] 70 THE GRO WTIf F I! I 'SSI A 



itary foes. 'Then with one spontaneous outburst Russian nationality 

 awoke to life. Priest, noble, tradesman, ])easant rose as a single 

 man. From every direction in impetuous companies the}'^ pressed 

 toward Moscow. Tlie leaders of the movement were the butcher 

 Minine and the Prince Pojarski. They swept the foreign garrisons 

 and the foreign armies from their i)ath like chaff. The Russian 

 })eople liad rescued Russia. 



Then from all over the countrv delegates were chosen to meet in 

 solemn conclave at Moscow and elect a czar. In no ])art of Euroj)e 

 had a great popular assembly, ecjually representative of all interests 

 and classes, ever met to select a nation's ruler. The contentions were 

 long and fierce. At last the delegates agreed in the unanimous cboice 

 of Michael Komanoff. No other dynasty reigning in Europe today 

 owes its original existence to the choice of the jieople in equal degree 

 with the Russian im{)erial house. 



rKTIOK THE (iKEAT 



It is not my pur[)ose to narrate Russian history except wherein 

 that history is synonymous with growth. 1 wish to contem})late that 

 word growth in its largest and most comprehensive sense, including 

 thereby creation and development of national character no less than 

 increase of national territory. In fact, the former is the more im- 

 portant, is the essential element of the two. The concentric accre- 

 tions in expanse of area under the Grand Dukes of Moscow and the 

 czars were but the consequence of that character, painfully elaborated 

 by geographic environment and time. 



Peter, whom the world riglith' honors as the Great, came to the 

 throne in 1689. Thus far the Russian Slavs had fought and suffered 

 and grown strong in almost Oriental seclusion. It was Peter who first 

 compelled them to learn the crafts, stud}' tlie institutions, and benefit 

 by the manners and appliances of tlie West." The diplomac}' begun 

 by Ivan the Terrible he carried farther, and forced Russia into un- 

 welcome and unwelcomed fellowship with the European states. His 

 ambitions and achievements are too familiar to repeat. His para- 

 mount interest to us consists in this, that he was, more than any other 

 Russian ruler had ever been, the incarnate spirit of his jieople. He, 

 indeed, stood on a higher plane and looked out with a larger vision 

 than had any other Slav before him. Yet in the bedrock of his char- 

 acter he was preeminently a Slav. His two chief natural endowments 

 were a patience that never failed and a persistence that knew no de- 



