Evolution of Russian Government 315 



us search for a prince who will govern 

 us." They decided on a foreigner, the 

 Norman Rurik. To him and to his 

 brothers they sent messengers to say, 

 "Our country is large and abundant, 

 but order and j ustice are lacking. Come 

 and take possession of it and rule over 

 us." It would be difficult to recall a 

 similar instance in any other country. 

 Rurik vouchsafed a favorable reply, and 

 founded the first Russian dynasty. 



A hundred years later the sovereign, 

 Wladimir, then a pagan, became a Chris- 

 tian. At Kief he ordered his subjects 

 to assemble on the banks of the River 

 Dnieper and be baptized. They joy- 

 fully obeyed. "If baptism were not 

 good," said they, " our prince and our 

 boyars would not have submitted to it. ' ' 



The common formula of a royal order 

 was, until the time of Russia's subju- 

 gation by the Tatars, ' ' This is my will, 

 and hence the law. Hear and obey." 



From 1 205 to 1 472 the country groaned 

 under the merciless sway of the Mongol 

 Tatars. Resistance was of no avail 

 against the overwhelming numbers of 

 the invading horde. The period is fitly 

 called in Russian history ' ' The Age of 

 Tears" or "The Age of Woe." No 

 other country of Europe has ever been 

 subjected to such horrible and long- 

 continued suffering. The only allevia- 

 tion to the awful distress was found 

 in the efforts of the royal Russian fam- 

 ily — itself tributary and a vassal, always 

 weak, but determined and shrewd — to 

 modify the ferocity of the conquerors 

 and to keep the sense of nationality 

 from dying. Upon their princes, fel- 

 low-sufferers with them in a common 

 and intolerable subjection, the people 

 looked as their only hope. When at 

 last Prince Demetrius of the Don won a 

 decisive victory over the horde and made 

 it evident that its final expulsion was 

 only the work of patience and time, the 

 delirious gratitude of the people knew 

 no bounds. They were ready to swear 

 themselves the subjects of Demetrius 



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From "All the Kussias," by Henry Norman. Copy- 

 right, 1902, by Charles Scribner's Sons 



Home of Romanoffs, Moscow 



and his heirs forever. The city from 

 which the deliverance had proceeded 

 was henceforth "Holy Mother Mos- 

 cow. ' ' Autocracy, by its immense serv- 

 ices, had enshrined itself in the Russian 

 heart. Gradually the broken horde was 

 pressed back to the waste lands which 

 stretch along the Azoff and the Caspian, 

 nor is it strange if subjection through 

 273 hideous years to inhuman Asiatic 

 masters left traces, hard to eradicate, 

 upon Russian character. 



From 1462 to 1584 three princes occu- 

 pied the throne — Ivan III the Great, 

 Wassili, and Ivan IV the Terrible, or, 

 more accurately rendering the Rus- 

 sian adjective, Ivan the Awful. Ruth- 

 less, sometimes monstrous, but always 

 mighty, always persistent in one pur- 

 pose, these three built up Russia from 

 its humiliation and weakness into glory 

 and strength. Before Ivan IV, the mar- 

 velous madman, died he had made him- 



