While England, under the first of her Scottish kings, was falling from
the high estate she had occupied under her native princes; while in
France the genius of Richelieu was making itself felt; while the glory
was departing from the Spanish monarchy; while the Thirty Years’ War
was beginning to desolate Germany; while the illustrious career of
Gustavus Adolphus was opening upon Sweden; and while the warriors of
Turkey were yet terrible to the nations of Europe, Michael
Theodoriwitz, earliest of the dynasty of Romanoff, became Czar of
Muscovy. His dominions were uncultivated, his subjects barbarous, and
the country was in the utmost disorder; for on the extinction of the
male line of the former Czars――the posterity of John Basilowitz, who
had redeemed Russia from the Tartars――no fewer than five pretenders
had aspired to the vacant throne, and involved the realm in civil war.
But Michael, proving worthy of his elevation, reigned for more than
thirty years, maintained his position with dignity, and beqeathed the
crown to his heir.
Alexis, the son of Michael, succeeded in 1645, and applied himself
with vigor to the harsh duties of reform. The necessity was indeed
pressing; for Muscovy was still little better than a ferocious
anarchy; and the capital was kept in perpetual consternation by the
capricious violence of the Strelitzes――a militia formed in imitation
of the celebrated Turkish Janizaries. But the new Czar proved himself
an able ruler, and did much to create order. He published a code of
laws, purified the courts of justice, restrained the power of the
boyards over their serfs, and afforded much encouragement to
agriculture and manufactures.
Toward the close of his reign Alexis was deprived by death of his
first wife; and though he had a family of sons and daughters, the Czar
determined upon a second matrimonial speculation. According to the
fashion then pursued by the rulers of Russia, Alexis issued a
proclamation inviting all the most beautiful damsels in his dominions,
irrespective of their social condition, to repair to Moscow that he
might select a fitting bride. Among the rest came a lady named
Natalie. She, having attracted the eye of Alexis, was forthwith
exalted to the dignity of Czarina; and, in due time, she became the
mother of a prince who afterward rendered himself famous as Peter the
Great.
When Alexis expired in 1676, he left, besides Peter, then a mere
child, two sons, Theodore and Ivan, and a daughter, Sophia, who ere
long played a conspicuous part in Russian affairs. Theodore, a sickly
youth, inherited his father’s crown, but did not survive to wear it
more than a few years. On his death-bed he summoned the boyards to his
presence, and recommended them to set aside Ivan on account of his
bodily infirmities, and intrust the sceptre to the youthful Peter. To
this scheme Sophia, who united much personal beauty with a strong will
and a vaulting ambition, was vehemently opposed; and her smiles so
completely won over the Captain of Strelitzes, and fascinated the
populace, that the incapable Ivan was seated on the throne, while she
assumed the functions of government. The widowed Czarina and her son,
after being besieged in their palace, fled from the city, and sought
an asylum in the Convent of Trinity; but they had scarcely taken
refuge within its walls, when the soldiers of Sophia were heard
clamoring at the outer gate. At this crisis a lucky thought crossed
the agitated brain of the trembling Czarina. She placed her son on the
high altar; and when the soldiers effected an entrance, the Superior
of the Convent, pointing to the boy, exclaimed, ‘Behold him! there he
is with God.’ The soldiers were touched with awe, till one of them,
less scrupulous than his fellows, after a pause stepped forward, and
brandished his weapon to strike the child. But a monk, arresting his
arm, thrust him back, saying with calm solemnity, ‘Not in this sacred
place.’ At that moment the tread of cavalry was again heard, and the
Superior having exclaimed, ‘Here come our friends at last; let the
enemies of God and the Czar tremble,’ the edifice was speedily cleared
of intruders, and the royal boy’s life providentially saved.
The son of Natalie had other perils to encounter on the threshold of
life. At an obscure village, situated at a distance from Moscow, he
was surrounded by a number of most profligate youths to corrupt his
morals and debase his mind. But, instead of falling into the snare,
Peter persuaded his comrades to have recourse to manly sports and
martial exercises; he formed them into a small military force; and in
this juvenile regiment, taking rank only as a private, he wrought his
way gradually to command.
About this time Le Fort and Gordon, two adventurers of mark and
likelihood, appeared in Russia. Le Fort was a native of Geneva, and
had been originally destined for commercial pursuits; but with a soul
above such matters, he had followed the bent of his inclination, and
betaken himself to a military career. Gordon was of a different stamp,
being the cadet of a Cavalier family in Scotland, who had in youth
left his native soil to win fame and fortune, and who had served with
the Swedes and Poles. Peter now attached these distinguished soldiers
of fortune to his cause; and they rendered him most valuable aid in
his schemes for the creation of that power which is now regarded as
one of the most pernicious elements in European society.
When Peter had attained his seventeenth year he took to himself a
wife; and this step so alarmed the aspiring Sophia, that in her haste
she assumed the title of Empress, and dispatched a force to arrest the
bridegroom. But her indications of enmity created such a ferment among
the young hero’s friends, that, in 1689, they compelled the haughty
princess to abandon the struggle and retired to a convent, while Peter
was installed as Czar.
Ambitious of learning the art of governing his people and of
ameliorating their condition, Peter, in the company of Le Fort, who
figured as ambassador, left his dominions to acquire information in
foreign lands. After visiting Berlin, he repaired to Holland, studied
commerce at Amsterdam, and wrought as an ordinary shipwright in the
docks of Saardam. He then passed over to England to complete his
knowledge; and carried with him from Deptford, which he visited as a
simple mechanic, sailors and artificers, whom he afterward promoted to
places of honor and command in Russia.
On returning home it became the chief object of the Czar Peter to
teach his barbarous subjects the art of civilized war, and to form a
regularly disciplined army. And in Charles XII of Sweden he found an
antagonist whose courage and enthusiasm called forth all his genius.
In their first conflicts the Swedish monarch was triumphant, but Peter
did not therefore blanch. ‘I knew,’ said he, after being defeated at
Narva, ‘that the Swedes would beat us; but in time they will teach us
to become their conquerors.’ He soon after recovered Narva by a
skillful assault, and then applied his energies to the building of
that remarkable town so intimately associated with his celebrity as a
ruler.
The Czar, in realizing his project, made choice of a singular site.
Between Finland and Ingria was a marshy island, which during summer
was a heap of mud and in winter a frozen pool. Growling bears and
howling wolves had hitherto haunted the spot; but, resolute in his
purpose, the Czar, bringing men from all parts of his realm, cleared
forests, formed roads, erected mounds, and laid the foundation of St.
Petersburg. Though inundations demolished the works, and fever carried
off the workmen, the Czar persevered in the undertaking; and in 1714
he removed the council thither from Moscow, the ancient capital.
A few years passed over; and Peter assuming the title of Emperor of
all the Russias, was formally acknowledged as such by the various
powers of Europe. He established order throughout his dominions,
provided education for youth, and adopted many useful reforms. But his
temper was still so despotic, and his nature so fierce, that when
Alexis, his son and heir, offended him by a dissolute life, and by
opposing his schemes of civilization, the Czar ordered that he should
suffer death. Peter himself expired in 1725, and was succeeded on the
throne by his second spouse, the Czarina.
Catharine, originally a Livonian captive, exercised the functions of
government with credit for the next three years, and was succeeded by
Peter II, a son of the murdered Alexis. This Czar only reigned for a
brief period; and the male line of the Romanoffs thus becoming
extinct, the Russians elevated to the vacant throne Anne, duchess of
Courtland, the second daughter of the Czar Peter’s brother. The reign
of Anne was happy and prosperous; but on her decease there took place
a struggle for the succession, which terminated in the proclamation of
Elizabeth, a daughter of Peter the Great, and in the imprisonment of
her rivals. Her reign was particularly fortunate. A war with Sweden
was brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and the Czarina’s fleets and
armies were every where victorious. Russia, under the auspices of
Elizabeth, took an important part in the Seven Years’ War, and the
position of Frederick the Great had gradually become one of the
extreme peril, when the Empress died in 1762, and the throne was
inherited by her nephew Peter III.
Peter who was animated by an enthusiastic admiration of the Prussian
King’s talent and courage, immediately consented to a peace, and the
new reign commenced auspiciously. The nobles and gentry were freed
from vassalage, and placed on an equality with those in other
countries; and the laborers were, to some extent, relieved from the
burden of taxation. But being a Lutheran, Peter shocked the clergy by
his contempt for the Greek Church, while he offended the army by his
partiality for the Holstein Guards, and thus raised up a host of foes.
The unfortunate Emperor had made another enemy, still more
uncompromising. Before coming to the throne he had espoused Catharine,
a princess of Anhalt Zerbst, a woman of great ability and boundless
ambition. Their tastes, habits, and dispositions, were, however,
utterly dissimilar; and fierce quarrels arising between them, Peter
became so deeply enamored of the Countess of Woronzoff, that ere long
a rumor crept about of his intention to shut up the Empress in prison
and raise the Countess to share his throne. The rumor cost him dear;
for while he was seeking consolation in the society of the lady of his
heart, Catharine marched against the devoted Czar at the head of a
strong party, proclaimed that he had ceased to reign, and threw him
into prison, where he soon after breathed his last, under suspicious
circumstances.
The masculine Empress then ascended the Russian throne with the title
of Catharine II, and commenced her reign by flattering the prejudices
which her illfated husband had so fatally wounded. But a large share
of her attention was speedily bestowed upon the affairs of Poland.
When Augustus, king of that illfated country, expired at Dresden in
1763, the Empress, by the influence of Russian bayonets, procured the
election of Stanislaus Augustus, one of her former favorites. Almost
from the opening of the reign, Poland was the scene of disorder and
desolation; for Catherine, having transported to Siberia a number of
senators hostile to her designs, roused the indignant spirit of the
nation. A band of patriotic Poles, seizing on Cracow and Bar, formed a
league for their deliverance from a foreign yoke, and implored
assistance from Louis XV. Fifteen hundred Frenchmen, under Dumouriez,
marched to the assistance of the confederates, and Turkey took part in
the quarrel. But the Russians were completely victorious; Bender was
captured; the Turkish fleet was destroyed; and the Crimea was annexed
to Catherine’s dominions. Flushed with success, and unscrupulous by
nature, the Empress projected the dismemberment of Poland, forced her
scheme upon Maria Theresa, and in 1772 entered into a treaty of
partition with the rulers of Austria and Prussia. The Polish Diet was
intimidated by menaces; and the several provinces, about one-third of
the Polish territory, which had been allotted to the spoilers, were
surrendered.
Scarcely had the Russian Empress perpetrated this piece of ruthless
injustice, when she was alarmed by the serious rebellion of a Cossack,
who, assuming the name and character of her dead husband, pretended
that he had escaped from the hands of those employed to assassinate
him. The Cossack bore a striking resemblance to the deceased Czar, and
was successful in arraying a considerable band of followers under his
banner. He boldly took the field, and, possessing both skill and
valor, was for a time victorious over the generals of Catherine. But
at length he was totally defeated, taken prisoner, carried to Moscow
in an iron cage, and beheaded as a traitor.
Danger soon arose from another quarter. After undertaking one of the
most pompous processions on record to be crowned at Cherson,
Catharine, on her return to St. Petersburg, was disturbed by a
declaration of war on the part of Turkey: but the Ottoman power lost
considerably by the operations, and the Dneister was henceforth
recognized as the frontier of the hostile empires.
Soon after this Catharine was startled with the outbreak of the French
revolution, and against it she issued a strong declaration. But she
refrained from taking any active part in opposition to its promoters;
for while other countries were binding themselves up for the fierce
struggle that ensued, the Czarina seized the occasion to make a second
onslaught on devoted Poland. In 1788 the Poles, in their aspirations
after liberty, increased their army, and framed a new constitution,
which rendered the crown hereditary in the family of the Elector of
Saxony. The Empress thereupon sent an army into Poland, under pretense
of maintaining the settlement of 1772, but in reality to complete the
subjugation of the unhappy country, which, in 1793, she effected, with
the aid of the King of Prussia. The Polish nobles, however, took up
arms to rescue their native land, and, under the brave Kosciusko, were
at first victorious, but the defeat and captivity of their general
rendered further resistance unavailing.
Warsaw still holding out, and refusing to surrender, the Russians,
under Suwarrow, assailed the town; and there ensued a fierce conflict,
in which the Poles perished by thousands. After a resistance of eight
hours they laid down their arms; but even then a multitude of unarmed
and defenseless human beings were mercilessly sacrificed by fire and
sword. Suwarrow entered with the pride of a victor; and the _Te Deum_
was sung to celebrate his triumph. Next year Stanislaus made a formal
resignation of his thorny crown. ‘I can cheerfully,’ he said,
‘surrender what has brought me so much calamity.’
With insatiable ambition the Czarina next cast her eyes longingly on
Courland, and allured its Duke to her court. During his absence the
nobles of that fertile and populous district assembled the states, to
annex their country to Russia. To this scheme there was at first
serious opposition; but a Russian general suddenly appearing in the
assembly silenced all objections, and the deposed Duke retired to
extensive estates which he had purchased in Prussia.
In 1796, after a successful war with Persia, Catherine was summoned to
another state of existence; and the empire which she had rendered so
extensive, was inherited by her son Paul. The deceased Czarina had
confined herself to verbal denunciations in her hostility to
revolutionary France; but her successor, eager to signalize his
ascension by some brilliant exploit, entered――with singular zeal for
the cause of sovereigns――into a confederation against the Republic.
After setting the brave Kosciusko at liberty, and making peace with
Persia, he took an active part in the war against France, and sent a
powerful force into Italy to the aid of Austria. Under Suwarrow the
Russian army afterward entered Switzerland, and menaced that Republic;
but the veteran conqueror of Poland was there utterly unsuccessful,
and, depressed with the loss of renown, he returned with his shattered
army to die of despair, under the frowns of his despotic sovereign.
Jealous of the maritime greatness and naval ascendency of England, and
swayed by a chivalrous admiration of Napoleon, the capricious Czar
changed his politics, allied himself with France, seized the British
ships in his ports, and organized the Northern Confederacy, which was
dissolved by the victory of Copenhagen. But ere the news of that event
could reach his ear, Paul had met a terrible fate; for his tyrannies
had so provoked his courtiers, that they declared his death to be
essential to the welfare of the empire. At dead of night, in March
1801, the Emperor, in his regimentals, was reposing on a sofa, when
the conspirators glided into his apartments. A hussar, who kept guard,
opposing their entrance, was cut down with the stroke of a sabre; and
the Emperor, awakening at the noise, sprang to his feet, and
endeavored to intrench himself behind chairs and tables. Finding his
assailants resolute, the Emperor implored mercy, and even promised to
make them all princes; but observing that they were inexorable, he
sprang forward to escape through a high window. At length a blow
prostrated him on the floor, and a young Hanoverian, twining his sash
round the victim’s neck, and giving one end to an accomplice, twisted
with all his might till the life of the miserable Emperor was extinct.
The conspirators then retired, without molestation, from the palace.
At early morn the intelligence was bruited about that Paul had died of
appoplexy; and, in the course of the day, his eldest son, Alexander,
was proclaimed Emperor of all the Russias.
The new Czar, for awhile, maintained neutrality between contending
nations; but in 1804, when the Duke d’Enghien was seized at Ettenheim,
carried to Paris, and shot in the wood of Vincennes, he assumed an
attitude of hostility toward Bonaparte, formed a coalition with
Austria and England, and undertook a campaign. The rapid successes of
the French so bewildered Mack that he capitulated at Ulm; and
Napoleon, after his entry into Vienna, marching into Moravia to meet
the Russians, encountered their army, with the remains of the
Austrians, at Austerlitz, and obtained one of the most glorious
victories on record. Another coalition was soon formed; and Napoleon,
appearing in Poland, fought at Eylau a battle bloody and indecisive;
but at Friedland he completely vanquished the Russians, and forced the
Czar to sue for peace. On a raft on the river Niemen, a conference was
held between Napoleon and the vanquished sovereigns of Prussia,
Russia, and Austria. This resulted in the Peace of Tilsit, in the
erection of the Duchy of Warsaw, and in the acknowledgment of the
elector of Saxony as its sovereign.
Continental Europe was now at Napoleon’s feet; but against his
prodigious power and inordinate ambition another confederation was
formed; and, in this league, Russia took a conspicuous part. The
Emperor of the French thereupon repaired to Dresden, and fruitlessly
attempted to lure back the Czar to his interests. But failing in that
object, Napoleon took the field at the head of four hundred thousand
men, crossed the Niemen, and advanced to Wilna. The Diet of Warsaw,
after proclaiming the liberation of their country, demanded that the
invader should recognize the independence of Poland; and Napoleon,
returning an evasive answer, drove the Russians before him to
Smolensko, where preparations had been made to arrest his progress.
On the 16th of August, 1812, Napoleon was before the ancient city, and
at noon next day the conflict began. The French, at the point of the
bayonet, drove the Russians within the walls, and the battle raged
fiercely till sunset; but, when night set in, the city was in flames.
Next morning the French, entering without resistance, found the place
abandoned, save by men who were yielding their latest breath amidst
the glare of the conflagration; and Smolensko was soon a heap of
ruins. The Russians, laying waste the country, retreated towards
Moscow, and the command of their army was transferred to Prince
Kutosoff, a hoary and experienced general, whose arrival was hailed
with delight. He announced that no more retrograde movements should be
made, encouraged the troops by his presence, and exhorted them to
defend Moscow to the last. This place was the ancient and venerable
capital of their Empire; and its vast suburbs, its magnificent
buildings, its towers, its domes, its spires, and its terraces,
rendered Moscow one of the most interesting places in Europe, and the
pride of the Russian Empire.
Both leaders exercised their utmost ingenuity, and made their
dispositions with military skill. Along the Russian lines priests bore
the sacred relics that had been saved at Smolensko, and inspired the
soldiers with religious enthusiasm; and while their breasts were yet
glowing with excitement, Prince Kutosoff implored them, in lofty and
inspiriting words, ‘to think of their wives, their children, and their
Emperor, and to write their faith and fealty on the field of their
country with the life’s blood of the invader and his legions.’
On the morning of the 7th of September, Napoleon, who, aware of his
veteran antagonist’s genius, had become more cautious in his
operations, issued from his tent, and addressed his officers and
soldiers in befitting terms. The hostile armies then met at Borodino,
and the contest was maintained for hours with desperate valor. At one
time the victor of Austerlitz had the mortification to see the
choicest of his troops driven from the field. Bayonets and sabres
flashed, and artillery thundered till night arrived, when both parties
laid claim to the victory. But the Russian general decided on leaving
Moscow to its fate; the inhabitants precipitately abandoned their
houses; and the governor formally evacuated the city at the head of
forty thousand persons.
Next morning the French, glowing with exultation, presented themselves
at the gate, and forced an entrance; but scarcely had they done so,
when they became aware that Moscow was in a blaze. The Exchange, an
extensive building, containing warehouses stored with valuable
merchandise, was first consigned to the flames, and, subsequently, a
strong wind prevailing, the whole city was a sheet of fire, and the
sky was obscured by volumes of smoke. The pillage soon commenced, and
Napoleon’s camp in the fields was filled with rich spoil.
But now, deprived of the prospect of wintering at Moscow, the position
of the Emperor of the French became perilous in the extreme; for he
had penetrated into the heart of a hostile country; the cold season
was approching; and the ruined city offered no asylum from the rigor
of the climate. He, therefore, humbled his pride so far as to commence
negotiations with Alexander; but finding his efforts fruitless, after
forty days he abandoned his scheme of conquest, and issued orders for
a retreat. But the Russians, believing the conqueror of Europe to be
at length in their power, were bent upon revenge; and Kutosoff
remarked――‘The French have proclaimed the campaign terminated at
Moscow, but on our part the warfare is about to begin.’
The retreat of Napoleon was disastrous beyond all precedent. The
Russian armies seized every opportunity of attacking his troops; the
winter set in with unusual severity and the troops were paralyzed with
cold. The Cossacks, whose sole delight was war, under their celebrated
leader, the Hetman Platoff, now mercilessly assailed the retiring
legions, wrought fearful havoc, broke down bridges in the line of
march, and harassed them on all sides. Scarcely had the French, after
a day’s toilsome march, stretched themselves on the ground to enjoy a
little repose, when these vigilant foes rushed impetuously into the
camp, and, ere the sleepers could resist, slaughtered them in heaps,
and carried off stores and artillery. A scene of unparalleled horrors
ensued; and the situation of the French forces became quite desperate.
Cold and famine preyed upon the troops; flights of ravens hovered over
their line of march; and troops of dogs followed in the rear to
consume their remains. The horses perished by thousands; the cannon
and wagons were abandoned; and all military order was at an end.
With his army in this evil plight, Napoleon, on the 23d of November,
had to cross the Beresina in presence of the enemy, and a scene,
replete with horrors, occurred. The river, though covered with
floating ice, was not yet frozen over, and rafts had to be constructed
and launched under the enemy’s fire. Multitudes were engulfed in the
waters; and the passage of the Beresina proved more fatal than the
most sanguinary field.
On the 5th of December, Napoleon, mortified and sick at heart,
abandoned the miserable wreck of his once magnificent army, and
repaired to Paris.
Though the mighty Emperor had been defeated more by the elements than
the Russian foe, the result of the campaign was to raise the renown of
the Czar’s arms; and Alexander, to complete the work thus begun,
called upon the other powers of Europe to vindicate their independence
against his former ally. The invitation was not unavailing; for with
the reverses of the French arms commenced the defection of Napoleon’s
allies. A triple alliance was formed between Russia, Austria, and
Prussia; the Emperor of the French was designated as the common enemy;
the allied sovereigns undertook their campaign for the liberties of
Europe, and their army marched triumphantly into Paris.
The Congress of Vienna assembled in 1814; and while Prussia was bent
on the acquisition of Saxony, Alexander applied his energies to
obtaining the duchy of Warsaw, which was still occupied by his troops.
He was successful in his object; and what remained of Poland was
handed over to the Czar, on condition of his ruling it by a special
and constitutional government.
Ten years passed over; Alexander, in 1825, died of a fever at
Taganrog; Constantine, the next son of the murdered Paul, a man of
savage spirit, renounced his hereditary claim to the crown, and the
vacant throne was ascended by his younger brother, Nicholas. That
daring autocrat, within a year of his accession, undertook against
Persia a war, which terminated in his favor; and, in 1828, he availed
himself of the temporary weakness of Turkey to commence hostilities,
to cross the Balkan mountains, and to impose upon the Sultan, among
other hard terms, the Protectorate of the Danubian Principalities.
Meanwhile, the policy of Nicholas, and the personal character of the
Grand Duke Constantine, rendered the condition of the Poles
intolerable; a general insurrection took place in 1830; and the Czar,
deeming that this outbreak released him from his engagements,
determined upon the extirpation of Polish nationality. His army
marched with that object into Poland; the nobles of the unhappy nation
were exiled to Siberia; the patrician ladies were given as helpmates
to the invading soldiers; and their infants were conveyed away to be
educated with Russian ideas, and inspired with Russian sentiments. The
constitution of Poland was then withdrawn; her laws were abrogated;
and the ancient nation, over which John Sobieski had reigned, and for
which Kosciusko had fought, was declared an integral part of an Empire
that had been fostered into importance by the genius of Peter the
Great, extended in its limits by the lawless appropriations of the
second Catherine, and aggrandized by the unscrupulous ambition of her
despotic descendants. The death of Nicholas took place in 1855, at the
time when the combined armies of Turkey, England, and France, were
besieging Sebastopol, the details of which are given in the preceding
pages. He was succeeded by his son Alexander II.