nil STANDARD DICTIONARY OF PACTS 



, origin of the 1 : :npire 



in iiiurli - usually 



! ;rik. a 



Boandmaviafl Varangian about xr.-j. hi- domin- 

 ion! and those oi 

 pruing Novgoro- md the Burrounding 



- 



Charlemagne of Russi ..-.-. I Chrutianity 



unded 8C-. Bhools. Hut 



fan ti.;- period down '" l-'-'!7. \\ln-u the country 



waso\ ':! uaria was almo-t 



constantly the scene of civil war. For more 

 than two centuries Russia : -ubjeet to 



the Tartars, win : utier it was 



the 1'olrx :in.l Teu- 

 jMYernilient 



was transferred from Novgorod to Mn-n.\\ : 



. 1 IM the T:if tin.-illy expelled 



un.ler Ivan ex- 



-ian dominion-, inarric.l the 



::peror, and over 



;i have looked with 



if which the 



ted. Ivan the Terrible 



(1533-84) did much to extend and consolidate 



nitory, and in particular began 



the c<>: na, which was completed 



in 1699. In HilM. the Hou.se of Romanoff. 



whence the pre* descended, was raised 



:.d from \\\\< period the empire 



reni:t h and eoiiMMeney. Under 



.aelovitch 1645 7i White Kuia 



and I.. conquered from the Poles, 



and the Cossacks of the I'kraine acknowledged 



the supremacy of the c/ar; various internal im- 



re effected. an<l tlie power of 



Russia began to be felt and feared by all her 



on. Hut '>.;il greatness may be 



-aid to date from the acce ion of Peter the Great 



in 1689, who first secured to the country the at- 



be more rivili/.cd nations of 'Europe. 



rst military achievement was his conquest 



of Azov from the Turk- in If'.'.xi. which, however, 



he lost again in 1711. He also completed the 



conquest of Siberia; and. what was of more 



importance, obtained from Sweden by the Peace 



of Nystadt, in 17JI. Livonia, Ksthonia. Ingria, 



or part of Karelia, the Territory of Yiborg, Oesel, 



and all the Other i-lands in the Baltic from 



Courland to Viborg. Catharine I., widow of 



icceeded on the death of the latter, 



but died after a n-iirn of only two years. The 



throne was then occupied ly by Peter 



II.. 17 Anna. 17MO-K); by Ivan VI., 



1740-41: by Kli/abet h. 17JI-<i2; by Peter III., 



about hs in I7',_>; by Catharine II., 



wifeof Peter III . i7r,L'-'.ni : by Paul. !7'.Mi isoi; 



by Air , : r,y Nicholas, 1825- 



Uexander II.. 1866 81, During all 



these reigns the growth of the empire \\ 

 tinuous. 'I ibdned 



:. the Ovetet in 17 IL': the Finnish Prov- 

 ince 01 WU trained bv the Treat v 

 of Abo in 1743. The three partition- of Poland 

 took place under Catharine II. in 1772. 1793. 

 and 1795. Russia acqui red nearly two-thirds of 



ice powerful state. By the Peace of Kut- 

 chuk-Kainarji in 1774, the Turks gave up Azov, 

 part of the Crimea (the other part was taken 

 possession of in 1783), and Kabardah; and by 



; Jassy in I79L'. < Hv.akov. Georgia 



!ie under the protection of Russia ill 1783, 

 and Courland was incorporated in 17!)-~>. A por- 

 rrr-i.-iii Territory had already been ac- 

 quire.l; and in l-SOl the formal annexation of 

 : was etTected. The Peace of Fredericks- 

 haven, l^ 11 ^. robbed Sweden of the whole of 

 Finland, which now passed to Russia; the Peace 

 of Bukaiv-t. 1M_ ( . took Bessarabia from the 

 Turks; that of Tiflis, lSi:i. deprived the Per- 

 -ians of parts of the Caucasus; and then the 

 Vienna Congress of iSl/i gave the remainder of 

 Poland to Russia. After fresh wars the Persians 

 lost the provinces of lOrivan and Nakhichevan 

 in 1828; and the Turks lost Anapa, Poti, Akhal- 

 /.ik. etc., by the Peace of Adrianople in 1M >( .. 

 The desire to possess further dominions of the 

 -ultan led to a war against Turkey in 1853, in 

 which Kngland, France, and Sardinia also took 

 part in lS. r i4, and which ended in the Peace of 

 Paris, 1856. The Russians were compelled to 

 restore to Moldavia the left bank of the Danube 

 in Bessarabia. This district, however, was again 

 restored to Russia by the Congress of Berlin in 

 1878, which followed the Russo-Turkish War of 

 1877-78. In 1858, Russia acquired by agree- 

 ment with China the sparsely populated but 

 widely extended district of the Amur; the sub- 

 jection of Caucasia was accomplished in 1859 

 and 1864, and considerable conquests have fol- 

 lowed since 1866 both in Turkestan and the rest 

 of Central Asia. A ukase of 1868 annihilated 

 the last remains of the independence of Poland 

 by incorporating it completely in the czardom. 

 On the other hand, Russian America was sold 

 to the United States in 1867. The following 

 table will show at a glance the extent of these 

 continuous accessions of territory: 



The extent of Russian Territory under 

 Ivan t lie Great, . . 1462, about 382,716 sq. m. 



Vassili Ivanovitch, . 1505, 510.1'xx 



Ivan the Terrible, . 1584, 1,530,864 

 Alexis Michaelovitch, 1650, 5,039, 09 I 



Peter I., 1689, 5,953. :!(iO 



Anna, 1730, 6,888,888 



Katharine II 1775, 7,122,770 



Alexander II., . . . 1868, 7,866,940 

 Alexander II., . . . 1881, 8,325,393 

 Alexander III.,. . . 1892, 8,644,100 

 Nicholas II., . . . 1908, 8,647. (557 



The population from 14,000,000 in 17^2 has 

 grown to 129,562,718 in 1908. The extension 

 of the Russian Empire in the East is still going 

 on. In 1881, the Tekk6 Turcomans were sub- 

 jected; in 1884, Merv was taken, and Penjdeh 

 was occupied and annexed in 1885, which led to 

 considerable friction between Russia and Britain. 

 Of late years a great disturbing element to the 

 Government of Russia has sprung up in Nihilism. 

 Alexander II. was killed by their agency, and 

 many attempts have been made to murder the 

 Mieceeding emperors. In 1X91 flour and grain 

 were sent by the United States to relieve disl ress 

 caused by failure of the harvest. Oppressive 

 measures against the Jews have excited unfav- 

 orable comment. Alexander III. died Novem- 

 ber 1 , 1894, and was succeeded by his son, Nicho- 

 las II. In 1900, following the Boxer Rebellion, 

 China gave to Russia exclusive mining and rail- 

 way privileges in Manchuria, and the command 



