132 
MOSCOW. 
chap. J 0 hn Basilovich the First has been considered 
VI. 
' , — t as one of the founders of the Russian Empire ; 
*Ivkh? ast ' but his accession did not take place till the 
middle of the fifteenth century. He arose, like 
Buonaparte, in a period of national dismay; and 
although described as a man of impetuous vices, 
intrepid, artful, treacherous, having all the fero- 
city of a savage, he has been hailed as the 
deliverer of his country, and dignified by the 
appellation of ‘ The Great. It is a title which an 
oppressed intimidated people have frequently 
bestowed upon tyrants. Until his time, how- 
ever, Tahtars were lords of Moscow ; the Tsars 
themselves being obliged to stand in the pre- 
sence of Tahtar ambassadors while the latter 
sat at meat ; and to endure the most humiliat- 
ing ceremonies. Basilovich shook off the Tahtar 
yoke ; but it was long before the Russians, 
always children of imitation, ceased to mimic 
a people by whom they had been conquered. 
They had neither arts nor opinions of their own: 
every thing in Moscoiv was Tahtar ian ; dress, 
manners, buildings, equipages, in short, all, 
excepting religion and language. Basilovich, at 
the conquest of Casan, was solemnly crowned 
with the diadem of that kingdom : this is said 
to be the same now used for the coronation of 
the Russian Sovereigns. In the reign of his 
successor, Moscow was again taken by the 
