RUSSIA. 



immediate fucceffor of Rurik, united Kief with the Rudiau 

 territory, and appointed this fecond Slavonian family feat to 

 be his refidence and the capital of the country. Under the 

 following reigns, the power of the empire rapidly increafed. 

 Ruffian armies appeared before the gates of Conltantinople ; 

 many nations were rendered tributary ; the Rufiians carried 

 on a regular commerce to the cnalls of the Euxine ; they 

 built cities, and not only cmbellifhed but gave laws to fuch 

 as already exilled. On the death of Vladimir the Great, in 

 the year 1015, who embraced the Chrillian religion, and in- 

 troduced it into Raffia, the progrefs of the nation was 

 checked by the partition of its territory among his twelve 

 fons. This was followed by a variety of fanguinary con- 

 tentions, till at length there arofe a third ftate, -viz. White 

 Ruffia, or Vladimir. Of thefe three Hates, viz. Vladimir, 

 Kief, and Novgorod, the principal was Vladimir, and Suf- 

 dal was its capital. This diftindtion afterwards devolved on 

 Vladimir ; and finally on Mofcow, a city which was founded 

 in the year 1147, by George I. In the year 1237, the 

 Mongoles and Tartars, who under their khan Tichingis had 

 united themfelves into a powerful ftate at the beginning of 

 the 13th century, and fubjected the greater part of Afia, 

 put themfelves under the conduit of his defcendant Batu, 

 khan of Kaptfchak, and fell upon Southern Ruffia, where 

 they founded a formal fovereignty. The Tartars, having 

 effected their conquell, numbered the people in the princi- 

 palities, impofed on them a heavy tribute, and thus riveted 

 the oppreffive yoke of foreign fovereignty which the Ruffians 

 endured for upwards of 200 years. 



Whoever has ftudied the Ruffian hi (lory with attention, 

 muft naturally be furpnzed that the nation, in confequence 

 of the numerous and formidable revolutions which it under- 

 went, was not utterly demolifhed or difperfed, their do- 

 minion entirely fubverted, and their very name, as has been 

 the cafe with fo many other nations, totally effaced. The 

 Ruffian nation, however, not only weathered out all the ftorms, 

 which fo frequently menaced its diflblution, but rofe, as if 

 refrefhed with juvenile vigour, extended its gigantic arms on 

 every fide, vanquifhedall its hoftile neighbours, and at a very 

 early period of its greatnefs crofted the mountains, which 

 for immemorial ages had been ftyled by their inhabitants 

 the girdle of the globe, and there, as in a new world, pro- 

 greffively made conquefts, no lefs for geography and natu- 

 ral hiltory, than for their immenfe domain. 



In 1462, Ivan Vaffillievitch I. afcended the throne of 

 Mofcow, and after a reign of fourteen years, refufed obe- 

 dience to the Tartars, and by a feries of victories, gained 

 pofleffion of the Tartarian kingdom. of Kazan, and re- 

 duced its fovereign to a ftate of tributary vallalage. In 

 1477, the republic of Novgorod fubmitted to the force of 

 his arms, and a fimilar fate betel the principalities of Pfcove 

 and Tver. Lithuania loft a confiderable part of its ter- 

 ritory. The princes of Severia voluntarily furrendered ; and 

 the incrcafing power of Ivan was withftood only by the 

 Teutonic order in Livonia. Under his fucccflbr Kazan was 

 loft for a (hort time ; but Smolenfk was incorporated into 

 the Ruffian ftate. Ivan Vaffilievitch II. at length burll tin-lull 

 (hackles of the Mongole-Tartarian fovereignty. Tin' entire 

 conqueft of Kazan was completed in feven years, the capi- 

 tal of the kingdom furrendering in 1552. Two years af- 

 terwards, Aftiuchan became a Ruffian province : and Ivan 

 advanced into Caucafus, and lubdued the whole Kabardey. 

 Although the Ottoman Turks, aided by the Tartars of the 

 Krim, ravaged the capital of Ruffia, this difafter was amply 

 counterbalanced by the channel opened for maritime com- 

 merce by way of Archangel, and by the conqueft of Si- 

 beria, events which date their commencement from the reign 



of Ivan, but which owed their completion to his fucceffor*. 

 As others ftate thefe events, Ivan III., furnamed the 

 Threatening, was the firft who, towards the latter end of 

 the fifteenth century, began to demolifh this baneful oligar- 

 chy, and to throw off the yoke of the Tartars. The mod 

 confiderable annexation he procured to his empire conliited 

 in the reduction of Novgorod, and the northern provinces, 

 which ages ago had been conquered by the Novgorodians, 

 and retained under their dominion. His fon and his grand- 

 ion Vaffillie Ivanovitch and Ivan Vaffillievitch the Terrible, 

 completed the grand projedt, which the father and grand- 

 father had left for their fucceflbrs. Under the reign of 

 Vaffillie Ivanovitch, baron Herberftcin laid down the firft 

 perfpicuous geography of the Ruffian empire, according to 

 which we (hall defcribe the boundaries of it towards the lat- 

 ter end of the fifteenth, and the commencement of the fif- 

 teenth centuries. 



Herberftein ufes the term Ruffia in a two-fold accepta- 

 tion. By the one he underftands all thofe countries that were 

 inhabited by Ruffians ; and in this larger fenfe he even com- 

 prehends the king of Poland and the grand duke of Lithua- 

 nia among the Ruffian princes, fince both of them poffeffed 

 territories that were occupied by Ruffians. In the more 

 contracted import, that author comprifes fimply the coun- 

 tries fubjeit to the grand prince of Mofcow. In the defcrip- 

 tion of this proper Ruffia, taking his departure from 

 Mofcow, he firft mentions the eaftern and fouthern, and then 

 the weftern and northern provinces. 



Eaftward, therefore, of the province of Mofcow, the grand 

 prince of Ruffia polTeffed the provinces of Vladimir, Nifh- 

 nei-Novgorod, and Riazan ; the river Sura forming the boun- 

 dary between the Ruffian and Cafanian territories. (Sura 

 fluvius Moici, et Cafanenfis regis dominium dividit, page 65.) 

 Towards the fouth-eaft, during the reign of Ivan III. the 

 Ruffian confines reached only about a day's journey from 

 the city of Riazan ; for Contarini arrived at the city Ria- 

 zan the day after he entered the Ruffian territory. (Ra- 

 muf. ii. 122. fol. b.) To the fouth, Tula was the laft Ruffian 

 city towards the Tartarian fteppes (Herberlt. p. 66. 

 Tulla — eft ultimum oppidum ad campeftria deferta) ; and 

 fomewhat farther to the weft was Kaluga, the fortified city, 

 where the grand prince annually aflembled his troops againft 

 the incurfions of the Crimean Tartars. ( Ibid. p. 68.) To- 

 wards fhe fouth-welt, Vaffillie Ivanovitch firft conquered the 

 principality of Novgorod Sieverfkoi, which at that time 

 comprehended alio Tchernigof, and a part of the prefent go- 

 vernment of Orel. (Ibid. 63 — 70.) Towards the weft, 

 Smolenfk, which province Vaffillie Ivanovitch, in 1 5 14, fe- 

 vered from Poland or Lithuania, Pfcove, and a part of the 

 prefent Peterfburg government, to the mouth of the Na- 

 rova, formed the boundary. To the north of Mofcow lav, 

 laflly, the provinces Tver, Great Novgorod, Yaroflaf, 

 Koftroma, and the provinces formerly fubjedt to the Nov- 

 gorodians, namely, Vologda, Uftiug, Vixtka, Perm, and 

 Dvina. 



Reckoning the principalities (pecified by Herberftein 

 to the div iti.Hi of the governments and viceroy. .hies made 

 by Catharine II. then the empire fubjeCt to the grand 

 prince Vaffillie Ivanovitch, excepting Mofcow and a 

 part of the Peterfburg government, compriled only thofe 

 of Pfcove, Tver, Novgorod, Archangel, Vologda, Ya- 

 roflaf, Koftroma, Vixtka, Perm, Smolenflt, Teh 



gof, Novgorod Sieverfkoi, Orel, Kaluga, Tula, Ria- 

 zan, Vladimir, aid Nilhnei-Novgorod. Short of the pre- 

 fent number of viceroyalties by thofe of Peterfburg al- 

 moft entirely, then thofe of Viborg, Revel, Riga, Olo- 



netz, at lean in part, Tobolfk, PolotJk, Mohflef, Kharkof, 



Kurfk, 



