136 APPENDIX 



862 A. D., but it was a century or two earlier that 

 a group of Eastern Slavs came down from the Car- 

 pathians and settled on the banks of the Dniepr. 

 There they built up a flourishing trading state, with 

 its centre at Kiev. The Dniepr became the great 

 trade route; amber from the Baltic and furs, honey, 

 and wax from the forests along its banks were carried 

 down to Constantinople, while gold, silver, stuffs, wine, 

 and fruits were brought up the river in return. 



In those days of prosperity, the Eastern Slavs, 

 later known as Russians, were free to develop their 

 local institutions, and, according to all accounts, 

 they governed themselves in an extremely democratic 

 way. They had their princes, but these constituted 

 little more than military leaders and were bound in 

 every way by the will of their subjects as expressed 

 through their common council. Then came the 

 fateful day when the Russians had to sacrifice every- 

 thing to stem the rising tide of Tatar invasion. They 

 were defeated, but their dead bodies formed a rampart 

 which checked the yellow hosts and saved Europe 

 and Western civilization from their onslaught. The 

 price that Russia had to pay for this and the real 

 significance of her act are far from being fully appreci- 

 ated by her western neighbours. Those same nations 

 who have to thank her for almost their very existence 

 can find nothing better to do, now that she is emerging 

 from her bitter, century-long struggle to take her 

 place in the front rank of the peoples of the world, 

 than to make faces at her backwardness. 



To us Americans, Russia has long been an unknown 



