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RUSSIA. 



RUSSIA. 



383 



the national jurisprudence. Alexis died in 1676, at the age of 47, 

 leaving several children by his two wives. The short reign of his 

 eldest son Feodor (1676-82), was remarkable only for the first war 

 between Russia and the Porte (1678-82), which ended in the final 

 cession of Ukraine to Russia ; and for the destruction at Moscow of 

 all the charters and muniments of the nobility, who thenceforward 

 took precedence according to military rank. Feodor left no issue, 

 and at his death, Ivan and Peter, both sons of Alexis, but by different 

 wives, were placed jointly on the throne, under the guardianship of 

 Sophia, the sister of Ivan, an ambitious princess, who aspired to the 

 sole exercise of authority in her own person. The attempts of Sophia 

 to exclude Peter from all share in the government brought on a 

 revolution (1689) in favour of Peter, who ascended the throne as sole 

 sovereign. 



The genius of this future regenerator of Russia had been cultivated 

 by the instruction of a Genevese named Le Fort, who had been his 

 tutor since 1684, and the energy of his mind speedily developed itself 

 in action. His first care was the reform of the army, and having suc- 

 ceeded in disciplining some regiments in the European manner, he 

 attacked and took Azof from the Turks in 1694, being aided by a 

 flotilla which he built on the Don, and which was the first Russian 

 navy. In 1697 he quitted his dominions, and travelled for nearly two 

 years in England, Holland, Ac., in order to acquaint himself with 

 mechanics and ship-building, and to engage artisans and engineers for 

 bis service. A sanguinary revolt of the ttrelitzes, in favour of Sophia, 

 having occurred during his absence, the corps was abolished at his 

 return, and replaced by regular troops. The same year (1698) he 

 founded the first Russian order of knighthood, that of St Andrew ; 

 and the cession of Azof by the Porte at the peace of Carlowitz (1699) 

 at length gave him a port on the Black Sea. His next aim was to 

 acquire a territory on the Baltic, and with this view he joined the 

 Northern League with Denmark and Poland against Sweden ; and 

 though his raw levies were defeated at Narva (1700) by Charles XII., 

 he succeeded during the next two years in occupying Ingria and 

 Carelia, while the Swedes were engaged in the Polish war; and his 

 new capital city of Petersburg was founded on this territory (1703) 

 at the mouth of the Neva. While these warlike operations were 

 going on, school*, printing-presses, manufactories, and hospitals were 

 everywhere established ; the university of Moscow was founded in 

 1705 ; and the overgrown power of the clergy was curtailed by the 

 abolition of the patriarchate, the Cmr declaring himself head of the 

 church. In the course of the war with Charles XII., Wiborg, Revel, 

 Riga, with all Esthonia and Livonia, fell into the hands of the 

 Russians; and Frederick Augustus, who had bean dethroned by 

 Charles XII., remounted the throne of Poland, in which kingdom 

 Russian influence continued from that time paramount. But a war 



(1710) with Turkey, arising from the shelter afforded by that power 

 to Charles, had a disastrous result ; the Russian* were surrounded on 

 the Pratb, and Peter was compelled to puiuhss the peace of Falcsy 



(1711) by the restoration of Azof and other humiliating uasiissslous. 

 In 1716-17 Peter again travelled through Holland and Denmark, and 

 vinited France, where he concluded an alliance with Louis XV. On 

 his return, his son Alexis, who had previously offended him by his 

 weak and vicious course of life, was tried on pretence of conspiracy, 

 and condemned, but died, perhaps from natural causes, in prison. 

 The Swedish war, which had languished after the death of Charles XII. 

 in 1713, was at length terminated (1721) by the peace of Nvstodt 

 Russia became thenceforward the great Northern power in place of 

 Sweden ; and Peter exchanged the title of Czar for that of Emperor 

 and Autocrat of all the Rnssias, which his successors have ever since 

 borne. In 1723 he availed himself of the distracted state of Persia 

 to seise a part of their territory on the western shores of the Caspian, 

 which Shah Tahmasp consented to cede to him ; but this was his last 

 exploit. He died January 38, 1735, aged 53. In 34 yean he had 

 raised Russia from a semi-barbarous state to pitch of military 

 strength and political importance, which placed her on a level with 

 the first powers of Europe. 



In obedience to the last commands of Peter, his widow, Catherine, 

 formerly I.ivonian peanut-girl, was proclaimed empress; but her 

 shnrt r-ign (1726-7), and that of her successor Peter II. (1727-80), 

 were almost barren of events, and remarkable only for the ascendancy, 

 Oder Catherine, of Prince Menz.koff, and under Peter II. of the Dol- 

 goruki family. On the death of Peter II., Anne, daughter of Ivan, 

 the elder brother of Peter the Great, was called to the throne 

 (1780-40) by the influence of the Dolgoruki faction, on signing an 

 agreement which limited the imperial power in favour of the nobility ; 

 bot this compulsory act was cancelled under the advice of the chan- 

 cellor Ostermann, and the Dolgornkis were disgraced and exiled to 

 Siberia. Another revolution placed on the throne, in 1740, Elizabeth, 

 daughter of Peter the Great by Catherine. In the early part of 

 EKsabeth's reign a war with Sweden commenced (1741), which ended 

 (1743) in the acquisition of part of Finland by Russia. The alliance 

 eoncluHxi with Maria Theresa (1747), in the war of the Austrian 

 HsUBSBslini, and the consequent appearance on the Rhine of 36,000 

 Russian auxiliaries under Repoin, gave Russia, for the first time, a 

 attract participation in the polities of Western Europe; and in the 

 Seren Years' War a large Russian force, acting as allies of Austria, 

 ir/J.d Prussia. The victories of Gross Jagendorff (1757), and of 



Kunnersdorff (1759) over Frederick the Great, established the renown 

 of Russian arms, and Berlin wag taken by them in 1760 ; while an 

 army of observation was maintained from 1758 in Poland, then a prey 

 to anarchy and confusion. Elizabeth died Jan. 1762, regretted by her 

 subjects, to whom she had endeared herself by the mildness of her 

 domestic administration ; and was succeeded by her nephew, Peter III., 

 duke of Holstein-Gottorp. This prince, after a reign of six months, 

 was dethroned (July 1762) by a conspiracy, and died in prison a 

 week afterwards, as is generally supposed by violence. His consort, 

 Catherine II., was then called to the throne. 



The accession of this ambitious and unscrupulous princess (1762-96) 

 gave a fresh impulse to Russian policy, which from this time assumed 

 the steadily aggressive character which it has ever since maintained. 

 On the vacancy of the Polish throne, in 1764, a Russian army dictated 

 the election of Stanislaus Poniatowski; and the complaints of the 

 Porte, at the continued occupation of the country by Russian troops, 

 led to a Turkish war (1768-74), in which the Russian arms were 

 triumphant. A Russian fleet appeared for the first time (1770) in the 

 Mediterranean, and destroyed the Turkish navy at Tchesmd ; the land 

 forces subdued Crim-Tartary, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The Danube 

 was crossed for the first time in 1773 ; and the losses of the Porto 

 compelled her, by the treaty of Kntchuk-Kainardji (1774), to acknow- 

 ledge the dim-Tartars independent, and to cede to Russia an extensive 

 tract of territory. In the meantime the first partition of Poland 

 (1772) had taken place, which gave Polotsk and Mohilew to Russia; 

 and the dangerous revolt of the Cossak Pugatchef, who personated 

 Peter III., was quelled by his capture and death in 1775. The internal 

 administration was placed on a new footing by the division of the 

 empire (1776) into 43 governments (there ore now 49) with separate 

 jurisdictions, and by the gradual promulgation (1775-83) of a new 

 code of laws. In the meantime the chains of Poland were daily 

 rivetted tighter ; and the opposition of England to the avowed project 

 of erecting a new Greek empire at Constantinople, on the ruins of the 

 Turkish power, is generally supposed to have given rise to the famous 

 Armed Neutrality (1780), in which all the northern powers combined 

 with Russia to resist the right of maritime search claimed by Great 

 Britain. Crim-Tartary was seized (1783) and incorporated with 

 Russia ; but this encroachment, though the Porte was compelled at 

 the time to acquiesce, led eventually to the second Turkish war 

 (1787-92), memorable for the sanguinary triumphs of Potemkin and 

 Suwarrow. C'hoczim, Oczakow, Bender, and Ismail were successively 

 taken with fearful slaughter; and the peace of Jassy (1792) established 

 the Dniester as the boundary of Turkey and Russia. The outbreak of 

 the French revolution produced a change in the disposition of Russia 

 towards England, with whom an alliance and a commercial treaty 

 wen concluded in 1793 ; but no active part was taken against France, 

 as the attention of the empress was directed towards Poland, by the 

 ssosid partition of which (1793) Russia gained Podolia and the 

 Ukraine, with half of Lithuania and Volhynia. Warsaw was garri- 

 soned by the Russians, but a fierce struggle ensued (1794) on the 

 general revolt of the Poles under Kosciusko and Madalinski ; till the 

 storm of Praga by Suwarrow, in which 20,000 Poles were slaughtered, 

 finally crushed all resistance ; and the third and last partition of the 

 Mnylom took place the next year, by which the nationality of Poland 

 was extinguished, white Russia gained Courland with the rest of 

 Lithuania and Volhynia, in addition to her former acquisitions. 



Catherine II. died the year after the accomplishment of this favourite 

 object of her policy, and was succeeded by her son Paul (1796-1801). 

 He joined (1798) the second grand coalition against France ; in 

 pursuance of which the Russian auxiliaries, under Suwarrow and 

 Korsakow, were engaged in Italy and Switzerland in the memorable 

 campaign of 1799 ; but Paul soon abandoned his allies, concluded 

 pesos with Bonaparte (then first consul), and, in 1800, put himself at 

 the head of the Convention of the North, a union of the northern 

 states, on the principle of the armed neutrality, against the British 

 maritime supremacy. A war with England was impending, when 

 Paul was murdered in his palace (1801) by a band of conspirators. 



His son and successor Alexander (1801-25) immediately effected a 

 pacification with England, and disbanded a force which his father had 

 assembled at Orenberg, with the wild design of marching overland to 

 India, The relations with France continued peaceful till 1 805 ; but 

 Alexander refused to acknowledge Napoleon as emperor, and, joining 

 the Austrian alliance against him, was personally present at the defeat 

 of Aiuterlitc. In 1806 the renewed alliance of the Porte with France 

 was made the pretext of a new Turkish war (1806-12), and Moldavia 

 and Wallachia were occupied ; but the successive victories of Eylau 

 and Kriedland gained by the French (1807), led to the famous con- 

 ferences) between Alexander and Napoleon, the result of which was 

 the peace of Tilsit. Russia joined the ' Continental System ' of 

 Napoleon, sad became an ally of France ; declaring war (1808) against 

 England and Sweden, the latter of whom was forced to cede, by the 

 peace of Frederiksham (1809); all Finland, East Bothnia, and Aland. 

 The war with the Porte was resumed with fresh vigour in 1810-11-12 ; 

 but the injury which the ' Continental System ' inflicted on Russian 

 commerce was becoming insupportable, and the refusal of Alexander 

 to enforce it led to a rupture with France (1812). Alliances were now 

 formed with England and Sweden, and the peaco of Bucharest with 

 the Porte extended the Russian frontier to the Pruth. In the autumn 



