THE LECTURE ON RUSSIA.
On the day after the arrival of the squadron at Cronstadt, when the usual recitations of the day had been completed, all hands were summoned to the steerage of the ship to listen to the preliminary lecture on Russia. As the students knew less of this vast country than of most of the others of Europe, they were more interested in the exercise than usual. Mr. Mapps had a large map of Russia in Europe suspended to the foremast, upon which he had drawn the railroads completed up to that time, and made such other additions as the recent changes in the country demanded.
"Russia is probably the largest empire, territorially, that exists now, or ever has existed," the professor began.
"Can you tell us how to pronounce the name?" asked Commodore Lincoln.
"I do not speak Russian, but Professor Badois does, and I have asked him to give us the name in Russian characters or letters," replied Mr. Mapps, pointing to a large sheet of printing paper, upon which this name and certain statistics were written. "Here it is—РОССІЯ."
"That R is backward," suggested the commodore.
"No," interposed the professor of languages; "that letter has the valueof ya in English. The first letter is the same as the English R; the C's have the value of S, and the I sounds like long E. In Russian the name is pronounced as though it were spelledRo-see´-ya."
"It looks likepoke ear," laughed Scott.
"You will not be able to read even a word of Russian, the letters are so different from ours," added Mr. Badois.
"Like other countries, it has different names in different languages," continued Mr. Mapps. "In German, it is Russland; in French, Russie; in Italian, Russia, but pronouncedRoo´-see-ah; in Spanish, Rusia. The best English authorities pronounce itRush´ee-a, though it is often given with theulikeoo. It was formerly calledMuscovy. It has an area, in Europe and Asia, of about seven and one quarter millions of square miles; or one seventh of all the land on the globe. The United States,—including Alaska, has about one half as much territory; but Russia in Europe contains only one third of this vast area. It has a population of seventy-four millions—I give you the figures in round numbers,—of whom four millions only are in Asia. It has about double the population of the United States, which would give the same number of people to the square mile, on the average. Russia consists mostly of two great plains rather indefinitely separated by the water-shed between the rivers that flow south into the Black and Caspian Seas, and those which flow north and west into the Baltic and the Arctic Ocean. The Valdai Hills, in the west-central part, which are not over a thousand feet above the level of the sea, are the only elevations or any consequence,except on or near the frontiers, where we find the Ural and Caucasus ranges. Some portions of the country are uneven, as Russian Poland and the Crimea; but there is very little variety of scenery in the greater part of this vast region. In such a country you would, of course, expect to find large rivers. The largest of these is the Volga, twenty-two hundred miles long, and navigable to within fifty miles of its source. The Don and the Dnieper are about a thousand miles long. The Ural, the Dwina, the Petchora, and the Vistula are important rivers. Russia contains thousands of lakes, most of them in the northern and north-western part. Lake Ladoga, the largest in Europe, is about the size of Lake Ontario; Onega is half as large; Lake Peipus is twice as large as Lake Champlain; and Lake Ilmen is a little larger than Moosehead, in Maine. Nearly all these rivers and lakes are navigable for steamers and barges. You may take a boat,—the commodore's barge, if you please,—go up to St. Petersburg, through the Neva to Lake Ladoga, by the Volkof to Lake Ilmen, by canals, lakes, and rivers, into the Volga, which becomes navigable for steamers at Tver, a town on the railroad from Petersburg to Moscow. Continuing on your voyage down the river to Nijni Novgorod, where the traveller by steamer takes a larger boat, fifty-three miles below Kazan, or eight hundred and fifty from Tver, you will reach the Kama River, the longest tributary of the Volga. Pursuing your voyage up this river, you would arrive at Perm,—if you went by steamer;—in about a week; and this town is within two hundred milesof Asia. This is the usual route to Siberia below Nijni, and the one by which convicts are sent. Instead of going up the Kama, you could continue down the Volga, passing the large towns of Simbirsk, Saratoff, to Tsaritsin, from which there is a railroad to Kalatch, on the River Don, down which steamers descend to the Crimea. From Tsaritsin you may proceed down the river to Astrakhan, on the Caspian Sea, on which steamers ply to ports in Persia and elsewhere. The Volga is the Mississippi of Russia, and of quite as much importance to that country as the Father of Waters to us. The Baltic and the Black Seas are also connected by a canal which unites the Beresina, a branch of the Düna, or Western Dwina, to the Dnieper. There are several other canals which connect the great natural water-ways, so that boats may go from either of the seas on the border of Russia to either of the others.
"A grand system of railroads has also been projected, as you may see on the map. The first important one built was that from St. Petersburg to Moscow, which was constructed by Americans at a vast expense, considering the nature of the country through which it passes. An English gentleman waited upon the Russian minister of finance with a letter of introduction.
"'Then you have come to see Russia,' said his excellency.
"'Hardly the whole of it; I only desire to see what is most curious in the country,' replied the tourist.
"'Ah! I then I will first show you the contract with the Americans to build the railway to Moscow,' added the minister.
"Doubtless it was a very curious document, especially in the price whichhis imperial majesty agreed to pay for the work. When he was asked where he would have the road located, he took a ruler, and drew a straight line on the map between the two cities; and except one deviation to avoid the erection of an expensive bridge, this line was followed, and consequently very few towns are upon the road. A line extends south from Moscow to Kief, over six hundred miles, and the communication of St. Petersburg with Odessa will soon be completed. Lines from Cracow and Warsaw to Odessa are also in course of construction. One may now go all the way by express train from Paris, Ostend, or Calais, to St. Petersburg, in three days. Russia has now forty-seven hundred miles of railway open for traffic; and nearly ten thousand miles more are to be completed in four years.[A]
[A]The United States had, January 1, 1870, 48,860 miles of railroad in operation, and 27,507 miles projected and in progress.
[A]The United States had, January 1, 1870, 48,860 miles of railroad in operation, and 27,507 miles projected and in progress.
"The principal productions of Russia are grain, hemp, flax, linseed, tallow, and lumber. Wheat is by far the most important crop, and is raised in vast quantities on the plains of Central Russia, and thesteppesof the south. It exported, in 1867, nearly one hundred millions of rubles' worth of this grain. Next in value is the flax crop, of which the exports amounted in the same year to about twenty million rubles."
"How much is a ruble?" asked Captain Cantwell.
"That is rather a difficult question to answer," replied the professor.
"Harper's Hand-book says in one place, a ruble is eighty cents; in another, that it is seventy; in another, eighty-three," suggested one of the students.
"Nearly all the money in circulation is paper, subject to varying discounts, from ten to twenty per cent. Our money is also paper, and at a discount of twelve or fifteen per cent. I have made a careful comparison of the values of a dollar and a ruble, using the weight ofpuresilver in each as a basis, and I find that a ruble is 74.88+ cents; call it seventy-five cents. When gold bears a premium of twenty per cent, in Russia,—which I understand is the usual rate at the present time,—a ruble is worth sixty-four cents; but with our gold at a premium of twelve and a half per cent., its value would be raised to seventy-two cents."
"Of course these figures are useful only in comparing values as they exist in the two countries," interposed Dr. Winstock.
"Precisely so. I make no account of exchange."
"With your permission, I will make an actual statement of a case," added the surgeon; and the boys were interested in the discussion. "Being in St. Petersburg, I want money, and go to Asmus, Simonsen, & Co., bankers. My letter of credit is payable in pounds sterling, and the bankers draw on Bowles Brothers & Co., London, for the amount which they pay me,—say twenty pounds,—and Bowles Brothers & Co. draw on New York or Boston. My twenty pounds, with gold at sixteen and two thirds, and exchange at ten per cent., costs me in New York $114.07. With exchange between St. Petersburg and London at twenty-nine and a half pence to the ruble, twenty pounds produces R 162.71 copecks. Deducting one half per cent.commission, 81 copecks, and 40 copecks for postage, my net return is R 161.50 copecks. Now, comparing what I pay in New York with what I receive in St. Petersburg, I find that mypaperruble has cost me seventy and one tenth cents in currency, which reduced to gold; at twenty per cent. premium, is sixty one and two thirds cents."
"And in England, France, North Germany, with the exchange at the same rate, that would be the real value of the money you receive," added Mr. Mapps. "On account of the depreciation of the money in Russia, the prices are higher. I was speaking of the value of the exports, and when I speak of twenty million rubles, it means three fourths as many dollars. Flaxseed, or linseed, brings in almost as much money as the flax itself."
"What is it for?" asked a student.
"For making painters' oil. The exports of tallow and lumber are each about twelve million rubles. The chief imports are raw cotton, metals, machinery, tea, and manufactured goods. The soil of Russia varies greatly, and large portions of it consist of sandy plains and vast morasses. The condition of agriculture is improving under the encouragement of the government, but does not yet compare favorably with most of the western countries of Europe. Nearly half the land is unimproved, and one fourth is forest land, which, however, is so badly managed that it produces but a small fraction of what it might yield. Iron, copper, gold, silver, and platinum are mined in the Ural Mountain region and in Siberia. Iron is produced in excess of the wants of the empire, and almost all the platinum in use in the world comes fromRussia. Vast quantities of salt are mined, and manufactured from the brine springs. Peter the Great and all his successors have encouraged manufactures, and the empire has made great progress in this direction. Raw cotton, to the value of about forty million rubles, is imported for the use of the mills. Woollen and silk goods are also manufactured in considerable quantities.
"Nearly the whole of Russia is in higher latitude than the United States, the Crimea, or southern portion, being in the latitude of Maine, and St. Petersburg on about the same parallel as the northern point of Labrador and the southern point of Greenland. About the middle of November the Neva freezes, and is not open again till the last of April. In December and January the thermometer sometimes indicates twenty-five degrees below zero; but the average temperature at St. Petersburg in winter is eighteen degrees above zero; in Moscow, fifteen degrees; in Archangel, nine degrees. The average in summer is sixty degrees in St. Petersburg, sixty-five degrees in Moscow, and fifty-eight degrees in Archangel. The climate is generally healthy, though there are various maladies peculiar to different regions, as scrofula and scurvy.
"The government of Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy; in other words, the Czar or Emperor, is the legislative, executive, and judicial power of the empire, which is the same thing as saying that his will is the law of the land. But it ought to be added, that certain traditions and rules are considered of binding force by the sovereigns; as thelaw of succession to the crown, established by the Emperor Paul; otherwise the Czar might select the next ruler; every sovereign, his wife and children, must be of the Greek church. The heir apparent is deemed to be of age at sixteen, which proves that a boy of this age may be good for something. The members of the imperial family cannot marry without the consent of the Emperor; and the children of any union without his permission cannot inherit the throne. The present Emperor is Alexander II., son of Nicholas I. and the Princess Charlotte, of Prussia, who was the daughter of King Frederick William III., and sister of the present king of that country. The Empress, his wife, is the daughter of the late Grand Duke Ludwig II., of Hesse Darmstadt. They have six children, of whom the oldest is the Grand Duke Alexander, heir apparent to the throne. He was born in 1845, and is, therefore, twenty-five years old. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Maria Dagmar, daughter of the King of Denmark. The style of the emperor is Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, &c. His sons are called Grand Dukes. The hereditary Grand Duke is often called the Czarowitz. The termCzar, which evidently comes fromCæsar, is variously spelled. In the Slavonic, which is the church language of Russia, it isTsar.
"The government of Russia, under the Emperor, is in the hands of four great councils, the principal of which is the council of the empire, consisting of the Ministers, the Grand Dukes, and such other members as the sovereign may appoint. Though this board has a president, theemperor often presides at its sessions. Its general duties are to propose new laws, or alterations in old ones, and to attend to the execution of the laws. The second council is called the Directing Senate, and it is also the high court of justice, controlling all the inferior tribunals. It is resolved into eight committees, five of which sit at St. Petersburg, and three at Moscow, each of which has its peculiar function. Appeals from the lower courts go to this council, either in committee or as a whole, though the former may decide certain cases. This body examines into and reports upon the revenues and expenditures of the empire, appoints many public officers, and advises the sovereign in matters within its jurisdiction. The third council is the Holy Synod, having charge of all matters pertaining to religion. It is composed of the chief dignitaries of the church, of which the emperor is the head, and its decisions have no force without his approval. The fourth board is the Council of Ministers, consisting of eleven members, whose functions are substantially the same as in other countries. Of course the emperor has absolute control over these councils, to the extent he pleases to exercise it.
"You have already noticed that this map is cut up into small divisions. These are governments, corresponding to departments in France, and counties in America. Besides these, the country is divided into vice-royalties, or general governments, at the head of each of which is a viceroy, or general governor, who represents the emperor, commands the troops, and has the supreme control of all affairs, civil and military. In each government, or province, a civil governor is appointed torepresent the general governor, who is advised by a council. Governments are divided into districts, which are again subdivided into smaller ones. The officers of these smaller districts are elected by the people. Every five houses in a place may choose one delegate to the assembly of the commune, who elect delegates to the district assembly, one for every ten houses. There are certain village courts, presided over by two members elected by the commune, called 'conscience men,' who try cases relating to property in which no more than five rubles is involved. You see that the Russians vote under their absolute monarchy.
"The Russian nation is composed of more than a hundred different races, speaking forty languages. The Russians—properly so called—are the inhabitants of Great and Little Russia, who are from the Slavic races. Besides these, there are Tartars, Poles, Germans, Jews, Finns, Mongols, Persians, and others, who have been united in one nation. The government has permitted these people, as their territory was conquered and annexed to the empire, to retain their own laws and customs, so far as they were not inconsistent with the general code of Russia.
"The original nobility of the country were the boyars; but Peter the Great established a new order, and there are now in the empire over half a million whose titles are hereditary, and a quarter of a million who have only personal rank. The citizens of towns are ranked in six classes, the first owning real estate; the second, having a certain amount of taxable property; the third, mechanics; the fourth, resident foreigners in business; the fifth, artisans, soldiers, and scholars;and the sixth, all others. There are forty-seven million peasants, of whom twenty-two millions were serfs, emancipated in 1863, though indirectly they are obliged to pay for their freedom, for the government compensated the owners of the land to which they were attached, and collects the amount paid by an annual assessment on the emancipated for the succeeding forty-nine years.
"The state religion, which is professed by a great majority of the people, is the Greco-Russian, officially Styled 'Orthodox-Catholic Faith.' When the Roman empire was divided into two portions, the Eastern, or Byzantine, empire retained the Catholic religion, and the bishop, or patriarch of Constantinople, was officially recognized as second only to the Pope at Rome. But there was a schism in the Eastern division, which resulted in a total separation in 1054. Then the Patriarch of Constantinople became the head of the Eastern church, of which the Russian church was a part. In 1588 a separate patriarchate was established in Russia, and the Greek church is now made up of ten independent organizations. The Russian church is governed by the Holy Synod, at the head of which is the emperor, who has greater power than the Pope of Rome in the external affairs of the church, but cannot render a decision himself on theological questions. In critical doctrinal cases, the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria are consulted, and when a decision is reached, the emperor is as much bound by it as the prelates; and he does not officially style himself the Head, but the Protector and Defender of the Church.
"The Greco-Russian church differs from the Roman Catholic in denying thesupremacy of the Pope, and in not prohibiting the marriage of the clergy. No priest can perform his spiritual functions before he is married, and he is incompetent to do so at the death of his wife. As he is forbidden to marry a second time, his occupation as a priest is gone, though he may go into a monastery, and be eligible to office in the church. There are important differences of doctrine also. Russia has five hundred cathedrals and twenty-nine thousand churches of the established religion, with two hundred and fifty-four thousand clergymen of all ranks. There are four hundred and eighty monasteries for men, and seventy convents for women. Peter the Great and Catharine II. confiscated the immense wealth of the church not required for the actual service, and the salaries of the clergy are very small, hardly sufficient to support them. Jews are not allowed to settle in Russia proper, but there is no other restraint on the non-Russian sects. The Russian cannot renounce his creed. The subject of education among the common people is receiving considerable attention at the present time, and there are over one million pupils in the schools.
"There are in Russia fifteen cities having over fifty thousand inhabitants, four of which have over a hundred thousand—St. Petersburg, five hundred and forty thousand; Moscow, three hundred and fifty-two thousand; Warsaw, one hundred and sixty-three thousand; and Odessa, one hundred and ninety-two thousand.
"The army of Russia is raised by conscription, by the adoption of the sons of soldiers, and by voluntary enlistment. The period of serviceis from twenty-two to twenty-five years; but of late years the soldiers are sent home after ten or fifteen years' service, to be recalled in case of war. The Cossacks of the Don are not taxed, but do military duty in payment for their exemption; and in case of necessity, every man among them between the ages of fifteen and sixty is obliged to serve. These are all in the cavalry service, and every Cossack is obliged to keep his own horse, and to arm, equip, and clothe himself, except when sent out of the country. The number in the service is fifty-six thousand, and more than double this number are available. On a peace footing the army has eight hundred thousand men, on a war footing over one million.
"The navy of Russia contains two hundred and ninety steamers and twenty-nine sailing vessels, with sixty thousand seamen.
"We are now prepared to sketch very briefly the history of Russia. It contains a great many exciting incidents; but the time does not permit me to give many of them. The Scythians and Sarmatians of the Greek and Roman historians inhabited Russia in classic times. The Slavonians are believed to be the same people, and they founded the towns of Novgorod and Kief, which were the capitals of separate empires. These people were savage and warlike races, and were at war with similar tribes around them. The Varangians of the north attacked them, and were nearly overwhelmed, when they invited the Russian prince Rurik to Novgorod; and he came with his two brothers. From that time the different tribes were united, and called Russians, but the Slavic language and customs wereretained. This was the foundation of the Russian empire. Rurik died in 879, and left the regency of the empire to his cousin, Oleg, his son Igor being only four years old. He conquered Kief, and annexed it to his realm. He then got up an expedition against Constantinople, and secured an advantageous treaty. He also subdued all the tribes within reach of his armies. He had a favorite horse, which the soothsayers declared would be the death of him; whereupon he sent the animal away, and heard no more of him for years. Recalling the prediction, he asked what had become of the horse, and was told he had long been dead. Exulting over the defeat of the seers, he wished to see the bones, and was conducted to the place where the skeleton lay. 'So this is the creature that was destined to be my death,' said he, putting his foot on the skull. At that moment, a serpent, coiled up within the skull, darted out and gave Oleg a bite, from the effects of which he died. This is the story.
"The son of Rurik, Igor, came to the throne at the age of forty, and after, much fighting was killed. His son, Sviatoslaf, was too young to reign, and Olga, Igor's widow, was the regent. She was a bold and cruel woman, and her adventures were very curious and romantic. After severely chastising the Drevlians,—who had killed her husband,—they offered her a tribute of honey and fur, which she declined, saying she would be satisfied with a dove and three sparrows from each house, which were promptly supplied. Having tied lighted matches to their tails, she let them all loose in the evening, and flying back to the nests, they set all the houses on fire, and the whole town was consumed. Theinhabitants escaped only to fall upon the swords of Olga's army. You need not believe any more of these stories than you please, young gentlemen," said the instructor, with a smile. "Olga went to Constantinople to be baptized and instructed in the Christian religion. When she exhorted her son to follow her example on her return, he wanted to know if she wished him to be the laughing-stock of his friends. Her son was a great warrior, won many victories and was killed in battle. His empire was divided among his three sons, Yaropolk, Oleg, and Vladimir. They soon quarrelled; Oleg was slain, and Vladimir fled, leaving the entire realm to Yaropolk. But Vladimir returned, and with the aid of the Varingians, conquered Novgorod and Kief, and put his brother to death. He was a pagan at first, and gave honors to his heathen deities. The neighboring nations, recognizing his power and rude greatness desired to convert him to their own faith, and he was induced to examine the religion of the Greeks, the Roman Catholics, and the Jews. Olga, his ancestress, had been a Greek Christian, and he was inclined to follow her example. When he had decided to embrace it, his pride would not permit him to be baptized in his own capital in the ordinary way, and he insisted that only bishops from the parent church were worthy of so great a achievement as the conversion of himself and his people. He resorted to a remarkable expedient to accomplish his purpose: he made war upon Greece, marched into the Crimea, and laid siege to Cherson, near Sevastopol, intending to extort the rite of baptism. He demanded its surrender, saying he was prepared to staybefore its walls for three years. For six months he made no progress, and was on the point of abandoning the conquest, when a priest sent an arrow to which was tied a letter, informing him that the city was supplied with water from a certain spring outside the walls. Removing the pipes by which the water was conducted to the town, Vladimir subjected the inhabitants to the pangs of thirst, and thus compelled them to surrender. Everything was now favorable for his baptism; but he had other views also. He demanded the sister of the Greek emperors, Basilius and Constantine, in marriage, and threatened to take Constantinople if his demand was refused. He was too powerful to be denied, and the lady was sent to him. Vladimir received his instructions, and was baptized with the name of Basil on the day of his marriage to the princess, in 988. Returning to Kief, he destroyed the wooden gods, and built churches and towns. His nature was changed, and he became gentle and humane. He established seminaries of learning, labored to extend Christianity in his dominions, and is now enrolled among the Russian saints. At Moscow, if you go there, you will see the remarkable cathedral of St. Basil. In history he is called Vladimir the Great.
"This powerful prince divided his empire among his twelve sons, who, as usual in such cases, went to war, and Sviatopolk I., after murdering three of his brothers, obtained the throne. In 1019, Yaroslaf, the brother who had received Novgorod as his portion, procuring the assistance of Henry II. of Germany and of the King of Poland, after a battle on the Alma which lasted three days, wrested the crown fromSviatopolk, who died while fleeing into Poland. Another brother compelled Yaroslaf to divide the empire with him; but at the death of the former it was united again, in 1036. He was a powerful prince, and greatly enlarged his territory. He built many churches, encouraged learning, and caused the first code of Russian laws to be compiled. At his death he gave the empire to his four sons, requiring the three younger to be subject to the eldest; but his will was disregarded, and Russia became a confederacy, instead of an empire, with four rulers. The division and anarchy in the country enabled the Poles, Lithuanians, Danes, and others to wrest large territories in the west from the Russians. The progress in civilization which had continued during the two preceding reigns was barred; famine and pestilence raged in the land, and Genghis Khan, with vast hordes of Asiatics, invaded and conquered the country. From the year 1054, when the civil wars commenced, to 1462, when the Tartar power and influence were finally broken, Russia was torn with dissensions, overrun by her powerful neighbors, often visited by famine and pestilence; yet within this period are recorded many great events. Moscow was founded in 1147; Alexander, Grand Prince of Novgorod, won a great victory over the Swedes and others on the Neva, which gives him the name of Alexander Nevski.
"With Ivan III., or Ivan the Great, in 1462, begins a more glorious period of Russian history. He was the Grand Prince of Moscow, and conquered Novgorod, Kazan, Perm, Tver, and other principalities. He married Sophia, niece of the Greek emperor Constantine XIII., on whichoccasion he adopted the double-headed black eagle as his standard, and was the first prince who claimed the title of 'Autocrat of all the Russias.' He was succeeded by his son Basil IV., in whose reign the empire was still further united, and the Tartars completely subjugated at Kazan. Basil was followed, in 1533, by his son Ivan IV., only three years old at his accession. During his minority the empire was torn by anarchy and civil war; but when Ivan was only fourteen years old, he seized the reins of power, and commenced the career of cruelty and tyranny, which gave him the name of the 'Terrible.' But he did more for Russia than any of his predecessors. He conquered Kazan again, which had asserted its independence during his minority, added Astrakhan, the Crimea, Siberia, and the country of the Don, to his empire. He encouraged commerce, and established a printing office in Moscow. He was a cruel tyrant, and caused the massacre of sixty thousand people in Novgorod, and thousands in Moscow and Tver. Finally he murdered his eldest son, and the only one who had the capacity to succeed him, with his own hand. His son Fedor, who came to the throne at his death, was weak in body and mind. His brother-in-law, Boris Godunoff, was an ambitious man, and sought to obtain the crown. He put out of the way several rivals and members of the imperial family, and finally accomplished his purpose in 1605; but his cruelty caused great dissatisfaction, and the people were ripe for revolt. At this time appeared in Poland a very remarkable impostor, claiming to be the Czarovitz of Russia, who was more successful than the pretenders thatsought the crown of England. In carrying out his ambitious project, Boris Godunoff had procured the assassination of Dimitri, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, a lad only ten years old. A Polish prince, irritated by the negligence of a young man who had been in his employ but a short time, gave him a blow on the side of the head, which was accompanied by a very opprobrious epithet.
"'If you knew who I am, prince,' replied the young man, with tears in his eyes, 'you would not treat me so, nor call me by that name.'
"'Who are you, and where do you come from?' asked the prince.
"'I am the Czarovitz Dimitri, son of Ivan IV.'
"He then detailed the manner of his escape from Boris's assassin, and exhibited a Russian seal, bearing the names and arms of the Czarovitz, and a gold cross adorned with jewels, which he declared was the baptismal gift of his godfather. The prince believed his story, and rendered him efficient help. He was presented to the Palatine of Sandomir, whose daughter was plighted to him in marriage. He procured the favor of Sigismond, King of Poland, by promising to bring Russia over to the church of Rome. With a considerable army, including many Polish knights, he marched into Russia, and after some discouragements, took the city of Novgorod, and finally, by the treachery of some of Boris's dependants, entered Moscow, and was duly crowned. Though he had renounced the Greek Church, he concealed the fact. The widow of Ivan IV. was brought from a convent to see him, and after a private interview between them, she acknowledged that he was her son. His affianced wifecame to him in Moscow, attended by a numerous retinue of Polish knights. The marriage was solemnized according to the rites of the Russian church. But Dimitri was not skilful in concealing his religion, and excited the suspicion of the priests and others. While he was generous even to his foes, his heterodoxy was the ruin of him. A conspiracy was organized, and he was murdered in cold blood, with many of his followers, and his corpse exposed to great indignities.
"After his death the boyar Shuiska was crowned as Czar, under the title Basil VI. Encouraged by the example of the false Dimitri, another appeared, and many Polish knights supported his claim with arms. The Czar appealed to Sweden for aid, which compelled the King of Poland to espouse the cause of the pretender. The Swedes soon went over to the Poles, Moscow was captured, and Basil VI. died in a Polish prison. The Poles compelled the boyars to elect Vladislas, son of Sigismond, their Czar. The new power treated Russia as a subdued province, which caused an insurrection, and the Poles were driven from the country.
"The throne was now vacant, and in 1613 Michael Romanoff, the first sovereign of the present royal family, was chosen emperor. He made peace with the Swedes, and restored the commercial ties which had been broken by the wars. In 1645 he was succeeded by his son Alexis, who won the allegiance of the Cossacks of the Don, and regained the western part of Russia, which had been held by the Poles. In thisreign a third false Dimitri appeared; but he obtained few adherents, and was executed by Alexis. This Czar was followed by his son Fedor, in 1676, who lived but six years after his accession, leaving no children; but he had a brother and several sisters, children of his own mother, and a half brother and half sister, children of his father's second wife. The heir apparent was his own brother Ivan, who was weak in body and in mind, while the half brother, Peter, was a brilliant youth of ten. An attempt was made to set Ivan aside; but his sister, the Princess Sophia, frustrated the plan so far as to cause both to be declared sovereigns of Russia, and she was proclaimed the regent, who was practically to rule the country. It is alleged that Sophia and Prince Galitzin, her minister, organized a conspiracy to take the life of Peter, when he was about seventeen, in order that she might continue in the regency during the reign of his imbecile brother. Peter fled to a monastery, followed by a portion of his party, and there organized a counter movement. He managed his case so well that it was entirely successful.
"The conspirators were severely punished; some of them were cruelly tortured. Prince Galitzin escaped with his life, but forfeited his immense property, and was banished to the northern regions of Russia, while Sophia was shut up in a convent during the rest of her life. Ivan declined to take any share in the government, and Peter was the sole ruler in fact, if not in name. He is the Peter the Great of history, and the founder of Russian greatness. In a brief period he made his country one of the most powerful in Europe. In 1703 he founded St. Petersburg,in a very unfortunate location, it must be confessed, for at times the city has hard work to keep itself above water. His ruling passion was to extend his empire, as well as to build it up, by developing its resources. Though he suffered great defeats, he finally carried all his plans. He made war on Sweden, and crushed Charles XII. in the battle of Pultowa. He conquered the Ukraine, and carried his conquests to the Caspian. He was a wonderful man; but he was a drunkard and a brute in his manners. He was a genius in mechanics, and possessed remarkable energy in the execution of his purposes; but he was passionate, cold-blooded, and cruel. It is no wonder that his country venerates his name, for no single man ever did so much for a nation as he for Russia.
"Peter hated his first wife, who was the mother of the Czarovitz Alexis, and he extended his hatred to his son, whom he first disinherited, and afterwards poisoned with his own hands, in the fortress of St. Petersburg. Though the fierce Czar had quarrelled with Catharine, his wife, and had some doubts in regard to her character, she was his successor. She was almost as remarkable a person as he was, and had a powerful influence over him. She was born in Sweden, but spent her earlier years as a servant in Livonia, one of the Baltic provinces of Russia, which formerly belonged to Sweden. At the age of sixteen she was married to a Swedish dragoon, who was ordered away two days after the marriage. The town in which she lived was captured by the Russians, and she was employed as a servant in the family of the Princess Mentchikof, where Peter first saw her. He carried her away with him, andperceiving that she had a large capacity for assisting in the mission of his life, he privately married her in 1707, and repeated the ceremony publicly four years later.
"From a common servant girl of the humblest parentage, she became the empress of a mighty nation. After her husband's death, she endeavored to carry out his progressive measures, during the two years of her reign; but she softened the rule of the Czar by lowering the taxes, and recalling the exiles from Siberia. Mentchikof was perhaps the real ruler, though her gentleness and humanity are apparent in public measures. Peter II., the son of the unfortunate Alexis, succeeded her, according to the will of the empress. He was only twelve years old, and a council of regency was appointed to rule during his minority; but Prince Mentchikof soon seized the supreme control, and the young emperor was betrothed to his daughter. He was so arrogant and brutal, that he finally disgusted his imperial master, and with his whole family, including the affianced of Peter, was banished to Siberia, and his wealth confiscated. He had nine million rubles in notes and securities, one million in cash, one hundred and five pounds of gold utensils, four hundred and twenty pounds of silver plate, and a million rubles' worth of precious stones, besides his palaces, and numerous landed estates, all over Russia. His property was not less than forty millions, or thirty millions of our money, most of which he had stolen from the public treasury. Prince Dolgoruki took his place at the head of the government.
"Peter died of small-pox, three years after his accession. He was thelast male member of the Romanoff family. Instead of following the line of succession indicated in the will of Catharine I., who had daughters still living, the nobles elected, as their empress, Anna, Duchess of Courland, daughter of Ivan V., half brother of Peter I., who had nominally reigned with him. It was intended that the boyars should be the real rulers, and they induced Anna, before she was crowned, to sign an instrument which placed all power in their hands; but when she became empress, she repudiated the compact, and retained the absolute power of her predecessors. In a civil war for the throne of Poland, Anna sided with Augustus III., whose success gave Russia a controlling influence in the affairs of this unhappy kingdom. Her favorite, Duke Biren, her prime minister, and the actual ruler, was an arrogant and cruel man, whose influence over the empress was all-powerful. By his advice, she named, as her successor, the son of her niece Anne,—a child in the cradle,—with Biren as the regent. He was Ivan VI.
"The unpopularity of the regent soon caused his overthrow, and Anne was appointed in his place; but in a year after the death of the Empress Anna, Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine,—a woman of no character,—usurped the throne. In a single night her adherents captured the palace, and completed the revolution. She reigned twenty-one years, and founded several universities, and other literary and scientific institutions. She abolished the death penalty and the rack, but the knout and other tortures took theirplace, and the exiles to Siberia were numerous. In the Seven Years' War, Russia was on the side of Austria. Elizabeth was a vain and extravagant woman. She impoverished her treasury, and left a bad reputation behind her.
"By her will she made her nephew Peter, late Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, emperor; and from him, the present royal family is called the House of Holstein-Gottorp. He attempted many reforms, and closely allied himself to Frederick the Great, of Prussia; but many of his measures were imprudent and impolitic. His wife Catharine was the daughter of a princess of Holstein-Gottorp. Peter neglected her, and incurred her hatred. She got up a conspiracy against him, which resulted in the dethronement of her husband, only a few months after his accession, and she was proclaimed empress as Catharine II. Peter was thrown into prison, and there strangled. Her reign of thirty-four years was brilliant for Russia, which became one of the Great Powers, without dispute. She greatly enlarged its territory by the infamous partition of Poland, the conquest of the Crimea, and the addition of Courland, on the Baltic. Her most noted ministers and favorites were Orlof and Potemkin.
"Her son Paul I. succeeded her in 1796. His mother had neglected him in early years, and hated him when he became a man, keeping spies near him, compelling him to live away from the court, and depriving him of all power and influence. She had caused the murder of his father, and the hatred was reciprocal. After his accession, he gave funeral honors to his father, disinterred his mother's last favorite, Potemkin, and threwhis remains into a ditch. His temper had been soured by his mother's treatment, and he took a malicious pleasure in undoing what she had done. The revolution in France was in progress when he came to the throne, and Paul joined the coalition against her, sending his armies into Switzerland, Italy, and Holland, to fight against the French republic. Suvarof, in these campaigns, proved himself to be one of the greatest generals of his age, and is still held in the highest veneration by the Russians. But the emperor, dissatisfied with his allies, withdrew his armies from the coalition, and, with Denmark and Sweden, joined in the armed neutrality, of which I have spoken to you before.
"Paul was capricious, despotic, and subject to fits of partial insanity, which aggravated his ill temper, and caused him to commit the most atrocious deeds. By his second wife he had ten children, the oldest of whom was Alexander, the Czarovitz; the second, Constantine; and the youngest but one, Nicholas. Paul's humors were unendurable, and Alexander consented to his dethronement, to avoid greater evils to the empire. He signed a proclamation, announcing his assumption of the crown. The conspirators found the emperor in his palace. Breaking into his chamber, they required him to sign his abdication, and his refusal brought on a struggle, in which, after a desperate resistance, he was strangled with a sash. Alexander had not consented to the assassination of his father, and the event filled him with passionate grief. This was in 1801, and the new emperor was twenty-five years old, and a man ofdecided ability. He was in favor of peace; but it was impossible for him not to take part in the general war against Napoleon, though he first entered into an alliance with him.
"The Russians and Austrians were defeated at Austerlitz in 1805. Alexander joined his army to that of Prussia, and both were disastrously defeated at Friedland in 1807, and the emperor was obliged to conclude a peace with Napoleon at Tilsit, in which he was arrayed against England and Sweden. The French stirred up a war in Turkey, in which the Russians obtained Moldavia and Wallachia. A war with Sweden resulted in the conquest of Finland. In 1810 Alexander, finding that he had nothing more to gain by an alliance with France,—that his commerce was suffering under the provisions of the treaty of Tilsit, and that the marriage of Napoleon with Maria Louise would prevent him from obtaining any more territory from Austria,—broke the treaty, and prepared for war. In 1812 Napoleon marched into Russia late in the season, with half a million soldiers, intending to crush Russia. The Russians lost the terrible battle of Borodino, near Moscow, and even this city fell into the hands of the French; but those who could not defend it burned it. The winter suddenly set in, and the army of Napoleon, robbed of their expected supplies and shelter in Moscow, commenced that disastrous retreat which ended only in the total destruction of the Grand Army. Prussia and Austria joined Russia the next year; in the battle of Leipsic, the power of the French was effectually broken, and in 1814 the allies entered Paris, and Napoleon was sent to Elba. He returned, and was finallydefeated in the battle of Waterloo, and sent to St. Helena. The war ended, and Alexander turned his attention to the internal affairs of the nation. He labored earnestly to promote the civilization of his people, and to develop the immense resources of his vast empire. In 1825 he set out on a tour through his dominions, and died at Taganrag, near the mouth of the Don, of the Crimean fever. He had been the champion of absolute power, and had welded more closely the chains of Poland; yet, judged by the Russian standard, he was an amiable and good man.
"At his death his brother Constantine was the Czarovitz; but this prince had voluntarily renounced his right to the throne in favor of his younger and only surviving brother Nicholas, who was proclaimed Czar. A conspiracy, fomented before his accession, was sternly and severely suppressed. Nicholas, like his brother, was despotic in his ideas, and remorselessly crushed the insurrection in Poland in 1830, making the kingdom a province of Russia. He enlarged his dominions, and carried on the war in Circassia, which lasted fifty years. In 1853 Nicholas demanded of the Turkish government certain guarantees of the rights of Greek Christians in Turkey, which the latter could not give without yielding its sovereign rights, and a war ensued, in which England, France, and Sardinia took part with the Turks. It was the evident design of the Czar to conquer Turkey, and extend his dominions to the Mediterranean.
"Nicholas did not live to see the end of this war, and was succeeded by his son, Alexander II., in 1856. Sebastopol was captured after a siegeof about a year, and a treaty of peace was signed, by which Russia lost her naval superiority in the Black Sea.[B]The war in the Caucasus was continued, and ended by Alexander II., who is still the reigning emperor."