RUSSIA (HISTORY OF). 



41 



established. In 1820, the number of sheep in 

 Russia was estimated at more than sixty millions; 

 and the wool exported from Odessa was considered 

 equal to the best Spanish. The army is clothed in 

 domestic woollens. The discovery of gold and 

 platina in the Ural mountains (see Ural), in 1821 

 and 1823, is of the highest importance, and govern- 

 ment has done much to promote the science of 

 mining, and the establishment of salt works. The 

 cultivation of the grape has been introduced, with 

 the happiest results, in Siberia. The subject of 

 education has also received the attention of govern- 

 ment : the management of this department belongs 

 to the ministry for ecclesiastical affairs. In 1823, 

 besides the seven universities, there were eighteen 

 institutions for the promotion of science and the 

 arts, and in 1824, observatories were erected at 

 Nicolaieff, on the Black sea, and at Moscow. 

 There are also gymnasia, provincial schools, and 

 schools for the instruction of the lower classes on 

 the Lancasterian plan. The different religious de- 

 nominations have good theological institutions, and 

 the Bible has been widely disseminated, in different 

 languages, among the people. Some distinguished 

 patrons of science, as well as the government it- 

 self, have caused scientific voyages and journeys to 

 be prosecuted at their own expense. (See Kotze- 

 bue, Krusenstern, Romanzojf, and North Polar Ex- 

 pedition.) The legislative committee, by order of 

 the emperor, published the Institutions and Pan- 

 dects of the Russian law, in 1819 23, in twenty- 

 two volumes. A complete collection of the Rus- 

 sian laws and legal decisions has been published 

 since 1821, and there is also a collection of the 

 criminal laws, in sixteen volumes (1753 1826), 

 and a collection of the laws relating to the taxes, 

 the public accounts, the investigation of the con- 

 dition of the population, &c., (21st vol., 1827). 

 Among the particular la-ws, the ukase of 1822, 

 abolishing the practice of branding, after the punish- 

 ment of the knout, deserves mention. 



Russia, History of. 1. Early History. A num- 

 ber of nomadic tribes, reaching to the confines of 

 the Roman Empire, were comprehended under the 

 name of Scythians and Sarmatians. They inha- 

 bited the countries between the Don and Dnieper, 

 described by Herodotus. Strabo and Tacitus men- 

 tion, also, the Roxolani as a Sarmatian tribe. In 

 the second century of the vulgar era, the Goths 

 came from the north into the countries between 

 the Don and the Danube. From the fifth century, 

 the Alans, Huns, Avars and Bulgarians followed 

 each other in this region. The Slavi, a Sarmatian 

 tribe, retired more to the west and north; the 

 Chazars, pressed by the Avars, entered, in the sixth 

 century, into the countries between the Wolga and 

 the Don, pressed forwards by degrees to the Danube, 

 conquered the Crimea, and thus came into close 

 contact with the Byzantines. (The empress Irene 

 was a Chazarian princess.) The Petchenegues, 

 who were of a kindred stock with the Chazars, 

 and dwelt along the Caspian sea, moved towards 

 the west, and pressed the Hungarians to Pannonia, 

 whilst they occupied the countries between the 

 Don and the Aluta. In the north of Russia dwelt 

 the Tschuds (Finns and Esthonians), Finnish tribes. 

 All these tribes were wandering herdsmen and hun- 

 ters. At a later period only, a part of them ac- 

 quired some degree of civilization by entering the 

 provinces of the Roman empire, coming into con- 

 tact with the Byzantines, and embracing Chris- 

 tianity. The Sclavonic tribes showed earliest the 



germs of civilization. They passed, in the fifth 

 and sixth centuries, from the northern part of the 

 Danube down the Vistula, and up the Dnieper. 

 They built the two cities Novgorod (novus hor- 

 tus*) and Kiev, which at a later period, became power- 

 ful by means of their commerce, but. at the begin- 

 ning, suffered greatly from the Chazars. Novgorod 

 also suffered from the Varagians, a piratic tribe on 

 the Baltic, and therefore sent to beg their protec- 

 tion, offering to submit to their sovereignty in re- 

 turn. Induced by this offer, many of this tribe went, 

 in the year 862 (according to Nestor, from the 

 other side of the seaf), under the conduct of the 

 brothers Ruric, Siueus and Truwor, their chief- 

 tains, and founded three principalities in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the city of Novgorod. After the 

 death of his brothers, Ruric ruled alone, and united 

 his countrymen and the Slavi into one people the 

 Russians. The new state, with a military organi- 

 zation, embraced Northern Russia, and was known 

 under the name of Holmgard, Gardarike, and 

 Ostrogard. Ruric died in 879. His son Ighor, 

 under his guardian Oleg (Olaf), conquered Kiev, 

 and made it his capital. Ighor's widow and succes- 

 sor embraced Christianity in 955, in Constantinople. 

 Hence the introduction of the Greek ritual into 

 Russia. The grandson of Ighor, Wladimir I. of 

 Novgorod, the Saint, or the Great, united the whole 

 of Ighor's dominions in 980. He made extensive 

 conquests, married the Greek princess Anna, was 

 baptized, at Cherson, in 987, and died in 1015, 

 having endeavoured to give his people a higher de- 

 gree of civilization. He divided his dominions 

 among his twelve sons : according to the Slavonic 

 custom, the various territories inherited by his sons 

 were to remain under the grand principality of Kiev ; 

 but bloody family wars ensued for the dignity of 

 grand-prince. Wladimir II., remotely connected 

 with this line, was elected grand-prince by the 

 people of Kiev, in 1114. Alexius Comnenus, the 

 Byzantine emperor, acknowledged him as czar. His 

 son George built Moscow in 1 147- The surround- 

 ing nations took advantage of the internal dissensions 

 of the country to invade it. The most dangerous 

 of these neighbours were the Mongols (from 1223). 

 After a devastating war of fifteen years, and when 

 the grand-prince George II. had fallen in battle at 

 Sita, in 1238, against the khan Batu, the Mongols 

 occupied all Russia, Novgorod only being excepted 

 by treaty. In respect to civilization, the Russians 

 were then in a low condition, owing to the variety 

 of tribes of which they were composed, and their 

 military organization. Commerce was chiefly in the 

 hands of German merchants, who, since 1200, had 

 entered the country with the missionaries from the 

 Dwina. Novgorod and Kiev were the chief com- 



* The Russian language uses, as is known, g instead of A 

 (hosppdar, gpspodar). 



t The ancient inhabitants of Scandinavia received different 

 names in the different countries in which they_ settled. In Eng- 

 land, they were called Danes; in France, Normans; in Rus- 

 sia, WartEgitms, or ynragians (translated wandering huntert, 

 adventurers). The Tschuds, in the Finnish dialect, called them 

 Kuotsi, Rutzi (i., e. foreigners, adventurers); hence Roht, and 

 now Russians. This appellation was used, even before tin- 

 time of Ruric, by the Byzantines, though not before the be- 

 ginning of the ninth century. According to Nestor;, the term 

 Russians became general only after the Varjagi had made 

 themselves, through Ruric, the ruling caste among the Slavi. 

 Nestor calls Kurir and liis brothers Njemlzi (i. e. Germans); 

 Thunnuuin and Sehlozer consider them to be Scandinavians 

 (Norman*): lowers calls them, without ground, Chazars. Ku- 

 ric and his followers probably came from Vagria from tin 1 then 

 known port .Alileimiiinn,', now Aldeubnrg, or Oldenburg. 

 They were, perliap-, Frisians, or Jutes. T.he first place which 

 Kuril- founded near Novgorod, and fortified, was called by hire 

 Aldeigaliorg, from which, to tliib day, lake Ladoga (formerly 

 Aldoga) has its name. 



