RUSSIA. 



.~A. Hyperborean*. 800,000; Caucasian tribes, 2,750.000 : 

 O^fa.70,000; JVl,00.00<>; Opa-a,0*00; lUmllaneouj, 50,000; 

 lotmL 11.0CO.OOO. 



Th* feOown* Us* exhibit. UM popular divisions of Rossis, with the 

 ill inrtin- J la thn : 



Buliie Jlirhosi flt FManburg, Finland, Esthonia, Livonia, ud 



>w, Smolnuk, P.kow. Twer. Novgorod, Olonetz, 



, Yarolav, Costroma, VUdimir, Nisohnei-Novgo- 

 D. Tula, Kaluga, Orel, Kunk, and Voronetx. 

 itUt ft-rr- vt . Omrnigor, Poltava, and Charkow. 

 jhaft ftmtiit KkaUrinoalaf, Cbenou, Taurida or the Crimea 

 with UM Nogai SUppe, Betaarahia, Don Cossaks. and Saratov. 



i. Astrakhan, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Penza, 

 Simbirsk, Perm, and Viatka, 



Wm*m JteaM. Wilna, Grodno, Kowno, Vitepsk, Mohilev, Minsk, 

 Volbynia, Podolia, and the governmenU of POLAND. 



i /Vsvwras. Circasaia or Hither Caucasus, Tiflis, Kutais, 

 Dtrbant [GiOMou; CIRCABBIA; CAUCASUS; BAKU; 

 t; DAOBBTAH ; Ao. 



-Tobolsk. Tomsk, Jenisseisk, Irkutxk, Jakutzk, Okhotzk, 



i ; KAMTCBATKA ; to.] 



i. - -In the Arctic seas Nova Zambia. Numerous islands oppo- 

 site UM month of the Lena ; the Liakhov Islands, or New Siberia, 

 north of 74* N. lat. ; 81 Lawrence, south of Bheriug Strait; the 

 Kuril* Islands ; the Aleutian Islands. 



It is said that the Asiatic territories of Russia have been recently 

 inorsasiil by the basin of the AXUR, wbich it is alleged was ceded to 

 UM late emperor Nicholas by the Chinese. 



(Schubert, Dot Rtutitckt Reich ; Schnitxler ; Eichwald, Keite in dem 

 CbsMUw; Erman, Reitt dunk ti'ord Alien ; Von Wrangel, Seite langs 

 aVr Hard Kittt m Sibirie*, Ac.; De Haxthausen, lvdet sur la 

 Situation ImUrieure, la Vie Rationale, et let Inttiltttiom Rurala de la 

 Berlin, 1858; Tengoborski, Cowanentaritt on the Productive 

 of Smma, London, 1855; Sir B, I. Murchison, SUuria, 1854; 

 I m Europe and tke Ural Mountains.) 



fery. The history of Russia cannot properly be said to coui- 

 bsfore the middle of the 9th century of the Christian era : 

 . i we obtain occasional glimpses of the various Scythian and 

 Slavonian tribes wbich roamed over its vast territory, little more can 

 be ascertain! d than that it was divided into numerous small inde- 

 pendent states, the two principal of which were Kiew and Novgorod. 

 About A.D. 850 however a Varagian (probably Danish) freebooter of 

 UM Baltic, named Rnrik, who had been called in by the people of 

 Novgorod to defend them against their neighbours, made himself 

 master of great part of the country, and founded a dynasty which 

 continued to rule uninterruptedly till A.D. 1598. The reign of St.- 

 Vladimir the Great (980-1015) was the era of the conversion of Russia. 

 Vladimir himself, who had married Anna, sister of the emperor Basil II., 

 became a Christian according to the Greek Church in 988, and his 

 example was speedily followed by his boyars, or nobles, and his subjects. 

 At the death of Vladimir, his dominions were divided and disputed 

 by his numerous sons ; and though Yaroslaf, whose reign was signalised 

 by an unsuccessful attack on Constantinople in 1043, reunited them 

 for a short time, a second partition took place at his death (1055) ; 

 and Russia was devastated for half a century by constant civil wars 

 and Polish invasions. The authority of the grand-prince of Kiew 

 had been curtailed by the erection of petty sovereignties under the 

 different branches of the house of Rurik, till Andrew I., prince of 

 Vladimir, or White Russia (1057-75), arrogated to himself the title of 

 frrand-prince of Russia, while the elder line reigning at Kiew sunk 

 into a subordinate rank ; snd Novgorod, though still retaining the 

 forms of princely government, had become in effect a free republic, 

 and was the centre of an extensive traffic with both Europe and Asia. 

 Thaannala of this period present only an unceasing succession of 

 destructive struggles between the different principalities, and wars with 

 Poland. The invasion of the Tartars (1228) produced a momentary 

 unanimity from the sense of common danger. A host of 500,000 men 

 under Toushi, the son of Genghis Khan, encountered and overthrew 

 UM combined forces of the Russian princes on the river Kalka near 

 UM Baa of Axof : but though the death of Toushi diverted the victors 

 from UM immediate completion of their conquest, they returned in 

 1JS6 under hi* son Batu, laid waste the whole country with fire and 

 sword, and took complete possession of its government. 



For more than two centuries and a half after this conquest Russia 

 continued to be held in abject vassalage by the Tartars of Kapchak 

 bos* hordes overspread the eastern and southern provinces, and the 



!^.i5! > SL < iJ? Mpk ? *** At> Volgm> on ** bank " of which 



rivar UM Golden Horde, or imperial residence of the khans of the race 

 of Barn, was fixed ; but the interior of the country was still left under 

 UM rovernment of the native princes. The grand-prince of Vladimir 

 MMMad to be oooaUand as the head of the Russian nation, though 

 nity was disputed both by arms and by intrigues at the court 

 of UMkhana, who fomented these dissensions as favourable to the 

 tabflrty of their own supremacy. In 1320 the seat of government 

 was removed from Vladimir to Moscow. The principality of Kiew 

 as flnally txtingubbed (1321) by the I>uke of Lithuania, who oon- 

 qosrrd and annexed it to his own dominions. In the meantime 



Novgorod (which in W6 had joined the Hanseatic league) had acquired 

 very great commercial importance. But the remainder of Russia con- 

 tinued to be held in hopeless bondage, till the termination of the direct 

 line of Batu (1361) by the death of Berdi-Bek Khan, gave rise to 

 disputes for the throne of Kapchak, and the discord of their oppressors 

 encouraged the Russians to endeavour to throw off the yoke. The 

 struggle continued for about a century, till at last Ivan or John III. 

 (1462-1505) succeeded in obliterating the last vestiges of dependence. 



With the reign of this prince, who married Sophia, the niece of the 

 last Greek emperor, a new epoch commences in the history of Russia. 

 He defeated the Poles and Lithuanians, reduced the Tartars of Casan 

 to tribute, and re-united under his authority most of the minor Russian 

 principalities ; but his capture of Novgorod (1475), and the exactions 

 which he levied on the merchants and citizens, gave a death-blow to 

 the commerce of that famous emporium. The embassies of the 

 European powers, Germany, Poland, Venice, the Holy See, &c., were 

 now first seen at Moscow; and though the character of Ivan is tiulliod 

 by the cruel despotism of his internal administration, he is justly 

 entitled to rank as the founder of the Russian empire, the power and 

 splendour of which date from him. In the reign of his son, Basil IV., 

 the Tartars of the Crimea, incited by the Poles, committed fearful 

 ravages throughout Russia in 1510 ; and in 1520 their khan advanced 

 to Moscow, which he spared only on promise of tribute. His successor 

 Ivan IV., Vasilovitch, surnamed the Terrible (1533-84), was crowned 

 (1545) by the title of Czar, which he substituted for that of Veliki- 

 Knez. The first acts of his reign were the institution of the corps of 

 Strelitzes (archers), the first regular army of Russia ; and the reform 

 of jurisprudence by the publication of a regular code of laws named 

 Youdebnik ; but he was unsuccessful in his efforts to procure (by an 

 embassy to Charles V. in 1547) artisans and eugiuui-rs from Germany 

 for the instruction of his subjects. The voluntary adhesion of the 

 Don Cossaks (1549) secured to Russia the services of those active and 

 warlike auxiliaries. In 1553 the English trade through Archangel 

 was first opened. Siberia was acquired iii 1581. About this period 

 the art of printing, and also several branches of manufacture, were 

 introduced into Russia. The cruelty and ferocity of Ivan increased 

 with his years : his eldest son perished in 1584 by a blow from the 

 hand of his father, and Ivan himself died the same year. Though a 

 remorseless and sanguinary tyrant, he had raised the country by his 

 energetic policy to a hitherto unexampled pitch of prosperity. With 

 his son Feodor, or Theodore, in 1598, the male line of the house of 

 Rurik, which had ruled under 56 sovereigns for 736 years, became 

 finally extinct. 



Boris Qodoonoff, the brother-in-law and minister of Feodor, was 

 placed on the throne, aud commenced his reign (1598-1605) by the 

 emancipation of the serfs and other salutary measures ; but he soon 

 degenerated into an arbitrary and cruel tyrant, and at length lost his 

 throne and life in a contest with an adventurer who declared himself 

 to be the lost Demetrius, brother of Feodor, whose pretensions were 

 supported by Poland. The real history of this person has never been 

 satisfactorily ascertained, and many writers consider his claims to have 

 been well founded ; but after ruling scarcely a year he perished (1606) 

 in a popular revolt headed by a boyar named Basil Schuiski, who 

 thereupon became Czar. But a second false Demetrius speedily started 

 up. The Poles and Swedes, who each aspired to seat a prince of their 

 own nation on the throne, invaded the country, and were supported 

 by various factions among the nobles ; and for seven years (1606-13) 

 Russia became the prey of desolating anarchy and civil war. The 

 Swedes occupied Koxholm and Novgorod, aud the Polish prince 

 Ladislas, after taking Smolensk, advanced to Moscow, and sent 

 Schuiski prisoner to Warsaw (1610). But the prospect of the dis- 

 memberment of their country roused the national spirit of the Rus- 

 sians; the Poles were driven from Moscow (1C13), after a sanguinary 

 battle ; and in the following year Michael Romanoff, a descendant by 

 females from the house of Rurik, was called to the throne with a 

 unanimity among all orders in the state, which the seuse of imminent 

 danger alone could produce. 



The accession of the line of Romanoff gives a new character to the 

 history of Russia, which henceforward, from being regarded as a 

 barbarous and semi-Asiatic power, begins to assume an important 

 place among European states. The long reign of Michael (1613-45), 

 afforded him time for the consolidation of his own power and the 

 restoration of his dominions from the depression caused by the late 

 calamities. Though compelled by the boyars to re-establish the 

 slavery of the peasants, he partially succeeded in redressing the abuses 

 which the preceding anarchy had occasioned ; and he gave a fresh 

 impulse to trade by the conclusion of commercial treaties witli 

 England (1623) and with France (1629). In the reigu of his son 

 Alexis in 1667, after a long contest with Poland, the truce of Andrus- 

 sow (converted into a permanent peace in 1686) gave to Russia 

 Tchernigow, Kiew, and the Ukraine, with the protectorate of the 

 Dnieper Cossaks. About the same period internal commotions, and 

 a revolt of the Don Cossaks, occasioned considerable trouble to Alexis. 

 The last years of his reign were devoted to internal improvements 

 and the advancement of civilisation. Numerous foreigners, particu- 

 larly Scotch and Germans, were attracted to Russia, where they 

 introduced the arts and manufactures of tlieir own countries; and 

 the publication of a revised code of laws gave a settled character to 



