Produced by Al Haines
[Frontispiece: Peter the Great.]
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA
BY
MARY PLATT PARMELE
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1907
Copyright, 1899, 1904, 1906,
BY MARY PLATT PARMELE
PREFACE.
If this book seems to have departed from the proper ideal of historic narrative--if it is the history of a _Power_, and not of a _People_--it is because the Russian people have had no history yet. There has been no evolution of a Russian nation, but only of a vast governing system; and the words "Russian Empire" stand for a majestic world-power in which the mass of its people have no part. A splendidly embroidered robe of Europeanism is worn over a chaotic, undeveloped mass of semi-barbarism. The reasons for this incongruity--the natural obstacles with which Russia has had to contend; the strange ethnic problems with which it has had to deal; its triumphant entry into the family of great nations; and the circumstances leading to the disastrous conflict recently concluded, and the changed conditions resulting from it--such is the story this book has tried to tell.
M. P. P.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Natural Conditions Greek Colonies on the Black Sea The Scythians Ancient Traces of Slavonic Race
CHAPTER II.
Hunnish Invasion Distribution of Races Slavonic Religion Primitive Political Conceptions
CHAPTER III.
The Scandinavian in Russia Rurik Oleg Igor Olga's Vengeance Olga a Christian Sviatoslaf Russia the Champion of the Greek Empire in Bulgaria Norse Dominance in Heroic Period
CHAPTER IV.
System of Appanages Vladimir the Sinner Becomes Vladimir the Saint Russia Forcibly Christianized Causes Underlying Antagonism Between Greek and Latin Church Russia Joined to the Greek Currents and Separated from the Latin
CHAPTER V.
Principalities Headship of House of Rurik Relation of Grand Prince to the Others Civilizing Influences from Greek Sources Cruelty not Indigenous with the Slavs How and Whence it Came Primitive Social Elements The Drujina End of Heroic Period Andrew Bogoliubski New Political Center at Suzdal
CHAPTER VI.
The Republic of Novgorod Invasion of Baltic Provinces by Germans Livonian and Teutonic Orders Russian Territory Becomes Prussia Mongol Invasion Genghis Khan Cause of Downfall
CHAPTER VII.
The Rule of the Khans Humiliation of Princes Novgorod the Last to Fall Alexander Nevski Russia Under the Yoke
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Short History of Russia by Mary Platt Parmele
- 2: Plans for a Liberal Reign Austerlitz Alexander I
- 3: The Peasants' Wreath Alexander III
- 4: The Black Lands and the Arable Steppes
- 5: These figures of the Scythians
- 6: And the passage of the Hunnish horde
- 7: But the oak was venerated and consecrated to Perun
- 8: Oleg promptly had them assassinated
- 9: Then enlisting the aid of the Pechenegs
- 10: But as Vladimir quickly assassinated Yaropolk
- 11: Perun was flogged and thrown into the Dnieper
- 12: When she allied herself with Byzantium instead of Rome
- 13: Of which the Principality of Kief was chief
- 14: A band of warriors called the Drujina
- 15: He removed his capital from the old town of Suzdal
- 16: These were the Livonian Knights
- 17: We have come to destroy the accursed Polovtsui
- 18: Her Prince Alexander was son of Yaroslaf
- 19: Although they never attempted to Tatarize Russia
- 20: Then from Suzdal toward Moscow
- 21: So the first Prince of Moscow was of this illustrious line
- 22: The ambitious designs of Lithuania
- 23: They were led by an adventurer named Etrogruhl
- 24: And boyars trembled while he slept
- 25: Glorious city of Pskof why this weeping and lamentation
- 26: Vasili himself was now in correspondence with Pope Leo X
- 27: An enraged populace burst into the palace of the Glinskis
- 28: Spiritual and temporal Adashef
- 29: The Tsar had confiscated the property of these men
- 30: The States General or Sobor was convened
- 31: He knew nothing about Muscovite consolidation
- 32: For a brief period Vasili Shuiski
- 33: This Princess was the grandmother of Mikhail Romanoff
- 34: Such was the beginning of the Raskolniks
- 35: One by his first wife and the other by Natalia
- 36: Three thousand Russian families were sent to colonize Azof
- 37: Did you ever hear of a Tsar being lost in the North Sea
- 38: The Streltsui militia was rebellious
- 39: And these crept nearer and nearer to the Baltic
- 40: It is possible that upon Ivan Mazeppa
- 41: And that Azof be relinquished Treaty of Pruth
- 42: From the leaven of native instincts in her peasantry
- 43: They yield a sullen compliance pray for the Tsar
- 44: Eudoxia was whipped and placed in close confinement
- 45: The plan had originated with the Galitsuins and Dolgorukis
- 46: Have an important significance vich meaning son of
- 47: She having been rechristened Catherine
- 48: Poland was patriarchal and mediaeval
- 49: And in 1771 a Russian fleet was on the Black Sea
- 50: Kosciusko had fought in the War of the American Revolution
- 51: Was to be exerted by Alexis Orlof
- 52: And to acknowledge his Cisalpine Republic
- 53: In 1801 eleven regiments of Cossacks
- 54: There was to be a gradual emancipation of the serfs
- 55: Leaning entirely upon Speranski
- 56: And a reign of extreme severity under Araktcheef commenced
- 57: Under this mask worked Pestel and his co conspirators
- 58: It was to assassinate Constantine
- 59: So he joined him in bringing the Khedive to terms
- 60: The Russian glacier was moving noiselessly
- 61: A Russian army marched into Hungary
- 62: And all Europe trembled when the great Prince Menschikof
- 63: And Prussia held entirely aloof from the conflict
- 64: Who succeeded to the throne of Prussia
- 65: Even to stubborn Russian Conservatives
- 66: A group of communes formed a Volost
- 67: During all the years since 1856
- 68: Another and successful battle of Plevna
- 69: Could order a whole community to be flogged
- 70: The Tsar was the one person who could bestow it
- 71: The existence of Nihilism may be explained
- 72: Illustration The Coronation of the Czar Alexander III
- 73: What one man could reform Russia
- 74: Which led to the development of Eastern Siberia
- 75: Quickly following Russia's lead in the Ussuri strip
- 76: Where Manchurian Emperors at death were laid beside Tai Tsu
- 77: With the Mikado as its single and supreme head
- 78: A treaty was concluded opening Chemulpo
- 79: Threatening Niu Chwang and beyond that Mukden
- 80: And from Vladivostok to Port Arthur
- 81: We hereby depose her and degrade her to the lowest rank
- 82: Admiral Alexieff was Viceroy of the Eastern Provinces
- 83: And quickly appointed Prince Mirski
- 84: The other as if dictated by Pobiedonostseff
- 85: The long looked for Baltic fleet
- 86: These were the cession of the Island of Saghalien
- 87: The members composing the Duma
- 88: He was even less acceptable to the Bureaucrats
- 89: Appeared personally before the Duma
- 90: Let it not be supposed that it is the moujik
- 91: 972 1015 Yaroslaf The Legislator
- 92: A Short History of Russia by Mary Platt Parmele
- 93: A Short History of Russia by Mary Platt Parmele
- 94: 101 Stratford de Redcliffe Lord