193 EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



But many objections have been raised against this theory. The numerous 

 geographical terms containing the root nis or ros are met especially in Pomerania, 

 Riigen, Lithuania, White Russia, on the Dniepsr. Bos is the Lithuanian name 

 of the Niémen, whence the designation of Po-E.ûssî, or " People by the Rus," 

 given to the Prussians. The Kiev country, at that time the very heart of 

 Russia prop(!r, had also its legend of three brothers founders of the city, but 

 associated with Danubian, not with Baltic traditions. The Patriarch Photius 

 speaks of the Russians as already a strong and victorious people, well known 

 to the Byzantine Greeks ; and Arab writers abovit the end of the ninth and 

 beginning of the tenth century describe the Russians as a Slav nation comprising 

 three branches — that of Kuyaba (Kiev), that of the Novgorod Sloveni, and the 

 Artsanie group, identified either with Razan, on the Oka, or Rostov, near the 

 Volga. Altogether it seems evident that at the end of the ninth century, if not 

 earlier, there was already a compact Russian nation in the Dnieper basin, enjoying 

 a certain culture, and even with a knoAvledge of writing. 



In the midst of all the Slav tribes described in the early chronicles as possessing 

 distinct usages and institutions, three local centres were first established — Nov- 

 gorod amongst the Volkhov Slavs, Polotzk on the Dvina, and Kiev, the city of the 

 Polani, or " Men of the Fields," in the Dnieper basin. This last was the most favour- 

 ably situated on a navigable river opening the road to Constantinople and the 

 Mediterranean, with a relatively mild climate, and in one of the most fertile tracts 

 in the world. Hence the Slav tribes were naturally attracted to the Dnieper basin, 

 and Kiev, where are found the oldest historical monuments of Russia, including 

 the famous " Golden Gate," was, next to Constantinople, the largest and richest 

 city in Eastern Europe, taking the rank of metropolis in a temporary federation of 

 Great and Little Russians. But this southern region was, on the other hand, exposed 

 to the first and fiercest onslaughts of hostile tribes, such as the Avars, Khazars, 

 Magyars, Petcheneghs, Kumans, Turks, and Mongols, who either sought settlements 

 in these rich plains, or else endeavoured to force a passage through them to the west. 

 Thus it was that Russian civilisation was eventually driven north and north-east. 



But towards the end of the twelfth century two other centres began to 

 acquire importance — Vladimir Volinskiy, capital of Vladimiria, or Lodomeria, soon 

 replaced by Galitch (Halicz), capital of Galicia, in the west, and in the east 

 Suzdal, succeeded by its neighbour Vladimir Zaleskiy, political precursor of 

 Moscow. Galicia endeavoured to maintain itself in the struggle against the 

 Tatars ; but being exposed to the attacks of its neighbours, the Poles, Lithuanians, 

 and Magyars, it fell under Polish rule about the middle of the fourteenth century. 

 The princes of Vladimir and Moscow sought in a less chivalrous spirit to conciliate 

 the favour of the victorious Tatars, content to rule in their name in order to 

 secure possession of all North-east Russia. But while the Muscovite princes were 

 thus augmenting their military sway, the republican cities of the north-west, 

 Pskov, and especially Novgorod, became, between the thirteenth and sixteenth 

 centuries, the exponents of the national culture and traditions of the region which 

 then assumed the title of " Great Russia," and which has become the domain of 



