniclers, of whose productions a complete collection has been published at St. Petersburg. In 1884 M. Louis Leger of Paris published in French an excellent translation of the Chronicle attributed to Nestor, with many useful historical and geographical notes. Those acquainted with Russian would f\nd the work of IJcstuzhcv-Riumin, O Sostai't' Riisskik/i Lictopisci do kontsa xiv. vieka (on the compilation of the Russian Chronicles till the end of the fourteenth century) very valuable, as helping us to understand the materials out of which these chrom'cles were compiled. The.se are llic main authorities f(jr Russian history till wc coine to the interesting travels of l^aron Herbcrstein, fre(|uently alluded to in our narrative, who visited Russia twice during the reign of Basil as ambassador from tlic (Iiiinan emi)eror, and has left a very valuable account of the country written in AUTHORITIES FOR RUS^AN HISTORY. 377 Latin. The best edition is that of Basle in 1556. There is also the curious account published by Paulus Jovius, a cardinal of the Church of Rome, entitled De Legatione Basilii Magni J^rincipis Muscovies, 1 55 1. The reign of Ivan the Terrible is copiously illustrated by the English travellers who visited the country, and are frequently referred to in our pages. Their narratives were collected by Hakluyt and have been issued separately in the excellent work published for the Hakluyt Society by Mr. Delmar Morgan, which has frequently been quoted. A work of great value is Giles Fletcher's Of the Ri/sse Coinuion- Wealth, London^ iSQi. The diary of Sir Jerome Horsey, the English ambassador at the Court of Ivan, has been edited also for the Hakluyt Society together with Fletcher by Mr. E. A. Bond, formerly head librarian of the British Museum. Horsey is of great value because he was so frequently brought into contact with the cruel Tsar. His diary is written in very quaint language and whimsical orthography. Oderborn, in Joannis Basilidis Alagni Moscovicc Ducis Vita, 1585, gives an account of the atrocities of Ivan. For the period of Boris Godunov and the False Demetrius the work of Margeret, cited in our pages, is invaluable. Jean Margeret arrived in Russia in 1601, and served both Boris and the Pretender. Con- cerning the latter he has left some very important information. He returned to France in 1606 and published his work, L'listat de rEiiipirc dc R^ssu', the following year. There arc also the narratives of the Swede Petreius and Isaac Massa of Haarlem. For the reigns of Michael and Alexis the account of 378 AUTHORITIES FOR RUSSIAN HISTORY. Russia written by Adam Olcarius, the agent of the Duke of Holstein, is of primary importance. He has left a graphic picture of. the Court of Alexis, and we are indebted to the narrative of the Earl of Carlisle's embassy for other details. The quaint book on Russia written by Dr. Collins, the English physician of Alexis, has been repeatedly cited in our pages. The Dutch traveller Struys has given some valuable information about the rebellion of Stenka Razin. With the reign of Alexis the scries of Russian chro- niclers ends. The characteristics of these writers have been given in the chapter on Russian literature. The other native sources of information for this early period of Russian history are scanty. There are the State papers and a few literary productions, such as the " Instruction " of Vladimir Monomakh, " The Story of the Expedition of Prince Igor," the Correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and Kurbski, and others. The />i///n' also throw considerable light on this period, and many of them are undoubtedly very ancient, h'or the regency of Sophia and the revolt of the Streltsi we have the work by Prince Golitsin, of which a translation appeared in I'^cnch in 1857. It was written in the present century. F(jr the reign of Peter the Great the sources of information are abundant and the history of the period has been well treated in tlu- valuable work of Ustrialov, which has been cited in our pages, 'J'sars- tvovniiic rclra Vclikago (Reign of Peter the Great). Ustrialov was allowed access to State papers which, u[) to that time, had not been published. The diary of Korh, llie Secretary of the German Embassy, LATER AUTHORITIES. 379 which was pubh'shed at Vienna in 1700, has now become exceedingly scarce. It gives a graphic ac- count of the terrible execution of the Streltsi (with some very realistic engravings), and on its appearance created such a scandal that the Russian Government complained at the Imperial Court, which accordingly ordered the work to be suppressed. But there is a very fine cop}' in the Bodleian Librar)' ; the text, without the engravings, has been published in the Bibliotheqiie Russc-Polonaisc, ^\•here, however, it is translated into French, the original being in Latin, while some of the plates have been faithfully reproduced in M. Scmevski's Tsai'itsa Yekaterina Aleksievna, so that it will be seen that the full truth is allowed to be told in Russia about these pro- ceedings. The diary of Patrick Gordon, the Scotch adventurer and friend of Peter, has been repeatedly cited in our pages ; and there is also the book on Russia of Captain Perry, the English engineer in the service of that Tsar. For the period of Anne and Elizabeth we have Lady Rondeau and Mannstein. The reports of the foreign ambassadors during these reigns are given in the valuable work La Cour de Riissie il y a Cent Ans, Berlin, 1858. For the reign of Catherine we have Rulhiere, Histoirc ct anecdotes sur la rcvolittion dc Russie en 1762, Paris, 1797, the author having been an eye-witness of the events he describes ; and Tooke's useful compilation (London, 1800). The writer was for some time chaplain to the English merchants at St. Petersburg. The Memoirs of Ca- therine, written by herself, were published by Hcrzen, 380 AUTHORITIES FOR RUSSIAN HISTORY. and are most probably genuine. They have been referred to in our pages, as well as the highly impor- tant recollections of the Princess Dashkov, taken down by an English lady from her dictation, and published in England after her decease. The History of Catherine by Castera, frequently quoted in Western publications, is a mere compilation, full of malignant stories. l"he work of Masson, llcnior'ics Secrets sur la Russie is of great value, for the latter part of the reign of Catherine and that of Paul : we have already cited in the course of our narrative the important papers first published in England by General Sablukov. Eor the reign of Alexander materials are abundant. The great campaign of Napoleon has been best described in the works of Labaume, Fezensac, and Sir Robert Wilson. There is also a good history by the Russian Ikiturlin, published in P^-ench, with an excellent atlas, giving plans of the battles, &c. Much valuable material may also be found in the pages of the historical review Ruskii Arkhh\ edited by M. BartenieVo P'or the reign of Nicholas wc may cite Baron Korf's account of the conspiracy of the Dekabrists, which has been (juoted during the course of our work, Much important matter on the Crimean War ma\- be found in the papers occasionally given in the Riiss- kaya Starina and Istorichcskii Vicstiiik. Valuable articles have been contributed by M. Anatole Leroy Beaulieu to the Rcviic des Deux Mondcs, since 1S73, since published in a scj^irate form. I'or a knowlcd-'c of the i)olitical institutions of Russia the LATER AUTHORITIES. 381 following works ma)' be recommended : V. Kliu- chevski, Boyarskaya Duma drevnci Rnsi (" The Coun- cil of the Boyars in Ancient Russia ") ; V. Leshkov, Riisskii Narod i Gosiidarsti'o (" The Russian People and Empire") ; V. Sergueyevich, Russkia YuridicJicskia Drevnosti (" Russian Legal Antiquities "). For the literature of the country we have the books of P. Polevoi, Istoria Riisskoi Literatiiri luicherkacli i hio- grapJiiakJi (" History of Russian Literature in Sketches and Biographies "; ; Rambaud, La Ritssic Epiqjie ; Avenarius, Kniga Kievskikh bogatiriakJi (" A Book about the Heroes of Kiev ") ; and Ralston, Svngs of the Russian People and Russian Folk-tales. Of course this list is far from being complete, but it is believed that it will be found serviceable. > ^ o S o -^ w ■^ Jn O! ^ :i) u o o X >■ -1 w u i: H H u !/^ (ii u O Oi Q ^ Z r^ < o o J •<< < ■^ u t/) ^ IK Ul w H o s -1 U X H -O a c u z x: P-, ^ c o S o fcK o ID -t- d .-J v« 1-1 N K O ^ < e- £r II — u -111 •Jjod Oh J 1 ■2 fl 1' D 2 iT < M <^ -+- < < X H ■ N o U N _ O CO o ul U "x U 1- uiid, 293 Boiiielius, Dr., 82 Boris, 28 Bor(')dii)(), 269, 277 Bragin, 94 I'.ranicki, X., 224 Branicki, ("ountess, 238 I'lrassey, Moreau de, 161 I5releuil, de, 214 Bruat, 299 Bruce, Roberl, 50 Briickner, I'rof., 99 lirze:^', 47, 286 Bucharest, 266 Budini, 14 Bukovina, 5 Bulgak, 286 Bulgarians, 6, 26 Burnet, 144 Bussy, M. de, 189 Buturlin, 123 Byzantium, 21 Caniprcdon, 197 Carlyle, 157 Carmarthen, Martjuis of, 144 Casimir, 151 Casimir IV., 54 Casimir the Cireat, 48 Catherine, daughter of Ivan, 140, 184, 1 85, 186 Catherine II., 2, 44, 203, 248,249 Caulaincourt, 275 Cavour, 297 Champagne, 278 ' Cliancellor, 2, 71 Charles I., 126 Charles II., 126 Charles the (jreat, 28 Charles XII., 146, 150. 153, 155 Charlotte, Princess, 163 Chaucer, 316 Chavchavadze, Prince Ilya, 10 Cheremissians, 7 Chernigov, 14, 32, 96, 109, 123 Chesme, 226 Chichagov, 268 Chioherin, 341 Chlopicki, 287, 288 Christina, ()ueen, 1 iS Chukchis, 8 Circassians, 7 Cirencester, 25 Citale, 292 Clarke, K., 259, 345 Cobenzel, 243 Collins, 117, 119, 130, 338 Constantinople, 25 Conslantine, 230, 257, 259, 2S1, 287, 289 Constanline, Porphyrogcnitus, 24, 26 tNbEX. 3^7 Constantinc, son of Nicholas, 302 Cook, John, 192, 193, 197 Copenhagen, 161 Corvinus, Matthias, 56 Cossacks, 107, 109, 146, 229, 235, 310 Courland, 159, 184, 24I, 242 Coxe, 220, 247, 345 Crablie, 333 Cracow, 45, 96, 224 Crawfurd, 129 Crawfuril, Earl of, 193 Crimea, 41, 230 Crimea, Khan of, 92 Croker, Crofton, 356 Cronstadt, 295 Cruys, 177 Culpepper, Lord, 126 Cyril, St., 86 Czartoryski, 288 D. Daniel, 49 Dantzic, 267 Dashkov, Princess, 192, 214, 215, 216 Davoust, 267 Dejoces, 60 Demetrius, the False, 33, 94, 104 De Pradt, 275 Dcptford, 143, 144, 166 Derzhavin, 245, 324 Desna, 57 Deiilino, 108, 109 Dickens, 330, 336 Diebitsch, 287, 288, 289 Dmitriev, M., 356 Dmitri, son of Ivan IV., 80, 89, 90, 91,92,94 Dnieper, 3 Dniester, 3 Dobrinichi, 97 Dob roe, 151 Dolgorukaya, Catherine, 183 Dolgorukaya, Maria, loS Dolgorukaya, Natalia, 358, 359 Dolgoruki, George, 39 Dolgoruki, Ivan, 180, 190, 194, 358,. 359 Donalitius, 11 Donetz, 12 Dorothea, princess of Wurtemberg, 249 Dorpat, 55, 150 Dosloicvski, 331 Dragomanov, 314 Drakula, 113 Dresden, 267, 276, 278 Drevlians, 26, 29 Druzinc), 317 Ducliinski, 5 Dugdale, 226 Diniamunde, 199 Dutch, the, 74 E. Ehrenberg, 163 Elba, 278 Elbruz, 3 Eliot, George, 336 Elizabeth, Empress, 179, 185, 194- 210 Elizabeth, Queen, 75, 79 England, 255, 292 Erckert, 7 Erivan, 286 Esthonia, 148 Evelyn, 143 Eylau, 262 Fedorov, Ivan, 85 Feldkirch, 256 Feodore, son of Alexis, 131, 132 Feodore, son of Horis, 100 Feodore, son of Ivan IV., 80-93 Ferdinand of .Saxe Coburg, 310 Fermor, 206 Finch, 196, 197, 200 Finland, 191, 266 Finns, 7 Fioraventi, 60 Fletcher, Giles, 76, 77, 91, 92, 221, 337. 339' 345. 346, 347. 351 Florence, 88, 95, 286 Frederick the Great, 203, 206, 210, 215, 223, 246, 260 Frederika, princess, 24I Frederikshall, 161 Fredcrikshamm, 266 Friedland, 262 388 INDEX. G. Galatkovski, 320 Galicia, 5, 41, 48 Gaszyn-'ki, 2S9 Gennadius, 86 George of Galicia, 48 Georgia, 4, 263-266, 299 Georgian language, 10 Gerstenzvveig, 302 Gleb, 28 Godunov, Boris, ^}, 43, 85, 89, 92-99 Gogol, 330, 331 (iolilsin, 132, 135, 137, 343 Golovkin, 177, 187, 18'^, 197, 200 Goncharov, 331 (jorchakov, 297 Gordon, 117, 129, 137, 139, 140, 141, 145, 146, 160 Gorgei, 291 Greig, 226, 239 Griboiedov, 10, 281, 329 Grochow, 288 Grodno, 224 Gross-Jaegersdord", 205 (Irudzinska, Julia, 281 ( Juedimin, 45, 285 Gumbinnen, 276 Gustavus, 107, 153 (iuslavus III., 155, 238, 239 (jiistavus I v., 240 (iylha, 3 + II. Ilakhiyl, 73, 77 Hamburg, 267 IlaroM ilardrada. 25 Harold. King of Mnglan< 229 Melenlieva, \asiiissa, 80 Meniel, 205 Menshikova, Mary, 180, 181 Menshikov, 144, 150, 153, 175- Mcnbhikuv, 293, 297 INDEX. Menzies, 137 Methodius, 86 Michael, Tsar, 85, 106-I17, 190 Michael, son of Paul, 289 Mickiewicz, 10, 268, 356 Miegc, Guy, 126 Mikulin, 73 Milan, 255 Milan, duchy of, 160 Miloradovich, 282 Miloslavskaia, Maria, 131 Mindovg, 44 Mingrelia, 264 Minin, 105, 267 Minsk, 3, 5 Mirovich, 219, 220 Mitchell, 203 Mittau, 190, 241, 254, 256 Mniszek, George, 96, 102 Mniszek, Marina, 96, 102, 103, 107 Moi^lia, 320 Mohilev, 153 Moldavia, 84 Mongols, 13, 37-51. 57 Moreau, 243, 255 Morozov, Boris, 118 Moscow, II, 39, 229, 237, 270- 273 Mo/iiaisk, 273 Mstislavels, I'eler, 85 Mstislavski, Ivan, 94, 106 M idler, 156 Miinich, 192-193, 195-197- 200, 201, 206, 211, 212 Miinster. Sebastian, 87 Murat, 260 Muraviev, 304 Muraviev-AiK)St(>I, 282 MurdUi, 28 N. Nadir Shah, 265 Nagoi, Mary, 80 Nakiiichevan, 2S6 Najiea, Osip, 72 Naples, 255 Napoleon, 256, 260-278, 287 Napoleon III., 292 Naribhkin, Leo, 244 Index. 393 Simon, St., 144 Sinclair, Major, 191 Sinojic, 292 Sit, tlie river, 39 Sixtus IV., 55 Skarga, 47, 285 Skavronskaya, Martha, 156 Skrzynccki, 2S9 Slowacki, 10 Smolensk, 32, 62, 93, 109, 123, 237, 269 Smorgoni, 275 Sobieski, John, 144 Soholevski, 9 Soloviev, 32, 332 Sophia, wife of Ivan III., 56, 95 Sophia, daughter of Ale.xis, 132, 133. 139. 188, 358 Sovin, 25 Speranski, 279 Spithead, 292 Staehlin, 161 Starii Krim, 237 Stephanov, 179 St. Arnaiui, 293 St. Gothard, 255 Stockholm, 107, 239 Stolhovo, 107, 148 Strahlenberg, 106 Streshneva, Eudokia, 108 Stryikowski, 58 Siidermanland, Duke of, 239 Sumarokov, dramatist, 208 Sumarokov, 18S, 323 Susanin, Ivan, 106 SuvcJrov, 224, 229, 230, 246, 252, 255. 256 Suzdal, 32, 3:^, 39. 163 Sveahorg, 239, 266 Sviatopoik, 34 Sviatoslav, 23, 26, 315 Sweden, 108 Sylvester, 65, 67, Taganrog, 279, 299 Tamara, Queen, 10, 36 Tannenhcrg, 46 Targowica, 224 Tatistchcv, 193, 322 Temgruk, Mary. 79 Temud, .Shin, 38 Terk'cki, 286 Thackeray, 330 Thanet, Isle of, 23 Theodosius, 358 Theognostes, 49 Thietmar, 27 Thomsen, 19, 24 Thurn von, George, 56 Tifiis, II, 263, 265 Tilsit, 262 Timmermann, 141 Tobolsk, 87 Todleben, 293 Toktamish, 50 Tolstoi, 163 Tolstoi, A., 333 Tolstoi, Leo, 269, 331 Tomsk, 336 Tortona, 255 Totleben, 206 Trebbia, 255 Trediakovski, 193, 323 Tsagarelli, Prof., 264 Tsamblak, Gregory, 46 Tsarskoe, Selo, 235 Turlierville, 354 Turgueniev, 309, 331 Turkmantchai, 286 Turko-Tatar races, 7 Turks, 194, 224, 247, 254, 262, 263, 266, 267, 287, 290, 292- 299, 307 Tver, 39, 57 U. Uglich, 80, 92, 227 Ukraine, 6 Ulm, 260 Uman, 223 Unkiar Skelessi, 290 Ur.nl mountains, 3 Ustrialov, 32, 106, 167, 206, 332 V. X'asilichkova, Anna, So \asilko, 39 394 INDEX. Verela, 239 Vercstchagin, 272 Verkhoianskoi Mts., 3 Verona, 255 Viatka, 5, 32, 52, 57 Vienna, 260 Villages, 291 Vilna, 45, 268, 275, 276, 290, 304 Virgil, 167 Vitovt, 46 Vlad, 121 Vladimir, 26, 28, 31, 312 Vladimir Monomakh, 34 Vladimir, the city, 49 Vladivostok, 2, 307 Vogue de, 333 Voinarovski, 156 Volga, the, 75 Volinskii, 162, 190 Volkhov, 204 Volk(;nski, Prince, II9 Volkov, 208, 323 Vologda, 118 Volokhova Vasilissa, 91 Voltaire, 245 Von-Visin, 245, 324 Voronezh, 3 Vsevolod, 34 Vyburg, 162 W. Walker, 98 Warheck, I'erkin, nS Warsaw, 11, 47, 224, 288, 2S9, 301, 304 Warsaw, duchy of, 279 Wasowicz, 275 Waterloo, 278 268, 287, Weber, 163 Westphalia, 160 Wielopolski, 301 William III., 141, 1 69 Willoughby, 7 1 Wilson, Sir R., 271, 273 Wisniowiecki, Adam, 94 Wisniowiecki, Trince, 122 Wladyslaw of Poland, 105, 108 X. Xenia, daughter of Boris, 10 1, 102, 108, 313 Yaguzhinski, 188 Yailas, 3 Yaropolk, 26, 27 Yaroslav, 29 Yaroslavl, 39 Yenisei, 4 Yermak, 2, 86, 87 Yermi'ilov, 306 Young, 324 Zagoskin, 330 Zamosc, 122 Zaporozhski Cossacks, 120 Zarutski, 107 Zborow, 122 Zhidiata, Luke, 315 Zhukovski, 326 Ziranians, 7 Zoc, 55 Zorndorf, 206 Zubov, 240, 257 ONWIN BROTHERS, POINTERS. CHILWORTt. AND LONDOW. INDEX. 391 Narishkina, Natalia, 132 Narva, 148 Natalia, daughter of Alexis, 1C3 Navarino, 287 Nekrasov, 332, 333, 355, 356, 361 Nelson, 262 Nestor, 21, 23, 27, 42, 86, 315 Neuri, 14 Neustadt, 1 18 Neuville, 343 Neva, 42 Ney, 276 Nicholas, 259, 2S1-297, 349 Nicon, 124, 349 Nienien, 3 Nikitin, Athanasius, 316 Nikolayev, 4 Novgorod, 19, 26, 28, 31, 41, 52, 54, 55, 107, 150 Novgorod, Severski, 96 Novgorod, Nizhni, 37, 105, 124 Novi, 255 Novikov, 325 Novosiltsov, 260, 279 Nystad, 161, 242 O. Ob, the river, 87 Ochakov, 3, 193, 237, 243 Odessa, 2, 11, 243, 292 Odoievski, Trinre, 1 19 Oerwar Odde, 23 Oka, the river, 3, 57 Olbia, 13 Olearius, 97, 105, no- 11 7, 24S, 338. 351.354 Oleg, 21 Olga, 21, 356 Oliva, 148 Oltcnitza, 292 Omar Pasha, 299 Oranienbaum, 217 Ordin-Nastchokin. 119 Orlov, Alexis, 219 Ossetes, 6 Ostermann, 177, 1S7, 197, 200, 201, 202 Ostrog, 47, 69, S5, 86 Ostrolenka, 289 Ostromir, 314 Ostrozhski, 47, 86 Otrepiev, Gregory, 95, lOI, 103 Oxford, lOl, 118, 145 I'ahlen, 257 Pala'ologus, Thomas, 55 Palitsin, 267 Panticapa;um, 13, 17 Paris, 161, 278 Paskievich, 289 Patkul, 150, 151 Paul, 220, 230, 249-259, 344 Pechenegs, 19, 26 Pechora, river, 57 Pelim, 201 Peppel, Nicholas, 56 Perekop, 293 Perovskaya, Sophia, 309 Persia, 262, 264, 286 Perry, 133, 142 Perun, 24, 27 Pestel, 282 Pesth, 291 Peter the Great, 2, 119, 137-173, 179, 229, 244, 254, 281, 343- 345. 347. 348 Peter II., 156, 162, 163, I74-I75- 184, 251 Peter III., 184, 202, 210-219, 226, 237, 251, 348 Peterhof, 216 Petersburg, St., II, 107 Petreius, 100 I'etropavlovski, 293 Philarcte, 106, 108 Pierling, Father, 95 Pipin, 332 Pisemski, Feodore, 79 Pitt, 253 Plato, Archbishop, 345 Platov, 274 Pleskov, 21, 61 Plettenberg, Hermann von, 58 Plevna, 307 Pociey, 286 I'odolia, 48 Poland, 148 Poles, 5, 267, 268, 287-289, 301 Polevoi, N., 331 392 INDEX. Polevoi, P., 332 Polonski, 333 Polotsk, 28, 76, 286 Polotski, Simeon, 130, 319, 320 Poltava, 153, 237 Pomerania, 160,206 Poniatowski, Stanislaus, 223, 224, 235 Pool, Gerrit, 142 Possevino, 68, 87, 95 Potemkin, 215, 230, 235, 237 Poti, 299 Potocki, Felix, 224 Potsdam, 260 Pozharski, Prince, 105, 267 Praga, 247 Pragel Pass, 255 Pressbiirg, 260 Price, Admiral, 293 Prus, 318 Prussia, 260, 297 Pskov, 9, 21, Jl. 52,56, 61,62 Piigachev, 124, 226 Pulcheria, 358 Pushkin, 21, 229, 252, 253, 323, 325-329, 357 Putivl, 32, 97 Radistclicv, 245, 325 Kadziwill, N., 47 - Kambaud, M., 43 Rancnburg, 199 Raskoiniks, 125 Kawliiisoi), 17 Razin, Stenka, 124, 313, 332 Ra/.umovski, Count, 202, 230 Reel us, 3, 8 Rcpnin, 262 Kliiixulani, 17 Kiabiiiin, 363 Kiazun, 57, 62 Rilinikov, 311 Kit^n, II, 212 Kilryev, 156, 182 Knkila, lohn, 68 Koinaiiov, Micjiarl, if)6 K(in' Sibir, 87 Sieriakowski, 309 Sigismuml I., 47. 62 Siidsniuiid II. (Augustus), 67, 6S Sigisinuiid III., 96, 105, 109, 2S5 .Simbirsk, 5 Simeon Gordii, 49 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. LD/URU "^^ ^ * w gecoT - 315 L 005 497 947 1 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 698142 7