RUSSIA BECOMES MUSCOVITE
The tumultuous forces in Russia, never at rest, were preparing to
revolve about a new center. Whether this would be in the East or West
was long in doubt, and only decided after a prolonged struggle.
Western Russia grouped itself about the state of the Lithuanians on the
Baltic, and Eastern Russia about that of Muscovy.
The Lithuanians had never been Christianized; they still adored Perun
and their pagan deities; and the only bond uniting them with Russia was
the tribute they had for years reluctantly paid. They were ripe for
rebellion; and when after long years of conflict with the Livonian and
Teutonic Orders, Latin Christianity obtained some foothold in their
land, they began to gravitate toward Catholic Poland instead of Greek
Russia; and when a marriage was suggested which should unite Poland and
Lithuania under their Prince Iagello, who should reign over both at
Cracow, and at the same time give them their own Grand Prince, they
consented. The forces instigating this movement had their source at
Rome, where the Pope was unceasingly striving, through Germany and
Poland, to carry the Latin cross into Russia. Again and again had the
Greek Church repulsed the offers of reconciliation and union made by
Rome. So, much was hoped from the proselyting of the German Orders,
and of Catholic Poland, and from the union effected by the marriage of
the Lithuanian Prince Iagello with the Polish Queen Hedwig.
The threads composing this network of policies in the West were
altogether ecclesiastical, until Lithuania began to feel strong enough
to wash off her Christian baptism and to indulge in ambitious designs
of her own: to struggle away from Poland, and to commence an
independent and aggressive movement against Russia.
There was an immense vigor in this movement. The power in the West,
sometimes Catholic and at heart always pagan, absorbed first towns and
cities and then principalities. It began to be a Lithuanian conquest,
and overshadowed even Mongol oppression. The Mongol wanted tribute;
while Lithuania wanted Russia! But one of the gravest dangers brought
by this war between the East and the West was the standing opportunity
it offered to conspirators. An army of disaffected uncles and nephews
and brothers, with their followers, could always find a refuge, and
were always plotting and intriguing and negotiating with Lithuania and
Poland, ready even to compromise their faith, if only they might ruin
the existing powers.
Such, in brief, was the great conflict between the East and West,
during which Moscow came into being as the supreme head, the living
center and germ of Russian autocracy.
It seems to have been the extraordinary vitality of one family which
twice changed the currents of national life: first drawing them from
Kief to Suzdal, then from Suzdal toward Moscow, and there establishing
a center of growth which has expanded into Russia as it exists to-day.
This was the family of _Dolgoruki_. Monomakh and his son George
Dolgoruki, the last Grand Prince of Kief, were both men of commanding
character and abilities; and it will be remembered that it was Andrew
Bogoliubski, the son of George (or Yuri), who effected the revolution
which transferred the Grand Principality from Kief to Suzdal in the
bleak North. Alexander Nevski, the hero of the Neva and of Novgorod,
was the descendant of this Andrew (of Suzdal), and it was the son of
Nevski who was the first Prince of Moscow and who there established a
line of Princes which has come unbroken down to Nicholas II. Contrary
to all the traditions of their state this dominating family was going
to establish a _dynasty_, and again to remove the national life to a
new center, in a Grand Principality toward which all of Russia was
gradually but inevitably to gravitate until it became _Muscovite_.
The city which was to exert such an influence upon Russia was founded
in 1147 by George (or Yuri) Dolgoruki, the last Grand Prince of Kief.
The story is that upon arriving once at the domain of a _boyar_ named
Kutchko, he caused him for some offense to be put to death; then, as he
looked out upon the river Moskwa from the height where now stands the
Kremlin, so pleased was he with the outlook that he then and there
planted the nucleus of a town. Whether the death of the _boyar_ or the
purpose of appropriating the domain came first, is not stated; but upon
the soil freshly sprinkled with human blood arose _Moscow_.
The town was of so little importance that its destruction by the Tatars
in 1238 was unobserved. In 1260, when Alexander Nevski died, Moscow,
with a few villages, was given as a small appanage or portion to his
son Daniel. Nevski, it must be remembered, was a direct descendant of
Monomakh, and of George Dolgoruki, the founder of Moscow. So the first
Prince of Moscow was of this illustrious line, a line which has
remained unbroken until the present time.
When Daniel commenced to reign over what was probably the most obscure
and insignificant principality in all Russia, it was surrounded by old
and powerful states, in perpetual struggle with each other. The
Lithuanian conquest was pressing in from the West and assuming large
proportions; while embracing the whole agitated surface was the odious
enslavement to the Mongols and their oft-recurring invasions to enforce
their insolent demands.
The building of the Russian Empire was not a dainty task! It was not
to be performed by delicate instruments and gentle hands. It needed
brutal measures and unpitying hearts. Nor could brute force and
cruelty do it alone; it required the subtler forces of mind--cold,
calculating policies, patience, and craft of a subtle sort. The
Princes of Russia had long been observant pupils, first at
Constantinople, and later at the feet of the Khans. They could meet
cruelty with cruelty, cunning with cunning. But it was the Princes of
Moscow who proved themselves masters in these Oriental arts. Their
cunning was not of the vulgar sort which works for ends that are near;
it was the cunning which could wait, could patiently cringe and feign
loyalty and devotion, with the steady purpose of tearing in pieces.
Added to this, they had the intelligence to divine the secret of power.
Certain ends they kept steadily in view. The old law of succession to
eldest collateral heir they set aside from the outset; the principality
being invariably divided among the sons of the deceased Prince. Then
they gradually established the habit of giving to the eldest son
Moscow, and only insignificant portions to the rest. So
_primogeniture_ lay at the root of the policy of the new state--and
they had created a dynasty.
Then their invariable method was by cunning arts to embroil neighboring
Princes in quarrels, and so to ingratiate themselves with their master
the Khan, that when they appeared before him at Saraï--as they
must--for his decision, while one unfortunate Prince (unless perchance
he was beheaded and did not come away at all) came away without his
throne, the faithful Prince of Moscow returned with a new state added
to his territory and a new title to his name! Was he not always ready,
not only to obey himself, but to enforce the obedience of others? Did
he not stand ready to march against Novgorod, or any proud, refractory
state which failed in tribute or homage to his master the Khan? No
gloomier, no darker chapter is written in history than that which
records the transition of Russia into _Muscovy_. It was rooted in a
tragedy, it was nourished by human blood at every step of its growth.
It was by base servility to the Khans, by perfidy to their peers, by
treachery and by prudent but pitiless policy, that Moscow rose from
obscurity to the supreme headship--and the name of _Muscovy_ was
attained.
There was a line of eight Muscovite Princes from Daniel (1260) to the
death of Vasili (1462), but they moved as steadily toward one end as if
one man had been during those two centuries guiding the policy of the
state. The city of Moscow was made great. The Kremlin was built
(1300)--not as we see it now. It required many centuries to accumulate
all the treasures within that sacred inclosure of walls, crowned by
eighteen towers. But with each succeeding reign there arose new
buildings, more and more richly adorned by jewels and by Byzantine art.
Then the city became the ecclesiastical center of Russia, when the
Metropolitan, second only to the Great Patriarch at Constantinople, was
induced to remove to Moscow from Vladimir, capital of the Grand
Principality. This was an important advance; for in the train of the
great ecclesiastic came splendor of ritual, and wealth and culture and
art; and a cathedral and more palaces must be added to the Kremlin. In
1328 Ivan I., the Prince of Moscow, being the eldest descendant of
Rurik, fell heir by the old law of succession to the Grand
Principality. So now the Prince of Moscow was also Grand Prince of
Vladimir, or of Suzdal, which was the same thing; and as he continued
to dwell in his own capital, the Grand Principality was ruled from
Moscow. The first act of this Grand Prince was to claim sovereignty
over Novgorod. The people were deprived of their Vetché and their
_posadnik_, while one of his own _boyars_ represented his authority and
ruled as their Prince. Then the compliant Khan bestowed upon his
faithful vassal the triple crown of Vladimir, Moscow, and Novgorod, to
which were soon to be added many others.
The next step was to be the setting aside of the old Slavonic law of
inheritance, and claiming the throne of the Grand Principality for the
oldest son of the last reigning Grand Prince; making sure at the same
time that this Prince belonged to the Muscovite line. This was not
entirely accomplished until 1431, when Vasili carried his dispute to
the Horde for the Khan's decision. The other disputant, who was making
a desperate stand for his rights under the old system of seniority, was
the "presumptuous uncle" already mentioned, who was, it will be
remembered, commanded to lead by the bridle the horse of his triumphant
Muscovite nephew. The sons of the disappointed uncle, however,
conspired with success even after that; and finally, in a rage, Vasili
ordered that the eyes of one of his cousins be put out. But time
brings its revenges. Ten years later the Grand Prince, on an evil day,
fell into the hands of the remaining cousin,--brother of his
victim,--and had his own eyes put out. So he was thereafter known as
"Vasili the Blind." This wily Prince kept his oldest son Ivan close to
him; and, that there might be no doubt about his succession, so
familiarized him with his position and placed him so firmly in the
saddle that it would not be easy to unseat him when his own death
occurred.
Many things had been happening during these two centuries besides the
absorption of the Russian principalities by Moscow. The ambitious
designs of Lithuania, in which Poland and Hungary, and the German
Knights and Latin Christianity, were all involved, had been checked,
and the disappointed state of Lithuania was gravitating toward a union
with Poland. More important still, the Empire of the Khan was falling
into pieces. The process had been hastened by a tremendous victory
obtained by the Grand Prince Dmitri in 1378, on the banks of the Don.
In the same way that Alexander Nevski obtained the surname of Nevski by
the battle on the Neva, so Dmitri Donskoi won his upon the river Don.
Hitherto the Tatars had been resisted, but not attacked. It was the
first real outburst against the Mongol yoke, and it shook the
foundations of their authority. Then dissensions among themselves, and
the struggles of numerous claimants for the throne at Saraï broke the
Golden-Horde into five Khanates each claiming supremacy.