HONALANINARINIGAMITOHMARKTE WOLDURUM! ARTES LIBRARY KARANAWARA TULINUTUL ATE 1817 VERITAS UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CURIONA BALLY TUEBOR CIR SCIENTIA ·QUERIS PENINSULAN AMIE NAM` UNIFICE JIMMIENIULIE OF THE : SITY UNI **3 10 UNIV AN ܘ ܐ ܀ N CITY IN N M CR ANG UNIC SI UNI RSITY Ha 全區​邊​展​發 ​D VI! M JER UNIV EK 30% JE AN By Junk 2008 2 UNIVE - ACTRENDY GAN SITY OF AN ** RSI URVER: UN: UN W B ER EA UNIC 05 UNI RS AN REPRES ه گوریه Tur HIG SITY CAS HI 773 720 UNIC MEN NWO 40 NV } Finall OF M AL RT امية : 2-704 A B. Cerbould, del C HISTORY OF RUSSIA BY ROBERT BELL ESQ = IN THREE VOLUMES VOL.I. VERSITY OF MOUG The Revolt of the Strelitz. LIBRARY OF THE tes ALTA ICHIGAN F. Finden, sc. London: PRINTED FOR TONGMAN. REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN & TONGMAN, PALERNOSTER ROW AND JOHN TAYLOR, UPPER GOWER STREET 1836. i ADVERTISEMENT. THE increasing extent and influence of the Russian Empire have of late years attracted the anxious attention of Europe, and will probably absorb a still wider sphere of observation in times to come. The want of a history of Russia in the English language is, therefore, the more felt as that power enlarges its territories, and developes those ambi- tious designs to which, from the earliest period of the imperial rule, all its energies have been directed. So remarkable a desideratum in the historical library can be accounted for only by a reference to the great difficulties that lay in the way of such an in- vestigation. The old chronicles of Russia are written in the ancient Slavonic dialect, which is now scarcely in- telligible to European scholars; while they are so carefully preserved in the archives of the empire, that it is almost impossible to obtain access to them. The only means, therefore, by which the materials of an accurate history could be procured, were by single efforts of individuals at distant intervals, the results of which came afterwards to be collated and combined. A multitude of books may be found in most of the European languages, which A 4 vi ADVERTISEMENT. elucidate particular passages in Russian history; but none of them are complete, and they are all more or less careless and contradictory. An elaborate history, written by LEVESQUE, was the first that pre- tended to take a shape of authenticity: but, although it is exceedingly voluminous, its details are usually so flippant, and the absence of information is so frequently supplied by conjecture, that its statements cannot be received with confidence. Mr. TOOKE'S work upon Russia - the only treatise of the kind that has hitherto appeared in our language was founded mainly upon the volumes of Levesque. But the most important history of Russia that has hitherto appeared is that of KARAMSIN, who is said to have spent fourteen years in collecting his materials. It embraces the period from the found- ation of the empire in the ninth century to the death of Dmitry in the seventeenth. It is composed with a painful minuteness, that clouds the investigation by drawing into it all the assertions, conjectures, and controverted statements that lay scattered through almost all the ancient and modern languages. This excessive expansion of small facts, however, is not the only objection that lies against Karamsin's labo- rious production. He was the court historian, and he wrote under the auspices of the emperor: a cir- cumstance which, in a despotic country, is suf- ficient to show that he cannot always be relied C upon. The author of the work that is now presented to the public has endeavoured to extract from the mass of authorities he has consulted a consistent, correct, and, as far as the scope of the undertaking permitted, ADVERTISEMENT. vii a comprehensive view of Russian history. The great variety of works to which he has had recourse has frequently afforded him the means of rectifying the errors of previous writers, and of confirming the truth of assertions which interested historians had affected to disbelieve. He originally intended to have quoted his authorities in foot-notes; but he found that the adoption of such a plan would encumber the pages so inconveniently as to have marred the in- terest and disturbed the course of the text. He has therefore preferred to rest upon the general validity of the narrative, and to make only such references as particular circumstances happened to render un- avoidable, or as might indicate the quarter rather than the mere authority from which especial facts are derived. F " CHAPTER L Its Difficulty in the Collection of the Materials of Russian History. Causes. Diversity of Nations. - Aborigines. The Slavi. Affinity Between the Languages of the Slavi and the Latins. - Laws and Habits of the Slavi. — Their Poetry, Music, and Mythology. - Form of Govern- ment. Mode of Election. - Earliest Settlements in Russia. - The Finns, the Tartars, and the Mongoles. — Historical Errors, - Intermix- ture of Tongues, and Dispersion of Tribes Page 1 dic CONTENTS. Poland Contested Origin of the Name of Russia. - Extent and Population. First Slavonian State. - The Varangian Usurpation. Rurik, the Pirate. He establishes a Town, and seizes upon Novgorod. The first grand Princedom erected. The Distribution of the Coun- try into dependent Principalities. Death of Rurik. Regency of Oleg. Predatory Excursions. Murder of Oskold and Dir. - Union of Kief and Novgorod. - Expedition against Byzantium. -Submission of Leo the Philosopher. Treaty of Peace. - Death of Oleg. - Igor the First. Revolt of the Principalities. War of Extermination carried into Byzantium. - Signal Defeat of the Russians. Second Expedition, and Treaty of Peace. - Descent on the Dreolians. - Assassination of Igor 15 Gadg CHAP. II. N gopa CHAP. III. K - Olga, the Widow of Igor, reigns in the Name of her Son. The Death of Igor revenged. The Drevlian Territory annexed to Russia. ---- - Olga embraces the Christian Faith. She abdicates in favour of her Son.- Sviatoslaf I. adopts the roving Life of the Kalmuks. The Destruction of the Kozares.- Exploits in Bulgaria. Rescue of Kief. — Death of the Princess Olga. Her Character. - Sviatoslaf partitions the Empire amongst his Sons, and retires to Bulgaria. War with John Zimisces. — Sviatoslaf's Death. The State of the Empire. — Retrospect 38 C dig S - J X CONTENTS. CHAP. IV. Characters of the three Princes. - Civil Dissensions. - Yaropolk seizes upon the Territories of his Brothers. His Assassination. The Empire reunited under Vladimir I. He institutes a Theological Commission. Adopts the Greek Religion, and establishes it in Russia. — Marries the Princess Anne of Greece. Improves the Civil Institutions. - Par- titions the Empire. His Death and Character Page 57 Jan S - < Why Influence of Christianity. Intrigues and Fratricides of Sviatopolk. He is declared Prince of Kief. Yaroslaf drives him out. - Ile is succoured by the Poles. Defeat of Yaroslaf, and Restitution of the Throne. - Treachery of Sviatopolk. His final Defeat and Death. - Yaroslaf, the Legislator, recombines the Empire under one Head. Its Condition, moral and physical. - Yaroslaf introduces a Code of written Laws. He partitions the Empire with Restrictions. His Death and Character 77 p p CHAP. V. - CHAP. VI. Isiaslaf I. Deposed by Ucheslaf. -Interference of Poland, and Restora tion of the Grand Prince. He is again expelled, and again reinstated by Poland. Death of Isiaslaf. - The Order of Succession changed. - Vsevolod ascends the Throne. The Decline of Kief. — Independence of the Novgorodians. - Vladimir Monomachus heads the Army. - Death of Vsevolod. — Vladimir refuses the Throne. - The Order of Succession still preserved in the elder Branch 1 CHAP. VII. B - S - S Kief under Sviatopolk. - Congress of the tributary Princes. - Ascendancy of Vladimir Monomachus. --- He incurs the Jealousy of his Kinsmen. The Dissensions of the Princes terminated. - Death of Sviatopolk. Massacre of the Jews. - Vladimir Monomachus called to the Throne 108 97 CHAP. VIII. His great Popularity. Reign of Vladimir. He unites the Princes. His Death. His dying Testament. - Anarchy springs up afresh. — De- solation of the Grand Principality. -It is seized by Igor of Suzdal. — His Death. New Dissensions. Andrew of Suzdal withdraws. abolishes the System of Partition. Strengthens his own Principality.— -He J J CONTENTS. He makes War on Novgorod, and is defeated. He descends upon Kief, overthrows it, and transfers the Seat of Empire to the City of Vla- dimir. Novgorod submits to his Policy. Union of the Petty Chiefs. -Assassination of Andrew. Imbecility of his Successors, Decline of the Empire General Page 115 • - J CHAP. IX. Victories of Ghengis Khan. - Battle on the Frontiers. - The southern Part of Russia ravaged by the Tartars. - Calamities of the Empire. - Descent of Baty upon the Bulgarians. - His destructive Progress in Russia. Vladimir falls before him. - Death of Yury. - Baty evacu- ates Russia. Yaroslaf resigns Novgorod to his Son, and takes Posses- sion of Vladimir. Reappearance of Baty. Reduction of Kief. Baty withdraws into Poland, and finally establishes the Golden Horde on the Volga. The cunning Policy of the Tartars. Increasing Power of the Church. Yaroslaf advanced to the Grand Princedom under the supreme Control of the Khan. - Jealousy and Weakness of the Russian Princes 128 CHAP. X. Candy The Tartars encourage the Dissensions of the Princes. Invasion of Novgorod successfully resisted by Alexander Nevsky. - Revolt of the Novgorodians. -Alexander leaves the City, is solicited to return, and acquires fresh Fame in a military Expedition to Livonia. — He is ele vated to the Grand Princedom. - Predatory Excursion into Sweden. — New Accessions are made to the Territories of Alexander. - Fresh Taxes laid on Russia by the Khan. — Unpopularity of the Tartar Collec- tors. Rebellion breaks out in different Places. The Russian Princes are summoned at the Head of their Troops to the Golden Horde.— Alexander's Influence propitiates the Vengeance of the Khan. Sus- picious Death of Alexander. — His Character. - The Seat of the Grand Princedom transferred to Twer. Resistance of the Prince of Moscow. The Grand Prince is accused of Treachery, and executed. - Yury, Prince of Moscow, ascends the Throne - Is denounced and assassinated. He is succeeded by Alexander of Twer, who, with his Son, is put to Death at the Golden Horde - 149 M xi CHAP. XI. J Accession of Ivan I. He undertakes the Collection of the Taxes, and contemplates the Consolidation of the Empire under one Head. He accumulates considerable Wealth. Subtlety and Success of his Policy. -Partition of the Empire between Simeon and Ivan II. - Fresh Changes in the Grand Princedom, The Line of Succession is preserved. Fiscal Madag - K xii CONTENTS. System. Dmitry Donskoi. Increased Power is given to the Boyards. -The Golden Horde is broken up. - The Princes of the Empire unite against the Tartars. Battle of the Don. Reprisals. - Destruction of Moscow. Accession of Vassily. Tamerlane descends upon Russia. — Prince Yury rebels and drives Vassily the Blind from the Throne. - The Prince is restored by a great popular Movement Page 166 M M G A ― Dynasty of the Muscovite Princes. Reign of Ivan the Great. Policy of the Tartars in reference to the Greek Church.-Crafty and cautious Policy of Ivan. He evades the Tribute, and seizes upon Kasan. - Discontent of the Russian Republics. - Revolt and final Subjugation of Novgorod. The Tartars prepare for a third Invasion. - Cowardice of Ivan. Total Extinction of the Tartar Rule. Rapid Progress towards Autocracy. Invasion of Lithuania. - Ivan takes the Title of Czar, and forms an Alliance with Greece. -He degrades the Boyards. - A Jewish Heresy grows up in the Church. Improved Administration of the Laws. Death and Character of Ivan 195 CHAP. XII. - M A mal - CHAP. XIII. Vassili Ivanovitch. - Ivan IV. surnamed the Terrible. — Atrocitics of his Youth. Interval of Moderation. - Discovery of Siberia. - Russia is invaded by a Polish Army. Ivan goes into Retirement. - Formation of the Opritshnina, or Select Legion, afterwards known as the Strelitz. -Reign of Terror. March of Extermination.-Frightful Massacre. Ivan asks an Asylum from Queen Elizabeth. He murders his Son. - His Death and Character 236 CHAP. XIV. ――― M Accession of Feodor. - Boris Godunof causes the Prince Dmitri to be mur- dered. - Reduction of the Liberties of the Peasantry, Death of Feodor, and Extinction of the Line of Rurik. Boris is placed on the Throne.— Historical Retrospect. Despotic Measures of Boris. An Impostor as- sumes the Name of Dmitri, and claims the Sceptre. Boris commits Suicide, and the false Duitri is crowned. He rapidly loses his Popula- rity. -The People rise against the Poles and murder Dmitri. — -Schnisky is elected Czar. - New Dmitris appear. The Poles seize upon Moscow. - Schnisky reigns. - An Interregnum ensues. The Designs of Sigis- mund on the Throne are defeated 272 C G M CONTENTS. CHAP. XV. - State of the Empire. Mikhail Romanoff is elected Czar. - Restrictions placed on the imperial Authority. Treaties of Peace with Sweden and Poland. Wise Administration of Mikhail. Minority of his Son Alexis. Venalities of his Guardian. - Popular Commotions. A new Dmitri appears, and is executed. Revolution in the Ukraine. Alexis declares War against Poland. - Treaty with Sweden is ratified. — The Ukraine is united to Russia. - Rebellion and Failure of the Cossacks. — Death of Alexis. Effects of his Reign Page 318 < CHAP. XVI G M Dangerous Custom of Alliance with Subjects. Intrigues for the Throne. -Feodor. Character of his Acts. He destroys the Record-deeds of the Nobility, and attempts to Change the Costume of the People. - Fresh Plots upon the Throne. - Ivan and Peter are crowned. Plots of the Princess Sophia. -Revolt of the Strelitz. -Youth of Peter. - Sophia attempts his Life, and is dismissed from the Regency. Peter becomes sole Sovereign of Russia 345 Kaminky xiii ― ; HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAPTER I. DIFFICULTY IN THE COLLECTION OF THE MATERIALS OF RUSSIAN HISTORY. ABO- IT'S CAUSES. DIVERSITY OF NATIONS. RIGINES. THE SLAVI. · AFFINITY BETWEEN THE LANGUAGES OF THE SLAVI AND THE LATINS. LAWS AND HABITS OF THE SLAVI. THEIR POETRY, MUSIC, AND MYTHOLOGY. FORM OF SETTLEMENTS IN RUSSIA. THE FINNS, HISTORICAL ERRORS. TONGUES, AND DISPERSION OF TRIBES. GOVERNMENT. -MODE OF ELECTION. THE MONGOLES. Jogg T Mega Mandy EARLIEST THE TARTARS, AND INTERMIXTURE OF THE HE geography and statistics of Russia have never been satisfactorily recorded. Except, perhaps, some of the estimates collected at great pains within our own time, there are no available documents of that description extant that can be safely relied upon. Systematic in- quiry into the resources of the empire may be said to have been first instituted by Catherine II.; and, al- though the investigation has been continued under each succeeding reign with increased energy, the results are still pretty much the same. The clergy, who furnished the substance of the greater part of the returns, were generally ignorant of the arts of reading and writing. It is not, therefore, very surprising that their statements should be as apocryphal as those of their ancestors. The magnitude of the empire presented one difficulty in the collection of correct information; the jealousy of the petty authorities another; and the monkish cha- racter of the imperial despotism a third. The only VOL. I. B 2 CHAP. I. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. authentic materials for the statistician or historian were the MS. chronicles amassed from time to time in the libraries. But the imperial permission was a necessary preliminary to their inspection; and that was so rarely extended as to amount to actual prohibition. The chronicles were valuable in so far as they contained the chief part, if not the whole, of the materials from whence the early history of Russia could be derived. But they bore all the characteristics of the rude periods they registered. They were imperfect, generally mys- terious, in their construction, and, according to the genius of the narrator, tediously elaborate, or abrupt to obscurity. Much that they contained, too, appeared to be conjectural, if not fabulous; but the impossibility of restoring truth to its place in history, from amidst the mass of barbarous legends in which it was buried, left the sifting of the grains to the unaided discernment of the erudite and the industrious. These MSS. were ren- dered still more dismal by being written in the ancient Slavonic dialect, which has long gone into desue- tude. One or two modern historians attempted to penetrate the labyrinth; but they were baffled in its windings, and came out bewildered. The works which they have given to the world as the produce of its research are no better than ponderous monuments of inextricable confusion. All received authorities, consequently, differ upon facts. Commentators sometimes grew bold from the very want of materials, which made detection doubtful or impossible; sometimes obscure, by leaving the enig- mas of dates, names, and events unsolved as they found them; and sometimes, as if to exemplify the peculiar difficulties of their labours, inconsistent, by ingeniously contriving to contradict themselves. By the careful examination and collation of all, an approxi- mation may be made towards truth in the more uncer- tain periods; and correct data may be established in the modern history of the empire. To accomplish this, reference must be had to innumerable collateral testi- CHAP. I. DIVERSITY OF NATIONS. 3 monies, that come in occasionally to strengthen a specu- lation or elucidate an obscurity; but this cloud-like train of witnesses becomes less necessary as we advance; and, from the period when Russia first took a prominent part in the great theatre of European politics, we may nearly dispense with them altogether. The extraordinary varieties of nations or tribes em- braced within the girdle of Russia, present an aspect quite unexampled in the history of any other country. Wherever other nations have, by subjugation or gradual admixture, extended their sway, and drawn in distinct families of people under the same rule, it is generally found that the habits, language, and religion of the dominant power influence the rest, and finally absorb all the broad features of external distinction. But in Russia, tribes the most dissimilar are still distin- guished by their own peculiar marks, moral and phy- sical. They severally resemble the insulated Magyars, who, surrounded by strange tongues, constantly invaded by foreign arms, and maintaining a regular domestic and commercial intercourse with other countries, have yet successfully preserved their ancient usages and lan- guage, receiving hardly any perceptible modification of their own distinctive character. In Russia there are numerous nations exhibiting the phenomenon of prox- imity without sympathy or resemblance. These people, politically united, are yet dissociated in customs, in religion, and in language. In each, of course, the par- ticular dialect has suffered slight corruptions; the pri- mitive belief has become tinged with the heresies of time; and costume, perhaps, may have undergone some passing changes, for the sake of convenience. But in none has any single attribute merged its identity in the general body. The languages, although corrupted, retain their generic signs, and survive; the bases of religion remain unaltered; and the Finn and the Sla- vonian are still separately designated by their dress. This fact, which directs our attention to the remote times when those nations were first gathered on the B 2 4 CHAP. I. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. soil, deserves consideration. In the anomalous page of human history it opens, we see the workings of two opposite principles. Men are brought together who cannot amalgamate. They act in concert for objects common to all; but in the other pursuits of life their intercommunion resembles that of strangers. The civil contract procures their allegiance to the one legislatorial head; but with all its restrictions, its bounties, and its demands, it has failed to make them become one people. To preserve reciprocal amity and general obedience under such circumstances, measures of abstract justice would not be sufficient. In order to reconcile such conflicting elements it was necessary to suppress their separate development. Nothing but tyranny of the most summary kind could have saved so vast and diversified a dominion from dissolution. Accordingly, the concentration of these hordes was gradually effected through ages of anarchy, treachery, intrigue, bloodshed, and oppression. Nature was violated by the policy that brought them together, and man seems to have vindicated the outrage upon himself by the means he adopted to perpetuate it. The origin of the many nations that originally peo- pled Russia has long been a question, or rather a series of questions, upon which history has shed little light. For the most part, we are forced to be content with the vague answers of tradition, or the daring wonders of romance. Conjecture, more or less plausible, supplies the place of direct authority. The researches of scien- tific men assist us to some grounds of judgment; and, strengthened by distant resemblances, corroborative analogies, and philological discoveries we are enabled to discover some hidden links of the great chain of facts; but connection and clearness are still wanted. There are many reasons for believing that the greater part of the numerous tribes that covered the face of Russia previously to the ninth century sprang from the Slavonian stock. The names and localities of these tribes would weary such readers as consult history for 1 • CHAP. I. LATIN AND SLAVONIC LANGUAGES. 10 5 its utility, and could afford no benefit to others. That the Goths inhabited a portion of Russia in the remotest periods of antiquity, has been surmised on some appa- rently feasible grounds. The Russians are yet called Guthes by the Lithuanians. When they were driven out by the Huns, it is conjectured by some writers that a portion of them intermixed with the Sarmates, and thus produced the parent stock that afterwards peopled Russia. Others, on the contrary, refer the primitive population to the Sarmates alone; nor can this opinion, more than any other on this involved point, be com- bated by better arguments than speculation and analogy. This much, however, is certain, that the names and the possessions of the ancient tribes were subject to per- petual change, owing to the restlessness of their nature, and the constant inroads from Asia, which occasionally swept away whole settlements, defaced established bound- aries, and infused a new character into the provinces they desolated. Sometimes, however, invaders esta- blished settlements; and by these fluctuations in the process of population, the country at length became irregularly inhabited. When the Slavi first settled in Europe is unknown. It is probable they were established there for some ages before the foundation of Rome.* The ancient languages of Greece and Rome exhibit a curious affinity with the language of the Slavi; and, as it is not likely that a race so matured in the art of war, and in the missionary and diplomatic arts of colonisation and incor- poration, were indebted to their southern neighbours for the kindred parts of their vocabulary, the conclusion is, that the Slavi existed in Europe long before the progress of nations or languages was placed upon record. But there are internal proofs, that appear, on a literal examination of the languages, of a higher and more im- portant value. The words in common to the ancient Slavi and the Latins are those that belong to the wants and the condition of the very earliest stage of society, * Dolci, Gatterer, Schloezer, Malte-Brun. JA B 3 6 and such as would have been obviously employed in the first formation of a language. The roots were planted by the half-savage Slavi. The fragment of that race that broke off, and afterwards created the Roman em- pire (themselves again dispersed by the Slavi and others), took with them but this rude foundation, which, under more prosperous destinies, and in a more polished era, grew up into the classical structure that was com- pleted in the age of Augustus. The Latins then were indebted to the Slavi for the elements of speech, having been united in their origin; but, separating at an early period, they perfected distinct languages; which fact is abundantly borne out by the character of the analogies that exist between them. The antiquity of the Slavi is thus thrown back to an indefinite distance of time. We have sufficient evidence of the extent of their emigration, of their power, their wandering pro- pensities, their vicissitudes, their glories, and their bold- ness; but we can no where discover a clue to the point of time when they first appeared. The most probable conjecture is, that they came from the east; that con- venient region to which all doubting historians are accustomed to refer every unclaimed tribe they find crossing the path of their researches. Of course, by this means we readily trace them up to Japhet, the third son of Noah, who is fortunate enough to be con- sidered, in many veracious chronicles, as the parent of a thousand hives. But this sort of knowledge is of no avail. It merely proves that the Slavi, as well as every other race of men, were descended from the descendants. of Adam. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. CHAP. I. C The name Slavi is, by some writers, supposed to be derived from the word Slava, signifying glory; which would naturally lead to the hypothesis that it was not their earliest title, as they must have had some other before they acquired that which was founded upon their exploits. Other antiquarians discover the etymon in the word Slovo, which means word, or speech. In either case, we must assign an earlier origin to the Slavi than T 1, 1 CHAP. I. THE SLAVI. 7 there are records to authenticate. They had either earned great fame by heroic achievements, of which no chro- nicle remains; or their language was distinguished by its force, its copiousness, or its fitness, at a period ante- cedent to the diffusion of any other. But whether these suppositions be true or false, their antiquity remains equally impenetrable. They appear to have penetrated into various countries in troops, and to have subjugated, by force or treachery, the provinces through which they passed, establishing themselves in colonies as they travelled onwards; and gradually extending, with different success, the sphere of their action and their power. The earliest accounts we possess of their diffusion are scarcely credible. They only yield to the Arabians in the universality of their dominion. From the shores of the Adriatic, says an historian, to the coast of the Frozen Ocean, and from the shores of the Baltic through the whole length of Europe and Asia, as far as America, and to the neigh- bourhood of Japan, we every where meet with Slavonian nations either ruling or ruled. The character of this people was such as the uncer- tainty and peril of their habits were calculated to pro- duce. They were courageous and reckless of life; cruel and rapacious; prompt to secure, by any means, the con- quest that was necessary to their wants; but, as their excursions were undertaken from meaner motives than aggrandisement or ambition, being chiefly to make pro vision for their immediate necessities, or to procure resources for a future supply, their intervals of repose were passed in supineness and indolence. They were hospitable to the excess of that virtue. It was a law amongst them that a poor man might steal from his rich neighbour the means of entertaining his guest. The debasing usages of the east respecting the treatment of females they carried with them into the north. Women were considered as drudges and slaves. Polygamy was allowed; and the power of the husband asserted beyond the grave. Widows were consumed at the funeral pile; B 4 8 CHAP. I. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. * and, as if to complete the last show of household autho- rity, a female slave was sacrificed on the body of her master. This custom arose from the notion that women, wives and slaves, were destined to serve their lords in the next world as well as in this, and they were accordingly put to death in order that their lord should not be left in want of their attendance. It is probable that the suttee of the Indians may be traced to the same origin. All the male children of the Slavi were dedi- cated to war; but the curse of proscription awaited the females, even at their birth. Whenever it happened that the number of female infants in a family appeared to exceed the probable wants of the community, they were at once destroyed. These inhuman customs of the parents generated a corresponding inhumanity in their offspring. The old and feeble were deserted by their children, and left to expire of hunger and disease. These revolting practices were to be attributed to the unsettled and migratory habits of the people. Their mode of life required that they should always be pre- pared for action. They struck off the incumbrances. of age and superabundant infancy, in order that their motions might be free to rove wherever their vagrant desires pointed. The same inordinate thirst after new scenes and strange adventures that enabled them to con- quer those sacred associations which, under a dif- ferent organisation of society, are universally reve- renced, also enabled them to surmount the physical obstacles that constantly lay before them. We know that the Scythians removed their families from place to place in waggons, covered with hides to protect them from the inclemency of the weather; but we have no means of ascertaining how the Slavi crossed seas and rivers, traversed vast deserts, penetrated untrodden forests, and made their way over trackless mountains. It was amongst such a people, who lived in a constant state of excitement, that poetry may be believed to have originated. The earliest Slavonian records describe * Yakut. W 9 them as practising the arts of music and poetry. In the sixth century, the Winidæ, a northern extended branch of the Slavi, informed the emperor of Constantinople that their highest pleasures were derived from music, that in their journeys they seldom encumbered them- selves with arms, but always carried lutes and harps of their own workmanship. There were other musical instruments, too, which are still retained amongst their descendants. In their warlike expeditions they never appeared without music. Procopius informs us that they were once so much engrossed by their amusements within sight of the enemy, as to have been surprised by a Greek general, before they could arrange any measures of defence. Many of the war odes and ballads of the Slavi are still in existence. They exhibit a wild and original spirit; are replete with mythogical allusions; and those that are of a peaceful cast are particularly re- markable for the quiet sweetness of their character, of a kind quite distinct from the elaborate and artificial felicity of the Greek and Roman pastorals. CHAP. I. MYTHOLOGY. * The religion of the Slavi resembled in all essential respects the mythology of the Romans, to which were superadded some features of a more superstitious and cruel nature. They offered up human victims to their Jupiter, who, built up with a trunk of hard wood, a head of silver, ears and mustachios of gold, and legs of iron, was called Perune, Like all other rude nations of an- tiquity, they trembled before thunder, which they re- ceived as the voice of the god in anger. But their notions of a supreme deity were very vague; for, although they entertained some half-formed idea of the existence of a First Cause, they yet inconsistently attributed all events to chance. They personified the elements in a similar way. They had their sacred rivers and forests. They had their god of the waters, and attendant dryads and sea-nymphs: also a benevolent god, who presided over their games and festivals; a goddess of love and marriage; a pastoral divinity; and a goddess of the *Karamsin. 10 CHAP. I. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. chace; nor did they omit some hieroglyphical Penates, whom the boors of Russia to this day scrawl in uncouth figures on the walls of their houses. The outline of the Slavonian mythology was not destitute of imagin- ative qualities. All the leading or chief deities had sub- ordinate ones, to perform the functions identified with the elements or objects to which they were assigned. Their fauns, and satyrs, and forest spirits, and demons of fire, and of midnight dreams and pestilence, were all conceived distinctly enough, and helped out a sort of system that was well calculated to act upon the fears of a superstitious, race. There were innumerable idols of various degrees of power, and all differing in particular attributes. The ceremonies by which these were propi- tiated were usually very costly, as were the temples in which they were performed, and the apparel of the priests who officiated. These ceremonies were generally closed by horrible immolations to the frenzy, or aban- doned festivals to the honour of the god. The mixture of the sanguinary and the ridiculous, of the poetical and the animal nature, of the elevated and the degraded, were visible throughout all their rites. Not a solitary want or enjoyment of mankind appears to have escaped the fertile invention of the Slavi, in the corresponding appli- cation of their image-worship. They had gods for all possible occasions, and gorgeous preliminaries to their invocation. But this kind of religion wanted unity. It was incomplete, both in its materials and its purpose. It made the savage more savage, and the timid more timid. To quail before the storm, or to dare it, were the only effects it produced. It never softened ferocity, nor inspired its believers with reverence for eternal wisdom. It was the rudest religion of external nature, and exacted servitude without love, or reason, or hope. In this, of course, the Slavonian superstition was not singular; but, perhaps, it was the most complicated and comprehensive that prevailed amongst the barbarous tribes that flourished in the age of the world in which it arose. 11 MODE OF ELECTION. The Slavi, in the original state in which we find them, admitted no particular form of authority in the government of their affairs. Their paramount doctrine of chance had much to do in settling the mode by which their domestic concerns were managed. The people at first met in large bodies in some of their temples, or holy places. Gradually the national concerns fell into the hands of particular persons, who, according to their superior military talent, and the amount of individual esteem in which they were held, insensibly acquired the ascendancy. Out of this unconscious delegation at last sprung the hereditary tenure: fathers who had de- served well of their countrymen bequeathed their honours to their children; that which was in the be- ginning but a personal distinction, ultimately became a permanent dignity; and finally, the formless chaos as- sumed a shape, chiefs and civil judges and petty magistrates springing up rapidly enough when once the lawlessness of the great body had been overcome. But the Slavi were slow to yield the right of election. They asserted for a long time the privilege of electing and de- posing their rulers. The principal seats of power were, however, rendered hereditary by force, and the popular prerogative, thus extinguished by one decisive innovation, could never again be recalled. The manner of the election of a voyvode, or duke, in Carinthia, may be taken as a proof of the tenacity with which the people clung to their electoral privileges as long as they could. When the duke was elected he was ordered to appear before his constituents, clothed in the poorest attire. A throne, formed of a huge stone, was placed in the centre, upon which was seated a common labourer. Before this organ of the multitude the new governor took the oaths of office, which bound him to respect truth and religion, and to support the friendless. This temporary magistrate then descended; the duke ascended; and the vows of fidelity were immediately subscribed by the people. Such was the simple but impressive form by which CHAP. I. } 12 HISTORY OF RUSSIA. rulers in the early stage of society were pledged to the interests of their subjects. CHAP. I. But the stability of governments created by such tribes of wanderers could not be great. All the Slavo- nian races were overthrown about the middle of the fourth century, and united with the Ostrogoths under one dynasty. The Huns, however, subsequently sub- dued both the masters and the slaves; and the blended empire was felled to the earth. But the Huns, in an- other century, were themselves hemmed in and de- stroyed by the Finnish Ungres and Bulgarians on the Danube, and from the opposite side by the Gothic Gepidi. These revolutions were rapid and overwhelm- ing; but they did not succeed in the complete extir- pation of the Slavi, who, after a short interval, appeared in Dacia, and possessed themselves of a considerable part of the northern shore of the Danube, the old river of their homage. From thence they descended, in company with the barbarians of the north, upon the Roman provinces, and mainly assisted in accomplishing the downfal of the Roman name. They then pressed on the territory of the Gepidi, whose extirpation was effected chiefly by the Avari; but not without the as- sumption of a right of conquest over the Slavi. We next find the Bulgarians spreading over Dacia, and forcing out the Slavonian inhabitants, more by the severity of their fiscal regulations than by any direct appeal to arms. Those Slavi who retreated from their dwellings on the shores of the Danube were again scat- tered over Europe; one branch of them settling in Poland, and another in Russia. This took place about the middle or close of the seventh century. The pecu- liar states formed by the dispersed stock are enumerated as follow, by a modern historian : Russian, Polish, Bohemian, German, Illyrian, Hungarian (perhaps the most peculiar of all), and Turkish Slavonians. It will * This portion of the history of the Slavi, which is full of interest, but does not properly come within the compass of this work, will be found re- ated at some length in Gibbon. I E CHAP. I. DISPERSION OF TRIBES. 13 be seen at a glance, what a large part of this distribu- tion falls into the Russian empire. Those branches of the Slavi that come within the com- pass of this history were cast away into a variety of settlements, and in the course of time became known by distinct appellations. The numberless tribes that thus spring up before us in the examination of the Russian annals, and the vicissitudes to which they were sub- jected, considerably interrupt the regular narrative of the formation and progress of the empire. The atten- tion becomes confused amidst such a perpetual succes- sion of new interests. A sort of baronial tenure seems to have prevailed in a variety of places; but, as it was won and consolidated by force, so it yielded in its turn to the first invader who had power enough to subdue it. Throughout this period of distracted rule many inter- vals occur when we entirely lose sight of some of these petty despotisms; and, when we next come to look for them, we find that they had long since expired in their own weakness, or sunk before some mightier bands of adventurers. Thus the face of this vast country for many centuries was continually overrun by disastrous conquests and fierce revolutions. It would be impossi- ble to carry the mind, with a clear adherence to order, through these diversities of names and features; and, in preference to interrupting the course of the more prominent and connected features of the Russian chro- nology, we have collected under one head, in the ap- pendix, a summary of the most authentic accounts of all the nations, or tribes, that may be properly classed under the denomination of the population of Russia; and we have included in that document such historical particulars as were thought necessary to elucidate the general object to which they are subordinate. The account of these several tribes is necessary as a clue to the complete history, although it would be inconvenient and out of place here. But the aborigines of Russia must be traced to other sources independently of the Slavi, who, however, claim. 14 CHAP. I. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. the largest share in the original population. The Finns, themselves sub-divided into numerous tribes, the Tartars, and the Mongoles, form, with the Slavi, the primitive national roots. Incursions from the north, at different periods, laid the foundations of different small states; but these again intermingling with others, both in war and commerce, confounded the distinctions of territory, and ultimately introduced into the spoken language of the people, and the catalogue of proper names, such a jargon of mixed words as to have led some modern historians into very erroneous conjectures. It is obvious enough that such a complicated web of tribes must have abounded with the elements of confu- sion. Nor does it require much forethought to guard the patient investigator against deriving rash opinions. from circumstances so fruitful of mistakes. Parts of the country so frequently changed masters, retaining al- ways a fragment of the nation dispossessed, that the titles of honour, the names of places, and many of the con- ventional phrases in different dialects, became unavoid- ably engrafted on the vernacular language. It was impossible at any period of the imperial power to har- monise these discrepancies, and reduce them to order. The people were ignorant and boorish; and the rulers were too much occupied in the task of enforcing their arbitrary sway to attend to the less important labours of social and civil uniformity. The consequence is that, to the present hour, we find incongruities of this de- scription in every part of Russia. This review of the aborigines may be concluded by observing generally, that it appears to be a false as- sumption that attributes to the Huns any share in the original subjugation or population of the soil; that, in the south, the Slavi established themselves especially, making great accessions of territory from time to time ; that the Scythians occupied the central lands; and that the Finns, who were a powerless and scattered people, spread themselves over the north of Russia, and, more by the force of numbers than by their skill or valour, gave to that portion of the empire its earliest inhabitants. 15 POPULATION. USURPATION. CONTESTED ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF RUSSIA. FIRST SLAVONIAN STATE. PIRATE. RURIK, THE NOVGOROD. SEIZES UPON TOWN, AND PRINCEDOM ERECTED. INTO DEPENDENT REGENCY OF OLEG. OF OSKOLD AND DIR. EXPEDITION AGAINST THE PHILOSOPHER. IGOR THE FIRST. OF ESTABLISHES FIRST GRAND THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE COUNTRY PRINCIPALITIES. DEATH OF RURIK. PREDATORY EXCURSIONS. UNION OF KIEF AND NOVGOROD. BYZANTIUM. SUBMISSION OF LEO TREATY OF PEACE. DEATH OF OLEG. REVOLT OF THE PRINCIPALITIES. WAR CARRIED INTO BYZANTIUM. SIGNAL DEFEAT OF THE RUSSIANS. SECOND EXPEDITION, AND TREATY EXTERMINATION OF PEACE. OF IGOR. Ski M 1 CHAP. II. S dą Ma M HE M EXTENT AND THE VARANGIAN THE DESCENT ON THE DREOLIANS. M B A MURDER B ASSASSINATION We have seen that the country at a very remote age of the world was peopled by a great variety of tribes, all speaking different languages, and marked by indi- vidual peculiarities. But how those tribes came to be designated by the common appellation of Russians, does not appear so satisfactorily. Malte-Brun and others hold the opinion that the name was derived from the Rhoxolani or Rhoxani *, one of the Gothic tribes that early penetrated into Russia. Lacombe, but without affording a shadow of proof, says that a prince named Russus gave his name to Russia. It has been attempted to be shown that the Varangians, or Northmanni, called themselves Russians; and, as they undoubtedly had a considerable share in founding the Russian state, the hypothesis takes a colour of probability. One conjecture which seems to us as likely to be correct as any of the rest, has escaped the The transition from Rhoxani to Rhossani or Rossani is easy enough. In the Doric and Æolic dialects the r was expressed by s. 16 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. ¡ sagacity of the Russian annalists.* Amongst the pro- pitious divinities of the Slavi, were the subordinate goddesses of the waters and forests. These beautiful nymphs were called Russalki. These were always re- presented in the most picturesque half-costume, and the most poetical attitudes; and the people offered sacrifices to them as to the most beneficent of their deities. Now the Slavi, having been mainly concerned in the aboriginal colonisation of Russia, might, at the beginning, have given the name of their favourite divin- ities to the new country; and it is not forcing the supposition too far to suggest, that the name might have lapsed in the revolutions of time, and been revived where we first find it recorded in the Bertinian Annals, about the year 839. At all events, the hypothesis not destitute of some claims to consideration; although it must be granted, that those authorities upon whom most reliance ought to be placed, agree in deriving the generic name from the source pointed out by Malte-Brun. The superficial extent of Russia has varied in a greater degree than that of any other country with the political changes to which the government has been subjected. Russia occupies an incredible space upon the map. It comprehends a vast portion of Europe, and a third part of all Asia. It thus naturally divides itself into two great parts, separated from each other by the great Caucasian chain, the Oural mountains, and the *Count Segur, whose "History of Russia and of Peter the Great" was no doubt intended to contain the esssence of all that was worth preserving in the annals of the country, while it is, in reality, no better than a bad chronology of the leading events, makes some very foolish blunders in his own dogmati- cal way. For instance, he asks, "How do we know that the appellation of Russian, generally adopted since the time of Rurik, was not derived from him?" The answer is simply, because we know that it existed in Russia previously to the time of Rurik, and, therefore, could not,have been de- rived from him. Again, he inquires, "May not the Slavonians, whose demi-gods of the waters were called Russalks, have given that name to the Scandinavian Varangian pirates, who were more truly the demi-gods of the billows that foamed under their keels?" The answer is, that the Russalks, or Russalki, were not demi-gods of the waters, but nymphs of the woods and rivers and that, therefore, it is not at all likely the Slavi could have chosen their name as a designation for the ferocious Varan- gians, who were not only their insidious enemies, but who became their sovereigns by usurpation. 17 Oural river. That part which spreads into Asia covers a surface of about 700,000 square leagues, about 280,000 of which are productive; the rest, which lie near the north pole, and off in the eastern direction from the desolate heights of Mongolia, the border of the Chinese empire, being utterly lifeless and unsusceptible of culture. This immense tract constitutes that portion of the Russian dominions called Siberia. The southern extremity, bounded by China, is formed of a lofty and sterile table land, in which the rivers take their source, and from thence the country gradually slopes towards the Frozen Ocean, into which it empties its waters. The only diversities in this enormous province are from a greater to a lesser degree of inclement climate and barrenness. The middle and southern latitudes are comparatively fertile and cultivated; but the northern and eastern parts are covered with dense woods, or locked up in eternal ice. In the south the summers are insupportably hot, and the winters rigid in an equal degree; or rather, the seasons are always in the extreme, and may be considered as producing nearly the same effects upon the human frame. These miserable deserts, separated from Europe by mountains and rivers, and from China by a border of stone and ice, and running up to Behring's Straits, which divide them from America, are scantily peopled by a squalid and scattered population of 2,000,000 inhabitants. The fur of the wild animals that wander through its forests, the metal that is dug out of its mountains, and the oil of the fish that live in its gloomy seas, are the chief produce which this extensive territory sends into Europe. CHAP. II. EXTENT AND POPULATION. The European division of the empire contains a population of about 58,000,000, on a surface of 100,000 miles. From the Oural mountains, the plain makes a gradual descent to the west, where it is termi- nated by the Baltic, and the neighbouring states of Sweden and Prussia, This great surface presents many varieties of climate and soil, and has been di- VOL. I. C 18 CHAP. M. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. vided into three regions, the hot, the temperate, and the cold. The northern part falls towards the White Sea and the Frozen Ocean, is incapable of cultivation, and is, for the most part, woody and marshy. The richest and most fertile part of European Russia is that which stretches to the southward, and lies between the boundaries of the Caspian Sea and the sea of Azof. In that territory the soil and climate are equally favour- able to production. wky These enormous possessions are the fruits of constant acquisition throughout centuries of war; for, although Russia, even from the earliest period of which we pos- sess a veritable record, was a very extensive and in- creasing empire, yet the nucleus of this gigantic do- minion was comparatively small. It occupied the region of the Volkhof, extending to the Dneipr, and was divided into different principalities, under the various names of the tribes that, from time to time, settled there. By its position it was equally exposed to irrup- tions from the north and the east, and became the scene of those rude conflicts that, in the beginning of the Christian era, took place between the swarms of bar- barians that roved at large over those vast tracts of country. When the Slavi were forced by the Bulgarians to abandon their settlements on the banks of the Danube, a portion of them repaired to the shores of the Dneipr, the Neva, and the Volkhof. They found some Sar- matian tribes already established there, and speedily subdued them and drove them out. About this period the first Slavonian estate arose, the capital of which was called Kief.* The original building of Kief may, perhaps, be referred with truth to the Sarmatians; but, in their hands, it never was a place of consequence. For a period of several centuries after this we lose sight altogether of this early government; and until towards the close of the ninth century, when the authentic history of Russia begins, the interval is dark and silent. * Catego * The name Kief is taken from the Sarmatian word Kivi, signifying mountain. CHAP. II. NOVGOROD. 19 The capital of the Slavi, who had settled northwards on the river Volkhof, was called Novgorod *, the annals of which are equally involved in obscurity. But suf- ficient is actually known to enable us to arrive at this conclusion that, in those remote times, the germs of the future empire were laid in the kingdoms or settlements of which Kief and Novgorod were the chief seats. Of these Novgorod was the more considerable in extent and powerful in resources. It was so distinguished above all rival states, as to have given occasion to a phrase which grew into a common expression, "Who shall dare to oppose God and great Novgorod!" It carried on a vigorous commercial intercourse with the people on both shores of the Baltic, and even effected relations with Constantinople. † Its commerce extended to Per- sia, and to India itself; and from Byzantium to Vineta, a city on the Ouder. The geographical position of Novgorod, and the great traffic which it was thus enabled to cultivate, naturally enough excited the jea- lousy of the surrounding petty principalities, which was not a little aided by domestic dissensions that arose amongst the Novgorodians, either from the pride of power, or the licentiousness of inordinate wealth. The government was a republic; which, through the many opportunities it afforded to popular discontent within, increased the dangers that were to be apprehended from without. Novgorod was encircled by enemies, who pos- sessed all the outlets through which the foreign trade was transacted; the Varangians, a fierce and hardy race of Scandinavian pirates, were masters of the Baltic; so that, both by land and by water, the paths of its mer- chandise were garrisoned with foes. Although the republic embraced a very large space, and the population was both numerous and bold, it was not strong enough to resist these coincident difficulties. * The word Novgorod signifies New-town, which would imply the exist ence of an older town. There remained until lately some ancient ruins in the neighbourhood, which were supposed to be the remains of the first erection. + Constantine Porphyrogenitus. c 2 20 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. Two nations in the immediate neighbourhood of Nov- gorod, the Tschuder and the Biarmians, who lived prin- cipally by plunder, and who do not appear to have had any fixed form of government, occasionally committed depredations on the borders; and, according to the practice of war then prevailing, carried off whatever spoils they could secure. But these loose tribes, in their single incursions, never made any great impression on their more powerful neighbour. The Novgorodians al- ways repelled them; or, at the worst, suffered but slightly from their inroads. Now, however, that these nations united upon the frontiers, while the Varangians hung out their flag in the Baltic, and anarchy distracted the councils at home, the struggle for the maintenance of superiority became hopeless. The question was between the abandonment of that traffic which had aroused the cupidity of their enemies, or direct and complete sub- mission to the most powerful. The dilemma was soon resolved. The Novgorodians were too much accustomed to victory to capitulate without a struggle, and too wealthy not to attempt the purchase by large pecuniary sacrifices of their future security. They accordingly made overtures to the Varangians, who were mere mer- cenaries, fighting for the highest paymaster; and, in lack of employment, pillaging on their own account. There was no difficulty in procuring their services; for, like the modern Swiss, they were always open to hire. This reinforcement enabled the Novgorodians to over- throw their domestic enemies effectually. When the war was over, the hired troops were paid off, and the people expected that, now there was no farther occasion for their aid, they would depart, and return to their ships. The Varangians, however, were not so easily dismissed. They felt that a great nation owed its safety to their arms; and, probably, for the first time, they were filled with dreams of lofty ambition. During the war they had acquired an intimate acquaintance with the country; and, whether, from being pleased with it as an agreeable residence, or from a sense of the internal weakness of its S 21 inhabitants, or both, they determined to settle on the banks of the Volkhof, the scene of their recent victories. Here, Rurik, the leader of the band, built a town called Ladoga, which he surrounded with a rampart of earth, so that he might effectually resist any attempt at inva- sion by a maritime force entering the river from La- doga Lake. He also established his two brothers, Sinaus and Truvor, in similarly independent positions. These protracted movements, and deliberate arrangements roused the suspicions of the Novgorodians, who saw with serious alarm, that the body whom they had paid to protect them were now manifesting a disposition to turn the means they thus acquired against themselves. On former occasions the Novgorodians had employed these hirelings in a similar way, and they then exhibited no desire to remain in the country after their masters had discharged them; but repeated conflicts had weakened the power of the lords of the soil; their secret distresses had become known to the Varangians, and they saw, when it was too late, that confidence was not so purchaseable as protection. CHAP. II. RURIK. To oppose force to force was the only alternative left. The first show of jealousy put the Varangians on the alert. They were desperate and fearless, more accus- tomed to sanguinary warfare than their opponents, and although they did not propose to themselves a higher pledge on the issue of the struggle, yet their hopes were of a more daring and inspiring cast. One of the first incidents of the desultory conflict, decided the fate of Novgorod. A brave citizen, named Vadime, who had won in the battles of his country the honourable surname of the Valiant, took his place at the head of the republi- cans. But the skill and determination of Vadime were of no avail; he and his party were sacrificed on the very threshold of their enterprise. This circumstance threw the Novgorodians into disorder. They wanted leaders and moral energy. They fell into despair at the ap- proaches of Rurik and his dauntless associates. The favourable moment for pushing to its uttermost the c 3 9 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. scheme that had been labouring in the breast of the Varangian chieftain had now arrived. He saw his op- portunity, and resolving to profit by it at once, he re- moved from his citadel at Ladoga, and, trusting to the humiliated and disorganised condition of the Novgoro- dians, he marched upon their capital. The event proved that he had calculated correctly. The Novgorodians, anticipating the issue of a siege, submitted, and placed the government in the hands of Rurik. * The fede- rative democratical republic was now changed into an absolute monarchy; and from this period, 862, the history of Russia assumes a more tangible and intelligible form. Rurik, having thus, like his Anglo-Saxon brethren some centuries before in Britain, subdued the people who invited his aid, assumed the title of grand prince; a great stroke of policy as it regarded both his own followers and the subjugated natives, since it not only, on the one hand, affirmed his unlimited sovereignty, but, on the other, recognised the existence of other princes, subordinate to himself. This nominal distribution of power, while it really left him absolute, had the happy effect of softening in appearance the character of his rule, and reconciling the Novgorodians more speedily to the change. But the unhappiness that had prevailed in the republican government, where all were chiefs, and none possessed influence, and where democratical discord was constantly deranging into chaos the efforts of legislation, assisted in persuading the people that the new constitution might be better than the old one. Un- like the Venetians in later times, the Slavi of Novgorod lid not struggle for the forms of government: they suffered themselves to pass quietly from the federative republic into the absolute monarchy, without working * There are many contradictions amongst historians as to the manner of Rurik's assumption of supreme power, but this is the most likely and the best sustained. Tooke, in his two works on Russia, gives two totally dis- tinct versions, and claims his reader's confidence for the authenticity of both. This is, however, but one of the many inconsistencies committed in those laborious, but extremely inaccurate, productions., F Y 23 through the theories of a limited monarchy, a close aristocracy, and an oligarchy, to terminate probably in a servile shadow of delegated authority. CHAP. II. FORM OF GOVERNMENT. From this date the country under the sway of Rurik took the general name of Russia. The people who covered the soil were composed of a number of tribes, of which the Slavi were the predominant in numbers and civilisa- tion. The Varangians, however, ascended to all the places of honour and profit, incorporated their names with the language and institutions of the Slavi, and in all political affairs preserved the ascendancy. Rurik's government was founded upon a military basis. He enlarged the boundaries of the city, and gave laws to the people. Having thus firmly established his new rights in Novgorod, he repaired to Ladoga, which he made the chief seat of the empire. According to a patrimonial constitution, which had either been laid down by himself, or had previously existed amongst his countrymen, he, as grand prince, claimed the right of granting to his two brothers separate principalities, the law being common in the grant to sons and younger brothers. This right was exercised not only during the life-time of the grand prince, but might be extended by testamentary bequests. The inferior princes thus created were bound to render homage to the grand prince, and were held as his vassals. The right to grant was accompanied by a right of resumption, and a right of removal from principality to principality; but in the event of any of these subordi- nate princes being left undisturbed on the death of the grand prince, the title and power became hereditary; so that in course of time these petty sovereigns became as absolute, within the limits of their own principality, as the grand prince was in the grand principality.* Under *The concluding history of this charter, which could not be traced in the body of the text without disturbing its clearness, is curious, but such as might be expected. In the beginning of the twelfth century the princes of Vladimir revolted, and freed themselves from the nominal chain in which they were held, assuming to themselves the title of grand princes. Their example was rapidly followed, and, in little more than another cen- tury, all the separate princes created under the Turtarian khans became independent. In the fourteenth century, Simeon the Proud resisted this 0 4 24 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 1 these tenures, Rurik appointed his brother Sinaus to the government of Bielo-Osero, and Truvor to that of Isborsk, chief towns in dependent territories, and keys to the commercial avenues of the kingdom. They lived to wear their honours but a short time, and both dying childless, Rurik re-united their territories to his own, and returning to the ancient city of Novgorod, made it from that time forward the capital of the entire monarchy. S He had not long enjoyed the sceptre, which he appears to have worn with dignity and energy, when that branch of the Slavi that dwelt at Kief on the Dneipr, appealed to him for protection against the Khazares, and re- quested him to appoint a prince of his own blood to the government of their territories. Here was a fresh op- portunity to extend his rule by the establishment of a new tributary dynasty. He placed his step-son Oskold at the head of a sufficient force, and despatched him on this project of rescue and conquest. Oskold succeeded, sub- dued the Khazares, and erected a second sovereignty at Kief, dependent on the dominion of Novgorod. Of the kingdom thus founded under the government of Oskold, with whom was united Dir, a Scandinavian warrior, there is little known during the period of Rurik's sovereignity. There are many authorities to prove that the maritime genius of the people led them to the Bosphorus, that they threw Constantinople into alarm, but that they were repulsed, and carried back with them the first seeds of Christianity that entered Kief, which was all they acquired by their valour. The object of that expedition was manifestly of a mer- cantile nature. They either vainly desired to extend their power, and with it their commerce, or to open a new market for their produce. The whole of Rurik's reign passed away in quietness; the turbulence of the spirit of revolution, and made his sons not only vassals but subjects. From him the progress of absolute dominion went forward by degrees, until we find Ivan I. completely restoring the ancient sovereignty of Rurik, incre- dibly enlarged in extent, and establishing ouce more the unity of the empire under one acknowledged and arbitrary head. Constantine Porphyrgenitus, Photius. 25 various races who were now mingling into one people giving way before the arts of peace, and the cultivation of the means of restoring their shattered society to strength and security. After a reign of seventeen years, of singular ease and safety, considering the perils amidst which it began, Rurik died in the year 879. Igor, his only son, and the heir to the throne, was yet in his minority, and Oleg, his guardian and relative, took upon him the government of the country until the young prince attained the age when he might administer its affairs himself. CHAP. II. DESIGNS OF OLEG. The death of Rurik produced an immediate and universal effect upon the people. The passions and hopes that had slept during his life-time now broke out afresh. The population, in whom were united the most warlike, the most wealthy, and the most com- mercial attributes, longed for occupation and enterprise. Nor was the republican spirit of the Novgorodians ex- tinguished, nor the love of the sea, and daring adven- tures, that characterised the Varangians. These old feelings rushed back upon the tribes, and soon made themselves evident in the capital. They could not have found a more favourable instrument than Oleg. He was a man especially adapted to the age and the cir- cumstances in which he was placed. He was intrepid, cunning, persevering, grasping, and cruel. Such a spirit, in such times, was capable of great designs. The mut- tered demands of the multitude were speedily answered by the plan of a campaign that promised employment and reward to the discontented; and which was not the less acceptable to their military honour because it was without a solitary pretext on the score of justice. Oleg had cast his eyes around in search of a proper theatre on which to enact the scenes of spoliation for which his subjects panted. He fixed upon Kief as the first point of action. That this scheme violated the patrimonial constitution, by infringing upon the personal rights of the subordinate princes, was an argument that presented no obstacles to Oleg. He looked beyond Kief for '2 26 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. } } '4 higher and more ambitious spoils. The adjacent state, governed by Slavonian princes, and the Grecian empire beyond, were the ultimate objects to which he directed the wild and tumultuous hopes of his subjects. He did not, probably, contemplate so gigantic an under- taking as the complete subjugation of Greece, but he entertained a vague expectation of deriving some acqui- sitions from the attempt. He collected a numerous army, composed of fragments of tribes, different in language, costume, and habits, but all sharing alike in the prospect of pillage. With these he set out on his campaign, carrying with him the young Igor, whose presence he anticipated might be useful, on occasions, to stimulate or repress the boldness of the soldiery, or the allegiance of the nations through which he proposed to pass. On his way to Kief he took Smolensk, the capital of the Krivitches, and swept like a torrent through the many small towns that in that early age marked the beginnings of population in those regions. As he approached Kief, he resolved upon an artifice by which the lives of his followers might be spared, and which would enable him, before he risked the issue in arms, to ascertain the strength of the city. Dis- guising himself as a merchant of Novgorod, travelling upon commercial business to Constantinople, and taking with him a few of his people, while he left the rest disposed privately in boats on the river, he despatched a messenger to the two princes, to request their per- mission to pass through their territory into Greece, and, pretending indisposition as an apology for not waiting on them in person, he begged they would come and honour him with an interview. Oskhold and Dir, un- suspicious of the fraud, and desirous of showing respect to a merchant of Novgorod, came to the river side, with but a few immediate attendants. On the instant they appeared, the soldiers of Oleg leaped from their barks, and the traitor, raising the young Igor in his arms, exclaimed, "You are neither princes, nor sprung from princes; but, behold here is the son of Rurik!" This was the signal. The ferocious soldiers rushed on the 27 defenceless princes, and murdered them on the spot. In the exultation of the deed, Oleg cried aloud, “Let Kief be the mother of all the Russian cities - and CHAP. II. EXPEDITION AGAINST BYZANTIUM. he kept his pledge. In The gates of the city were thrown open to the regent, and he took peaceable possession of his new state. order to fix his rule more firmly, and principally be- cause he desired to be near Greece, with the hope of the conquest of which he always inspired his people, he removed the seat of his united dominion to Kief. In the immediate vicinity he founded new cities, exacted tributes from the surrounding principalities, and sub- dued or won over all the Slavonian, Finnish, and Lithuanian tribes, that were either independent of authority, or under subjection to the feeble khans of the eastern khozars. He carried himself with consider- able address in the management of these extraordinary conquests, by which such a multitude of strangers in race and tongue became blended under the one head. Within the sphere of the royal residence, where, of course, he desired to become popular, he relaxed the severity of his laws and reduced the amount of tribute- money. He tolerated, too, in Kief, the infant spirit of Christianity, which, above all other acts, exhibits the subtlety and prudence of his character. Having now enlarged one empire by the subjugation of another, and completely laid the foundations of a third in the union of both, he applied himself to his long-cherished project, the invasion of Constantinople. The vanquished tribes were accessible to one temptation in common. However they differed in other respects, they were all equally inspired by the example of fero- cious valour and the thirst of gain. They eagerly em- braced the opportunity for seeking new adventures under so bold a chief. He had breathed his own un- governable passion for enterprise into them; and they, reckless and desperate by nature, kindled at the flat- tering prospects he opened to them. He placed Igor at the head of affairs at Kief, and, with an army of 80,000 men, he embarked on board 2000 vessels, 28 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. his army drunk with horrible excitement. The passage of the cataracts of the Borysthenes, which, rising over seven rocks, impede the navigation of the river for a space of fifteen leagues, was made with incredible toil, and surprising success. As they approached the cataracts, they were obliged to unload their vessels, and by manual strength drag them over the rocks; their bag- gage and amunition was conveyed in the same way, but not without the utmost risk of life. Nor was their dangerous voyage exposed merely to the perils of the stream. The banks were peopled by hostile tribes, who had many an old quarrel to revenge; so that under the eyes of their enemies at each side, they prosecuted their laborious undertaking. This peril was increased as the river contracted below the cataracts: but they passed on in safety to the mouth of the Borysthenes, and, after resting at an island to repair their vessels, they con- signed themselves to the waters of the Euxine, and in a short time lay before the walls of Constantinople. Leo, the philosopher, was then the reigning sovereign of Constantinople. The news of the projected invasion had already reached him, and as an effectual safeguard against the barbarians, he directed a heavy chain of iron to be slung across the harbour, so that no vessels could get within its basin. But, according to the old chroni- cle, the Russians were not to be so easily diverted from their purpose. Oleg, finding that his passage was thus unexpectedly arrested, ordered his two thousand barks to be drawn on shore. He then placed them on wheels, affixed below their keels, which were flat, and by the aid of their flowing sails, actually navigated the track by land to the gates of Byzantium.* His progress was marked with horrors. The country was devastated, and the inhabitants and their habitations destroyed. The details of these atrocities are too disgusting for repeti- tion. The worst excesses which unbridled licentiousness could invent, or the brutal nature of primitive savages * Whenever we find this strange circumstance alluded to, it is accompa- nied by exclamations of incredulity. In our day, with the railway before us, it is entitled to more confidence. 29 could execute, were carried into effect, on this ex- traordinary march, or voyage. These cruelties, how- ever, produced the expected result. When Oleg reached Constantinople he found that the terror of his name had preceded him; he hung his shield over the gate as a trophy, and led his warriors exultingly into the capital. According to some authorities, he was invited to a feast by Leo, with the design of taking him off by poison, in failure of which the emperor was obliged to negociate an ignominious peace. A treaty was immediately en- tered into, by which Leo bound himself to pay tribute to each vessel sailing under the flag of Oleg, to remit all duties upon Russian merchants trading in the Greek empire, to support such merchants for half a year, and on their depature to furnish them with ample means and necessaries to prosecute their homeward journey. This treaty was ratified with considerable ceremony,in the presence of the envoys, the illustrious boyards, and the Varangian guard; and Oleg, laden with spoils and tro- phies, returned in triumph to Kief. The people, wit- nessing such miraculous victories, looked upon him with wonder almost amounting to reverence. CHAP. II. TREATY WITH LEO. The easy acquiescence of Leo, instead of satisfying the demands of Oleg, only produced fresh desires to obtain more where so much was obtained so peaceably. After a few years had elapsed, during which time the Rus- sians enjoyed all the advantages of the treaty, be- sides many contributions with which the emperor pur- chased the safety of certain Russian cities governed by feudatory princes, Oleg despatched a new treaty to the emperor, in which he exacted several fresh stipulations, under the pretence that he had inadvertently omitted them on the former occasion. Some of the clauses of this treaty, the whole of which is preserved by Nestor, afford curious proofs of the character of the policy pur- sued by the Russians at this early period, and of that adroit mixture of equity and rapacity which charac- terised their aggressions, and procured, through the per- severance of their rulers, the enlargement of their empire. 30 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. Thus, Oleg stipulates that if "a Russian kill a Christian, or a Christian a Russian, the assassin shall be put to death on the very spot where the crime was committed." Should the murderer escape, his legal fortune to be adjudged to the next in kin of the murdered, the wife of the murderer to receive the rest. For the offence of striking another with a sword or any other weapon, the fine of three litres of gold to be adjudged; in lack of the means of paying which, the offender to give all he could, even to his garments. A chief, Greek or Russian, caught in the fact, might be put to death with impunity. Should he be seized, the things stolen to be restored, and the criminal adjudged to pay thrice their value. The goods of a Russian dying without testament, in the dominions of the emperor, to be sent to Russia to his heirs; if bequeathed by testament, to be in like manner transmitted to the legatees. In these conditions we recognise the first seeds of an extended code of law. Property and person were thus amply protected by penalties; the innocent were saved from the consequences of the guilt of their relatives; while the supremacy of Russia was ingeniously insin- uated and established, not merely by direct imposts, but by the general tendency and spirit of her treaties, which were invariably drawn up with the balance in her favour. - By Oleg, who cemented the conquests and enlarged the dominions of Rurik, were laid the foundations of the Russian empire. It may be fairly assumed that the despotism of the throne, by suppressing the aspir- ations of the discontented, and binding within the same iron rule the various nations which it held under sub- jection, was the real source of the spreading power. The moral principles by which we measure the policy of free institutions, or governments advancing towards freedom, are utterly inapplicable to the state of society in which the Russians were placed at this era. They required indomitable leaders to give a direction to their energies; nor could that direction be of any avail if CHAP. II. ASCENDANCY OF THE VARANGIANS. 31 their leaders had not secured unity of purpose and ac- tion by measures of the most absolute coercion. The difference in martial equipınents and habits that pre- vailed between the Varangians and the Slavi, will farther account for the growth of a dominion which had never arisen into being, if the aborigines had remained masters of the soil. The Slavi, as we have seen, were indolent and migratory; falling away into wandering tribes, and every where forming themselves into scat- tered democracies of the loosest and most irresponsible description. Their protection in battle consisted in unwieldy wooden shields *, and their arms were chiefly clubs, as they made no use of metal in their weapons. † The Varangians, on the contrary, were bold, enter- prising, and united; they were remarkably devoted to their chiefs, and so predisposed in favour of despotic authority, as frequently to sacrifice themselves on the tombs of their princes. Their arms, too, forged no ‡ doubt in the mines of Sweden, consisted of cutlasses and swords: they wore helmets, breast-plates, and vam- braces; had a regular system of tactics; threw up pa- lisades, and dug trenches round their encampments; protected themselves by chains of outposts; laid snares for their enemies; and were able to conduct sieges with regularity and precision. § These people soon either infused their own stronger principles into the subju- gated multitudes, or, by domination, gave a tone to that weakness of character which had hitherto subsisted in reckless independence. Hence came the unity of the empire. The Slavi crouched to a power that gave them a wider domain for the gratification of their roving propensities; and, by degrees, as that power gave them laws to preserve their acquisitions, they conformed to the tyranny that made them sharers in glories they could not have won for themselves. Gues - * Malte-Brun. Ammianus, Pausanias, Gibbon. Yakut, Achmet. Somonosof states, quoting carlier writers, that one of the princes demanded absolute power, that his people freely accorded it. and that he instantly joined it to the priesthood. § Karamsin. 32 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. ! Although Oleg was but the guardian of Igor, the hereditary heir, he governed in his own person for thirty-three years, nor did Igor succeed to the throne until after his death, which happened in 913. The un- formed state of the laws gave a license to this usurpation, which was still farther borne out by the tacit consent of the nation, in whose fears Oleg had long established his authority. A The account of the manner of Oleg's death, as it is related in the ancient chronicle of Nestor, is curious, but, we need hardly premise, not to be relied upon. It appears that he had a particular horse to which he was much attached, but which he had ceased to use, as the diviners had foretold it would be the cause of his death. After having forgotten it for five years, he happened to be reminded of the prediction, and inquiring for the horse, was informed that it was dead. In some exult- ation at the exposure of the imposition, he desired to be conducted to the dead body; when, placing his foot on its skull, he exclaimed, So, this is my dreaded enemy!" The words were scarcely spoken, when a serpent that had lain concealed in the cavities of the head darted out, and inflicted a mortal wound in the heel of the valiant monarch, thus fulfilling, according to tradition, the very letter of the prophecy. CC Igor I. ascended the throne at the age of forty. During the reign of the regent he had married Olga, a Slavonian lady of great beauty; a union intended to promote the gradual admixture of the two races. His accession was the signal of fresh disasters. The nations that had been subdued by Oleg displayed symptoms of insubordination, and even resisted the payment of the tributes. But the son of Rurik, and pupil of Oleg, was determined that the opening of his reign at least should be distinguished by auspicious violence. He crushed the Drevlians on the first motions of their re- volt, and increased the amount of their tribute. The Uglitches, who occupied the southern branch of the Dniepr, held out against him for three years, but they • 33 were at length beaten by the gallantry of the voy vode, Sventilde, to whom the command of the army had been confided by Igor, and who was afterwards rewarded by the full amount of the tribute- a marten skin blackened by fire. Igor's conquests, however, were insignificant : they produced no golden fruits. To reduce tributary nations, composed of poor tribes living by cattle and agriculture, or to compromise an inglorious peace with obscure foes, as he did with the Petchenegans, who started up from their lairs on the Yaik and the Volga to make a deliberate descent upon Russia, were not deeds to ingratiate the monarch in the eyes of his sub- jects, now grown accustomed to conquests almost super- human. Igor felt, or was reminded of, the necessity of extending his rule, and seeking distant scenes for the employment of the military genius of the country; and, in an unfortunate agony of imitation, he resolved to carry arms into Greece in the track of his victorious prede- cessor. CHAP. II. WARS OF IGOR I. This was a war destitute of all pretence. Its naked object was spoliation. Ten thousand barks are stated to have been launched for the purpose of transporting an army, which, by arithmetical hyperbole, was calcu- lated at 400,000 strong; a force that appears, under all circumstances, incredible. In the year 941, having been twenty-eight years wasting his strength with do- mestic foes, Igor I. set sail for Constantinople. With a wanton ferocity, surpassing even the impiety of Oleg, he ravaged the frontier towns, and those districts that lay at a distance from the capital, where the troops of the empire were concentrated. The people fled, or perished before him: they were utterly defenceless : and his headlong fury gathered a fresh stimulus from the facility with which the work of destruction was carried on. He crucified, or impaled, or buried alive, burned, hung, or tortured the wretched Greeks, to make savage merriment for his brutal soldiery. He improved upon the cruelties amidst which his youth had been nursed; but he wanted the nerve and cunning of his VOL. I. D 34 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. preceptor to profit by them. On this iniquitous journey he is described to have made the priests especial objects of his insatiate thirst after blood, by driving long nails into their heads, and hunting them before him with their hands tied behind their backs. These frightful excesses went not without their full measure of reparation. The Greeks, who received the news of the devastations before the invader had made good his march on Byzantium, resolved, with that des- peration which incites men in the last struggle for life, that the horrors of the carnage should be repaid in kind. They assembled their armies in all parts of the king- dom; and, taking for the centre of their operations, the point where the Russian troops rested, they poured down in tumultuous tides from every quarter, and effectually inclosed the barbarians within an armed circle. The massacre that followed was considerable; and it was only after the loss of great numbers that Igor ulti- mately cut his way to his ships. On the shore, how- ever, revenge in another form awaited them. The patrician Theophanes, who commanded the Grecian fleet, met them at the beach, and flinging amongst them at intervals that dangerous combustible preparation known by the name of Grecian fire *, threw their ranks. into utter dismay. The Russians, being ignorant of the nature of this unquenchable body of flame, which had the property of living in the water, and of consuming every thing that lay in the neighbourhood of its passage, were struck with such sudden alarm, that they fled from its fury in confusion and disorder, some plunging into the sea to avoid it, others falling prostrate on the earth, and not a few running wildly for refuge into the arms of the enemy. Those that sought safety in the A The art of making this instrument of destruction is lost. The Con- greve rocket approaches nearest to it. Water, instead of extinguishing it, is said to have given it fresh strength. Vinegar, sand, oil, and wine were the only agents that could resist it. It was thrown in glass or earthen vessels, and in that respect bore some resemblance to the modern shell. Its motion, however, was different from that of all other artificial fire, as it always followed the direction in which it was propelled. We have no need to regret its extinction. The science of murder on a large scale is sufficiently injurious and claborate without its assistance. 35 CHAP. II. REVIVAL OF THE TREATY OF OLEG. water, found that the raging fire pursued them through the waves; and those that succeeded in swimming to the vessels, discovered that the flames had been before them, and that the timbers of the greater part of the fleet either floated dissevered and shattered on the sur- face, or were precipitated to the bottom. The remnant which survived fled along the coast of Bithynia; but here, again, they were intercepted by a select army under the command of the patrician Phocas, who, after routing and dispersing them, made prisoners. of several of the flying platoons. Some who were for- tunate enough to escape from these continued disasters retired again upon their ships, and, under favour of the night, contrived to elude the vigilance of the Greeks, and embark. Theophanes, however, soon made sail after them, and succeeded in sinking several of the re- maining barks; a few, containing Igor,-and, according even to the Russian historians, whose account must be received with some allowance for national exaggeration, A scarcely a third of his formidable army escaping to make a miserable passage home. This discomfiture might be supposed to have taught a forcible lesson to the incompetent Igor; but that strange mixture of weakness and daring which formed his character, urged him to a renewal of the wild at- tempt, after some years of internal sloth had again rendered his people weary of peace. He took the Pet- chenegans, his voluntary enemies, into pay, and collect- ing a numerous army, once more set forth for Greece in the year 944. He was met on the threshold by Pro- manus, the usurper, who having obtained the throne of Constantine Porphyrgenitus, then a minor, by acts of intrigue and perfidy, was not reluctant to palter for safety on the borders of the empire. He offered, before a sword was drawn, to revive the treaty enforced by Oleg, and to pay to Igor the tribute it established. recollection of former disgraces made Igor, privately, not unwilling to close with this proposition, although he is described to have hesitated at first, as if he desired to A D 2 36 CHAP. II. HISTORY OF RUSSIA. assume the air of one who could dictate his own terms. The arguments used by his advisers were cogent enough, and afford decisive proofs of the purport of the reason- ing by which his affected scruples were overcome. They said that it was better to get gold and silver, and precious stuffs, without fighting, as the issue of battle was un- certain. When barbarians condescend to become rational and cautious, we may justly suspect that there are un- acknowledged fears at bottom. The attempt upon Greece was, therefore, abandoned for the resumption of the old bribe; and, as a bonus for the disappointment, Igor gave the Petchenegans leave to go at large into Bulgaria, and satisfy their appetite for plunder. He carried the re- mainder of his troops into the country of the Drevlians, a people who had already been vexatiously subjected to an increased tribute; and there, through the awe of a reputation patched up by the recent voluntary submis- sion of the Greeks, he enforced a still heavier burthen of taxation. Enriched with these easily won spoils, he returned to Kief. Ma But he was still dissatisfied. Like a man who, once dishonoured, is always seeking fresh quarrels to re- pair his tarnished fame, the uneasy Igor framed a new pretext to return to the petty warfare against this op- pressed and patient tribe. He paid off the greater part of his army with the spoils already accumulated, and, at the head of the meagre residue, again advanced upon the Drevlians. They received him at first in a spirit of submission. He demanded double tribute; they paid it. Mortified at their quiet acquiescence, which deprived him of any decent excuse for shedding their blood, he now insisted upon raising the charge threefold. Antici- pating that this exorbitant levy might be resisted, he penetrated into the heart of the country, with the design of enforcing his purpose; but he miscalculated the en- durance of the population. He had pulled the cord too tightly. Human sufferance could bear no more. The people, forced into desperation by these repeated wrongs, waited a favourable opportunity; and springing upon the } 37 unhappy tyrant from an ambuscade, murdered him upon the spot. "He is a wolf," was their cry of revenge; "he has stolen our sheep one by one, and would now openly rob us of our entire flock: he must be struck dead." His assassination took place in the year 945, in the neighbourhood of a town called Korosten, on the river Uscha, where he was buried, and where a high mound of earth was afterwards raised to his memory. CHAP. II. MURDER OF IGOR I. The close of this reign terminates an epoch in Russian history. That which succeeds introduces a new and important feature. 1 D 3 38 CHAP. III, HISTORY OF RUSSIA. M K OLGA, THE WIDOW OF IGOR, REIGNS IN THE NAME OF HER SON. THE DEATH OF IGOR REVENGED. THE DREVLIAN TER- OLGA EMBRACES THE CHRIS- TIAN FAITH. RITORY ANNEXED TO RUSSIA. SHE ABDICATES IN FAVOUR OF HER SON. SVIATOZLAF I. ADOPTS THE ROVING LIFE OF THE KALMUKS. EXPLOITS IN BUL- THE DESTRUCTION OF THE KOZARES, SVIATOZLAF PARTITIONS THE EMPIRE GARIA. RESCUE OF KIEF. DEATH OF THE PRINCESS OLGA. HER CHARACTER. AMONGST HIS SONS, AND RETIRES TO BULGARIA. WITH JOHN ZIMISCES. SVIATOZLAF'S DEATH. THE STATE OF THE EMPIRE. WAR CHAP. III. M S RETROSPECT. G G · ON the death of Igor, his widow, Olga, assumed the reins of government in the name of her infant son, Sviatozlaf, calling in to her councils the valiant Sventilde, who had distinguished himself in the early wars of the preceding reign. This princess, who was a woman of extraordinary powers of mind, and possessed of a most persevering spirit, conceived, as the first exercise of her prerogative, the design of revenging upon the Drevlians the death of her husband. The manner in which this project was carried into execution will exhibit her cha- racter more truly than the most laboured commentary. The Drevlians were the last of the Slavonian nations that abandoned the habits of the nomadic state. Their name, derived from a word which signifies tree or wood, is descriptive of a people chiefly residing in forests. They were now, however, formed into regular commu- nities: they lived in towns, and cultivated the soil; were governed by a despotic prince; and, although, agreeably to the existing usage, by which the weaker power paid tribute to the stronger, they were compelled to render homage to Russia, yet they were, in all other respects, independent of external sway. When the mur- der of Igor relieved them from the oppressions of their