Mary Platt Parmele - A Short History of Russia
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Mary Platt Parmele >> A Short History of Russia
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14 [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'Etat_
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 Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan Ivanovitch
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."
CHAPTER II
SLAVONIC RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL SYSTEMS
In speaking of this eastern half of Europe as _Russia_, we have been
borrowing from the future. At the time we have been considering there
was no Russia. The world into which Christ came contained no Russia.
The Roman Empire rose and fell, and still there was no Russia. Spain,
Italy, France, and England were taking on a new form of life through
the infusion of Teuton strength, and modern Europe was coming into
being, and still the very name of Russia did not exist. The great
expanse of plains, with its medley of Oriental barbarism, was to Europe
the obscure region through which had come the Hunnish invasion from
Asia.
This catastrophe was the only experience that this land had in common
with the rest of Europe. The Goths had established an empire where the
ancient Graeco-Scythians had once been. The overthrowing of this
Gothic Empire was the beginning of Attila's European conquests; and the
passage of the Hunnish horde, precisely as in the rest of Europe,
produced a complete overturning. A torrent of Oriental races, Finns,
Bulgarians, Magyars, and others, rushed in upon the track of the Huns,
and filled up the spaces deserted by the Goths. Here as elsewhere the
Hun completed his appointed task of a rearrangement of races; thus
fundamentally changing the whole course of future events. Perhaps
there would be no Magyar race in Hungary, and certainly a different
history to write of Russia, had there been no Hunnish invasion in 375
A. D.
The old Roman Empire, which in its decay had divided into an Eastern
and a Western Empire (in the fourth century), had by the fifth century
succumbed to the new forces which assailed it, leaving only a
glittering remnant at Byzantium.
The Eastern or Byzantine Empire, rich in pride and pretension, but poor
in power, was destined to stand for one thousand years more, the
shining conservator of the Christian religion (although in a form quite
different from the Church of Rome) and of Greek culture. It is
impossible to imagine what our civilization would be to-day if this
splendid fragment of the Roman Empire had not stood in shining
petrifaction during the ages of darkness, guarding the treasures of a
dead past.
While these tremendous changes were occurring in the West, unconscious
as toiling insects the various peoples in Russia were preparing for an
unknown future. The Bulgarians were occupying large spaces in the
South. The Finns, who had been driven by the Bulgarians from their
home upon the Volga, had centered in the Northwest near the Baltic,
their vigorous branches mingled more or less with other Asiatic races,
stretching here and there in the North, South, and East. The Russian
Slavs, as the parent stem is called, were distributing themselves along
a strip of territory running north and south along the line of the
Dnieper; while the terrible Turks, and still more terrible Tatar
tribes, hovered chiefly about the Black, the Caspian, and the Sea of
Azof. No dream of unity had come to anyone. But had there been a
forecast then of the future, it would have been said that the more
finely organized Finn would become the dominant race; or perhaps the
Bulgarian, who was showing capacity for empire-building; but certainly
not that helpless Slavonic people wedged in between their stronger
neighbors.
But there were no large ambitions yet. It meant nothing to them that
there was a new "Holy Roman Empire," and that Charlemagne had been
crowned at Rome successor of the Roman Caesars (800 A. D.); nor that an
England had just been consolidated into one kingdom. Nor did it
concern them that the Saracen had overthrown a Gothic empire in Spain
(710). For them these things did not exist. But they knew about
Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire was the sun which shone beyond
their horizon, and was for them the supreme type of power and earthly
splendor. Whatever ambitions and aspirations would in time awaken in
these Oriental breasts must inevitably have for their ideal the
splendid despotism of the Eastern Caesars. But that stage had not yet
been reached.
Although branches of the Slavonic race had separated from the parent
stem, bearing different names, the Bohemians on the Vistula, the
Poliani in what was to become Poland, the Lithuanians near the Baltic,
and minor tribes scattered elsewhere, from the Peloponnesus to the
Baltic, all had the same general characteristics. Their religion, like
that of all Aryan peoples, was a pantheism founded upon the phenomena
of nature. In their Pantheon there was a Volos, a solar deity who,
like the Greek Apollo, was inspirer of poets and protector of the
flocks--Perun, God of Thunder--Stribog, the father of the Winds, like
Aeolus--a Proteus who could assume all shapes--Centaurs, Vampires, and
hosts of minor deities, good and evil. There were neither temples nor
priests, but the oak was venerated and consecrated to Perun; and rude
idols of wood stood upon the hills, where sacrifices were offered to
them and they were worshiped by the people.
They believed that their dead passed into a future life, and from the
time of the early Scythians it had been the custom to strangle a male
and a female servant of the deceased to accompany him on his journey to
the other land. The barbarity of their religious rites varied with the
different tribes, but the general characteristics were the same, and
the people everywhere were profoundly attached to their pagan
ceremonies and under the dominion of an intense form of superstition.
Slav society was everywhere founded upon the patriarchal principle.
The father was absolute head of the family, his authority passing
undiminished upon his death to the oldest surviving member. This was
the social unit.
The Commune, or _Mir_, was only the expansion of the family, and was
subject to the authority of a council, composed of the elders of the
several families, called the _vetche_. The village lands were held in
common by this association. The territory was the common property of
the whole. No hay could be cut nor fish caught without permission from
the _vetche_. Then all shared alike the benefit of the enterprise.
The communes nearest together formed a still larger group called a
_Volost_; that is, a canton or parish, which was governed by a council
composed of the elders of the communes, one of whom was recognized as
the chief. Beyond this the idea of combination or unity did not
extend. Such was the primitive form of society which was common to all
the Slavonic branches. It was communistic, patriarchal, and just to
the individual. They had no conception of tribal unity, nor of a
sovereignty which should include the whole. If the Slav ever came
under the despotism of a strong personal government, the idea must come
from some external source; it must be imposed, not grow; for it was not
indigenous in the character of the people. It would be perfectly
natural for them to submit to it if it came, for they were a passive
people, but they were incapable of creating it.
CHAPTER III
RURIK AND HIS DESCENDANTS
The Russian Slavs were an agricultural, not a warlike, people. They
fought bravely, but naked to the waist, and with no idea of military
organization, so were of course no match for the Turks, well skilled in
the arts of war, nor for the armed bands of Scandinavian merchants, who
made their territory a highway by which to reach the Greek provinces.
All the Slav asked was to be permitted to gather his harvests, and
dwell in his wooden towns and villages in peace. But this he could not
do. Not only was he under tribute to the Khazarui (a powerful tribe of
mingled Finnish and Turkish blood), and harried by the Turks, in the
South; overrun by the Finns and Lithuanians in the North; but in his
imperfect political condition he was broken up into minute divisions,
canton incessantly at war with canton, and there could be no peace.
The roving bands of Scandinavian traders and freebooters were
alternately his persecutors and protectors. After burning his villages
for some fancied offense, and appropriating his cattle and corn, they
would sell their service for the protection of Kief, Novgorod, and
Pskof as freely as they did the same thing to Constantinople and the
Greek cities. In other words, these brilliant, masterful intruders
were _Northmen_, and can undoubtedly be identified with those roving
sea-kings who terrorized Western Europe for a long and dreary period.
The disheartened Slavs of Novgorod came to a momentous decision. They
invited these Varangians--as they are called--to come and administer
their government. They said: "Our land is great and fruitful, but it
lacks order and justice. Come--take possession, and govern us." With
the arrival from Sweden of the three Vikings, Rurik and his two
brothers Sineus and Truvor, the true history of Russia begins, and the
one thousandth anniversary of that event was commemorated at Novgorod
in the year 1862.
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