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The National Geographic Magazine 



From " Greater Russia," by Wirt Gerrare. Copyright 

 by the Macmillan Co. 



Old St Petersburg 



self a ' ' god in the minds of his people. ' ' 

 Autocracy had received a fresh sanction 

 in their absolute and whole-hearted 

 submission. 



THE FIRST OF THE ROMANOFFS — 

 MICHAEL, A BOY OF 17— IS 

 ELECTED RULER 



Suddenly the boy prince, Demetrius, 

 the last heir of Ivan, died. With him 

 the royal line of Rurik became extinct. 

 There followed thirty years of lawless- 

 ness and anarchy, of disastrous civil and 

 foreign war. At last, in 161 3, a great 

 assembly, made up from every rank and 

 class in Russia, got together in Moscow. 

 A national assembly, equally represent- 

 ative of a nation, neither Russia nor 

 Europe had ever seen. This assembly, 

 after long and fierce contention, chose 

 Michael Romanoff as Tsar. Not a sin- 

 gle condition did they impose upon that 

 untried boy of seventeen thus unani- 

 mously elected ruler. When he appeared 



before them, upon their knees they 

 shouted, " Promise that thou wilt gra- 

 ciously consent to rule over us." And 

 so with autocratic power the dynasty of 

 the Romanoffs was seated upon the Im- 

 perial Russian throne. There is no 

 other royal house reigning in Europe 

 today which in equal degree owes its 

 elevation to the free voice of the people. 

 There is no other reigning house that 

 does not trace its origin back to some 

 successful warrior and owe its earliest 

 advancement to the sword. In every 

 other country, on some bloody plain, a 

 Hastings or a Marchfield, William the 

 Conqueror, the Hapsburghs, the Hohen- 

 zollerns, have carved for themselves and 

 their descendants a title to the crown. 

 The father of Michael Romanoff was no 

 brilliant soldier, only a faithful parish 

 priest, who was renowned for piety and 

 ability, and who because of his noble 

 qualities attained high ecclesiastical dis- 

 tinction. 



Upon the autocratic throne, thus 

 broad-based upon the popular will, sov- 

 ereign succeeded sovereign for more 

 than a century. On each monarch de- 

 volved the duty of choosing his heir 

 from among the male or female mem- 

 bers of the Imperial family. Always 

 that choice was accepted by the nation. 

 Smallpox caused the sudden death of 

 Peter II, in 1730, before he had ex- 

 pressed any preference as to his suc- 

 cessor. There were then living four 

 descendants of Michael Romanoff. 

 Three of them were women — Anna 

 Ivanovna, Catharine Ivanovna, Eliza- 

 beth Petrovna — and a male infant a few 

 months old. Eight of the most power- 

 ful nobles banded themselves together 

 in what they termed ' ' The High Secret 

 Council." They obtained control of 

 the army and of every department of 

 government and administration. 



A CONSTITUTION IS OFFERED 



They then offered the crown to Anna 

 Petrovna, subject to the following con- 

 ditions : ( 1 ) The High Council should 



