number of small states, most of them under a duke, but all possessing
some degree of liberty, except in the north where the duke was being
changed into an hereditary monarch. We have also seen that Russia was
part of Europe, and that commercial relations were maintained. At the
same time, just as there had been an invisible but none the less real
dividing line between the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire and the
west of Europe, so with the adoption of the Greek Church, Russia
inherited the oriental type and principles which separated that form
of Christianity from that of Rome. Thus the slight split grew
gradually into a schism, as Western Europe progressed with every
evolution of the Roman Church, whereas Russia remained stationary.
Byzantium or Constantinople, situated at the easternmost edge of
Europe, owing to its intimate association with the Persians who, at
the time represented the Oriental character, was more of an oriental
than a western city; its sympathies were also with its neighbors of
the east. There was thus an oriental tendency in Russia as well as in
the Byzantine Empire, and this vague sentiment enabled Russia to bend
before a blast, which would have withered any nation of a more
pronounced occidental character.
VII--THE YELLOW PERIL. (p. 063)
On the borders of the Chinese Empire, in the northeast of Asia, roamed
a Mongol tribe, known as the Tartars or Tatars. A Chinese author of
that time, described them as follows: "The Ta-tzis[5] or Das occupy
themselves exclusively with their flocks; they go wandering ceaselessly
from pasture to pasture, from river to river. They are ignorant of the
nature of a town or a wall. They are ignorant of writing and books;
their treaties are concluded orally. From infancy they are accustomed
to ride, to aim their arrows at rats and birds, and thus acquire the
courage essential to their life of wars and destruction. They have
neither religious ceremonies nor judicial institutions. From the
prince to the lowest among the people, all are fed by the flesh of the
animals whose skin they use for clothing. The strongest among them
have the largest and fattest morsels at feasts; the old men are put
off with the fragments that are left. They respect nothing but
strength and courage; age and weakness are condemned."
[Footnote 5: Ta, great; hence: the Great Tzis.]
The people were, therefore, nomads, moving their flocks as necessity
required, and occasionally making a raid upon a neighboring town.
"They move on horseback;" says the Chinese author; "when they wish to
capture a town, they fall on the suburban villages. Each leader (p. 064)
seizes ten men, and every prisoner is forced to carry a certain
quantity of wood, stones, and other material. They use these for
filling up moats or to dig trenches. In the capture of a town the loss
of a myriad men was thought nothing. No place could resist them. After
a siege, the entire population was massacred, without distinction of
old or young, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, those who resisted or
those who yielded; no distinguished person escaped death, if a defense
was attempted."
These nomad Tartars were united by and under Genghis Khan (1154-1227),
one of their chiefs or khans. He summoned all the khans of the several
tribes, and before them took the title of emperor over all, declaring
that, as there was only one sun in heaven, so there should be but one
emperor on earth. At the head of his tribes, Genghis conquered
Manchuria and North China; then he moved west. He himself remained in
Asia, but two of his lieutenants proceeded in that direction, subduing
the tribes on their way, and often joined by them. The long march had
rendered the Tartars inured to hardship and wholly indifferent to
danger. At last they passed by the southern shore of the Caspian Sea,
and, crossing the Caucasus, commenced the invasion of Europe.
The march of such a host could not be kept secret. When the Polovtsi,
the old enemies of Russia, heard of the approach, they sent for help
to the Christian dukes. "When they have taken our country, they will
take yours," they said. Mstislaf the Bold of Galitch, urged that the
assistance be granted, and the chief of the Polovtsi agreed to (p. 065)
enter the Greek Church. The Russians assembled on the lower Dnieper,
where they were approached by some Tatar envoys who told them that
they had "come by God's command against our slaves and grooms, the
accursed Polovtsi. Be at peace with us; we have no quarrel with you."
The envoys were arrested and put to death. The Russian army then moved
eastward, and met the Tartar host at the Kalka, a small river running
into the Sea of Azof. Instead of waiting for the troops still on the
way, Mstislaf the Bold and his friends began the battle. While it was
at its height, the Polovtsi were seized by a panic and, falling back,
threw the Russians into disorder. The Russian army was routed; six
dukes and seventy high boyards were left dead on the battlefield, and
hardly a tenth of the army escaped. The Grand Duke of Kief still
occupied a fortified camp on the Kalka. The Tartars offered to allow
him and his drujina to retire upon payment of a ransom. He accepted,
and was attacked by the Tartars after he had left his fortifications.
He and his two sons were stifled under boards, and his guard was
massacred.
The Tartars at this time needed all their men to complete the conquest
of China, and therefore the armies invading Europe were recalled,
after southern Russia was at their mercy. The Russians did not inquire
into the cause of this relief, but resumed their old life, confident
that all danger was past.
When the Tartars had made themselves masters of China, Bati, a nephew
of Genghis, was dispatched westward to mark further conquests. He did
not follow the same route but passed south of the Ural Mountains.
Thirteen years after the battle of the Kalka, Bati besieged and (p. 066)
took the capital of the Bulgars, east of the grand dukedom of Souzdal
(1237). As soon as the dukes of Central Russia heard this, they united
against the Tartars, but the Grand Duke of Souzdal refused to join
them. The Tartars sent envoys to the allied dukes. "If you want
peace," they said, "give us the tenth of your goods." "When we are
dead," was the proud reply, "you can have the whole." A battle was
fought in which the Russians were crushed. Nearly all the dukes died
on the battlefield; Riazan was stormed, sacked, and burned, and the
other towns of that dukedom met the same fate.
It was now the turn of Souzdal. The army of the grand duke was
defeated on the Oka; Moscow was burned and Vladimir besieged. After an
heroic defense, the Tartars took the city by assault, and many
Russians were burned in the cathedral which was set on fire. Leaving
ruin in their wake, the Tartars went in search of the grand duke who
had taken a position on the Sit, near the frontiers of Novgorod. Here
another battle was fought ending in disaster for the Russians. The
headless corpse of the grand duke was found by the Bishop of Rostof.
On swept the Asiatic hoards, as if nothing would stop them. At Torjok,
"Russian heads fell beneath the sword of the Tartars as grass beneath
the scythe." Leaving Souzdal behind, they entered the territory of
Novgorod; but the dense forests and swollen rivers delayed them, and
when within fifty miles of the city, they turned southeast. The little
town of Kozelsk[6] did not surrender but inflicted such a loss upon
the invaders that they mentioned it as "the wicked city." When it (p. 067)
was captured, every man, woman, and child, was butchered.
[Footnote 6: Where Kalouga now stands.]
The years 1239 and 1240 were spent in ravaging southern Russia.
Peréiaslaf and Tchernigof, after a desperate defense, were burned, and
the Tartars under command of Genghis's grandson Mangou, marched upon
Kief. Mangou offered terms, but Kief, knowing the fate of other
cities, executed Mangou's envoys. The grand duke and his rival, Daniel
of Galitch, fled from the city, but the people fought for their lives.
Mangou was reënforced by Bati's army and the siege began. The walls
were knocked to pieces by battering rams. "The people of Kief, led by
the brave Dmitri, a Gallician boyard, defended the battered ramparts
till the end of the day, and then retreated to the Church of the Dîme,
which they surrounded by a palisade. The last defenders of Kief were
grouped round the tomb of Iaroslaf. The next day they perished. Mangou
gave the boyard his life, but the Mother of Russian Cities was sacked.
This third pillage was the most terrible; even the tombs were not
respected. All that remains of the Church of the Dîme is only a few
fragments of mosaic in the museum at Kief. Saint Sophia and the
Monastery of the Catacombs were delivered up to be plundered." Kief
fell in 1240.
There remained only Volhynia and Gallicia, which also bowed under the
Tartar yoke. With the exception of Novgorod and the northwest, Russia
was in possession of the Yellow race. The Russian dukes who had
escaped carried the tale to Western Europe which was soon in a state
of alarm. The Emperor of Germany wrote to the other monarchs: (p. 068)
"This is the moment to open the eyes of body and soul, now
that the brave princes on whom we depended are dead or in slavery."
The Pope called upon the Christian princes to take up arms. Meanwhile
Bati continued his westward march and penetrated as far as Moravia,
when he was recalled by the death of the second Tartar emperor. He
withdrew to Russia and on the Volga built a city which he named
Saraï--the Castle,--which became the capital of a Tartar empire
extending from the Ural river and Caspian Sea to the mouth of the
Danube, and is known as the Golden Horde.
The first three successors of Genghis Khan are known as the Great
Khans, and ruled over all the Tartars; but after Kublaï Khan
established himself in China, in 1260, the Golden Horde declared its
independence. So long as Bati lived, this khanate was united and
powerful, but after his death, in 1257, it gradually lost strength. In
1272, these Tartars became Mahomedans and spread that faith. The
Golden Horde enjoyed another period of prosperity under the Khan
Uzbeck.
How did the Russians bear this blow? We have seen that Iaroslaf, the
duke who had been expelled so many times from Novgorod, became Grand
Duke of Souzdal. He found the country in Souzdal in ruins. Nothing was
left of the towns and villages but charred remains; the inhabitants
who had survived the Tartar massacres had fled into the forests.
Iaroslaf's first work was to induce them to return and rebuild their
homes. The Tartar general Bati heard of this and sent word to Iaroslaf
to come to him. The grand duke dared not refuse. He went to Saraï (p. 069)
on the Volga where Bati told him that he might continue as grand duke,
but that it would be best for him to pay a visit to the great khan,
who was then on the Amoor in the far eastern part of Asia. Iaroslaf
agreed; he started on his long journey, and after many months of
travel through deserts and wastes, he arrived at the headquarters of
the Tartars. There he was compelled to kneel before Oktaï, the
successor of Genghis. It appears that some Russian boyards had
preceded Iaroslaf hoping to secure favors from the khan, and that they
accused the grand duke, but Oktaï refused to listen to them. After
some delay Iaroslaf was confirmed as grand duke, and permitted to
return, but he died from exhaustion in the desert, in 1246. His
remains were brought to Vladimir.
Iaroslaf left two sons, Andrew, who succeeded him in Souzdal, and
Alexander who was duke at Novgorod. This younger son was an able as
well as a brave man. On one occasion, when the Scandinavians had
invaded Novgorod's territory aided by the Catholic Orders, Alexander
had gained a great victory on the Neva, from which he is known in
history as Alexander Nevski (1240). Upon his return to Novgorod he had
a dispute with the vetché, and he left the city. After his departure
the territory of the Republic was invaded by the German Sword-bearers
who erected a fort on the Neva, captured Pskof, Novgorod's ally, and
plundered merchants within a short distance of the walls. The people
sent to Alexander Nevski, begging him to come to their rescue, and
after several refusals he consented. Alexander collected an army,
drove the Germans out of Pskof and their new fort, and at last (p. 070)
defeated them on the ice of Lake Peipus in 1242. This is known as the
Battle on the Ice. Alexander then returned to Novgorod where he was
received with honor and joy.
Andrew, the Grand Duke of Souzdal, Alexander's brother, refused to
recognize Bati's authority, whereupon a Tartar army ravaged his
territory for the second time. Novgorod, as we have seen, had escaped
the Tartar invasion, but when Alexander Nevski received a letter from
Bati, in which the khan said, "God has subjected many peoples to me,
will you alone refuse to recognize my power? If you wish to keep your
land, come to me; you will see the splendor and the glory of my
government." The duke thought it prudent to comply. He and his brother
Andrew went to Saraï, where honors were showered upon the hero of the
Neva. The two brothers were directed to visit the great khan, as their
father Iaroslaf had done. They did so; and the Mongol emperor
confirmed Andrew as Duke of Souzdal, but to Alexander's dukedom, he
added Kief and South Russia. They returned from the Far East in 1257.
VIII--RUSSIA UNDER THE MONGOL YOKE. (p. 071)
The Tartars did not interfere with the people, their institutions, or
religion, but they demanded tribute in the form of an annual poll-tax.
Officers called baskaks went from house to house to collect it, either
in money or in furs, and those who could not pay were sold as slaves.
Sometimes this collection caused disturbances. It was some time before
the people of Novgorod would submit. When Bati sent his collectors to
the Republic, the question was brought before the vetché where the
possadnik urged the wisdom of paying the tax, but the people would not
hear of it and promptly murdered the unfortunate burgomaster.
Alexander, too, advised to avoid trouble, but the people refused and
several boyards, including Alexander's son Vassili urged resistance.
The duke acted vigorously. He ordered the arrest of his son, and had
the boyards punished; but it was not before the people heard of the
approach of a Tartar army, that they submitted. Still such was their
resentment that Alexander had the baskaks guarded night and day. At
last Alexander threatened to leave Novgorod with his drujina; then the
people offered no further opposition to the collection of the hated
poll-tax (1260). Two years later the people of Souzdal, Vladimir, and
Rostof rose against the baskaks and killed one of them, a Russian (p. 072)
who had become a Mahomedan. Alexander, who had succeeded his brother
Andrew as Grand Duke, decided to attempt to appease the khan by going
himself to Saraï with presents; he also wished to be excused from
furnishing a body of Russians to serve in the Tartar army. He
succeeded, but was kept at the court of the khan for a year. His
health broke down and he died on his return journey in 1263. The news
of his death was brought to Novgorod, as mass was being said in the
cathedral. The Metropolitan who was reading the service, interrupted
it, and said, "Learn, my dear children, that the Sun of Russia has
set,--is dead," and the people cried, "We are lost." The death of
Alexander Nevski was a heavy blow to Russia.
The Russians, that is the people of Russia whose story we are reading,
did not mingle with any Tartar except the tax collector whom they did
not like. The victors were nomads, who did not care to occupy the land
they had conquered. When they did settle at Saraï on the Lower Volga,
they absorbed the tribes who had lived there before the invasion, and
who were not Russians, but nomads. The Russian _people_ did not
associate with the conquerors. It was at this time that the word
_Krestianine_ or "true Christian" was applied to the peasant, instead
of the contemptuous term moujik.
Whatever Asiatic characteristics were grafted upon the Russians, came
to them through their kniazes and boyards. The dukes soon showed that
all they cared for, was to hold their positions. After Alexander
Nevski, there is not a single instance of a desire to relieve the
people; and the victors on their part never interfered so long as (p. 073)
the tribute was paid regularly. The descendants of Andrew Bogolioubski
were not disturbed in Souzdal; those of Roman continued to hold
Galitch and Volhynia, and Oleg's house remained in possession of
Tchernigof. The dukes might fight about Kief; Novgorod might appoint
or expel its dukes,--the Tartars did not mind. But the khan did insist
that the dukes should visit him and pay him homage. He also reserved
the right of approving the succession of a duke, who was compelled to
apply for a written consent, called an _iarlikh_. On one occasion when
the people of Novgorod elected Duke Michael, they afterwards refused
to recognize him, asserting that "it is true we have chosen Michael,
but on condition that he should show us the iarlikh."
The dukes, holding their possessions by favor of the khan, tried to
gain his good-will and favor. Gleb, duke of Biélozersk married in the
khan's family about 1272; Feodor of Riazan was the son-in-law of the
khan of the Nogaïs. In 1318, the Grand Duke George married Kontchaka,
sister of the Khan Uzbeck. It was the rulers, and not the people of
Russia, that quietly submitted to the _Tartartchina_ or Mongol yoke.
The khans, while they did not care about the people took care that the
dukes should show them slavish respect. In 1303, the dukes were
convoked, and when they were assembled a letter from the khan was
read, in which they were commanded to stop fighting because the great
khan desired to see peace established. Whenever such a letter was
brought, the dukes were directed to meet the envoys on foot, prostrate
themselves, spread fine carpets under their feet, present them (p. 074)
with a cup filled with gold pieces, and listen, kneeling, while the
letter was read.
Children of the prairie and the desert, the Tartars had neither a
religion nor a civilization to impose upon the Russian people. The
khans were tolerant because they did not care. Koïyuk had a Christian
chapel near his residence. In 1261, the Khan of Saraï gave permission
for the erection of a Greek church in his capital, and he allowed a
bishop to reside there. Mangou gave equal privileges to Christians,
Jews, and Mahomedans.
The dukes and boyards, paying court to the Tartars, gradually adopted
their mode of dressing and, as they became Asiatic in appearance, they
came under the influence of Asiatic thought. They dressed in a long
caftan or flowing robe, wore a sort of turban on the head, swords and
daggers in their belts, and when on horseback, sat in very high
saddles with short stirrups. Dukes and boyards thus became
semi-Asiatic, and drifted away from the people among whom the national
principle was kept alive.
Every succeeding visit to the khan served to increase the intimacy of
the dukes and their Asiatic masters. It was not many years before the
relation with the great khan was severed, but that with the Golden
Horde was kept alive. A writer[7] living at that time, who visited
Saraï during Bati's life, gives the following description: "It (the
court) is crowded and brilliant. His army consists of 600,000 men,
150,000 of whom are Tartars, and 450,000 strangers, Christians as well
as infidels. On Good Friday we were conducted to his tent, between
two fires, because the Tartars believe that a fire purifies (p. 075)
everything, and robs even poison of its danger. _We had to make many
prostrations_, and enter the tent without touching the threshold. Bati
was on his throne with one of his wives; his brothers, his children,
and the Tartar lords were seated on benches; the rest of the assembly
were on the ground, the men on the right, the women on the left....
The khan and the lords of the court emptied from time to time cups of
gold and silver, while the musicians made the air ring with their
melodies. Bati has a bright complexion; he is affable with his men,
but inspires general terror." The same writer visited the court of the
great khan, and in his description dwells upon the fact that it was
not the Tartars who were most terrible, but the Russian dukes and
nobles who accused one another and who sought to destroy their own
countrymen by bribing the favorites. It was thus that Duke Michael of
Tchernigof was murdered in 1246, and Duke Michael of Tver in 1319, by
a Russian hireling of the Grand Duke of Moscow who was present when
the foul deed was committed. Servile submission to the khans, a
haughty demeanor towards their own people, became the characteristics
of the dukes. "The dukes of Moscow," says a Russian author,[8] "took
the humble title of servants of the khan, and it was by this means
that they became powerful monarchs." An English writer[9] comes to the
following evident conclusion: "The first czars of Muscovy were the
political descendants, not of the Russian dukes, but of the Tartar
khans."
[Footnote 7: Planus Corpinius.]
[Footnote 8: Karamsin.]
[Footnote 9: Wallace.]
A gradual change came over the Golden Horde after the Tartars (p. 076)
departed from their nomadic life and settled in and about Saraï. They
lost their warlike habits, and with them much of their vigor. They
began to farm out the poll-tax, that is, they sold the right to
collect the tax to merchants of Khiva, whose oppression was so great
that the people of Souzdal revolted in 1262, Koursk in 1284, Kolomna
in 1318, and Tver in 1327. But the oppression was greater when the
dukes of Moscow farmed this tax, not only from their own subjects, but
also from neighboring dukedoms. They were absolutely pitiless in
collecting from the poor people as much as they could extort, and this
was the disgraceful foundation of their wealth and power. The
poll-tax, thereafter, was always a favorite source of revenue in
Russia.
Besides this tribute, the dukes were compelled to furnish soldiers to
their masters. Soon after the conquest, we read of Russian dukes
marching with the Tartars at the head of their drujinas, and of
supplying them with infantry. In 1276 Boris of Rostof and others,
followed Mangou Khan in the war against the tribes of the Caucasus,
and helped to sack the town of Dediakof in Daghestan. This was
excusable, because the enemy was an alien; but what can be thought of
Prince Andrew, the unworthy son of Alexander Nevski, who, in 1281,
induced the Tartars to aid him in pillaging Vladimir, Souzdal, Mourom,
Moscow, and Peréiaslaf, and led in profaning churches and convents? In
1284, when two descendants of Oleg were dukes of Koursk, one of them
put his brother to death for having insulted the khan, and Russian
historians blame not the murderer, but the victim, because he had
aroused the khan's anger! In 1327, the dukes of Moscow and Souzdal (p. 077)
marched against Tver at the command of their Asiatic master. Such was
the influence of the Tartar yoke.
The Russian dukes and their nobles lost not only the principle of
patriotism, but also that of personal honor. The unfortunate Russians
henceforth were to them, not fellow-countrymen but "_tcherné_" "black
people." The khans, with true political instinct looking to the
perpetuation of this condition, gained the friendship of the Church,
as they had that of the dukes. In 1313, the Khan Uzbeck, at the
request of the Metropolitan or head of the Church of Moscow, ordered
that the Church should retain its privileges, and that it should not
be deprived of its property, because, he says, "these possessions are
sacred, as they belong to men whose prayers preserve our lives and
strengthen our armies." The churches and convents grew enormously
rich. They received gifts of land, and the priests, so bribed, allied
themselves with the heathen masters, and aided further in oppressing
the people.
The descendants of the dukes and drujinas lost the large and generous
impulses of the old Norsemen, to make way for the Asiatic deformities
of treachery, cruelty, cunning, and disregard of honor. Whatever came
in the way of their own interests, was trampled under foot by fair
means or foul. The boyards, too, were tainted by the example of the
chiefs. The vast extent of the country, the sparsity of the
population, the difficulties in the way of communication, and above
all the general ignorance, prevented the appearance of a patriot who
might have raised a truly national banner, and shaken off the yoke of
the servile lackeys of the Tartars.
[Illustration: Moscow] (p. 078)
IX--LITHUANIA AND MOSCOW. (p. 079)