Kingdom of Siberia.

(N.B.-The population of the governments according to Koppen, the area according to

Cannabich.)

macy. In 1320 the reigning prince Mikhail was even put | Astrakhan shared the same fate two years later; and the to death at the Golden Horde, on a charge of treason voluntary adhesion of the Don Cossacks (1549) secured to brought against him by his cousin Youri, who was nominated Russia the services of those active and warlike auxiliaries. his successor, and removed the seat of government from In 1553 the English trade through Archangel was first Vladimir to Moscow; while the principality of Kiew was opened; but the long wars which Ivan waged with Sweden finally extinguished (1321) by the Duke of Lithuania, and Poland for the possession of Livonia produced no sucwho conquered and annexed it to his own dominions. In cessful result; and after the death (1563) of his consort the mean time Novgorod (which in 1276 had joined the Anastasia he became cruel and capricious, and alienated the Hanseatic league) had risen in commercial importance till nobles and people by the savage barbarity of his actions. its inhabitants had numbered 400,000; and its vast wealth In 1565 he consummated the ruin of Novgorod by the and importance were attested by the well-known proverb, massacre of 25,000 of its inhabitants, on suspicion of cor'Who can resist God and Novgorod the Great!' But the respondence with Poland; but the Poles formed an alliance remainder of Russia continued to be held in hopeless bon-with the Tartars, who took Moscow for the last time in 1571, dage, till the termination of the direct line of Batu (1361) and pillaged and burnt it, 100,000 persons perishing in the The continued ill success of the war in by the death of Berdi-Bek Khan, gave rise to disputes for conflagration. the throne of Kapchak among the collateral branches, and Livonia forced Ivan to obtain peace (1578) through the methe discord of their oppressors encouraged the Russians to diation of Pope Gregory XIII., by the cession of the disputed resistance. In 1380 Temnik-Mami, one of the competi- provinces on the Baltic. The acquisition in 1581 of Siberia, tors, was overthrown in a great battle on the Don by Deme- which had been invaded seven years earlier by the Cossack trius IV., thence surnamed Donski; but this victory, though Yermak, compensated in some measure for this loss; and the celebrated by all Russian writers as the commencement of advance of civilization is marked by the introduction, about freedom, produced no permanent effect. Moscow was burnt this period, of the art of printing, and of several branches by Tokatmish-Khan in 1382, and Demetrius was forced to sue of manufacture. But the ferocity of Ivan increased with his for pardon and peace. But the unsuccessful wars ofTokatmish years: his eldest son perished in 1584 by a blow from the against the mighty Timur, who twice (1389, 1395) invaded hand of his father, and Ivan himself died the same year. Russia, gave a fatal blow to the power of Kapchak; and Though execrated by his subjects as a remorseless and santhe reigns of Vassili or Basil II. (1389-1425), and Basil III. guinary tyrant, he had raised the country by his energetic (1425-62) were a period of incessant warfare between the policy to a hitherto unexampled pitch of prosperity; but Russians and Tartars, who strove to maintain their do- his eldest and surviving son and successor, Feodor or Theomination. In 1441 Moscow was a second time destroyed dore (1584-91), was a prince of such natural imbecility that by the khan of Casan, but the Tartars were now still fur- the reins of government were left entirely in the hands of ther weakened by their divisions into several separate and his brother-in-law and minister Boris Godoonoff; and the conflicting khanates, and Ivan or John III. (1462-1505) at only events of his reign were the erection of a patriarchate last succeeded in shaking off the last vestiges of dependence for Russia (1589) independent of the see of Constantinople, and a short war with Sweden (1590-95), which termion the Golden Horde, which was finally dissolved in 1480. With the reign of this prince, who married Sophia, the nated in the acquisition of Ingria and Carelia by the peace of Teusina. Feodor died childless in 1598; and his only niece of the last Greek emperor, a new epoch commences in the history of Russia. He defeated the Poles and brother Demetrius having (as was supposed) been previously Lithuanians, reduced the Tartars of Casan to tribute, and murdered by the contrivance of Boris, the male line of the reunited under his authority most of the minor Russian house of Rurik, which had ruled under fifty-six sovereigns principalities; but his capture of Novgorod (1475), and for 736 years, became finally extinct. [GODOONOFF.] Boris was now placed on the throne by the clergy and the exactions which he levied on the merchants and citizens, gave a death-blow to the commerce of that famous nobles, and commenced his reign (1598-1605) by the emanemporium. The embassies of the European powers, Ger- cipation of the serfs and other salutary measures; but he many, Poland, Venice, the Holy See, &c., were now first soon degenerated into an arbitrary and cruel tyrant, and at seen at Moscow; and though the character of Ivan is sul- length lost his throne and life in a contest with an advenlied by the cruel despotism of his internal administration, turer who declared himself to be the lost Demetrius, and he is justly entitled to rank as the founder of the Russian whose pretensions were supported by Poland. The real empire, the power and splendour of which date from him. history of this person has never been satisfactorily ascerHe was succeeded by his son by Sophia, Basil IV. tained, and many writers consider his claims to have been (1505-33), who prosecuted the scheme of aggrandisement well founded; but after ruling scarcely a year, he perished commenced by his father, and completed the reunion of (1606) in a popular revolt headed by a boyar named Basil But a second false all the Russian states by the conquest of the principality Schuiski, who thereupon became czar. of Severia; but great part of his reign was occupied by Demetrius speedily started up. The Poles and Swedes, who bloody and indecisive wars with Poland, terminated by a each aspired to seat a prince of their own nation on the The throne, invaded the country, and were supported by various peace (1523), with little advantage on either side. Tartars of the Crimea, incited by the Poles, committed factions among the nobles, and for seven years (1606-13) fearful ravages throughout Russia in 1510; and in 1520 Russia became the prey of desolating anarchy and civil their khan advanced to Moscow, which he spared only war. The Swedes occupied Kexholm and Novgorod, and on promise of tribute; and all the efforts of Basil failed to the Polish prince Ladislas, after taking Smolensk, adcomplete the subjugation of the Tartars of Casan, who de- vanced to Moscow, and sent Schuiski prisoner to Warsaw feated (1524) an army of 150,000 Russians on the Volga, (1610). But the prospect of the dismemberment of their and compelled another force, commanded by thirty Vaivodes country roused the national spirit of the Russians; the (1530), to raise the siege of their capital with loss and dis- Poles were driven from Moscow (1613) after a sanguinary grace. His successor Ivan IV., Vasilovitch, surnamed the battle; and in the following year Michael Romanof, a deTerrible (1533-84), was not four years old at the death scendant by females from the house of Rurik, was called of his father. The tyranny and maladministration of the to the throne with a unanimity among all orders in the regent Schuiski occasioned disturbances during his minor- state, which the sense of imminent danger alone could proity, and the Crimean khan made in 1541 an unsuccessful duce. The accession of the line of Romanof gives a new chaattempt to reassert the supremacy of his nation in Russia; but in 1543 Ivan assumed the reins of government, pun-racter to the history of Russia, which henceforward, from ished the obnoxious minister with death, and was crowned being regarded as a barbarous and semi-Asiatic power, (1545) by the title of czar,* which he substituted for that of begins to assume its proper rank among European States. Veliki-Knez. The first acts of his reign were the institu- The long reign of Michael (1613-45) afforded him tion of the corps of Strelitzes (archers), the first regular time both for the consolidation of his own power and the army of Russia; and the reform of jurisprudence by the restoration of his dominions from the depression caused by publication of a regular code of laws named Youdebnik; but the late calamities; but he was obliged to purchase the ne was unsuccessful in his efforts to procure (by an embassy peace of Stolbova from Sweden (1617) by the cession of to Charles V.in 1547) artisans and engineers from Germany Ingria and Carelia, including the whole Baltic coast of for the instruction of his subjects. In 1552 he took Casan Russia, which thus retained only the single port of Archby storm, with a dreadful slaughter of the inhabitants. angel in Europe, and to resign Smolensk to Poland as the This change is often erroneously attributed to his grandfather, the former price of a fourteen years' truce (1618-32), a sacrifice which was confirmed, after a vain attempt to recover it by arms, 2 L2 Ivan Vasilovitch,

by the peace of Viasma in 1634. But the internal admi- | of Carlowitz (1699) at length gave him a port on the Black nistration of Michael was more fortunate than his wars. Sea. His next aim was to acquire a territory on the Baltic, Though compelled by the boyars to re-establish the slavery and with this view he joined the Northern League with of the peasants, he succeeded in a great measure in re- Denmark and Poland against Sweden; and though his raw dressing the abuses which the preceding anarchy had oc- levies were signally defeated at Narva (1700) by Charles casioned; and he gave a fresh impulse to trade by the con- XII, he succeeded during the next two years in occupying clusion of commercial treaties with England (1623) and with Ingria and Carelia, while the Swedes were engaged in the France (1629). The minority of his son Alexis (1645-76) | Polish war; and his new capital city of Petersburg was was disturbed by a dangerous revolt arising from the arro- founded on this territory (1703) at the mouth of the Neva. gance and tyranny of the regent Morouzof; but the removal Narva and Dorpat in Livonia (1704), and Mittau in Courof the obnoxious minister restored order, and Alexis, on land (1705), were successively taken; and the victory of assuming the reins of power in 1648, became an unsuccess- Kalish over the Swedes (1706) gave confidence to the ful candidate for the Polish crown against John Casimir. Russian soldiery. The internal reforms were not suspended This rejection deeply chagrined him, and he eagerly em- during these warlike operations. Schools, printing-presses, braced the opportunity of revenge which was afforded by manufactories, and hospitals were everywhere established. the offer of the revolted Ukraine Cossacks (1654) to put and the university of Moscow was founded in 1705; while themselves under his protection. The Poles, distracted by the overgrown power of the clergy was curtailed by the abo civil war, were unable to make head against the Russians, lition of the patriarchate, the czar declaring himself head of who recovered, by the truce of Vilna (1656), Smolensk the church. Charles XII., who had dethroned Frederic and all the other cessions of the last reign. A short war Augustus in Poland, and was now at the summit of his with Sweden was concluded by the peace of Cardis (1661) power, determined to crush the rising strength of Russia, without any change of territory. But the contest with Po- which he invaded (1708) through the Ukraine, and was land, which had re-commenced in 1658, was continued with joined by the Cossack ataman Mazeppa; but he sustained increasing success till 1667, when the truce of Andrussow an irreparable defeat from Peter (July 8, 1709) at Poltava; (converted into a permanent peace in 1686) gave to Russia all his army was either destroyed or taken, and the king Tchernigow, Kiew, and the Ukraine, with the protectorate himself fled into Turkey. The Russian arms were now in of the Dnieper Cossacks. But in the mean time the internal the ascendant; Wiborg, Reval, Riga, with all Esthonia and peace was disturbed by seditions arising from the debase- Livonia, fell into their hands; and Frederic Augustus rement of the coinage, and from the deposition (1666) of the mounted the throne of Poland, in which kingdom Russian patriarch Nikon, whom the lower orders regarded as a influence continued from that time paramount. But a war saint; and in 1667 the dismemberment of the empire was (1710) with Turkey, arising from the shelter afforded by that threatened by a revolt of the Don Cossacks under a chief power to Charles, had a disastrous result; the Russians named Stenko Razin, who, by proclaiming liberty to the were surrounded on the Pruth, and Peter was compelled to serfs, attracted to his standard an army of 200,000 men, by purchase the peace of Falczy (1711) by the restoration of the aid of which he captured Astrakhan, and assumed the Azof and other humiliating concessions. The domesti style of an independent sovereign; but he was at length administration in church and state was provided for by the overpowered and put to death, with great numbers of his erection (1711) of the Directing Senate, the supreme civil followers. The last years of the reign of Alexis were de- tribunal, and some years after (1724) of the Synod for ecclevoted to internal improvements and the advancement of siastical affairs; but both were under the direct control of civilization. Numerous foreigners, particularly Scotch and the czar, who exercised despotic sway by means of his army, Germans, were attracted to Russia, where they introduced and deprived the nobility of all their power. In 1716-17 be the arts and manufactures of their own countries; and the again travelled through Holland and Denmark, and visited publication of a revised code of laws gave a settled character France, where he concluded an alliance with Louis XV. to the national jurisprudence. Alexis died in 1676, at the But his return was marked by a domestic tragedy; his son age of 47, leaving several children by his two wives. The Alexis, who had previously offended him by his weak and short reign of his eldest son Feodor (1676-82) was remark- vicious course of life, was tried on pretence of conspiracy. able only for the first war between Russia and the Porte and condemned, but died, perhaps from natural causes, in (1678-82), which ended in the final cession of Ukraine to prison. The Swedish war, which had languished after the the former; and for the destruction at Moscow of all the death of Charles XII. in 1718, was at length concluded charters and muniments of the nobility, who thenceforward (1721) by the peace of Nystadt. Russia acquired Wiborg took precedence according to military rank. Feodor left no Ingria, Carelia, Esthonia, and Livonia, and became thenceissue, and at his death, Ivan and Peter, both sons of Alexis, forward the great Northern power in place of Sweden; and but by different wives, were placed jointly on the throne, Peter exchanged the title of czar for that of emperor and under the guardianship of Sophia, the sister of the former. autocrator of all the Russias, which his successors have ever But the intrigues of this ambitious princess, who aspired to since borne. In 1723 he availed himself of the distracted the sole exercise of authority in her own person, gave rise state of Persia to seize the provinces on the Caspian, whica to sanguinary tumults among the strelitzes. The discon- necessity compelled Shah Tahmasp to cede to him; but this tent of the nation was excited by the total failure of two ex- was his last exploit. He died Jan. 28, 1725, aged 53. peditions (1687 and 1689) against the Crim Tartars; and In 36 years he had raised Russia from a semi-barbarous the attempts of Sophia to exclude Peter from all share state to a pitch of military strength and political imin the government at length brought on a revolution (1689) portance which placed her on a level with the first powers in favour of the latter. Sophia was sent to a monastery, of Europe. Her army, her navy, her commerce, and ber and Ivan, whose weakness of mind and body unfitted him legislature were all created by his genius; and though b for rule, abdicated in favour of Peter, who ascended the great qualities were too often stained by acts of cruelty and throne as sole sovereign. tyranny, he must be pronounced to have justly merited the epithets of the Great, and the Father of his Country. conferred on his memory by the unanimous voice of the nation.

The genius of this future regenerator of Russia had been cultivated by the instruction of a Genevese named Le Fort, who had been his tutor since 1684, and the energy of his mind speedily developed itself in action. His first care was the reform of the army, and having succeeded in raising and disciplining some regiments in the European manner, he attacked and took Azof from the Turks in 1694, being further aided by a flotilla which he built on the Don, and which was the first Russian navy. In 1697 he however quitted his dominions, and travelled for nearly two years in England, Holland, &c., in order to acquaint himself with mechanics and ship building, and to engage artisans and engineers for his service; and a sanguinary revolt of the strelitzes, in favour of Sophia, having occurred during his absence, the corps were summarily abolished at his return, and replaced by regular troops. The same year (1698) he founded the first Russian order of knighthood, that of St. Andrew; and the cession of Azof by the Porte at the peace

In obedience to the last commands of Peter, his widow Catherine, formerly a Livonian peasant-girl, was proclaimed empress: but her short reign (1725-7), and that of her suecessor Peter II., grandson of Peter the Great, and son of the unfortunate Alexis (1727-30), were (except the conclus of a commercial treaty with China in 1727) almost barren of events, and remarkable only for the ascendency, under Catherine, of Prince Menzikoff, and under Peter, of the Delgoruki family. On the death of Peter II., Anne, daughter of Ivan, the elder brother of Peter the Great, was called to the throne (1730-40) by the influence of the Dolgoruki faction, on signing an agreement which limited the imperal power in favour of the nobility: but this compulsory act was almost immediately cancelled under the advice of the Chancellor Ostermann, and the Dolgorukis were disgraced