464 
RUSSIA. 
Ivan, as well as his grandfather, had found it necessary to 
chastise the inhabitants of Novgorod; but in the year 
1570, this city being suspected offonninga plot for deliver¬ 
ing itself and the surrounding territory into the hands of the 
king of Poland, felt still more severely the effects of his 
vengeance. All who had been in any degree implicated in 
the conspiracy, to the number of 25,000, suffered by the 
hands of the executioner. It is not surprising that acts like 
these should have given to this prince the names of terrible 
and tyrant, by which historians have occasionally distin¬ 
guished him ; though it is not a little extraordinary, that he 
should have retained so much interest in the affections of 
his subjects, that when, to try their attachment, he, in 1575, 
abdicated the government, and retained only the title of 
Prince of Moscow, the majority ofthe nation loudly expressed 
their wish for him to resume the administration of affairs. 
Ivan cultivated an intercourse with several of the Euro¬ 
pean states, especially with Germany, for which country he 
seems to have had a very particular esteem. Early in his 
reign, he sent a splendid embassy to the emperor Charles 
V. requesting him to permit a number of German artists, 
mechanics, and literary men, to establish themselves in 
Russia. Charles readily complied with his request, and 
several hundred volunteers were collected and assembled at 
Lubeck, whence they were to proceed through Livonia to 
Moscow. 
In a war between the Russians and Swedes, Ivan invaded 
Finland ; but that country was bravely defended by Wil¬ 
liam of Furstenburgh, grand master ofthe Livonian knights, 
with the assistance of Gustavus Vaza; and it does not ap¬ 
pear that Ivan gained much in this expedition, though we are 
told that the Livonian grandmaster ended his life in a Russian 
prison. 
In 1533, an event happened which first led to an inter¬ 
course between Russia and England. Some Englishmen 
who were at that time on a voyage of discovery, landed on 
the shores of the White Sea, where soon after was built the 
port of Archangel. They were hospitably received by the 
natives; an intimation of this circumstance being conveyed 
to Ivan, he sent for the strangers, and was so much pleased 
with their abilities and deportment, that he resolved to give 
every encouragement to the English commerce, and thus 
open a new channel of intercourse with a highly polished 
nation, by which his subjects might obtain fresh incitements 
to activity and industry. We are told, that his affection for 
the English proceeded so far, as to induce him to form the 
design of marrying an English lady. He expressed the 
highest esteem for Queen Elizabeth, and requested by his 
ambassador, that if the ingratitude of his subjects should 
ever compel him to quit Russia, (a circumstance by no 
means improbable), she would grant him an asylum in her 
dominions. It was in consequence of this accidental com¬ 
munication between the Russians and the English, that England 
first engaged in a trade to Russia, and promoted this new 
commerce by the establishment of a company of Russia 
merchants in London. 
About twenty years after Astracan had been annexed to 
the Russian empire, a new acquisition of territory accrued to 
it from the conquests of a private adventurer, in the unknown 
regions of Siberia. 
Towards the close of Ivan’s reign, a prodigious army of 
Turks and Tartars entered Russia, with a design to subdue 
the whole country. But Zerebrinoff, the tzar’s general, hav¬ 
ing attacked them in a defile, put them to flight with con- 
derable slaughter. They then retired towards the mouth of 
the Volga, where they expected a considerable reinforcement 
but being closely pursued by the Russians and Tartars in 
alliance with them, they were again defeated and forced to fly 
towards Azof on the Black Sea. When, however, they came 
there, they found the city almost entirely ruined by the blow¬ 
ing up of a powder magazine. The Russians then attacked 
their ships there, took some, and sunk the rest; by which 
means almost the whole army perished with hunger or by 
the sword of the enemy. 
From this time the empire of Russia became so formidable, 
that none of the neighbouring nations could hope to make a 
total conquest of it. The Poles and Swedes indeed con¬ 
tinued to be very formidable enemies; and, by the instiga¬ 
tion of the former, the Crim Tartars, in 1571, again invaded 
the country with an army of 70,000 men. The Russians, 
who might have prevented their passing the Volga, retired 
before them till they came within 18 miles of the city of 
Moscow, where they were totally defeated. The tzar no sooner 
heard this news, than he retired with his most valuable 
effects to a well-fortified cloister; upon which the Tartars 
entered the city, plundered it, and set fire to several churches. 
A violent storm which happened at the same time soon 
spread the flames all over the city; which was entirely 
reduced to ashes in six hours, though its circumference was 
upwards of forty miles. The fire likewise communicated itself 
to a powder magazine at some distance from the city ; by 
which accident upwards of fifty rods of the city wall, with all 
the buildings upon it, were destroyed ; and, according to the 
best historians, upwards of 120,000 citizens were burnt or bu¬ 
ried in the ruins, besides women, children, and foreigners. 
The castle, however, which was strongly fortified, could not 
be taken; and the Tartars, hearing that a formidable army 
was coming- against them under the command of Magnus, 
duke of Holstein, whom Ivan had made king of Livonia, 
thought proper to retire. The war, nevertheless, continued 
with the Poles and Swedes; and the tzar being defeated by 
the latter after some trifling success, was reduced to the 
necessity of suing for peace; but the negociations being 
broken off, the war was renewed with the greatest vigour. 
The Livonians, Poles, and Swedes, having united in a league 
against the Russians, gained great advantages over them; and 
in 1579, Stephen Battori, who was then raised to the throne 
of Poland, levied an army expressly with a design of invading 
Russia, and of regaining all that Poland had formerly claimed, 
which indeed was little less than the whole empire. As the 
Poles understood the art of war much better than the 
Russians, Ivan found his undisciplined multitudes unable to 
cope with the regular forces of his enemies; and their 
conquests were so rapid, that he was soon obliged to sue for 
peace, which, however, was not granted ; and it is possible 
that the number of enemies which now attacked Russia might 
have overcome the empire entirely, had not the allies grown 
jealous of each other. The consequence of this was, that in 
1582, a peace was concluded with the Poles, in which the 
Swedes were not comprehended. However, the Swedes 
finding themselves unable to effect any thing of moment 
after the desertion of their allies, were obliged to conclude a 
truce; shortly after which the tzar, having been worsted in an 
engagement with the Tartars, died in the year 1584. 
The eldest son of the late tzar, Feodor (or, as he is com¬ 
monly called, Theodore) Ivanovitch, was by no means 
fitted for the government of an empire so extensive, and a 
people so rude and turbulent as had devolved to him by the 
death of his father. Ivan had seen the incapacity of his son, 
and had endeavoured to obviate its effects, by appointing 
three of his principal nobles as administrators of the empire; 
while to a fourth he committed the charge of his younger son 
Dimitri. This expedient, however, failed of success; and 
partly from the mutual jealousy of the administrators, partly 
from the envy which their exaltation had excited in the other 
nobles, the affairs ofthe empire soon fell into confusion. The 
weak Feodor had married a sister of Boris Gudonof, a man of 
considerable ambition, immense riches, and tolerable abilities. 
This man had contrived to make himself agreeable to Feodor, 
by becoming subservient to his capricious desiresand childish 
amusements; and the wealth he had acquired through his 
interest with the sovereign, enabled him to carry on his 
ambitious designs. He had long directed his wishes towards 
the imperial dignity, and he began to prepare the way for its 
attainment by removing Dimitri the brother of Feodor. This 
young prince suddenly disappeared; and there is every reason 
to believe that he was assassinated by the order of Boris. 
Feodor did not long survive his brother, but died in 1598, 
not without suspicion of his having been poisoned by his 
brother-in-law. We are told that the tzaritza, Irene, was so 
much 
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