Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: Peter the Great.]
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA
BY
MARY PLATT PARMELE
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1907
Copyright, 1899, 1904, 1906,
BY MARY PLATT PARMELE
PREFACE.
If this book seems to have departed from the proper ideal of historic
narrative--if it is the history of a _Power_, and not of a _People_--it
is because the Russian people have had no history yet. There has been
no evolution of a Russian nation, but only of a vast governing system;
and the words "Russian Empire" stand for a majestic world-power in
which the mass of its people have no part. A splendidly embroidered
robe of Europeanism is worn over a chaotic, undeveloped mass of
semi-barbarism. The reasons for this incongruity--the natural
obstacles with which Russia has had to contend; the strange ethnic
problems with which it has had to deal; its triumphant entry into the
family of great nations; and the circumstances leading to the
disastrous conflict recently concluded, and the changed conditions
resulting from it--such is the story this book has tried to tell.
M. P. P.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Natural Conditions
Greek Colonies on the Black Sea
The Scythians
Ancient Traces of Slavonic Race
CHAPTER II.
Hunnish Invasion
Distribution of Races
Slavonic Religion
Primitive Political Conceptions
CHAPTER III.
The Scandinavian in Russia
Rurik
Oleg
Igor
Olga's Vengeance
Olga a Christian
Sviatoslaf
Russia the Champion of the Greek Empire in Bulgaria
Norse Dominance in Heroic Period
CHAPTER IV.
System of Appanages
Vladimir the Sinner Becomes Vladimir the Saint
Russia Forcibly Christianized
Causes Underlying Antagonism Between Greek and Latin Church
Russia Joined to the Greek Currents and Separated from the Latin
CHAPTER V.
Principalities
Headship of House of Rurik
Relation of Grand Prince to the Others
Civilizing Influences from Greek Sources
Cruelty not Indigenous with the Slavs
How and Whence it Came
Primitive Social Elements
The Drujina
End of Heroic Period
Andrew Bogoliubski
New Political Center at Suzdal
CHAPTER VI.
The Republic of Novgorod
Invasion of Baltic Provinces by Germans
Livonian and Teutonic Orders
Russian Territory Becomes Prussia
Mongol Invasion
Genghis Khan
Cause of Downfall
CHAPTER VII.
The Rule of the Khans
Humiliation of Princes
Novgorod the Last to Fall
Alexander Nevski
Russia Under the Yoke
CHAPTER VIII.
Lithuania
Its Union with Poland
A Conquest of Russia Intended
Daniel First Prince of Moscow
Moscow Becomes the Ecclesiastical Center
Power Gravitates Toward that State
Centralization
Dmitri Donskoi
Golden Horde Crumbling
CHAPTER IX.
Origin of Ottoman Empire
Turks in Constantinople
Moscow the Spiritual Heir to Byzantium
Ivan Married to a Daughter of the Caesars
Civilizing Streams Flowing into Moscow
Work for Ivan III.
And How He Did it
Friendly Relations with the Khans
Reply to Demand for Tribute in 1478
The Yoke Broken
CHAPTER X.
Vasili the Blind
Fall of Pskof
Splendor of Courts Ceremonial
Nature of Struggle which was Evolving
CHAPTER XI.
Ivan IV.
His Childhood
_Coup d'État_
Unmasking of Adashef and Silvester
A Gentle Youth Developing into a Monster
Solicitude for the Souls of his Victims
Destruction of Novgorod
England Enters Russia by a Side Door
Friendship with Elizabeth
Acquisition of Siberia
The _Sobor_ or States-General Summoned
Ivan Slays his Son and Heir
His Death
CHAPTER XII.
Boris Godunof
The Way to Power
A _Boyar_ Tsar of Russia
Serfdom Created
The False Dmitri
Mikhail the First Romanoff
CHAPTER XIII.
Time of Preparation
The Cossacks
Attempt of Nikon
Death of Mikhail
Alexis
Sympathizes with Charles II.
Natalia
Death of Alexis
Feodor
CHAPTER XIV.
Sophia Regent
Peter I.
Childhood
Visit to Archangel
Azof Captured
How a Navy was Built
Sentiment Concerning Reforms
A Conspiracy Nipped in the Bud
Peter Astonishes Western Europe
CHAPTER XV.
Charles XII.
Battle of Narva
St. Petersburg Founded
Mazeppa
Poltova
Peter's Marriage with Catherine
CHAPTER XVI.
Campaign against Turks
Disaster Averted
Azof Relinquished
Treaty of Pruth
Reforms
The Raskolniks
Visit to France
His Son Alexis a Traitor
His Death
CHAPTER XVII.
Catherine I.
Anna Ivanovna
Ivan VI.
Elizabeth Petrovna
French Influences Succeed the German
Peter III.
His Taking off
Catherine II.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Conditions in Poland
Victories in the Black Sea
Pugatchek the Pretender
Peasants' War
Reforms
Partition of Poland
Characteristics of Catherine and of her Reign
Her Death
CHAPTER XIX.
Paul I.
Napoleon Bonaparte
Franco-Russian Understanding
Assassination of Paul
Alexander I.
CHAPTER XX.
Plans for a Liberal Reign
Austerlitz
Alexander I. an Ally of Napoleon
Rupture of Friendship
French Army in Moscow
Its Retreat and Extinction
The Tsar a Liberator in Europe
Failure of Reforms
Araktcheef's Severities
Conspiracy at Kief
Death of Alexander I.
CHAPTER XXI.
Constantine's Renunciation
Revolt
Succession of Nicholas I.
Order Restored
Character of Nicholas
His Policy
Polish Insurrection
Reactionary Measures
Europe Excluded
Turco-Russian Understanding
Beginning of the Great Diplomatic Game
Nature of the Eastern Question
Intellectual Expansion in Russia
CHAPTER XXII.
1848 in Europe
Nicholas Aids Francis Joseph
Hungary Subjugated
Nicholas claims to be Protector of Eastern Christendom
Attempt to Secure England's Co-operation
Russia's Grievance against Turkey
His Demands
France and England in Alliance for Defense of Sultan
Allied Armies in the Black Sea
The Crimean War
Odessa
Alma
Siege of Sevastopol
Death of Nicholas I.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Alexander II.
End of Crimean War
Reaction Toward Liberalism
Emancipation of Serfs
Means by which It was Effected
Patriarchalism Retained
Hopes Awakened in Poland
Rebellion
How it was Disposed of
CHAPTER XXIV.
Reaction toward Severity
Bulgaria and the Bashi-Bazuks
Russia the Champion of the Balkan States
Turco-Russian War
Treaty of San Stefano
Sentiment in Europe
Congress of Berlin
Diplomatic Defeat of Russia
Waning Popularity of Alexander II.
CHAPTER XXV.
Emancipation a Disappointment
Social Discontent
Birth of Nihilism
Assassination of Alexander II.
The Peasants' Wreath
Alexander III.
A Joyless Reign
His Death
CHAPTER XXVI.
Nicholas II.
Russification of Finland
Invitation to Disarmament
Brief Review of Conditions
SUPPLEMENT.
Conditions Preceding Russo-Japanese War
Nature of Dispute
Results of Conflict
Peace Conference at Portsmouth
Treaty Signed
A National Assembly
Dissolution of First Russian Parliament
Present Outlook
LIST OF PRINCES.
INDEX.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
Peter the Great . . . . . . _Frontispiece_
The Czar Iván the Terrible and his son Iván Ivánovitch
The Coronation of the Czar Alexander III., 1883
Scene during the Russo-Japanese War: Russian
soldiers on the march in Manchuria
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA
CHAPTER I
PRIMITIVE CONDITIONS AND RACES
The topography of a country is to some extent a prophecy of its future.
Had there been no Mississippi coursing for three thousand miles through
the North American Continent, no Ohio and Missouri bisecting it from
east to west, no great inland seas indenting and watering it, no
fertile prairies stretching across its vast areas, how different would
have been the history of our own land.
Russia is the strange product of strange physical conditions. Nature
was not in impetuous mood when she created this greater half of Europe,
nor was she generous, except in the matter of space. She was slow,
sluggish, but inexorable. No volcanic energies threw up rocky ridges
and ramparts in Titanic rage, and then repentantly clothed them with
lovely verdure as in Spain, Italy, and elsewhere. No hungry sea rushed
in and tore her coast into fragments. It would seem to have been just
a cold-blooded experiment in subjecting a vast region to the most
rigorous and least generous conditions possible, leaving it unshielded
alike from Polar winds in winter or scorching heat in summer, divesting
it of beauty and of charm, and then casting this arid, frigid, torpid
land to a branch of the human family as unique as its own habitation;
separating it by natural and almost impassable barriers from civilizing
influences, and in strange isolation leaving it to work out its own
problem of development.
We have only to look on the map at the ragged coast-lines of Greece,
Italy, and the British Isles to realize how powerful a factor the sea
has been in great civilizations. Russia, like a thirsty giant, has for
centuries been struggling to get to the tides which so generously wash
the rest of Europe. During the earlier periods of her history she had
not a foot of seaboard; and even now she possesses only a meager
portion of coast-line for such an extent of territory; one-half of this
being, except for three months in the year, sealed up with ice.
But Russia is deficient in still another essential feature. Every
other European country possesses a mountain system which gives form and
solidity to its structure. She alone has no such system. No skeleton
or backbone gives promise of stability to the dull expanse of plains
through which flow her great lazy rivers, with scarce energy enough to
carry their burdens to the sea. Mountains she has, but she shares them
with her neighbors; and the Carpathians, Caucasus, and Ural are simply
a continuous girdle for a vast inclosure of plateaus of varying
altitudes,[1] and while elsewhere it is the office of great mountain
ranges to nourish, to enrich, and to beautify, in this strange land
they seem designed only to imprison.
It is obvious that in a country so destitute of seaboard, its rivers
must assume an immense importance. The history, the very life of
Russia clusters about its three great rivers. These have been the
arteries which have nourished, and indeed created, this strange empire.
The _Volga_, with its seventy-five mouths emptying into the Caspian
Sea, like a lazy leviathan brought back currents from the Orient; then
the _Dnieper_, flowing into the Black Sea, opened up that communication
with Byzantium which more than anything else has influenced the
character of Russian development; and finally, in comparatively recent
times, the _Neva_ has borne those long-sought civilizing streams from
Western Europe which have made of it a modern state and joined it to
the European family of nations.
It would seem that the great region we now call Russia was predestined
to become one empire. No one part could exist without all the others.
In the north is the _zone of forests_, extending from the region of
Moscow and Novgorod to the Arctic Circle. At the extreme southeast,
north of the Caspian Sea and at the gateway leading into Asia, are the
_Barren Steppes_, unsuited to agriculture or to civilized living; fit
only for the raising of cattle and the existence of Asiatic nomads, who
to this day make it their home.
Between these two extremes lie two other zones of extraordinary
character, the _Black Lands_ and the _Arable Steppes_, or prairies.
The former zone, which is of immense extent, is covered with a deep bed
of black mold of inexhaustible fertility, which without manure produces
the richest harvests, and has done so since the time of Herodotus, at
which period it was the granary of Athens and of Eastern Europe.
The companion zone, running parallel with this, known as the Arable
Steppes, which nearly resembles the American prairies, is almost as
remarkable as the Black Lands. Its soil, although fertile, has to be
renewed. But an amazing vegetation covers this great area in summer
with an ocean of verdure six or eight feet high, in which men and
cattle may hide as in a forest. It is these two zones in the heart of
Russia that have fed millions of people for centuries, which make her
now one of the greatest competitors in the markets of the world.
It is easy to see the interdependence created by this specialization in
production, and the economic necessity it has imposed for an undivided
empire. The forest zone could not exist without the corn of the Black
Lands and the Prairies, nor without the cattle of the Steppes. Nor
could those treeless regions exist without the wood of the forests. So
it is obvious that when Nature girdled this eastern half of Europe, she
marked it for one vast empire; and when she covered those monotonous
plateaus with a black mantle of extraordinary fertility, she decreed
that the Russians should be an agricultural people. And when she
created natural conditions unmitigated and unparalleled in severity,
she ordained that this race of toilers should be patient and submissive
under austerities; that their pulse should be set to a slow, even
rhythm, in harmony with the low key in which Nature spoke to them.
It is impossible to say when an Asiatic stream began to pour into
Europe over the arid steppes north of the Caspian. But we know that as
early as the fifth century B. C. the Greeks had established trading
stations on the northern shores of the Black Sea, and that these in the
fourth century had become flourishing colonies through their trade with
the motley races of barbarians that swarmed about that region, who by
the Greeks were indiscriminately designated by the common name of
Scythians.
The Greek colonists, who always carried with them their religion, their
Homer, their love of beauty, and the arts of their mother cities,
established themselves on and about the promontory of the Crimea, and
built their city of Chersonesos where now is Sebastopol. They first
entered into wars and then alliances with these Scythians, who served
them as middle-men in trade with the tribes beyond, and in time a
Graeco-Scythian state of the Bosphorus came into existence.
Herodotus in the fifth century wrote much about these so-called
Scythians, whom he divides into the agricultural Scythians, presumably
of the Black Lands, and the nomad Scythians, of the Barren Steppes.
His extravagant and fanciful pictures of those barbarians have long
been studied by the curious; but light from an unexpected source has
been thrown upon the subject, and Greek genius has rescued for us the
type of humanity first known in Russia.
There are now in the museum at St. Petersburg two priceless works of
art found in recent years in a tomb in Southern Russia. They are two
vases of mingled gold and silver upon which are wrought pictures more
faithful and more eloquent than those drawn by Herodotus. These
figures of the Scythians, drawn probably as early as 400 B. C.,
reproduce unmistakably the Russian peasant of to-day. The same
bearded, heavy-featured faces; the long hair coming from beneath the
same peaked cap; the loose tunic bound by a girdle; the trousers tucked
into the boots, and the general type, not alone distinctly Aryan, but
_Slavonic_. And not only that; we see them breaking in and bridling
their horses, in precisely the same way as the Russian peasant does
to-day on those same plains. Assuredly the vexed question concerning
the Scythians is in a measure answered; and we know that some of them
at least were Slavonic.
But the passing illumination produced by the approach of Greek
civilization did not penetrate to the region beyond, where was a
tumbling, seething world of Asiatic tribes and peoples, Aryan, Tatar,
and Turk, more or less mingled in varying shades of barbarism, all
striving for mastery.
This elemental struggle was to resolve itself into one between Aryan
and non-Aryan--the Slav and the Finn; and this again into one between
the various members of the Slavonic family; then a life-and-death
struggle with Asiatic barbarism in its worst form (the Mongol), with
Tatar and Turk always remaining as disturbing factors.
How, and the steps by which, the least powerful branch of the Slavonic
race obtained the mastery and headship of Russia and has come to be one
of the leading powers of the earth, is the story this book will try to
tell.
[1] In the Tatar language the word Ural signifies "girdle."