the consent to set aside the Salic Law of succession, in favor of his
daughter. This law restricted the right of succession to male (p. 180)
heirs exclusively. In violation of the pledged word, several claimants
appeared to contest the claim of his daughter Maria Theresa, and since
almost every nation took sides, it was important to know what Russia
would do. Elizabeth was undecided; at least, she played with both
sides until 1746, when she entered into an alliance with Maria
Theresa, while England promised subsidies in money. It was, however,
1748 before a Russian army of 30,000 men passed through Germany and
took up a position on the Rhine. In the same year the war was ended by
the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, without the Russians having been under
fire.
Elizabeth hated Frederick the Great of Prussia. She claimed that "The
King of Prussia is certainly a bad prince who has no fear of God
before his eyes; he turns holy things into ridicule, and he never goes
to church." The real reason was that Frederick had expressed his
opinion about Elizabeth's private life, and she was not the woman to
forgive his remarks. Then again, Frederick had an excellent army of
200,000 men; Elizabeth's chancellor, on that account, called Prussia
"the most dangerous of neighbors, whose power it was necessary to
break."
Russia, Austria, France, and Saxony, entered into a secret alliance
against Prussia. Frederick found it out, and in 1756, began the famous
Seven Years' War. The same year, 83,000 Russians under Apraxine
crossed the frontier and seized East Prussia. A battle was fought; the
Russians were the victors, but Apraxine fell back across the Niemen.
France and Austria suspected treachery; Apraxine was arrested and
the chancellor was dismissed and exiled. Fermor was appointed (p. 181)
commander-in-chief.
The Russian army recrossed the frontier in 1758, took Königsberg and
bombarded Küstrin on the Oder. Frederick with 32,000 men attacked the
Russian army 89,000 strong at Zorndorf. The Russians fought stubbornly
but were defeated with a loss of 20,000 men. Fermor was recalled, and
succeeded by Soltykof who, in 1759, entered Frankfort on the Oder.
Another battle was fought and Frederick was defeated by greatly
superior numbers. He lost 8,000 men. Prussia was exhausted, but his
enemies, too, began to feel the expense of the war. Elizabeth,
however, was determined to humble the outspoken King when she died
suddenly in 1761. She was succeeded by her nephew Peter Feodorovitch
under the name of Peter III.
Elizabeth, although careless in her mode of living, was a stout
supporter of the Greek Church. In 1742, she agreed with the Holy Synod
to suppress all other churches, as well as the Mosques or Mahomedan
temples in the south. This caused a revolt of the Mahomedans. The Jews
were also expelled in some parts of the empire. A fever of fanaticism
broke out; fifty-three _raskolnik_ in Russia, and one hundred and
seventy-two in Siberia, burned themselves to death.
Count Ivan Schouvalof, one of Elizabeth's friends, believed in
education and was given a free hand. He ordered that the priests and
their children should attend school, on penalty of being whipped. He
founded the University of Moscow, which has educated many learned
Russians. To induce students to enter, he induced Elizabeth to (p. 182)
make a law that all students should be tchins of the tenth grade, and
the professors hold the eighth grade. He sent young men abroad to
study and established higher schools in every Government. Schouvalof
was also the founder of the Academy of Fine Arts at St. Petersburg.
That capital was growing; its population was 74,000 under Elizabeth.
She built the Winter Palace and saw the plans for Tsarskoé Selo, the
magnificent retreat of the Russian emperors. She reëstablished the
Senate, as organized by Peter the Great.
XXI--RUSSIA UNDER CATHERINE II (THE GREAT). (p. 183)
Peter III was thirty-four years old when he succeeded to the throne.
Although it was twenty years since his aunt Elizabeth sent for him
from Holstein, he was more of a German than a Russian, and had an
intense admiration for Frederick the Great. He at once reversed
Russia's policy, ordered the commander-in-chief of the Russian armies
to leave his Austrian allies, and made peace with the King of Prussia
to whom he restored all Russia's conquests. Then he entered into an
alliance with Frederick, which was the means of saving Prussia.
Peter relieved the nobles of the duty of serving the state, for which
they were so grateful that they proposed to erect his statue in gold;
he heard of it, and forbade their doing so. He abolished the Secret
Court of Police, and showed great kindness to the raskols and
permitted many of them to return from Siberia. A host of other exiles
were recalled, and he thought of relieving the hard lot of the
moujiks.
For all this, he was unpopular and disliked. His disregard for old
Russian customs and his mode of life gave deep offense. He was married
to Sophia of Anhalt, who had assumed the name of Catherine; she (p. 184)
was a woman of decided ability and strong character. Peter wanted a
divorce. She heard of it and contrived a conspiracy among the high
nobles and officers of the army and navy. Peter had no thought of
danger, when he ordered the arrest of Passek, a young officer and
favorite of Catherine. Thinking that the conspiracy had been discovered,
she left her palace in the outskirts and came to St. Petersburg where
the three regiments of Foot Guards declared in her favor, and Peter's
uncle was arrested by his own regiment of Horse Guards. When Catherine
entered the Winter Palace, she was sure of the army and navy;
Cronstadt was seized by her supporters, and she issued a proclamation
assuming the government. At the head of 20,000 men, she marched upon
the Palace, where the czar, her husband, was residing.
Peter fled to Cronstadt and sought the Admiral. "I am the czar," he
said. "There is no longer a czar," was the reply, and all Peter could
do was to return to his palace, where he abdicated "like a child being
sent to sleep," as Frederick the Great expressed it. He then called on
his wife, "after which," Catherine tells us, "I sent the deposed
emperor, under the command of Alexis Orlof accompanied by four
officers and a detachment of gentle and reasonable men, to a place
called Ropcha, fifteen miles from Peterhof, a secluded spot, but very
pleasant." Four days later Peter III was dead. Catherine declared that
he died of colic "with the blood flying to the brains."
[Illustration: Catharine II]
But one was living with just and strong claims to the throne. Ivan VI,
the infant czar sent to prison by Elizabeth in 1741, was now (p. 186)
twenty-one years old. It was reported that he had lost his reason,
which may have been true or false. Catherine disposed of him. She
said: "It is my opinion that he should not be allowed to escape, so as
to place him beyond the power of doing harm. It would be best to
tonsure him (that is, to make a monk of him), and to transfer him to
some monastery, neither too near nor too far off; it will suffice if
it does not become a shrine." She did not desire that the people
should make a martyr of a descendant of Peter the Great, while she, a
foreign woman, was occupying the throne. Poor Ivan was murdered by his
keepers two years later, when a lieutenant of the Guards was trying to
effect his escape. After that, Catherine had no rival for the crown,
except her son Paul, whom she disliked.
At first it seemed as if Catherine would reverse her husband's policy
with regard to Prussia. She gave orders to the army to leave the
Prussian camp, but she did not command active hostilities; since the
parties felt the exhaustion of a seven years' struggle, peace
negotiations were begun and concluded successfully.
Catherine made Russia a party to the System of the North; that is, she
entered into an alliance with England, Prussia, and Denmark, as
against France and Austria. Nearly all Europe was deeply interested in
the severe illness of the King of Poland, because of the election
which must follow his death. Unhappy Poland was bringing destruction
upon itself. A lawless nobility kept the country in anarchy, and
religious persecution, which had disappeared elsewhere, was still
rampant. It was the gold distributed by interested powers, that
controlled the vote of the Diet, and since it was merely a (p. 187)
question of the highest bidder, Frederick the Great and Catherine came
to an understanding. They decided to elect Stanislas Poniatowski, a
Polish noble. France and Austria supported the Prince of Saxony, who
was also the choice of the Court party. After the death of Augustus
III, the Diet assembled and elected the French and Austrian candidate.
Members of the Diet asked for Russian intervention and, supported by
Catherine's army, Poniatowski was placed on the throne.
Russia and Prussia were not satisfied; they wanted part of the
kingdom and the prevailing anarchy on their frontiers justified
them. But Catherine made a pretext out of Poland's religious
intolerance,--although the same existed in Russia. In 1765, Koninski,
the Bishop of the Greek Church presented to the King a petition asking
redress for a number of grievances which he enumerated. The King
promised relief and submitted the matter to the Diet of 1766. The
majority would not hear of any tolerance, although Russia had on the
frontier an army of 80,000 men ready to invade Poland. The Diet of
1767 showed the same foolish spirit, but it was broken when two of its
members, both Catholic bishops, were arrested under Russian orders,
and carried into Russian territory. The Diet did not appear to resent
this violation of a friendly territory but entered in 1768 into a
treaty with Russia, in which it was agreed that Poland would make no
change in its constitution without Russia's consent. The Russian army
was withdrawn from Warsaw, and a deputation from the Diet was sent to
St. Petersburg to thank Catherine.
Two hostile parties soon appeared in arms. The Catholics raised (p. 188)
the banner "Pro religione et libertate!"--as if they understood what
liberty meant! France helped with money, and urged the Sultan of
Turkey to declare war against Russia, so that Catherine would be
compelled to withdraw her troops. Russia was inciting those of the
Greek and Protestant religions to whom assistance was promised.
In the winter of 1768, the Tartars of the Crimea, aided by the Turks,
invaded Russia, and Catherine dispatched an army of 30,000 men,--all
she could spare. In the following year, the Russians attacked and
defeated the enemy 100,000 strong at Khotin on the Dnieper, and in
1770 the Khan of the Crimea met the same fate. In the same year at the
battle of Kagul, 17,000 Russians defeated 150,000 Turks commanded by
the Grand Vizier. In the same year the Russians destroyed the Turkish
fleet in the port of Chesmé. In 1771, the Tartars of the Crimea were
put to rout, and the Russians took Bessarabia and some forts on the
Danube. They were, however, too late to take possession of the
Dardanelles, which the Turks had put into a state of defense.
Austria was becoming alarmed at Russia's victories, and lent a willing
ear to the suggestion of Frederick the Great that it would be safer to
permit Russia to gain territory belonging to Poland, provided Austria
and Prussia should receive their share. On February 17, 1771, a treaty
was concluded between Russia and Prussia, and accepted by Austria in
April, whereby Poland was deprived of a good part of its territory.
Catherine, secured White Russia with a population of 1,600,000;
Frederick the Great took West Prussia with 900,000 inhabitants, (p. 189)
and Austria received Western Gallicia and Red Russia with 2,500,000
people. This was the beginning of the end of Poland.
The peace negotiations with Turkey were broken off, and war was
resumed. Being busy elsewhere, Catherine could not prevent a _coup
d'état_ in Sweden, which saved that country from the fate of Poland.
Besides suffering from these constant wars, Russia was visited by the
plague, which in July and August, 1771, daily carried off a thousand
victims in Moscow alone. The Archbishop, an enlightened man, was put
to death by a mob for ordering the streets to be fumigated. Troops
were necessary to restore order.
The condition of the country was dreadful. Alexander Bibikof was sent
to suppress a dangerous insurrection, he wrote to his wife after
arriving on the spot, that the general discontent was frightful. It
was for this reason that Catherine concluded peace with the sultan in
1774; besides an indemnity, she received Azof on the Don and all the
strong places in the Crimea, and was recognized as the protector of
the sultan's Christian subjects. In 1775, she finally broke the power
of the Cossacks.
Through the mediation of France and Russia, a war between Prussia and
Austria concerning the succession in Bavaria, was narrowly averted.
During the American War of Independence, Russia, Sweden, Denmark,
Prussia, and Portugal, proclaimed armed neutrality, and Holland
declared war, because British warships caused endless trouble to vessels
under neutral flags. This celebrated act declared "that contraband
goods" included only arms and ammunition. Most countries agreed (p. 190)
to this, with the exception of England.
In 1775 Catherine annexed the Crimea, on the plea that anarchy
prevailed. Turkey protested and threatened war but France meditated
and the sultan recognized the annexation by the Treaty of
Constantinople in 1783.
In 1787, a remarkable secret agreement was signed between Russia and
Austria. It is known as the _Greek Project_, and was nothing less than
a scheme to divide Turkey between the two powers. The plot as proposed
by Russia, was to create an independent state under the name of Dacia,
to embrace Moldavia, Wallachia, and Bessarabia, with a prince
belonging to the Greek Church at the head. Russia was to receive
Otchakof, the shore between the Bug and the Dnieper, and some islands
in the Archipelago, and Austria would annex the Turkish province
adjoining its territory. If the Turk should be expelled from Europe,
the old Byzantine Empire was to be reëstablished, and the throne
occupied by Catherine's grandson Constantine, "who would renounce all
his claims to Russia, so that the two empires might never be united
under the same scepter." Austria agreed on condition that she should
also receive the Venetian possessions in Moldavia, when Venice would
be indemnified by part of Greece.
Soon after this the sultan declared war against Russia. This took
Catherine by surprise. Other enemies sprang up: the King of Prussia
wanted Dantzig, the King of Sweden, South Finland. The latter invaded
Russia and might have marched upon St. Petersburg, for all Catherine
could collect was an army of 12,000 men. A mutiny in the camp of (p. 191)
Gustavus III, compelled him to return to Stockholm, and the opportunity
was lost. He defeated the Russians in the naval battle of Svenska
Sund, but a second engagement was to the advantage of Russia. The
French Revolution caused him to make peace, and to enter into an
alliance with Russia against the French.
In the south Russian arms were more fortunate. The Turks were defeated
in 1789, and 1790, on which occasions a young general named Souvorof
distinguished himself. Upon the death of Joseph II of Austria, his
successor Leopold made peace with Turkey at Sistova. (1791.) It was
the French revolution, which seriously alarmed every crowned head in
Europe, and which induced Catherine to follow Leopold's example at
Jassy, in January, 1792, Russia kept only Otchakof and the shore
between the Bug and the Dniester.
Poland, meanwhile, had made an earnest effort at reform. Thaddeus
Kosciusko had returned from the United States, where he had fought for
liberty and was trying to save his own country. Born in 1752, he
entered a military school founded by the Czartoryskis at the age of
twelve, and distinguished himself by attention to his studies and
duties. His father was assassinated by exasperated peasants, and he
himself was scornfully ejected by a powerful noble whose daughter he
was courting. Attracted by the struggle of a handful of colonists
against powerful England, he went to America and served with
distinction in the War of the Revolution. After seeing Great Britain
humbled and a new republic established in the New World, he came back
to Poland and was soon among the foremost reformers,--a man in (p. 192)
whom the patriotic Poles justly trusted. But traitors were found to
accept Russian bribes, and for the second time Poland was despoiled.
Russia annexed the eastern provinces with 3,000,000 inhabitants, and
Prussia took Dantzig and Thorn. Austria was told that she might take
from the French Republic as much as she wished,--or could.
Manfully and indefatigably did Kosciusko labor to stem the tide of his
country's ruin. His patriotism aroused even that of the poor,
down-trodden serfs, who had no interests to defend, yet stood by him
in battle when the nobles on horseback fled, and wrenched a victory
out of defeat. Well might Kosciusko thereafter dress in the garb of a
peasant; a gentleman's dress was a badge of dishonor.
It was in 1794, that this battle took place and gave the signal, too,
for an effort to restore Poland. But Austria, Prussia, and Russia
combined, and Poland was lost. Heroic children were made to pay for
the sins of their fathers. Poland expired in 1795. Prussia took
Eastern Poland, including Warsaw; Austria annexed Cracow, Sandomir,
Lublin, and Selm, and Russia took what remained. The patriots
dispersed; most of them took service with the French, hoping for an
opportunity to revive their country.
Catherine took especial pains to prevent the ideas, which alone made
the French revolution possible, from entering into Russia. There was
no occasion for this prudence. The great majority of the Russian
people did not know of any world beyond Russia; most of them knew (p. 193)
nothing beyond the narrow horizon of their own village, and could
neither read nor write. The harrowing tales brought by the fugitive
French nobles did not tend toward inspiring the Russian aristocracy
with sympathy for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.
Satisfied that Russia was beyond the sphere of what she regarded as
pernicious doctrines, Catherine determined to make the greatest
possible profit out of the disturbed condition of Europe. She never
ceased to incite Prussia and Austria against the French Republic, but
carefully refrained from spending a dollar or risking a man. She
pleaded first her war with Turkey, and afterwards the Polish
insurrection. She said to Osterman, one of her ministers: "Am I wrong?
For reasons that I cannot give to the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, I
wish to involve them in these affairs, so that I may have my hands
free. Many of my enterprises are still unfinished, and they must be so
occupied as to leave me unfettered."
While Europe was engaged in the hopeless task of establishing and
maintaining the divine rights of kings, Catherine began a war with
Persia. One of her "unfinished enterprises" was interrupted by her
death in November, 1796, at the age of sixty-seven. She left the
throne to her son Paul.
XXII--RUSSIA DURING THE WARS OF NAPOLEON. (p. 194)
Paul was forty-two years old when he succeeded to the throne. His
youth and early manhood had been far from pleasant. His mother had
never shown any love for him, and Paul had not forgotten his father's
sudden death. He was held in absolute submission, and was not
permitted to share in the government; he had not even a voice in the
education of his children. The courtiers, in order to please his
mother, showed him scant courtesy; this is probably the reason of his
sensitiveness after he came to the throne. He ordered men and women to
kneel down in the street when he was passing, and those who drove in
carriages had to halt. It is also shown in this remark, "Know that the
only person of consideration in Russia is the person whom I address,
at the moment that I am addressing him." It was justice, but it
reflected upon his mother's memory when, immediately after her death,
Paul ordered his father's remains to be exhumed, to be buried at the
same time and with the same pomp as those of Catherine.
Such a man could have no sympathy with the French revolution which was
shaking the foundations of Old Europe. He forbade the use of any word
that might be construed to refer to it. He ordered the army to (p. 195)
adopt the Russian uniform, including the powdered pigtails of that
time. Souvorof fell in disgrace because he was reported to have said:
"There is powder and powder. Shoe buckles are not gun carriages, nor
pigtails bayonets; we are not Prussians but Russians."
Paul pardoned a number of exiled Poles, and brought the last king,
Stanislas Poniatowski, to St. Petersburg. He discontinued the war with
Persia, and instructed his ambassadors to announce that since Russia,
and Russia alone, had been at war since 1756, "the humanity of the
Emperor did not allow him to refuse his beloved subjects the peace for
which they sighed."
Nevertheless, Russia was drawn into Napoleon's gigantic wars. Uneasy
at the plans of the French Republic, Paul entered into an alliance
with England, Austria, Naples, and Turkey. He furnished troops for
England's descent upon Holland, and recalled Souvorof to take command
of the Russian forces cooperating with those of Austria. The British
expedition proved a failure, but Souvorof's strategy and indomitable
courage shed glory upon the Russian army.
When Souvorof arrived at Vienna, he took command of the allied forces
consisting of 90,000 men. On April 28, 1799, he surprised Moreau at
Cassano and took 3,000 prisoners. He entered Milan, and soon after
laid siege to Mantua, Alessandria, and Turin. On June 17, Souvorof was
attacked on the Trebia; the battle lasted three days, leaving the
victory to the Russians. After the victory at Novi, on the 15th of
August, the French were forced to evacuate Italy.
Souvorof had divided his force of 80,000 Russians into two corps, (p. 196)
one to operate in Switzerland, the other under his own command, to
conduct the campaign in Italy. His great success brought upon him the
envy of the Austrian generals, by whom his movements were constantly
hampered. He therefore resolved to effect a junction with the forces
in Switzerland, who, on the 26th of September, had been defeated at
Zurich with a loss of 6,000 men. Souvorof did not know this. He
reached the St. Gothard on the 21st and crossed it under unheard-of
difficulties. "In this kingdom of terrors," he writes to Paul,
"abysses open beside us at every step, like tombs awaiting our
arrival. Nights spent among the clouds, thunder that never ceases,
rain, fog, the noise of cataracts, the breaking of avalanches,
enormous masses of rocks and ice which fall from the heights, torrents
which sometimes carry men and horses down the precipices, the St.
Gothard, that colossus who sees the mists pass under him,--we have
surmounted all, and in these inaccessible spots the enemy has been
forced to give way before us. Words fail to describe the horrors we
have seen, and in the midst of which Providence has preserved us."
"The Russian, inhabitant of the plain, was awestruck by the grandeur
of this mountain scenery."
Souvorof brushed the French out of his way until, on the 26th, he
arrived at Altdorf with the loss of only 2,000 men. Here he received
information of the defeat at Zurich, and saw that he was surrounded on
all sides by superior forces. His retreat showed the highest military
skill, as well as the man's indomitable energy. Over untrodden
mountains, and snow at one place five feet deep, he guided the (p. 197)
remains of his army to a lower altitude, and went into winter quarters
between the Iler and the Lech.