RUSSIA. 



prifing Danes and Normanni, tor the purpofes either of traf- 

 fic or depredation, explored the harbours of the White fea, 

 and even the defart fhores of the great northern ocean, 

 abounding in coftly furs : and that finally, Ivan the Threaten- 

 ing, and his fon Vafiilli Ivanovitch, waged frequent wars 

 with the Poles, the Swedes, and the Teutonic knights, and 

 had frequent correfpondence by embaffies, not only with their 

 neighbours, but likewife with diftant princes and popula- 

 tions. Whether the warriors, merchants, and artifts who 

 had a view of Ruflia, neglcdted to write down their observa- 

 tions, or their written remarks were never publifhed ; the 

 fadt is, that as far down as the commencement of the fix- 

 teenth century, the learned of Europe knew much lefs of 

 Ruflia than we at prefent know of New Holland. It is 

 likewife often difficult to difcover from the earliefl writers 

 on Ruffia, when it was they wrote, or when their writings 

 were firfl committed to the prefs ; and though we fhould 

 happily find out both the one and the other, we are not un- 

 frequently at a lofs, whether to arrange thefe ancient jour- 

 naliils and geographers according to the time when they 

 wrote, or that in which their works were publifhed. 



The firfl particular accounts of Ruffia are found in the 

 " Viaggio di MefTer Jofafi Barbaro alia Tana," and in the 

 " Viaggio del magnifico M. Ambrofio Contarini," both in 

 the fecond volume of the " Raccolta" of Ramufio. It is 

 fcarcely probable that thefe travels were printed earlier than 

 the collection of Ramufio, fince they are quoted by no au- 

 thor prior to the middle of the fixteenth century. Barbaro 

 travelled in 1436, as a merchant alia Tana, or to the Crimea, 

 and remained there fixteen years. He fpeaks only in the two 

 laft chapters of Ruffia, and of the Tartarian countries 

 which lay to the fouth and to the eall of Ruflia ; particu- 

 larly of Citracan, or Aftrachan ; and of Cafan, which 

 city he defcribes as the principal mart of the trade in furs, 

 which in his opinion were brought thither from Zagatai and 

 Moxia. Barbaro mult have wrote his journey long after his 

 return from the Crim, as he remarks that the Ruffians had 

 conquered Cafan and Novgorod. Contarini travelled, in 

 1483, in quality of ambaflador from his republic, through 

 Poland and the Ukraine to the court of Perfia, and returned, 

 in 1487, acrofs the Cafpian, by Aftrachan, and through 

 Ruffia proper. It is curious enough that he fpeaks of a 

 Rejjla baffa and aha, and of a gran Roffia bianco. Of Nov- 

 gorod he fays : " la qual conlina quati con la Francia, et 

 con la Almagna alta." 



A great part of the Ruffian empire was anciently inha- 

 bited towards the N.E. and N. by a people of Finnifh ori- 

 gin, perhaps defcended from the ancient Scythians. To- 

 wards the N.W. were tribes confining of a motley race of 

 Sauromates and Grecian colonifts ; and from them are de- 

 fcended the modern Lithuanians, Lettovians, Livonians, and 

 Courlanders ; as were alfo the ancient Pruffians. The 

 whole fouthern part of Ruffia, even to the Krimea or Cri- 

 mea, was for fome time inhabited by Goths ; and between 

 the Volga, the Don, and mount Caucafus, was a nation de- 

 fcended from the Medes, called Sauromates, that is, the 

 northern Medes. In procefs of time, when barbarian na- 

 tions ifiued in fwarms from the E., and fome of the different 

 tribes of Goths had, fince the middle of the third century, 

 penetrated into the weftern regions of the Roman empire ; 

 fome of the Sauromates were under the neceffity of retiring 

 farther towards the N. and the W. The fame political con- 

 ftitution which is now prevalent, exifted at that remote pe- 

 riod. Each individual of the nation was either mailer or 

 (lave. The various tribes which occupied the country de- 

 rived their appellation from fome river, town, or diftridt ; 

 and from the more modern Varagian Roffi, the Ruffians, 



it is faid, about the year 862, received their name. No 

 country in the globe contains fuch a mixture and diverfity 

 of inhabitants : each diltindt nation having its own language, 

 in fome cafes debafed and corrupted, and retaining, more 

 or lefs, its own religion and manners ; while the generality 

 of the main ftems bear in their bodily ftrufture, and in the 

 features of their faces, the diftindtive impreffion of their 

 defcent, which neither time nor commixture with other na- 

 tions has been able altogether to efface. 



The aborigines of Ruflia were Finns and Slavonians, fee 

 each refpectively. Of the Slavonians, who inhabited the 

 country about the Dnieper and the Upper Don, fome, 

 oppreffed by the Bulgarians, fpread themfelves farther 

 northward on the Dnieper, and conilrudted Kief, while 

 another colony penetrated up the Volkhof, and laid the 

 foundation of Novgorod. After a dark period of more than 

 100 years, the Slavonians appear again among the Finns, 

 and at this time the Ruffian ftate received its origin from the 

 Scandinavians or Northmanni. The Slavonian fettlers, both 

 on the Volkhof and the Dnieper, were oppreffed by two 

 hoftile nations, viz. the Khazares from the Euxine, and the 

 Varagians, Varingians, or Northmanni from the Baltic. 

 (See Khazares and Vakagjaks.) In the ninth century, 

 the Varagians conquered from the Ruffians, who were a 

 kindred north-gothic people, firfl mentioned in the year 

 839, and belonging to the Varagian race, and of courfe ori- 

 ginally Normanns or Scandinavians, the modern diftri&s of 

 Revel, St. Peterfburg, and Archangel, and fubjedtfd the 

 Slavonians, Krivitfches, Tichudes, Veffenians and Meranes, 

 various tribes, partly Slavonians and partly Finns, to 

 a tribute. The Ruffians retired to Finland and Ka- 

 relia ; but at length the Slavonians, aided by the other 

 tribes jufl mentioned, expelled the Varagians, and formed 

 themfelves at the lake Ilmen, near Novgorod, into a federa- 

 tive democratical republic. After experience of the imper- 

 fection of this conftitution, and finding it productive of in- 

 ternal difturbances, the five united nations refolved to call in 

 the Ruffians for the purpofe of reltoring tranquillity, and 

 affording them protection ; and with this view they volun- 

 tarily offered to refign the fovereignty to them. The Ruffian 

 prince Rurik, with his brothers Sineus and Truvor, accepted 

 the invitation. Rurik, havi.ig collected together all his 

 people, came in the year 862 to the mouth of the Volkhof, 

 and aflumed the government of the newly erected ftate ; 

 which, from its firft formation, confided of lix feveral 

 tribes, viz. Slavonian, Finnifh, and Varagian, extending 

 over the regions of the prefent governments of Riga, Revel, 

 Polotfk, Pfcove, Vyborg, St. Peterfburg, Novgorod, 

 Smolenik, Olonetz, Archangel, Vladimir, Yaroflaf, Koftro- 

 ma, and Vologda. Whilfl the Varagians, under Rurik, com- 

 pofed the predominant part, the Slavonians and Ruffians 

 were foon blended into one nation ; and though the name of 

 the latter was transferred to the whole nation, yet the Sla- 

 vonian language and manners retained the fuperiority, that 

 people being confidered as the molt prevalent, both with re- 

 gard to number and civilization. Rurik, fixing his refidence 

 at Starava Ladoga, aflumed the title of grand-prince; and 

 when both his brothers died childlefs, he reunited their terri- 

 tories with his own, and in the fourth year of his reign, re- 

 moved his refidence from Old Ladoga to Novgorod, which 

 from that time became the capital of the Ruffian monarchy. 

 Soon after the elevation and eftablifhment of Rurik, the 

 Slavonians on the Dnieper, being oppreffed by the Khazares, 

 befought Rurik to give them a prince of his own race ; and 

 he accordingly fent his flep-fon Olkold, who fubdued the 

 Khazares, and founded at Kief the fecond Slavo-Ruffian do- 

 minion, dependent on the Novgorodian empire. Oleg, the 



immediate 



